~York Festival of Vintage~

On Sunday we went to the vintage event at York racecourse - a fantastic day out and well worth the £8 entrance fee.  Lots of vintage homewares, furniture and clothes to coo at and covet.  I wish today's cars were as aesthetically pleasing to me as these old Ford Anglias. I could just hop into one with a headscarf and some red lippy on...

I got my fix of eiderdowns...

Of course, as usual at these things, too much loveliness and too little pennies - but I did buy a vintage Butterick blouse sewing pattern for £7, these recycled crocheted flowers for £3...

This linen floral fabric for my standard lampshade project.  A bargain at £4.50 I thought.

Three pairs of sugar tongs...

Daughter: "Do you really need those; you already have some?"

Me: "Yes"   (For my vintage tearoom/B&B of course)

It's also interesting to look at the work of vintage-inspired crafters and designer-makers.

Daughter L loved this memory quilt and took some inspiration from it for her Textiles 'A' level

I also met Kelly Reagon, the designer-maker of 'Martha and Arthur' , vintage-inspired children's wear.  Kelly has used her talents from the fashion industry to create a range of well-made gorgeous garments for children.

Childrens clothes in gorgeous fabrics

Kelly behind her stall,   pinafores and dresses in florals and  plaids

Martha and Arthur are in the process of creating a website, but can be found on Facebook or via the contact details below

Now I am off to carry on cutting out my prototype vintage blouse!

~Lavender Sachets~

Just a quick post before The Great British Sewing Bee...If you have a nostalgic fondness for 1970s hankies, and like me you buy them and never use them, you can make them into lavender sachets.  I was inspired to do this by Sally at Poppycock blog, who included a small lavender sachet when I bought a gadget case from her Folksy shop.
I bought my dried lavender from www.jimandjenny.com (seller giftsscotlandtd9) on eBay, 250g for £4.99 with free P&P. What a lovely parcel it was, I can't get enough of the smell of lavender - I nearly put my head in the jiffy bag...

5 x 50g bags for £4.99

It was hard to cut into the hankies, but better than never using them (I think!)
A quick machine stitching, stuffing with lavender, then trimming with pinking shears resulted in these little cuties, which I'll use when parcelling up my eBay sales...

I'm now on with some lavender hearts and pillow, made from vintage fabric and doilies, which I'm selling at a fundraiser this Friday.

~Giveaway Winner~

The winner of my gardening giveaway, drawn by the Random Number Generator is....

Jane at Plain Jane blog!
Please email me (lavenderattic@hotmail.co.uk) your address and I'll pop it in the post for you!
Thanks to everyone for their entries and comments.
Sally x

~I ♥ Standard Lamps~

My Mum has a talent at sniffing out great things on Ebay and this week she managed to find me a Standard Lamp (minus the shade) for less than a tenner.  They're much sought after at the moment and I've been on the lookout for a cheap one for a while. Sod's law that when things get popular, the prices and bids go mad on auction sites and I didn't want to spend much. It was a collect-only item, just 10 minutes down the road.  This weekend I'll be giving it a coat of paint from leftover F&B eggshell that's already in the garage, as I can't afford the Annie Sloan paint I would like.

Though listed as 'mahogany' and 'in full working order',  it was in fact painted dark brown gloss and didn't work. Never mind, it has now been rewired and got a new plug...

Mahogany?  I think *not*!!

I will now be scouring the charity shops and car boot sales for a swanky vintage shade that I can tart up.  I'm thinking down the lines of these shades by Leeds-based Two Material Girls. 

~Simple pleasures - a new Peg Bag ~

A warmer sunny weekend up to the dizzy heights of 11 degrees has meant lots of washing on the line! Good news for me as I do not own (or believe in) a tumble dryer.
My previous homemade pegbag was looking a little forlorn and mildewy so I did a bit of sewing.
Here is my new peg bag...

...hastily run up using a cheerful floral fabric from my pile, with a lining of sage green polka dots. A good use for a vintage wooden hanger too.
Back soon x

~Gardening Giveaway~

I got a tiny bit of my gardening mojo back yesterday and today. Though windy and bitterly cold out of the sun, yes, actual sun,  it was lovely to potter about and see that things were starting to grow.  New green shoots on my clematis; it's the small things that cheer me up...

Tete-a-tete daffodils in a shady corner

Primroses (they must have liked the cold) and pulmonaria

Now that Spring is coming I'm wondering what the year has in store weather wise.  Last year was a dead loss for tomatoes and fruit in my garden. Today I sowed some tomato seeds in trays and have them indoors on a sunny windowsill to germinate - but normally I would have done this already.  I sowed 2 cherry types as I eventually grow them outdoors in wall-mounted troughs. First one were some new seeds I bought  'F1 Sweet 'n' Neat Cherry' from Suttons seeds.  8 seeds for blooming £1.99! Apart from that I decided to be frugal and have a forage for seeds in the garage In my seed tin I found some free seeds from a magazine last year - 'Red Cherry' by Fothergills seeds. I've also sown some seed trays with Cosmos 'Purity',  marigolds and Borage.

Time for a Spring gardening giveaway!

The giveaway consists of; gardening gloves, handmade Rosemary & Marjoram soap, an RHS Gardening Techniques book and some seeds from my tin (Marigolds, Foxgloves and Sweet Williams) - just leave me comment for a chance to enter.  (UK entrants only please)

For an extra entry please link back to me on your blog and let me know you've done this in a second comment. Closing date  12 midday Sunday 14th April.

Good luck!