I’ve had a fantastic few days with my family on the Isle of Wight where I got to explore the local charity shops at my leisure. There were a couple of items I wanted – and knew I would be able to find – and had loads of fun – charity shop heaven! I needed a vintage wool blanket to try the new Dylon dyes I’ve recently been sent and found a beautiful cream blanket with green edging by Witney. Hopefully I will be brave enough to cut it up and dye it. I couldn’t resist this lovely 1950s glass…
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I’ve been on the look out for a suitable tin for my button stash. I inherited a great collection of buttons from my grandmother, the buttons survived but not her old tin. Since then they’ve been stored in various boxes and even an old sweetie jar. Along the way I’ve picked up some lovely tins: But none have been large enough, until I found this old Cadbury’s Chocolate Biscuit tin in a charity shop. I think it really complements my vintage button stash and looks great alongside all my vintage thread boxes, patterns and ric rac. I’m linking up…
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I have a favourite shop in Totnes, Devon, which is stuffed full of vintage treasures. On our last visit I picked up a lovely vintage Star Yachts boat. Only the wooden hull remained, the sails, wooden masts and fittings were gone. Vintage wooden boat Star Yachts was founded just after the First World War by Franz Marie Denye, a Belgian refugee who had fled Belgium at the beginning of the war. Originally a builder of full size ships, he decided that models would provide a livelihood for him and his family. The works site was compulsorily purchased to clear the…
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I thought I would share a secret treasure trove we found in our own house. Our lovely terrace house was built in 1912. The layout is completely original except for the loft conversion. We recently renovated the void under the stairs to give us some much needed storage. When the builder was pulling off the old tongue and groove wooden boards he uncovered a time capsule of ancient household items which had been boarded up and forgotten. The contents were seemingly quite random. The largest item was an old tin trunk but there were also picture frames, food tins and…
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I’m a bit of a hoarder, probably not surprising that I decided to become a curator. It started off with rubbers, then My Little Pony stickers, vintage postcards, and since I’ve been a grown up, fabric. My hoarding instincts got so bad I had to limit the number of fabric shops I went to, only going in if I needed something specific. However there is one exception to the current moratorium on fabric buying and that is vintage embroidered napkins and tablecloths. I can’t bear to see something that has been stitched by hand being sold for 50p so I…
