Blue, Indigo, Violet.. and white

It's my Mum's birthday soon - and I was happy to find this lovely Alfred Meakin platter in the local Salvo's Store. Mum has a huge dresser that is pretty full of blue and white china, but not any platters that I can recall. A quick google search found out that this pattern, "Manchu" was made between 1891 and 1930. I love the brown border on the inside rim and the mix of blue transferware patterns around the edge. The gold edging is still in reasonable condition and there's only minimal crazing on the back. At around 30cm long this platter is such a useful size for serving an array of goodies for afternoon tea, but not too many to spoil dinner.

The patchwork style of different blue patterns together on the platter reminded me of some blue fabrics I've been looking at to decorate Archie's room. Out of a large showroom of an overwhelming  number of fabric swatch books, I found a tiny little book with the most gorgeous swatches. They had colour names such as: I n d i g o ;   B l u e j a y ;   D e l f t ;   C h a m b r a y ;    M a r i n e ;   N a v y ;   D e n i m ;   M i s t ;   T o p a z ;   A l i c e ;   S u m m e r ;   I c e ;   B a b y ;   C o l u m bu s ;   I n k ;   P e r i w i nk l e ;   B l u e b e r r y   a n d   W e d g w o o d . 

Isn't this just the best list!?

My spirits were only slightly dampened when the lady in the shop told me that generally the smaller the swatch book, the more expensive the fabric. Doh.

I took photos of some of my favourites:

For fabrics, see: www.duralee.com

Oh I've snuck a photo in there of some new cushions I bought on sale at the King Furniture store to give us much needed back support on the chaise part of our lounge. I'd noticed visitors were starting to avoid sitting there as the wide seat generally lead to lolling around (fine for me during the day - my life is just full of lolling after all) rather than more proper sitting up. It has since been pointed out to me that the style of the new cushions does not entirely match our existing floral cushions on the other part of the lounge. But I'm just going to ignore that for now..

Back to my blue phase: I've collected some gorgeous blue and white summer stuff for the girls courtesy of ebay and mid-year sales. It makes such a blissful relief from the sea of pink in the shops.

Clockwise from Main Pic: Summer dresses are from Guess USA and GapKids; Room Seven denim dress; GapKids Patchwork shorts; Chalk and Cheese Blue dress.

There is definitely something about the blue/white combination that says crisp and classic. It says summer days with blue skies and fluffy white clouds, and blue seas with white-capped waves.
It makes me think of hydrangeas and forget-me-nots.
The willow pattern china proves it never looks dated.
And the universal appeal of the blue jeans/white shirt combo seem to cement its style credentials.

I'd definitely put it into THE ONE HUNDRED list of stylish things (See my last post for more details - we crossed out the blackberry, so there was a space!).

www.pinterest.com

What colour combination is your favourite?