printed material

How lucky am I? For just 10 pence in a charity shop I have picked up this little gem of a book! First published in 1951, although my edition is dated 1963, it might as well have been the dark ages when you read it and make comparisons to modern day life. This really was another world. The review by the newspapers on the back page says :

'Where to buy foxes' masks, bagpipes or skeletons; where to see action painting or stock car racing; how much it costs to hire a barrel organ.
These are the off-beat scraps of information in which London Night and Day specialises.Here is the sixth edition, still illustrated by Osbert
Lancaster, still packing into a small space a heap of out-of-the-way London lore. It will continue to tease the knowing and to titillate the smart.(Why should female skeletons be scarcer?)'

For those that want to know how to hire a barrel organ here are the details. I wonder if Mr Tomasso is still in business....

The final review is one from Vogue magazine. It is very short but very sweet:

' ''London Night and Day'', the Architectural Press's guide for tourists and locals, among the wittiest, prettiest and most knowledgable of its kind, informal yet immensely suave, like Sherlock Holmes in his dressing gown.'

I seem to have a 'thing' about the 1950's. I love the illustrations in this book and shall now settle down to pick little jewels from it over a cup of tea!

Made this bag at the beginning of the week with my Mum, using a pattern I sourced from Etsy. It did not turn out like it should have. Careful reading of the pattern again revealed some key changes I need to make to the next one. It was not very clear so I have re-made the pattern pieces and altered them slightly. I'm now making version No.2 in some plain curtain lining and if it works I'll have another go with some decent fabric. This was a remnant I picked up and it will be given to my sister in law who is into aqua/duck egg blue in a big way this year. Hope she likes it.

In the past twelve months or so I have become devoted to the demise of the plastic carrier bag. Better people than I have explained the reasons for making this simple change on other blogs and websites. Suffice to say I now use recycled bags for the supermarket shop and always carry a home sewn tote bag around with me for any other shopping visits.

During the winter sales I picked up some samples in the curtain department of an old fashioned department store for just £1 each. These are lined and offer at least half to three quarters of a metre of quality fabric. I thought they would make fabulous lined tote bags. I told my friend Vickie about this and she also picked up some samples locally. Whilst my sewing skills are basic, Vickie is far more accomplished. She pointed me in the direction of Lisa Lam's website http://www.u-handbag.com/ and I picked up the free tutorial for the bucket bag. I sourced the black bamboo handles and other fittings from Lisa and the service was great.

It struck me today that I have a collection of 'heads' in my garden. Blogger is playing me up so I cannot show any more photos. Out here in the sticks, where broadband is a myth, the connections can be very temperamental and slow. It's something you get used to but it would have been good to show a few more of my little gems.

Woke up to a crisp, hard frost and a shining start to the day. The ground was white and crunchy underfoot. I always love the view from the house up to the next village when we have these clear, frosty mornings. I love it most when the mist just seems to hang in mid air...

Here are a couple of pages from I-Spy People. I don't know where Big Chief I-Spy came from but it must have been more exotic than where I did. I don't remember seeing any 'characters' like this around my street. I do remember the odd tramp or two but they were more soberly dressed than this chap! Can't remember the last time I got on a bus let alone when it was manned by a driver and conductor - or 'clippie' as we see here.
I'm sure I see my childhood through rose tinted glasses. I remember it as a great time to be growing up and think I was born at a special time. My memories include walking to school from 5 years old along busy main roads, having gas at the dentist and jelly and blancmange for birthday tea. Times have certainly changed and Big Chief I-Spy would probably now fall foul of the Data Protection Act or something else equally damaging. Hey ho!

Whilst we're not the only place to have had snow, it is infrequent in this part of the world. I think it confused our bird population into running around in circles......