Thursday 31 May 2012

80's Boombox baby ... vintage red cassette player - the antiques of the future ???




My parents still use a teledex, tele what?

  
remember these???
Vintage Teledex Phone Book

My 8 year old Nephew happily ditches his Ipod to play with my parents teledex... when I found the red cassette player above he was similarly intrigued and at that point it occurred to me he had never and will never struggle to press play/rec in time to catch his favourite song or shreak when he hears the tape reel crunching and breaking!. 

Are these not so unfamiliar household items the new antiquities set to adorn the shelves of collectors to come??? 

If so I wonder what I did with this little guy!!!



Wednesday 30 May 2012

Kitchen Keepsakes - Antique Serving Spoon, Knife & Vintage Recipe Book




Vintage French Ribbon - ebay


Here are some gorgeous antique kitchen keepsakes. The vintage recipe book keeper is a lovely 20 page booklet once produced for the "lady of the house" to record her recipes. I'm sure a number of these booklets have been filled out and handed down the generations, many probably still in use today housing the families secret recipes.

The beautiful bakelite serving spoon and silver knife were thrift store buys... the knife, tied with vintage ribbon, would make a fantastic wedding cake cutter providing a nice family heirloom/ wedding tradition for generations to come.

These images were taken on a beautiful hard wood table at my Mum's house it's scratched and worn and has beautiful character as you can see... this item was snapped up at a house Auction, will take some images and post them in the next few days.

Monday 28 May 2012

Lace Making - The Virtue of Patience!


Antique & Vintage Hand Loomed Linens and Lace

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Designed by Jenny Rees, made by Elizabeth May


I love antique embroidery and lace. I own a hand loomed table cloth with a lace appliqué centre found in an opp shop for about $15, its circa 20's and I use it all the time. Until recently I had not fully understood the painstaking work that goes into lace making, the images above are the before and after shots of a small approx 20cm x 7cm hand loomed lace bookmark.... can you imagine artisans of the bygone era sitting by candle light looming yards of lace for dresses and napery, I get impatient sewing with the benefit of electricity!! This has certainly given me a new found love and affection for vintage linens of all kinds!.

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Budget dream weddings 
great DIY doiley up-cycle idea 

Wednesday 23 May 2012

Vintage & designer vases - mixing it up with flowers and foliage


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Dog Vase - here

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Wig Vase Tanya Dacruz - here


Vintage Stump Vase $10 market buy


Vintage Deer Head Vase & cute green stump vase - here

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Outline Vase by Mocha

Even though its winter in Melbourne, today's sunshine and lovely weather reminds me of early spring... spring reminds me of flowers and I noticed the Queen was inspecting the Chelsea Flower Show yesterday, so flowers are clearly on the mind of a number of us at the moment!.
In the spirit of all things floral I thought I'd share some interesting vases with you.



The perfect pair - eyes and all!!!!

horse-flower-vases-interflora

Horse Vases Tanya Dacruz

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Johnathon Adler Carnaby Scale Vase


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Anthropologie Vase





Monday 21 May 2012

Vintage Antique Bakelite Radiola Radio & Repurposed Upcycled Vintage Ipod Dock Radios


duck egg blue Radiola radio & antique tapestry chair





This bakelite radio is another random collectable at Mum and Dad's... I'd never noticed it till Mum suggested I include it in a post - truth be told she didn't say "post", last month she referred to my "blob" not "blog" - so post is definitely a term yet explored!. I'm very grateful for her suggestion and I hope you enjoy the pics included.

This circa 50's Radiola was produced in a beautiful duck egg blue bakelite and would look amazing in a vintage style kitchen sitting on the counter or repurposed into an Ipod Dock as shown below by Brooklyn based company 3rian... what a fantastic idea wish I was in NYC right now!




repurposed radio, repurposed vintage radio, Relectronics, iPhod Dock, vintage radio, vintage iphone dock


3ryan Radios

Saturday 19 May 2012

Retro Lanterns - $5 worth of vintage vignette value!


A recent $5 bargain purchase these 60's/70's kerosene lanterns are a bit of retro fun. My lovely husband spotted these babies at Camberwell Market and I love their garish style... thinking I may have them up-cycled into a pair of table lamps clashed with a drum shade covered in Marimekko fabric. 




Marimekko fabric courtesy of eye-likey 

Misi lampshade

Misi Lampshade - bambino goodies


Glass Retro Lamps 

Friday 18 May 2012

Vintage Baby Doll - The 50's Toy Equivalent of Baby Alive!


Vintage Toy Box Lid

circa 40's-50's Child's Toy


The complete toy kit consists of two small dolls one with clothes, literally glued on, and the other ready for bath time!. There's a small plastic feeding bottle, enamel bath tub and a larger milk glass bottle together with a bottle brush (no idea what this is for).


Love the Obi style sash and printed outfit - so cute.


When you're vintage hunting you will often come across random bits and pieces you have to buy even if you have no idea what you are going to do with them!. This circa 40's vintage doll set was one such purchase... too cute to pass but totally useless.

I love the colours and details from the artwork on the box lid to the dolls clothes and the pink and candy striped box insert. I'm thinking this was used as a doll house accessory kit as the dolls are about 5cm tall and the entire kit no more than 20cm x 8cm.

A bit of vintage fun!

Thursday 17 May 2012

For The Love of Banksy - Street Art Strike Out Melbourne




When Banksy, the world renowned British Street Artist, visited Melbourne in 2003 he left his mark with a number of iconic stencils randomly placed around Melbourne's famous laneways.

Sadly, as of this week, three of Banksy's works have been destroyed in acts of negligence and disregard. In 2010 the council mistakenly painted over the parachuting rat (above) located in one of Melbourne's famed street art spaces - Hosier Lane. In August of last year Banksy's gorgeous little diver had paint poured under the protective perspex placed around the work for preservation purposes and finally, just days ago, another parachuting rat met its fate with plumbing works placed right through the artwork.

It's a shame, whether you like this form of art or not, Banksy is the world's foremost street artist, his works are significant and important... he makes you reflect on your choices as a person and as a society, just yesterday a suspected Banksy appeared on a London Street possibly commenting on consumerism, overspending and sweatshops.... he is the epitome of the modern, contemporary artist and we are lucky to have his artworks on display in public spaces for all to enjoy here in Melbourne.... hopefully we won't see the destruction of any more of his works in the future.

  


Wednesday 16 May 2012

Kitchen Kitsch - Vintage Tin Collection


Thought I'd share my vintage tin collection today... All of these items were purchased at Markets or Charity Stores and are used to store things from kitchen utensils to nail polishes and beyond. I'm always on the look out for interesting antique and vintage tins with a nice patina and interesting designs... my favourite tin is the chinoiserie style cake tin below and the gorgeous Allen's carousel lolly tin with the domed lid.  


Chinoiserie Blue and White Cake Tin $10 Opp Shop Melbourne


Allen Melbourne Vintage Candy Lolly Tin $6 Trash n Treasure


Heinz Pearls Vintage Tin $20 Opp shop


Vintage Nestle Tin - Cocker Spaniels $4 Trash n Tresure


Tuesday 15 May 2012

Some of my favourite vintage items - today anyway!

Mix & Match Vintage China Tea Cups and Saucers - all market or opp shop/ thrift store purchases. These are so easy to find, just buy odd saucers and cups in the colours you love and build your collection over time ... this looks so great for tea parties and celebrations. For Melbournians the gingham cupcake case was from Cake Boss, Richmond.
At the moment I'm loving hobnail anything. Hobnail is the embossed polka dot style pattern on these vintage Milk Glass bud vases... I purchased these at an opp shop for about $5 each.
 My Fibre Glass horse head, previously featured, is and always will be one of my favourite purchases found at a wrecking yard in  Sunshine, Melbourne. The Vintage Destination roll is an old 70's Bus blind purchased in South Australia... love this item as well,  purchased the entire roll and the metal display box but I am yet to display the box and the rest of the roll - some of the sections have a bit of rust staining but I think it really adds to the industrial look.