Alternative Women's Institute Charity Tea Party

A few weeks ago I went to Nelson in Lancashire for the Alternative Women's Institute annual tea party, which was raising funds for Derian House children's hospice. I had a stall there alongside some other lovely traders, including sparkly jewellery made by my friend's mum, and Bits from Ditz cute jewellery and pretty vintage teacup candles made by my friend Marianne in aid of B-eat eating disorder charity.


Here I am with my sister Ginny, take a look at her sewing blog Buttons and Bobbins! Her outfit is entirely self-sewn and features the 1950s draped top I've been working on, she lent me the pattern after making it for herself. She also crocheted her own snood! My hat and outfit are also self-made, apart from the sweater which was knitted by our mum.


Some of the spread! The AWI ladies worked very hard to create a massive selection of glorious cakes, sandwiches and finger foods, including some special vegan ones for me! Everyone got their own trio of vintage china to use on the day, and a little goodie bag with recipes. Over £1000 was raised for the hospice!


These photographs were taken by the incredibly talented Donna from ClickClickBang Photography, her work is beautiful and her wedding and model shots are something very special indeed.


Here I am with my friend Alison, we've known each other since we were eleven and I love being able to see her, even though it's only a couple of times a year. I can't wait for next year's tea party!

Vintage finds - bumper edition!

Today I realised I haven't done one of these posts for ages, I used to do them monthly. So here it is - a whole Summer's worth of vintage rooting. I've probably forgotten a few bits, and I'm going to do separate posts for a few select treasures!


1950s cabinet - £2! This was from a local antique shop, the owner told me he occasionally takes house clearance lots and so buys 'rubbish' in order to get the 'good' pieces - unfortunately he'd also broken one of the glass doors putting it outside, hopefully I'll be able to make a replacement one day. Frankly I think a person can probably make more money nowadays selling 50s furniture than unfashionable Victorian stuff, but obviously his distaste for it is to my benefit!


Sputnik legs! It also has glittery backing paper and curvy glass shelves. My friend Ciana helped me bring it home, and all I can say is that carrying two small children about must make you strong - she heaved it around with ease, I was a sweaty, wheezing heap after pushing it upstairs on my own!


1950s/60s shelving unit - £15. I love this, after getting rid of our massive hefty old CRT TV, I got the small new one and wanted something vintage to put it on, where I could also display some of my immense collection of trinkets. This came from a seller in Failsworth Mill, a large antiques and collectables centre where the prices are reasonable and the many stallholders are amenable to haggling!


1950s amoeba shaped mirrors, £3 each from a vintage jumble sale, held by a friend-of-a-friend who was selling her possessions in preparation for a move to France.



50s clock - £1. this was running when I got it from the same vintage jumble sale, stopped by the time I got home, started working again after I took out and oiled the workings, and promptly stopped again three days later. It's been going for so long that a hole inside that holds a moving part has become slightly oval instead of round, so it keeps going out of alignment.


1930s Lloyd Loom seat/basket - free! I got this by bargaining with the seller from whom I bought the shelving unit above, it was originally priced at £10, which is still fairly reasonable seeing as it is in completely original condition - most Lloyd loom furniture you find has been repainted, but this retains its factory paint job and deco foliage upholstery. It's strong enough to sit on and is currently hiding a small proportion of my laundry mountain.


Lustreware vase - £7, haggled down from £10 from the same seller as the shelves and basket. Another item for my fawn collection!


1920s-30s uranium glass bowl for my collection, £5, car boot sale.


Enormous glass cake dome, £5, car boot sale. Not vintage but still useful!


50s cats - £1.49 each, charity shop.


Vintage style metal memo board from Rose & Co., won in a raffle by my mum and stepdad. Aerospace boyfriend immediately drew a huge penis on it in dry-wipe marker, as he does with most things.


Beautiful 1950s diamanté necklaces - these belonged to my grandmother, were given by her to my sister when we were little, and my sister passed them to me recently as they are too glitzy for her and too likely to attract the small grasping hands of my niece!


Amazing vintage fully fashioned stockings, still in their original packaging and with spectacular pearl and rhinestone adornments at the heel! These will be saved as they are very special and were part of a swap I did with Miss Matilda. I sent her the framed 1920s prints I blogged about here, which came up very nicely with a bit of cleaning!


She was also generous enough to send me this beautiful jewellery as a gift - I squealed with delight when I opened the package, it used to belong to Lana Turner! Her daughter, Cheryl Crane, auctioned some of her belongings a few years after she died, and I remember drooling over the lovely things for sale at the time. Thanks again, Miss M! You are lovely! xxx


After I received the jewellery I spied this book for £1 at a car boot sale written by Crane, and decided to read a little more about Lana Turner's life. I've only just started it, but it is filled with scandal!


Movie monsters book with Christopher Lee on the cover, 20p, local church jumble sale.


Esther Williams biography, £2.99, Oxfam charity shop. I really enjoyed reading this, she's very frank and funny, and I'm glad she is still alive and lending her name to an amazing range of swimsuits! This one and this one are my favourites, they also do a black one with cherries which is beautiful but I can't find it anywhere in the UK. My only criticism of this book is that Esther's co-writer and editor, Digby Diehl, has a tendency to repeat things such as historical details and lists of names which have already been mentioned in previous chapters.


Max Factor biography, £1 from the pound shop in Burnley, a gift from my mum. This was really interesting as it gives a great insight into the man behind the company. I, like many people I expect, wasn't aware that Max Factor was an actual person, I had assumed it was just a brand name. He was a Hollywood makeup artist and cosmetics developer in the golden age of cinema, and this book is a great read for fans of films from the 20s-50s as well as those interested in the history of cosmetology.

July's Vintage Purchases

A couple of weeks ago we ventured out to a car boot sale, I took £20 and bought a few vintage treasures!


Green dressing table set bits, £1. This is missing a tray, a powder dish and a lid from one of the trinket pots, and the little old lady seller told me that the rest of the set had been there but that an earlier customer was going to buy it and dropped half of it, breaking the other pieces! I have no idea why she didn't charge them for breaking her stock.


1950s sunburst wall clock, £4. Unfortunately we got this home and found it to be not working, hopefully Paul can fix it with his soldering and electrics skills.


Vintage Singer manually opeated sewing machine with case and key, £15. A man was trying to haggle the seller down, telling her he only wanted it for an ornament and trying to make her accept £5. He faked disinterest so we swooped in and gave her the £15, you should have seen his face when she then produced the case from under her table. I certainly didn't begrudge paying the asking price seeing as it's worth a lot more, and I didn't appreciate Mr. Cheapskate trying to con the nice girl selling it - there's haggling when something is overpriced, and then there's plain dishonesty.


I looked it up at Singer's serial number registry where you can check the serial number of almost every individual Singer sewing machine and find its year and place of manufacture. My machine was made in 1920 at Clydebank, Scotland, and is in perfect condition apart from the rubber ring on the bobbin winder, which has perished but is easily replaceable.


Amazing sandwich plates, £3 for both. These are missing their teacups, but I got them for a great price, and this is a rare pattern! Unfortunately these plates sparked off a need to collect more pieces in this pattern, and this week these pieces arrived in the post!


They cost considerably more than £3. Tureen and serving platter!

Vintage finds, March - April!

Here are my vintage finds for the last few weeks!

I though I'd already posted this, but it seems not...


Atomic print ice bucket, £14.99 from Roewood Collectables on eBay, they have some really nice things and have their own website too. I first saw this bucket on Fiona of Notorious Kitsch's blog, Straight Talking Mama, but nobody else bid on it so it is mine! Thanks for the recommendation, Fiona!


Another necklace for my uranium glass collection, £3.99, Oxfam. This must be very old as it is a pale green and fluoresces in sunlight, meaning the uranium content is high, indicating an early piece. It could do with restringing, as someone has threaded it on white household string at some point!


Cute vintage saucer, 75p, second hand shop.


Isn't the print sweet? I'd love to know more about it, unfortunately it is unmarked.


Dressing table tray, 99p, charity shop.


1950s cocktail print shot glasses, £6, Affleck's Palace.


I'd intended them to be a gift but couldn't part with them in the end!


Pink tureen, £4.50, charity shop.

Today, I took Scamp to the vet to get some antibiotics for a dental cyst. Here he is zonked out on painkillers, the cyst is visible as a lump under his eye, aww...


...and on the way home, I spied this beauty stuffed between some bits of wood and an old sofa waiting to be thrown out.


This Victorian antique mirror! According to our old friend Wikipedia, the rococo revival period was 1820-1870, so I can date my mirror to the mid 19th century. (Incidentally, what's the name of the period before Victorian? I always thought it was Georgian, but the monarch preceding Victoria was William IV. Confusing!)

It could do with that horrible white gloss paint being stripped off and restoring to gold (some of the original gilt is visible on the back), and at some point someone has pulled off the backboard so the silvering of the mirror glass has some visible scratches, but I don't think they're too detrimental to it. It's 26" high and original/restored pieces like it go for hundreds of pounds, so I think getting it for nothing from a rubbish heap is pretty lucky :)

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!