Precious Scraps

For once, not of the fabric variety!  Though just to keep the fabric-o-philes happy, I will include a couple of gratuitous shots of some I have in my stash...

All from 'Sal's Snippets

Mr U-t-B and I, freed of our Saturday duties as taxi-driver for dancing lessons, shopping and sleepovers, (actually,  our daughter is not really that demanding!) headed south yesterday, to my parents' house.  There was a tree stump that needed hacking out of the ground, and Mr U-t-B had offered his services as tree surgeon.

We were treated to an excellent lunch, then, whilst the men toiled in the garden, my Mum and I looked through all kinds of bits and pieces that she had been sorting through recently.  

There were some photos from the late 1800 and early 1900s, from my Dad's family but mostly it was paperwork that my dear Granny (on my Mum's side) had brought with her from Argentina when she came to live with my parents in her eighties.  Some of it related to my Grandfather's war service in India, some to my great-grandfather's emigration to Argentina and some of it to the design and building of petrol stations in Argentina 

(somewhat surprised Granny kept those...)

So this morning I have been scanning the more relevant and interesting bits into the computer for safe-keeping.

First, a photo of my great-grandmother...

...my great-grandfather...

...and my Grandad and his brothers.

 A family group which includes my Grandad.  I'm looking forward to going through the family tree in an attempt at identifying everyone.

Then the identity card for my other Grandad, from when he emigrated from Ireland to Argentina.

From further back, there's the reference another great-grandfather took with him from Oxford when he emigrated.

Not all Victorians had beautiful copperplate writing!

There's a newspaper photo of my Mum.  She tells me the dress was Liberty lawn.

And the letter my granny wrote on hearing that the war was over...

I love these little glimpses into the lives of my forebears!

Meanwhile, more generosity!  Can you spot what has been added to the desk?

Spot the difference

Well apart from the books I mentioned yesterday and a couple of items of felty frivolity, I'm sure you noticed the lovely 'Veritas' oli lamp - my Mum's thank you to Mr U-t-B for his chain-saw wielding!  Lovely!


Miss U-t-B is now safely arrived in Austria and has had a good day on the not-too-snowy-but-rather-icy-in-fact slopes.  Thank heavens for mobile phones!

I'm 'sloping off' myself, for a few days skiing with my very own husband.  May or may not be able to look at and post blogs from there, so this may be my last post till next weekend!

Empty nest

Had to get up at quarter to four today (though I was awake from two-thirty, just in case all five alarms we'd set failed) to take Miss Used-to-Bee and her best buddy to school, to hop on a coach and set off on an adventure.  They're heading for Austria on their school ski trip.  They'll just about be landing in Stuttgart now. 

To say that the house will seem strange without her is a bit of an understatement.

Happy holiday, lovely girl!

All donations gratefully received + Giveaway winner

You may remember my post about a very kind and generous lady who passes lots of useful bits and pieces on to me?   Well, I didn't get round to posting photos of the bundle her husband brought round to me a couple of weeks ago, as she is unwell and unable to get out much.  So here it is...

 

What an enormous haul it was!

Pretty Laura Ashley bedding, all faded and washed to softness...

Several books of coordinated samples, from pretty pastels to zingy, springy palettes...

Evidence that I'm not the only one with a penchant for Vanessa Arbuthnott  and Ian Mankin fabrics...

I'm going to have fun with that lot!  I'm pleased to say that she was enthusiastic about the book I sent her - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which I have to mention time and again 'cos it's such a lovely book (in my ever-so-humble opinion) and because it always feel like a challenge to remember the title!

Then, at The Maltings, a fellow stall holder brought me a carrier bag full of old linens.   This is at least the third lot she has brought me!  I haven't managed to get round to soaking them till today, so here's just a little glimpse - I will reveal them in all their glory another day!  There are some real pretties in here...

And then there's my lovely Mum, who is always on the look out for things I might find useful, or nice to have about!  Amongst recent gifts are this box...

...And these old books, which are now firmly installed on the old desk (which you may have seen before)...

 I love the fabric covers, the embossed lettering, the beautiful endpapers and the dedications...

...as well as the illustrations, be they black-and-white, or colour...

So, what else?
Well, true to my word I piled names in the felt hat this morning...
 

And, under the watchful eyes of my ancestors, I pulled out a paper slip.

Et voilà!

The winner is...

Jenny at Winnibriggshouse!
 Just let me know your address by emailing me at usedtobees@gmail.com and I'll send the labels on their way.

Thanks to everyone who left a comment, and those who 'follow' my ramblings - it means a lot to me!

Have a lovely weekend!

Reminiscing - my first car

I'm sure that for most people, the first car they ever owned is one they recall fondly.  Even if it was a bit of a wreck, and not the coolest thing on four wheels, it holds a special place in your heart, reminding you of the sweet taste of freedom, of 
new-found independence and the carefree days of youth.

Recently, each time I go out in the car (modern, silver) I seem to see a reminder of my first car and it has set me off yearning... It's not that I see one car similar to my old one - no, there seems to be a veritable parade of them round here recently.  

I first had a car to call my own in 1986.  I bought it for £200 (if I remember rightly), from my brother.  It was January and I was on my final teaching practice in 
Kingston. I was really glad to have a set of motorised wheels to get me to and fro, from halls of residence in Roehampton, through a frosty Richmond Park early each morning and back home each evening as the deer settled beneath the oaks .

Now whilst most of my contemporaries were running around in 


trendy Austin Metros 
(yes, honest they were!)


Vauxhall Cavaliers


 beaten-up Cortinas


racy-red Minis 


Renault 5s 
(or 4s if you could cope with the gear stick)


 two-tone 2CVs
(oh the joys of the roll-back 'lid')


 I had the pleasure of one of these...

This photo from John Burke - Flickr

Mine was Light Blue and fondly known as Bellamy (after David Bellamy), due to her contribution to wildlife.  I'm not talking about the college parties she used to ferry people to and from (I am a natural adopter of the role of designated driver, probably due to the fact that the word 'mug' seems to be tattooed on my forehead!) but the fact that she housed a nice collection of mosses in the runners of the back windows and was not averse to providing housing for assorted spiders.  There may even have been mushrooms at one point...

It was Bellamy who carried me and my four friends to Wimbledon at 4.30 am every morning during the 1986 Championship, where we worked as (oh, the glamour!) 

litter-pickers, sweeping and bagging the detritus round Centre and No 1 courts.  Bellamy saw me to the first of my schoolfriend's weddings...

...to my graduation ceremony...

 and to my first 'proper' job...

..where the staff and I looked like this!

Once I was earning proper money, I got her booked in to a specialist garage, where she was to have a full makeover - new timbers, re-spray, the lot.  

But then one rainy day on the way to school near Petersfield, it all went horribly wrong.  All of a sudden, I found myself at a peculiar angle, bumping and scraping my way down the winding country lane, till we came to rest just short of the hedgerow.  

If I'd been in the mood to sing at that moment, the most apt song would have been 'Three Wheels on my Wagon'...

(In case you're too young to have heard this regularly on 'Junior Choice'.)

My trunion had gone.  

Or rather, Bellamy's.

I'm still not really sure what a trunion is, but when it goes, your wheel flips out and the chassis hits the tarmac.  So poor Bellamy did go to the garage.  Her trunion got fixed.  

But when I got her back, it was never the same.  It pains me to say it now, but I didn't trust her anymore to get me safely along the pretty country lanes to work.  And so Bellamy was sold - I think to the garage where she was meant to be going for her renovation.  So at least she probably went on to be cherished by a new owner who had faith in her, trunions and all. 

And now, I keep seeing vintage Morris Minors and Travellers. Stylish green ones, pretty pale blue ones, cool grey ones and deep red ones, with leather upholstery, simple dashboards and skinny steering wheels.  And I wish I'd had a little more faith, or the money to keep Bellamy and get another car for the day to day running around.

I wonder what your first car was?

St Valentine's Day chez moi

Oh - it's that day of the year...

So what have I done for my lovely and very much appreciated husband? 

Selected from the finest of ingredients and created a box of sweet treats?

For this recipe visit BBC Food

Well, no - he's trying to be good!

Gathered a bunch of spring flowers?

Well, no - he's suffering from hayfever already!

Put pen to paper and written a beautiful letter to express my love?

Er no - too cheesy for me - he'd just laugh!

 Taken him out for a candlelit dinner?

 

Well, no - bit broke at the moment...

Sent round a troubadour to serenade him at work and tell him of my love?

Well, no - I definitely can't stretch to that!

No.

What I did for Mr U-t-B was this.

(I've made the pic a small as poss so as not to offend your eyes!)

Yes, I cleared out the stinky drain at the back of the house, that was filled with a winter's worth of decaying leaves, bits of debris from wood-chopping for the fire and assorted bits that went down the drain with the washing-up water, to save him from having to do it this evening.

And they say that romance is dead!

PS  Don't forget my giveaway - see Friday's post!

Edouard van Goethem 1857-1924

Many years ago (when I had better eye-sight!) I rather enjoyed a bit of 'petit-point'.

It was the late 1980s.  I recall stitching scenes of pretty pastel hot-air balloons, a Parisian scene and a matching one of London.  But the only ones I still have in my possession are these two, inspired by the work of Edouard van Goethem.  

He was of Belgian-Irish descent, married to an English woman, and settled in Parkstone (near Poole) in 1900.  Many of his sketches and watercolours portray an idyllic Edwardian childhood by the sea.  I especially love those where the subjects are gazing out to sea.

But as I have a soft spot for donkeys, I like this one too...

And I love the little dog in this one - if I were to have a dog, it might well be one like this!

 Apparently Edouard hated selling his paintings (and he was financially supported by his wife's family, due to his frail health) so most of his work stayed within the family. The downside of this is that he never really gained the reputation that his work deserves, as so little of it was on the market.  What a shame!

More fabric printing and a little giveaway!

Following on from yesterday's post, thought I'd share a few of the things you can do if you can cope with the stress of sending fabric through your printer!

First some felt passport covers.  These labels are printed on some rescued linen, then Bonda-webbed and appliqued on by machine.  The images come from this book...

I love these (Dover Publication) books of copyright-free images - no toes trodden on and I can easily choose a theme.

On the linen, the colours come out more muted than if they were printed on paper, but I like this as it gives things that 'used' look.  This does mean that it is worth choosing images that start off fairly bright and bold - I once made the mistake of doing some pastel, ethereal fairy tale images from this book...

...and they turned out too faint to use.  Boo-hoo.

Sadly, my supply of the linen I used for the above was soon exhausted, and also it is quite a long-winded process to prepare it for printing.  I had some new ideas but time was not on my side for all that cutting out and applique-ing of individual labels.  So I bought some 'Jacquard Print on Cotton' from 'Rainbow Silks', created a collage on the computer and printed the whole thing off!  With my printer, I found that I needed to attach the cotton sheet to an A4 sticky label to make sure the corner did not fold back as it printed (nearly gave myself a heart attack watching that happen - anticipating dead printer afterwards!).  So my 'Back to Blighty' covers and notebooks were born.

Easy!

However, I do still prefer my original method.  Here's a Travel Journal from a piece of vintage French ticking and mostly French-related travel posters.

I have some of these items available in my Folksy shop - link on left!

Here's the method I use.  My printer is an inkjet printer - you may need to do something different entirely if you have a different kind of printer!  Follow at your own risk - I've done lots and had no problems, but...

First you need some Bubble Jet Set 2000.  I read somewhere on the internet that you can make you own, but this sounds like I'd have to do something with a Junior Chemistry Set - not my cup of tea at all!  It does seem expensive, but it lasts a long time - you can reuse whatever has not been absorbed by your fabric.

Choose your fabric.  It needs to be 100% cotton, it says on the bottle, so I was worried my linen wouldn't do, but it seems fine.  I wouldn't choose anything with too much texture - it probably wouldn't print very clearly.

Cut your fabric into pieces a little larger than A4. I normally prepare a few sheets at a time, but not too many as it says it is best to print them straight after preparation.

Soak the fabric sheets in the Bubble Jet Set 2000. I do this in an old shallow tray from school - you know, the kind of thing used now as a poor substitute for a proper desk!  They need to be thoroughly drenched, but as you can pour back into the bottle what doesn't get absorbed, don't be too stingy.

Because I really don't want to waste any of the precious liquid, I then prop my tray up diagonally for half an hour or so, so that most of the excess drains out before I put the sheets on the line to dry and the Jet Set gets sprinkled all over the grass!  Then pour the excess back in the bottle for next time.

The sheets then need to dry.  Next iron them well, before attaching them to an A4 sticky label. Trim the edges so the fabric is flush with the edge of the label.  Make absolutely sure the fabric is well stuck-down on the label and that there are no loose, unravelling threads, as this of course would be likely to lead to disaster!

Print your images onto the fabric.  For me, (not very brave!) this is a heart-in-the-mouth moment every time.  I would love to buy my own printer that I use just for this, as I fear the recriminations if it goes wrong! I only ever put one sheet in at a time, and I lightly 'frame' the edges with my hands to make sure it feeds in straight.

You then have to let the ink sit on the fabric for a while (can't remember how long off hand - it says on the bottle!) before washing in a mild detergent.

Then dry again, before ironing, Bonda-webbing and cutting up!

Et voila!  Labels!

Now because I have a few put aside at the moment, I thought I'd do a little giveaway.  The two sets featured above (UK travel posters on Jacquard cotton/chocolate on linen) will be sent to the winner, who will be pulled out of Mr U-t-B's stylish felt hat (not literally!) next Friday before I go to work.  To enter, just leave a comment on this post (1 entry) or become a follower (2 entries - anyone already following will automatically have their name in the hat).

Good luck!