Christmas Wishes

Ok guys,

Last blog for the year, and shouldn't really be here as Simone and I knocked off yesterday for a week but did want to share with you my Christmas table.....

Now you're probably wondering how I can do this 3 days before Christmas, but being the person I am (Simone knows) I had a practice run .....you know.....a "play" with all the bits and pieces I had to see what would work and what wouldnt.

My 9 year old son started to help and lost interest quickly when i told him he needed to punch the holes in the drink tags a little more centered....mmmmmm .....his expression said "lighten up" or "chill out" or something along those lines.

I remembered something one of my oldest friends had posted on facebook yesterday....
"remember what's important"..... need I say more- I chilled out.

With that I decided that sometimes it is indeed better to stick with "simple"  and not go too overboard with tizz so this is what we came up with -yes he did help after i "chilled out" and he quite enjoyed it too.....

now pretend this is a trestle table (longer and skinnier) and has 9 chairs around it.....

vintage brown  paper tablecloth, white monogrammed  paper placemats...

mini glass bottles and striped straws...

french seedling pots and old candles....

flowers fresh from the garden, a pop of colour with Ikea napkins...

and then imagine this string of lights and some other paper lanterns hanging above (how I am going to do this , I am still not sure....hoping this all happens out on our deck, but with thunderstorms forecast it will most likely be inside. Better get busy tomorrow with some hooks and string..

Brown paper is actually from a vintage roll, but similar can be purchased at Ikea.

Napkins also from Ikea.

French seedling pots, striped straws and
red and white bakers twine are all from Vintage Girl at the Vintage Shed.

Paper lanterns from Typo.

Mini milk bottles purchased from Ebay

Tags and placemats handmade my me.

We hope you all have a fabulous Christmas.

Vintage Girl- Bec

MY CHRISTMAS

Helloooooo ! Yes again I am apologising for my lack of blogging, after Christmas at the studio I crashed and burned! But I am back, and I thought I would follow on from Becs Christmas post and show you some of my Christmas preparations.

Now I need to let you know that I take my present wrapping  fairly seriously ! So last week when I started my wrapping I snapped a few shots on the way. First of all I have to show you my new favourite wrapping accessory, it is a little wrist band that dispenses just enough tape for beautifully wrapped gifts. no time spent cutting or ripping sticky tape with your teeth - here it is below and yes I know what you are thinking I am bit of a geek!

This was all going so beautifully until my six year old son decided that he had a good use for it also,...

Yes he decided that he would plaster posters all over the wall with it, as you can imagine I was thrilled - not Not only did he remove paint from all the walls be he used every last one of the little perfect pieces of tape, so I had no choice but to pull out my vintage heavy as a brick tape dispenser..

Now back to my actual wrapping- I have always loved brown Kraft paper dressed up with ribbon sometimes I hand stamp them with stars or birds, and my obsession with chevron has carried through to my wrapping.. a little while ago I bought some pdf files of etsy of around 10 different coloured chevron patterns, and some I even put to use my course at harvest textiles and screen printed some myself. Then all then did is traced an old tag I had and cut them out- I have to say am loving them..

Also over the years I like to make a few handmade decorations along the way , mainly using old sheet music or cut up brown paper bags I like to make garlands with my sewing machine , usually either circles, angel or stars..

Laslty I wanted to show you a bit of Becs crafty handiwork , that I just love.. We had a few friends over on the weekend and it was a lovely warm evening so we were outside and I used some of these tea light holders Bec made from recycled Fowler's jars , old wire and a lot of patience to stamp them with gorgeous text or birds..  Lots of people commented on them , and they were beautiful with the fresh flowers I had dotted around picked from my mums garden..

That's about all for today, hope you are having a wonderful 'festive' season wherever you might be- my boys are counting down the days, not long now.. they are pretty sure that Santa must be nearly ready to load that sleigh! Merry Christmas everyone , Simone xx

OUR NEW AQUISITION

I couldn't help myself.....must blog for the 2nd time today.

I have just been looking thru photos I took at the Vintage Shed yesterday and am just sooo happy with our little space right now.

We decided a while back to buy a few really nice pieces for display and have been searching high and low but hadn't been able to find the right pieces.....until last week.

Getting antsy about having the stall looking gorgeous for the summer crowd, and with time running out,  I contacted the only person I knew who could help us....the "queen of pigeonholes", Rachel at Nook Vintage.

If you haven't visited Nook, you must! The eclectic mix of pieces in there is amazing....no matter which way you turn, you find yourself oooohhhinh and aaahhhhing. And the truly great thing about Nook is that everytime you go there, the stock is different. Nothing lasts long there, so when you see something- you should grab it before it's too late!

And so, we were supplied with the most divine pigeonholes I have seen for quite some time (and I have been looking for a while).

see Nook's blog at http://nookvintage.blogspot.com/ Thanks or visit the store at 258 Johnston Street, Fitzroy. Thanks Rachel and Gary.

don't they look amazing?

The stall is truly brimming for Christmas and with lots of stock in the wings waiting- we are ready and raring to go for the summer.



metal filing drawers, vintage circus prints, cotton spools galore.....

random coloured sebels...only a few left, but more on the way after Christmas.

sweet little plaster ducks (one of which the lovely Shannon from Rabbit and the Duck now owns)

see her blog at http://rabbitandtheduck.blogspot.com/

mannequins, globes, an army medical trunk (circa world war 1) to lust after.....

glass jars with bakelite lids, bread boards, and fun rustic drawers...

rustic wood and metals stools, farmhouse tables, depression cupboards and a

pair of wooden boot forms / lasts to die for

Well- it's 5.15pm Friday so I shall clock off for the weekend. Enjoy your Christmas parties, carols by candlelights or whatever Christmassy things you might be doing this weekend- I know I will!

Vintage Girl
Bec





Christmas Lunch

Good morning, good morning...
Despite a massive week I have risen this morning feeling fresh and happy. It is Friday and it's beginning to feel alot like Christmas.

Last night saw the end to my Christmas shopping (high five) and I feel now that I can focus on the more important issues at hand - Christmas food!! I may even get a food shopping list finished today with any luck.

It may seem a little lazy to say I took almost all the recipes out of one magazine, but they all sounded so delicious and are featured as dishes that will sit together nicely. Cooking is only a relatively new like (not love) for me, so this is adventurous in my eyes. Here goes.....

Entree:- Being the lazy cook I am, I usually do antipasto for entree or pre-dinner nibbles, but tend to find people fill up too much on it and then don't get thru the rest of the meal, so determined to find a quirky alternative and after reading about cocktails and the pairings of food with them I decided on

Pom Pom (pomegranite) cocktails and hot salted nuts.

I got this receipe from www.taste.com.au

I didn't want to do a traditional meal. Again, I have always found that having 4 different meats and an abundance of roasted veggies on a hot day just isn't nessesary and most likely contributes to the mass exodus from the table to the couch for a sleep directly after lunch.

Instead I thought I would try and keep in light, but very very tasty.

So Main is Roast turkey roll with cranberry, fig and sausage stuffing and super crunchy potatoes.

Thankfully mum (Sal) is preparing this part. It's a little out of my skill league I think.

This is from last months House and Garden.

Tomato, basil and pine nut salad.

House and Garden

Pea, mint and almond salad

House and Garden

The third salad is my sister in law's specialty.

It is a beetroot and pumpkin salad and is one of the yummiest things I have ever eaten.

I don't have a photo but you could google that description if you wanted to find a similar salad.

Lastly, dessert......Rich chocolate pots.

you can make these in advance, put them in little jam jars, put the lids on, then tie a spoon to the side of each jar with bakers twine and put them in the fridge in a wooden crate

When ready to serve, you simply hand them out and voila! instant dessert. (my kind of meal)

This was from last months Real Living magazine.

Better get that list going I think...and time for another coffee. Enjoy the day everybody!

Bec- Vintage Girl

Christmas at the studio aftermath

Well, helloooo everyone.

Simone and I have been laying low since the market (with pure exhaustion). I think we both wanted to post some pics and tell you all about it, but have just been too tired.

It was great to see so many of you down there and to have such great support. Friday was a corker of a day and we were both on a high by the end. We were so lucky the rain held off and we even got a little sunburnt, it was such a gorgeous day.

Saturday started out well, with a little bit of light drizzle and friends in the city had warned of impending storms, so we pinned linen around the tent for protection and it was lovely and cosy in there....

our little counter below....

until about midday....and all of a sudden the drizzle turned to rain and then storm and it teamed down. We stuck it out for a good hour and then all the linen, which by this stage was saturated with water unclipped, one clip at a time and unravelled all the way around, the rain flowed steadily down the hill to the bottom and rested at our feet in massive puddles, and our (up until then) trusty marquee began to leak. We called it a day.

We still haven't managed to tackle Simone's  garage where the remaining stock from the market is strewn from one end to the other.....a job for next week perhaps.

All in all, and as always, it is a lovely market and open day and we are so happy to be included, but happy it is over for another year....

Vintage Girls

Christmas at the studio

Hi everybody,I am soooo excited to be heading off for my second year at the 'Christmas at the studio' market with Bec. We are working away madly on lots of little projects to take and luckily I haven't been able to furnish my from yet as we turned into a little stall on Monday- its full to the brim with vintage and handmade goodies all ready to go on Friday...

So a little while ago I posted about some advent calenders I was working on, I have already finished one for the lovely Meg at the Vintage Shed and have managed to get in front of the sewing machine at every available moment to get this second one done in time for Friday...

It is made from Linen and each number has been cut from some of my favourite fabrics in my stash, I think it will only get better with time and few washes, sticky little hand marks to remind you of all the fun had with it..

That's all for tonight, I will try and pop back tomorrow with a sneak peak of a few more projects for the market...

Have a good week everyone, Simonexx

Vintage Injection

T.G.I.F.

I do love blogging on Fridays because my mind is not so cluttered with things that need to be done and I am beginning to wind down for the weekend.....

We spent the entire day at the Vintage Shed yesterday, something we have neglected to do for quite a few weeks. It was great to catch up with our stallholder friends and give the stall a bit of a re-vamp. It is amazing how quickly it can start to look "tired" if it is not maintained and with our focus on other projects the past few weeks, it was looking a little sad :(

It wasn't difficult to get enthused.....Simone kept loading up her car and dropping stock down to me and I was reminded just how much we had found over the past weeks. It's always soooo much fun merchandising with lots of new stock and I thoroughtly enjoyed my day.

With the stall looking "smicko", we can turn our attention back to the market next weekend now, and I have spent the morning bundling vintage books into lovely coloured stacks and am now glueing the last few bingo magnets.....

It is stifling in our house today and as I type this, the plumber is installing a split system on our lounge room wall......ahhhhh roll on plumber....roll on.

A family weekend is in need. Work has taken so much time lately and my children are beginning to get a little bitter about it I think, so we have plans-  to barbie on the deck, plant some new trees, have a game of yahtzee or two and a "no t.v night" has been mentioned which is nice once you force yourself to turn it off.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend, whatever you may be doing...

Vintage Girl xx

Christmas at the Studio

If you have never been to "Christmas at the Studio", then you need to free up next weekend at any cost and tootle down to Merricks North for the Mornington Peninsula's iconic annual event.

"The Studio" is shared by three talented Peninsula artists.....Leisa Wharington- glass blower and owner of the Studio and The Somers General Store, Flick Pope- jeweller and Julie Niekamp- painter.

Only once per year these talented ladies open their glorious studio for 2 days. Surrounding the studio on 20+ acres are other carefully selected, talented makers and creators selling their wares. Yummy food, wine and music all make it one event you will never forget.

Vintage Girl was lucky enought to meet Leisa a few years back and we were invited to have a stall. Although we don't primarily "make", Leisa is a huge fan of Vintage, and so we go....vintage stacked to the brim and set up our little marquee.

We so look forward to this event and it does give us a chance to turn our hands to something Simone and I both love...which is creating. We create a few things each year which are exclusively for the market and are in keeping with the spirit of vintage. At the moment I am busy wiring up old fowlers jars for tealight holders, making some more Christmas cards AND regular cards and my eleventh hour creation.........

bingo number magnets!! arent't they sweet?

Now, all our stockists have a hardcopy of the invitation coming in the mail in the next couple of days. For all our blog followers...see below- but if anyone would like a hardcopy invitation posted out..just send us your address via email vintagegirl@hotmail.com.au and I can pop one in the post.

We will be blogging about the market for the next week and showing you some sneaky peeks at some of our treasures that will head down the Merricks.

Do come along if you can...it is a chance to meet some potenial new suppliers

in the most glorious of surroundings.

Vintage Girl xx

SNEAK PEAK

Hellooo ! Long time no blog ( again) . This is a flying visit to show you some pics of our weekend haul- if I had the time I would set them up all beautifully but at the moment I cant move in my garage our office. We got some amazing things a trip down the country and managed to squeeze in some family time as well...

That's it for today, I will be back later in the week to show you all our gorgeous pieces set up at the Vintage Shed..

Have a great week everybody , Simone xx

Recent Purchases

The pictures tell the story....some beautiful curios we have purchased recently.....

Had to share the beauty...back to work now.
Bec