Op Shop Find of the Week

Op-shop find of the week was undoubtedly this gorgeous Hornsea teapot. I have been collecting Hornsea in a very casual way for a little while now but this one has absolutely cemented my love for their big 70s patterns. Amazingly, I got it for only $5 and it looks as though it has hardly been used. It instantly made me think it should sit on the kitchen table in Jo, Chrissy and Robin's flat in Man about the House... 

Real Winter

How I wanted this jumper in the winters of the early 80s, as worn by Princess Diana! 

Image from http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/

As is the case most winters, I have sinusitis. But this morning my doctor said to me, "But these are the winters we used to have - real winters." I thought this was an extremely good point. One of the things I remember most from my 1970s childhood is the very distinct seasons - long, hot summers made up of school holidays, waiting for Christmas, playing with your Christmas presents and scudding down the slip-and-slide in the backyard and long, cold winters punctuated by hot meat pies, open fires and warm homemade jumpers. So I've decided to make the most of the month and a half we have left of winter and enjoy it for the real, distinctly seasonal time it's proving to be this year!

And this ad reminds me so much of watching TV during winter in the early 80s...

The stone of scone (hopefully not)

From Australian Home Beautiful, 1977

The op-shopping gods seem to be smiling on me at the moment. Yesterday, three editions of Australian Home Beautiful from the 1970s to feed my current 70s obsession. I love the walkway pictured here, with the greenery of the garden so much a part of the house. I also bagged three lovely pieces of Polish linen, all patterned like the one above (which has just come in from the clothesline, hence its rather crumpled state). They are just about the right size for small wall-hangings but in our little house, I am fast running out of vacant wall. What to do?

I found another vintage Puffin too - Henry Treece, Viking's Dawn - as well as Miss Read, Affairs at Thrush Green and the short stories of Chekhov. It also looks like I may have found myself a little job at the oppy...oh dear!

I am going to try out making scones tonight for the first time. I know - how did I get to be thirty-(mumble) and not have made scones? I found Approach to Cookery, put together by the Melbourne Home Economics Teachers' Group in 1965, in an op-shop a couple of weeks ago so I'm figuring their 'foundation scones' recipe for school kids can't be too hard... We have dinner with my parents on Friday nights, so scones will be dessert tonight with jam and cream! Are scones a universal food item? I don't know. If you've not heard of them, they're basically little floury buns - originally from Scotland, I think? There's a (place) Scone in Scotland, isn't there?? Any fellow scone makers out there?

And joy of joys, Dowtown Abbey season two is back on our poor deprived Antipodean tv screens this Sunday. Hoorah! Anyone else looking forward to it?

Enjoy your weekend - I'll see you next week.

Golden Hands

Ages ago, while op-shopping, I found a copy of Golden Hands - a British craft magazine from the late 60s/early 70s. Then I discovered volume 1 of the collected Golden Hands (you know, one of those deals where you buy the first volume for a dollar and each consecutive edition ends up being $20). Wow, I thought to myself, imagine if I found all of the collected Golden Hands volumes... Then lo and behold, I did exactly that about three weeks ago in my local Salvos op-shop. I was gob-smacked. The whole 18-volume set! Although the covers suggest cheesy 70s crafts unlikely to appeal today, inside they are really well done with all sorts of very nice projects - knitting, embroidery, dressmaking (the maxi is back, you know!) and other, perhaps less considered crafts, like wall hangings and weaving. I am thoroughly enjoying looking through them and I've discovered that the trick is to take elements of the project that work for me, that I like, rather than taking on the original idea in its entirety and ending up with something that may well look a bit dated. For example, the stitched motifs on the back of the gloves above, inspired me to try out similar shapes and designs in stitches on a bit of felt.

Fun for all the family!

What craft projects are you working on at the moment?

Is Hornsea, Is Good

I have been having a brilliant time thrifting of late. I've been casually looking for Hornsea pottery for some time, having already acquired my first piece from my parents - a salt cellar which was an engagement gift of theirs from 1967. Then, a couple of years ago, I found the gorgeous brown and black flour barrel (below) in a local op-shop. But not much happened after that. Then, in the space of a couple of weeks, I found the wonderful blue and green owl mug (above) and, on Saturday, the cow mug. Love the rather surreal and oh-so-70s designs on them all. The cow mug is especially quirky - the cow is printed with unrelated  newsprint-style words and sitting behind it is a fish?? Dali meets British pottery...perhaps. 

As well as Greenwitch (see yesterday's post), I have also just started Haruki Murakami's After Dark. I have been meaning to read her books for some time and last week during another great op-shop jaunt, I found that one. Have you read her books? What do you think of them? This one reminds me so much of our trip to Japan and the slightly seedy world that was hinted at as we walked briskly past Tokyo's many alleyways at night...!

Are you on the bus? *

I especially love the blue one...

Image from: http://img0.etsystatic.com/il_fullxfull.280470956.jpg
Item from Etsy shop: Ajs Patterns

Lately I have been getting in touch with my inner hippie. I have been scrolling through Etsy's vintage shops for far too long looking for maxi dresses, patchwork skirts and flowing handknits. Perhaps it has something to do with identifying with the era I was born in or maybe it is just listening to too much Judy Collins at the moment? Or maybe the clips of Life on Mars I have been enjoying all over again on You Tube? Whatever the case, the advice to tune in, drop out and turn on can never be bad advice for a stress monkey like me!

Do you remember the 70s? Or the 60s? Or perhaps you're just a hippie at heart?

Classic Maxi dress updated
Image from: http://img0.etsystatic.com/il_fullxfull.313108008.jpg
Item from Etsy shop: HippieGypsyBohemian

Gorgeous original Jean Muir dress

Image from: http://img1.etsystatic.com/il_fullxfull.293739377.jpg
Item from Etsy shop: Martin Mercantile

Image from: http://img3.etsystatic.com/il_fullxfull.318124195.jpg
Item from Etsy shop: Ruby Chic Boutique

The lovely Judy Collins
Image from: http://www.elektra60.com/images/judy-collins-wildflowers-out-take-guy-webster/

* The American writer Ken Kesey, in relation to the 1960s Counterculture, said "Now, you're either on the bus or off the bus. If you're on the bus, and you get left behind, then you'll find it again. If you're off the bus in the first place — then it won't make a damn."

Friday Nostalgia

A little bit of nostalgia today. For no reason at all, Cricket magazine popped back into my head yesterday. I haven't thought about it in years but I read it religiously when I was a child in the late 70s and early 80s. They had a healthy supply at our local library and I would stock up whenever we paid a visit. I found some copies on Etsy yesterday and I've indulged myself by buying them. Did you read Cricket? What did you read as a little one?


And The Magic Roundabout. Brilliant. Did you watch it? I do wonder though that I understood it completely at age 3 or 4. "No wonder she was nationalised"??? Social commentary for the under-fives. I love it!

Blue Sky Thinking

Images above and below from http://supergraphicstratergies.wordpress.com/

I am quite in love with 1970s interiors at the moment. I have been finding 70s interior design magazine here and there on my op-shopping travels and rather than being slightly alarmed and revolted by the 70s as people now tend to be, I find them quite inspiring. I was thinking about this last night as I flicked through the 1973 edition of Simplicity's Sew-it-all for the Home. What is it that I love about these rooms? Am I simply being wooed by familiarity since I am a child of the 70s? No, I realised that I love the way they used colour and pattern with complete abandon. And, surprisingly, not (often) to bad effect. The rooms are warm, interesting, inviting and full of life. No restrained minimalist whites and greys here. Oh no. The repeated use of one colour or one pattern in a room is especially great.

Image from http://houseofhackney.com

Image from http://supergraphicstratergies.wordpress.com/

Image from http://weloveit.com

Image from http://britishblogs.co.uk [though I don't think this room is a 70s original]

In this clip from Supersizers go: Seventies, Giles and Sue talk about exactly this idea in relation to 70s food - there was a sort of wonderful exuberance to it but an endearing, characterful exuberance, not the ugly excess of the 80s.



We are enjoying some exuberant weather here at the moment with bright sunshine, clear blue skies and soothing warm sun (as well as quite fierce gusts of spring wind). For some reason, it put me in mind of this cheerful song...from the 70s.

Sunnyside Up

Some lately thrifted goodies...I had trailed around one of our local op-shops yesterday and had not really found much of note. As I sometimes do, I thought 'I'll just go quickly around once more' and lo and behold some lovely folky wooden goodies had just been put out, just right for my current Scandinavian folk art craze. These lovelies are now on the kitchen wall.

We went to The Vintage Shed in Tyabb (http://www.thevintageshed.com.au/) on the weekend and it was great. Lots and lots of wonderful stuff and no absurd prices. Well worth the drive if you are so inclined. Part of my haul (only a little one - I will have to go back soon) was this gorgeous set of 70s egg cups. And...the greatest geek accolade of all...they were stilll in their original wrapping.

Gently does it

A little bit of quiet in the Woods while I work through a headache. I am loving embroidery at the moment (though it probably hasn't helped the headache) and I am stitching this little guy on a brown wool cloth to read 'Everyone is someone at home' (it's a quote from The Edda). As you can no doubt tell, I am self-taught. I am hoping for a slightly rustic look here and not too prissy embroidery perfect but I can't decide if I've hit that note or if my self-devised lettering in a low-key chain stitch just looks messy! If all goes well, I will work on one for my In Dark Woods Etsy shop. If.

Some great vintage cloth thrifted recently. This nubby, orangey-brown number still had its measurements scribbled onto a torn-out page from a 1978 diary attached to it and this one is so pretty. It makes me think of the Finnish Marimekko designs.

A piece of toast, a British sitcom and thou

You know of old my slightly peculiar obsession with 60s/70s British sitcoms. Well, it hasn't diminished. Morrissey, lead singer of the Smiths (who it could also be said I have a slightly peculiar obsession with), once said words to the effect that there is little quite so nice as watching an old movie on tv on a cold afternoon, armed with a warm piece of toast. And so it was yesterday, a cold winter's day, that I watched an old ep of "Doctor in the House" on You tube while eating Tuesday night's leftover meatloaf on toast. The early episodes were the best, I think, and perhaps this is at least partially because, as I noticed with surprise, they were written by John Cleese. I'd love to show you a clip but Blogger is being naughty again so here's the link if you're so inclined (and suitable equipped with some toast):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4juSDIP05PA&feature=related