Friday Favourite ~ German VASES and POTS

The hard thing when you love all things vintage is finding a style that is really you. I love a little bit of every era and this can be quite a design challenge in a small house. In my lounge room I pretty much have a mid century vibe and in here I can go crazy with my love for German Pottery particularly those made by company Scheurich - Keramik. They were very prolific producing an amazing amount of stuff including lamps and so on and the great thing is they are really economical and interesting pieces. Small vases retail for around $16 and large pots and vases around the $100 depending on rarity, colour etc. I naturally don't keep all I come across and prefer the reds, oranges and brown colours. Thanks to the lovely Anita at Fun and VJs I now fondly call them my "ugly vases". The term "ugly", devised by Anita, is used to describe all the fun, totally non girly but absolutely wonderful, mid century goodies that are so ugly they are fabulous. Every home needs a bit of UGLY I say.

Lots of lovely silky oak this week on ebay

I was just going to post some pictures of a few silky oak pieces I have selling on ebay this week but I had to include pictures of a wonderful old rocking horse and a fabulous old crackle paint 3 door cupboard I bought from a local estate house last week. Of course, as always, I only blog about just a few of the many items I list each week on ebay. You can see all the items I have for sale by clicking here

Friday Favourite ~ 21st Century Perks

Ok so it is well established that I love all things vintage...be they old books, old movies, old songs, old people, particularly old people selling stuff haha.
From an early age my overly romantic self therefore leaped to the conclusion that I must truly belong to another time. The time varied depending on what stage I was at. For example when I fell in love with musicals and inparticular Fred Astaire, when I was 9, I felt I must be from the 1930's.

When I fell in love with Mr Rochester and then shortly after Heathcliff, when I was 12, I must belong to the 19th Century

and so on.....until this week that is.

This week has confirmed that although my heart is in the past my head is in the present. You see last Thursday my drier died! It has then proceeded to rain off an on for a week. My life became a constant battle to get the ****ing clothes dry!!!!

There were constant cries of "Mum I don't have any socks.....followed by "Mum where are all the towels?" For some stupid reason known to no one I became quite stubborn about getting a new drier. This became personal... a battle against me and the skies....me and the bloody tree that drops crap over half my clothes line (another story)....me and time! Surely I am a vintage girl...I can cope without a little thing like not having a drier... NO it seems I can't.

My name is Katherine and I am a modern girl....I love my drier, my T.V., my internet, my fan in summer and my heater in winter. I love my mobile, my microwave, my husbands GPS and I love that I live now and not early last century or any other century because really, although I know I wouldn't have known any better, and I am stating the obvious, but life for a mother would have quite frankly sucked!

Yes got the new drier yesterday...I keep going and checking on it like its a new child. My youngest son made some snarky comment about my carbon footprint...I think I said something equally snarky back that surely the amount of stuff I have saved from land fill must give me some credit with the Environment Gods !!

WAC ~ stands for Wonderful Antique Centre !!

Today I went to visit the wonderful WAC...that is The Woollongabba Antique Centre. As you know I love suitcases and I have a huge range on offer at Shop 17 at the moment. My favourites are the Gladstone Bag and beauty case pictured with the cute green bakelite clock. The last photo is my favourite lamp, it is such a great colour. I thought I would also show you all how fun the cafe is there. The food looks so wonderful and check out those cakes...almost too pretty to eat...emphasis on the almost, haha. Sarah Jane and Megan, picture 4, the creators of the centre were busy at work but took time out for a quick snap. The centre is open from 9am till 5pm Tuesday to Sunday.

Food Flowers Furnishings at the Cottage Garden Centre

Some new pictures of theoldboathouse at The Cottage Garden Nursery, 999 Stanley St East, East Brisbane. The last photo is my favourite plant at the Nursery at the moment, Paul or Russ will pot up any plant for your garden and there is many lovely new and vintage of course pots to choose from. When I visited on Saturday morning to restock, the cafe was very busy and the air was filled with the most wonderful fragances as flowers, coffee and breakfast foods mixed. I resisted...just... the yummy Chocolate slice, pictured above. New stock includes the wonderful large Bench seat, the cute cast iron fish candle holder which can hang or sit in your garden. But my favourites were the folding metal industrial style stools I placed at the end of the large trestle table and the bottles which are fun to display your collections of shells, buttons etc. I can imagine the large bottle with the green lid filled with bickies...

To contact please email boathome@bigpond.net.au

Friday Favourite~ Grand Designs Revisted has finally arrived!!!

I have been really looking forward to the new series Grand Designs Revisted which has recently started airing on The Lifestyle Chanel on Foxtel. Presented by Design Expert Kevin McCloud this new series returns to the homes to see how the designs and homes have progressed. I love seeing the transformations. The first episode revisted the Shaws who transformed a crumbling shell of a Castle in the Yorkshire Dales, called Hellifield Castle, above, into the most beautiful home below. It is now a B&B to help pay for its upkeep.... Imagine staying in this beautiful place. Can't wait for the next episode!

All images are from the Hellifield Castle website. If you click on the photo you can see the whole image.

Listed on Ebay ~ Furniture treasures...I wish I had a bigger house!!

Last night we listed on ebay some of the furniture we got from the same old home as the clock and scales posted below.

I admit some of the items are right up my line and if I had a bigger home they would not be on offer. The silky oak table with the marble top is so simple and beautiful. I just fell in love as soon as I saw it and the large cedar couch although in only fair condition and in need of some serious love, really caught my heart with its beautiful carvings, chunky legs and elegant stance.

The old lady whose home it came from was a real Katherine Hepburn type. In her early 90's, she remarked to Kristen that she felt she just really wouldn't have the time to restore the couch, but had a look in her eye that made you think she still thought it was perfectly reasonable that she still could. I hope I still have such flair if I ever get to her age.

To contact please email boathome@bigpond.net.au.