Happy weekend

We've been having a lovely weekend seeing family and friends and visiting the Orchard Tearooms at Grantchester near Cambridge. It's a bit of a tourist hotspot, but for a reason, it's gorgeous. 

Also I've been rustling up some more lined paper pencil cases for etsy, now listed.

And finally, a little unusually for me, I'm actually selling some things on ebay and realised they may be of interest to you lovely readers. See the vintage dresses I'm selling here.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend folks!

New collages

These three are now listed in the shop and have been really fun to make! I am especially pleased with the top photo. 

Have a lovely evening all, the sun's just come out here and there's a nice cold bottle of beer with my name on it :)

Party time!

We had a really cute party on Tuesday night which was a cross between your average house party and a village fete. It was a cool combination though! I enjoyed making and putting up the bunting, making fairy cakes (which didn't rise well but looked alright once iced - I've never been much of a cake-maker!) and making rum punch. The table football set was a freebie from a lady on our street who was throwing it away! It looks brand new so that was a fun addition to our living room for the evening. I say that, it's actually still set up and probably will be a permanent feature... 

I've also been working on some new collages which were inspired by the party, which I shall be listing on Etsy shortly. They were so fun to make I can see myself doing more if people like them. 

Hope you're having a happy Thursday whatever you are up to, and have a great weekend!

Pretty houses

My little collage (top right corner) has been featured in this beautiful treasury put together by Elsie Marley. I love everything she's chosen and her own cute soft toys. Thanks Elsie!

I'm itching to get some new things on Etsy but until the weather picks up a bit there's no point me taking photos. Fingers crossed for this afternoon!

Before and After

After I saw Heather's post yesterday I thought it might be fun to show the chairs I've just recovered. Compared to Heather's professional job they are rather low budget but I love the duck egg blue fabric I found in John Lewis and how it works with the colour of the wood. The colour came to me when I was sewing my quilt and had my lovely old Singer sewing machine out. The colour of it against the elm of the table top looked yummy! I'm pretty chuffed with the chairs, let's just hope we don't spill red wine on them now - we're having a party next week!

Ta da!

Just a quick post this evening to show you my finished quilt! It's rather poorly made but I absolutely love it, it looks so cute on our white shaker-style bed. It totally lifts the room I think. Our bedroom isn't very big so no wide-angle shots of the whole quilt from a far-off perspective I'm afraid, but I hope you get the idea...

Oooops...

Oh maaan! I seem to be only too good at a) getting myself into situations where there are vintage things to buy, and b) buying them. It's a skill. And one that I'm seriously going to have to curb if I'm going to afford the rent on the new flat! Still, this metal tray and matching coasters were too good to miss and the orange anglepoise lamp - I seriously couldn't believe my luck when I saw it, I've wanted one for ages. It's now on my bedside table (also bought last week) and clashes rather excellently with Jacob's bedside lamp which is a light-up globe! Very soon there will be too many colours in our house but until then, it's feeling pretty cheerful round here!

In the very beginning

My quilt was a pile of squares. I cut them all by hand with scissors which was probably a bad idea abut I didn't have one of those wheely cutter things. I did use a template but having now sewn all the bits together it appears that those extra millimeters here and there make all the difference! 

Nice colours though I reckon, mainly whites but quite a few turquoises and a few bright red and white stripey panels. Lots of the white bits are old lacey tablecloths and placemats that had old stains on that wouldn't budge so I chopped them up. A little sacrilegious I know but they'd just sit in a cupboard not being looked at otherwise. I suspect it will turn out rather more shabby than chic but that's fine by me. It's not as though I'm selling it, and I quite like that it's my first attempt at quilting and will be a bit rustic....

Settling In

Hello!

We're in! We've spent the last two weeks sorting out masses of stuff, finding new homes for things and thriftily buying the things we still needed. It's been really fun! And obviously a bit knackering too... 

It didn't help proceedings that I had my first year deadline on Tuesday and had to dig out my sketchbooks from boxes! I knew it would happen and was dreading it, but all went surprisingly smoothly in the end. So now, we're in a new home, I've finished uni for the year and am now looking for a summer job. It's all change!

I think I need a week to sit around, drink tea and recover! Oh and watch all the episodes of Kirstie's Homemade Home again. You know, I'm a woman obsessed. I do love a posh bird on telly getting stuff out of skips! On her recommendation I'm even making a quilt for our new bed! Maybe I'll show you an in-progress pic or two soon.

Have a great weekend all :)  I plan on doing some baking and lots of sitting about.

Moving moving!

I'm currently having a quick break from moving stuff, as today we got the keys for the new flat! It's got a really nice feel to it but obviously looks very bare as it came completely unfurnished. So...I've bought more stuff to put in it! These were my bargains from the last week on ebay: an original G Plan coffee table for 99p and a set of 4 1960s chairs (which I'll be revamping with some nicer fabric on the seat pads) for £1.99! I've had some good luck with finding things haven't I?!

Today I have concluded that I have waaaaay too many clothes (my car is completely full of black bags of clothing) and it's just plain silly. I predict a massive haul to be taken to the charity shops in due course, which makes me happy as it's all part of the great recycling process that I have come to know and love. 

Hope you have a lovely weekend folks! I'm off to heave more stuff around....

OMG

Three letters I don't often write, but today's adventures at a second-hand furniture shop leave me no option! I've found the most freakin' amazing vintage 1960s Ercol table for the new flat! It was more than I wanted to pay but would still be considered an absolute steal by anyone's standards. It's top is solid elm and the legs are beech and I LOVE the curviness of it! Look at the grain!

In other news (i.e not related to my buying of vintage stuff), Teresa at Art and Light will be showing some of my collages next weekend in the gallery so fingers crossed for people liking them! I'm off now to finish an essay I'm writing on Olle Eksell and Paul Rand. Both worth checking out, amazing stuff... bye for now!

Glutton for punishment

We're supposed to be moving house in less than two weeks. Which is great, I'm all for it, and I'm half packed already. Thing is, I already have quite a collection of bits and bobs that have caught my eye in charity shops over the last 7 years. You would think, that I would consider putting a stop to any frivolous buying between now and move day since it's all going to have to be bunged into a car and lugged up flights of brand new stairs. But no. I seemed to have bought a vintage child's toolkit...

I must be crazy, I have no children, I don't even believe the tools are usable, but it is just so cute! Tell me you don't love it. It so reminds me of one of the best exhibitions I've ever seen. And Jacob was as enthusiastic as I was for a change. Fiver well spent I say!

A New Favourite

At the weekend I read this little old book by Paul Gallico called "The Love of Seven Dolls" and I am now rather smitten. The cover illustration by David Knight (used as a pink line drawing for the endpapers) is just about exactly the way I wish I could draw.

As part of my degree, I'll be going to Porto in September to draw for a week. I'm so excited, apparently it's absolutely knackering, but your drawing gets much stronger in that time. If I end up with anything half as stunning as this I'll buy myself a large glass of port to celebrate! 

The book was published 1954 by Michael Joseph Publishers, incase you wondered. I imagine it's been reprinted though. I wonder if this David Knight did lots of book jackets...?

Exciting times!

Tomorrow is a big day for me and Jacob, as we're signing a lease to a new flat! It's very exciting as it'll be our first place together not sharing with housemates. I can't wait! Our moving day will be the weekend of the 2nd/3rd May so really badly timed insofar as my very final week of uni will be the following week, y'know the exact time all my coursework will still be in boxes....

Ho hum, nevermind I'm sure I'll get it sorted. In the meantime I'm packing stuff slowly but each time I seal a box, within 5 mins I realise I need something inside it! 

I managed to find a bit of spare time yesterday and made a couple more pencil cases, one of which is now listed. 

Hope you're having a nice long Easter weekend :)

Ideas so far...

I've been playing with the idea of pairing photos according to colours, themes and composition and I quite like the results so far. Collecting evidence of polite notices and signs has been fun but I think maybe combining them with images makes them work better. Can you tell I really like Martin Parr? It's so hard to photograph anything remotely English-looking without it ending up like a poor imitation of his work. Damn it.

Teeny tiny loveliness

In the last week I've been working on the collages for Teresa at Art and Light gallery and finished the 12th one last night! They look great I think, but I'm now left with off-cuts of backing card in rather awkward little shapes. So it struck me, why not make some mini collages to pop in the shop, at a convenient size of 6x8" for framing?

So here are my first couple - small, simple and rather cute - much like myself!

I'm off to a house viewing now, then away for a few days so have a great week all!

I've won an award too!

Yay! Francesca has awarded me a "Kreativ Blogger" award! Thank you! She's been careful not to sound like a diva actress at the Oscars on receiving her award but I have no such self control. Therefore, I'd like to thank the Academy, my parents (without their support none of this could be possible!) and of course God - I love you big guy.

I now have to list 7 things that I love. So here goes:

1. Waking up in the morning and cuddling the Mr - especially if I've forgotten it's a Saturday and was expecting to have to get up for work.

2. Learning new tricks. I've been practicing juggling lately after a friend taught me at uni. Those are tuition fees well spent in my view!

3. Feeling the sun on my face and the wind in my hair.

4. Driving in the country with my camera on the passenger seat and stopping whenever I spot something cool.

5. Charity shop shopping, the self-satisfaction of finding something amazing that someone didn't want anymore, something that you know you'll love for years.

6. A good book, because I genuinely believe you that you absorb everything around you and that it will somehow influence your work.

7. The joy of blogging, exploring and selling on the internet. I love you, world wide web

I'm now going to pass on the award to the following blog chums, congratulations folks!

Lucie
Belinda
Nina
Louise

Joanna
Jodie
Stephanie

New items

Couple of newbies in the shop today, see what you think. I'm really enjoying cutting out the "geometry lace" as I like to think of it, in the Spring Green collage. It takes a while but is one of those really satisfying jobs when you've got a brand new scalpel blade! I hope that doesn't make me sound too weird...

 Anyway, happy weekend all. I hope it's sunny where you are.

Uni work

Last week we had a crit for the typgraphy brief we'd been working on and this was my simplest and favourite piece of my own work, but there was some amazing stuff done by others. I thought these old record cards were lovely, especially with their faded tabs. It was weird, the day we were set the brief I came home from uni and found a stack of them on the "recycling shelf" (shelf outside my house for people's unwanted stuff - stuff which regularly ends up in my room). So that made things easy, I just added letraset letters and hey presto. Simple but does the job nicely in terms of conveying the meaning. 

I spent ages on this one, as it needed photographing from two different angles and then assembling on Photoshop. Good thing to know how to do, you just never know when a 3D image might come in handy! 

Our brief over Easter is to work on 4 images of what it means to be English. So far I'm thinking about little polite notices we put up so that one doesn't have to cause a scene. Like "No Junk mail please" or "Kindly refrain from parking in front of my garage". There are quite a few in my neighbourhood, it's posh. What do you think though, any ideas?

Pssst!

I'm working on a set of 12 new collages for Teresa at Art and Light gallery in Greenville, South Carolina. I don't want to reveal too much yet, so consider this a sneek preview. They'll be featured in the gallery from the beginning of May, I'm so excited!