I found a lovely vintage toy last week which I snapped up as soon as I saw it! It was in the ‘cabinet’ where they place the items of higher value but it was marked a reasonable sum. I love the bright colours of the humming top and it’s illustrated with the characters from the nursery rhyme ‘Hey diddle diddle’. It was made by Chad Valley in England – I am a complete sucker for vintage British toys. Fortunately it’s not too big so will look great on a shelf in the nursery (I just need to persuade my husband…
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Last week was a bit crazy. It started with Edward’s first trip to the cinema, his first photo shoot for Mother & Baby magazine, a trip to the Gurgle blog awards (where I came third in my category and won a £250 Mothercare voucher) and ended with lunch with Elmo. Crazy, amazing and quite tiring for a toddler and a mummy with a big bump. But somehow I managed to squeeze in a trip to the shops. Oops, I couldn’t help myself but I came home with two more vintage jigsaws at the weekend. I just couldn’t resist their round…
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I’m a bit of a craft addict and if I didn’t have my hobbies sometimes I think I would go crazy. I love having several projects on the go and at the moment I am planning some appliqued tshirts for Edward, a cot cover/crawling blanket for the Second Baby as well as some fun autumn and Christmas crafts. Unfortunately we don’t have much space for my craft supplies so they are dotted around the gingerbread house until we move somewhere bigger next year. As well as my lovely Cath Kidston sewing basket and shelves of sewing books I have jars…
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I was so excited to find a vintage card game recently as I’ve been on the look out for some vintage letter cards. This version of Kan-U-Go is stamped 41 Nov 1958 (that’s not a typo – it does say the 41st!). I think the game was a kind of precursor to scrabble, with cards instead of tiles. I had to struggle with my inner curator as this is the first time I’ve ever bought something with the idea of re-using a part of it for something else. I haven’t tried playing the game but the letters are perfect for…
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A couple of weeks ago we were driving home through the streets of North London and I spotted a pile of wooden boxes by the side of a skip. I’m not sure what made us stop but we reversed back down the road and I got out to take a closer look. There was an old wooden tabletop file cabinet and a wooden crate. I’m not sure what the etiquette is regarding taking unwanted items from the roadside but as there was no-one around to ask we put both items in the car boot and went home. The crate didn’t…
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This has to be my most favourite thrifted find EVER! It may not look much but it’s my perfect find, a vintage double decker London bus. It has seen better days, is faded, missing its advertising stickers and internal mechanics but I don’t think it detracts from its’ wonderful vintage-ness! After a bit of searching I found it is a 1950s early molded polyethylene bus, made in England, by Popular Plastic Products. The rear wheels have a friction drive mechanism which is sadly missing. I definitely bought this for myself rather than my son. I think it is very Cath…
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I have a growing collection of fab vintage games which I pick up whenever I see them. Whilst on holiday I had to limit myself to what we could fit in the car boot. I think I’m drawn to old toys as my grandparents had a selection, kept in a vintage enamel bread bin. Whenever we visited I would rush upstairs to get them as they were hidden in their wardrobe. It was full of wonderful toys: a chunky jigsaw, colouring pens stored in an old shortbread tin and metal toys from East Germany, some of which had belonged to…
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Last week we were on holiday in Teignmouth in South Devon, an area full of charity shops. Despite taking a bag full of toys with us, Edward did very well. He has just discovered tractors and I picked up a collection of Bob the Builder vehicles in perfect condition from a gem of a PDSA shop. Edward spent many happy hours lying on the floor pushing his new tractors around when the weather turned wet. My favourite shop was a Cancer Research shop in Newton Abbot which specialised in second hand baby and children goods. The shop was beautifully presented…
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I’m not sure how it started but I became obsessed with having a vintage kitchen cupboard. You know the kind, with lots of drawers and cupboards and a lead lined box to store your milk in. Somehow I ended up with two, greedy I know. Vintage kitchen cupboards The first I found in one of my favourite vintage shops in Exeter. The shop was stuffed full of antiques but they had a couple of kitchen cabinets and the decorated glass panels really caught my eye. It was made by Blue Gate Products Ltd. A ‘Pride o Home’ Unit, made in…