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

A change is as good as a rest!

I thought that this week would give me chance to catch my breath and unwind but it doesn't seem to be working out like that! Still it has been lovely spending some time with my daughter (when she hasn't been writing essays!). Yesterday we ventured into our town centre and discovered this new shop. With a name like this I thought it had to be worth a look!



The windows were intriguing : wire mannequins draped with scarves,



an astronaut helmet TV - (all the rage after the moon landings years ago!)and lots of 60s pieces of furniture,



an old typewriter and lots of albums,



a sixties mirror and more.



I had to smile when I saw the price tag on the mirror - £75! I picked up one of these at the car boot a couple of weeks ago for £1 and it's now hanging on my wall! (below)



But I digress. Tucked in several of the vignettes were shoes. Old shoes, new shoes and upside down shoes? I'd love a pair of these for sitting in a ladylike style with my legs crossed just so that anyone looking could admire my soles!



We went in and I was intrigued at the collection of items for sale. I really like the eclectic mixture of items and felt the whole place had really made an effort to be different. I'm so tired of city centres all having the same shops on them that it really made a pleasant change to see the shoes being sold amongst vintage pieces of furniture, old musical instruments and album covers - there were some great chests of drawers for less than the price that people might spend at IKEA but they were real conversation pieces. I'm afraid I didn't buy anything. I've got rather too used to car boot prices for my bits of vintage and I was probably 30 years too old to be wearing any of the shoes, but I know I'll be drawn back!



Later, thoughts turned to the Vintage and Homemade fair in Northampton on 7th November where I shall be standing. I was really pleased when Annie (Vintage at the Corner House) set this up as it's much closer to me than the fair at Chipping Sodbury which I'd also love to go to. There seems to be lots of vintage activity in the South West but little up here in the East Midlands... For more details check out Annie's blog - see side bar. Hope some of you will be able to make it!



I'm a Kaffe Fassett and Liberty fabric lover as you can see from my stash pictures. I've been assembling some of the things I'll take to the fair ready for pricing and packing.



Lots of my covered coat hangers, vintage tins,



pincushions,



I know repetitive pictures but please indulge me - I've made a lot of these over the years and I always cover the hooks and despite still using some I made in 1982 the binding hasn't unravelled! My gorgeous girl even asked for a lesson on making them last night and was really pleased with herself when she completed her first Cath Kidston fabric hanger!



More assembling of lovely china duos and trios, cake stands, buttons, hankies, butter and cheese dishes, preserve pots and some lovely kitsch 50s pinnies.



You may remember that I bought this eiderdown cover at Swinderby in the summer. This was one of my more expensive purchases but I love the fabric and need to make it go a long way!



I decided to cover some buttons in this fabric and add them to one of my thrifted cashmere cardigans. I refuse to pay full price but I do have a weakness for cashmere. Several of the buttons had got lost so the cardigan was languishing in the back of the wardrobe. It now has a complete set of thrifted eiderdown buttons and I'm quite pleased with the way it's turned out. The pinks match better than it appears in the photo!




Hope that you're having a good week and for those who have half term next week - it's not long now! I'm loving this "time off" thing!
Love Wend

Where can I find a mustard leaf?

Hi everyone - hope your week's going well.

I must just thank Simone of Linden Grove for her lovely giveaway of cat cards. It was lovely to receive these last week after a bad day at the office! So "Thank you so much", Simone.

Sunday saw a great car boot haul. Nothing major but lots of bits. I didn't think it was going very well initially having been at the boot by 7am. I got home at 8.45 but felt that there was more out there and that there wouldn't be that many more Sunday mornings before they stop over the winter months. So I quickly buttered a slice of toast, hopped back in the car to go to another which had only just started. (I hate turning up late - I always wonder what I've missed!)



I'm really sad and always have to set everything out on the kitchen table when I get home to admire what I've bought and closely scrutinise everything for blemishes, check for important labels , stamps etc - why don't I do that before I buy? I suppose I very much go on instinct - if I like it and its in my price range I'll buy. So tucked to the side is a framed Kaffe Fassett tapestry. Now Ive been sewing these for the last 25 years and know how much they cost just to buy the kit so when I saw this and remembered it as a design from the 80s had to check the price. £2! And it has been professionally framed with non reflective glass. Would it be sacrilege to take it out and make it into a cushion cover?



So, what else? Lovely fine tea cup and saucer, 4 silk hankies, couple of art deco bowls, a globe (difficult to find without electric wires trailing from them), couple of books - (don't you just just love the cover of "The Deans Watch"), lovely wooden candlestick, the little wooden shelf and the vintage 60s tablecloth. How do I know its 60s - because my mother had one which I call the "quarter of ham and a quarter of tongue" cloth. Before every weekend the two quarters of cooked meat were bought ready for Sunday tea (and there were 6 of us!) and were set out on a cloth which had exactly the same texture as this with checks in pink and green. Isn't it funny what prompts old memories for us?



But one of the best bits was the vintage "C" word decorations - I love the old decos-some of these are hand painted. (I know its too early to talk about C but they were part of Sunday's haul).



The Saint John's ambulance book is amazing - it was 30 pence and gives some classic advice - I love these instructions for hysteria:-

1 - avoid sympathy with the patient, and speak firmly to her - (obviously this would never happen to a man!)
2- Threaten her with a cold water douche, and if she persists sprinkle her with cold water.
3 - Apply a mustard leaf at the back of the neck. ( No idea what this is for or what effect it would have - any ideas?)

So I'm wondering, to be prepared, just in case the gorgeous girl gets one of these attacks, is whether any of you have a mustard leaf to spare or know where I can get one so that my medicince chest is complete?



Love Wend

D H Lawrence

So having urged you to do something for Heritage Open Day what did I do? Well I'm ashamed to say despite being a Nottinghamshire lass I had never visited the home of D H Lawrence although I've loved his writing since my school days, partly because of their evocation of the local area. So off to Eastwood to visit the humble dwelling of David Herbert (called Bert to his nearest and dearest.) While out I realised that at the car boot earlier on Sunday I'd seen a very old Penguin copy of Lady Chatterleys Lover with the original illustration and marked 3/6 and had left it on the grass under the table where it lay - wiothout even asking the price! I could kick myself as I shall probably never see one again and the fact it had just been tossed on the ground meant it would probably not have cost much. At the DHL museum it was in a glass case!!



I suppose the place is a bit of a con really as although he was born there, there's very little that was actually owned by the family. (I did like this old cupboard with its pretty lining.)



You were allowed in all the rooms and I loved the screen in the room in which they think he was born!



The attic bedroom was sparsely furnished as it would have been in Victorian times and the rag rugs had certainly seem better days!



This picture shows a vignette in the "front room" which would only have been used "when the vicar came or when a family member was lying in state in their coffin"



The room had a window sill on which were displayed linens as DHL's mother had, in the window, as she tried to sell them. She didn't have much luck as the Eastwood folk were an insular lot and wouldn't buy from her as she was a newcomer to the area! The guide said the local folk are still very much like that and it took a long time before he was accepted!



It's a shame thae front room was so little used as these were pit houses built for the miners families and there were often 10 people housed in them - what a waste of a quarter of the living space...



Apparently the house is decorated with far more items in it than the family would have owned but is to give an idea of what might have been in there. Much the same as many of us use for decor now - embroidered pictures, cabinets full of lovely bits and pretty floral wallpaper.




This picture believe it or not shows the sink in the back corner of the kitchen - the grey slab with a one inch lip to hold the water (which would have had to have been brought inside). Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the old range.



Opposite the range was the sewing machine and it was good to see an old bottle full of mother of pearl and linen buttons and a stone bottle with a (very old) hydrangea head. I don't think it would have hurt to have brought a fresh one in this year!



Then outside to the wash house - anyone who saw my post a couple back might wonder whether I coveted the old copper and the dolly tub but I have to say I managed to contain myself.



The outside wash tub looked entirely at home hanging on the wall but what a shame that Health and Safety has to be everywhere and spoil the image with one of its intrusive stickers!



I had to smile at the mangle which brought back an old memory of my mothers old mangle - not quite as archaic as this but just as vicious. I remembered trying to see whether the rollers really could trap your fingers. I found that they could indeed be incredibly vicious and still bear the scar on my finger today where it was crushed!

Have a good week,

Wend

Not Wednesday but Wend's day!

Today I had the day off work to spend some time with my "all GCSE'd out" daughter (although she had something lined up for which I needed to act as chauffeur). And what a day it has been! Just one of those days where everything flowed and went well and it truly felt like Wend's day!



After a bit of light blogging and gardening (for gardening read mowing the moss!) we decided to go to Farnsfield a little village a few miles away for a wander round. Though quite close I'd never spent any time in this village and it turned out to be wonderfully British with its red phone box, old fashioned signage, cottage gardens and a fabulous bakery where we picked up some goodies for our picnic.



Then I spotted "The Loft" tucekd away behind the hairdresses. It was the most amazing little antiques shop. "The Loft" aptly described the place as inside it looks like the contents of Miss Havisham's loft have been tipped out in a couple of very tiny rooms. It was delightful! (Weblink -http://www.loftfarnsfield.co.uk)



Although teensy this shop bulged with fabrics, chandeliers, candelabra, books, trinkets and all sorts of other delightful bits and pieces. Now I'm no expert on vintage lighting but these pieces were gorgeously shabby and beautiful. I'd never seen so many lovely vintage lighting fittings all together. The owner was quite happy for me to take photos which was nice!(Last week in London it was another story entirely although I'm not sure why - and I did ask first!)



We picnicked on Southwell's green in the sunshine and enjoyed some down time. Then once my gorgeous girl was safely deposited at her drama rehearsal I grabbed the chance to do some serious charity shop rummaging (well there are 7 shops in the town I visited), followed by some successful flea market foraging.I'll show you my finds another day! Isn't it wonderful how much joy such simple pleasures can bring?

A day packed with photography, vintage, gardening, thrifting, antiques and sunshine...May I have some more please? I like this way of life!

Love Wend
xx