Childhood Memories Returned by a Friend

While we were clearing the house me and my mum found the box of Lego.
The box of Lego was actually the only toy we had to play with when we used to spend our obligatory fortnight here every summer. Although when I say we it seems like an instant that my sister grew up and I came alone. Most of the time the sun shone and we were always kept busy outside in the garden or on the allotment or we went for educational trips to the Isle of Wight and bracing sea swims at what we called Hordle Beach but I have since found out is probably Milford on Sea as no Hordle Beach exists. My Grandad believed in keeping active and occupied - to stop any mischief I suppose.

But sometimes it rained and then the Lego would come out. Lego has really changed. These days you buy a box of Lego and it only makes one thing - it seems more like airfix to me. Once you have made it you don't take it apart and build something else more interesting. Which really defeats the point of Lego. So this was the box we had to play with and it made a lighthouse and a car and probably some other things beside - although not all at the same time. If the lighthouse keeper needed a car he had to dismantle his house to build it. And what of the lighthouse keeper? In the 70s you didn't get the groovy Legomen you get now. My men were made from Grampa's Pipe cleaners - they had massive heads and bendy arms. I used to colour their clothes in with felt tip pen. When we rediscovered the box the men were all there - happily getting on with their pipe cleaner lives for 30 years.

In the clear out my friend Mike came over to photograph some furniture and he had his little boy with him who found the Lego and really loved it. My mum being the kindly grandmother she is said he could keep it. When I found out I was - well - I think I was a little bit heartbroken but Harry is a lovely boy and it couldn't have gone to a better home.

Last week Mike phoned me and said that Harry wanted to give the Lego back as he was worried about losing it and I was so happy. I'll have to find somewhere special for it. In the meantime Mike has taken some lovely pictures and you can see them here on Flickr.


So it's all coming home... hmmm no actually not ALL of it. Before my mum gave Harry the box she 'disposed' of the 'bits of bent pipe cleaner' in the bin. Gutted.

Things to admire in this set: definitely the transparent bricks. How beautiful they are.

Lego was always my favourite toy even when I moved onto more sophisticated sets - like my awesome oil rig with cranes and helicopter. I think I'll have a little play on the next rainy Sunday we get - maybe build a lighthouse on wheels. but first I need to find out where I can buy pip cleaners.

Thanks Mike!

David Gentleman

After looking at Lizzie Allen's lovely wallpaper yesterday and comparing her work to Paul Hogarth's I started thinking about David Gentleman... as you do.
I love Gentleman's wood engravings at Charing Cross - massively enlarged so you can see all the tiny cuts in the wood.
I googled his work and found this series of book covers that I had forgotten - it was nestling at the back of my schoolgirl memory. A whole series of New Penguin Shakespeare. I'm fairly certain I used the Macbeth at school...
I don't really have room for an extra 32 paperbacks in my house so I think I will try and seek out a few choice versions with a more wood engraving slant .

lets get blogging again...

Bad Blogger! In your basket!

I have neglected this for so long but for no longer for there are many beautiful things to look at and long for.

I was just met a textile artist called Kelly Allen. She's a recent RCA graduate and I have had a snoop round her website.

NICE!!! I love the illustrations so much. Lovely clean lines and blocks of colour. Reminds me a bit of some of Paul Hogarth's work.

http://www.kellyallen.co.uk/

and follow the link to her twin sister's hand printed wall paper... want want want!!!

Final Chair Update...

Well this is exciting - the chairs arrived back on Sunday morning and the consensus is that Sarah Noble is a complete genius.

They seem to be totally unrecognisable as the sad items I sent away with her.I am so very happy!

I'm sorry about the crappy picture layout - it's just gone bonkers on this post :(

The One that Got Away

This makes me sad. When I was little we didn't have loads of books - I don't actually think there were many books for kids in those days. But one that sticks in my mind is Frances Face-Maker. It was a book all about going to bed. I can't really remember what happened but I think the dad made Frances make loads of crazy faces and the last one was a sleeping face and - hey presto - she went to sleep. The one illustration that sticks in my mind is the one where she pulls her eyes down and acts like a monster - it really used to 'gross me out'.

But despite the fact I am drowning under years of cotton reels and other detritus from generations past that book slipped through the net. My sister claims she doesn't have it and I know it's not here. It must have got lost in a house move somewhere along the line.

I miss that book a lot...

Not least because there's one for sale on Amazon for £170. Dammit!!

a girl's allowed to change her mind isn't she?

Scary times, people. I breezed into John Lewis to get the Sanderson fabric only to find out it has to be ordered. Anyone who has cast even a cursory glance over this blog will know I've been fannying about NOT buying the said fabric since January and here I am with a week to go and fabric that could take up to 10 days to come in.

Anyway I think *hope* it will arrive before Sarah collects the chair.

anyhooo when the John Lewis Lady (oh! how I long to be one) went to get the long fabricky book with the samples in there was a GREY! I hadn't seen it anywhere else - or I had missed it, or I was eating a biscuit or SOMETHING because this colourway had passed me by. It is totally gorgeous and, I think, a bit less overpowering than the red.

So I hereby promise to mention NO MORE about this dratted chair or fabric until it is back from Sarah's - resplendent in it's lovely new coat.

I will mention however that my lovely friend Sue has had her cushions done in this fabric - in the white/turquoise colourway - and very perky they look too

Jane Foster

ooo I am loving the very very lovely screenprinted work at www.janefoster.co.uk. Beautiful retro designs that make me feel about 4 years old again.

Particularly like these birds - so simple and just perfect. I also really think I need one of those crazy cats.

I am so happy there are people in the world making things like this :) to cheer me up while I'm looking at boring spreadsheets.

The Flora MacDonald Needle Packet

This really needs no explanation... enjoy

(although I am super interested in what the 'Cross Fox' trademark is all about)

A foray into the sewing box

A morning off affords a little time to have a look in the sewing box. Made by my grampa for nana. It's like a little table with a hinged split lid and a drawer underneath. This is where the JLP bag was found (passim)

My good friend Linda Hasking did an amazing project called Make Do and Mend where she catalogued her own Granny's sewing box www.whitechairpress.com so I am not even trying to emulate that but there are a few treasures to share

First up - The Cash's Woven Names. Now I have changed my name I think I may actually sew these in to my clothes. Very helpfully Cash's have provided a list of items I may want to label. Plus with the advent of their special adhesive I can basically stick these little fellows to anything. Particularly useful is the fact they have made a distinction between hats, caps AND berets. Sadly I have a trilby and as that's not listed I won't be labelling it today I fear.

and really, I ask you...who labels a comb??

...and an update on the chair situation

The time for reupholstering draws near. I finally ordered some fabric yesterday for the small chair. I went to St Jude's (in a virtual sense) and ordered a new design by my pal Jonny Hannah. It's hot off the...whatever fabric comes hot off and isn't listed on the website yet so I was working on insider information.
For the big armchair I'm plumping for Sanderson's Dandelion clocks in Red. (ignore the Kingdom interiors mark - I'm going to John Lewis OF COURSE!) Dandelions seem to be ultra IN - if Angie Lewin did a darker version I'd have gone for hers but pale chairs and me just won't go. Too many melted chocolate biscuits!!

And I ordered Mark Hearld's Bird Garden in Charcoal for the dining room chairs.
eeeep very very exciting.

Now I am actually spoiling you....

and so to Illustrated Living

Someone will no doubt tell me that everyone has known for YEARS about these people and you are all buying your baubles and gewgaws there but I have never heard of them before.

This is an excellent "one stop shop" for all those things you need in order to live in a state of design induced bliss coupled with acute penury.

For you I present ISAK cup with oak lid - probably useful for catching the drool that is inevitable when I see something like this

get those credit cards out people....

http://www.illustratedliving.co.uk/

oooo and aaaaaa - LUSH

Just stumbled across this company. I haven't seen ANY of this before and I love it. Check out the Foxy designs. Those of a certain age will recognise a definite 'homage' to the brilliant book Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins (as stolen by my Mother from Gidea Park library circa 1973).

I NEED THIS STUFF!!!!

www.lushlampshades.co.uk

cool cotton reel

found this in the back bedroom today. Why don't they label stuff like this anymore?

A Day's Admissions

Love this little box so much. It has always - in my lifetime anyway - sat on the telephone table in the hall (The telephone that was here til about 1985 is another story altogether!). It's a Barnardos collecting box. On the bottom is a form you fill in and you send the collected money back to them to feed the waifs and strays. Can you see that on the form it's called a 'self-denial offering'? wow!

Selvedge - a fabulous magazine

They obviously saw me coming because I just spent TEN QUID on this magazine. But it is gorgeous. In my head I decided to pretend it was a book - because £10 on a book doesn't really sound too bad.... does it?
All the things in it are too desirable for words - I want to live in a distressed wood world, where all my utensils are enamelled metal and I drift about in linen clothes pottering in the garden in between creating hugely sellable artwork.
Unfortunately cos I spent £10 on the magazine I can't afford to do any of those things so I'm off to work in Tesco in my drip-dry poly-nylon.

the art of hanging onto furniture

2 posts in one day? Or in one hour even. But I have to put this photo up.
This chair, god KNOWS where it came from, is in a right old state and has been languishing in Maisie's room since we moved in. But despite it's shabby demeanour underneath you can see the glimmering of a once beautiful bit of furniture - look at those sweeping arms and it is really comfortable too

I might be up for doing my dining room chair covers but this is an upholstery step too far for me I think so I found an upholsterer on Yell.com and yesterday she came round to measure up. She's a really nice woman called Sarah Noble. I haven't seen what she does yet - so I am being really trusting but I got a really good feeling about her. She trained at the LCF so that's pretty cool. Also she is busy up to the end of March when she has a spare week to do this chair and then busy again til May - that's got to be a good sign hasn't it (or she works incredibly slowly?)

Anyway she has measured up and is going to get back to me with a price and then do the business - so now the search for fabric starts! yipppeeeee!

Being an upholsterer looked pretty fab... maybe I'll retrain.

Be still my beating heart

Curses! Spotted today in a local charitable emporium this ama-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-zing dressing table for a mere £60. And when you open the drawer? No less than a neat little G-Plan sticker to set hearts a-flutter. I WANT THIS SOOO MUCH! but have no room - it's absolutely massive, just look at the size of that mirror!

This is the type of dressing table that Beverley would have sat at to get ready for her party... Demis Roussos playing in the background.

either those chair covers go or I do...

So not only are we living in one grandparent's house we have also managed to accrue many many possessions from long deceased relatives and even one old lady I didn't even know. We eat our dinner at a table owned by Pete's granny sitting on dining chairs owned by mine (the other granny not the house owning one - keep up!). My granny was pretty handy and did lots of upholstery but the dining room chairs are covered in some sort of foul and filthy plastic. I guess it looked good in 1960 something and hell - it was definitely practical and hard wearing doesn't even begin to describe it. But it's got to go. I have got an upholsterer booked to recover a fireside chair that's languishing upstairs at the mo and the plan was she'd do the dining room chairs as well but then I realised how easy it was and that the less I paid for the work the more I could spend on fabric. And this is the crux of the matter. Have you ever seen something that has made your tiny heart beat fast and brought you out in a sort of 18th century lady flush? Feast your eyes on Mark Hearlds beautiful linocut fabric from St Judes. Yes ok it IS £44 per metre but think of what I'll save doing it myself. Now I just have to persuade Pete that spending over 60 quid on covering the dining room chairs is actually an investment. Watch this space...

http://www.stjudes.co.uk/birdgarden.htm

A little box of treats

Found this case - it wouldn't open so sadly I had to force it. It's full of family photos going back to great great grandparents. The case has got my mum's name written in it - I think it was her school bag. The woollen thing? Well that's like a massive knitted sock - I think it might be something to do with Navy Uniform. But why is there only one... and why keep it?

Hats off to not throwing stuff away

We have just moved into my Grandfather's house - he lived here from 1945 until Easter 2009. My mother and sister were born here and there are so many memories attached to the place. And yet now it is filled with all our many many many possessions it doesn't feel like that same house anymore. Which is a good thing. But every now and again I get little whiffs of the old place - pipe tobacco and gin mingling with old dust and ... what IS that?? It is the same house and at the same time it isn't.

Anyway the house, despite clearing so much stuff away and having to be horribly ruthless is still full of completely random things - he was a real hoarder. So I have decided to catalogue the nice things we find - watch out for some amazing typography along the way.

Abiding Ephemera? It's a contradiction in terms surely, but I seem to have a whole house full of it.

For your delectation today... A Tyrrell and Green paper bag. Long before the days when we had to call it John Lewis but still Never Knowingly Undersold.