Vintage Thingies Thursday…. more bakelite lovelies…

Its becoming another obsession.  Carved bakelite – I just love it! How can plastic look so beautiful? Here is a group of dress clips that arrived the other day; the colours are rich and they glow with a beautiful translucence. And then there’s the carving! 

 

The bottom one is reverse-carved and painted applejuice bakelite. The picture really doesn’t do it justice – it’s exquisite!

 I also love laminated bakelite. To me its the epitome of Art Deco style. This fabulous bangle is black and butterscotch laminated together, as is the rather gorgeous buckle.

 Another gorgeous buckle from the 1930s.

For more Vintage Thingies Thursday, visit Colorado Lady!

On my Desk, and another Happy Birthday….

 

Welcome to On My Desk, hosted by Kootooyou. A change of desk for me today – the lounge is my desk, where I’m knitting whimsical teacosies.  So I’ve got a big stash of interesting wool, a copy of Wild Tea Cosies by Loani Prior that I won in a Blogtoberfest giveaway (thankyou Loani !!), my favourite dog, something good on the telly – now just grab a cup of Earl Grey and I’m set for some serious knitting!

 

Op shop chevron tea cosy for added inspiration.

  

And here’s my first attempt. simple yet stylish polo-neck adorned with a single pom pom in Moda Vera ‘Confetto’ – quick, easy and fun!

Today my firstborn turns 18! Happy Birthday Glen! Many more happy years ahead!

Vintage Thingies Thursday…Deco furniture…

Deco furniture – I love it! The other day I had to drive to another campus of the uni I work for.  I only had to be there for 10 minutes, so I decided to make the trip worthwhile. It just happened that I had to drive right past my favourite secondhand furniture shop. There were some fabulous Art Deco pieces salvaged from old houses in Sydney. I just couldn’t resist this fabulous piece! $100, but it was worth buying for the handles alone! They were in mint condition, cream celluloid, shapely and beautiful.

 

There’s also a little display area where I can put some fabulous deco bakelite pieces.

Look at the veneer on the doors, and that beautiful deco inset.

I’m thinking that some of these will look great displayed in my new cabinet!

I also bought a deco dressing table, which I’m picking up this afternoon – might post that next week.

For more Vintage Thingies Thursday visit Colorado Lady!  Have a great week!

Pink Saturday – children’s aprons from the op shop

It’s been a wonderful week of op shop finds. Amongst many other things I bought these sweet little children’s aprons. The first is hand knitted in a great pleated rib with a delicate lacy pattern. It’s pink and green – my favourite colour combo, and is reversible. The waistband features some lovely daisy flowers:

I’ll have to find some pretty satin or velvet ribbon for the ties, and I may dress it up with a few vintage buttons:

The second apron is this cute pink bib style with pink crocheted edging. It’s been hand-embroidered with a singing cat, and there is a little pocket which is the cat’s music – very sweet (apologies – it needs ironing!).

For more Pink Saturday goodies visit How Sweet the Sound.

I’ll be posting more of my op shop finds over the next week so stay tuned. There’ll be a couple of pieces of VERY nice deco furniture!

Vintage Thingies Thursday: Bakelite dress clips…

 I love bakelite. I collect bakelite buttons, buckles, dress clips, brooches and bracelets. It looks amazing whether intricately carved or minimalist and stylish. This week I’d like to share some of my bakelite dress clips with you. These were popular during the 1930s-40s, worn on sweetheart necklines.

 

Two beautiful examples of Deco design at its best – a pair of marbled yellow clips, and a lotus-shaped clip in black with reverse-carved applejuice bakelite.

 

Two very different, but very stylish red and yellow clips. The first one has a painted-on design in yellow. It was quite common to find painted details on bakelite pieces.

  

Two more naturalistic clips. The first is reverse-carved applejuice bakelite which has been painted in the carvings on the back. The second a gorgeous brown and butterscotch leaf.

I don’t think I could really pick a favourite out of these; how about you?

For more Vintage Thingies Thursday visit Confessions of an Apron Queen 

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Vintage Thingies Thursday – Vintage me!

I turned 50 yesterday, so I think that qualifies me to be the subject of this weeks Vintage Thingies Thursday! So what better way to start than to revisit my baby cards. My parents kept all the cards they received when I was born. I just love the cute graphics on them! Most of them are made of paper rather than the heavier card that goes into today’s greeting cards, which gives them that lovely vintage feeling.

 The first one in this group has a little pink padded satin cloud.

 

 (click pics to enlarge)

 And here’s a pic of me about 48 years ago:

When I got home from work yesterday the florist had delivered a beautiful bunch of flowers. There was no card, so I was left wondering all evening who they were from. Turns out my best friend (who turned 50 last year) sent them – thankyou Glynnis – they’re so beautiful:

For more vintage goodness visit Confessions of an Apron Queen!

On My Desk, Wed 5th November

Well today I turned 50 – hard to believe it, but yep!. So my desk at work looks something like this:

My trusty iPod (my lifesaver when doing tissue culture or DNA work). A book on Florence Broadhurst who was a friend of my mum’s. A pic of me about 48 years ago, a birthday card and some buttons.

My friends threw a surprise birthday for me during the annual Melbourne Cup work festivities yesterday. There were balloons, flowers, gifts (a gift voucher for a massage / spa treatment at Villa Thalgo – how luxurious!). My friend Sumedha cooked a beautiful cake for me; it was pink and green (my favourite colours) and she decorated it with buttons made from icing. Here’s a close-up – actually that’s all that was left :

The table was strewn with shiny “50″ decorations:

which looked somewhat better if they were inverted:

 

And I won 2nd prize in the sweep! I also won Loani’s fabulous book that I was lusting after – you must check it out if you like a touch of whimsy: Wild Tea Cosies. Thankyou sooo much Loani!

For more desks visit Kootooyou!

Pink Saturday…

A few years ago I found this sketch from the Art Deco era called ladies tool kit. I thought it was great, especially the atomiser on the oilcan – sort of tongue-in-cheek.

A quick search on Google images revealed some contemporary tool kits for ladies:

Couldn’t find any blue ones for boys! I quite like the floral hammer, pliers and screwdriver, though.

What’s your opinion on pink tool kits?

It’s a big week for me this week – I’m turning 50 on Wednesday! (Where have the last 30 years gone?) So there’ll be a bit of reminiscing going on in the blog world this week!

Happy Pink Saturday – check out other fun pink finds at How Sweet the Sound.