Front Bedroom Part 3

So after another half a day of packing and putting away the office, this is what we started with.


The wallpaper below the picture rail was a dream to take off - pick the bottom corners and pull ... The stuff above the picture rail and the ceiling on the other hand were a different story altogether and so out came the steamer. Poor Sunshine (because he is so lovely and tall) had to do the bulk of it as I just could not reach.


We got as far as we could (look at the mess on the floor! My job was mostly tidying up) before we called it a day as we had a dinner invite at the Domakke's. Just that one corner to go ...

Front Bedroom Part 2

The front bedroom used to house our office cum studio. No longer! It is (eventually) relocating to the front lounge. But in the meantime, its all in boxes ... so no "lucky finds" of vintage and retro kids stuff for a while...

Anyways, this had to happen so we can get on with redecorating (ie peeling off the textured wallpaper) in this room this weekend.

Front Bedroom Part 1

I realise that there hasn't been much house DIY updates recently ... well its because we haven't really managed to do any. Sunshine is back teaching, and I've got a commission on the go, and we've also had a steady stream of guests whom we've been accomodation in this here front bedroom ... as you can see, the sofabed that used to be in the front lounge, is now situated here (this used to be our office but we are moving the office to the front lounge).

We did though have a sudden urge to peel away the textured wallpaper last week (just before one of our guests arrived!) - as you can see above. I actually only remembered to take a photo today as I realised I hadn't documented it and there is a plan to get on with a bit more of this room this weekend. The wall stuff comes off fairly easily - but the paper above the picture rail is another beast. Me thinks there will be another showing of the wallpaper steamer soon.

Lucky Find books - "Faber Book Of Nursery Songs"

I found this thick tome (175 pages!) a while ago at one of my favourite charity sales where they have a whole container (as in back of a truck) of books. You never know what you're going to get - and this is what I got.

Its full of lovely illustrations by Alan Howard who I had not heard of before. Not much out there on the internets about him unfortunately :( There are about 8 colour plates and almost every other song/rhyme has a gorgeous ink drawing to go with it. Looking through flickr I found this image which is also in this book.

One day when I have more time I'll photograph a few more illustrations from this lovely lucky find :)

Lucky Finds - Escorial Grun Aviation themed bottle

Today we went to one of my favourite flea markets ... we haven't been in over a year so it was really nice to have a wonder round. Now that we have a house - we can start looking at kitting it out with nice accessories - for example nice vintage coat hooks and stands and other such stuff. We didn't buy any though - it was more of a reconnaissance mission. (We also had the added insentive that the Dommakes were there selling off some of the vintage china and lampshades they had collected for their wedding).

But something I did find - and buy, as it was such a good price - was this vintage Escorial Grun bottle - in an aviation theme! Escorial Grun is a German herbal liquer manufactured by a company called Riemerschmid from Munich and back in the day (60s/70s?) they used to come in these beautiful ceramic bottles. I first came across them here, and have been looking for one ever since. The aviation ones are fairly rare - and being surrounded by aviation enthusiasts, I was really chuffed to have found this ... its BEAUTIFUL :)

And, erm, I also bought a couple of wicker baskets and a suitcase for my selection of sewing/knitting/etc stuff ... I'm starting on a 6 week knitting course (with one half of the Dommakes) in a few weeks and I need a "handbag" to carry my needles and wool ... of course ;)

Lucky Find books - "The Lion who Ran Away" by L. Collinson & K. Tanaami

I found this just last week - for 20p ... TWENTY PENCE! - at a local charity shop. Haven't had much luck with childrens' books at charity shops lately but this was quite the find. Had never heard of it or the illustrator- but oh my it is so delicious!

Based on a story written for children by famous German writer Goethe; told by Laurence Collinson and illustrated by Keiichi Tanaami. Beautifully painted in true late 60s style. I looked up Keiichi Tanaami, but the wikipedia entry doesn't list this book so I don't know if it was by the same man - and I can barely find any other mention of this book anywhere apart from some Australian library catalogues. Image searches also yield nothing ... a little treasure for myself me thinks :)

Happy 2nd Birthday Sophs!

Its niece Soph's 2nd Birthday in a couple of weeks but she will be holidaying at her grandparents (my inlaws) at the time. So we though we'd go deliver her her Birthday present before they leave on Wednesday for their holiday.

Sunshine and I had been looking for something special for a while - and saw this at our favourite toy shop in Bristol - "Playful", on the Gloucester Road. Soph's dad is a musician and we knew her parents would appreciate having something that made beautiful music however its played - and so we got her this pentatonically tuned glockenspiel from Auris.

Auntie Mithi also made her a card and Sunshine sewed her a carrier to protect her new little musical instrument (don't you just love a man who sews???)


Sunshine (with his designer's head on) decided to film an "unboxing experince" ... as you can see here...

We think its gone down very well - she does a mean rendition of "Twinkel Twinkle Little Star", whilst playing on the glockenspiel. I think she also quite enjoys just hanging out with her Uncle.

Happy Birthday Gorgeous!

Zoo life with Sophs

Today I went on an impromptu outing to the zoo with Favourite Niece Sophs ...

First we had a wonder round the butterfly house...

Then Sophs and her mum decided to see which animals they could run as fast as ... "1, 2, 4 ... go!!!"

After, we went and made friends with some meerkats doing a pile up ...

... followed by watching some gibbons preening ...

We wondered round a bit more and saw some more lovely fauna ...

Finally Soph decided it was time to drive us home.

What a smashing day!

Lucky Finds - Carlton Ware guards money boxes part 2

I haven't done one of my "lucky finds" posts in a while so here you have a new one... Remember my Carlton Ware guards money boxes from last year? Well, I did manage to find the other two ... See Mr Policeman and Mr Scotsguard. They look really great all together the four of them.

I had planned to display them in Little Wind's nursery when he arrived - but it was not to be. They still live temporarily on a window sill - but hopefully with all the house re-decorating going on, they will find a good spot to be admired from.

Dining table love...

I noticed the jumble of stuff on our dining table this morning and had to take a photo ...

In the foreground amassive load of flowers from the Dommake's wedding, in a vintage ceramic jug (the jug is actually from Sunshine's side of the family); a lush bouquet of sunflowers sent to me by the lovely Vicky who I'll be doing an illustration commission for very soon, in my Stig Lindberg designed Bersa jug; more random flowers in one of the vintage clear glass jugs I collected for our wedding at the back; peaking through is my retro Norwegian Cathrineholm enamel bowl filled with fruit; some of the left over apple crumble we made last night using cooking apples from my friend and gym teacher Wendy's tree; "Steve and Rachel", our two potted some-kind-of-mini-palm-that-looks-like-spider-plants-on-sticks (Dragon plants?), inherited from our friends Steve and Rachel when they emigrated to New Zealand (we miss you guys ...); an orchid on the far left that we also inherited from them but that we then managed to get to flower(!) - they never did; a Marks and Spencer's Scottish Shortbread tin I picked up recently - full of delicious shortbread AND with the most lovely vintagey illustrations - can't find who its been illustrated by; and last but not least my super favourite gift from the lovely Lapworths, an Alexander Girard "Mother and Child" tray by Vitra that is so super special that it still lives in its plastic sleeve; ALL on our vintage Ercol dining table set ....LOVE :)