A Tiny Bit Marvellous
Posted: May 22, 2012 Filed under: shopping | Tags: Berylune, craft supplies, retro, vintage 1 Comment »Berylune is a marvellous new shop in Leamington Spa. I love this shop because it sells the most wonderful mixture of vintage, handmade and craft items, I want them all!
Paul found the shop on his lunch break one day last week and straight away knew I would love it! We went on Saturday, I picked up a few bits as I walked round the shop looking at all the lovely things. I ended up with a nice bag of goodies.
I went in again today and couldn’t resist this note book.
Oranges are not the Only Fruit
Posted: May 20, 2012 Filed under: retro, sewing, vintage | Tags: 1960s, 1970s, orange sewing box, plastic sewing box, retro, sewing box, vintage Leave a comment »I found this amazing orange sewing box at a boot fair on Sunday. This plastic box is from the 1960s or 70s, I am not sure exactly, and there is no mark on it so I don’t know who made it either.
There is a tray in the top for keeping all your sewing essentials handy.
The tray lifts out to reveal a large compartment that takes up the rest of the box. There is a good amount of space for storing a project. All the bits in the box came with it. I am looking forward to filling it up with my own things.
The New House
Posted: May 19, 2012 Filed under: books | Tags: Persephone Books, women authors 2 Comments »I love Persephone Books, they are my latest favourite thing to collect, as if I needed something else! I really like the grey covers and elegant title boxes.
The insides of the covers feature a pattern contemporary to the work. They even come with a matching bookmark!
I hope to make it to their London shop one day, but in the mean time I have built up a small collection of titles from some observant charity shopping. These are the kind of books to keep and enjoy, the presentation makes them so much more than your average paperback.
Persephone Books specialise in reprinting forgotten women authors. I have really enjoyed the books I have read so far, especially The New House by Lettice Cooper.
Past Imperfect
Posted: May 16, 2012 Filed under: shopping, vintage | Tags: charity shops, Ladybird books, retro, secondhand, vintage 1 Comment »I have been buying a few bits in charity shops recently, but not getting around to showing them off. Here is a quick round up.
I found these bits on a recent trip to Carlisle.
This Sanderson fabric was not in a charity shop, but it was a bargain priced remnant. I love this 1950s pattern.
This tablecloth was cheap so I couldn’t stop myself from buying it! I am adding it to my fabric stash as I don’t need another tablecloth to use.
I found some Ladybird books on offer at three for 99p, so I bought nine!
I managed to resist this drinks cabinet, but it was amazing!
During my weekly shopping trip on my day off a couple of weeks ago I was very lucky and found all these bits.
This weekend we went Leamington Spa, I only found a few bits but I am pleased with them.
The Secret Garden
Posted: May 14, 2012 Filed under: shopping | Tags: alpine plants, gardening, slate chips Leave a comment »This weekend I didn’t manage any crafting, but I have been creative and made something pretty. We persuaded my parents to come and do some gardening for us, I really don’t like gardening, but our gardens were a combination of overgrown and dead plants so something needed to be done.
We removed all the plants as they were too big for the space and required more looking after than I am prepared to give.
We went to our local garden centre and bought lots of alpine plants and slate chips and set to work on the cleared spaces.
The back garden now has a tidy border covered with gravel ready to be planted in the future.
The other border has some small alpine plants that will hopefully grow to fill up the space.
Our front garden has a central area that we planted with a wide variety of alpine plants and covered the exposed areas with slate chips.
All of the plants and other materials came in at under £75 which I think is very reasonable for two garden makeovers. A big thank you to my parents for all their hard work, especially my mum who did three days in a row. I actually enjoyed some of the gardening and it was nice to have someone helping who knew what they were doing.
I am really pleased with the front garden and hope a little bit more work on the back garden will make it just as pleasing.
The Rain Before it Falls
Posted: May 10, 2012 Filed under: Days Out | Tags: historic cars 1 Comment »Between the wet and rainy days at the weekend we went to the Donington Historic Festival. I like taking pictures at events, but didn’t really want lots of pictures of cars so instead I took some arty pictures of the interesting details on the old cars. Here are my pictures.
The Colour Purple
Posted: May 7, 2012 Filed under: crochet | Tags: crochet, giant crochet, Granny square, yarn, yarn stash Leave a comment »Over the bank holiday weekend I made a massive granny square blanket. Not only is the blanket big the crochet is big too! I used a 15 mm crochet hook and four strands of yarn at once to make this crochet giant.
I made the blanket big enough to cover the top of our king sized bed.
I have no idea how much yarn I used, but it was a lot! I have reduced my yarn stash by a whole drawer. I was planning on making a purple blanket, but I soon ran out of purple so I decided to fade out through pinks to cream. I think this effect worked quite well, but it was a good job I had lots of yarn in my stash or it would have been a rather small blanket. This blanket was more or less free, most of the yarn was stuff I had acquired or been given over the years.
This is an excellent project for using up odd balls of yarn and funny textures that are hard to work with on their own. It also makes a really warm blanket. I had loads of fun making it and will probably start another one soon, this time I think I will just use three strands and see how that works. Once I have worked out the best way to do a giant granny square blanket I am going to make one for a friend, I just want to get it right before I make a gift.
The Night Watch
Posted: May 4, 2012 Filed under: Days Out, shopping 1 Comment »I went to London on a shopping trip last weekend. I started at Ray Stitch, a lovely shop that sells so many wonderful fabrics, patterns, magazines and notions.
I had a walk through Camden Passage as I was in the area, but I was quite early so most of the shops were not open and the stalls were just setting up. I liked these ceramics.
I walked down Brick Lane on the way to Old Spitalfields Market for a vintage fair. There were lots of great things at the fair, but most of them were too big for bringing home on the train.
I had a quick look in Heal’s, this time the things I wanted were too expensive rather than too big.
I was quite excited by this Lego model of the Queen in Hamleys. This model is brilliant, she even has a corgi sitting next to her, but you can’t see it in my picture.
It wouldn’t be a trip to London without a visit to my favourite shop, Liberty. I always spend so much time in there.
I did of course buy some interesting things in all these shops. In Liberty I had a lucky escape, they had packs of pre-cut hexagons in Liberty fabrics, but they were so expensive I was able to resist them! I did go back to look at them twice though. I bought some bits in the Re-found Objects concession, a fair trade woven plastic basket and three reels of string.
In Ray Stitch I picked up a postcard, a small piece of fabric for my hexagons, and an amazing piece of furnishing fabric with a hexagon design! The turquoise colour goes with the colour scheme in our living room so I will probably make this into a cushion.
At the vintage market I bought a large cotton reel for my collection of interesting wooden reels and some vintage trim in a lovely yellow.
As the weather was so miserable I didn’t go to all the places I wanted to so I need another trip to London soon!
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Posted: May 1, 2012 Filed under: yarn | Tags: Wales, Welsh wool, wool, Wool Museum Leave a comment »During our holiday in Wales we visited enough craft related places for me to devote a whole post to them. Before we went away I had already decided I really wanted to go to to the National Wool Museum. This museum is housed in a old mill and you can still see the Welsh Blankets being woven. I would love to own one of these wonderful blankets and snuggle under it with a mug of hot chocolate on a chilly day.
The blankets woven in the Museum were available to buy in the shop, I didn’t buy one though. They are not cheap and I couldn’t decide if I wanted one from the Museum or a Melin Tregwynt one as I have been admiring these for many years, particularly this one.
My favourite part of the Wool Museum was the gallery showcasing some of the items made from Welsh wool and the wonderful array of colours and patterns that have been woven. There was even some hexagon patchwork!
I love vintage Welsh wool purses and was excited to see all these pieces ready to be made up. It was a shame they weren’t being made while we were there.
I would love to have one of these sample books, especially in these vibrant colours.
In a long gallery that has been made by adding a roof between two of the buildings there was a very long red scarf. It starts like this
and goes all through the gallery.
On our first afternoon in Wales we stopping in Aberystwyth. Within minutes of walking around the shops we found a yarn shop packed full of woolly treats!
Clare Wools is a lovely shop, I was tempted by many things. In the end I bought some bits for an experimental project, making a giant granny square. This picture gives you no idea of the scale, but believe me when I say it is about 50cm square!
I had read about a quilt exhibition in Wales looking at the connection between Welsh and Amish quilts, luckily it was on the way to the Wool Museum so we got to see it. The Welsh Quilt Centre is in Lampeter and is well worth a visit if you are in the area. The quilts are displayed hanging on the walls and on beds. Each quilt is accompanied by information about the maker and the quilt’s history. The Quilt Centre has a lovely shop selling handmade and quilt related items, and a couple of shops away is Calico Kate, a wonderful fabric shop, I bought a few small bits of fabric for my hexagon patchwork.
In the evenings my mum and I embarked on a craft project inspired by our surroundings. We collected some twigs, leaves and other natural items and combined them with patterned paper from information leaflets, and embroidery threads. This is what I made.
It was a fun project, I think I will make something like this next time I am on holiday as well.
Of course being in Wales we saw lots of wool in its natural form, sheep! This is the view we had from the picture window at the cottage.
Chocolat
Posted: April 30, 2012 Filed under: food | Tags: Chocolate, Green & Blacks, Prestat Leave a comment »A couple of chocolate pictures for today. I saw this delicious Green & Black’s chocolate rainbow when I was shopping in London.
Later on the same day I was very tempted by the Prestat display in Liberty. I do love Prestat chocolates and the boxes are so pretty too!
