Better make something....

Just found out that my covered suitcase is on the Mollie Makes blog/facebook pages today (http://molliemakes.themakingspot.com/blog/thrifty-thursday-best-vintage-trunk-ideas my fifth appearance - she said rather cockily I think) so thought I better post something that I have made rather than just 'things' in the house!  So, courtesy of dear Marcie - The Rustic Victorian http://www.flickr.com/photos/therusticvictorian/ (who very kindly sent me her own pattern) I have been trying very hard to try and get these little mannequins 'right'!  Still not there and need to figure out how to do some details - but I will show here my three stages (stooges!) so far.  The first I made from some 70s sheet fabric but had not figured out how to do the neck properly

Pppppllllleeeeassse do not look closely at the stitching - this was just a trial and I desperately need new glasses!!!

I was trying to achieve the Edwardian pigeon bust and bustle!!

Then I got a little cocky and decided to use some original Edwardian embroidery to make another.... a double whammy of failure as I used a 1930s bedcover (otherwise damaged - don't fret so) with blue roses for the reverse.....the perils of using older fabric can be that once you start the stuffing process it all caves in like a house of cards.  I tried patching but daft as more unravelling occurred...grrrrrr....into the 'Drawer of Shame' (don't forget that this needs to be said in an echoey voice)  it goes

We had to have a little lie down after that.....

It was a shame as I thought that the little embroidery was just the right size

Then I pressed on - this time I used some French 1930s (I think??) linen showing Mr Darcy having a picnic with the Bennet sisters!!

This is the reverse (sitting atop a beautiful cup - a selection of which I bought at last years car boot for £3)

Oh Mr Darcy you are such a laugh...

Don't look at the stitches again but I liked how the little dog just about managed to fit on the neck.

And there is a horse on the underside!

All in a row

Do I seem a bit smug as to how this one turned out?  Well I shouldn't be because I still haven't figured out the best way to insert the arm 'pad' bits so left these out - more trial dummies to come I fear!

I am not going to blog for a while (that could mean anything between two days and two  months) because I have GOT TO DO PROPER JOB and yet another essay to write, marking to do, study days to plan for and paid work to consider.....so do not distract me any more please!!!!
As always please do not post or pin these photographs elsewhere - now I know how to post copyright forms to Pinterest in particular I have become fiendish!!!
Tatty bye everyone - tatty bye......

Along with the fairground comes the circus......

Still peaking too early and should wait for the summer season when the circus arrives and builds a little town on our common for a week or so.  The Big Top is particularly exciting all lit up.  I am glad that animals are no longer used in circuses.  I think that the Chinese State Circus is the most breathtaking that I have seen - mainly acrobats and teetering towers of chairs!! This circus china used to live in Bronte's bedroom (I know, I know toast rack in a bedroom what the beeeeeeeeeeeeep is going on!).  The other day I decided that it was time to move this on to pastures new but have had cold feet....again....I love these little stick figures.

As you know you can't go wrong with a nice tin....the lions look unnervingly jolly

I decided that it would be a ridiculous waste of time to go searching for all circus bits and bobs...........did spend some time looking for circus fabric but could not unearth it...

Did not buy much at the car boot today - but 50p did buy a bag of children's books.  Two were about Japanese origami (dating from the 1960s) - and this one had a circus in it!  I will add some more photos in here as I think that this book was a real delight.  Had this book been mine as a child I am sure that I would have removed all the origami inside (also this book must have cost a fortune to produce don't you think?).

So a delightful combination of lovely graphics and original origami.

I would like an origami hat....

...and an origami bug catching net

Happy Origami.....
PS could I please make my usual request for my images not to be used elsewhere - thank you

Fairground Attraction...

Following kind words regarding my cups recently - here are those particular ones again in VistaVision!

These were a bargain buy in a charity shop last summer with 6 of everything - Dom was horrified of course!  I do love these types of scenes on china - at car boots I have bought various styles on bowls and plates - mainly by Meakin.  How jolly it all is.

All the fun of the fair in china form - marvellous!

You could then rummage round and find an old children's pop up book (I do like these..cough, cough) - this is one of a long series of books and I used to have this permanently open on our dining table for us to 'ooo' and 'ahhh' over.

All this within the pages of a book - marvellous again! In one of these books pops up a castle, cottage and horse and carriage!!!!  You may recall my vintage pop-up Christmas pudding - if not I will get it out again at Christmas time!!

Oh go on then - I will add in my favourite WI tablecloth for good measure - reminds me of  the local church fete when I was little; incidentally I still have some of the things that I bought there as a child: several  R Whites wooden crates for lemonade (what the heck sort of a child was I !!!) and my lovely Arts and Crafts enamelled tea caddy (the one thing that I will never get rid of).

 Tra la la, fiddle de dee, off I go to make some tea...

Perhaps I should have held back until the summer....

Let us dance a polka...

Oh dear again - I wish there was some sort of order in my house but sadly my mind does not work in that way - I took a bag of children's books to the charity shop the other day (the one that still has my plates for sale!) and this Midwinter cup and saucer were on the counter, £2...we do NOT NEED any more CUPS..but....
This purchase meant that I could tra la home and make a nice breakfast thus....

I resisted the tremendous urge to forage for all spotty china - I settled for my chicken pot instead...

I usually keep bird feed in this pot (I know, I know).

Of course I then remembered previous photographs that I have taken of my dotty things....

Don't look too closely at this bag - I made it for Maille because there are very few 'nice' tap bags out there - simply appliquéd these shoes in place and added real ribbon laces! Going into production very soon...

I like a nice jug

This TG Green jelly mould is used at birthday time!

So is my spotty bowl.

Getting breakfast ready can be a little tortuous...

..when you cannot decide which tea caddy should be used..

Maille recently said that she would like a change from polka dots...sniff, sniff.

Too many scarves of course

I like each one for different reasons - colour, fabric, size of spot!  Crikey

Ending with an 'old' breakfast photograph

Back to work, back to school and it's raining....  Teaching at  a  local hospital today so will wear something spotty I think!!!

I will not go on about Pinterest as I know no one will pin my photos there today...

'Vintage' Spring Gardening and bunting blowing in the wind!!

This photo is a little fuzzy but I really like this type of moving image -  Bronte holds the key as to how to do this so I am at her 'mercy' for photographs!
Anyway aren't the plants growing like Topsy at the moment!  Ours are growing like bamboo - I am sure I can see them moving!!  As you may recall we have a tiny garden so every single thing in it has to either carry some meaning or look beautiful - preferably both!  Our garden is 'vintage' because many of the things in it came from elsewhere a long time ago.  I have wittered on Flickr about the hard labour that went into our plot - when we moved here it had not one plant but two layers of concrete slabs.  Dom dug out all of it and then we laid down this brick area, we built the little pond using bricks from our neighbour's pulled down chimney (edged with tiles that came from an Edwardian barn from my childhood...sniff, sniff).  My blue chair was bought from a local junk shop and I had to repair it a bit - but a little plaque reveals that it was made using timber from HMS Powerful (which was built in 1895 and had sailed into our local harbour a hundred years ago after serving in the Boer War) - cost me £20 and I love it very much.  Lots of the plants were originally in our mum's garden and though the tree peonies sulked for a few years now they are fantastic.  The hellebores have seeded all over the place - how do they know the best places to land!

I have a few vintage rhubarb forcers (bought from a local car boot but worth lugging home) and lots of old galvanised buckets that we use for vegetable growing....oh and some old enamelled bowls...and one or two enamelled potties...and china tureens...Steptoe and Son...

Dom has repaired out little shed (again!) - fresh lick of paint and it is a right as rain (its window, that you cannot see here, is made from stained glass that we found in our cellar).  I have a few of these bay trees in little pots - in the front garden there was an old bay with suckers which I potted up.  Some I plaited in threes and some I twisted - this is a twisted one.  It is a bit rubbish really as you have look hard to find the twist and it has taken about eight years to get it to this point!  Never again. Note the broken pot....some things are difficult to throw away (and many have been mended over and over again).  I keep an old enamelled bread bin full of old crocks. Oh I do like an old watering can.....


Also we have several large tubs that have pygmy water lilies in - this lovely copper tub I bought for about £10 many, many years ago.  We used to keep it in the house for logs but it is has been outside for the last 10 years or so (I have seen them for sale for several hundreds of pounds - crikey). You can just see in this picture one of the two concrete 'memories' we did with  prints of the children's hand and feet - dated 7.4.02.....time flies

Little watering cans for little watering jobs...

Our mum's old bee hive - a little more falls off it each year...
Just sending some older photos of our garden in the summer - something to look forward to

I grew our banana from seed and it has been outside for years - I have not seen any sign of it this year so sadly think that the cold winter has not been kind. The tree fern has been our only real expense in this garden - I bought it when my mum died as something special and a rememberance

It sounds a bit daft bit we also have a few sea worn wood things in the garden - they have shells and sea 'bits' embedded in them.  They take some lugging up from the sea front!

I like this photo most of all as it reminds me of the best of British summers - tea and cake of course (my vintage Chinese lanterns that usually are used in the dining room at Christmas have been thrown in for good measure)!

Must get on with some more seeds! Have a nice weekend
PS Blue tits have not moved into bird box but Great Tits instead!