Life's pretty busy right now. The last few days have been spent ostensibly taking Niobe to Exeter Uni's open day. Given the distance from Nottingham we decided to extend this visit by a couple of days to incorporate some of the sights ( or blog lover stops) so we travelled via Stonehenge, Plymouth and finally Exeter (it was a very roundabout tour!)



I had hoped to see lots of the places shown on the various blogs I follow but luck wasn't really on my side! Hunting for white horses carved into the hillside proved fruitless (although they are shown on maps - they were obviously always around the other side of the hill to the road we were travelling!). We did, quite by accident, come across this flight of locks - an amazing feat of engineering completed 200 years ago!






Stonehenge would have been difficult to miss although its disappointing that it's surrounded by some very zealous security guards.



Onwards to Shaftesbury and Gold HIll - which meant nothing to Niobe as she had never seen the Hovis advert! Still the view was lovely as we sat and enjoyed breakfast al fresco.



I did have to pop in and see the lovely Sue (Vintage to Victorian) at Dairy House antiques. Sue persuaded me to start my own blog over a year ago so I'm very grateful to her for setting me on this journey. I would have loved to spend more time there rummaging through Sue's lovely haberdashery and fabric drawers looking for treasures but we were on a mission and had lots to pull in!

Honiton was high on my list - Kirsty (from the Homemade Christmas series) had waxed lyrical about one of the antiques centres at Honiton - but - it was Sunday and the shops were closed. There was a lovely little vintage toys shop selling toys at ridiculously cheap prices - but that was closed too. I'm ashamed to say how used to 7day trading I have become and assume its the norm everywhere.

Onward to Plymouth via Dartmoor. I loved seeing all the ponies able to wander at their will. I was a little concerend when I saw this -



but seconds later the little foal was up on its (unstable little legs)...



Plymouth was decidedly open to visitors and it was fascinating to learn more of the place from where the Pilgrim Fathers left for America all those years ago.





Monday saw my excitement mounting as thanks to Sal of "Sals Snippets" I had to visit Totnes and Ashburton. Sal's mentioned shops in both of these places and Totnes was a delight with lovely places to eat and lots of delightful shops with a vintage vibe not to mention charity shops which are in a different league from those in the Midlands!

The Snug at Ashburton was great with some lovely fabrics - some of these had to come back with me. There was a wonderful shop the "Vintage Emporium" from where I had to have my nose surgically removed from the window. Again - closed!!! AAAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!! I wanted to buy and couldn't. Floral Vernon Wards tantalising me with their kitsch loveliness. I can't believe that I managed to forget to carry my camera at several of these stops.

Exeter ticked most of Niobe's list of "must haves" in a Uni although I have to express some disappointment at some of the accommodation. While I don't expect (and can't afford for) her to live in luxury - she doesn't have that at home - I was horrified at some of what we saw. As she said "it looks like prison". She opened a wardrobe door which then fell off in her hand... I can see I'm going to have to come up with some creative solutions! (Not to mention a toolkit!)



I was given a "two for one entry" voucher for the Eden prject - to be used by 31st August. If anyone can use it I'll be happy to pop it in the post - just e-mail me your address at wendyppshaw@ntlworld.com.

Hope you're enjoying the sunshine!

Love Wend

Boot style?

When I posted this picture on Flickr a few days ago I was amazed that somebody flagged it as a fave. I realised I haven't shared any pictures of home on my blog. Usually that's because with all my vintage finds it's not often as tidy as it should be. However I have been decorating our snug so some serious clearing has had to be done. The snug is my official name for, as Alan Bennett would say, "the other room"



Very little of what I have matches and that is ok - I like it like that! Rooms are constantly evolving as one new find replaces another. The picture above is my favourite chair - a Laura Ashley firm button back from 20 years ago - shabby but still the most comfy chair I have, and speaking of comfy the throw on the back is a vintage Durham Comfy. The cushion is an Elizabeth Bradley needlepoint which I snapped up at a charity shop. (£100 new on the website so a snip at less than £5, pad included!)



This chair is a 1950s Lloyd Loom in gold. The gold has mellowed over the years and I have several pieces in this colour. This was picked up at auction. The ones in good condition I keep inside, those that have had a bad paint job get relegated to outside. I never paint LLs as I prefer to see their faded worn colours.



This one was also picked up at auction - the back is caned but the seat is sprung and is covered in a very 60s nylon cover which would be great in the right setting - but not here! I have just put the seat in a vintage grain sack. I love that you can see the red stitching across the sack. Niobe bought me the little crocheted sausage dog for my birthday.



The little cabinet to the right of the chair I picked up at the car boot for £4 a couple of weeks ago - it isn't Lloyd Loom but it fits in fine. The one to the left is an old sewing cabinet.



This is my favourite piece of furniture - totally impractical - (how many people do you know who like spending long sitting on a church pew?). Still it fits in with the "useful or beautiful" test so its allowed to stay. It's good for setting off my cushions! I have stuffed a grain sack with a couple of pillows for the seat itself.



My cushions are a mix of vintage ones that I have rescued and put new backs on to stop them disintegrating further, some bought and others I've made myself.



On the hymn book shelf I prop 50s floral (Vernon Ward if I can find them) pictures and books with great covers.



Behind the Lloyd Loom are shelves which have lots of my car boot finds, my Timothy Richards doorways and some of my non-orange Art Deco Myott pieces.



And finally some bits of car boot haberdashery faffed and put in an old glass pot!



You've seen Vintage Style, Bazaar style and Flea Market style. Mine is a mixture of all three with some Car Boot Style thrown in!

Hope you're enjoying the sunshine

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

Show and tell

I can't believe I haven't shown last weeks car boot treasures sop I'll skip through them quickly now before it's Sunday again! First: the Tala icing set - not in the best condition but "displays nicely" as they say. Also a metre of lovely Laura Ashley fabric and a very yellow butter/cheese plate and cover.



This beautiful embroidered tablecloth with fantastic thistles in a huge circle. The detail in these is amazing . Unfortuantely there are some marks on the cloth itself so I'll shall have to come up with something innovative to make best use of the embroidery. Any suggestions gratefully received.



Aaah - a crinoline lady. Just a £1 for this little treasure. I've noticed I'm building up quite a little collection of crinoline ladies but I'll show you those another time.



Two lovely finds - a 1948 Christmas Good Housekeeping with the most amazing adverts -just 50 pence, and Needlwork for Girls. This started off as a delight until I remembered the horrors of school dressmaking classes and having to run up a dirndl skirt, the like of which no self respecting girl in the seventies would have been seen dead in. The teacher seemed to be on a one woman mission to put me off sewing forever. Fortunately brains are amazing things and often delete or put into a "don't go there folder" your worst nightmares - until something such as the pictures in this book triggers those memories!



And finally another Vernon Ward print from 1950, a creamy yellow jug -a piece of utility ware? (Not entirely sure on that but hoping), the Huntley and Palmer mint cremes tin and the little green jug. And most of it was less than £2!

Wend
xx