Getting clogged up

I don't why, but just lately I can't seem to go out of the house without returning with a souvenir clog or two.
And when I say something like that, I know the vintage thing is possibly... getting out of hand?

But new obsessions keep gripping me. Right now, it's what I'm calling 'Chalet Chic' - a particular kind of folk art style that encompasses clogs, cuckoo clocks, Russian dolls, gingham aprons, Heidi and reindeer. And in this particular photo, a llama.

The llama is typical of the way that things have a habit of creeping into the house unexpectedly. I didn't know I wanted a souvenir llama until I saw his little furry face winking up at me from a box under someone's stall on Saturday. In fact, all these little knick-knacks I got at car boot sales over the weekend were unexpectedly essential to buy.

I suppose some foolish people might think that going to five carboot sales on Saturday is asking for trouble (oh, and there was another one on Sunday....). But quite frankly these people are poor misguided souls who have no appreciation of the finer things in life.

I grant you, buying more vintage buttons might, on the face of it, seem a tad bonkers, but really you only have to look at how lovely they are to know that I'm perfectly justified in buying them and the lovely fabric they're sitting on. The fact that a lot of this stuff is still cluttering up the living room floor until I find a place for it, isn't a problem, surely? Just step over it, can't you?

Folk House Flea Market tomorrow

Just a quick post at the last minute to remind anyone in the Bristol area that the Folk House Flea Market is being held tomorrow. It generally has a bit of everything, vintage, handmade, new and old. If you've never discovered the Folk House, it is something of a hidden treasure. The entrance is on Park Street, a busy shopping street in the centre of Bristol. It looks very unprepossessing, but when you walk down the little alleyway/corridor, you come out into a sunny little courtyard, where you can sit and have a cup of tea, with the entrance to the Folk House behind. It's main purpose is for adult education, and they have a great range of art and craft evening classes and workshops. 

If you can make it, please come and say hello, as I will have a stall there. I can recommend the cafe too!

Must dash and finish packing my boxes!

Catching Worms?

Why do car boot sales start so early in the morning? At 7am, for pete's sake! I'm not a morning person. More one of 'the children of the night', to be honest. So it was a huge effort to get up on Sunday morning to get to a car boot sale even by 8am. But the lure of a field full of kitsch tat managed to get me out of bed. And despite having told myself I mustn't fill the house with more rubbish, I managed to buy rather a lot. 

The miniatures in the first picture still have their contents. Anyone for a 40 year-old Chianti?

'Specially for little girls'... and big ones too! If you're as old as me, you might remember Twinkle comic. I remember it first coming out and having a free gift of a charm bracelet. So I had to get these old annuals. Not sure if I have any excuse for the china....

Ahoy me hearties! Some nautical needlepoint, and and a flower loom for 'casting off my craft' (do you see what I did there?).

Toro! How could anyone not want a plastic Spanish bull's head on their wall? I think it looks rather fine with our Day of the Dead collection and matador tambourine. 

Well, I think it was all worth getting up for!

Pieces of Paper

Today I'm just going to show you pictures of paper.
Blank paper.
Many pictures.

You see, it all started when I saw this book, on Cathy's blog. It was made and given to her by Lesley, and I found it very inspiring. I don't have a wonderful stash of printed paper like Lesley's, but I went to the drawer where I stash all those bits of paper that 'I'm going to do something with'. (You know the one... What do you mean, you don't have one?) I started to sort through, and found various bits of old wrapping paper, chinese paper, mulberry paper, coloured paper, vintage wallpaper, textured paper. I cut them to size, and sewed them into a book.

My sewing technique was pretty random, I must admit. I was actually taught bookbinding when I was at art college, but that was twenty-heavens-to-betsy years ago, so I really don't remember very much. 

I found an online tutorial, and started to follow it, but it was only when I got to the third segment that I realised the tutorial only covered sewing two segments together. D'oh!

So I winged it, and it's worked well enough for my purposes. Actually, I'm not entirely sure what my purposes are, but I think I will be collaging in there, maybe. (Collaging - is that a word? Oh yes, I remember - it's a skin treatment...) Although my completed book is nowhere near as beautiful as the original, I was rather pleased with the experiment, all the same.

Sorting through the paper gave me other inspirations, and I cut out some circles to use.

It was like having a pile of treasure to run through my fingers... Mine, all mine!

The Wonder of Woolies

I've been meaning to tell you about Woolies for ages. The picture above is one of my recent dolls' china pincushions, and these are now for sale in Woolies. (Also available in my Nearly Teatime online shop) This is Woolies - 

Probably not quite how you remember it? When our local branch of Woolworths closed, it was empty for a quite a while. Then last autumn, an indoor market opened there, and they kept the name 'Woolies'. 

From the start, the best stall for me has been this one called Home Birds. It's run by Joanna Rose, whose ceramics I really love (and have mentioned briefly here before). Just look at all these gorgeous plates she makes, using vintage style transfers.

She runs the stall with a few other talented women, including Chez Williams, who makes these fabulous, cute cushions, which are also sold in some very posh shops in Bath and London.

They mix it all up with to-die-for vintage goodies like these -

If I could buy it all, I would! I am so pleased to have my pincushions sold here, amongst such great company.

The market itself has some other lovely stalls, including a few other vintage and handmade stalls, a wonderfully chosen secondhand book stall, a cafe, and food stalls, including the wonderful Pie Minister (now a Bristol institution!

Woolies market is on Blackboy Hill in Bristol. If you're in the area, do pop in and have a look!

Threads that bind us

Yesterday Mr Kitsch and I celebrated our 21st anniversary. Amongst other presents, he gave me this wonderful old book. I can't tell you how much I love it.  This 'Encyclopedia of Needlework' is a small, chunky book, with over 800 pages packed with dense type, beautiful engraved illustrations and colour plates. There's no date on it, but I would guess it was published in the early 1900s, perhaps.

It covers sewing, mending, embroidery, applique, knitting, crochet, tatting, macrame, netting, tapestry, lace-making and trimmings.

As I started to leaf through it, I got more and more excited by the sheer number of different techniques. Italian embroidery, Moroccan embroidery, Persian, Serbian, Hungarian and Maltese embroidery.

I know of Tunisian crochet, but Bosnian crochet and hairpin crochet? I always thought tapestry was a bit dull - cross stitch and petit point, and maybe a few more, but this book has 40 different tapestry stitches.

And then there's the language -
"The mending of wearing apparel and house and under-linen, though often a wearisome task, is yet a necessity to which every feminine hand ought to be carefully trained."
"Tattted trimmings worked in coarse materials may be classed rather among gimps and galoons than among laces."

and the rather scary advice -
"To preserve needles from rust, put a little asbestos powder in the packets. People with damp hands which make needles sticky in usage, will do well to keep a small box of the powder by them, and dip their fingers occasionally in it."

The list of thread colours at the back of the book is poetry. Just look at those shades of grey -

I want to try out so many of the patterns and techniques, but I don't suppose I can produce anything as exquisite as these illustrations.

I think Mr Kitsch was rather taken aback at just how excited and delighted I was by this little book. I got him books about space, so I think he was very pleased too (he seems so in his blog). They may not seem like the most romantic presents, but I think it's loving and thoughtful to understand each other's interests and obsessions. And so we're both very happy.

Doing it by Numbers

It's been a funny old week. For some reason, I've mostly wanted to sleep. (I'll try not to nod off in the middle of this post, but I'm promising nothing.) It may be a reaction to a few early (for me) mornings. I seem to function better late at night, and can concentrate better after dark. Perhaps I am part owl. Or maybe it's psychological, as I've been feeling a bit low as well.

Whatever the reason, I seem to have no energy. I lack lustre. I have no spark. I can barely glimmer. I admit, I'm not exactly a dancing sunbeam at the best of times, and even close friends probably haven't noticed the difference, but life is A Bit Of An Effort this week.

The thing I can never decide in these situations is whether it's better to push yourself onwards, or just give up and rest. If it is just psychological, then maybe exercise and action will make me feel better. Or worse, if I get stressed about doing it. Or I might just be coming down with some lurgy, and the extra sleep will do me good. Or not. Oh, it's very hard to decide, isn't it?

Well, I managed to walk to the postbox yesterday, and felt a bit revived to see all the lilac and wisteria coming out in the neighbourhood. The bluebells are coming out in our garden, and there are buds and blossoms everywhere. Mr Kitsch has bought live mealworms for the birds, and they love them. The great tits (Tommy and Babs) have been especially industrious, so they must have young to feed somewhere.

My general doziness at the moment, means that I also find it hard to concentrate, so... Ooh, look! Poodles!

Nice aren't they? Anyway... where was I? Oh yes, well, I decided it wasn't wise to try to do anything too demanding that might involve scissors or needles - I'd have probably cut an artery or something. So last night, I settled down with a paint-by-numbers set. Yes, I know, but I've been hoping to find an old paint by numbers picture for ages, with no luck. I've seen some fab crafty ideas using them, like this and this. And anyway they're just wonderfully kitsch. 

I'm quite pleased with the end result, although those are possibly the most evil-looking horses you've ever seen. Brilliant!

Zzzzzz....