Visit to Crafty Vintage Lancashire

Vintage : Retro : Upcycled : Preloved : Quirky Crafts : Collectables : Shabby Chic 

Crafts meets Vintage what a fabulous idea!  

This was my  first visit to this monthly event which was held in the Methodist Church in Historic Whalley Lancashire a lovely town nestled beneath Pendle Hill (Witch Country).

Over 30 stalls ranging from vintage clothes,collectables, handmade food, handmade/upcycled  gifts etc, an event i will definitely visit again.

One event planned for the end of June is to be held at a local wild fowl and ancient woodlands site near Preston in Lancashire.  Over 50 stalls selling vintage, crafts, and antiques, a Vintage car display, live jazz acoustics, Charleston Classes, bunting making workshops and much more.

Where have all the button tins gone

I remember as a child I loved to play with the contents of my Grandma's button tin, I loved the shapes and textures. My favourites were the mother of pearl buttons that would glisten in the sunlight. The glass ones were invariable chipped or shattered and I often wondered why she kept the broken cracked ones. I still have my Grandma's mother of pearl buttons, but my mother's button tin is full of bland modern plastic types and my daughter isn't remotely interested in my mother's buttons. She is a product of the throw away society we have become today unlike yester-year when all the buttons were routinely cut off old clothes and put in the rusty old family button tin, clothes are neatly folded and placed in one of the many charity bags that are put through our letterboxes seeming every other week!

Now if your Grandma had a very large button tin like mine did there would be other treasures and many odd things to be found in there. You would get the usual things such as pins, needles, thimbles, old sewing machine parts and the lovely colourful Bakelite buckles. Grandma's silver sixpence still with silver foil attached was in there, a momento of Xmas past, but my favourite item in the tin was a silver marcasite ring which after her death was given to me, and which I have treasured ever since.

I have collected vintage sewing items for many years and mother of pearl buttons in particular are my favourite item possibly a throwback to my youth! You find some very strange items in button tins and I often wonder why people would put such items in their button tins. Items such as badges, cuff links, beads, screw drivers, pen nibs, dog tags, keys, wax, bone & metal curtain rings, marbles, meccano, and loose matches all probably put there because it was convenient to do so. The oddest and potentionally dangerous thing I have found in a tin were loose pain-killers!, which believe it or not are quite a common thing to find in an old button tins, the mind boggles!

Vintage wooden cotton reels with old colour names

vintage wooden cotton/thread reels with discontinued colour names such as Gay kingfisher, Dark Gobelin, Henna, Lagoon Blue, Old Gold and Morocco Red.

Tribute to Ivy my Mother In Law

1935 - 2012

Sadly my mother-in-law Ivy died on the 18th  of January after a short stay in hospital.

Ivy was a wonderful person  a very generous and kind person who would go out of her way to help her family and friends.

In the 1970's/80's she owned a fancy dress business and was also a very talented seamstress who made many of the outfits for her business. Below is a victorian ladies hat that she made

My daughter Sarah is her only grandchild and of course was spoilt rotten! Ivy taught my daughter to swim, horse ride and ice skate non of which i can do myself.

When my daughter needed an outfit for a fancy dress party Ivy always came to the rescue, below is my daughter wearing one of Ivy's creations. My daughter won a £5 book token at a school fancy dress party.

Ivy made many of her own clothes such as the lined velvet waistcoat below i just love the way she has covered the buttons incorporating the swirl design.

Ivy's dress sense was very bohemian and by her own admission she was quite eccentric and was  the Helena Bonham-Carter of her day.

Ivy's other passion was animals and over the years she rescued many cats and dogs more often than not on the verge of being put to sleep. She leaves behind a menagerie of dogs, cats, rabbits, hens and an Amazon Green Parrot.

Ivy will be greatly missed by all that knew her.

Christmas 2011 and New Year 2012 Greetings!

The host of this blog asked me recently to share any photographs that I have of my Christmas. So here they are... I have nothing to sell, just some images to share... that might bring you pleasure.

I live in Lapland, Finland, although I am British. My decorations are a mix of both cultures, where wooden elves and straw decorations are more in keeping with the season and less is more.

The English side of me however, has twinkling tree lights on my indoor tree...something not on sale locally...and I purchase from the UK instead. :D

Outside we have snow of course and our outdoor Christmas tree with static green lights. Very calm.



With candle decor, created by a cone of snowballs with a candle in the middle.



A large wooden elf by our doorway



....and a metal cut out lantern hanging from the Pine tree.



A peeking elf by the front door.



Plus a wreath on the door.



We can get so much snow that the council tractor comes most days to clear it away. Today for instance we woke to a good foot of snow. These photo's of the tractor were taken on the 21st.





Indoors we have a traditional electrical candle set. This photo was taken from the outside and the reflections on the window made it look like a St.Lucia girl (a Dec 13th tradition in Finland and Sweden celebrating the return of light). She looks just like she is wearing the crown of light! You can also see an eery image of her smiling face! :D I love it! How magical!



Here it is from indoors...



These are in my kitchen. Traditional card cutouts of Tonttu's (Elves), log Tonttu's and straw Olkipukki goats. The Goats stem from distant tales of the God Thor riding across the Yule skies, his magical chariot being pulled by Goats called Tanngrisni "gap-tooth" and Tanngnost "tooth grinder". Over the centuries, it would seem that Thor became Santa... and Goats became Reindeer! However, Goats still feature strongly in Finnish and Swedish Christmas', by way of decorations and also on cards. Sometimes Santa is still seen with a Goat here!




Our Christmas table.



I have a number of decorations around the room...

A straw mobile, again with straw goats.



An old English Avon Nativity set.



An old singing Avon Snowman, again bought in England.



A reindeer fur covered Finnish Santa. Is this how he used to look, before he changed to wearing red and white?



Our Christmas tree indoors is a fake one, whereas the one outside is real. My eldest son wanted to decorate the tree this year and he loves red. I think he did a fine job!



Here are just some of the decorations on it....



A wooden elf figure.



I was given this heart as a present many years back by a Norwegian friend, one whom I have long lost contact with, (pre Facebook!) and every year, I place it at the core of the tree. :D



This year, I wrote each of our names on a bauble and the year with a gold felt pen. When Christmas is over we will all sign each others, as a reminder that we were all together for this Christmas and keep the bauble. Our sons now live away, as they are in education, so who knows what next year will bring, when they are already 19 and 21 years old? I hope we will be celebrating together again next Christmas though! :D



May I wish you all Season's Greetings.... Merry Christmas (Hyvää Joulua) and a Happy New Year (Onnellista Uutta Vuotta) from Sodankylä, Lapland in Finland.

Vintage ladies and their buttons

Looking through my collection of victorian cdv's etc i found these ladies in their victorian finery.
What a nightmare having to undo all those buttons!

Lancashire Treasure

Hi All,

thought this might be of interest to some of you.

Badge dug up in field is medieval treasure
Scrap of twisted silver found by metal detector in Lancashire will be part of British Museum's exhibition of reliquaries.

A scrap of twisted silver found a few weeks ago by a metal detector in Lancashire will take its place among masterpieces of medieval art at the British Museum, in an exhibition opening this week of the bejewelled shrines made to hold the relics of saints and martyrs.

The badge made of silver found by Paul King, a retired logistics expert, is a humble object to earn a place in an exhibition called Treasures of Heaven, but it is unique. It will sit among gold and silver reliquaries studded with gems the size of thumbnails – or the sockets from which they were wrenched by thieves – once owned by emperors, popes and princes.

The badge, the only one of its kind ever found in Britain, provides a link 500 years ago between this corner of rural Lancashire and the great pilgrimage sites of mainland Europe. It shows one of the companions of St Ursula, one of the most popular mystical legends of medieval Europe. She was said to be a British princess who sailed with 11,000 virgin companions to marry a pagan prince in Brittany, but diverted to go on a pilgrimage to Rome – and in some versions of the story, Jerusalem.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/jun/20/badge-dug-field-medieval-treasure

Grandma's fashion from various eras

Grandma

Recently i was looking through  some old family photos and i came across a lot of my Grandma (Dad's mum) Eleanor  who was born in Linlithgow, Scotland in 1905.

The photo below was probably taken in about 1915, Grandma is the girl on the front row nearest the window  incidently all the people in this photo are her siblings.

The next photo is of grandma (in the middle) and 2 of her sisters probably taken in the late 1920's?

This one of Grandma was taken in the late 1940's i think? with my Dad's 2 cousins.