an award-winning craft and family lifestyle blog sharing fun crafts for kids and adults, days out and more
I’m enjoying the opportunity to share some of my favourite vintage finds with you all. I’ve had this vintage child’s chair for a while. I picked it up at a flea market on the Isle of Wight ages ago. However I just got it out as Edward is the right height to sit on it. Over the weekend I made a little cushion for him to sit on out of some vintage Superman curtains which I also picked up at a charity shop on the Isle of Wight. I’d been holding onto the fabric for years but thought it would…
This is the first time I have joined in with Magpie Monday. I’m addicted to charity shops and have some lovely vintage finds dotted around our house. Unfortunately there are only a few charity shops where we live and I have to wait until I visit my family in other parts of the country to get my fix! Vintage fuzzy felts My most recent favourite find was this vintage fuzzy felt! I adored fuzzy felt when I was younger and had a couple of boxes stashed at my grandparents house to play with. I picked up this set for the…
Just before Christmas I was lucky enough to take part in a workshop with Julie Arkell. If you haven’t heard of her, where have you been! She’s a London-based contemporary artist who is well known for her papier mache dolls and I was really excited to find she was running a workshop at Sally Bourne Interiors. I spent all day with Julie and a group of like-minded women and it was fantastic. I don’t think I’ve ever spent a whole day sewing but it was amazing, lovely to sit around a table, sew and chat. Julie’s recent work reflects vintage…
I’m wondering what do you buy the boy who has everything for his first Christmas? My son has everything he needs and at 7 months he’s too young to hand me a wish list of toys he would like. My husband has been restoring some beautiful vintage wooden toys for him and I’m making him a dinosaur blanket to snuggle up with. I’m sure he’ll be spoiled by his extended family too. He is now sitting up independently so we’ve packed the baby gym away. I recently bought some colourful and noisy toys which he loves to play and interact…
When I was pregnant the magazines I read were full of expensive nursing chairs. I began to believe that I wouldn’t be truly happy as a mother if I didn’t have an expensive chair and matching footstool to rest my weary body on. Fortunately I found an antique Lloyd Loom nursing chair in need of some TLC at a recycling centre. It had been painted many times and the original cover was a little threadbare but I knew it would be perfect for our nursery. After some careful sanding, re-spraying and re-covering it now looks like this! I covered the…
I absolutely adore the badge blanket in the current Cath Kidston catalogue. I think it would be perfect to keep in the car and use when we’re out and about on picnics. However the £60 price tag is a bit steep for my mummy purse and I don’t think my husband would be pleased if I used the child benefit! So I’ve decided to make my own. I spent the last few weeks looking out for patches to sew on the blanket and have accumulated a great stash on vintage and new. Some of my favourites were picked up at…
Last week I was lucky enough to win tickets to the first ever Vintage at Goodwood festival via a competition on the Tesco Clothing website! Vintage at Goodwood is a music and fashion led celebration of creative British cool from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s & 80s. I was VERY excited as I really wanted to go but couldn’t justify the cost with a new baby and being on maternity leave. Vintage at Goodwood Goodwood is in the middle of some beautiful countryside and after we parked up and made our way to the site we were greeted with a…
Today I received an exciting parcel from Megan at Maximum Rabbit Designs who was my partner in Claire’s Pincushion Swap. Megan likes buttons, felt and all things vintage as much as I do 🙂 The parcel was beautifully contained in a round box, decorated with button stamps and plenty of space for a photograph – no guesses for whose picture I will be putting in there! The pincushion has been made from vintage fabric embroidered with flowers. Megan also included some vintage buttons, threads and some of her ‘button’ cotton reel stamps. I can’t wait to try it out for…
There’s a wonderful exhibition at the Museum of Childhood at the moment. It’s called Make Do and Mend and according to their website: “How can a broken shopping trolley be transformed into a stylish piece of furniture? Anti-waste wartime tips on cutting excessive consumption have an obvious resonance in today’s economic climate and the campaign to salvage, recycle, and reduce your carbon footprint is also impacting on design”. Artists have worked with local school children to create some amazing pieces and the exhibition includes a chair made from a shopping trolley, chairs covered in magazines, vintage cups and saucers with…