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

No violence, no looting

What a week! Left Nottingham last Saturday to go to Edinburgh to take in the Fringe Festival where Niobe has been performing. I was horrified through Facebook to hear of what was unfurling in Nottingham and elsewhere) as it happened. Fortunately the problems didn't go north of the border so I was able to make the most of it. But it rained and rained. And rained. Big fat rain that wet you through, rose up trouser legs and plastered hair to face. Lovely.



The opportunities for photos were limited but I tried! I managed to pull in several shows and the beauty of this festival is that many of the shows are free. Just 3 famous names - Hardeep Singh Kohli, Simon Callow and Dave Gorman and the others were just pot luck depending on whose flyer was the most persuasive! Niobe and crew put on great performances and are still up there - their last performance was last night but they have a few days free before returning on Wednesday night to pick up their A level results on Thursday. (So nice that their minds are being taken off all that tension.)



She'll kill me for including this very unflattering photo of her as an old woman whose just handbagged the guy on the floor but it was the best one I could get. And guess whose wardrobe she got the clothes from! (NOT the shoes!)It's not easy when you're asked "Have you got any clothes for an old lady in the WI in the eighties Mum?" - And that was the best I could come up with. Plus added rain hat!



More of her group flyering...



This is one of the best parts of the time in Edinburgh when the performers vie for your presence at their shows by enticing you with bits of their performances out on the streets. I was very pleased to find, as I supped a coffee on the Royal Mile that "Out of the Blue," an a capella group, (whom some of you may have seen on Britains got Talent earlier this year)were performing on the street stage right in front of me. A great group of Oxford students causing riots of laughter and applause!



On the way home I stopped at Eyemouth on the Scottish coast for a look at the sea and a bite to eat. I found a small town united in trying to trace a young man who had gone missing last Saturday night. Police divers had been in the harbour and there were posters everywhere. The shopkeepers had pulled together offering food and drinks to searchers, the hardware store providing torches and batteries and the local printer donating the posters. The locals had set up a base in the seamen's mission from where the searches are being coordinated. Despite it being very sad, it was heartwarming that this community was pulling together to support the family of this young man in a week of so many horrors south of the border. What a contrast - just warmth, sympathy, giving, sharing and hope. Inspiring.

Righteous indignation!

It's lovely to see the snowdrops in flower but recently I heard a programme about snowdrop or "Galanthus" theft. With are over 1000 varieties some are VERY DESIRABLE - so much so that individual bulbs sell on e-bay for anything up to £100! Snowdrops are now big business and there are snowdrop conventions which Galanthophiles will travel miles to (even coming over from the continent).

A couple of nights ago my brother who lives in a cottage in a tiny hamlet told me that, on the roadside in front of the cottage, his clumps of snowdrops had been dug up, halved and replaced, with the soil neatly put back around them. They were at the side of the road in front of a hedge which I suspect made the culprit think they were fair game but having planted 500 bulbs last spring he wasn't impressed. As they were still in flower they probably won't even survive. Given he's a Police Inspector I guess the hamlet's inhabitants will be having to show the soles of their shoes for footprints! He said that forensic tests suggested the culprit had two feet and not four...

How very dare they?

Love Wend

What do you know?

I mused on the tradition of making new years resolutions as I enjoyed the beauty that is found in decay. I was pointed in the direction of the thoughts of Pamela Redmond Satran

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE …
enough money within her control to move out
and rent a place of her own, even if she never wants to or needs to…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE .
something perfect to wear if the employer, or date of her dreams wants to see her in an hour…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE
a youth she’s content to leave behind….

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE .
a past juicy enough that she’s looking forward to
retelling it in her old age….



A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ….
a set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill, and a black lace bra…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE
one friend who always makes her laugh… and one who lets her cry…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..
a good piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in her family…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE .
eight matching plates, wine glasses with stems, and a recipe for a meal, that will make her guests feel honored…



A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE .
a feeling of control over her destiny.

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
how to fall in love without losing herself.

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
how to quit a job, break up with a lover, and confront a friend without ruining the friendship…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
when to try harder… and WHEN TO WALK AWAY…



EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
that she can’t change the length of her calves,
the width of her hips, or the nature of her parents..

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
that her childhood may not have been perfect…but its over…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
what she would and wouldn’t do for love or more…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
how to live alone… even if she doesn’t like it…




EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW..
whom she can trust, whom she can’t, and why she shouldn’t take it personally…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
where to go…
be it to her best friend’s kitchen table…
or a charming inn in the woods…
when her soul needs soothing…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
what she can and can’t accomplish in a day…
a month…and a year…

Not resolutions as such (and very Americanised) but they did make me wonder what I have learnt along the way...This year I will be concentrating on the Cordless Drill and the Black Lacy Bra. Is this liely to change my life (in a good way)?

By the way the final picture is of a birthday gift wrapping inspired by the Etc book I shared a couple of posts back. It's made from the Victorian velvet which covered my father's old writing slope before it was restored and bound with some old upholstery webbing and held together with an upholstery needle's stitch. The ends were tied with old twine. Possibly the most thoughtfully wrapped birthday gift I've ever received...(Apparently it was cheaper than wrapping paper!)

Love Wend

Not the Horrockses Exhibition - when all is not what it seems!

The point at which I despair having realised I've I turned up at the Fashion and Textile Museum to see the Horrockses exhibition - on a day when it is closed!



Marshalsea Road - when I realise I'm not Little Dorrit walking towards the workhouse - I'm lost in London. Again. Fortunately I'm rescued by a Swedish lady lighting designer - yes we had a long chat as she returned me to where I needed to be and I'm reminded of the kindness of strangers...



Not a Vintage Yard at all!



Decided to turn the day into an opportunity to explore the parts other trips hadn't reached and wandered through the LBQ (apparently London Bridge Quarter) wondering at the massive block of glass reaching up into the sky imaginitively called The Shard.



Not a gallery



Not a normal city - a vertical city - clearly there is a vision for LBQ. I feel as if Ive been tranported into another world where all is not what it seems.



I cross the river to find Brick Lane and the confusion continues as I wander into what appeares to be lovely market building (Leadenhall Market)but it's filled, and I mean filled, with men in suits. Feeling completely out of place in jeans and a tweed jacket I scurry through neglecting to take a picture feeling very much the outsider.



I emerge into a sea of glass and sport a vacant look as I face another world I don't recognise.



Walls of glass and metal surround me with sunlight bouncing between buildings but the world is suddenly black and white and devoid of colour. I walk on traipsing along Fenchurch Street and Whitechapel. Ah - names I recognise - I'm walking around a Monopoly Board. Suddenly I'm in a different world again and rather than brandishing my camera and snapping wildly I clutch it in my pocket. Lost again I ask a lady with a vintage bike with a basket on the front for help. (I find being careful in my choice of help pays dividends). This lady also obligingly walked me to where I wanted to be. "Brick Lane" she said - "you walked way past it - its not called Brick Lane at the start but Osborne Steet". Ah that explains it! Silly me!



Brick Lane was a complete contrast with lots of colour and some great street art which I'm directed to by this helpful gentleman











Have I entered the after life?



and just look at this one - wow !



Not a parking spot! Parking in the area is clearly an issue with threats of retribution should one park in the wrong spot!





The heavens open and brollyless and dripping I tramp back to the tube and make my way to Anthropologie which I love for its ideas but which is ridiculously expensive to a thrifter like me!



Not a chandelier - but a collection of upcycled bottle tops.



She muses that the release from the strictures of timetables and letting adventure in can be quite liberating as she falls exhausted into the arms of Bacchus and Morpheus...

The Common Reader!

Last week while in Southwold I realised that I had lost a pair of shoes I had bought 2 days earlier in Norwich. I was gutted as I rarely buy anything new these days, shoes being an exception - not that I buy a lot of shoes but I don't buy those second hand - or foot). Returning via Norwich on Sunday I was amazed and delighted to track them down at the Forum (which houses Norwich's library). Why was I in the library in the first place? I'd gone to see the work of "Potter Jotter" who produces gorgeous pieces of pottery with some inspired by patchwork quilts. Her work was beautiful ....



I loved the new building and was thrilled to see that it housed the library. I always wanted to be a librarian (as opposed to a library assistant) and didn't make it due to my inability to stay the course at uni. This library was amazing with a huge collection of books, masses of computers, magazinesplaces to have a drink and full of people milling about. I've never seen so many people in a library. This was where I lost both myself and clearly my shoes for some time. I wandered and browsed and sat and wished I lived in Norfolk!

I'm a regular user of my own library and worked there voluntarily as a child of 13 for a while such was my desire to be surrounded by books. When I started work it was at a university library where I worked in the local history and special collections (full of fabulous old manuscripts and illuminated works - my idea of heaven). I stayed until my father persuaded me to get a proper job in the Civil Service with a pension. (Why did I let him do that?)



An article in "The Spectator" today states that 60% of adults have not visited a library in the last year. Much of this is apprently down to cheap internet booksellers but I for one can't afford to buy all the books I would want to read. What I love to do is to read others blogs and see what is recommended and then through my on-line reservation service reserve of order whatever I fancy. For a fee of 25p my library will source what ever I want from around the county and its often there for me within 48 hours. If they don't have it they often buy it and I'm often the first to borrow one of the latest titles - including the newest craft and decorating books!

I have to say I don't like the fact that my library needs security on the door after 5 due to the local unsavoury element, nor do I like teenagers yelling across the library to their friends and children running around and harassing pensioners quietly browsing or enjoying a coffee while reading the paper.

I do think there could be more creative thought around the opening hours. I'm sure there are people who would like the library to open once a week from say 1-9 so that its available to those who work all day but so that it doesn't extend the opening times. I'm sure also that some people would like to work a different pattern one day a week to enable them to vary their routine. I know that the Big Society idea is to use more volunteers although in my library our books are logged in and out by an electronic hole in the wall so they can't reduce staff to much below the current level. Staff are still required to humiliate those returning their books late as they have to attend THE DESK (the grown up version of the "naughty step"). I have learnt to respond with a big smile and a cheery " Well, it all increases the funds available for new books!"

But back to my shoes - yes - the library in Norwich was open on a Sunday and they had my shoes.( Why they needed to know the make I'm not sure - do people regularly leave their shoes in the library. I'd forgotten in my dismay and had to resort to drawing a picture!) Only one floor was open apparently but it was buzzing and should, I think, be used as a model for other libraries.

Am I alone?

Love Wend

Serendipity!

I've been off work this week supposedly to support Niobe while on study leave - provision of drinks, going for walks to clear her head etc but it hasn't worked out quite like that. She has been going into school even on the non exam days! Apparently she can get one to one attention from the teachers who have no students to teach and can get essays turned round and marked within hours! So my role turned into chauffeur only which has given me time to potter and wind down a bit. I do have a couple of little bits of heaven to share with you though. On Thursday I tried a car boot I hadn't been to before. I didn't expect much with it being midweek but found these Laura Ashley curtains from the 80s (how many of you are remembering these from the first time round?).



The ones on the left are I think called Emma and the deisgn is part of one inspired by the Bloomsbury set and Charleston Farmhouse and although I've tried to bid for this fabric on Ebay I've never been successful. The ones on the right were chintz but have lost their glaze (which for me is a good thing). The greeny pair were made by Laura Ashley so I was thrilled to get both pairs for £1!



Then just look at this mirror!!! I already have a couple of these heavy mirrors plain and unadorned but I had only ever seen the painted ones in the Cath Kidston shop. I'm sure I'll be told to wash my mouth out but I cannot bring myself to pay her prices! (I want the job of one of the ladies who trawls towns and cities looking for treasure to sell in her shops - I could do that!). It wasn't easy to photograph without getting the middle aged photographer in the image so this is the best I could do but I just love the Crinoline lady under her rose covered arbour wandering by her herbaceous border.... How much - the cost of a punnet of strawberries - but will last much longer. £2!!



Having just enjoyed Cathy's post over at "Menopausalmusing" I had to share this book found in a charity shop this week. There were no dates etc inside but a quick google tells me its from 1934 and the illustrator is Eileen Mayo. First a facsimile of an advertising poster





It is both fact and fiction giving the history of the circus and lots of background to acts and how they are performed along with stories of the circus and its folk.



I've never been to the circus and was beguiled by the stories. My knowledge is restricted to black and white memories of Bille Smart's on TV in the 60s!



The acrobats are amazing



Love this image of the circus folk with the guy in the foreground taking his "tyger" for a walk. Health and Safety wouldn't let him do that today!



The dancing horses



Delightful endpapers



and next, just for Cathy (although she prefers dancing on elephants!)

Yesterday I went to Newstead Abbey home (once) to Byron - mad, bad and dangerous to know so we have something in common. I suddenly remembered that its home to a very special tree and wondered whether it might be in flower.



Doesn't look anything special?



Now look!



The Handkerchief tree - yes really! (Or sometimes called the Dove tree or the ghost tree). It really does look from a distance as if it has hankies drying in the breeze.



Just look at those flowers - as big as my hand. (As its Chelsea week we'll use the proper name - the white bits are bracts apparently surrounding the little flower in the middle). The slightest bit of breeze causes these beauties to dance on their stalks as if they were the daintiest little things. Wonderful - this week's bit of serendipity!



If you have one of these near you now is the time to visit!

Hope you find time to appreciate something beautiful this weekend!

Love Wend