1950s Kitchen at Basildon Park

My lovely parents came to visit at the weekend so the hubby and I thought it would be nice to take them on an afternoon out to the beautiful Basildon Park.  Basildon Park has an impressive Georgian Manor surrounded by glorious parkland. The property was restored in the 1950s by Lord and Lady Iliffe.  Sadly hubby and I didn't get to see the interior of the house because the little Mr was being fussy, he didn't want to be carried and we weren't allowed to take the pushchair in, so we strolled around the gardens while my parents looked round the house.   When they came out my mum excitedly told me about 1950s kitchen in the house and said that I would love it, I couldn't leave without having at least a quick look so we went it the exit and up to the kitchen. It was the best thing ever!  Complete with a woman dressed in a 1950s apron baking biscuits!  I whizzed round taking photos of the vintage loveliness and now I want to paint all my kitchen cupboards green and attach aluminium handles.

Fantastic picnic hamper, I actually saw one of these in a charity shop once but couldn't justify buying it when we have such a small house and no where to keep it.

Lovely range cooker,

 Original 1950s recipe books,

 Fabulous mixer,

 1950s house wife? loving the apron,

Look at the cupboards, just look at them, love love love, the colour is fantastic, they were metal and beautiful,

 How fun is this mixer cover?

A cupboard full of 1950s goodies,

Love this tea set, and is such beautiful condition,

There was also a 1950s living room set up in the stable block, how awesome are these chairs? Actually saw some like this in a junk shop a while ago,

Do you love the 1950s?  I would love to go back there, except for the sexism of course.  What did you do this weekend?

Mid-Century Modern furniture with a contemporary twist

A few weeks ago (before the little Mr arrived) hubby and I were out and about on the lookout for a piece of second hand furniture to use as a changing table for the nursery.  During our search through Reading we came across a lovely man selling upcycled, restored retro vintage furniture in his studio/workshop 23 Chairs and I was in love.  Sadly the pieces were out of our price range (but only just, and they were well worth the price he was asking) so all I could do was drool over them and share them with you!

Restored dining table with pain detail on top,

 Restored sideboard with paint detail on the front, love this,

 How amazing is this? Do you love it? I think the paint work is brilliant, makes it really contemporary,

 Love the colour of this formica chest of drawers and the curved lamiante wood.

You can check out more of this guy's furniture on his website here.

Hope you are all having a good week my lovelies.

Maternity leave days ten to fourteen

The baby's room is coming together.  I spent literally hours trying to sew a ruffle for the bedroom curtain, after much swearing and two broken needles I finally made it!

Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, I took them on my little camera. 

Basically I had the curtain already and I simply appliquéd some coloured fabric onto it and onto the tabs at the top.  That part was really tricky actually, but I am pretty pleased with the results, although they aren't perfect, but then neither am I.

I also strung up some bunting that I made in co-ordinating fabric, I got the colour way from the Jamboree range at Mamas and Papas:

On Friday I picked up some sample paint pots from B&Q that matched in too.  I have a small wooden trolley/toy box that I am going to paint with them, and maybe some picture frames too.

Hope you have all had a good weekend.  Even though I am not going to work tomorrow, I still have that Sunday evening feeling.  I think it is because Paul is back to work tomorrow, so I will be on my own.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor in the Sunday Times

Not only is Sophie Ellis Bextor a fabulously talented singer/songwriter, beauty and fashion icon but the Times on Sunday last week also revealed that she has an utterly drools-worthy house! Oh yes, this house is everything I adore, filled with a mixture of mid-century modern and antique furniture and kitsch ornaments.  I am not going to lie to you, I didn't read the words, but the pictures were beautiful:

I have a bit of a girly crush now I have to admit.

Inside my Parents House

So as you know I was in Wales for the past few days visiting my lovely Ma and Pa, helping them around the house and with the ponies, but more importantly SHOPPING!  Yes we had a wonderful time in the YMCA shop, several fantastic and huge pound shops and of course a range of charity shops.  I got many bargains including some rather wonderful vinyl number stickers for my recycling bins featuring some fishing gnomes!  What could be better?
Anyhow while I was at my mum and dads house I observed some of the lovely artefacts they had round the house and thought it might be lovely to share some of them with you for you all to enjoy.

This is a painting by an artist friend of my parents called Terence Clarke,they have a few of his paintings which are all really beautiful:

An Orchid that I moved to the work surface in the kitchen:

A selection of old artefacts inherited from mu grandparents:

A vase of poppy heads and two small ceramic vases/pots that I made and gave to my mum as a present:

Hope you are all having a good week, I will hopefully have a tutorial for you all to enjoy tomorrow.  Anyone doing anything exciting over Easter?

 

Falling in love with Mid-Centry Modern

It has only been since I started blogging that I have developed a taste for Mid-Century Modern interiors. My interest has been sparked in part with thanks to the likes of Dottie Angel and sfgirlbybay and thier beautiful homes, but I also think it is something to do with being my age and being able to look back to things from my childhood in a new light.
Yesterday my lovely mum and I went thrifting and visited the YMCA shop in Swansea.  Can I just say AMAZING!  If I had a bigger house I would definately have left there with some fantastic pieces of furniture, at the very least a sideboard, a dressing table and some chairs.  As it stood I left with two glass jugs and a hair band!

Take a look at these gorgeous photos to whet your appetite for Mid-Century Modern:

Oooh yeah

What do you love?

cupboard notice board

On my wonderful Wednesday off from work I made this notice board.  I really dislike the cupboards in my kitchen but we can't afford a whole new kitchen just yet, a while ago I had the idea of making one of the cupboard doors into a notice board.  I bought the fabric and wadding ages ago but never got round to making the notice board so yesterday, as I wasn't feeling inspired to do any painting I decided to get on and do the board.
I unscrewed the door off then laid the wadding over the door, I cut the fabric to the right size, I turned the door over and stapled the fabric round it.  I didn't have enough of the same ribbon or tape or lace, so I mixed and matched with two different types of the same colour.  I stapled where the tape crosses over the stuck some matching red buttons on with a glue gun

I am really pleased with the result, it brightens up the kitchen and is one less ugly cupboard door to look at.
I forgot to photograph the door before so here is one of the other cupboard doors so you can have an idea of what it was like:

Beige and boring

Spotty and fabulous

 Ooooh yes

I also spent some time re-labelling all my herb and spice jars:

Hope you have all had a wonderful week.

Meet my up-cycled quilt!

Hi everyone,

I have missed you!  Haven't posted as much as I normally do because I have been a busy bee!  The last week or so I have been making this quilt!

I am really quite proud of myself, never made anything like this before, but I was inspired by this post, though I made mine without a book or pattern or anything, basically made it up as I went along with bits and pieces I had around the house.  It didn't cost me anything to make, and it even has an eco element because I used some of my husbands old shirts in the patchwork, the whole of the back and all the binding!  You can tell I am excited can't you?  

It is quite thickly padded which made binding it a bit difficult, I spent a long time cutting and ironing the strips, and even longer pinning the binding all round the edge of the quilt.

It certainly isn't the best binding in the world, as you can see, but it was a first attempt after all.

I am really pleased with it and proud of myself.  I would definitely been keen to have another go.  I have got loads of squares left because I cut tons a few years ago with the intention of making a huge quilt, but then realised it would look hideous so just chose the blue ones to make this quilt. I could choose another colour way from the selection I have for another quilt. 

Hope you have all been having a lovely week.  I have another keyring to put in the art shop, and some vintage map envelopes for the craft shop which I will put up in the next couple of days.  I have so many things I want to do, including my wreath tutorial which I promised weeks ago!  I am sure I have lots of news to share with you, like my lovely hubby on Valentines day and the fact that I have been poorly, and my recent sales, but they will have to wait for another day.

TTFN

xxx