Lonely lovely

I found this beautiful vintage tin toy telephone the other day. I don't think it was ever played with as it is in absolutely mint condition. I think it was meant as a gift to a friend / lover due to the inscription on the box "phone me when you are lonely". How lovely is that? I so love things with a history, especially one that lets the imagination wander.

Bonnie & Clyde Sale Friday 4th & Saturday 5th May

I'm so looking forward to the Bonnie & Clyde sale this Friday and Saturday at their store in Brand Road (behind the Corner Cafe).

Things I REALLY LOVE: Fisher Price

Obviously I don't love Fisher Price more than my beautiful husband, family and friends, but after they were safe i would run back into the fire for these little delights.
Darren is a gem when it comes to xmas and birthday present buying. All of these (save a few I have found in thrift stores) are thanks to his diligent ebay patience.

Things We Love: Vintage Kitchen-Ware

Ok so just about everybody loves vintage kitchen-ware, but Sam (my partner in cherry crime) and I are real enthusiasts. Mostly I want this post to be a big thanks to Kirsty at MINT because she really has an eye for the things we like.

useful Kirsty finds

dandelion delights

melamine marvels

Things We Love: Biscuit Tins

I am sure we share this love with many, but Darren-man is the king of collectors here - we have over 100!
You have seen some of our collection in my post last year You Have No Kitchen!. Here are some more.

Things We Love: Vintage Children's Books

Since this week is all about love, I am going to do a series of posts about things I like to collect, and the loves in my life who share those collecting joys.

Darren (my wonderful husband) and I have always collected vintage children's books.

His favorites are the books of Marcel Marlier. I think the versions we had in South Africa were the Johnny and Sophie ones, however in England she was Mary and in France, Martine.
As a kid I always loved the end-papers of these books.

Our shared collection consists of  vintage lady-bird books. Below is a snap of a lovely feathered friend guarding ours.

MY big collection consists of the Dent/Dutton children's classics. They are a beautiful lot with printed cloth covers from around the 1950's

Tim Liddy

A friend of mine sent me a link to this amazing artist's work.
"Painstakingly rendered with incredible detail, Liddy’s works capture the graphic beauty of vintage tabletop pastimes. The series is also a fascinating look at the cultural and social milieu of the time period that each game hails from — with a particular focus on the 1960s. Classic games such as Life, Monopoly, and Candy Land are painted on copper in the exact dimensions of the original. Liddy then manipulates the metal to mimic the box’s cosmetic damage — so you get all the rips, stains, scribbled note-making, and frustrating tears that old games accumulate over the years. The artist even paints the yellowed Scotch Tape that holds the cardboard corners together."

Framed Vintage Prints

I found some lovely, simple, black box frames the other day and have decided to produce a series of framed vintage prints. The prints come mostly from the children's books I hoard for lucky packets and such. However I have done a few using old crooners sheet music too. The sizes range: approximately A4 (R60), A5 (R45) and A6 (R30). Each print is unique and the actual vintage item has been used, i.e. these are not colour photocopies so you will notice some signs of their age.

Making Making Making

We are very definitely going to be at the I Heart Market this Saturday and wanted to give you daily peeks at what will be in "stall".

I have made four new tiles. There will be only two of each new tile available at this market, as time is a bit tight. Here are some snaps of the first two. They were made using vintage stencil animals I picked up a while ago and were inspired by many requests for baby gifts. They are nice for a nursery, to hang above a cot or some such.

 

 Each tile comes in its own little box and they will be on sale at R100 a pop.

Vintage Playtime - Holly Hobbie

While browsing Etsy for interesting vintage toys (a girl has to stock up when her favourite partner is a Fisher Price enthusiast), I found this glorious battery-operated sewing machine. Isn't it perfect?

The real thing I loved about it immediately, though, was that it's a Holly Hobbie toy. Oh my gosh, I had just completely forgotten about Holly Hobbie. Of course, I had to google immediately. I discovered that the original Holly Hobbie ragdoll character, and various associated characters, were created by an artist whose name really is Holly Hobbie. She's still alive today and continues to create lovely characters. The Holly Hobbie character has been modernised and turned into a TV show, just like her studio-mate Strawberry Shortcake. Although I do kind of like the new characters, I'm a little sad that the original cuteness is all gone.

Original Holly Hobbie characters.

The new Holly Hobbie & Friends.

Vintage Playtime - Smurfalicious

I'm thrilled that the new Smurfs movie means that there are Smurfs everywhere and that my kids are totally into them so that I can get away with buying all the merchandise. Of course, it's wildly expensive - movie tie-ins have their pluses and their minuses. I had a modest but fun collection of Smurfs when I was a kid, though I have no idea what happened to them. I thought I'd take a look at what it would cost to rebuild a decent collection, and blow me down if Smurfs aren't highly collectible in the vintage toy world. Not all of them, mind you, but there are some rarities and the usual popular models. Check out this interesting price list. Rugby Smurf is a pretty high flyer. Clearly he is not a Bryce Lawrence lookalike.

Lamb Chop Pattern

The serendipity of life astounds me sometimes. I (Bronwen) have been up in JHB for the last few days, visiting with friends and doing a little thrifting, while sweet Sam has been holding fort, blogging for two. On my wanderings I came across a delightful vintage lamb chop knitting pattern which I just knew Sam would love. You can imagine my surprise when I saw her post about Lamb Chop. Obviously the original pattern goes to Sam, but I thought I would share it with you too. It is copyright of Patons & Baldwins Ltd 1975. I have posted the images at a higher res than usual so that if you click and save them they will print out at a readable A4. Enjoy and please share the results if any of you actually get around to making him.

 

Vintage Playtime - Lambchop

Hands up who had a Lambchop puppet when they were a kid? I so wish I still had mine. If any of you out there in blogland have a pattern, I'm so up for a new one. So this week's Vintage Playtime post is dedicated to that loveable lamb and his talented creator, Shari Lewis.

Shari was born Sonia Phyllis Hurwitz in 1933. Her father, a trained stage magician, taught her to perform magic acts and she was also taught ventriloquism by John W. Cooper. She also studied piano, violin, dance, and acting. In 1952, Shari got her break when she won a TV talent contest. This led to her long career as a children's TV entertainer. In 1956, Shari debuted Lambchop during a guest appearance on Captain Kangaroo. He was to become one of her most beloved creations, and had his own show - 'Lambchop's Play-Along' in the early nineties. This show won 5 consecutive Emmy awards, to add to Shari's already impressive collection.  

After Shari's death in 1998, Lambchop seemed to be retired, but in 2000 Shari's daughter, Mally, began performing with Lambchop, and continues to do so today.

(info from Wikipedia)

Vintage Playtime - 80s Up

It's kind of weird to think that the toys that we played with as kids are now considered vintage, but they are. This one has been popping up on Pinterest a lot lately, and for good reason. These fashion plate toys were awesome - I played with mine for hours, swapping around tops and bottoms and adding textures. I've been looking for one for my daughter but I just can't find one.

Vintage Playtime + Cherry Loving

This week's vintage playtime post had to be about this gorgeous vintage play kitchen all decorated with cherries. How could a Hey Cherry girl resist?

Vintage Playtime - Tinker Toys

You know how the Hey Cherry girls love vintage toys. Bronwen has a beautiful collection, and we'll be showcasing some of it in our Vintage Playtime series on Wednesdays. This week, though, we're kicking off with one of my personal favourites: Tinker Toys. I had a large set of Tinker Toys when I was a child, and I played with them for hours. Bron found a vintage set for me, and I have it happily sitting on the bookshelves in my lounge, but unfortunately it is missing some of the crucial pieces that would allow me (or my kids) to really go to town building with it. Hasbro still makes Tinker Toys, and you can buy them online, though I haven't seen any in South African shops.

Springtime Cycling

A Pinterest pick for you from my Bicycles board. Because Durban in the Springtime just cries out for a pretty bicycle with a basket on the front for cycling down to the supermarket, or up to the park, or along our beautiful boardwalk.

Fun Finds

This past weekend my in-laws treated us to a fun weekend away in a lovely rustic cottage on the South Coast of KZN. The wind made the beach a little less fun than anticipated, but we had a great time anyway. We of course had to have a little browse in all the local shops, and I made a fun find in the superette. It's obviously new, but with such charmingly badly printed retro styling that I just had to have it.

The Magic Faraway Tree

I thought I'd share with you some more of the books I loved as a child, and which my children love today. Enid Blyton is a perennial favourite, despite some of the dodgy stories that have come out about her. How wonderful for a child to dream of an Enchanted Wood beyond their back garden, where the trees whisper to each other and one very special tree is home to a host of magical characters. The whimsical illustrations made it even more charming.

The 1943 First Edition dust jacket, delightfully illustrated by Dorothy M. Wheeler

The 1971 Dean edition that I had as a child

Jo, Bessie, Fanny, Dick, Moonface, Silky & the Saucepan Man in the Land of Topsy-Turvy

A Few Of My Favourite Things: 5) Vintage Toys

I have always collected vintage toys, even before my sons were born. I am not too fascist about my collection and do let the boys play with the toys - I don't know whether it is because they are mum's toys or whether they were just designed better, but the boys love them so much more than the modern toys.