Woman 1968

I've been buying quite a few vintage women's magazines lately. I love the old adverts and fashions. This 'Woman' magazine from 1968 is one of my recent purchases, and I love that stripey mini dress on the cover, and the way they've picked out the colours in the side headings.

As I leafed through, I came across an offer for a little girl's dress, 'cut-out and ready to sew'. After a looking at it for a while, it gradually dawned on me that it was a bit familiar. In fact it was remarkably similar to a photo of myself I'd come across recently, when I was putting some old photos away.

I'm the one on the right.

It all fitted. The photo of me is from our summer holiday in Wales in 1968, just a few months after the magazine came out. I could tell it was a dress that my Mum had sewn for me, because of that crazy pink ruffle. I've no idea why she added that. Knowing her, it was probably to add a bit more colour. Maybe we were disappointed with the fabric, because the colourway was called 'Rainbow Pink', but is actually predominantly green. I can well imagine the 6 year-old me, being grumpy about a dress 'not being pink enough'. I look a little grumpy in the photo. My hair is wet, because we'd just had a day on the beach (possibly Barmouth?), and the picture makes me think of the feeling of getting dressed on the beach, still damp and sandy, with clothes sticking, and my mum trying to sort us all out.

Here are a couple more pages from the magazine, to take you back to 1968...

Oh yeah, I bet she knitted those jumpers for the whole family. And has a pet deer.

Blogging about stuff

This week I am a guest editor on 'four for the day' blog. This will give me a chance to share some of my random collections. It's a simple idea that works very nicely - four things every day.

I've started off with four elephants. I don't exactly collect elephants, I just happen to have a few. By coincidence, I discovered Peter Blake's collection of elephants, in his exhibition at the Holbourne Museum last week.

I took this photo, after checking with an attendant that I could. I was just getting started, when another attendant came in and told me photography was NOT allowed. So I have just three photos of random objects, and none of the really good stuff. The exhibition has closed now, but I'm very glad we managed to get to see it. (My thanks to Jane of Things to Make and Do, for reminding me about this exhibition, and also for discovering 'four for the day'.)

I've been focussing a lot recently on my various collections of kitsch and curious objects. Partly I suppose, because I haven't been able to get out and about much, and partly because I've been going through stuff to try to bring some order to it all and get rid of the things I don't really love any more. It's reminded me of what I love about kitsch and weird stuff, and also of some of the great stuff I own!

With that in mind, I've resurrected an old blog of mine - Curious Objects. This is where I share the weirder items from my collections, or that I've seen on my travels. I hope to add something every weekday. It's a chance to focus on the object, with less chat. I hope you take a look and let me know if you like it.