In the pink!

Why oh why did I touch the "blogger designer" thingy? Hopefully normal service will be resumed once I can get my technical assistant to sort me out...

In the meantime I'm going to have to manage which for someone as virtually challenged as me isn't easy.

A few days ago "A Thrifty Mrs" commented on my picture below on Flickr and asked me to share my thoughts. I've been steadily increasing my collection (the picure in my side bar shows what it was like a year ago!)and have been able to increase it quite significantly. (There is another shelf with my tureens on it higher up too!). I use this everyday now and love mixing and matching it! Such lovely sherbet-y colours.



Ann of "Vintage at the Corner House" (see side bar) has mentioned some of her finds recently and from comments on her post it seems that there is a general lack of pink (not to mention yellow) out there. Ann has a gorgeous pink jug with a green handle - I hadn't seen any with two colours before but it's lovely. Does anyone have lots of yellow?



I'm afraid I'm cheating a little here but I found a stash of pink a couple of months back the shade of which is almost identical to the Peach Petal Grindley that the real utility fans are after. My pink is actually Wedgewood from 1934 - so its actually art deco rather than post war so is older. This means the handles on the gravy boat and tea cups are a little angular but I'm not a purist and given how many pieces I managed to pick up I'll bring some to the fair in Northampton in case anyone wants to add to their collection. I have to say the pink and the yellow certainly lift the other colours when they are together!



Has anyone else discovered the "sherbet glass" which has had a Flickr group set up for it by Teena Vallerine - "Kitschen Pink"? I know it as "sugar glass" with its pastel bands of colour from the same era.



Have I inspired you to start on another collection?



Lovely aren't they!


Love Wend

Don't give up the day job Wend!

I love the work of Martin Parr photographer. This is his wikipedia entry - He is a British documentary photographer, photojournalist and collector. He is known for his photographic projects that take a critical look at modern society, specifically consumerism, foreign travel and tourism, motoring, family and relationships, and food.



This is the front cover of one of his books - I have several of them. They can be amusing but also social commentary of the way we live and what is (or isn't)important to us in terms of our personal identity, what we relate to and our surroundings.

I also discovered Nick Turpin recently on the radio where he was described as a social highwayman (well with a name like that it was bound to happen!). He has a similar approach and his pictures can be seen on Flickr.

Apart from the Martin Parr picture these are a few of those I've taken which have made me want to capture the scene or the moment. These are not taken to cause any offence - most of the people shots were taken with the knowledge of those in the picture.



Spotted in Dublin - why is this tile here?



Very enthusistic approach to bird scaring at the allotments!



Bewigged lads out on the town in Newcastle last week...



Interesting combination of posters in Dublin. Could happily have gone to see either - both would have taken me back to fifth form at school!



love the combination ...



A better class of grafitti - at the Mister School in Southwell - Latin for "the Romans were here!"



My bin also needs an identity - I want to build a set of these - I found some with quotations on the side (when I didn't have my camera with me!)



New year in Soho...



Disobedient Oxford students!



More lads on the town in Newcastle



Girls going to their prom in Newcastle - posing for photos on the Millenium Bridge



More prom dresses - I didn't dare take a picture as the girl in blue lifted her dress and revealed black socks and plimsolls! At that point Niobe had walked off in disgust and shame at her embarrasing mother. The picture below shows her typical reaction when I'm taking photos - this one taken in March



One day somebody will get me back as I fall asleep on the train back from London head lolling forward with loose jaw.

Hope one or two raised a smile.

...trying to divert my thoughts as I worry about Niobe soaked to the skin, wild camping (no loos for those who don't know) having struggled through 25 km in Snowdonia today. Willing her on for another 48 hours. All that sunshine we've had and she gets this! (With storms forecast for tomorrow...)

Love Wend

Hope all is going well at the Handmade and Vintage Fair. I had thought to drive down but given the weather warnings decided against it. Its just as well as I had a man banging on the back door at 9am telling me a section had snapped off one of my trees and was hanging dangerously over the pavement. He invited me to look - in socks dressing gown and sans makeup - not a good look - and he was right - a large chunk was hovering suspended only by a wisteria tangle with the main body of the trunk also split. Less than an hour later he was £300 richer and I was treeless. It could have been worse - if it had fallen right over it would have come through the roof and killed us both. So that's another of my lives gone, (cats get nine, how many do we get?) Anyway I'm coming back as a tree surgeon next time! It's not a bad hourly rate is it?



On Thursday I was in London for meetings for work but once they had finished I hot footed it over to Islington to the Country Living Fair. When I arrived at 3 it was packed and difficult to see but by 4 it was thinning out and became easier to move. There were lots of the usual country style stalls as you'd expect but also some new names.



I hadn't come across "Bombki" before. Michael Peterson is the mind behind this company and he designs and makes these Christmas baubles some with traditional themes and some very contemporary.



He sells either in collections as you can see on the pedestals - French, London, American or as individual pieces. I liked the London Eye...



and the car collection.



I particularly liked the French seed packet labels from "Burgundy Brocante" and bought some of these to play with. They are apparently copyright free so you can do what you like with them - I checked!





There were some stalls for the vintage lovers amongst us...





and I did like the old Christmas baubles on this stand. But at £39.50 they seemed very expensive. I know that people are asking that price on E-bay



but I had struck lucky at the car boot last weekend and picked up this little lot for 50p! I also picked up some wooden coat hangers which included these lovely advertising hangers in amongst them.



I think they are great - just look at the address on the top one - 54 Mumps, Oldham. Poor little hanger - starting out life living with a high class "tailor" and ending up living with a rather shabby round the edges former "Taylor"!



I also spotted another Vernon Ward picture which came home with me. To be added to the flickr group. Now can you help me girls - there is a blogger who has recently shown us her "Wall of Flowers" pictures. Does anyone know who she is? I've tried to track back to find her as I'm convinced she must have at least one Vernon on her walls but no luck so far. If anyone has any ideas do let me know...

Have a good weekend

Wend

Vernon Ward

Over the summer while wandering round car boots I've picked up several delightfully kitsch prints by the prolific 50s painter Vernon Ward. I knew nothing of him until this year but have found myself drawn to these pictures - many of flowers but lots of birds in flight too. The picture above is Anemones and Michaelmas Daisies.



This shows his signature.



And this one is "Dahlias"...

I noticed while in London the other day that Liberty has some fabulous vintage window displays at the moment and if you look very carefully the room set shave Vernon Ward pictures on the wall! Unfortuantely my batteries were playing up so I didn't get any pictures. (Nor did I get any of the new Anthroplogie store on Regent Street - much loved by many of our American blogger friends. (For lots of eye candy put Anthorpologie into the Flickr search tool...)

I digress. I suspect that there are lots of you who have one of these on your wall at home - given the number of bloggers with floral pictures on their walls I find myself straining to see the signature on the bottom of the pictures. Unfortunately those I have are framed in rather grubby looking frames and I'm still trying to decide whether I should leave them in their original frames or update them. I have become so smitten that I have set up a group on Flickr called unimaginatively "Vernon Ward". If you do have a picture please let me know and if you could add it to the Flickr group that would be great!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway if you haven't already - see post below. And for those who usually pop in and don't comment - come on in - the water's lovely!

Also,for those of you in Northampton tomorrow do pop into the Vintage and Homemade fair - see sidebar.

Love Wend