Jung Koch Quentell Vintage Anatomical Chart

I've had my eye on these beautiful vintage Jung Koch Quentell educational charts from Etsy seller Bonnie and Bell for a while, but didn't have any wall space for one (they're pretty big).  Then we bought this nicely tatty office chest of drawers and ended up rejigging the whole house to accommodate it.  We were left with a perfectly-sized vacancy for a giant anatomical squid diagram.  Now we just need to find a spot for the house fly.

Vintage Book Find - Do You Move As I Do / Helen Borten

I found this wonderful vintage book yesterday.

Gorgeous illustrations and lyrical text - it really is quite inspirational.  This is one of a series of three books that Helen Borten wrote and illustrated for children, designed to "challenge the child's senses and increase his awareness of the beauties in the world around him".

I'm now on a mission to track down the remaining two - Do You Hear What I Hear? and Do You See What I See?

Patricia Ellen Ricci

Motivational posters might be a bit passé these days, but these are too good to write off.  Illustrated by Patricia Ellen Ricci in the 1970s, I love the punchy colours, hand lettering and simple shapes.  They are/were available (unsurprisingly most of them have sold now) from Etsy seller Vintage Goodness. 

Fun With Shapes

Some recent nifty and thrifty finds.

Mosaic Game is a kind of "shape bingo"  Quite good fun actually, as well as being a bit gorgeous.  Reminds me of the designs of Celine Vernier  (very nice blog here)

Blick sticky dots in a vast array of colours.  Who knows what I'll use them for - prettying up packages maybe?

Very lovely melamine tray with a green grid pattern.  Clean and simple.

A. G. Hendy Home Store, Hastings

Another place we visited while in Hastings last weekend.  This 4-storey building in the middle of Hastings' Old Town has been painstakingly renovated and turned into, well, part museum, part old fashioned hardware store and part vintage furniture emporium by food writer and photographer Alastair Hendy. 

The prices will make your eyes water, but because everything is done so beautifully, you kind of don't care.

(I love the last Instagram of my beautiful Grace-Kelly-alike friend Jocelyn reflected in the scissor cabinet - very Hitchcock)

Pink & Yellow

I remember finding pink and yellow such a yucky colour combination when I was little. Now I find myself seeking it out. If only "true" pink glass wasn't so very very expensive (it's made with gold!) I'd use it all the time.

I bought these bookshelves today. They're very tatty, but I couldn't resist the pigeon holes. How silly.

We are enjoying reading these books - a guilty pleasure.

Last weekend we watched Arrietty which was shown as part of the Bridport Film Festival - From Page to Screen. It was glorious. I want to watch it again and again and again.

P.S. Thanks for the nice words about my Spring/Autumn panels. You're all lovely.

This and That

We made the most of the milder weather recently 

and had a great walk down to The Fleet

(a lagoon tucked behind Chesil Beach)

The faded paint on the boats looked so lovely in the sunshine.

 Found a great vintage card game in a charity shop the other day, 

It's snap, but a German version, 

so you have to shout Schnipp Schnapp instead.

Last Week...

Firing...

Reading...

Receiving...

Growing...

Looking...

 

D.I.Y. Paper Chains

We've been having fun making paper chains.

Firstly we just cut up A4 sheets of coloured paper into strips across the width...

...but then I remembered some wonderful Eastern European embroidery designs 

on some faded paper that my mum had unearthed in a dusty old shop

on a visit to the Czech Republic a couple of years ago.

A bit of scanning, slicing and sticking later....

To make them, you will need: 

Good quality A4 paper (I used card from the pound shop)

A ruler, cutting mat, sharp blade, pencil, double sided tape.

You can download the three A4 sheets I used as printable PDFs here:

Sheet 1

Sheet 2

Sheet 3

Enjoy!

***Not for commercial use - please only use for personal projects.  Thank you!***