A Crafty Weekend

I’ve been having a lovely weekend (I don’t work Fridays so mine begins then) and have been making a few bits and pieces ready for the Vintage and Handmade Fair in a few weeks. So far I’ve made a few rings (using decorative acrylic designs my Mum made a while ago), some tiny daisy studs and waxed Irish linen friendship bracelets with dinky gold and silver tone charms. I also experimented with making some cake stands and smaller cupcake/jewellery stands. Once I’ve bought some cake stands fittings I’ll have ago at drilling plates to make in to two and three tier stands, but in the meantime I have been busy gluing vintage cake plates to vintage glass candlesticks, and turning upturned cups and sandwich plates into cupcake stands. The handles of the upturned tea cups mean you can whisk them into a room rather elegantly too. Today I’m working on more button badges as these seem to be quite popular at the Bicycle Basket Bazaar and I’ve chosen to use vintage fabrics with small detailing on. I’ll also make a few more using old stamps and other recycled bits and bobs. 

On a totally different subject, my mum, stepdad and I are attempting to empty the garage, as the garage my mum rents for all our ‘oh my god I love it and have to have it’ larger finds is leaking and we can’t really ask for the roof to be repaired because technically you’re only meant to have a car in there, not mountains of furniture. We’ve also realised that we need to stop buying furniture just because it’s beautiful, because we have nowhere to put it and it’s not that easy to EBay when you have to arrange a courier and have people emailing you with silly questions. So, I’ve been pro-active and upon seeing that my favourite girly gift shop, Aspire, was opening a new store in Solihull, I emailed them with an offer of an art deco dressing table. Their shops aren’t the usual ‘put everything on shelves’ type, they have dressing tables and vintage cabinets adorned with all their lovely wares. The owners loved the dressing table and very kindly offered me a gift voucher, so as of tomorrow the garage will be a little bit emptier and my vintage shoe rack will be a bit fuller. Yes I’ve already mentally spent the gift voucher!

I have wanted these beauties for over a year but since all my money was ploughed into my New York trip and my new house I haven’t been able to buy them.

I’m also very excited about seeing my old dressing table in all its glory when the shop opens. It is such a beautiful piece of furniture and I’m glad that it’s going to a good home.

Seven Things

Thanks to Pene at Scrap My Midlife Crisis for passing me the Versatile Blog Award! Pene’s blog is well worth a look…she’s even lived in a castle!

The rules are to link to the blogger who sent you the award, and the harder part; to share 7 interesting facts about myself. Well, here are 7 facts, although I can’t promise they’ll be interesting.

1. I love dogs. Any type; scruffy, smelly, big or small, but I particularly love terriers. They’re so cheeky and full of naughtiness. My baby is Lily a Scottish terrier, and although I no longer live at my mum’s I class the dogs there as a bit mine too. There’s Betty the Chihuahua, Jack the Scottie and Alfie the Westie.

2. I have a BA (Hons.) degree in American Studies and English from Keele. When people ask what I did at uni and I give my reply, people generally go, ‘Huh, one of those Mickey Mouse degrees?’ Well no, but I did study Mickey Mouse (I did a unit on Disney and Popular Culture). My degree was a dual honours so I got to study two different subjects. I mainly chose film and history modules in American Studies. Sometimes I really miss studying, but put me back there writing my dissertation and I’d probably cry.

3. I’m not thick, but I can be very dim! During my first year at uni I embarrassed myself in an American Studies lecture by shouting in shock, ‘Oh, is America connected to Canada then?’ Geography defiantly isn’t my strong point and I had only ever seen America on a map showing just America.

4. I live in a new house, but my favourite houses are Victorian terraces and Regency style homes. I love anything with original features and ‘oooh’ and ‘ahhh’ at the original features in people’s homes when I’m out on visits for work. Very unprofessional of me, but I can’t help it. Unfortunately lots of people don’t seem to appreciate their house's original features as much as I do.

5. I have Aspergers, but wasn’t diagnosed until I was 25. My friends and family, just like me, thought I was eccentric. It wasn’t until I started working for my uncle, who is a disability consultant, that we realised my ‘oddities’ were similar to those with Aspergers and I was referred for an assessment. It’s a bit confusing for people (even me), because I’m so called ‘high functioning’ in a lot of things, but at the same time struggle to do things such as tell the time, cross the road and understand money.

6. I’m a really visual person and love anything ‘beautiful’. When I was younger I would fill my pockets with stones, because they were all so beautiful to me that I couldn’t pick up just a few. I once came home from a pebble beach with three large bags full of them. My Nan made my cousins help carry them and they caught onto the fact that I was obsessed with them. Later that day they picked up some stones and sold them to me, knowing I couldn’t not have them. By the time my Nan found out I’d spent £15. They were made to give me my money back, and the stones. In hindsight there were big signs I had Aspergers!

7. Family and friends are really important to me. I have a really big and close extended family and find it strange that others don’t. My friends also have large families and close families. All of my friends are my best friends and I don’t see the point in spending time with people I only sort of like. I also really like my own company.

Hope I managed to make my answers semi-interesting!

I now need to send this award onto 5 lovely blogger friends.

1. Annie at Vintage at the Cornerhouse
2. Jenny at Winnibrigg's House
3. Kitty at Pea Green Kitty.
4. Annie at  Birdcages & Butterflies.
5. Vix at Vintage Vixon.
Can't wait to read your answers! xxx

I Want, I Want

I was browsing through the Miss Selfridge website today when I spotted a few must haves. In general I’d much rather wear vintage clothes, the 1940s and 50s being my favourite eras, but finding vintage clothing in anything above a size 12 can be challenging and so I tend to look for modern vintage inspired pieces. I love these.  

I think I also need this handbag, although I’m torn between this style and their satchel version. Ok, yes I have millions of vintage handbags, but I love leopard print and these are vintage inspired in shape.

I also love these dresses from Littlewoods, and would quite like to buy Holly Willoughby’s figure too.



I’ve decided to do a load of EBay listings today, mainly vintage bags, to fund some of the above. At least I don’t need to buy an footwear to go with them. I’ve got my Evans biker boots (my calves are far too chubby for standard shop boots), 80s black slouch boots and 80s brown leather and suede boots. I dread the day that my trusty 80s boots die. I’ve had them both re-heeled numerous times and they’re just sooo damn comfy. Boots, the above dresses, my beautiful new Per Una coat and black tights or leggings and I’m sorted. I’ll start digging out the pashminas and vintage leather gloves when it gets even colder. Oh I love winter clothes, can you tell?

Here's a few things that I've put on EBay.

Jumble Sale Mayhem

I spent most of yesterday re-organising my spare bedroom, which is in fact no longer a spare bedroom as it doesn’t have a bed. The IKEA day bed was put on eBay, my bag rails moved to another side of the room and a set of shelves from the very full garage was wrestled up my stairs. My vintage fair and bazaar stock was beginning to takeover the house and I decided that it was time I had some semi-organised space for it all. Also, the fact that it’s usually all bubble wrapped in boxes means it’s really hard to see what stuff I want to take to the fairs and bazaars without spending an entire day unwrapping then re-wrapping everything. So now I have this, just a small selection of my stuff as boxes and boxes are still in mum’s loft. I’ll eventually paint the shelves white when I have time. (Excuse the terrible pics) 

I spend lots of time at car boot sales and in charity and tip shops, but today was my very first jumble sale. I was amazed by how aggressive they are! I was shoved and pushed by numerous grannies and had to battle to the bric-a-brac table. My mum, having been to many a jumble sale assumed I’d know what it was like and hadn’t warned me. I was totally overwhelmed but still managed to come back with bags full. I could have cried when I saw a lady walk past me with a vintage sewing basket in the shape of a cottage with its original box. I definitely need to get better at jumble saleing. Oh well, practice makes perfect.

We went to three recycling shops on the way home and needless to say my shelves are now even fuller.

Crafting and Cutting

This week I have been doing some crafting, something which I haven’t done for ages because I’m a perfectionist and very impatient. If a project doesn’t come out perfect and isn’t quick to complete then I lose interest and/or patience. So I’ve been focusing on something quick and relatively fool proof; making Christmas money envelopes from vintage annuals. I took a few into work to show my colleagues what I had been doing at the weekend and I now have 12 orders from family and friends. I was originally making the envelopes to sell at the Vintage and Handmade Fair in October, so I best get cracking if I’m going to make enough for my orders and have a decent amount to take to the vintage fair. Luckily I have stacks of vintage annuals to choose from, although female themed envelopes are much harder to make than the ‘male’ themed ones. I’m finding that boy’s annuals are full of colourful battle illustrations and cowboys comic strips, whereas the vast majority of the girl’s annuals contain a select number of beautiful images, accompanied by lots and lots of written articles. It seems girls were educationally ahead of the boys even in the 50s?

I’ve also been flicking through some of my vintage women’s magazines to find cosmetic and hair inspired adverts to frame above my dressing table. I'll follow up with a picture of them in prime position once I’ve hung them. The only problem with cutting the adverts out of one of my magazines was that last night I decided that I wanted to start collecting issues of the said magazine, ‘Woman’s Illustrated’, and have now found that it isn’t very easy to get hold of, even on Ebay! The horror! It actually kept me awake last night as I mentally cursed myself for not being patient enough to photocopy the adverts from the magazine rather than bulldoze in with a pair of scissors. Aghhh.

I’m watching a couple of ‘Woman’s Illustrated’ on Ebay at the moment but if anybody else comes across any when charity shopping and carbooting and decide they’d like to sell them, please think of me. I’m also collecting ‘Mother Magazine’, but managed to not start chopping these to pieces. I am however kept awake by the fact that when in a shop in Brick Lane a few months ago, I decided to ignore the urge to buy a whole stack of them (at £1 each!) and only picked up two. Aghhh. I’m going to blame my Asperger’s for my tendency to obsess over mistakes and missed opportunities, although I’m sure it’s something every vintage magpie experiences…that beautiful rare thing that you failed to buy.

My favourite ad from Mother magazine.

This 50s ad fell out of a stack of men's magazine I picked up a a carboot a few weeks ago. I love it, especially the colours.

Charity Shopping with Mum

Today my Mum and I went and did a little bit of charity shopping. I haven’t been charity shopping for ages as I find them a bit expensive these days and so tend to stick to carboots. However, I travel all over Warwickshire, Coventry, Birmingham and Leicestershire with work and have started writing down some streets where there are a few charity shops clustered together. Warwick, Leamington and Kenilworth are relatively affluent areas and I wanted to see if the prices were any more reasonable in more deprived areas.

Today we went to a row of charity shops and a house clearance shop in one area of Coventry and I was pleased to find that in general the prices were much more reasonable and there were quite a variety of vintage bits and bobs. I tend to find that the charity shops local to me not only wack a massive big price tag on anything remotely vintage (although I have also seen second hand books priced higher than Waterstones), but that they often lack the kitsch bits and pieces I like because they’ve probably been deemed unfit for the shop and chucked in the bin.

Our first stop was the house clearance shop, which was mainly full of newish furniture. As I was having a second glance over everything I saw a plastic bin with a hideous 60s plant sticking out of the top and had a rummage. I pulled out two white Scottie dogs (yay!) and a long necked cat vase/ornament. One of the Scotties was a bit worse for wear with a glued on ear, but I thought it was mean to take one and leave the other. They’ll look a handsome pair on my fireplace once I’ve painted over the hideous dark varnish ( it was from Ebay) with a nice matt white.

Next, some charity shops on a lovely old semi-circle row. I’m not very good at dating buildings but I’d say the row was 1930s due to the art deco feel, although most of Coventry is made up of 50s and 60s architecture since it was bombed to oblivion during WW2. I bought the most in the first shop and left with a big box full of decorative bits and bobs. In the other shops I picked up some vintage Ladybird books, which will probably end up on my Bicycle Bazaar stall or Vintage and Homemade Fair Stall, more of which later.

One thing that I nearly resisted was this 80s Madonna ‘Desperately Seeking Susan’ style leather jacket, but I just loved the lace on it and it was my size so I treated myself. Or rather my Mum temporarily treated me to it as I had to borrow all my shopping money from her until the end of the week. Thanks Mum! I thought it was a bit overpriced at £14.99, but maybe I’m just stingy. As I had to remind myself, how much would you pay for a vintage rip-off in Topshop.

Some of my finds will be at the Vintage and Homemade Fair, organised by Ann and Debbie in October.

Swap Goodies

I had the loveliest swap parcels arrive a few weeks ago. It was a real treat as they both arrived on the same day! One from Dawn at Life on the East Coast for the Shabby Vintage Swap, and one from Pixiedust at Faerie Nuff. I’ve just had to gather all my swap bits and pieces together as I was so excited to receive them that I forgot to take pics.

Here’s my parcel from Dawn, minus my pineapples cubes, yum yum.

And here’s my parcel from Pixiedust.

I absolutely loved my swaps and was instantly absorbed by the vintage ‘Every Woman’s Luck Book’ from Dawn. It’s full of interesting superstitions, many of which I’ve never heard of before, like ……. I also loved my cute handmade Scottie dog and he swings happily from the handle of my crafting cupboard.

The sweetie part of my swap from Pixiedust isn’t in the picture as the Galaxy Cookie Crumble was instantly devoured by my Mum and I. I love the pretty handmade heart, the material’s so lovely and it adorns the door of my craft room. The candle also included in my swap isn’t pictured either as I’d already set it burning in the living room.