Archive for the ‘diy’ Category

Crafty Compendiums

Monday, March 7th, 2011

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Pile of vintage craft booklets

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

 

cover of a vintage craft booklet showing carved wooden animals

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

pages from a vintage craft booklet showing hand carved wooden bull pages from a vintage craft booklet showing hand carved wooden fox

pages from a vintage craft booklet showing hand carved wooden rhino pages from a vintage craft booklet showing hand carved wooden elephant

pages from a vintage craft booklet showing hand carved wooden ram pages from a vintage craft booklet showing hand carved wooden seal

They’re from the Leisure Craft series.

cover of a vintage craft booklet on how to do batik

page from a vintage craft booklet showing batik composition

There seems to be about 40 titles in the set…

page from a vintage craft booklet showing a cartoon type illustration of a person crafting

pages from a vintage craft booklet showing how to do batik

pages from a vintage craft booklet showing how to do batik

…covering a vast array of crafts & hobbies.

cover of a vintage craft booklet on how to decorate glass bottles

page from a vintage craft booklet showing decorated glass jars

pages from a vintage craft booklet on how to decorate glass bottles

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

cover of a vintage craft booklet on how to make clay items

pages from a vintage craft booklet on how to make clay candle holders

page from a vintage craft booklet showing handmade pot page from a vintage craft booklet showing handmade teapot

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

page from a vintage craft booklet showing collection handmade pots

cover of a vintage craft booklet on how to do collage

page from a vintage craft booklet showing felt lions

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

pages from a vintage craft booklet on how to do collage

pages from a vintage craft booklet showing an illustration of a parade of shops

cover of a vintage craft booklet showing how to make hand made jewellery

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

page from a vintage craft booklet showing crafting tools

pages from a vintage craft booklet on how to make handmade jewellery

The booklets are lovely actually…

pages from a vintage craft booklet on how to make handmade jewellery pages from a vintage craft booklet on how to make handmade jewellery

pages from a vintage craft booklet on how to make handmade jewellery

cover of a vintage craft booklet showing how to use fabrics

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

pages from a vintage craft booklet showing how to do block printing

pages from a vintage craft booklet showing how to do block printing on clothing

page from a vintage craft booklet on showing an illustrated book cover and red lamp with shade

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

cover of a vintage craft booklet 'How to paint with Lacquer

pages from a vintage craft booklet on how to make handmade jewellery pages from a vintage craft booklet on how to make handmade jewellery

page from a vintage craft booklet showing enamelware boat

The photographs of finished results are also fab…

pages from a vintage craft booklet on how to make handmade jewellery

page from a vintage craft booklet showing enamelware jewellery

cover of a vintage craft booklet 'Paper, Scissors and Paste

…with a very distinctive period feel.

pages from a vintage craft booklet showing an alphabet illustration

pages from a vintage craft booklet showing two figures for hanging keys

page from a vintage craft booklet showing peacock and three wise men illustrations

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

page from a vintage craft booklet showing nativity scene illustrations

page from a vintage craft booklet showing train and countryside scene

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

page from a vintage craft booklet showing greeting card illustrations

cover of a vintage craft booklet 'Tinfoil Decorations

So, no excuses now… time to get crafty!

page from a vintage craft booklet showing tinfoil starbursts

page from a vintage craft booklet showing tinfoil decorations

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

Darn it!

Sunday, October 10th, 2010

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vintage Frears "Tea Time" Christmas assorted biscuit tin

In our last post we talked about a pleasant little surprise we had when we opened an old tin… well it’s just happened again. We saw this lovely, vintage Christmas biscuit tin in our local Picture House Antiques today.

detail of vintage Frears "Tea Time" Christmas assorted biscuit tin

We’d already decided to snap it up for the tin alone. However, the price tag said that contents were included.

vintage Frears "Tea Time" Christmas assorted biscuit tin with its lid off showing its contents to be vintage darning materials

What a lovely surprise to find all this inside…

vintage darning mushroom, scissors and pocket darning kit

…everything you might need for a bit of darning…

set of 6 vintage bundles of darning wool in shades of green and yellow

…including tools and lovely old yarns.

collection of vintage Chadwick's darning wools

Almost looking forward to getting holes in our socks!!!

Garden Helper

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

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vintage "Do it Yourself Gardening Annual 1960"

We wrote a short blog about growing our own recently…

detail of vintage gardening annual from 1960

… or our attempts at least!

detail from vintage 1960s gardening annual

How about this for the perfect companion?

cover from vintage 1960s gardening annual

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

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Growing our own

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

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flat leaf parsley and coriander growing on a windowsill

This year we decided to grow more of our own – and we’ve got no excuse, as Todmorden‘s the home of Incredible Edible.

strawberries growing in a vintage terracotta strawberry pot

We have a variety of crops to look forward to in the coming weeks.

homegrown beetroot in vintage enamel breadbinhomegrown peashoots grown in vintage metal bucket

Most of them are growing in containers as much of our garden is paved with stone cobbles. It also makes protecting them from the ubiquitous slugs & snails much easier.

tomato plants growing in a vintage mini greenhouse

We use lots of the old galvanised metal ‘dolly tubs’, buckets and bins.

courgette flowers in a vintage metal dolly tub

The plants seem to like it!

potato plants overflowing from a vintage metal dolly tub just outside the kitchen doorpink stems of rhubarb growing out of a vintage metal dolly tub

Potatoes, beetroot, carrots, tomatoes, rhubarb, strawberries, broccoli, courgettes, squash, peashoots, salad leaves, a variety of herbs – and yes, those are figs.

tiny fruits growing on a fig tree

There’s still a little room for some flowers.

lilac coloured osteospermum growing in a vintage metal bucket

pink lupins growing in a vintage dolly tubpink lupins growing in a vintage dolly tub

Perennials like the hostas, astilbes and lupins return each year like old friends. Although this year’s harsh winter saw a few losses.

purple lobelia growing in a vintage metal bucket

red geraniums just about ready to flower

To these we add a few annuals – osteospermums,  lobelia and the like.

hosta leaves

pink fox glove about to flower growing next to a giant ribbed terracotta urnyoung purple shoots of astilbe plants

We’ve enjoyed working in the garden this year. We don’t think self-sufficiency is here just yet – but hopefully we’ll reap some rewards!

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Cupboard love

Saturday, May 1st, 2010

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detail of vintage contents of renovated 1960s wood & Formica kitchen cabinet

This kitchen cupboard/kitchenette has been this week’s little renovation project.

vintage 1960s kitchen cabinet prior to renovationdetail of 1960s kitchen cabinet prior to renovation
detail of top of 1960s kitchen cabinet prior to renovation

We collected it from a garage in Wakefield – and set about giving it a bit of TLC.

First of all it got a good wash inside & out. The original red Formica was very faded and mottled, so we repainted it in a lovely vintage green…

view of fully renovated 1960s wood & Formica kitchen cabinet when empty

…and lined the shelves with a chintzy oil cloth.

vintage 1960s wood & Formica kitchen fully renovated and stocked with vintage kitchen items and put for sale on the H is for Home pitch at Picture House Antiques in Todmorden

It’s now standing in our Picture House Antiques Centre pitch waiting for someone to give it a new home -  in the meantime, it’s great for display.

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