Author Archives: lucy

Craft Night

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One of the advantages of living in a hippy commune is the shared evenings. Its much easier to commit to a creative evening each week when there is someone else in your home doing the same. Kathryn and I have been sewing together every monday for a while now, while the boys go and exert themselves on the football field. Evenings usually involve sprawling ourselves across the kitchen table with multiple half-finished projects in the hope of them turning into three-quarter finished projects. This week i was making cards – not quite a sewing project but the aim of the evening is creativity in general.I have recently been going through a birdy phase, as noted in previous posts. I got these bird stampers for Christmas from Cox & Cox and they have come in very handy for card making, something i have up until recently not been finding much inspiration in.

I have experimented with a few different designs, combining colour and texture (hand-made paper, recycled brown card, paper doilies) with various bird images.

This doilie/stamper combo works well, apart from the squashed up lettering (done with individual letter stampers).

Vignettes 4

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Every thursday there’s a secret place one can go in Edinburgh to buy wonderful things. This place is not well publicised and for good reason. I once wrote about it here on the blog and was berated for ‘spreading the word’ with abandon. Suffice it to say that you need cash, time, and a good strong pair of elbows.

The following finds are the best of the bunch, and the stories behind them.

I’m always on the look-out for vintage Tala. They have re-released some of their classic baking products, but its the originals that really are the icing on the cake (he he). So when i saw this quite unusual cake tin, i was not going to let it slip through my fingers. It came to me for £10.

The real beauty is in the restoration job i achieved on it. Here is an instagram of it before i attacked it with bleach (no surprises there). Looks like someone was using it as a tool box (the cheek!). I had to sacrifice the lettering a bit to get the grime off, and then paint them on again afterwards. But it was worth it to bring up that beautiful duck-egg blue colour.

I’ve written about clocks before in this series, but am not intentionally building a collection. However that does appear to be the case… I bid (small clue as to whereabouts) on a box of rubbish and won it for £1. Within it were these fabulous clocks. The first one i absolutely love – looks to be around 1950s in origin, and ties in nicely with my current birdie phase.
These little retro travel clocks were lurking in the bottom of my box of surprises. Aren’t they funky?!

I got these vintage Salter weighing scales for £1. Bargain!

Also in the box – this silver cake stand, plus a centre-handled one to match. I will add this to my very small and reasonable cake stand collection.

 

Liberty

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Long before the salvage sisters got savvy about good design, our mama was dressing us in Liberty print baby dresses and fitting out our shared bedroom with Liberty wallpaper. Either its in the genes or its classical conditioning, but i am now a huge fan of liberty fabric (who isn’t!?), but rarely indulge in such luxuries. It was a great day last year when i came across 3 meters of retro Liberty fabric in a wee rural charity shop for a few pounds, but such events are of course rare so the occasional splashing out on stunning fabric is ok in my book. Just browsing the London shop itself is an experience, slowly unfurling swathes of soft fabric and dreaming about the most suitable project, or fantasising about a sofa stacked with mounds of Liberty cushions…

This year i was given a sewing book from my secret santa (thanks ryan), a collection of Liberty’s very own in-house sewing projects. Its full of lovely illustrations and uses a variety of prints and textures. It is little bit exacting for my style (i never usually measure anything) but i am hopeful i can learn a trick or two about the avantages of becoming more precise and learning how to use a simple pattern.

So here is completed project number one. Its a quilted wash bag. Whilst i managed to stick to the measurements and the pattern, i did take a liberty (ha ha) with some aspects including the quilting, also the style of fabric is cotton rather than a stiff canvas as was recommended. The fabric is in fact a vintage Laura Ashley print, salvaged from an enormous jumpsuit i found in some charity shop sale rail (you know its bad when you shop from charity shop sale rails).

When your splashing out on fabric, it is a good idea to make a project initially in more basic fabric so that you make the inevitable mistakes on that first, then move on to the real deal. So here is my chosen fabric for the next attempt, bought in january whilst we were in London for the weekend. Fingers crossed!

Vignettes 3

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This week, i am taking pictures of things that i like. So no change there.

Enamel, of course, features highly in my house. This french salt holder came from a wee stall at St. George’s market in Belfast. Its got a big hole in the bottom so needless to say, not much actual use for salt. The enamel candle holder behind is one of many…

I found this amazing old shoe polish box in a skip. Those are the absolute best salvage finds! As i don’t ever polish shoes, this holds other little trinkets, but is really all about display.

I love old tins of any description. This kitsch biscuit tin came from the salvage yard. I was a bit disappointed initially as it didn’t have a lid, but the next time i went back i recognised it instantly and was quite pleased with myself for reuniting the two.

Old quality street or roses tins are a big yes for me.

I have noticed that all vintage fans seem to have some kind of typewriter lurking around in their houses. I spied this one today for £3 in a charity shop on my way to the dentist (the dentist was probably wondering why i brought a typewriter to the appointment). A bit of research tells me the ‘petite’ range were actually made as toys, meaning that i probably won’t be able to get replacement tape. It is plastic but i was sold by the colour and retro look!

Anything involving birds has instant appeal to me at the moment. These china plates came from the salvage yard.

This Tala flour sifter came from a stall at the annual Meadows Festival in edinburgh. As you can see, it makes a great container for egg cups. (my purchases often end up fulfilling some other purpose, simply by being set on the shelf and then finding themselves happily housing some random collection of things.)

Plates racks are great inventions. I bought this one for a few pounds at Shelter charity shop (the really great one in Morningside). it had a lucky escape from being abandoned on the street outside tesco shortly after i bought it, as salvage sis and i were too busy sharing tips and ideas, and walked off without it.

 

Vignettes 2

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Its my day off and i’m fiddling around with the camera again. Today’s set of loved items come once again from around and about my home.

My vintage battered suitcase collection continues to grow. the middle one i picked out of a skip, to my delight i opened it to find a vintage eiderdown. it needed a bit of cleaning obviously but that is up there in my ‘best ever skip finds’ category. i have so many of these suitcases now that i have no idea where the other two came from exactly.

These vintage tiles came from the latest clear out at tullyroan, and i LOVE them! especially this birdie one. i remember mum had a huge collection of these tiles lined up along the conservatory. I am using them at the moment for heat mats, coasters etc, but the possibilites are endless….

This original Brownie camera belonged to my grandfather dalzell. Nanny let me take it away on the proviso that i would find it to be worth loads of money. Every time i go home she asks me how much it is worth, i always tell her not a lot (this is true) but i think she is finding it hard to accept. I was never interested in the funds but the vintage aesthetic, of course.

Whilst planning our wedding on the farm in 2005, i realised that each of the fields are named with beautifully evocative titles. So i used them to name each of the tables, and my auntie gladys painted these stones for us. They now sit one a piece on our stairwell and as i run up and down each day i am reminded of the sense of history behind our family farm. I wonder who thought up such mysterious names? I also have stones for Tam’s garden, Lawson’s meadow, and The tal.

My housemate kathryn made this french memo board for me at christmas. Isn’t it fab?

I am known to have a cushion problem. But i’m ok with that. Here we have another tullyroan salvaged item, i love this cover and have a vast collection of vintage floral cushions. The slip cover was made very amateurishly by me a few years ago. My advice – use a pattern if you ever think to attempt such a complicated task. (i didn’t).

Vignettes 1

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I have had a bit of time recently to browse the wonderful.worldwide.web in search of some creative inspiration. i seem to always end up getting sidetracked down a photography rabbit hole, where i dream of being able to take pictures like those i see on blogs. having recently upgraded my camera to canon 5d mk II, i suddenly am feeling the need to ‘up my game’ so to speak in the photo department. there is so much to learn and it takes time and patience, and a lot of trial and error, to develop one’s own style and understanding of the technical side of things, the latter of which has never come naturally to me. So in this my latest blog series, i am simply going to be enjoying and experimenting with the process of taking pictures in my own home of the things i love. Sometimes digital slr photography can easily become a bit lazy, as the camera can do so much intuitively without the person behind the lens having to think too much. so bear with me as i experiment a bit in the next few posts.

Silhouette pictures seem to be enjoying a rising popularity at the moment. i picked these little ones up in a great edinburgh charity shop called St. Columba’s Hospice.

These french-style glass storage jars came from…you got it…a charity shop, this time in Crieff.

There was something about this clock when i first saw it, upturned on the rain-soaked trestle tables at my favourite salvage yard. And there’s something about the time too being 10.30 (from which it never moves). its a great time of the day at both ends, where you are either sitting down to morning tea, or considering the home straight to bed via a few fiddly jobs that invariably take about an hour…

i found these interesting little paintings when clearing out what was known as ‘nanny’s cubby hole’ at Tullyroan, sort of like bits n bobs heaven. the second one has no frame but i quite like the mis-match.

I’ve got a notion for dainty bird images at the moment (see my pinterest birdie board). This toast rack, now a letter holder, came from the country living christmas fair a few years ago in glasgow.

Ahhh the crochet blanket collection. the must-have vintage accessory (in addition to the enamel bread bin). most of these have been collected up from charity shops.

this picture hangs above our bed. its a very clever canvas, painted black with a photo stitched on. its by my friend miriam mcwilliam.

 

Magpie moments 5: Vintage bread bins

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Things have been a bit barren on the creative front this month, perhaps owing to the december rush for making christmas presents (of which i forgot to take any pictures this year). So my series on collections will continue for now, this time moving gracefully away from tea and its associates, to bread bins. This is a kind of ‘sub-section’ of my wider enamelware collection, more of which to follow. However the bread bin is a good place to start as i think it represents the quintessential enamel piece, the cornerstone item of any self-respecting vintage aficionado. Of course, given their generous size and effortless style, they make great containers for all sorts of things aside from the lowly loaf….

This was my first enamel purchase, back in the early collecting days of 2004. It was from a great vintage shop on Gilmore place which seemed to vanish not long after gemma and i discovered it. Napkins hide in here.

This one is from my old faithful salvage yard near Musselburgh, but came minus the lid. One day i’ll hopefully find a replacement. We store extra cereal in here…..wait a second! is that coco pops i see??! must be from Ivan’s visit last week.

This is a true salvage find – a bread bin belonging to my granny, plucked from the ashes of her abandoned kitchen before my brother could cart it off to the scrap yard. When i first opened it, i found a perfectly formed little mouse skeleton, so i’m guessing she hadn’t been using it for while. What better place to store surplus tea cups?

This one i inadvertently purchased at an auction for £5, i had no idea the auctioneer had tipped me for the bid (i wasn’t bidding) but i ended up with it somehow. Being also of a lid-less affliction, this one comes to life in summer at the front door, housing some lovely calendula to greet our visitors.

This is probably my favourite one, though not strictly speaking of the vintage era. I have a red theme in the kitchen department, hence this is the one we use for actual bread (or, as it seems at present, crisp) storage. But the main reason i love it is because it came straight from a skip, covered with a thick layer of grease and in need of some love. It washed up beautifully! Who on earth would throw such a lovely thing away!?

Magpie Moments 4: teapot friends

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At the risk of this ‘collections’ series being only about tea and related paraphernalia, please bear with me for one more post whilst i pay homage to my dear teapot collection. Begun many years ago, my teapots are all dear to me and have been carefully selected/gifted by various special people and places. Unlike many of my other pointless but endearing collections, this lot actually get an awful lot of use….

A good place to start is the backbone of the series, the staple daily pot that houses a multiplicity of teabags across the daily grind.

This was given to me by my friend Lora, after my original chrome-covered and insulated one belonging to Granny K was sadly smashed to smithereens. These teapots were first produced during the art deco period, and were manufactured under the British makers Everhot and Heatmaster. The ones with Bakelite knobs are very traditional, and worth more.

I have a growing collection of Cornish Blue crockery, and this teapot is the crowning jewel, given to be me by my pal Julie. It was previously my staple daily pot until it sadly got chipped at the spout, hence the rubber appendage as seen in the picture to remedy the resultant wonky pour.

I picked up this Cornish Blue teapot (domino spot range) last weekend in an antique shop in London for £5. Its got a crack at the bottom hence the bargain price, but still holds it’s tea splendidly well!

This little dinky enamel pot was also a gift from Julie, paired with a perfectly fitting vintage tea-cosy all the way from New Zealand. Whilst this little friend gets plenty of use, it has an unfortunate habit of delivering minor burns to the hand of the pourer, enamel being a rapid heat conductor. But a small price to pay for the use of a lovely little traditional pot with a very fine pour…

When it comes to leaf tea, this Avoca pot from sister is just the ticket. Two-tone pink, perfect friends with many of my cosies, and a quality fine filter inside for those sophisticated tea moments.

The most recent addition to the family, this Suki teapot was a gift from my sister-in-law this Christmas. I love the Japanese design, and its stackable! How many teapots can boast such a versatile feature?

Ok, so strictly speaking this is a coffee pot, but i just wanted to highlight the increasing popularity of these Picquotware items, which are going for a pretty penny on ebay at the moment, especially a full set of tea, coffee, cream and sugar pots on an original tray. The line was originally created mainly in the 40s with production continuing to this day, with a full set now retailing at around £500.

Rarely used but important nonetheless, this little one pot Spode ‘flemish green’ series fills a gap in the smaller end of the teapot spectrum. Rarely used because tea for one is an uncommon event around here.

Mentioned in a previous post, this teapot ignited my interest in Catherineholm enamelware. So far my only item, owing to the extreme difficulty of getting ones hands on any of it, this is an ode the charity shop trawl, having picked this up for £1 in a village charity shop in the borders during an idle moment. Too good to use!

More enamelware! This is one of a pair of traditional enamel teapots, the other being bright orange yet still managing to evade me in some unsuspecting corner of the house meaning i haven’t photographed it.

Here endeth the teapot tour!

Easy up-cycled cake stands

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Now that Christmas is done and dusted, i can write about some of the creations that have found new homes via the packages in the previous post. The easiest of these was the cake stands, a joint effort with my pal Ali T. To swiftly summarise, pick up some old second hand cast off plates, drill a few holes, and bring together with fittings ordered from ebay.

I have sourced these from various places including my trusty salvage yard, local charity shops and some antique shops which often sell lovely single plates for £1 or £2.

Drill a hole in the centre using a diamond tipped drill bit. You will also need a water sprayer as it gets red hot and can blister the glaze. Put a few layers of sellotape over the guide hole as this helps give some grip to the drill.

Once you have all the plates drilled, match them up in funky combinations and screw together the fittings. You can get either a 2 or 3 tier stand. I think 3 tier is a bit more decadent, and you get to put more inventive plate combinations together. Here are the finished products….

And here is our trusty sellotape holder for the task…

its a wrap

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Many will know that i’m a stickler for a well wrapped present. Perhaps i’m reading too many interiors magazines of late, with stacks of stylishly wrapped gifts piled high under chic trees (no tinsel in sight.) Despite the fact that wrapping is of course designed to simply be torn off to reveal the goods within, i nonetheless enjoy the process of putting together paper, ribbon and tag in a way that makes a bit more, for me, of the true sentiment within gift-giving.

The cornerstone of good wrapping is, obviously, good wrapping paper. Forget the feeble glossy white stuff, i always go for thicker brown or matt white paper, which in general has better festive prints. My top tip for paper sourcing is Ikea in October. By that i mean going in december is a waste of time, certainly in edinburgh, as everything christmas-related has sold out by then.

This year Ikea came up trumps with this pretty blue paper with white snowflake-theme print. Like many things, i love to layer up to get the most out the complimentary colours. Using brown paper underneath also works well – a respectful nod to the traditional parcel.
Using various ties and ribbons is another great way to pimp your parcel. Raffia makes an appearance every year on my presents, this year combined with Baker’s Twine. Labels also are worth a thought. Again, you can’t go far wrong with the traditional brown parcel label. I had originally planned to do letter stamps on each one but it didn’t show up very well so i printed off labels in American Typewriter script, and added a wooden star (discovered serendipitously in my ever-faithful collection of filled Altoids boxes of old).
Last year Paperchase had a fine range of paper, and i’m returning to some of it this year again as i think its a great option for kids, with fun colours and funky illustrations. A simple ribbon is all you need when the paper can happily speak for itself.This year i managed to do handmade christmas cards. I don’t send cards every year (keeps ye guessin’), but when i have the time i do love sitting down to conjure up a design that is both crafty and, here’s the key, easily replicable. A bit like sista, i’m a very economically aware kind of person (pffft!) and hence have used FT newspaper for the trees, cut out with pinking shears. Ikea paper makes the perfect snowy backdrop, and my alphabet stampers complete the look.
Finally, have all your materials strewn across the table so that you can mix and match your collection. The last key to successful gift-wrapping is making a great big mess, plus plenty of festive drinks and snacks to get you in the mood!