Heritage Re-Loved

A couple of weeks ago, I happened upon a new vintage shop just setting up - I knew you would want me to share with you. I didn't have my camera (!!! I know - I always have my camera!!), but the lovely lady who owns the shop said that she would send me some photographs to share - so here are a few of them.

The shop is at Elsecar Heritage Centre, Elsecar near Barnsley (and just next to Wentworth for a full day out!) and she is full to the brim with vintage fabrics and china etc, all at very reasonable prices.
Apparently, a lot of what she is currently selling is from her own collection, and it is all very lovely. She has some gorgeous vintage aprons etc
If you are in the area, call in and say hi to Julie - and tell her I sent you - but don't blame me if you come out with more fabric for your stash! Julie's daughter told me that her mum has always owned fabric and haberdashery shops in one shape or another and now is keen to teach and will be running workshops from here too.
I wish you great success Julie and Jo. xxx

You know you're getting old when....

....you set up a little tea brewing station on your bedside table so that you can both have your first cuppa before you get out of bed......

...and you think its the best idea you have had in ages!

Edited to say: Some of you are concerned about "fresh milk" issues. If you look behind the mug on the left, you can see I hot footed it to Makro and bought a box of catering UHT milk cartons (the miniature ones for individual cups).

Vintage note: I love Apostle Spoons (can you see them in the mugs?) - I have a dozen of them from my grandparents. My mum used her set daily - like I do mine. My sister would only eat with these spoons. She used to call them "stick" spoons, as we discovered that they were the only ones that would stick to a magnet!

Debs and Di's Day Out

You know how I love a bloggy blind date! Well this was not really a blind date as I had met the lovely Debs once before on a Hope and Elvis day, but we decided to have another get together with Debs showing me some of her favourite local haunts. We only live about 20 minutes from each other, but her end of town has places I didn't even know about.

I hardly took any photos as we spent so much time talking! But I did remember to take my camera out a few time!

After our first stop at the table top sale in Dinnington, Debs had arranged for us to pop in and meet Mary Jane Baxter who was taking a class at Louises workshop. The atmosphere in the class was delightful and I could have easily stayed and "made" with all the lovely ladies who were clearly having a lovely time. We discussed Kirsty Allsop in depth - neither of us being fans of her "Homemade" programme.

We then moved on to visit Heaths in Ollerton where the wool and fabrics were gorgeous, and a Sue Ryder charity shop where I bagged a bargain - although I have to say you have to be quick to beat Debs to the bargains - she certainly has "an eye" and is like a hawk to its prey when she spots something!

We then moved on to the gorgeous little town of Southwell . Ive only ever been to Southwell once before, but I saw things on this visit that I hadn't seen before - Like the home of Lord Byron!

We had a lovely walk round, and visited loads of charity shops, and other gorgeous shops. We bought loads of things, but spent very little.

Debs had been worried that we might run out of things to talk about - but we actually ran out of "day" - I think we could have gassed for a week! We didn't run out of topics to discuss and discovered that we have led parallel lives! Its amazing when you meet a virtual stranger and get on so very well.
We had planned to visit the Minster, but by this stage we were parched and starving, so Debs took us to Reg Taylors Garden Centre for a very reasonable priced and delish afternoon tea.
Thanks very much for my day out Deb - it was great to meet your lovely family and I enjoyed every bit of my day. Here's to our next day ou. xxt

Rescued

Ive not had a good look through the few boxes that remain from my stall at the village fair last week, but I discovered these two very pretty vintage jugs at the top of one box and couldn't resist rescuing them. They are now very happily sat on my kitchen window. I cannot believe they didn't sell, but such was the high quality of my goods!

Its my birthday and I'm in the middle of the usual 4 day event that accompanies it - so i'll be back with full details when the festivities subside.

xxx

Little Longstone Well Dressing

In summer, the tiniest of villages hold "Well Dressings" where the old wells in the village are dressed with pictures made with flowers etc.

At Little Longstone, there were 2 - one made by the children,
and the other made by the elders.
The soldiers jacket was made of sunflower seeds.
The pretty little church in the village was open for a flower festival - and tea and cakes. So in we went.

Should you find yourself in Sheffield on Saturday , do pop into the Vintage Fair at the Town Hall and say hi to my pail Nicola who is dipping her toe into the Vintage market. You can find her on her "Be Beau " stall where she has a selection of wonderful goodies. Tell her I sent you. xxx

Babycham Cheesecake

As promised, I had a go at making a cheesecake type pudding to serve in the Babycham glasses. I discovered Babycham for sale in Asda at £2.35 for 4 small bottles.

You will need:

1 small bottle of Babycham

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

2 x 200g Extra Light Philadelphia soft cheese

300ml whipping cream

2 dessertspoons caster sugar

A few plain digestive biscuits - crushed

Whip the cream in a large bowl until it is stiff. Whip in the sugar, lemon juice, zest and cream cheese.

Add the Babycham a drop at a time until you have the consistency you want - we added too much and it went a bit runny.

Pour into glasses and serve on its own, or with crushed biscuits on the bottom or top,
and always with a cherry and umbrella!
It tastes like a cross between cheesecake and syllabub. You can add any kind of flavouring to this cheesecake - rum and lime is very nice!! And you could also sprinkle a crushed flake on top too.

I'd love a Babycham

Hubby went over to see his Dad last week. I got a text from him:
"Do you want 12 Babycham glasses - Dad is chucking them out"
I replied:
"Yes yes yes yes yes!!! What else has he got?"

I couldn't even wait to wash them before I photographed them. I was going to keep 4 and ebay the rest (as I have become proficient at selling on ebay !), but I have decided to keep them all to serve puddings in. I have an idea for a Babycham Cheesecake Dessert! Do any of you experts know the difference between the 2 types? You can see here that the 2 at the front are different. Some have the full bambi type deer on - like the one on the left, and others have a smaller version - like the one on the right.

A bad idea!

I have been "de-cluttering" my house - very unsuccesfully for the last few years. I am a hoarder. So why did I think it would be a good idea to organise the WI "Vintage and Homemade" Stall? I am like a kid in a sweet shop whenever someone gives me a box for the stall.

I think I shall be buying the green tea service!

And if hubby asks, I have had it yonks!

My Latest Bargain

This summer I am expecting a flying visit from relatives that live on the continent (as well as ones that live in the USA). Now my uncle (yes, you know who you are) always makes a big fuss about the coffee cups. Apparantly mine are too big (but the coffee is so good, you need more than an eyeful!). I don't like espresso cups, so I have been on the look out for the perfect coffee cup - and I found a set of them in my local charity shop. They are "Midwinter, Sienna" I think from 1962. 4 coffee cups and saucers and 4 side plates - all for £2.20 I'm keeping my eye open for a matching coffee pot.

Vintage heirlooms

When my mum was being "modernised" last year, she had a good old sort out and lots of her old stuff came my way as she hates to throw anything out (thats where I get it from) and my sister is not a hoarder like I am! I love this little jug. It has a fading picture of the Queen mother and George VI on it - I think it must have been for their wedding. This must have belonged to my Grandma. Its a perfect size for a small bunch of flowers from the garden.

My mum also gave me her dinner service - which must be hardly used as I can never remember dinner being served on it! Not even at Christmas! Most is up in the loft at the moment, but I am going to bring it down and start using it (now I have the cupboard space) as its far too pretty to leave up there. I have been using the tureens though - perfect for Spring.

My Teenage Bible

Whilst out browsing on Sharrow Vale Road today - I discovered 2 copies of my teenage bible - Jackie - just £1 each BARGAIN!!! and a great investment if you bought it at 7p and sold it for 100p!! (more maths Michela!). I let out such a cry that hubby thought I was having a heart attack!
I have known my friend Sue since we were 5 years old. She constantly reminds me of the teenage girls that we were - so much so that I still call her Pixie, and she calls me Chicken legs - our comprehensive school nicknames. We would read the print off Jackie every week. Both of these are from February 1977 - so a bit later than we would actually have been buying it, but I don't think it ever changed much. Come with me and re live your youth.

I liked the story's, obviously written by someones Mum. No boy in my class would have recommended talking any problem over with your parents - in real life he would have been saying " well just don't tell 'em!" (I love the "they'll probably be very reasonable" - of course they won't, they were parents - they would just say "no"!!!)

And the posters. I flirted only very briefly with the Bay City Rollers. I was only allowed 1 poster on my bedroom wall - I chose David Cassidy.

And this is for Janet and John - they know why.

Were camera's not invented in 1977??!! The fashion pages are drawn!!! But I still wanted everything.

There are very few adverts in the mags, but I really remember this one. I wanted to join the Queen Alexander Nursing Corps (I probably got the idea from this advert!). I sent off for the booklet and it really fired me up. But my mum - the dream squasher- told me to forget that daft idea. (You have to understand that my mums idea of the perfect job was that you had to be able to get to it on a "Yorkshire Traction " bus - just the one, no changing buses!)

All my questions about periods, different size boobs, split ends and clicking knees (and I did once go to the doctors with clicking knees!) were answered by "Dear Doctor".

And problems about boyfriends (or lack of in my case) etc were delicately answered by Cathy and Claire.

But my favourite bit (as Pixie reminds me every time I see her) was the "Weekspot". I religiously followed their suggestions every day, every week.

These were a brilliant find and I shall be posting one of them off to Pixie (when I have read it cover to cover of course.) I won't even have to tell her who its from!

School Days

It was W.I. night last night - very interesting talk by the local RSPB man on "Birdsong". But I digress. Whilst waiting for the Slimmers World class to finish, my friend and I popped into the library room that is also set up in the community hall. The librarian was closing the shelves up for the evening and we noticed that on the back of the shelves were photographs taken in our village a long time ago. I'll show you the village scenes later, but I thought you might like to see the village school photos (and I'm not on them before you ask!!!).

My friend who is in her seventies, was absolutely delighted to find this photo. The tallest boy in the school - in the middle at the back - is her father.

I remember her dad and he was very tall. They were so smart! Ive made her a few copies for a surprise (she doesn't realise that you can do this with a camera!)......

and I thought it would make a lovely card for her too. (Poor photo - we have had NO light at all today).

And just for Clare, this is my card making table. Fairly tidy for me actually!

Prayers on Sunday

In 1964 I joined the Methodist Sunday school in our village. I was given this children's prayer book. I loved the pictures in it back then, and still do to this day. The children on the front cover looked like my brother and sister and I.

This was one of my favourites. I think it was because of the falling Autumn leaves. I also loved her plaits!

And I always wanted to find this beach. It reminds me now of many beaches I have visited in Cornwall - especially around the Falmouth area.

The prayer for summer is lovely.

When I was little, I hated going to bed in summer when it was still light - however this made me realise that it wasn't just my mums rule.

And this made me want a patchwork quilt.

But this one used to alarm me. They both have such fear on their faces (in my case, it would have been fear of the wrath of my mother for breaking the pot! ) But what a lovely little prayer.