I love tins, does this make me an old lady?

I love tins. I think it's something I picked up from my Mum, who has lots of different tins, though most of them sit unused, gathering dust on top of the kitchen cupboards.

My grandparents are in the process of having an extension done on their bungalow and so lots of amazing vintage pieces keep coming to light (along with an inordinate amount of rubbish...). I'm trying my best not to be too much of a vulture, picking through the things they're throwing out or giving away but sometimes I just can't help myself and I rescued these gems the other day.

The home tin is just perfect for my herbal teabags and is now sitting on top of the microwave. The sentiment on the side really speaks to me at the moment, the flat is feeling more and more like home now we've been here nearly a year and I'm so comfortable here I never want to leave. If it had a proper garden that I could walk straight into, instead of having to trek down 3 flights of stairs, it would be perfect because then I could have a dog. Other than that though, I want for nothing ♥









The Queen tin is especially awesome, I love anything with royal family connections. I'm not a royal nut or anything like that but there's something about the royal family that makes me really proud to be British. I love the direct connection to history, as a lover of period drama and anything involving hot men/women playing out history (I *loved* The Tudors, mmm...Jonathan Rhys Meyers...), I love the fact that Queen Elizabeth II can trace a direct line back to Henry VIII (The Other Boleyn Girl, mmm...Scarlett Johansson) or Elizabeth I (Elizabeth,mmm...Joseph Fiennes...). Sadly I didn't enjoy history at school, but I've come to love it now through period drama and novels.

My parents' neighbours have a brick set into the wall of their porch with Charles and Diana's wedding date and names carved into it. Although we all know how that turned out, I love the classic Englishness of that, although I consider myself more Scottish these days, it makes me proud and nostalgic when I think of it.

Valentine's hedgehog plushie

...because everyone needs a hedgehog in their life. Andrew often says to me, "Isn't it sad that some people live their whole lives without ever owning a hedgehog?". What can you say to that really?

Well, here's the solution, stuffed hedgehogs for everyone!



I made it for Andrew's Valentine's day present and I might have to make a matching, paler version to represent Viola. I'm really pleased with him for the moment though.

Here's his inspiration:



Sorry this is so short, got to finish off my studying before heading out for pancakes! I'll be wearing my new tartan dress of course ♥

1950's retro Simplicity dress

So, here's my first attempt at sewing with a pattern since Home Economics in year 10 where I made a pair of disastrous shorts that split up the back the first time I wore them. Ahh, simpler times...

Anyway, it's made using Simplicity pattern 3673 in case anyone wants to have a go themselves and I would definitely recommend it! As a total pattern noob, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this pattern wasn't written in ancient Greek and, bar the odd sentence or two, was easy enough to follow with one eye on the pattern, one eye on Breakfast at Tiffany's. A couple of stages didn't make sense until nearer the end, but the only one that seemed to matter was the part with the darts on the bust. What makes this dress doubly satisfying is that it's made with wool mix tartan that I bought at a car boot sale for £1.50! I already had the pattern, lining material and zip so this dress was the very best in thrift.





It's the one on the left of the pattern in case you're not sure. I'm planning on making the one in the centre for Frances' wedding, fabric shopping ahoy!

Keys for secret places

Goodness, it's been over 2 weeks since I last posted and I've got so much to write about! The problem recently has been trying to take decent photographs, the rechargeable batteries in my camera have died so I've been stealing the ones out of Andrew's computer mouse. This has led to a few minor battles over which is more important, my blog or his computer. I always lose. Sometimes it feels like a 3-person relationship; me, him and his computer. *sigh*

Anyway, I have lots of exciting things to photograph including a cover for the sideboard, vintage glass jars, Andrew's Valentine's present, Frances' WIP, my David Bowie bag...the list goes on.

In the meantime though, here's a little something I picked up last year at the Meadows Festival, they had a whole load of charity, vintage and thrifting stalls and I found these keys in a box of unwanted junk. A quick clean (not too thorough though, I like that they look old and used) and a pretty ribbon and they're off to my Etsy shop.



I also picked up some Victorian photographs, they're for the next post!