Category: vintage
Kitchen Update x
Oh Joy aboundeth! I got home yesterday to see the antique French bookcase sitting in it’s new home for the first time! The builders have done a sublime job incorporating it into the new kitchen..one day it will hold all our crockery and glassware..one day..to say I love it is an understatement. It’s always a dodgy time when you imagine a concept – and you’re pretty sure it’s going to work..but you never know until it’s actually in place. The relief!
The plan is now for all the big units to disappear off to be spray painted whilst the room is decorated and the floor is laid…which has bought on a major paint crisis.
I thought I was blissfully sailing along, all paint decisions for the kitchen made.
Except the spray painters want an RAL number for the colour so they can mix up their own paint with additional hardeners. And I’ve chosen a boutique paint that no-one knows – Madison Grey by Abigail Ahern.
I’m running off now to the paint shop to see if they can help me – the last thing I want to do is to start looking at tester pots again…and of course it’s the big fascinator poker night piss-up party tonight. Always the way…
Laters, Kate x
Free to Roam..
The wander-lust is strong today. Despite spotting my first snowdrops on the way to school drop-off this morning, spring and summer still seem a long way off and the routine feels monotonous.
I just want to pack our bags and head off in a vintage jaguar with crinkled beige leather seats.
I don’t care if it’s a trip to the crisp, cold mountains.
But truth be told, I’d prefer somewhere with colour and sun.
Somewhere where life is simple.
(All pics Pinterest)
It’s probably to much builders dust and not enough vitamin D..
Laters, Kate x
First Step..
There was a brilliant article in the Evening Standard last night about our insatiable appetite for stuff, it described a worker in a plastics factory in China laughing at the crap products being churned out for the international market..only to see the order tripled the following week. It’s all around us..look through a Lakeland catalogue and see some brilliant ideas..but also some entirely superfluous ones, designed just because we think we need them..or (because we always have to show progression) over-engineered designs of something that already worked perfectly fine. But hey, that’s more money for the fat cats economy..particularly when you add in the modern power of build-in-obsolescence..with any luck it’ll break…and we’ll buy it twice!
I’d love to see a move away from vapid accumulation to less is more, quality over substance..and the best changes start at home. The wardrobe is having it’s first attack today…
All nightwear is heading the way of charity or cut up for rags, leaving just two pairs of pajamas and a dressing gown.
It’s a start.
Laters, Kate x
Bees Knees x
In my virtual world, this is what I look like today.
Exif_JPEG
(All pictures Pinterest)
Proving that old is always new….which gives me endless hope!
Laters, Kate x
Transforming teatowels..
Thank you to Kerry for my fabulous vintage tea towel, as model by Bella in our temporary kitchen!
I won my teatowel by getting the nearest guess to how many of these Kerry had made in a jar. She’s making 3,000 of them to turn into a bedspread…she’s that kinda gal – articulate, dextrous, imaginative..and can just make the most beautiful things, from hand woven blankets to mouth watering chocolates..and she also runs her own Etsy shop selling vintage linens. She truly is one in a million…if you click on the link now, there’s even a recipe for toffee which I can guarantee to be utterly delicious.
We’ll be turning these (an extra thank you!) into decorations for our first fake Christmas tree EVER. It’s in the garden right now…but when the builders leave us, it’s coming in, if only for a few days. And covered with all things home made.
As for the tea towel..I’m almost loathed the use it. It’s in such glorious shape/colour/nick, I feel, it’s like a much loved sheep dog or dog for the blind, that after a hard, fulfilling life it needs a good retirement. I’m tempted to turn it into a cushion, a bit like Julie from VintageAttitude did for me with my Grandmother’s tea cosy..(and yes..it will be complete with pom poms Dievca!) I can just see it as an elegant, refined bolster on our bed.
The two cushions I bought from Julie also started life as tea towels…
Food for thought hey…
Laters, Kate x
Foxy Lady x
All I want for Christmas is a Christmas tree..but it’s not going to happen..there’s no space and it’ll just get covered in dust. But I might compromise with a fox scarf..I like the play on the vintage look. I’ve seen children’s versions, which could be like a neck scarf. But personally I like the longer, Tom-Baker-Doctor-Who ones..
This one promises to be soft, strong and very, very long.
(All links to examples can be found on Pinterest)
A girl can dream..
Laters, Kate x
Best Christmas Craft EVER!
Bella and I had a festive Saturday afternoon covered in glue ‘n’ glitter, making our own Christmas cloche dioramas…they were so simple…yet so satisfying!
In amongst our renovation/building chaos we gathered all our bits together: A glue gun, uhu glue, foam plates, plastic wine glasses, glitter and all the little Christmas ornaments we could find.
We carefully, using a sharp knife, cut the end of the plastic wine glasses off, and cut out oversized circles from the foam plates.
Then we arranged and glued on our festive scenes.
The upturned glasses were glued down and had glitter added through the still open stems.
Finally they were topped and glued with the hanging part of an unwanted bauble and the bottoms trimmed off.
So effective.
Such fun!
Making them together and seeing them all…just made us smile.. and want to make more and more!
If you can..just do it!
Laters, Kate x
Crystal Balls….
There’s a change in the wind..can you smell it? It’s something I didn’t think I’d sense again, but it’s there and getting stronger. Like the White Witch of Narnia, the power of the White-Company-scandi-minimalist-Christmas is finally waning and being replaced with bright, retro, seventies glam. This year on my tables, all the candles will be warm…and red…
Fairy lights will be multicoloured and loud.
And the tree will be smothered in tinsel and those funny silver threads once again.
It’s time to embrace the kitsch and the vulgar..
Out with the bland and in with the true!
Laters, Kate x
These boots were made for walking..
If less is more and more is less, then a pair of Docs has to be a must for winter.
The do-anything-go-anywhere-shoe that can actually take a pounding and, like the best things in life, get better with age.
That’s one part of the winter uniform ticked off then..
Laters, Kate x
Back-splash x
There’s still a long way to go, but I’ve learnt in this house renovation game to always be ahead of the curve in the decision making – there’s nothing worse than the pressure of time forcing a choice, so the current obsession is kitchen splashbacks.
Question: Did you choose your favourite based on the actual splashback…or which kitchen you preferred? (casing point, the pic above..nice tiles, shame about the curtains…)
Laters, Kate x
Maison Bentley Style 