Revealing my Inner Czech Granny

(I mentioned this briefly here, but was asked for more photos; so being the obliging human I am, here you go!)

A couple of weeks ago in the sweltering, broiling sun, I had the brainwave to attempt something I had been talking about for years. Inspired entirely by this wonderful Czech granny who apparently painted her entire village (I have a list of places I am going to visit, this is near the top of that list); I decided to emulate her and paint our house.

I started on one side of the door and… just kept going. Not sure whether it would be awful, I decided to do half before making the decision whether to paint over it or not. Happily, we were all delighted with it (whew…) And even more so, when Fergal hung one of his baskets on the wall beside it, a traditional skib (a bit of history in that link).

Then when I was finished with the front door, I moved to the back door…:

In my grand plan, I was thinking I would decorate all our windows too, but when I realized quite how long the free-hand decoration takes (no stencils!) I decided to stick with the doors only for now. But I am looking at the walls of our house like one big canvas…: Hmmm, would I survive five hours up there on a ladder?

(Eh, no).

• blue and white decoration,
• blue and white painting,
• Czech granny,
• decorating doorways,
• external decoration,
• floral decoration,
• Irish basketmaking,
• skib