Month: March 2013

Charity Vintage: vintage 50s kitchen cupboard with warming drawer

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permalink to a vintage 1950s kitchen cupboard with warming drawer being sold on eBay for Charity in support of South Leeds Alternative Trading Enterprise Limited
(Ends 10 Mar 2013, 12:42 GMT)

This vintage 50s kitchen cupboard is just our sort of thing. It’s a good, compact size; practical & useful with several drawers, doors & compartments – one of which is for keeping your plates & food warm; and sturdily made – as the item description states, “built to last not flat pack rubbish”. It’s being sold in support of SLATE*, so if you’re local to Leeds – this could be for you!

*The aim of South Leeds Alternative Trading Enterprise Limited (SLATE) is to run businesses in inner-city South Leeds for the social, environmental and economic benefit of the people of the area and of providing work opportunities for people with learning difficulties

Gail Kelly calendar

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black & white cover of Gail Kelly's 2013 calendar featuring a linocut oak tree and acorns

Yes, it’s March, but we’ve only just got round to getting ourselves a 2013 calendar. We have high standards & requirements, you see, when it comes to choosing our annual calendar – it needs to be long & narrow as it has to fit the little strip of wall just inside the front door…

Gail Kelly's 2013 calendar hanging in our porch with white jug of yellow tulips and small vintage milk bottles

…it also needs to be attractive – no fluffy, cutesy pictures of animals much as we love them; no pop stars (Justin Bieber or Cliff Richard just won’t cut the mustard!); no artistic/moody/atmospheric shots of castles/ruins/seascapes/mountains; no humour (who wants to hear the same joke every day for a month?). We trawled Etsy, Folksy and Notonthehighstreet and eventually came across this Gail Kelly calendar.

wild cherry tree black & white linocut illustration beech tree black & white linocut illustration
willow tree black & white linocut illustration apple tree black & white linocut illustration

We first fell in love with Gail’s linocut illustrations when we saw her at the British Craft Trade Fair in Harrogate about 5 years ago. We’ve been stocking her tree greeting cards at H is for Home ever since!

Gimme Five! Leather beanbags

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selection of five brown leather beanbags

Our 10-week stint staying in temporary accommodation at the end of last year coincided with Fudge’s leg being broken. This meant at least one of us spending a great deal of time lying beside him on the floor: a) to stop him jumping on to and off of the sofas & armchairs of our short-term holiday let and b) to stop him re-injuring himself in the process.

Luckily, the house we stayed in had a beanbag that came in useful when keeping Fudge company on the floor. We were surprised at how comfortable it was and our preconception of them being student bedsit stalwarts also vanished. So much so, that we’re considering getting a leather beanbag of our own! Here are the 5 best we’ve come across.

  1. Leather Sofa Beanbag: The Lounge About Company, £475
  2. Real Leather Large 150cm Slob Slab© Bean Sofa Bean bag: rucomfy, £299
  3. Mulberry Home Chestnut Leather Bean Bag: Amara Living, £892
  4. Sao Luis: CoziBag Bean Bags, £239
  5. ICON™ Real Leather XXL Gaming Bean Bag Recliner: BeanBag Bazaar, £179.99

Wednesday Wish: Wilton Bake Even Strips

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Wilton bake even strips

Over the past couple of months, I’ve been busy baking lots of bread & cakes and getting to know our new oven. I discovered Wilton Bake Even Strips over on Amazon last week and never even knew a thing like this even existed!

All you need to do is soak one in a bit of water and wrap it around the circumference of your cake tin before it goes into the oven. Apparently, it stops your cake from cracking on the top (something that cheesecakes are especially prone to) or forming that little hillock in the centre. Just the trick for achieving perfectly flat cakes needed for beautiful looking iced tops and jam-filled layers!