Sunday, 24 January 2010

Thoughts Of Spring





After the wintery weather of the last few weekends it has felt great this weekend getting out and about again in a bit of sunshine. I have managed to squeeze in a bit of flea market and indoor boot sale shopping both days. Our Easter Vintage Fair is fast approaching and I need to start gathering some pretties together for my stall. I seem to have been drawn to things that remind me of Spring, flowers and birds and pastel colours.
I couldn't resist the little lamp with a patchwork of vintage fabric on the shade. I also love the pretty traveling coat hanger case complete with hangers.The rose table mats were destined for my stall but seem to have found a little spot in my kitchen already.

Saturday, 16 January 2010

Christmas Shopping In New York

As promised last week I am sharing some more of my New York photos . These are all of shops and cafes and a few of my purchases.







This was a lovely book I treated myself to from Barnes and Noble. It is full of wonderful pictures.

















This is the inside of the famous Dylan's Candy Store.













The Christmas displays in the department stores were amazing. Unfortunately it was hard to capture the window displays because of the reflections on the glass. These were taken inside Henri Bendel. The store has beautiful Lalique windows.










This was a lovely cafe called The Magnolia Bakery. The banana pudding and red velvet cake was out of this world. It reminded me of the Hummingbird Bakery in London only with real vintage charm.





The inside was decorated with paper chains and I loved the vintage glass lights.





On the shelves were wonderful vintage toys and tins.
































This was a window display in one of the many department stores.





This picture isn't great but they were vintage dolls put together with vintage tins used for their bodies. They were incredibly expensive. Interestingly some time ago a buyer from the US bought a vintage tin money box from my Etsy shop. She later sent me a picture showing me that she had used it to make one of these using it as the body for a doll all made up of vintage parts. I had never seen anything like it until I saw these which were almost identical.





This was the Cartier shop wrapped up in a red ribbon.





This was one of the wacky window displays in Anthropology.





I am afraid I just had to take this because it was so disturbing ! This was the American Girl shop, just full of dolls and accessories.





The M & M shop was enormous.



There were M & Ms in every colour including loads I had never seen in the UK. We came away with bags of pastel coloured M&Ms and a green M&M bone for Josh.






The amazing Apple building.



Polar bears in F.A.O Schwarz.









I loved all of the Muppet displays. They hand make muppet puppets here and have shelves of eyes, noses, wigs etc. You can watch them being hand made in the workshop.



We were entertained by dancers playing Christmas songs by dancing on the keys of an enormous piano.





This was a traditional New York diner. All chrome and wood inside and very retro. It was a bit like the inside of a subway car.










The breakfast we had was enormous, piles of pancakes and maple syrup, steaming cups of coffee and plates of  bacon and eggs sunny side up. The only thing I really missed was a nice cup of Earl Grey tea.





This is my vintage style apron I treated myself to from The Magnolia Bakery. I love the red ribbons on the pockets and the 1950s style fabric. It looks great hung in my kitchen with all the other splashes of red.










I know this is a bit sad but these are two tea towels I bought from Anthropology. It is a lovely shop but pretty pricey. These were cheaper than the prices in the UK branch on Regent Street and one of them was in the sale so I couldn't resist. I love the appliqued designs and pompom decorations. The only problem is they are too nice to use.





A few more pictures from 'Vintage Vavoom'.



































I treated myself to a few American magazines. I love reading my favourite magazines every month Like Period Living, Homes and Antiques and Country Living so wanted to check the American equivalents. I think I prefer the UK versions but they did have some wonderful pictures.




















And finally a pretty mug my lovely girl bought me as a surprise in Anthropology. Much of my time was spent in clothes shops with my lovely girl and that's where most of my money seemed to go. I didn't find a single antiques shop and there are no charity shops of course. There is a weekly flea market in Hells Kitchen but the snow stopped that unfortunately.



Wednesday, 13 January 2010

Primrose Birdy In The Snow




Just a quick post tonight to thank Hen(Henhouse) for my lovely Primrose birdy who arrived safely yesterday. He or maybe she is bigger than I expected which is great and is deliciously scented with lavender. He has a home already in my kitchen but he just popped outside for a few minutes this morning to have his photo taken in my bay tree. He was a little treat to myself in this wintery weather because he made me think of Spring.



This was the church on my road this morning. I thought most of the snow had gone but woke up to a good layer this morning and it hasn't really stopped all day. I do like the snow but the cold seems to be stopping me from getting things done and the novelty is definitely wearing off.