Catching up!

I thought after so long I should just load some pictures and see what happens! Most of you will know that I decided to take on a vintage unit in Nottingham a year ago . I started with a cabinet and have grown my business month on month throughout the year. I still hunt out my signature barkcloths but also search for other fabrics,

ephemera, small items of furniture, tins and more recently early plastics. The two fabrics above are both unused 1950s and 60s . I love the top one with its London buildings.

This one with the potted plants is a typical image. I'm still out hunting at car boots , fairs and charity shops. Below is one of my favourite finds of the summer.

I've been looking for different ways to style my unit and bought a number of crates in Devon earlier in the summer. I was quite pleased with the way my stall was looking until some of them were bought and I had to come up with something else...

So a couple of weekends ago at Peterborough Antiques Fair I was thrilled to find this ultra kitsch glass fronted  cabinet which has taken up residence for the time being. It fitted in the car and is now housing some of my finds in my unit.
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Subtle it's not but I love colour and tastelessness sometimes!  I'll add more pictures of my finds soon!  

I

Hello again! I've missed you!

Well its been a very long time since I last posted due to the fact that I thought I had broken Blogger! Not good with technology it's taken Niobe's return from uni to get me back up and running again.  I've missed you all but life has been flying by so fast I've been finding it difficult to keep up! Today I decided I have to be kind to myself and allow myself time to write a post. As I'm now off work for a couple of weeks I hope to catch up with your blogs too. I've been very busy with my Ticking Stripes business and am constantly on the look out for new treasures. One of my latest obsessions is vintage hankies. I've been picking them up whenever I see them at the right price...    

 I was really pleased when \i found this book on Amazon. It is handkerchief sized as well as the same shape and is full of gorgeous photos of old hankies. Last time I was in London I managed to find this lovely old hankie box which I couldn't resist.

I keep dropping the hankies into an old basket which is now almost full! I spotted the green and the purrple ones at a fair recently and was told that they are called sweetheart hankies - given in war time. The green one has Royal Army Service Corps embroidered around the motif.

On the back of the hankie in one of the corners is a little flap and behind that is a powder puff. This one as you can see still has a little colour on it! 

I'd been wondering what to do with all these hankies when I read Selina Lake's book "Homespun Style". When I saw her picture of hankie bunting I was inspired. No sew bunting - got to be worth a go! Just fold in half and knot together! I won't be leaving these out  but did think that this would be lovely at a vintage wedding.

Back to the book - there doesn't seem to be that much to say about the humble hankie but what it lacks in history it makes up for in the myriad of designs and colours. I've yet to find any swaps!

The book is sheer eye candy with colour themed spreads of different designs. Definitely one for the bedside table and a lovely gift if you know of anyone with the same obsession!

Here's hoping it won't be so long before the next post!

Love Wend

The one about Passe Partout

Last  week I managed to get to a couple of car boots finding some great things. Its a while since I showed you any of my find,s so I'll share what I managed to capture when the sun shone. What I would call a church hall chair which has probably been sat on by many a Womens Institute bottom over the years, a pretty eiderdown and some wonderful womans magazines form the 1920s. 

    

The womens magazines were imaginatively titled Woman's Magazine and have beautiful covers which  would look lovely framed but I'm not sure I can dismantle them so they'll just have to sit on the coffee table.

The adverts are wonderful and I wondered what passe partout framing was until I remembered I'd picked up a little picture which had tape around the edge. 

Imagine my delight when I checked the tins I'd bought and found that one of them wasn't a tin at all but was Passe Partout! How weird that these all came together on the same day so I now know that these pictures with the black tape frames have been framed with Passe Partout!
  

I'm quite tempted to use the Passe Partout tape to reframe one or two pictures as they would have been...   

Making a scene with Julie Arkell

What a wonderful day. Note to self - must make one of the flowers with the long dingly dangly stem. Julie says they are great for twiddling the Post Office queue. Mine would have to be a very long stem - I queued on the pavement for 20 minutes last week before I could get through the door!

Guaranteed to make you smile! (if you haven't seen it already)

Cushy number!

Seemed like ages since I'd written a blog post and now I see that it is! As it's some time since I did a show and tell I thought I'd share some pictures with you.

I noticed when I was plumping my cushions that my random occasional purchases are sitting together very nicely. Not one for having a matching set of anything I have bought cushions when I have found the right fabric or the right price.

There is no theme or colour combination I particularly look for but I do like the old fifties fabrics - barkcloth or linens.

I recently bought a couple at Spitalfields market and was told by the supplier that she buys feather cushion pads from an online source Marrick and Day who happen to be about half the price of John Lewis so I thought I'd share that nougat with you. Speaking of sharing nougat I should also mention to those who asked about lampshade making (previous post) that there is a company called "needcraft.co.uk" who provide everything necessary for making your own lampshades including the flameproof backing for the fabric or paper you choose to use. I managed to find several drum shades at the car boot yesteday that I will be able to transform.

I'm finding it more and more difficult to find lovely old fabrics but do still turn up the odd nugget like the one top right. Note to self - get sewing machine serviced and make your own cushions!
I really like the cushion with the band of fabric with a buckle detail on it.

and the yellow one with the crackle background.

I've had some luck recently finding old packaging - I've been looking for medical packaging as I often find that nurses and doctors collect such things. Anyone remember Electric Lung Mixture No 14?

Also loved the little Dairy Box that I found yesterday - I don't remember this packaging from the first time round so if you do please let me know. The mother of pearl button is just to show you how small the box is.

I've been asked to supply a new vintage shop locally so am busy trying to find new items and today have been asked to find items for a third shop! If you are local and would like to visit feel free to let me know and I'll send you the details.

And now I must prepare my basket of goodies ready for my weekend workshop with Julie Arkell next Sunday...Life's good right now - oh and Niobe's home too! Yay!

Hope life's good for you right now.

Love Wend

Granny chic in a lampshade...and the Granny Chic Queen herself

Thought I'd share with you the workshop I went on yesterday at the studio of Louise Presley of Hope and Elvis. Some of you will know that I like to go to these workshops for inspiration and to learn new skills. This one was lamp shade making and given the price of lampshades I decided it might be a worthwhile investment.

We were to be shown how to make one of the little conical shades and a drum shade. (But not before I'd had my usual browse round Louise's studio). We were able to choose our fabric or paper from Louise's wonderful stash but I had taken some barkcloth with me. We actually deconstructed a standard Wilko's lamp shade as these are apparently cheaper than buying the bits and pieces you need from a craft supplier. And then we reconstructed with our choice of fabric. So why did it take all day you ask. Lots of precision cutting and concentration required . This was hard as I was sitting with Two Bones and a Bagle and we had plenty to chat about!

In the end I was quite pleased with my efforts. The tall one was made from part of my stash - a chaise longue loose cover made from barkcloth and painstakingly taken apart. The trim was another bit of something I'd had for years which seemed to just be perfect for a bit of granny chic in a lampshade.

It wasn't until I'd finished that I looked at what other folk had done and I loved these two paper ones - one a comic covered one with a red ribbon hiding the centre fold and the other a vintage sewing pattern bonda webbed onto the plasticised inner sheet which is what makes them fireproof

Louise has just published her new batch of summer courses so if you fancy treating yourself have a look at her website. I'm thrilled to say that I have managed to get on one of the Dottie Angel and Ted and Agnes days! Yes ladies Dottie Angel is coming over to old Blighty for a touch no doubt of grannifying goodness. If anyone wants to help me decorate the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square so that from there she can preach the joys of delectable doilies, shiny clogs and pesky gnomes let me know! Alternatively if you have also been lucky please comment me! (I should add that this particular workshop course sold out in a matter of minutes).

I'm hoping this makes sense to at least some of you! Those who follow Dottie Angel will understand - others may be completely mystified for which I apologise.

Note to self - must get sewing machine serviced and get some practice in.

Love Wend

Lovely bits...

I found the item above at a charity shop at the beginning of the year and bought it because I loved the fabric and the price wasn't bad either. I was thrilled to bits when I saw the midwives wearing them on "Call the Midwife". I've particularly enjoyed looking and seeing all the things that made me say - I've got one of those! Mirrors, tins, radio etc, etc.

Some of you will remember that I took on a vintage cabinet before Christmas on a trial basis. Well I'm happy to report that things have been going so well I have taken on a unit and things are now going even better. Almost too well - I can't keep up with the sourcing of new items to sell! Perhaps I'm too cheap! I have to spend my weekends runining around antiques fairs, auctions and car boots! My idea of heaven! Always on the look out for for barkcloth and lovely old linens ...

Recently found this fella at a car boot - can't decide whether he is cute or nasty! He spends his days just hanging around amongst the pinnies. Do you like the green one with the black smocking? I love it - beauty in a pinny. I just can't decide what would possess anyone to smock a pinny. Life's just too short!

Oh and I thought I would share my birthday present from Niobe - (a bit late I know). A gorgeous Marshall and Snelgrove hat box. Why don't our boxes and tins look as lovely as this today? This week I have thrown away a dozen chocolate tins at the office. I would have liked to have thought twice about these as the possible collectables of the future but they weren't attractive. Quality Street and Roses used to be in such pretty tins (that will be another post!) but I couldn't bring myself to hang onto those we get today for another 50 years!

I'm sure some of our young designers would relish the opportunity to design for the big companies to bring some life and interest into today's packaging but I suppose they (the companies) are too wedded to their branding!

Have a great weekend!

Love Wend