good will bunting® christmas on sale

Looking for a post-Christmas bargain? Visit the 'Buy-One-Get-One Free' section of my shop to find the Christmas range of Good Will Bunting® now on sale. Happy New Year!

good will bunting®: black friday - cyber monday

Shopping around this weekend? Even more Good Will Bunting® designs have been added to the 'Buy One Get One Free' section of my Etsy shop! If you're new to Etsy, this page will help you to get started. You'll find my shop here and the sale section here. Have a lovely weekend.

Photos: Heidi Adnum

hand-knitted treasures: hot-pink blanket

For the last few years, my mum and I have been casually collecting pure wool. Most of it we've found at charity shops, some online through vintage sellers, and a few in-store. When we find a lovely knitting project we set it aside until we find enough of the right wool. Mum then knits it up - I can knit a basic stitch but I'm very slow; mum, who is teaching me when she can, is an accomplished knitter (she can knit without looking!) and therefore much faster and better at it than me - and reveals the final product a couple of weeks later. It's all very exciting and I think a great way to turn the old wool into beautiful, soft and special treasures for ourselves or for gifts. I couldn't believe my luck a while ago when I found a huge collection of beautiful hot-pink vintage wool at a great price online from OldLibrary. Mum thought it would be the right amount to make a blanket for my sofa and, recently, she whipped it up! If you'd like to see her handiwork, here are a few photos of the lovely thing.

Photos: Heidi Adnum

good will bunting® sale

Until stocks last, visit the Buy 1 Get 1 Free Sale section of my Etsy shop to buy one Good Will Bunting® and select one more from that section for free! There are currently twelve designs to choose from, including a range of vintage seersucker. Simply include the name of the design you'd like for free in the 'Notes' box at checkout.

Good Will Bunting® Vintage Seersucker

cushion crazy

A few months ago I took Brett Bara's tutorial on making zippered throw cushions and sort of went crazy. In my spare time I made cushion covers for the sofa, armchairs and every bed in the house. Out of free space, I decided that the kitchen chairs needed cushions. Thankfully a friend happened to mention that she'd like some covers, too, and I needed a gift for another, so that kept me going for a little while longer. I've just bought some raspberry velveteen to make another (but it's on hold until I can work out where to put it.) In lieu of actually making more covers (I really need to learn how to make something else...) I decided to take some pictures (something I should have done weeks ago before they were squashed and crinkly...) and share them with you, along with a few of the lovely fabrics and sellers that I found.

The beautiful pom pom pillow design (and tutorial) belongs to Susan from Living With Punks. The Pink Hexagons fabric is by Prints Charming, which I bought from Laura at Mira & Westie (the reverse is their Watermelon and Pink Dots).

I picked up this vintage mustard velveteen from a local charity shop, along with a lovely bright purple zipper, and it was a match made in heaven. The green fine corduroy with deer pattern, along with the lolly pink fine cord and brown velveteen (above) is from Spotlight.

I couldn't resist Pink Hearts from C'est La Viv and backed it with black-and-white stripe vintage cotton. The gorgeous soft velveteen is Loulouthi by Anna Maria Horner.

I followed Brett's instructions again and even added piping!

I promise I don't stack them up on the bed all the time. Just this once...

These floral and pink-and-white stripe girls are my first-ever cushion covers, a basic envelope style made without a pattern or proper measurements; I just copied another cover. They don't fit properly (too loose) but I still love them. I think the orange floral is the most beautiful vintage fabric I've ever found.

Photos: Heidi Adnum

preserved lemons: part one

Recently, for dinner with friends, Will and I made Jamie Oliver's Chicken, Olive and Preserved Lemon tagine. I'd first tried - and loved - a similar Moroccan tagine at Pasha in London (1 Gloucester Road, South Kensington) but I didn't realise the beautiful lemon flavour actually came from preserved lemons. In Mediterranean Escapes Rick Stein says that preserved lemons are 'a characteristic flavour of Morocco', and Jamie Oliver says they're the 'star ingredient' in a tagine. So, having not prepared any ingredients in advance, off we went to buy a jar. I won't embarrass myself and tell you how much the small jar cost but I will say I quickly decided that making our own was the way to go for all future tagining. They smelled very strong but in the stew they seemed to dissolve and they were indeed as delicious as the experts promised they would be. If you'd like to see, here's my first attempt at making preserved lemons, part one.  

The unwaxed lemons of all shapes and sizes are homegrown at my parents' farm. Rick Stein recommends 3-4 small lemons per 500ml jar.

 Other than lemons, all you need is 75g salt per jar. 

 Slice the lemons into quarters but leave them attached at the stalk. 

 So they'll look like this:

 Fill the cuts with salt. 

 Squish each lemon into the jar, and sprinkle over the remaining salt. 

 You'll fit in more than you think! I used a 700ml jar, and in that fit four larger lemons.

 The salt will fall to the bottom of the jar, and it will draw out the juice from the lemons. 

With the lid on, Rick says to shake the jar occasionally for four-to-five days and then top it up with more lemon juice (that will be part two, a week or so from now) then, after a couple of weeks, they should be ready to use. My tips would be don't attempt this if you have any cuts on your fingers (ouch!) and select jars with wide mouths, otherwise you'll end up with the situation shown below; no matter how hard I tried those little suckers were not going into that sauce jar! 

Preserved Lemons recipe in Mediterranean Escapes by Rick Stein. Photos by me.

tiny polaroid magnets

Can't fit all your favourite family photos on the fridge? Looking for a thoughtful, personal gift? Solution: diy tiny polaroid magnets from Ambrosia Creative.

Photos: Jenn from Ambrosia Creative. Via: Row House Nest

country road photo frames

Sorry for being MIA. Over the past few weeks I've been crazy busy. Will and I moved into our very own home, and, now that most of the tricky stuff is done, we're having a load of fun decorating. We're currently working on framing two large pieces of Marimekko fabric that I found a little while ago on Etsy. I also recently picked up a good selection of photo frames from Country Road. I recommend their range. The frames are beautiful, simple, stylish and very high quality. They're also affordable and common photo crops and sizes are covered, including loads of square options, which I love (and can be hard to find.) In-store you'll find more of their larger frames, too. They're offering Australian and New Zealand customers free online shipping until 22 April. 

half-price moving sale

Mel and I are having a 50% off Moving Sale! The discount applies to the price of all pieces in our Vintage shop that ship from London, UK. We've created a little sale section in the shop so you can easily see all the sale items: Check it out for some great gift ideas - classic Nina Ricci/Christian Dior neckties for him, adorable hand-knit lilac leggings for baby, pristine Pyrex and Hornsea for home - or, my personal favourite, this beautiful blue dress, just for you. We pack everything with care and are delighted to ship internationally. 

Photo: Heidi Adnum

vintage woollen fabric

For unknown reasons, I've recently started a small collection of vintage woollen fabrics. They're all from charity shops, are super soft and in perfect condition. One is a length of 'skirt fabric' and another is Harris Tweed. So far they have been washed and await transformation at some point in the future - I'm thinking cushion covers and scarves. Do you have any suggestions?

Photos: Heidi Adnum

diy granny blanket puppy rug

Last week I found some lovely crochet blankets for my little collection and also for Hello Darling! Vintage. One had an extension sewn on to one side of it where, presumably, the previous owner had started to make it bigger. Mum helped me to remove the side-strip to turn the rug back into a square but then it seemed like such a waste to throw away the crocheted side-strip, so we decided to turn it into little home-made puppy rugs! Here is the blanket and the detached side-strip:

And the things we used to make it; binding, elastic and cotton (but we didn't end up using the button):

Then we brought in our model, the youngest member of our family, eight-months old Frasier:

Sorry, I got a bit carried away there (he is too cute)! Then, we trimmed down the strip into three equal pieces (that would likely fit a small dog) and finished the edges (as most were raw) with the binding. I'm not a huge fan of the black trim but the original blanket was finished off with black wool, so we thought it would be the best match...

We then attached the elastic around the waist, and a smaller, looser strip around the neck, and that's it. I could only find poly-cotton binding, which was slippery and hard to sew over the thick wool, so it's not the neatest of finishes. Still, though, better than ending up in the bin! Frasier wasn't too happy to model the finished product seeing as it's the middle of summer here and about 40 degrees in the shade, but he was happy to strike a few more poses for a minute or two:

Photos: Heidi Adnum