Thursday 27 October 2011

My favourite blogs and websites.



When I started trading in vintage over three years ago the vintage scene was very different. Vintage shops were few and far between and the general public weren't keen on second hand shopping unless it was designer or in absolute mint condition. Nowadays (look at me sounding like an old woman!) it's a completely different industry. In those days sourcing vintage items was a best kept secret whereas now people can't wait to spill the beans on their latest bargain purchase or treasure that they've discovered at a jumble sale or boot sale, me invluded!  

As promised here is a list of the blogs that I regularly follow both for my own interest and to help me keep in touch with the vintage world.


  • First up is an obvious one, as part of Worcester Arts and Vintage Events (WAVE) our blog helps all our regular stallholders and customers to keep up with what events we have planned and general goings on in the WAVE world.


  • Next up is the blog of my friend and fellow WAVEster Jo Bourke (aka Jo Waterhouse in her work environment). Jo and I have alot in common from our passion for hunting out all things old, quirky and interesting to our love for tattoo artwork both on and off the skin.
 

  • This blog is owned by another friend that we have made through running the shop and being part of WAVE, Greg Dunn. He is a super talented and creative local artist who works alot with recycled materials such as wood and metal. We had the great opportunity to sell some of his pieces in our shop a while ago and they were very popular. Now Greg is fulfilling his dream by studying  for his MA in Fine Art at The Birmingham Institute of Art and Design and is expanding his techniques to include the patination and manipulation of copper.
  • Next up is the style blog of two lovely ladies up in Leeds, Miss Heather Rogers and Miss Claire Bissell who run a lovely little vintage shop in The Corn Exchange called Mad Elizabeth. After bumping into each other at many fairs around the country we've built a friendship and I'm super proud of them for expanding their vintage business so quickly and for the amount of hard work they've put in.






  • Next I had to add the style blog of the lovely, and super stylish, Claire Bissell of Mad Elizabeth. View the vintage world through the eyes of a shop owner!



  • This blog is written by a lovely curvy girl who runs a shop called Hummingbird Vintage Boutique. It's always interesting to read what's going on in the lives of people with similar interests or who live similar lives and this is a great one for that.
  • I love to read this blog! The writer, Fleur, has a passion for the 40s and it's wonderful to see what amazing looks and outfits she comes up with. It's an interesting read and the pictures are fab!
  • This next blog is from all the way over the oceon in the good ole USA. It's great to see that people who live thousands of miles away still get the same joy from finding treasures at local garage sales and it's interesting to see what kind of thing they consider to be a treasure over there. Great fun to read!



  • Next up is a great blog called A Thrifty Mrs which is packed full of hints and tips on how to lead a frugal lifestyle in England.



  • This blog has to have a mention as it's written by a girl after my own heart! She also has a passion for second hand shopping and baking so it's a must read one for me.
  

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  • Next up is a blog written by a lovely lady called Caddy (aka Annie to her blog readers). We met at a vintage fair in Leamington a few months ago and after chatting to her, and her duaghter Amy, for a while we realised that she had recently written a lovely post on her blog about one of our WAVE Vintage & Craft Fairs that she had recently visited. What a coincedence!



  • To go with my above post, this is the blog of Caddy's daughter Amy (who had the stall at the Leamington Fair). Amy sells a great selection of vintage kitchenalia and collectables and also organises a vintage and craft fair in Warwick.


 Blighty Boutique Vintage and Handmade Fairs



  • Lastly, this blog is a firm favourite of mine. It's written by a lady called Kat who has a similar passion to me for charity shopping and general thrifting. She's brilliant at keeping the blog up to date regularly and it's a pleasure to read.





Phew! After that mammoth post I'm signing off to get ready for our next fair on Saturday.



Loll
xx



Monday 24 October 2011

It's WAVE time again!





This weekend is the return of our WAVE Vintage & Craft Fair on Saturday 29th October. As part of the WAVE team we have great fun coming up with themes for our fairs and this one fell right into our lap with it being two days away from Halloween!

Why not come along and get your thinking caps on for a vintage style costume as there are prizes to be won for the best dressed!

We have a load of autumnal and wintry vintage goodies for sale to get you kitted out for the months ahead so come and check out our stall.


Loll
x


Thursday 20 October 2011

Sun, sand, cream teas and bargain hunting!




  



This week we've been having a lovely well deserved holiday in the beautiful Cornish town of St Ives. We.ve had a great break so far, enjoyed walks on the beach, a boat ride to see the seals, a Segway tour as well as a bit of obligatory mooching through the little seaside shops.



As always I haven't been able to resist hunting out a few second hand bargains. My first purchase was from a lovely little vintage interior shop where we picked up a 1930s Rolleicord camera which we've been assured still works. I was up for a challenge so got myself a new 120 film and decided to give it a go...watch this space for the results when we get the film developed!

Since then I managed to find some little bargains such as this Autumn (my favourite season) Ladybird book, some cream handknitted fingerless gloves for just 75p and a selection of vintage St Ives postcards from the 20s and 30s for £1 each. My favourite one is this very apt Halloween style postcard covered in cartoon ghoulies!


Today's lucky find was a second hand book on Cornish Shipwrecks which feature some disasters which occurred along this coast and in St Ives itself. All week I've been admiring the souvenir posters which cost £5 each and show drawings and dates of the boats that have been shipwrecked on this coastline. Then I happily saw this book in a charity shop window for just £1.50 and had to have it! I'm looking forward to giving this a read and learning a bit more about the history of St Ives.

Unfortunately have found no new goodies for the shop but there's still time!


Bye for now! Next blog will be the as promised list of my fave blogs at the moment.

Loll
x

Saturday 8 October 2011

Bargain finds at The Worcester Flea!






Last weekend was our third WAVE Worcester Flea and it was a beautiful warm sunny day! We had some lovely customers who enjoyed our £1 bargain bins full of brass bits & bobs and some old tobacco tins. I myself was very good this time and restricted myself to items that were £5 or less and I'm pretty proud of what I found. My first purchase was this gorgeous 1920s leather playing card set containing two sets of miniature cards and two original booklets on patience games. The leather is lovely and soft and as always I couldn't resists a bit of tan leather! It was a bargain at just £3.50.

My next purchase off the same stall was this set of three lovely mother of pearl buttons with metal backs. These will be a lovely addition to my ever increasing button collection and at £1.50 I couldn't go wrong!





As the flea was growing to a close I did a final sweep and picked up this beautiful french style gilt & pink clock from the lovely ladies at the Bringsty stall. It doesn't work and isn't really fixable but it's so pretty and at £2 I can't complain!

My final purchase was this fab round enamel white & blue baking tin from the lovely Keri at Still Lovely. Now the nights are drawing in and the weather's turning that little bit chilly I thought this would be perfect to make some good old fashioned crumbles and pies to keep us toasty warm this winter. For just £2 it'll look gorgeous in my kitchen and will be really useful too...bargain!!

All in all I'm super chuffed with my purchases and a lovely day was had by all!

Hope to see you all next time on Sunday 6th November so you can pick up your own bargains.

Loll
x


PS - check out our next post coming soon where I will be listing some of my favourite blogs on everything from thrifting to fashion hints & tips.

Monday 3 October 2011

These are a few of my favourite things...

Over the past three years we've been concentrating on shop business and what events we've been involved with etc. So I thought it was time to bring it on to a more personal level and give you an insight into some of my favourite things. Things get added to this list quite often so I'll be making this a regular feature of the blog. Right, here we go with part one.

Quite aptly, considering today's weather, the first thing on today's list is:

1. Sitting in a sunny garden




Thankfully this week we've been experiencing a bit of a scorcher in England so I've been in my element but even if there's an autumnal nip in the air I'm still happy.



2. Cinema/ Theatre Glasses

This little beauty is one of my boot sale bargains and I love it! Think of all the performances this will have seen over the years.




 3. Tiny white flower pixie


This little imp sits on my fireplace keeping a watchful eye over everything. He's super cute and I think cost me about 10p so a bargain to boot!


4. Oxo Tin with Fairy Sitting on Top


This was a 31st birthday present from the inlaws and I love it! Again it has pride of place on my mantelpiece. It was made by a local artist Corinne Phillips and combines an old OXO tin with a handmade fairy perched on top making a phone call on a tiny telephone. It combines two of my favourite things - old tins and fairies so suits me down to the ground.


5. Lovely Old Parafin Lamp


After a bit of a spruce up (after Tom's attempts at lighting it without reading the instructions) this is one of the fave things we have bought recently. Another boot sale purchase and I'm hoping to add to this with a matching heater as soon as I can find one that I like. I love the green colour of this lamp and it will have pride of place in my garden for lighting up those dark Autumn evenings. 



6. Fresh Flowers


 


7. Pottery Sculpture of a Cornish Piskie


St Ives is one of my favourite places in the world and we're very excited to be going back in a couple of weeks for a whole week long holiday by the sea. Before opening the shop we were regular visitors to Cornwall but over the past three years we haven't been able to spare the time so it'll be great to finally go back. I picked up this little pottery cornish pisky during our last visit and it's been watching over us ever since. It's proper name is "Skillywidden" and he brings luck, health and good fortune to all who possess him.


 8. Old Books - Two of my fave choices, Grimms Fairy Tales & The Scottish Fairy Book

I love old books and one of my favourite things to do is spend hours browsing through dusty dingy bookshops seeing what gems I can find. These are two of my faves, one being a copy of Grimms Fairy Tales which of course brings out the child in me and has the most beautiful illustrations.




This second book I found in a secondhand bookshop in Evesham at the beginning of the summer. It's called The Scottish Fairy Book so how could I resist? It's one of my most expensive old book purchases but very much worth it! Lovely illustrations again and I also love the fact it was given to it's original owner for Christmas over 60 years ago. Such a treasure!







9. The smell when you open a new box (or packet) of Maltesers.


This is a strange one I know but I love Maltesers and when you open a new box at Christmas time the smell is wonderful. Makes you want to eat the whole box so can be quite dangerous!

Bye for now!

Loll
xx