Delicate teeny weeny chintz cups

These were rediscovered yesterday as I was decanting stuff from one room to another (plus half a dozen teapots strangely!) - I did have the teapot at one stage so I am not sure where that has evaporated to.  Are these coffee cups or tea cups?  They are balanced on their teeny weeny saucers in this photo.  I have a multitude of tiny vessels that I use for flowers or doll's tea parties!

New sewing room in progress...

Well there was a big change at the weekend when the children moved up to the top of the house - great excitment (what with the clocks going back they didn't go to sleep until gone 10 o'clock).  Mother in Law is coming from the Ise of Wight for Easter so we had to hastily  cobble together her room.  It has been like a giant logistic puzzle - decanting two bedrooms on one floor up to the top, and moving 'stuff' from the top down.  Still lots to do but this is the first 'draft' of my sewing room (a rather grand title for a little room but in here I will let rip - full on vintage displays at every turn!) - note the piles of fabric, no shelves to put them on yet! As this is south facing it will be nice to get all the light and we are near the sea so the seagulls will keep me company!

Some Spring bunting that I have made from an old tablecloth - I will post a tutorial on how to make bunting (if needed), as it is such an enjoyable past time and a great way of using fabrics that otherwise would be destined for the rag bag!

Maille's new/old elephant mug

You can't win with children can you?  We have enough mugs in our house to provide  tea to an army so I thought I would pass some on to  the charity shop.  I dutifully cleared those from the very back of the cupboard, that I know have not seen the light of day for about a year or so.  Just A FEW days later my younger daughter was teary eyed as she could not find her suddently SPECIAL elephant mug.  There was, by now, no chance of rescuing it from the shop but LO I found a delightful little mug to replace it!  It was duly gift wrapped and presented, and accepted with good grace!

Vintage multi coloured crochet blanket and vintage tin - not for use on Pinterest or other sites

We are s-l-0-w-l-y decorating the children's bedrooms. Bronte's is going from a 1970 retro purple to plain white with splashes of multi- coloured bits and bobs. The blanket I have had for ages (genuine vintage, with holes to prove it!) and I bought this large tin at the weekend for £1 - this is just the colour scheme that I was looking for so ideal. I/we are going for the hipply flower look I think - should be good.....when its done! In the meantime I have to find a good home for all that purple stuff I have collected!!!

Keep the Home Fires Burning with Woman's Own

I bought this yesterday and baulked at the idea of buying the piles of others for £2 (was I mad!) - however, I chose this one carefully because I thought that it had the best cover (though there is another delicious one that I am thinking of sneaking back to get..)
I poured over this with my children and was amazed by the talents of these women - very much the emphasis on healthy living.....

Vintage Easter tins and crafting

Well as the days are now getting a tinsy bit longer I am more inclined to get on with sewing - I hate sewing in a fag end light (as my mother would say) ditto that low in the sky glaring light of winter. It will soon be the perfect light so the table is spread with fabrics all of varieties. Yesterday I ran up some cheerful bunting for the front of the house - made from bag of 1970 Laura Ashley scraps that I found. Also took some pictures of one or two of my vintage tins - can you have too many tins? Aren't they just the most useful item for squirrling away bits and bobs. I particularly like the detail on the vintage bunny tin - as the bunny family are baking the sides are peppered with images of kitchenalia!

A vintage hand embroidered Spring bag in the making

Well I made another Spring bag today - this was made from an old embroidered tea cosy, so not too large. I love the embroidery on this as it has all the right Spring colours (not that it is Spring like here - the fog horn was going out at sea all night long last night!). I did make this bag to sell but (like so many other things) I have taken a liking to it so I shall keep it for now. I shall tra la la along the High Street with it and pick daffodils along the way ! To compensate I routled around and found another Crinoline Lady bag that I had made some time ago and have not used - I am trying to instigate a one in one out policy...

A vintage Easter in the making

Just as at Christmas so Easter is a time when I can routle around my cupboards and, 'ta dah' rustle up some vintage Easter bits and bobs. Of course there is vintage bunting to be found and delicious vintage tins - with an Easter type theme. These are dispersed around the house in that Country Living fashion. I am busy making Easter Egg Hunt bags - all from vintage hand embroidered fabric (otherwise rendered useless due to some sort of damage) - I then force them into use by making by children tra la la around the garden looking for eggs (eggs which I could have simply handed to them in the morning (they are of that age when the hunt bit is not so charming as it once was!). Anyway here are a selection of vintage Easter delicacies!

Creating bags and bunting from vintage fabric

I had a very pleasant Mothering Sunday - making bags and bunting from a selection of vintage hand embroidered fabrics. Bags and bunting are the easiest things to create and add charm and olde worldiness (!) to any room... sometimes they go a bit wrong, namely because I hate to measure anything and most of my sewing is done by eye. Add to this the fact that I am also spinning many other plates at the same time and there is plenty of scope for it all to go wrong!

Welcome to the Custards

Gosh my very first bit of blogging - well now that I am here I am not too sure what to write! Blast!! I was so full of hope and promise! Anyway just like many hundreds, if not thousands of women I dream of that little tea shop, with vintage china, home baked cakes and crisp linen and there I am tra la la'ing around smiling at customers! Never to be I'm afraid so this is my virtual little world where I can live out in that vintage world of cosiness and loveliness. Of course I would like to share all of the lovely bits and bobs that I have aquired over the years and share also my love of things old and not so new.

My main likes are making 'stuff' out of vintage fabrics and hand embroidered fabric - this results in a house having an awful lot of vintage bunting (this is changed with the seasons, of course!) and far, far too many bags. The range of 'stuff' covers pretty most of the last hundred years! That means things from the Arts and Crafts Movement, through to the 1940's (excellent for Crinoline Ladies!), the wacky 1950's and on to the 1960's. I sadly can produce a teaset from each decade and then co-ordinate it with a tablecloth.....I have many failings. I shall list those failings (in no particular order): old books, tablecloths, vintage china and fabrics (and a few others... chairs, clocks...)