Thank you Emily Button!

Want to see what Emily Button is guarding?

 Patchwork cushions I've been making this week.

 All made from vintage sheets. Emily thinks they're pretty cool and would like a matching quilt for her own little bed but that will have to wait until next week or possibly Christmas.

 Meanwhile the cheeky doll tried out some blankety cushions for size...

 Nice and warm and snug for the onset of winter.

 

 A few weeks ago I had a lovely email from the people at Emily Button. They had been reading this little blog and wanted to send a thank you. My little jammers were delighted when not one but two parcels arrived, one each!

They each received a letter from Emily with a book, stickers, badges and gift wrap...

 ... a great cloth bag and best of all a Mousey!

Thank you very much Victoria. Sorry the bag's looking a bit crumpled, they've both been using them already!

Emily comes most places with us and is such a stylish prop with her pink ricrac hair. We had fun on her website using the webcam to dress up like Emily.

Hours of fun!

 xXx



Enid Blyton IV - The Eileen Soper bit

This weekend we finally visited the last place on our Enid Blyton trail - 'Eileen Soper's Illustrated Worlds' in Poole. A sweet little museum dedicated to the illustrator of many of Enid Blyton's books. The museum has it's own mystery in the secret passage with a torch pen to hunt for clues. The little jammers loved it, particularly becasue of the darkness - very important in a mystery.

Once you've solved the mystery and emerge into daylight there are plenty of old fashioned scenes to play in. the jammers favourite had to be the caravan. emily Button made a friend and little Jam poured copious cups of tea inside

and out in the pretend camp. This is the kind of play my girls love and they would have been content for hours had we not dragged them off to see the rest.

Virtually all of it is hands on so they played the piano, typed on the typewriter, played shops (love those Avery scales) and explored the vintage toys and games.

I popped into the 'cinema' and watched a little film about Eileen Soper. I remember her illustrations from books I read as a child but didn't know anything about her and her amazing wildlife garden until now. She sounds like she was a fantastically eccentric woman!

 

In amongst it we remembered we were hunting for the final clue and found it hidden away. I love the fact that the trail has not been easy peasy and I struggled to spot one clue (I wont tell you which one)!

So clues all found we had a grid reference and luckily there was a map in the museum. Eldest Jammer told us where we needed to go to find the hidden postbox.

 Off we drove until...

 We finished the final stage on foot!

The baddies had been well and truly caught

and we posted our entries with a little help from our friend.

Now all we need to do is keep our fingers crossed.

I'll be back with some Emily Button news later in the week.

x

 

 

 



Vintage kitchen love

After much hunting around through 'real' photos and my very first digital ones I've cobbled together a post that will hopefully explain my excitement at the 1940's kitchen.

You see many moons ago kitchenalia was my thing. Not just a passing fad, a full on addiction!

So for starters here's a collage of our kitchen a couple of houses back. We lived here for seven years I think until eight years ago. I wish I'd got 'before' photos to show.

As you can see I had a bit of a 1940s cream and green thing going on...

I loved this kitchen. It was the original cottage kitchen complete with a Rayburn number 1 then you went up two steps into the 1980s extension. Gopping if I remember rightly but we ripped it out the first night. It then stayed in a state of disrepair for a few years before we had the money to lay a slate floor, install a gas Rayburn and put in a stunning pair of chapel doors. I bought these on a whim at auction for £50, as you do!

Whilst all the cream and green was happening in my own kitchen I was collecting and selling like mad at my stall in the antique centre. I must explain that at this point I had a proper job (and still do) but with jammer number 1 on the way we needed more space at home. A major declutter was needed and Mr Jam got me my unit as a maternity leave 'project'...

So here it is at the beginning, that's 12 years ago now. A long maternity leave for two children!

It's a hobby that perhaps got a bit out of control.

then maybe a bit more than a bit...

I could spot a Tala from a Worcesterware tin a mile off.

Ebay had just started and the spare room was a often a photo shoot for Saturday night auctions. We'd wake up in the morning and find they'd all been snapped up with Buy it Nows and were on their way to Japan if they were white and the USA if they were coloured.

 Strange but true! It amazed me that they $100 for a bread and flour bin and then nearly the same again for airmail shipping. The Post Office must have wondered what on earth we were up to.

It was a funny old life living in a vintage kitchen with stuff coming and going. In between we raised a baby in a vintage highchair. No wonder she loved the museum kitchen, it probably brought back memories!

The fridge was a bit of a one off. A cream beauty we stumbled on by chance. Often I would get phone calls from people wanting to sell kitchenalia and more often that not it was a load of old tat. When a chap rang about an old fridge I quietly ignored it but he was persistent. He called back and insisted I would love it and it would be great in my unit. I didn't even know if I was allowed to sell electrical things and probably not antique ones.

Anyway he won and we went to see it. One look inside and there was no way it was for the unit it had to be mine! He'd had it resprayed and it was stunning and the pink surprise inside never failed to delight.

 Eventually growing numbers meant we had to get something more practical with a freezer so old fridge was collected by a lovely couple from Falmouth who were opening an oyster bar. I hope it's still going strong.

Now I've got all nostalgic for my old old house. I might have to show you around the rest of it another time.



Vintage foraging and finds

Yesterday we dragged two reluctant little jammers around Shepton Mallet Antiques Fair. It ended up being a bit of a rush as it took an age to get them out of the house then one of them had to be back for a party in the afternoon. However I had a nice mooch but sadly purchased very little.

 Lots of lovely kitchen maids in all their pastel glory. After all your lovely comments about the 1940's kitchen the other day I dug out pictures of our old kitchen from my kitchenalia dealing days and began to wish we'd never moved! I'll pop them in a post sometime soon. 

 My favourite things to look at are always the toys and nursery things where I get all nostalgic.

 Emily Button came along and enjoyed trying out all the children's things for size.

Today I headed off by myself, much more speedily, to the car boot sale.

 

Some more affordable finds came home with me...

 as well as flowers for the fridge.

Enjoy your week

x



Fog and furniture - a grey post!

An unusual combination but I was trying to think of a link for my painted furniture and the amazing landscape I saw yesterday morning!

 This week saw a couple of child free days, the first for ages, so I knuckled down to painting and waxing some furniture.

 I tried to balance the boring stuff that had to be done like visiting the optician with more fun stuff like cutting the lavender and doing a tour of the chazzas.

 I found this old school stool in a skip when I accompanied the jammers on a trip to the swimming pool. for me it was the highlight of the trip!

 All finished, it was delivered to the antique centre this afternoon along with...

 a rather unusual shaped airer

 and a lovely old pink painted playpen!

Now for the foggy moment...

yesterday morning we set off quite early (for us) for a day out and drove through lots of misty foggy stuff. As we went up a hill it suddenly disappeared, just like that. I loved this sight looking down into the valley where it was still foggy.

I looked to me like the the sea had crept inland and was frothing its way up the hills.

 Watch out,  here it comes!

 I've never seen it quite like that before. It reminded me of looking down on the clouds from an aeroplane, almost solid as if you could step out onto it... ok I'm getting carried away now.

Somewhere near Compton Abbas air field.
Have a lovely week, fingers crossed for more sun!
x



Emily Button's Sunday

 If you pop by here often you will know Emily Button is a firm favourite and often joins  us on outings. Imagine my delight when I got an email yesterday from the people at Emily Button. They love her adventures and want to send my little jammers some goodies by way of thanks!

So here's a little insight into Emily's kind of Sunday.

 Emily likes to walk by the river and peep over hedges, She dreams of a shepherd's hut like this and would love to live in the pretty thatched cottage with the dovecote.

She's often to be found peering over bridges and has to be reminded to hold on tight. We had enough trouble getting her before Christmas, I'd hate to lose her.

Emily spied this green and shady spot perfect for an afternoon read by the river.

Swing or seat? What a choice.

Following on

Admiring the cows.

Trip trapping over the little bridges.

Following in her jammers footsteps.

Stopping for a rest much to the amusement of passers by (some of whom were helpful enough to offer sticks to prop her up!).

Deciding a dip in the old swimming pool might play havoc with her pink ricrac hair.

Finishing a walk with a trip to the park. My childhood park - complete with steam roller.

I can remember climbing on the roof but Emily was less adventurous.

Emily finished the day with a new experience - a bonfire!

 Little Jam gave all her toys a log to sit on and watch!



One last decision of the day.

'Pink or white Emily?'

 'Pink to match my hair, of course!'