I love a bit of random graffiti. I’m often in awe of other people: how their minds work, the pictures they can create or the witty remarks they come up with. You know those lists on Buzzfeed and the like? ‘100 Greatest Tweets to Make You Piss Yourself Laughing’ and so on? I love those….
Category: Retro items
Decorating Ideas from Golden Homes
Golden Homes was a DIY magazine published in the 1970s featuring articles on how to do relatively easy stuff; things like tiling the roof of your house, building extensions and constructing your own spiral staircase. I mean, anyone can do that, right? With the proper tools of course… I spotted a stash of these in a…
Mid Century Jewellery
A few weeks ago I went to Hebden Bridge with my friend Rachel, where I bought a few pieces of costume jewellery from the 1950s and 1960s. I’m finding it incredibly difficult to find out anything about these pieces. In the past I’ve had some success just by Googling the marks on the back. However,…
Kitsch Deer Barometer
I imagine when the designers thought this one up their thought processes went a little like this: “Hmmm, everyone wants a dead deer’s head hanging from their wall nowadays. But what about the vegetarians? Perhaps they want to share in this experience too! And what about the people who want a barometer on their wall…
Things With Eyes
You know how I feel about animals and kitsch paraphenalia… They haven’t all been named yet. The creepy plastic bird thing is called ‘Pecker Pecker’. I spent a good proportion of the German road trip with that in my hand pretending to peck Aidan with it. He’s extremely patient… The two biggest dudes with fluffy…
Retro Goodies from Corsica
As mentioned yesterday, we managed to find a few retro bits and bobs on our holiday. It wasn’t supposed to have anything to do with retro or vintage, but you know what we’re like… any sniff of a flea market and we’re there! These postcards were the first things we found, bought over a number…
Bits and Bobs from Bygone Times
I’ve mentioned it before, but if you’ve never been you really should make a trip up to Bygone Times near Chorley. Not only does it have one of the biggest collections of West German Pottery I’ve ever seen in one place, but the rest of it is also worth a really good look round. There’s…
The Ladybird Book of The Weather
When I was a very young child, I was allowed to buy one Ladybird book a week if I’d been good. I still love them now; especially the older ones. This 1963 ‘ The Ladybird Book of The Weather’ came from the Willow Wood Hospice Shop in Glossop for the grand total of 25p. My…
Eames Style Retro Fabrics
We don’t just bring West German pottery back from Germany: an increasingly larger proportion of the goodies brought back are of a different retro variety. These gorgeous fabrics were found in a huge market hall that is a brilliant treasure trove with one major downfall: it stinks! I honestly don’t know how the sellers stand…
Six Days and Counting…
This time next week, we will probably be just pulling into the first of our Formule1 Hotels. Each time we’ve been to Germany, we’ve stayed in a Formule1 Hotel: they’re cheap, cheerful and have the best (and most powerful) modular showers I’ve ever seen. I’m still being lazy and stealing Aidan’s Ebay pictures of pottery…
Aidan’s Big Booty…
…I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist. I know the exact look that Aidan is going to give me when he sees that title as well. It’s a head shake and, “Ohhhh Emma!” in his Baaarnsley accent, despairing at my pathetic attempts at toilet humour. Yes, I said toilet humour (watched an episode of ‘I’m Alan Partridge this…
Arthur Wood Moneyboxes
There have been some new additions to the Arthur Wood family. First, I found the squirrel in a Glossopian charity shop. Next came the owl, found on a stall at the Newark International Antique Fair. Now, I have a tortoise courtesy of one boyfriend for a birthday present. Funny story with this one though. We’d…
Little Owl Ski 