Tuesday 23 November 2010

A Beautiful Box

I went to my mum's this week, and came home with this lovely old trinket box which was my Nanna's, and was either made by her or a friend. It is made from postcards covered in acetate and crocheted together with faded pink thread, I remember there being one made from seaside postcards too. She would have been ninety this month, I like to keep a lot of her things out on display in my home.



It holds memories for me too because when I was little I always called her Nanna Roses, she had a garden full of them and had lots of Capodimonte style rose ornaments, she also used to give me bags of leftover sugarcraft roses to eat from the beautiful cakes she used to make.

My favourite thing about it is the gloves motif on the front, and when my mirror is finally put up I shall keep this box on my dressing table.

Monday 15 November 2010

That's a bit better...

What do we think of the new blog design? My grasp of programming can barely be described as 'basic', and I plan to make it better as soon as I learn how!

Help!

Right... apparently Blogger has tricked me into upgrading to beta, and I now can't do anything with the coding because it's all in xml not html. If anyone has any knowledge of how to build your own layout using the new format, please let me know! Everything online is for the old format, and I hate every single one of the boring default templates available. I don't want to use someone else's, I want my own. Bah!

Please excuse the mess...

I'm attempting to redesign my blog and am having trouble reconciling the design I am trying to create with the garbage that Blogger sees to wish to automatically apply and keeps copying over my self-designed layout. So, my blog will probably look a mess for a while! Bear with me.

Wednesday 3 November 2010

October's Vintage Purchases!

Only a small amount of vintage shopping has been done this month, because I am poor.

The first two things; more fawns for my collection! This one is a double bud vase from the 1940s - 50s.



I'm not sure about this one - it was made in Japan and from the paint and styling I'm guessing it's 1950s, but I think it might actually be a Christmas decoration or some sort of advertising display? The log is hollow as if you're meant to use it as a vase, but the way the ceramic was moulded leaves a big hole in the base so it's not watertight. It also has that flat bit on the log where I imagine a sticker or logo is meant to go. I love it anyway!



This was this month's only charity shop purchase. I love the charity shops near me, I can usually find something great whenever I go in! These plates are 1930s I think, and have a few paint chips, but at 99p for the four I couldn't let them stay there. They almost go with my Nanna's cake stand, perfect for if I ever get round to having anybody round for tea and sandwiches (or booze and cake, either way is fine).




These aren't vintage, but the simple T-bar dolly style means they can be worn with lots of outfits from just about any vintage era, and they're practical now the weather is getting colder and wetter. £12, Peacock's stores nationwide, also in charcoal.



I also got the Miss L. Fire 'Sylvie' shoes I mentioned in my Imaginary Wardrobe Overhaul post last week. They were £23.50 which is about half the price Miss L. Fire shoes usually are, so I snapped them up despite the fact I'm not going to be able to wear them for six months. They're really cute and comfortable, although the colours differ slightly from the picture, I suspect because of glare from the seller's insanely pink background. The straw which looks coral is actually a natural beige colour, and the soles are not white but a lovely eau-de-nil minty green. Still some available in a few sizes on ebay!