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!

Chalkie Talkie

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I haven’t found a reason to indulge in an I-pad yet.. for now I’m happy with my tablet as per our grandparents at their wooden desks in front of a coal fire at school..

The chalk board.

The blackboard/chalkboard wall is nothing new and can be seen in any nook, corner or vast space as seen below. Chalkboard paint is pretty readily available too, a couple of coats and you’ve got your feature and very functional wall.

In my house I painted the wall beneath the staircase, and we use it as a calendar, message board, picture wall, guest wall.

Chalkboard stair wall

An old Bangor Blue Slate from an outhouse on our family farm makes for a great kitchen shopping list and menu plan so my husband knows what to cook! ahem.

Slate memo

The same slates make a very nice table runner and heat mats, and I personalise them for the occasion, our lovely friends were round the other night, for no particular occasion..

Slate table runner/ mats

Here is a similar idea I found on my recent obsession with Pinterest, as introduced by Lucy here..

1.placemat

Other novel ideas with chalkboard paint..

2. blackboard furniture!

3. backboard door

4. more walls

5. entire room

6.walls and cupboards

Go paint!

1. by milkbottles 2. by thisnext  3 and 4. by Style Files.  5 and 6. by London Lisbonite

 

 

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!

Christmas bits ‘n bobbles

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I tried very hard to lose my christmas humbug this year, and I must admit a massive drive at organisation and a 2 year old have definatley helped. However its truly the run in now, and I cant say I’m totally organised, it’s more a matter of just giving up! Have adopted the granny method of a wee cash spot for the remainder of my ungotten presentations.

Meanwhile, the sparkles and bobbles have all but blocked my blog outlet, so here are a few Salvage sis christmas blobble tips.. bit late for some of them, but I’m sure all of you havent finished wrapping just yet!

Decorations.. I used the necessary prunings to our christmas tree to provide a free surround on the mantle, or fir place!

Any greenery looks great in the house at christmas, as long as you do it decadently as Lucy mentioned in her previous post.

Fir place

Anyone will be impressed with a present you have rustled up yourself, too late now of course but log it for next year. If your lucky you might be the recipient of one of my home made potions. Nigella’s Christmas Chutney, and Honeyed Fig Vinegar, both from her Nigella’s christmas book, which i must say would knock the humbug out of anyone!

Of course saving up your jars is key, and decorate them with any remaining scraps of wrapping paper, material, gift tags.

Chrismtas Chutney and Honeyed Fig Vinegar

 

Lastly wrapping, a very savvy friend of ours gave us wedding presents wrapped in the financial times and adorned with decadent ribbon. They looked fabulous and I’ve always meant to copy her!

I thought with our current financial tornado, and the ever escalating corporate take on christmas this makes a nice little piece of statement wrapping! Plus the dusky pink pages against the dark ribbon look gorgeous! AND they’re all ready in perfect sized rectangles so no cutting out the wrong size and consequent swearing,  helping to keep the joy!

Financial times wrapping

I love the vintage take on christmas, clashing bright colours of old. Hence the decision to return to coloured lights and tinsel on the tree this year. If anything has got to be kitsch its the tree. Here is an example of some festive neons for you, and again cutting out the agony with pre large pieces of tissue which you just scrunch at the ends, no awkward corners here! boom, done!

kitsch tissue

Wishing our readers a very merry, kitsch and cosy christmas. We really are delighted when anyone stops by here, so thank you and a spicy hug.. you are all angels!

PS Of course Christmas is one of the pinnacles of my faith, and I celebrate it with joy, I just find the exhaustive to do list and earnest intention to make it something extraordinary so strange, when really good food, family and fun is all thats important! End of qualifer.

Hedgerow Membrillo from Drumsesk

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Here we have another esteemed guest blogger joining us with her inspiration and salvage secrets – our auntie Gladys (mum to Brona, also a guest poster of old), who has been busy this autumn in the Rostrevor thicket….

I am excited about having the time and intent to use whatever is available and full of potential so I’ve had a go at using the quince on the neighbours’ bush that they barely knew existed beyond being ornamental.  The irony is that one little apple tree has sprouted on our side of their fence right at the quince so the young tree is loaded with bigger apples than any in the old orchard –   only a little birdie could have done such a thing…!

With a bit of support from my daughter Alix I harvested about 4lb of quince, wondering if I could make what is called a “spread” with the apples without using sugar as in jam.  Finally recipes appeared in search of something I had not seen or experienced before….Membrillo!  Now I wondered what it was with no pictures as yet forthcoming so I was blindly crawling before I could walk.  After spending time eyeing my basket full of little wizened yellow fruit that bore some resemblance to crab apples for about two weeks, I was still uncertain what to do.  Eventually I plucked up enough verve to halve them and remove rotting brown bits or black spots on the skins.  I’m blessed to have the use of an old sixty year old Esse stove that still works if properly maintained and I have discovered that the coolest part on top will bring hard fruit towards a luscious pulp by evening with a minimum of added water.  The lemon golden pulp when cooled to hand heat was placed in a sieve draped with a small muslim cloth and allowed to drip overnight.

I wondered what to I do next….use this lovely juice only and dispose of all the coarse pulp?  Yet again a friend helped unfreeze my mind to shift from the mental mud.  I have a sieve acquired from I don’t know where that has a hinged lid enabling contents to be pushed through and transformed into the finest and lightest of consistency.  The coarse quince went through to produce a fine pulp which I then blended into a beautiful cream.  I knew by this stage that I was getting somewhere but where?  Was I going to risk making a spread without sugar that was going to grow a beard by christmas or was the sugar the best solution.  I weighed the pulp and added its equivalent in cane sugar into the warmed juice and thanked Gaia for yet another wonder plant to preserve my efforts.  I stirred the pot continuously and slowly a clear red golden glaze emerged that brought a smile to my culinary efforts.

Along came another friend at a critical moment to keep me brave for the next decision when this hot pot of gorgeous gold was ready.  We poured it onto flat tins lined with oiled greaseproof and placed it for a few hours in the bottom oven where I imagine meringues would crisp without going brown.  Later that evening a panicky moment emerged when the top and bottom of the four trays were darkening and losing that wonderful transparent red gold glaze.  It was time to rescue them and transfer to the hotpress.  I found a way to stack them alongside the stacked towels and there they remained for three to four days slowly drying into what reminded me of turkish delight though in much thinner sheets.  It was only then I discovered a site online that sold the spanish membrillo wrapped like the soft galtee cheese triangles that kids love.

Online I found the spanish cheese recommended to go with this in Sainsburys – Manchengo!  Brona had just arrived with Mark who has been christened Tomo or Mr T to differentiate him from son Mark and we had Membrillo straight out of the hotpress with this hard cheese for dessert and a bottle of Reisling.  It was a wonderful treat by candlelight and I began to recall stories of Brona as a babe, a physically non stoppable child and bossy adolescent so she bore it all serenely knowing love was in the air!

 

Seasonal salvage, and some nostalgia

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I’ve been particularly seasonal in spirit this year, given that its only dec 3rd. Christmas tree decorating yesterday, mince pies today, advent evensong tomorrow… I have also been getting busy with thrifty decor, making my usual wreath and fireplace garland from the wealth of wonderful foliage at Blackford Hill. I find the trick is to be bold and extravagant with your materials, abandoning the functional details in favour of simply applying precarious piles of whatever with fervour to any surface that happens to cross your path. This i learned from the two masters of the art, my mother and our neighbour elizabeth harty, both of whom have now sadly left us. But they leave behind an inheritance of exuberant decorating with foliage, exemplified most beautifully on many occasions at tullyroan methodist church. Though not always appreciated by the wider congregation at times, i have fond memories of such times, celebrating nature the way nature intended. In particular i recall a harvest service where the door to the vestry was entirely obscured by catoni aster and ivy. i think elizabeth may have been asked to prune that back a little at the time, perhaps by a well meaning minister requiring access to the hymn books.

Anyway, back to the wreaths. Start out with lots of lovely bags of inspiration.

I use some fir for the base, building up with holly and finishing with some boughs of berry.

Bend a wire hanger into a circle, and be ready with some garden wire and secateurs. 

Build up the fir base, then attach on the holly with the wire.

 I have dried these orange slices which make a nice addition to the wreath.

You can make a bow by stapling together some lengths of ribbon in the middle.

Here is the finished product in situ. Hopefully no-one will need to use the door knocker for a while.

Don’t forget to ply yourself with other seasonal goodies whilst creating christmas cheer. Note here my tasty mince pie, the first of the season. Looks like something from an M&S add, eh?

 

 

Box file magic

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Back when i was famous and people asked me to go onto the radio and stuff, i received a lot of love for the covered magazine folders featured in this post ,which were discussed on the salvage sisters ‘Saturday Morning Show’ radio slot. So here i am at it again, covering every white ikea file in sight including these ones used at the front door to organise all the messy pups living in this house (if you live here and are reading this – just saying that to make the task seem more important and necessary.)

Here are some tips i have learned along the way, for those who might be interested in pimping their very own box files. Step one involves cutting out the basic shape from some lightweight fabric, leaving a margin of about 2 inches all around. I like to mix up floral and stripes when doing a set of boxes.

The two key tools for the job are good quality spray mount, and micropore. They are both ideal for fixing material, especially the micropore which comes in handy for finishing touches. It is fairly easy for me to get my hands on, but if you are a non-nhs worker, you could try bribing your local doctor for some. (Note how i have laid paper on the desk whilst using spray mount. i won’t even go into what happened the first time i used the stuff without adequate, ie extensive, covering.)

Fix the material onto the sides, front and back. Cut the overhang at the top into 1 inch intervals, to allow you to wrap it around the curved edge of the box. Then fix the strips to the inner edge with spray mount. Its tricky to not get the sticky substance all over the inside, resulting in magazines becoming permanently attached to the side, but there are worse things in life that could happen.

Then, fold the material at the bottom in the way you might wrap a present, and fix it to the bottom using spray mount, then secure the edges with micropore. Oh, and do the securing edges thing to the material at the top as well otherwise the flux of important things going in and out of your box with eventually unstick the material. Here are some fine pictorial examples….

Voila! Your lovely set of box files all pretty and unique for your hallway. Not a sniff of ikea identi-kit round here any more.

Crate Sate

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Take a ‘sate’ as they say round here.

My guests have been doing just that, some with curiousity, some with glee, some with a frown!

Following my post ‘Pallet Hi’, I was tickled to see this pallet waiting for me round the corner from home where a builder had just finished with it. A nice new one.

Following a serruptitious tug at it and realising it was fimly stuck, I decided to take the legitimate path and ask the owner of the cast off if I could have it. This resulted in a good old chuckle for the two builders who offered to deliver it to my door!

The chuckle became a hearty laugh when my dubious other half informed them what it was for!

Here is the conversion so far.

Im toying with putting Caster wheels on for more height, however at the minute its perfect for just flopping onto and for the resident two year old to headstand onto at speed!

I looked into getting a piece of foam cut to size for the top, but an unsuspecting single mattress was saved from eviction, and was reduced to size by removing a few springs. A much comfier seat pad I’d say. Wish i’d seen your christmas decor idea with bedsprings before then Salvage Sister!

And the pallet wasn’t as new as i thought, bit faded.

Check out my new Penguin books postcard collection on the wall, a little birthday present from the Sis. They make a great colour block. Thanks!

And finally, in case you doubt me.. there’s a market for this! Check out this pallet table for sale here.