One Wet Weekend...

I'm still pinching myself..... but this tidy, co-ordinated lounge actually belongs to me!!!

 

On Friday evening I decided that the drifts of crafting stuff; the mountains of old car mags, DVDs and books; and the mis-matched soft furnishing HAD TO GO.

I wish that we'd taken a photo before we got started. 

Things weren't exactly in a complete state of chaos - but it had all started to 'bug' me a bit.

 

Here's the results of all our labours over the weekend..  A new lamp-shade and cushion covers.

The sofa has also been re-positioned so that the 'music end' of the room is more open.

 

 

I've kept all the things I love..

We found this pretty little cupboard in the basement of a junk shop years ago.

It hides all the wires and gives some useful storage.

 

The large bay window has always been a bit of a 'dead space'.

Mark spotted this bench and persuaded me to buy it at the weekend because he loves window seats.

I already had the scatter cushions in the back bedroom and

I was delighted to see the way everything fits with the new curtains...

 

We treated ourselves to a new light-fitting and the mirror.

The effect is quite 'Downton' (!!!) but it all came from Dunelm (pretty cheap!)

 

...and here's the finished room from the window seat.

All my crochet has been tucked away in a wooden box I inherited from my Nana

(under the lamp by the fireplace)

 

As you can see - I'm really into the 'vintage' style.

Almost everything you can see has been inherited, rescued or bought cheaply.

I'm not a very confident person when it comes to styling rooms - but I'm really pleased with how things have come together this time.

 

I hope that you've enjoyed a little insight into the things that have been keeping me from blogging recently!

Jx

What's in the box......

My grand plans for a quiet weekend of crafting rather fell appart - for all the nicest reasons.  On Saturday morning Mark and I decided to potter down to Tewksbury (a short hop down the M5 from Worcester).  It's an interesting town, with a beautiful Abbey church, black and white buildings and a nice range of quirky shops.  There's still an independant book and music shop, proper cafes, specialist food shops, antique shops and loads of charity shops with a nice range of good stock.  Tucked away down an ancient alleyway there's also a map shop - which specialises in second hand maps of all periods.

Now it has to be said that Mark adores old maps.  We have a considerable collection filed away in cupboards and drawers, and displayed on shelves and the walls.  It soon became obvious that I wasn't going to get him out of the shop very easily!  I actually went off to have a mooch around - then felt guilty because I wasn't helping to sift through the 1000s (literally) of maps in this shop.

When I got back I found Mark in the back room clutching this old leather box, with a slightly stunned expression on his face.

 

"Look," he said.  "It looks like a complete set of Cyclist's Touring Maps"  (The exact set that he's been chasing on a piece-meal basis for about 12 months).   "It's a no-brainer,"  I said.  " You've got to get it.  Find out the price and I'll give you an advance on your birthday money if necessary."

 

So we pottered off to find the owner of the shop in the other room.  He explained that there were actually two maps missing from the set - the two which covered the London area.  This is the area of least interest to us anyway so it didn't put us off.  We agreed an extremely good price and brought the set home.  Crafting time was sacrificed to do internet research.

 

By mid-evening we'd established that Stanfords (a travel book company which I believe still exists in London) had sold these leather-boxed sets between 1905 and 1911.  The circle of leather in the lid should hold a small device for measuring distances on the maps.  There should also be small leather straps that go under each set of maps to make it easier to lift them out.

 

We also discovered that one of the duplicate maps that Mark had already collected was an older edition - printed between 1901 and 1905.  Along the way we also picked up that there's a similar boxed series of maps for Scotland (with only 29 sheets) and that Bartholomew's Maps were an Edinburgh company.  Coincidently there's even an exhibition about the company on in the city at the moment. 

 

There still a little mystery.  The box has a pair of initials on the front - "T.B.".  We know from a slip of paper in the box that the set was re-sold in Oxford at some stage.  Unfortunately there's no other clue to flesh out 100 years of history. 

 

It's definitely got pride of place in Mark's collection.

25 Years Ago..

 

At the end of November 1987 - 25 years ago - Mark and I got engaged.

This is the moment that he put the ring on my finger at my 21st Birthday Party..

infront of all our family and friends.

 

Last Saturday night we had a family meal to celebrate this anniversary.

Everyone got into the 'spirit' of 1987 and dressed accordingly.

I'm a tremendous hoarder and I still have my 21st Birthday outfit - so I wore it again on Saturday!

My sister wore a skirt that she's had since 6th Form and a black C&A shirt that we had always shared

Mark and Dad wore DJs, and my Mum wore a pretty Monsoon evening dress.

My Brother in Law wore his 1980s leather jacket and jeans.

My nieces wore their latest party frocks and looked lovely.

 

I prepared a 1987 Meal..

 

Black Russian Cocktails

or

Pernod and Lemonade

~

Pate

~

Roast Chicken

Chicken Kiev

Iceberg Salad

Coleslaw

Chips

~

Chip Chip Cookie Roulade

(Biscuits soaked in Tia Maria and smothered in Cream)

"Green Stuff"

(A family recipie of Ginger Biscuits, soaked in Whiskey, with Lime Mousse on top)

Rasberry Ripple

(Ice-cream, fresh Rasberries and Rasberry Coulis)

~

A Cheeseboard of

Bavarian Smoked Cheese, Applewood Smoked Ceddar and Creamy Lancashire

~

 

We dug out all the old photos from the mid-late 80s and had a fabulous trip down memory lane.

 

Welcome to my new followers..

...and a huge "Thank you" to everyone

who helped me out of my technical pickle yesterday!

 

Lovely Vintage Caravans

Look what I found yesterday...

A small encampment of vintage caravans in a corner of a hall at the NEC!

 

Here's a beautifully preserved 1930s caravan..

 

 

And here's a 'trailer-tent' from a similar period..

 

I was completely captivated by the care that the owners had taken over the interiors.

Here's a dressing table in the corner of a 1940s caravan..

 

And here's the living area of the 1950s caravan.

 

All the owners clearly have a tremendous eye for detail...

I spent ages staring through the doors and windows, admiring the time and effort that must

have gone into collecting all these period items.

 

We were at the show because Mark's newer car was on the Marcos stand.

As an exhibitor he got free passes for each day - which made it a cheap day out.

He was quite worried when I came with all these pictures...

He seems to think that I'm a little too enthusiatic about George Clarke's new TV series and has openly wondered if I'm about to put a case for caravan ownership!

I don't know.. it might be fun!!!

Glasses and other things

These are some wine glasses that I also found while we were poking around in an 'Antiques Centre' in Leominster.  Like my sweet little china bowl, they have no manufacturers mark so they didn't cost a fortune.  Now I have three pairs of cut glass wine glasses that are similar enough to work well together on the table, but retain that pleasantly "pulled together" feel of a vintage collection.  My old petrol glasses (c.1995) have gone to the local Blue Cross Shop. 

Since the summer I have a giftaid card for Blue Cross.  I'm a bit hazy about the maths and the processes, but it seems that they can claim tax back on my donations.  As part of the system they've already sent me one e-mail telling me how much my donations have raised.  Having spent my life with rescue cats, I like the fact that my tax can be claimed to provide animal welfare.

Kirstie Makes it Look So Easy

I was so pleased with the effect of the new little table in the back room that I decided to see if I could get something vintage/secondhand to bring order to part of my teddy bear collection in the front bedroom.  To be honest I haven't done a great deal to the house for several years (long and complicated story) and it was increasingly feeling like we were camping out in the space rather than living in it as grown ups.  Anyway, I naively thought that I'd be able to wander into another vintage shop and there my perfect peice of furniture would be - right size, right colour and right price!  Oh no...
Problem number one is that I'm creating my little haven of vintage in a smallish modern house.  Obviously most pieces are just too big.  Problem number two is that I'm not a very confident woman with a paintbrush and I was completely put off by things the wrong colour.  Problem number three was the sheer amount of time involved in travelling round my part of the West Midlands finding the kind of shops that might, remotely have what I was looking for.  I can't help feeling that Kirstie makes it look a bit easy in her 'Handmade Home' programmes!
Anyway, there is a happy ending to this rant.  I found the perfect bear 'house' at the back of a shop in Leominster.  The 20 year old IKEA bookcase that the bears sat on before has moved down the road to my sisters.  Nothing has been wasted.
All I need now is a nice little bedside cabinet for this room.....

Happy teddies in the corner of the bedroom!!

A lovely vintage find

At the beginning of the halfterm holiday I took my parents and my Mum's cousin to Hay on Wye.  I found this cute little bedside table in the back of one of the antique/vintage/junk shops.  It's been recently repainted and looks fantastic in my back bedroom.  It's hard to see from the photo but pretty much everything in this pic is either second hand, clearance or a much loved object from a long time ago.  The lamp, for example, was a wedding present from BHS back in 1990.  I've still got a scatter cushion and duvet cover in the same pattern.  Unfortunately, after years and years of washing, the duvet has become rather faded and thin but I still use it in the summer because it all looks so pretty.  BHS did some really nice quality stuff.  Our local store became a Primark.  Not the same......!
The books under the lamp are two of my favourites ~ French Women Don't Get Fat and A French Women for All Seasons.  They are both hardback but only cost a couple of pounds each from a local charity shop.  Even if they didn't go so well with the colour scheme I'd still have them next to the bed.  They are books that I constantly dip into and re-read.