A little bit of labelling..

Tags

Cath Kidston, creative, labelling

Just a quick post today, showing you one of my favourite things to do at the moment.. A little sad yes I know, but labelling is becoming a little of an obsession!! The hubby keeps picking things up and questioning if he really needs a reminder on the side of tins/ jars of what is within when he can simply look inside.. I think yes is the answer, but only really because it looks so pretty. 

So my two labelling sources are Cath Kidston, who else??? And TKMaxx, these were bought as a birthday pressie from my sister. Now you know TKMaxx is fast becoming one of my favourite haunts for home attire. I have my eye on a lovely bird feeder for the garden just need to save some pennies and get it next month me thinks  

Have a peek… 

 

They are a great way to jazz up pressies or homemade makes for people too.. 

 

I love a little bit of Cath..  :-) 

 

And here are the labels in action… In the kitchen brightening up the work surfaces and the cupboards.. 

 

 

My cooking ingredients displayed in jam jars, inspired by the lovely Rachel Khoo from Little Paris Kitchen…

 

And lastly my special prayer jar, jazzed up and decorated, looks so cute on my bedside table, guess you could do this for a pen pot or anything really. Love to find unique ways to use a nice jar  

 

Please do share your creative makes with me, love to see others ideas for a little bit of inspiration. 

Happy vintage hunting and creative making

Olive & Emxxx

A little glimpse of summer

Tags

floral prints, Flowers, Garden Centres, Spring, Summer, Vintage garden theme

I’m sure that many of you have enjoyed, at least, some of this weekend in the garden. I have been putting off doing my pots for fear that they might freeze, well when I saw the sun yesterday and a little bit of today I grasped the opportunity. It’s no surprise I am sure to you that I LOVE flowers. I love nature in general really. I feel closer to my maker and just find a real sense of peace and tranquillity in being surrounded by flowers and the outdoors. I have no doubt that lots of you feel the same. 

Well I have had a little bit of a double whammy as last week saw my birthday so to celebrate we had a little tea party and I decked the house out with daffs and the like to make the house come alive with spring colour. See below the florals that currently adorn our fireplace.

 

A spring mix in the Kitchen, using Olive & Em crockery of course.. 

Yesterday saw me make a little trip to an absolutely little gem of a place, Bud garden centre, it is literally round the corner from my house and run by a lovely lady called Brenda. Thank you so much to all the twitter recommendations that sent me hot footing round the corner to a place I didn’t even realise existed. Well I was met with such a lovely welcome. Brenda guided me to plants that would suit my pots, bearing in mind we only have a little court-yard so space is limited. Her methods are all organic and she supports local growers. If you are in the Manchester area, you must pop in and have a look, you can easily while away an hour or so having a peak and a chat. I’ve included a link to the website here. 

So here are the pics of the pots. I hope these put a smile on your face and spread some spring and summer anticipation. Finally  

Here are my little alpine plants, just need to add the grit to protect them from the rain. 

 

A couple of these below, in fact the gorgeous two on the right hand side were a little pressie from a friend who knows how much a love flowers  

 

 

 

 

And here’s the whole display, not all flowered yet but can’t wait to see them all to be in bloom Roll on summer when I can properly sit out and enjoy them. 

 

Happy flowering vintages friends  

Love Olive & Emxxxx

Charity Shop Finds Update….

Tags

Charity Shop finds, Karen Millen, Knutsford, vintage fashion

Goodness me, it’s been a while. With it being the Easter holidays and having just spent a lovely half an hour sitting making cards at my lovely bureau I thought I would check in on here and update you on some of my recent finds. I’m trying to limit myself recently as I realised I really do have too many clothes. I find that if I get too much stuff in the house it affects my mood, I am attempting to continue to cultivate the simple life..

Consumerism seems to have adverse effects on me.. We were at our local high street the other day and it made me want to run as fast as I could to the nearest field! Ok so you are thinking I’m going slightly crazy, but honestly I have found that only going to the odd charity shop, every now and then really is doing my little soul the world of good. It is crazy how fast you can get sucked into the buy, buy , buy mode of thinking. I suppose that I console myself, when I do a charity shop jaunt with the idea that I am helping someone by giving my money to a worthy cause. Something else I have started to do when I buy something, I pass something on. It really is truly satisfying. It may be at a clothes swap, simply passing on to a friend or to the local charity shop, but giving away the same number of items you bring in or more really seems to work for me. Some of you will be reading this and thinking I couldn’t do that but honestly have a root through and I bet you will find things you no longer need that another person will absolutely love. It gets a little addictive. I’ve started to pass on at clothes swaps things that I do actually like, but don’t really wear. Seeing others getting pleasure out of it is just as good as getting something new I am discovering. 

Anyway, enough of my shopping philosophy down to my bargain buys from the last couple of weeks. First up we have this gorgeous summer dress, which has been customised and rouched (not sure how to spell)  at the bottom by the previous owner. I am yet to try this little number on actually, but plan on buttoning it in at the waist with a big waist belt. At just £4 it was a little steal for the summer. I found this one at the East Didsbury Sue Ryder Shop.

 

 

My next set of finds were on a recent trip to Knutsford. The hubby and I went there to celebrate our 3rd Wedding Anniversary it really is well worth a visit if you love history, quaint villages and charity shops.  Normally the array of shops and the excellent surrounding clientèle provides for a find in nearly every shop however this time I only found that the Cancer Research was tickling my fancy. I blew my £10 budget however, not by too much, but came out with three really lovely buys. I guess in hindsight I could of spent a lot more but I am trying to be good. 

So I fell in love with this little dress and with my hair recently bleached blonde and bobbed, this dress looks so cute This I think will be the birthday outfit for this weekend’s stay at the parents It was £8.50 originally from Miss Selfridge, not a shop I would usually go for but I couldn’t resist. 

 

Next up was this gorgeous Karen Millen shirt for just £7.50. It fits perfectly and I’m going to wear it for evening going out. I could wear it to work but I have lots of work shirts to I figured I would keep this one for home attire I’ve even done a close up of the tag to prove its authenticity. I love the pattern on it and it will be great for summer evenings. 

 

 

My last find in Cancer Research was this simple summer top. We are off abroad soon and I don’t do hot sun dressing particularly well. I like to snuggle and cover up so I tried this on and liked the floaty feel of the fabric and figured it would be great for our beach holiday. It is originally from America I think and was only £4.50. Happy days:-) 

 

 

 

Just thought I would squeeze in a little find I have customised. I found this bag in Mind down in Essex on my last visit to see the family. It only cost me £2 and I have been looking for a bag to sling over me for a while. So I got this one home and decided to customise it, make it look a little different. I sewed on an old 1940′s original button, provided by my lovely Grandma and stuck on some jazzy 70s fabric then added a brooch I have had for ages.. See what you think, not bad for £2 hey?!! 

So Happy belated Easter and happy bargain hunting lovelies. Until Next time.. 

Much love

Olive & Emxxx

It’s International Women’s Day

Tags

Afternoon Tea Party, International Women's Day, Let's Get Together, Oxfam, Women's Rights

Did you know that today is International Women’s Day? Well it is and I think it’s a fantastic opportunity to talk about and explore women’s rights. We are so so privileged here in the UK. So many of us know where our next meal is coming from, we have jobs to go to and a roof over our heads. So often in today’s frantic world, we forget these little blessings. Well today is a day when we can remember our sisters around the world who are not as fortunate as us. I know there is rife poverty in the UK and some incredible women here in the UK who strive every day and live in awful conditions. International Women’s Day is about being a voice for everyone, speaking up for those who can not speak for themselves. 

Working in an all girls school, I spent today sharing what Oxfam are doing to help women all over the world realise they are important, realise they are valued and that they too are entitled to the same rights that we have. Women around the world are working so hard to send their daughters to school to help them get out of the trappings of poverty. Education is so important. The age women are most vulnerable is 12 years old, if they live in poverty they are easy catchings for men who see them as an opportunity to make money in the sex trade or to father children for them. The video the Girl Effect breaks my heart every time I see it, I work with girls that age, at 12 years old girls should be enjoying life starting to discover who they are, not being forced to do things they should not ever even have to imagine. Check out the video…. 

Oxfam are working so hard to raise funds to empower as many women around the world as possible to create lives for themselves which are positive. The Let’s Get Together campaign is a great way for you to help them raise money. A few weeks ago my mum, sister and I decided we would host a, yep you guessed it, Vintage themed tea party for friends and family. It was so much fun and we raised a fantastic £121 in total. People are so incredibly generous. Thank you It really is simple though and Oxfam have loads of ideas on their website, all you need to do is click here and then register as a host. Why not have a dinner party, or a sponsored walk or come up with your own fantastic idea. Get the girls together and learn about women around the world, empower one another to ensure we all have the same rights and opportunities. 

Check out the pics from our tea party below… 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yummy yummy… a little bit of tea to go with it maybe… 

 

 

My gorgeous sister above.. check out the bunting It was from our wedding but we managed to deck out the whole of the lounge, dining room and the hallway with it That’s the little Oxfam Let’s Get Together collection box, thank you for making it full to the brim.. 

 

And now for the guests who were what made the afternoon so lovely Thank you for baking and all your generosity…

 

 

 

I’ll finish with the amazing cupcake mountain… 

 

Enjoy International Women’s Day ladies and remember to be so thankful for what you have. Why not throw your own party to raise some money.. every penny counts in changing people’s lives. 

Thank you especially for my lovely mum and sister, it was the bestest fun doing this together with you:-) 

Happy helping vintage lovers,

Olive & Emxxxx

 

A little bit of decoupage

Tags

Craft, Decoupage, Kirstie Allsop, Make Group

Just a little post today to show you what our recent Make Group got up to. We decided to attempt decoupage, a skill I have been longing to try out since I first received my copy of Kirstie’s Homemade Home for a present. It is actually very simple. After a bit of advice from friends I discovered we needed half PVA glue and half water. You can use pretty much any materials, our favourites tended to be material and tissue paper. We also gave wrapping paper a go and it worked pretty well. The thinner materials the better, there is of course the usual decoupage paper however this can be a tad expensive so experiment. Simply place whatever you have chosen to use with glue/water and stick it on..  

You can decoupage pretty much anything really, we went for jars as this seemed simplest, others ventured onto left over beer bottles later in the evening, these would look fab on a dinner table with tall candles. 

So I loved how each jar reflected the individual. Below are a few pics of mine. I used scraps of material I had and some ripped up Cath Kidston paper. I was really pleased with both. I have made a few more since but am giving these as pressies so can’t pop them on here in case the recipients see them Anyway, give it a go and let me know what you make. 

 

And a little close up on them…

 

 

It’s so simple, yet really effective. With Cath paper, it’s double sided too so looks great from the inside as well. All I did was pop a candle in and you are good to go  

 

Happy making and vintage hunting lovely people. 

Olive & Emxxxxx

A Glimpse of Marilyn Monroe

Tags

Marilyn Monroe, National Portrait Gallery, Vintage style icons

Last weekend saw a trip down to London for my best friend’s birthday. Such a fab evening out to celebrate a very special lady. Before we went out I took the time to hang out with the rents and my lovely sister. We went on a bit of a whim to the National Portrait Gallery, there were two exhibitions that we had a look at… The Royal Family Portraits, “that” picture of Kate Middleton and finally the Marilyn Monroe picture exhibition. All three were really good. Not entirely sure about the Kate Middleton painting but hey she will always be beautiful, I love her  

Another lovely lady was, of course Marilyn Monroe. I don’t know lots about her life, only really from the film My Week With Marilyn, which by the way is an incredible film. She really is an interesting lady and the photographs on show at the National Portrait gallery are amazing. Lots show her in such natural poses whilst filming or just chilling out with friends and other artists. Others are magazine cover pictures which again show some really beautiful natural poses of a gorgeous lady. 

She clearly had a troubled life and dealt with issues of self-esteem, confidence and self belief. In fact watching My Week With Marilyn made me realise she really was a lady with a lot of issues, drink, drugs and depression. You need to watch it though. Putting all this aside she was an incredibly beautiful lady. Her classic look shaped and influenced so many women and her bleach blonde hair and red lips inspire so many women creating the vintage look. 

I, of course, had to buy a momento to show on the blog. I bought a selection of post cards, here are some of my favourites. Any books that you can recommend on her life please shout. 

 

 

 

 

 I love how she can do sexy and natural. She really was a true vintage queen  

 This is definitely my favourite picture of her though, so so so soooooo beautiful Do you see how much I like her? hehe..

There’s the classic vintage look.

Not entirely sure why the pictures have suddenly gone blue..!! Sorry but hopefully you have a little glimpse of the exhibition. If you can try and get down there it’s a great way to while away an afternoon. 

Happy vintage hunting, reading and learning about the past. 

Lots of love,

Olive & Emxxxx

 

 

 

Vintage Village £5 Challenge..

Tags

£5 Challenge, Vintage Finds, Vintage Village

Happy New Year:-) Seems like ages ago now that we were celebrating and watching the fireworks on a little lap top at my parent in law’s house up in Kendal!! Anyway I hope you all had a lovely new year and are enjoying 2013. I am sitting here willing it to snow, as forecast, but I am sure it will only end up being a little bit of drizzle – always is here in Manchester!! 

Anyway so we all love a little bit of vintage fair action but being cash strapped, saving to buy a dream house, and it being just after Christmas. I pondered, how could I have a fun girlie afternoon at one of my fav vintage fairs without breaking the bank.. Well here was birthed the £5 challenge. Find something you love for only £5. It turned out to be so much fun. We: Me, Rachel, Alison, Anna and Ciara made our way down to Stockport’s Vintage Village this afternoon and we found some lovely bargains. 

Stall holders loved the idea of the £5 challenge and one lovely pair, Jemma and Leyla were helping us find bargains on their stall. They really jumped on board and with it being relatively near the end of the day, a little bit of haggling was encouraged. So without further a do, here are the results of the £5 challenge… 

The gorgeous Alison fell in love with this beautiful vintage hat from Jemma and Leyla’s stall. This little number is handmade by Jemma, how clever is she?! It has a gorgeous blue bow on it.. doesn’t she look cute in it?  Unfortunately they don’t have a website so you will have to pop down to the next Vintage Village to see them. 

The lovely Rachel also bought from Jemma and Leyla too, getting this lovely handbag for a steal at £5. She haggled it down from £6. Well done Mrs. Such a gorgeous bag Rachel also may have spent a little more on a beautiful tapestry weekend bag and an authentic 1950s nurses cape with the original embroidery inside saying Bolton Hospital. Rachel is a nurse so she just had to get it   

Anna found this gorgeous brooch, perfect for her vintage ball gown that she snapped up at our last vintage fair trip. She paid an excellent £3 for it.. Happy days Anna. Anna went slightly over budget by buying two teapots/ coffee pots and bagging a set of bowls, plates and cups with one of the teapots all for £6.  Best bargain of the day me thinks… Her Midwinter teapot on the right was from snygg-cool vintage for contemporary living.  Here she is with her teapots, a very happy lady and underneath her lovely broach. 

Then there was Ciara who did very well, finding this fabulous gypsy, Romany style teapot for £3. I love love love this:-) Ciara and Anna live in the same flat so there will be lots of teapots there. Ronan will be pleased girls  

Last but not least there is me… I stumbled across this amazing hat after about 10mins.. I loved it at first sight. When I picked it up, I couldn’t believe it was only £4.50!! woohoo… It was from Vintage Cyprus, a stall definitely worth a peek at if you at Vintage Village next month. So so pleased with it, I wore it there and then.. Think it might be slightly too small as have a little headache from it now but hey sometimes a woman has to suffer for the love of vintage. Hehe… 

There may have been one extra buy from me, a Susie Cooper teapot, for just £2!! but shhhh don’t tell anyone. It was from the lovely Laura at Planet Vintage Girl I simply could not resist. You will have to wait for a future post to see that one though. 

Until next time, happy vintage hunting and ladies thank you for a lovely afternoon. Love and hugs, 

Olive & Emxxxx

A quick look at Christmas…..

Tags

Christmas, Craft, German Markets, Making

Goodness me, it has been a while… doesn’t life get busy sometimes!! I guess this is good time of year to slow down and catch up with all those things that you love to do.  This is of course one of the things I love to do, but just not had a moment to recently. Today’s post is just a little peek into Christmas for me this year, only a few pics. 

So I’m sitting here with the candles going watching films and munching on all the sweeties we have had, curtsy of my lovely pupils at school Perfect Christmas time relaxation. How have your Christmas’s been? Good I hope and filled with lots of happy memories. 

So here we go….

Lets start with my Christmas makes this year… making is definitely going to be a bigger part of 2013. I feel so relaxed when I’m making and it’s so important to relax.

After visiting Germany with school earlier in December, one of the teachers I went with was also into making and craft and suggested we buy some cinnamon sticks and ribbon and make a creative candle with it. This was my attempt above.  The felt button decoration below was made at our Christmas make group. I love the red theme that comes out at Christmas, red and white to be exact. It’s not the neatest of decorations but I like it You should have seen one of the makers made a Rudolph face, it was so cute. 

My final Christmas make comes in the form of our advent calendar. I have to say it didn’t really get used very much as it’s hard to find sweeties that fit in the match boxes. Also when it is you that fills the boxes each morning, it kind of looses it’s excitement in opening – you know what is inside!! hehe.. Both this idea and the button Christmas decoration came from the fabulous Homes and Antiques magazine. If you do not yet read it, you must  

 

Here are a few pics of our decorations and some of the lovely gifts I was given I’m a very lucky girl. I’d love to hear about your Christmas celebrations. Lots of our decorations this year come from Germany, like the stockings hanging on the side of the fireplace. The tree was filled with so many beautiful miniature decorations. Authentic German markets are a must. 

 

And a couple of my pressies..

Happy Christmas fellow vintage lovers.. Enjoy the celebrations. 

Much love

Olive& Emxxx

 

 

Making Mania…

Tags

Craft, Make Group

It really has been too long… My life seems to have been taken over by my new job. I am totally loving it however by the time I get home from school finding the energy to write a blog post seems to have escaped me these last few weeks. Anyway tonight, with Theo out at band practise, it’s my turn to catch up on a little bit of Emily time Just been reading some of my fav blogs to get me back in the vintage flow and here I am.

So I wanted to share with you a little glimpse into a lovely evening I had, last week, with some of the Ivy Fallowfield girls. For those of you who know me well, you will know that Theo and I have moved back into Fallowfield to be living in the community to try to best serve the church that we are part of. I love living in the heart of Fallowfield, well not too close to the revellers, so that we can be near the students and residents of the church we have planted here. 

One thing that I have started up is Fallowfield Make Group. It’s an informal evening where fellow makers and craft lovers get together to hang out, eat treats, drink hot drinks and make something. Our first event saw us making cards. My late grandma on my dad’s side left me lots of card making bits and pieces and what better way to use it than to share it out. So there were four of us in the end and we shared out all our bits and pieces, each bringing to the table what we had at home. It was so much fun and it is a great way to get lots of different people together. 

Check out all our supplies.. sequins, ribbon, buttons, fabric.. so so much fun  

Here is the making in progress….

 

Naomi successfully using the transfers, I can never do this… however we do now have a permanent transfer on our table cloth now.. hehe, a fond reminder of a fab night.

And here are the end results… 

Our next Fallowfield make group will be in December, we’ll be making button Christmas decks so if you fancy it and live near by give me a shout. 

Anyone made anything crafty recently? or fancy setting up your own make group? It’s simple, find a place, some friends who like craft and pool your resources, make things and make friends. Our next challenge is to invite some of our neighbours  

Much vintage love

Olive & Emxxxx

 

 

 

 

A little bit of vintage glamour…

Tags

Best of Vintage Awards, Vintage Glamour

It wasn’t really a little bit of glamour, it was lots of glamour, a whole vintage bus load of glamour in fact that filled Matt and Phreds a few Wednesday evenings ago. Of course this was for the Vintage Manchester, Best of Vintage Awards 2012. The evening is something that I have been chatting on about and coaxing for you to vote for me for a while now so here is a little write-up of the night. Thank you so so much for all your votes you lovely lot. It meant so so much to be a finalist with so many amazing Vintage businesses. I have to say a huge thank you to Helen over at Mancunian Vintage as I have shamelessly had to steal her photos from the night to illustrate just a little what we got up to.

So it all started with the choosing of the outfit. Vintage Hollywood glamour was the order of the evening so I delved through the wardrobe, there were a number of options but the winner was my 1980s outfit, however I like to think that the white dress has a little bit of a Marilyn inspiration to it. I added the very 80s hat as seen in a previous post. Theo bless him wanted to enter into the spirit of things so on the day of the event nipped out and found this fabulous velvet Dicky Bow:-) With the vintage hair we attempted to look like a true vintager pair, we both loved the dressing up side of things and have vowed to do it more often. Not worrying what people think,, that’s what vintage is all about, expressing yourselves :-)

The night was a huge huge success Sue, of Vintage Manchester did such an amazing job at organising. We had a reading from a revised and modern version of the Great Gatsby and brilliant entertainment with a fabulous Marilyn tribute act. Although Olive and Em did not win Best Vintage New Comer we had such a fabulous night and the winners were all so so worthy of their awards. Huge well done.

The evening was topped off by being surrounded by so much vintage loveliness and by people who appreciated true style. We had the pleasure of spending the evening with Helen of Mancunian Vintage and her boyfriend having met her half way through the evening. Theo was urging me to go up and say hello, which I finally did :-) Check out her fabulous outfit, she looked gorgeous in a fabulous and very hollywood styled outfit.