Adelle entered an online competition recently. Up for grabs on the Vintage by Hemingway blog were 3 copies of a Bridget Riley catalogue – and she won!! This is the package that arrived this week.

The catalogue has been produced to accompany an exhibition of the artist’s work being held at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge.

And, taking a quick peek inside, here are a few of Bridget Riley’s classic & influential designs.

We’ll enjoy reading our copy – thanks to the guys at Vintage by Hemingway!

P.S. – The exhibition has just been extended until 31st December 2011.

Here’s a quick follow up to our recent blog post about vintage American road maps.

A few days after we bought them, we also picked up this lovely little Ladybird book.

It’s from the Flight series – this one being, “Flight Three – U.S.A – A Ladybird Book of Travel Adventure”.

This is a first edition, published in 1959.

Alison & John take a trip to the U.S.A where Dad sometimes goes on business trips.

They land in New York and spend a week there – then hire a car and take a a road trip.

As with most Ladybirds from this era, the illustrations are fabulous.

Other destinations in the series include Australia, Canada, Africa, India and The Holy Land.

If we ever manage to do an American road trip in a vintage camper van (or lovely, shiny Airstream!), we’ll have lots of vintage travel ephemera to accompany us… we suspect there might have been a few changes!

The Homemade Home was the subject of our most recent Bookmarks book review.

It brought to mind this pile of craft booklets we picked up at Huddersfield Fleamarket recently.

They’re from the Leisure Craft series.

There seems to be about 40 titles in the set…

…covering a vast array of crafts & hobbies.

…from familiar subjects such as fabric printing, enamel work and collage…

…to more obscure topics such as coconut craft & pipe cleaner figures.

There’s been quite a resurgence in the upcycled, recycled, reworked & handmade in recent years…

…but we’re yet to see throngs of people queueing up for the local coconut craft classes!

The booklets are lovely actually…

…all dating from the late 60s & early 70s.

There are lists of materials and clearly illustrated methods & techniques.

The photographs of finished results are also fab…

…with a very distinctive period feel.

Our particular favourites are the Paper, Scissors & Paste and Batik booklets…

…oh, and that gorgeous little fabric booklet with the pram on it has to get a special mention!

So, no excuses now… time to get crafty!

P.S. Compendiums… compendia… we looked them up, both versions are usable however our spellchecker doesn’t like the latter!

Those of you who have seen photos of our home know that we’re avid collectors of all manner of things.

Which brings us neatly to the second title in our Bookmarks review series, The Way We Live – With the Things We Love by Stafford Cliff & Gilles de Chabaneix and published by Thames & Hudson.

The book celebrates the things with which we fill our houses – and how people express their personality through their homes and the objects they collect.

We’re always looking for imaginative ways to display…

…and this book is full of great ideas.

All the wonderful images, from houses all around the world, were taken by a single photographer, Gilles de Chabaneix, who spent over 40 years photographing domestic interiors.

The book doesn’t try to advise on what objects to collect, but offers inspiration for people who love to rummage at markets, bid at auction or have treasured heirlooms they want to put on show.

Objects ranging from fine art to humble beach-combed finds rub shoulders throughout the book.

From familiar groupings of mirrors and paintings, to much more idiosyncratic collections, such as a wall-full of vintage postcards of rock formations!

It’s a great lazy afternoon or bedtime read, with over 200 pages of inspiring, fascinating and intriguing rooms.

We’ve revisited the book a few times this week which is a good sign… and you do notice new things each time.

The book is one in the Way We Live: series and can also be bought from our Amazon bookshops: UK | US

[Many thanks to Thames & Hudson for supplying this review copy]

We’re very excited to introduce a brand new, regular blog theme – Bookmarks – in which we review books & magazines that have caught our eye. Naturally, the books we choose to feature will be on subjects close to our hearts – such as vintage interior design & decoration, homewares, crafts, furniture and collectables.

Our first title is The Comforts of Home written by Caroline Clifton-Mogg and published by Ryland, Peters & Small.

Clifton-Mogg’s maxim – which runs throughout each chapter – is that making a home calm, cosy and comfortable isn’t hard, shouldn’t be daunting and doesn’t have to be expensive either.

A lot of what she recommends, such as decluttering and having a household cleaning routine, you think you already know and have heard it all before.

But the way in which she puts it makes so much sense, that you may find yourself suddenly whisking piles of stuff off your kitchen table or from your hallway that you’d been oblivious to for months!

Each room in the house is given its own chapter; with advice on how to make them more welcoming, comfortable, peaceful or satisfying.

The book is brimful of glossy, colour photographs of beautiful vignettes…

…there’s page after page of inspiring rooms…

…but these aren’t rooms in unattainable, fantasy homes – all of the looks are easily achievable by us mere mortals!

There are beautiful and practical ideas for storage solutions and showing off your collections of items.

The book was a very enjoyable initial read – and it’s great for dipping back into for tips & ideas.

You can also get a copy of the book from the H is for Home vintage design bookshops -  Amazon astore UK | Amazon astore USA

[Many thanks to Ryland, Peters & Small for supplying this review copy]

Our recent post I is for Ireland featured the This is… series of books by Miroslav Sasek.

In it we promised some more photos from a recent acquisition – This is New York.

The book was published in 1960 and, as per usual, the illustrations are fabulous!

New York is one of those cities that works particularly well…

…with it’s distinctive buildings, day to day goings on and familiar characters.

The artist captures the 1950s/60s era – the sights and the vibrancy of the city.

We had a 10-day holiday there a few years ago. It had changed a bit since Sasek wrote these books but lots of the unmistakable landmarks and energy of the city were still there.

Flicking through these pages reminds us of the great time we had – hopefully we’ll get back there again one day…

…and it would be a real dream to cruise up the Hudson river to arrive in real style!

It’s been a while since we’ve done one of our alphabet blog posts – but the arrival of this book fitted in nicely with where we left off… so, I is for Ireland.

The book is from the This is… series by Miroslav Sasek.

We’ve mentioned him quite a few times in blogs but, any excuse!!

We absolutely adore his stuff!

This is Ireland, published in 1964, is no exception. He captured the quiet countryside and the hustle & bustle of town life with equal charm – the scenery, buildings, characters – day to day life.

It’s been added to our ever growing pile of Sasek books – a pile that shows no sign of abating. Each new book is greeted with the same excited anticipation.

There were two more arrivals this week – This is Israel and This is New York.

They’re both very welcome additions to our collection…

New York in particular lends itself to his stylised characters and distortions of scale – just wonderful! Page after page of classic illustrations. The accompanying words are very sweet too.

We’ll post more illustrations from this particular book – they deserve a post of their own!

In our most recent e-mailout, we featured this somewhat eclectic mix if items seen below.

Amongst them was this fabulous record set… Escuchar y cantar or “Listen & sing”.

It’s a sing-a-long teaching aid for learning traditional Spanish songs, helping with pronunciation etc.

It comprises a set of records and an accompanying booklet written by Raymond N Jacovetti.

It was printed in New York by Holt, Rinehart & Winston and published in 1965.

The most striking feature is the gorgeous illustrations that the booklet is packed with.

They’re by someone called Mac Shepard.

We’ve never come across his work before, but we were immediate converts.

He’s got his own distinctive style, but if we were going to compare him to anyone it would be Bill Charmatz who we’re big fans of… click here to check out the Flickr group we started.

We’re now on the hunt for more examples of Mr Shepard’s artwork!

We wrote a short blog about growing our own recently…

… or our attempts at least!

How about this for the perfect companion?

This fab 1960s garden DIY annual should help. Even looking at the cover makes us want to get out there and dig!

It’s full steam ahead for the new Child’s Play department on the H is for Home shop website – vintage books, toys, room decorations etc. The section should be up & running by this weekend.

These fab vintage pop up books we bought this week will fit in there perfectly.

They all date from the early 1970s and feature some very familiar characters a lot of you will recognise.

The collection includes Trumpton, Noddy, the Wombles and Play School.

For a trip down memory lane have a look at these original opening sequences to their TV incarnations!