Thursday 2 August 2012

Recent vintage finds!


Sorry for my blogging absence.  Mr Y has broken up for the summer holidays and we’ve been somewhat busy. 

So what have we been up to?  Well, aside from the knitting and sewing, there has been lots of decorating, serious gardening and curtain making in readiness for an estate agent valuation – goodness me they are nosey thorough!!  I didn’t think he’d look in the airing cupboard; he was very lucky he didn’t get pelted with the ironing mountain that I’d shoved in there to get it out of sight!

I can't quite believe we are in August already.  The year is romping by, 8 months in, only 4 to go.  August and September are the busiest months for events and fairs.  Every waking minute, or at least so it seems, is spent wielding the needles. 

However, I have managed to take a few hours out – all work and no play and all that – and have found some lovely things.  A trip to the local car boot sale a few weeks ago yielded these vintage lovelies for my two girls.


The Twenty Tales for Telling was printed in March 1945 and the Wise Owl’s Story is from July 1949.  It’s a little bit tatty on the spine but oldest Y doesn’t mind and has already squirrelled it away in her room.  As a child I loved the Little Grey Rabbit’s Christmas book and am very happy that C has followed in my footsteps as far as a love of books goes.  The Splendid Book For Girls is in remarkably good condition and I love the fact that the giver took time to write a little note to the recipient “With Love to Rosemary from Auntie Netta & Uncle Will”.  It was only 50p, I couldn’t believe it, it’s just a shame that it isn’t dated.  I’ve had a brief scan through some of the pages and have seen some drawings of RAF men and a plane but no date!

Littlest Y was all smiles when presented with this toy.


She adores anything to do with Snow White and so this couldn’t have been better and at only £2.00 – what’s not to love!

Two eBay purchases next.  Both brooches, as if I need any more, right?  First is another wartime one, nice and colourful and then a little Cornish pixie sitting on a toadstool.  He’s rather cute.  I’m just waiting for the right outing to give him an airing – maybe when we head home to Cornwall in a few weeks time??

The weather has been hit and miss these last few days, more miss than hit to be fair, but I needed to get a zip for a dress I’m working on (which I still haven’t been able to find because my local shop is pants!  I need a 9” zip and all they had was a 20”!) and so we took a trip to the coast.  It was warm enough for summer dresses but was raining, that really fine rain, you know the sort where you end up getting really wet?  (I know all rain makes you wet but some is worse than others, right??)  Anyway, we took the little ones onto the prom for fish & chips.  Plenty of salt and vinegar – yum :o)  They didn’t seem to notice the rain and while Mr Y and me stayed dry in the pretty Victorian shelter, the girls took to dancing in the gardens.  Little Y is a bouncy dancer (I’m sure you get what I mean) and ended up giving unsuspecting passers-by a flash of her knickers – the innocence!! 

On the way back to the car, Mr Y suggested a detour into the normally fruitless Red Cross charity shop – I’m very pleased he did because I came away with these 2 books.

The Britain At War is a monster of a book, it’s seriously huge and heavy – as if my bookshelves weren’t groaning already!  It has some lovely photographs in, some I’ve seen before in other books, some I haven’t.  At £2.00, I couldn’t leave it gathering dust on the shelf – could I?  Better than that, though, was the War on the Home Front book by Juliet Gardiner.  It contains over 30 removable copy documents and an audio CD.  It’s in perfect condition, looks like whoever had it first never even opened it.  Priced at £30 brand new, it was a snip at £3.  It will be a perfect resource for little Y.

The best buy of the last couple of weeks is this AMAZING fabric, just take a look.

Bought online from a fabric shop, this was vintage stock that they were getting rid of, at a ridiculously low price.  It’s 35” wide and there is 10 meters of it which, if I'm really careful, should produce 3 beautiful dresses.  I'm not sure what the fabric is.  It was advertised as a rayon mix but I don't know what it's been mixed with because it's a really heavy, floppy fabric.  Can't wait to use it, but I have 2 others that I have to finish first - when I find a flipping zip!

I'm now off to to get stuck into a piece of rather tasty coffee cake and have a flick through the pages of my last purchase of the day.

Undecided as to whether I like this magazine - this is only the third one I've bought - I shall persevere :o)

4 comments:

  1. All those finds are amazing! That SW toy is the best though and hard to find! I love books and you can never have enough-vintage or not! Love them all!! Happy August! xox

    http://www.themusingsandadventuresofapinupmama.blogspot.com/

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  2. Great finds, well done! Amazing fabric, but I really love those WWII books - must look out for that Julie Gardiner one ♥ Deb

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  3. I love those brooches, in fact I just love your collection.
    Julie xxxxxxxx

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  4. Wow you always find the most amazing items! Those both look fab and I adore that fabric, it's gorgeous! XxxX http://thesecondhandrose.blogspot.co.uk

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