Price Points: Hand fans

Hand fans

We’ve just had an unbelievably hot spell of weather. Temperatures broke records, and getting on with daily life was unbearable. When you’re at home, you can rely on a desk, floor or ceiling fan, but what do you do when you’re out and about? Pop a hand fan in your bag or pocket!

Sitting on a hot, stuffy bus or train is made that much more manageable with a fan to help cool you down. If you’re lucky enough to be sitting around a pool or on a beach – waving a hand fan means you don’t have to get into the water to cool down if you don’t want to.

The watermelon fan is my favourite – I hate the taste of the real thing – but this fan is so playful and just screams hot summer days!

  1. Chinese sandalwood folding hand fan: £0.99, Confetti Shop
  2. Portable bladeless mini hand-held fan, USB chargeable: £4.59 eBay
  3. Watermelon slice print fabric and wood folding fan: £12.74, Etsy

shop hand fans

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Prices & links correct at time of publication.

Watermelon slice print fabric and wood folding fan
Watermelon slice print fabric and wood folding fan
£12.74
Portable bladeless mini hand-held fan, USB chargeable
Portable bladeless mini hand-held fan, USB chargeable
£4.59
Chinese sandalwood folding hand fan
Chinese sandalwood folding hand fan
£0.99
Watermelon slice print fabric and wood folding fan
Watermelon slice print fabric and wood folding fan
£12.74
Portable bladeless mini hand-held fan, USB chargeable
Portable bladeless mini hand-held fan, USB chargeable
£4.59
Chinese sandalwood folding hand fan
Chinese sandalwood folding hand fan
£0.99
Watermelon slice print fabric and wood folding fan
Watermelon slice print fabric and wood folding fan
£12.74
Portable bladeless mini hand-held fan, USB chargeable
Portable bladeless mini hand-held fan, USB chargeable
£4.59
Chinese sandalwood folding hand fan
Chinese sandalwood folding hand fan
£0.99
Watermelon slice print fabric and wood folding fan
Watermelon slice print fabric and wood folding fan
£12.74
Portable bladeless mini hand-held fan, USB chargeable
Portable bladeless mini hand-held fan, USB chargeable
£4.59
Chinese sandalwood folding hand fan
Chinese sandalwood folding hand fan
£0.99
Watermelon slice print fabric and wood folding fan
Watermelon slice print fabric and wood folding fan
£12.74
Portable bladeless mini hand-held fan, USB chargeable
Portable bladeless mini hand-held fan, USB chargeable
£4.59
Chinese sandalwood folding hand fan
Chinese sandalwood folding hand fan
£0.99

Putting Britain on the map

Collection of vintage British maps | H is for Home

We’ll certainly have no excuses if our knowledge of home isn’t up to scratch any more. We recently made a bulk purchase of about 20 large vintage school wall maps. Produced by G W Bacon in the 1950s, many feature the British Isles – and cover every aspect of its geography – towns, roads, railways, population density, industries, geology, rivers, relief, contours, isotherms, isobars and rainfall.

It’s been very enjoyable sorting through them. They’re 60 years old – so slightly out-of-date in some respects, but no less interesting. It’s often the differences between ‘then & now’ found on these old maps & globes that are fascinating. The ‘traditional industry’ map illustrates this perfectly. If you click on each image you can view them in greater detail.

Vintage 'Reduced' school wall map of England & Wales Vintage 'Rainfall & Isobars' school wall map of the UK Vintage 'Railway' school wall map of England & Wales Vintage 'Population' school wall map of the UK Vintage 'Physical' school wall map of England & Wales Vintage 'Isotherms' school wall map of the UK Vintage 'Industry' school wall map of the UK Vintage 'Industrial' school wall map of England & Wales Vintage 'Contours' school wall map of the UK Vintage 'Communications' school wall map of the UK Vintage 'Bold feature' school wall map of England & Wales

In addition to their educational value, these vintage maps are also very decorative in terms of graphic design and colour. They look great in a library, study or office space. We’ve hung a row of them along a long hallway. We’re going to keep a few and sell a few of this particular batch. Some have gone into our antiques centre space and we’ve also listed 3 or 4 on eBay this week.

Gimme Five! Outdoor thermometers

'Gimme Five' blog post banner

selection of 5 outdoor thermometers

The weather’s been all over the place in the past few weeks. The summer started with long hot sunny days then things became far more unpredictable; the remnants of a hurricane blew in from the US, there were hailstones in Hove and we’ve just had the coldest August bank holiday on record.

I’ve learnt from bitter (literally!) experience that just because the sun’s out doesn’t mean it’s warm. Or that rain means it will be cold. One big help with choosing outdoor attire has been the thermometer we have in our back garden, just outside the kitchen window. We can peak through the glass and see just how warm or cold it actually is. You’ll never go out over or under-dressed again!

There are quite a few outdoor thermometers available on the net. You can even find full-on weather stations if you’re that way inclined! As well as temperature, they measure humidity, rainfall, wind speed & direction, sunrise & sunset times, phase of the moon… We’re not that weather obsessed – a basic thermometer will suffice! 🙂

  1. Annecy thermometer: £18, Garden Trading
  2. Giverny thermometer: £10, Notonthehighstreet
  3. Filigree thermometer: £9.99 Primrose
  4. Gooseberry thermometer: £26.50, John Lewis
  5. Giant solar garden thermometer: £9.99, Coopers of Stortford