Taking a break

Hi All

We're moving house yet again - it's only been 11 months since the last move - one of the down sides of renting in this country. Anyhoo, I'm going to be taking a break from this blog and from my Etsy shop.

I've really enjoyed blogging and running the shop but lately I've had more and more demands on my time. Good things mostly - things that I'd like to concentrate on for a while. Sadly, this means that I've put my shop on vacation and won't be posting any more blogs - at least for a few months. I'll continue to sell some vintage on Ebay and plan to do a couple of car boot sales in the Trowbridge area. I'm having a huge cull of possessions so that I can start my new home with less 'stuff'!

So, I'm going to move to our new home, enjoy settling in and concentrate on yoga, music and crafts. I'll continue to post on my English Rose Vintage Facebook page so do pop over there and 'like' it and you'll continue to see what I'm up to! 

Thank you for dropping by and taking the time to read my ramblings ...

Best wishes

Melanie

Pretty Pomanders

Hi there

Last weekend we spent a day at the Hay Festival and the next day explored a little of the Forest of Dean. The Festival was lovely, relaxed, interesting and in beautiful surroundings. We listened to a talk by Alex Bellos (a journalist with an interest in maths) about people's emotional responses to numbers, which was fascinating. But we were mainly there to see Jim Al-Khalili, president of the British Humanist Association, giving a talk about humanism and atheism. He was very eloquent on the subject and it was lovely to feel the response of the audience to his talk. Next year I think we should try and go for longer. There are so many interesting things going on at Hay.

We drove slowly home the next day, via the Forest of Dean. It was one of those lush, warm sunny days when everything looks full-on, green, abundant. We stopped off at a craft centre and I picked up a collection of pretty vintage pomanders from a vintage shop.

Faded blooms and faded scents - I love these ceramic pomanders. I'm tempted to keep a couple for myself but I've started listing some in my Etsy shop. 

Hope you are having a peaceful and happy weekend.

Melanie

Fabulous Facebook Necklace Giveaway

Hi folks

Well, I promised a giveaway when I reached 50 Likes on my Facebook page and now we've reached 50 and gone beyond. As a thank you to all those who follow me I'm giving away this beautiful 1950s emerald green necklace. Pop to the bottom of this posting to see how to win!

The light and dark green stones are prong set in a gold-tone setting and hang from a 15 1/2 inch chain. 

I think that it would look great worn in the evening but it would also look fabulous with a simple shirt or little cardigan during the daytime.

If you want to have a chance of winning just Like my Facebook page (if you haven't already) and leave a Comment under the Necklace Giveaway posting. We'll be putting all the names into a hat and Mr T will draw the winner on Wednesday evening at 8.00pm. Don't forget to leave a Comment on the Facebook posting though or you won't be included.

Good luck to all!

Melanie

English Rose Vintage

Thanks

Hi folks

Been rather poorly for the last week so have been mostly sleeping with occasional spells of reading Lord Peter Wimsey or watching made for TV Christmas movies. I was planning to start getting the house ready for Christmas - the decorations are out of the loft and the living room is now cleared of all my vintage stash, so we're ready to get going. I just need a bit more energy first! Think we will pop up the road to the local garden centre for our tree this afternoon and we can slowly make a start. I expect the rest of the day will be spent snuggled on the sofa.

Thank you to all the lovely customers we had at the Frome Super Market last Sunday. We had a brilliant day and had lots of sales too. I enjoyed interacting with customers and it was interesting to see the sort of things people were looking for. We'll be back at the markets in the Spring and I should have a bigger and better collection of goodies by then too.

Take care folks!

Melanie Melanie
English Rose Vintage

Open for business

I got the bed. We picked it up yesterday and after a lot of huffing and swearing managed to put it together. It takes up quite a bit of the spare bedroom but as it serves as a day bed, pulls out into a double and has massive drawers for storage, it's going to prove a really useful bit of furniture. It's a perfect lounging spot for reading and snoozing too - I've tested it already. I covered it with a quilt I made with Hawaiian fabric years ago and a couple of cushions and throws for snuggling.

The other good news is the English Rose Vintage shop is open for business again at last. Best of all, Etsy has finally rolled out the facility to accept credit card payments and Etsy Gift Cards to the UK - thanks Etsy! So now it is possible to buy an Etsy Gift Card to be used in our shop or pay for your goods by card instead of PayPal.

I mentioned before that I'd already made some great vintage discoveries for the shop since we moved. Here's a sneaky preview of my favourites. 

I was very excited when I got my hands on these beautiful petit point boxes and tray.

There are two gilt boxes with hand stitched petit point flower panels in different designs. The petit point is in lovely condition as both have been protected by their original plastic covers. The covers need a bit of a clean up to show off the stitching to best advantage so I shall be doing that before I list them.

The tray is quite beautiful, with an embroidered central panel surrounded by lace held between two pieces of glass in a gilt frame. 

Such a pretty set. Can't wait to get these in the shop, although they would look so good on my new dressing table. I must resist temptation...

I have plans for a revamp of the shop soon. I'm working on a new look including banner, avatar, etc. The plan is to use some lino cutting equipment I received as a gift to make my own design, which I will print onto business cards, postcards, tea towels, and anything else I can think of or get my hands on. My aim for this week is to transfer my first design to the lino block and cut it out. I will show you the results - even if it's a disaster!

  

From B to B

Hi all

Things have been a little quiet on the blog for a while and I've temporarily shut down my English Rose Vintage Etsy shop - but there's a good reason for this - I've got a new job in Bath and we're moving house! Bath is such a beautiful city - we really can't wait to get over there. It also has great associations for us as we took our honeymoon there back in 2000. So life has consisted of packing boxes and bubble wrap for the last few weeks and there's been lots of driving back and forth between Basingstoke and Bath.

We're going to have much more space than we do now and I have lots of plans. I've even been making scaled drawings of the rooms on squared paper and moving around little paper versions of our furniture. Does anyone else do this - my husband thinks I'm hilarious! I find myself lying awake at night, not worrying about the new job or the move, but planning cushion covers, colour schemes and furniture restorations.

Just a few miles from our new home is the fantastic Glove Factory Cafe in Holt. I can see this becoming a firm favourite.

The food is amazing and I love the colourful origami bird mobiles. Next time we go I will even think to take some pictures of the food - I'm afraid I was so hungry and it was so delicious I'd eaten it before it occurred to me. The old factory buildings in Holt are fabulous too.

I'm planning a relaunch of the shop once we are a bit more settled and I can find everything again. I have plans for a new banner and logo - which will depend a lot on learning a new skill - more on that later! I must get off now and do some more tidying and packing. 

Aren't these little fellows adorable?

I saw them under the sink in the cafe loos

they look so sad and forlorn

I may have to go back and rescue some ...

Bye bye peeps,

Take care

Victorian Calligraphy

Hi again!

I thought I would quickly share with you this Victorian (1878) legal document that I've just listed in the English Rose Vintage shop.

It's quite a beauty! Three very large pages (about 26 x 21 inches) of lovely calligraphy on vellum including signatures and various seals and stamps.

The pages are still joined at the bottom by fabric ties, held in place on the front with red wax seals. It would be relatively simple to separate the sheets so that they could be framed separately. There seems to be plenty of information online about taking creases out of vellum, although I've never tried this myself. I'd be interested to know if anyone has done this.

The document relates to a Mortgage of property in Marylebone (then in Middlesex) on behalf of Mr Frederick Mark and Messrs Constable Curtis and Frederick S Clarkson. It is for £1,500, which would have been a very considerable sum in the Victorian era. I had a lot of fun trying to find these characters online and managed to trace some information regarding the Constable Curtis family as that is such a distinctive name. There is a record of a Constable Curtis who died on 30th March 1909 at The Hall, Great Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. He was a retired Captain of the 12th Royal Lancers and left the huge sum of c. £59,000 in his estate. I think this is the same person, as the Mortgage was witnessed by Edward Constable Curtis (Gentleman), Constable's eldest son.

A fascinating piece of history that I think would look wonderful mounted into antique frames. There are also endless possibilities for scanning the document and using this gorgeous calligraphy in crafting projects such as decoupage.

I'm planning another treasure hunt tomorrow morning so there will be no lie-in for me this Sunday! 

Whatever you're up to this weekend, have a happy time,

M 

Very Juicy

Howdy peeps!

I'm going to be listing some new treasures in the shop over the coming weeks so here's a sneaky look at something new in the English Rose Vintage shop today. It's 8.00am and I've done something useful already today - woo hoo!

This little ceramic citrus juicer has tiny little bunches of purple flowers on the inside and 'A Present from Evesham' in gold lettering on the outside. 

It's quite a delicate little juicer, at just over 3" across, and is perfect for gently squeezing lemon on a fillet of fish or squeezing a little lemon in your tea.

I'm hoping to get out to do some more treasure hunting this weekend - hope this gorgeous weather keeps up a little longer!

Take care

M

Coming soon!

Hello my dears. I've been busy researching some of the treasures I brought home on Sunday from my Boot Fair trip and I thought you might enjoy a little taster of my discoveries before they are all listed in the Etsy shop.

 

 

The beautiful blue earrings with silver screw-backs, the vintage papier mache box with pretty floral lid and the 1950s leather gloves are already in the store and the rest should hopefully follow soon. I'm currently researching the very large Victorian mortgage document - and jolly interesting stuff it is too! 

Springish!

Hello there my darlings! Hope you all had an enjoyable Easter. I had a wee break from work, which I spent at home with my sweet man. We kept to our new 'tradition' and treated ourselves to some delicious chocolate from our favourite chocolate shop in Henley. Of course, we just had to indulge in a cup of steaming hot Madagascan chocolate while we were there too! Absolutely yummy, and all the better for being served in dainty vintage cups. I also spent a little time making some truffles to take to my work chums before we went on our hols.

 

I made up a simple ganache of cream and chocolate and piped little blobs onto a tray when it was beginning to set. A short stay in the fridge and they were ready to roll into balls and cover in toasted coconut, toasted nuts or cocoa powder mixed with icing sugar.

 

 

Needless to say, they didn't hang around long!

 

I also dusted off my broom and gave the house a thorough going over - and then stood back to admire my handiwork.

 

 

We added some Spring flowers and almost convinced ourselves that Spring had actually arrived!

 

Great news! Today I went to my first boot sale of the year! Hurrah! The sun actually shone and, although it was a little breezy, I had lots of fun browsing the various stalls and unearthed some wonderful treasures for my Etsy shop. Some are in there already so why not pop over and take a look?

 

Have a lovely week!



  

Get some inspiration

Spent a very full day listing new Vintage Inspiration kits and smaller trim and button kits in the English Rose Vintage shop today. I've also begun listing a whole bunch of vintage buttons and there are more to follow very soon.

Here's a little taster of what is already in the shop. Have a lovely weekend!

100!

Passed a milestone this weekend with my 100th sale at English Rose Vintage! Thank you so much to everyone who has bought, favourited, treasured or simply popped in to take a look around. This lovely starburst brooch - sale 100 - is wending it's way to a  new home.

 

 

And we have the perfect excuse to pop open a bottle of something fizzy ...

 

Thank you!

New Look

I hope you like the new look.

It may have taken me about five hours but I finally have a new banner for my English Rose Vintage shop on Etsy, a new avatar and updated looks for my Twitter account and this blog. Phew!

I've wanted a more cohesive look for a while but thanks to a new book I picked up yesterday (How to Sell Your Crafts Online by Derrick Sutton) I've been inspired to get on with it. So far so useful!

Work in progress

Gosh I've been a very poor blogger lately. I apologise for my lack of communication but much of my spare time has been taken up teaching myself how to make resin jewellery. From some uninspiring beginnings I am at last creating things that I love.

These are my latest bangles - waiting to be sanded and finished.

The clear greeny coloured one was made from a mould I bought on Etsy but the blue ones are made from my own silicone moulds made using vintage bangles.

I love this lavender blue colour and the simple shape of the bangle. I've made these using bio-resin, which is sourced as a co-product or from waste streams of other industrial processes and has a significantly reduced carbon footprint than other types of resin.

I've been experimenting with suspending real gold and silver leaf in the resin and love the results this is giving. 

 

 

I have a lot more to learn and my next challenge is to polish the rough edges to a shiny finish. By the end of the evening I hope to have something I can wear to work tomorrow!

Happy New Year!

Well, I know there has been a bit of a hiatus in my blogging since way before Christmas so it's high time that I picked up where I left off. I hope you all had a good break, if you had one. We had a lovely long holiday at home and it was tough going back to work in January. The Etsy shop was busy with sales up to Christmas - much to my surprise - so I was kept busy wrapping and posting vintage goodies across the world. Now I need to find the time to list some more of my vintage treasures. I've got some wonderful things stashed away so more on those later.

 

In the meantime I've found myself becoming hooked on a new craft. I have plans afoot for a new Etsy shop, provided my experimentation works out ok! I'm having lots of fun but there's a lot to learn. I'll tell you more about this as we go - for now I'll just say it involves a lot of mixing, colouring and gold leaf. Such fun!

 

Hope all those in good old blighty are enjoying the snow - take care on those icy roads and pavements and remember to feed the little birdies!

Ginger on tap

I found this great book a little while ago in a small antique fair and have finally listed it in the shop.

When I was young I thought one day I might be a brilliant tap dancer. Sadly this was not to be, possibly something to do with having size 8 feet. I pictured myself elegantly tapping away like Ginger Rogers but in reality never learnt any of the more complicated moves. There was still a great feeling to be had though tapping away on the kitchen floor and I miss that.

 

 

I thought about taking it up again as an adult but, as most of the beginners classes available were for young children and the only adult class I found was filled with ladies in leotards who looked as if they'd been doing it all their lives, I never quite had the nerve.

 

 

I was so chuffed when I found this 1930s book on how to tap dance at a small antique fair last year and I couldn't believe it when I leafed through and saw these illustrations of the moves featuring a very young looking, dark-haired Ginger Rogers.

 

 

 

There are 39 lessons in all, each with photos, written instructions and a short musical score. As well as Ginger there are several young starlets of the day including Lonita Foster, Catherine O'Neil, Eunice Healy, Eleanor Coll, Raye Davis and Betty Nylander - all sporting natty little outfits. This illustration of Dorothy Dare in a spotty number and matching headscarf is one of my favourites.

 

 

I've discovered that some of these girls had brief careers on the stage or in films in the 1930s but many are sadly lost to history. Such a shame - I wonder what happened to them?

 

 

Such a charming book and, although I may never take up tap again, I feel inspired to sit back on the sofa with a bowl of popcorn and watch my old Fred and Ginger movies. Bliss.

 

 

 

 

Blue Birds

Vintage tins are great for storage and these two lovely old toffee tins look good and are a useful size too. Made in the 1950s or 60s, these tins once held a luxury selection of Blue Bird Toffees. Part of the treasure I found at a car boot fair a couple of weeks ago, both are now listed in my Etsy shop.

 

 

One has a great Chinoiserie design on the top and red/gold designs on the sides.

 

 

The other is decorated with pictures of English castles.

 

 

Both tins have a bright orange design on the inside of the lid, bearing the Blue Bird logo and company address.

 

 

Blue Bird Confectionery was founded in Worcestershire, England in 1898 by Harry Vincent. Their toffee was originally called Harvino but Harry changed the name to Blue Bird after watching Maeterlink's play 'The Blue Bird of Happiness'. The company left the West Midlands in 1998 and became part of Needler's. Unfortunately, the toffees are no longer made as Needler's was purchased by Ashbury confectionery in 2002 and all previous Blue Bird lines were discontinued.