Vintage Tea Towel Tuesday and H.E.L.P!

What a lovely way to display a vintage t.towel!

image via Design Sponge

I can't wait for our kitchen to be finished so that I can finally display a few of mine.

Before I continue, I have to admit, that we have painted over an almost identical yellow in our kitchen. And, it was a hallelujah! moment when we did.

Almost our whole house btw, was painted in that yellow with royal blue trims and ceilings! If you follow Aussie rules, picture the West Coast Eagles. Get the picture? Hmmm, lovely, and I'm not kidding! (this was even more awful for us because we are Richmond supporters! Having confessed to that however, we would NEVER paint our house yellow and black!)

Anyway, as usual I digress (it's my last post for a while, I'm allowed to. Ha!) this is where the H.E.L.P! comes in...

Yesterday I received an email from Austin (Hi Austin), have a read

Hi Kylie,

I'm Austin, I'm visiting Melbourne from the U.S. and I have been assigned a mission to bring back some tea towels.  I came across your blog and I was wondering if you had any advice for me, where a good place to shop might be?  Many thanks,

Cheers,

Austin

As most of you know I'm a Perth girl, and as it's been at least three years since I was last in Melbourne, my knowledge of the  local vintage t.t. scene sucks.
Can you help???
I'm sure someone can.
Any info would be really appreciated.
(remember, I've got my rep to uphold! Ha-ha!)
All you have to do is leave your suggestion in a comment - I know Austin is going to check back and read them.
We can't have him failing his "mission", can we?
Thanks in anticipation, for your suggestions x

Now, the tea towel du jour

The Great Kitchen, Saltram, Devon

Pat Albeck for The National Trust

This t.t. dates from the 1970's and I love it. Do you?

Turns out Pat Albeck is legendary among t.t. designers. She has designed heaps of t.ts. for The National Trust and even has a slight Australian connection. See, here she is with a boomerang

Pat Albeck, honourary Aussie?

 

Click here  To learn more about Ms Albeck and to check out some of her awesome designs.

note: this is a wonderful link whether you like t.towels or not! I hope you'll have a look.   

And here's The Great Kitchen (built in the 1770's)

image via

look, those copper pots are on the t.towel...

Now, I know this post is all-over-the shop, but I think it would be remiss of me not to share this...remember my post on Iwanoff's Marsala House? I thought you might find this interesting:

The Sunday Times, 6 May, 2012

(apologies for poor quality)

Phew! That's it, I'm outta here!

Back in a few weeks, until then take care and have fun.

x

Still ripping and sticking my way through my magazine stash (it fills in time when I'm waiting for tradies who never turn up when they say promise they will!)

Whilst flicking through an old issue of Dwell (great mag if you like Modernist design, but far too many ads) this advertisement caught my eye

and it reminded me that I have my very own original copy of that Better Homes and Garden Book. I found it in an oppy a couple of months ago (two dollars, shrieks of joy!) and it's full of the most gorgeous 50's gardens and retro images.

" a year round guide to practical home gardening"

1954 edition

Back in the 50's men smoked pipes while they were mowing the lawn, they wore crisp white shirts and rolled their sleeves up nattily. Their perfectly coiffed wives wore pretty dresses and high-heels while they attended to their pot plants on the terrace (not a tracky-dack or boardy in sight!)

Or so it seems...
We all know that life in the 50's (or any era for that matter) wasn't quite as idyllic as vintage books like this would have us believe, but it's nice to pretend sometimes, and I also find it interesting to see, that the saying "everything old is a new again" * not only applies to fashion, interiors and architecture but also to gardens, too.

mmmmm, nice chairs.

this pic's entitled "a good looking baby corral"!

so, for a laugh, 

I thought I might show you a photo of me in my baby corral

apparently it wasn't too long before I learnt to lift my playpen corral and escape. Look at the size of me! It would've been easy, I'm a baby Summo wrestler!

(spot the Kewpie doll and my crocheted dress - what did I say about everything old being new again?)

Oooops, here's another photo of an obese infant. Me! With my next door neighbour at the time, who was three months older than me! My Mum was so proud that I was bigger (fatter!) than him. Really. 

Look at my Mum's cute little rockery in the background, not the baboomba in the foreground. I think it's very sweet. She painted the dead tree branch white and grew ivy atop it. I also see some succulenty cactus things growing. Funny, because today these are the very plants that make up the bulk of my own garden.

Tea towel tomorrow and then I'm going to have a bit of a bloggy break. To tell you the truth, I'm getting a bit bored with Lucy Vi at the mo, and you know, when you're bored with your own blog you'd be silly to keep writing it.

Thanks so much for reading this and all my other posts - you've been, and are, lovely x

 *  "each time history repeats itself, the price goes up"

Author unknown 

Vintage Tea Towel Tuesday

Here's today's tea towel (it's a good looking Italian)

look at that Perth sky...

Bit of a durr moment I suppose, but just in case your understanding of the Italian language is as good (or bad!) as mine, Carrettino Siciliano refers to the highly decorated carts pulled by horses or donkeys in Sicily. Carrettino just means little cart. These are sold as souvenirs, maybe that's why the t.t. reads Carrettino - because it's a souvenir...hmmm?

Until the 50's these wild and crazy carts were the main form of transport in Sicily. Today you are more likely to see them in a parade or celebration - they are, you'd have to agree very celebratory. 

(more info here if you're interested)

Here's more detail of the tea towel cart

here's a pic of a real one

and here's the Lucy Violet version

cute...

isn't he.

(thanks Gaye x)

p.s. Don't forget to check this post if you're a collector of lovelies (vintage Ladybirds)

As much as I love simple things with a modern edge (and a bit of rough) sometimes something sweet and pretty catches my eye and before I know it, I've handed over the dosh and it's a mine.

While I can find a place for a bit of cute in our home, I can't squeeze it all in. a) there's not enough room and b) it just wouldn't look right.

After all, it's a fine line between having an eclectic interior and one that looks more like your local Vinnies! (op-shop/thrift/charity shop). The whole "less is more" thing best describes my personal style but try as I do to resist it, I think I'll always have a soft spot for what is best described as a bit of beautiful clutter (thanks Jem x)

Some of this stuff will be given away (the china girls are for you Tam), the rest of it, who knows...

So to make me feel better about shoving them in the shed (there is nothing beautiful about the clutter chaos in there...a beautiful nightmare would be a better description!) here are a few pics of things that tested my resolve. They said "buy me" and I did. 

they had me at hello...

and

so did these two chubsters

free to a good home (just send me a note)

the chubsters have been adopted! yay!

Still on toys, this was only a dollar...

kerr-ching!

(note to self: a dollar saved is a dollar earned

did you really need a Fisher-Price cash register Kylie? )

And then there's this little fellow

his cap reads Oriental Queen (a souvenir perhaps?)

he's atop a vintage paint-by-numbers, I keep buying these as you will see because...

here are two I bought a couple of days ago

I do really like these, will we ever hang them? probably not...

btw, we had an emergency visit to the Vet this week with our real-life pooch - the naughty boy sussed out Annabel's chocolate stash and demolished it. AGAIN

Since the spectacular rise and  fall of Sweet Dreams Vintage (ha!) I've done a good job at looking (lustfully), not buying, the vintage sheets I've come across on my travels. These, however were too charming to leave behind

detail from the palest pink pillowslips, frilled edges too

forget about the little girl, this one for me is all about that cactus!

Do you lack self control when you hit the oppies? Are you charmed by a bit of nostalgia like me, or do you only ever buy stuff you know you have a spot for? Tell the truth...

I'll end with something for the Ladybird lovers out there

no room for trinkets and toys now, it's lovelies all the way!



Here's a list of my current "doubles":

Play With Us

The L.B. Book of Things to Make

The Gingerbread Boy

Telling the Time (digital version)

The Magic Porridge Pot
Jack and the Beanstalk 

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 

Books Are Exciting

Australian Mammals

if you need any of these to grow your collection please send me a note and they're yours. Be nice and only ask if you haven't already got a copy. I'll try to share them around as much as I can, ie. I will only send them to one person if I receive one response.

Newsflash 18 June: I have found new homes for all the "ladies".

Thanks for reading, I know its a long-ee.

x

Anzac Day

Anzac Day

Photograph by Helmut Gritsher.

(from my beloved copy of Life in Australia published in 1968 and found at the tip shop)

I know on ANZAC day, we all remember with a tear,

but all vets young or old they need our help throughout the year,

support and listen to their stories when they do get told,

lets honour our new veterans just as we do our old

Excerpt from New Generation Veterans, a poem written by David J Delaney, 2010. Found here

"Lest We Forget"

Vintage Tea Towel Tuesday

I got my hands on this beautiful t.towel only yesterday. A gift from my bloggy friend and mistress of modern macrame, Pippa (you might know her better as Ouchflower, although there is nothing prickly about her - she's more succulent than cactus)

Here it is:

All pure linen, made in Ireland by Lamont

(Samuel Lamont & Co have been manufacturing household textiles for over 200 years!)

There's no denying this is a gorgeous tea towel. It's got everything going for it and guzumped today's scheduled contender EASILY (poor thing didn't stand a chance when I layed my eyes on this beauty)

If I didn't think you'd think I was a total nut-job, I'd launch into a bit of Elizabeth Barrett Browning about now, but as much as I love this tea towel, I'm not going to count the ways...here are a few more pics instead:

Bellissima!

(Grazie Pippa x)

  

Larrakeyah...

a.k.a. the Butterfly or McCraith House. Built in 1956. Designed by David Chancellor who you'd have to agree, certainly met his client's brief: "create something wild and crazy" 

I  rediscovered this awesome modernist beach house while I was flicking through a pile of old interior design magazines.
I flick, then I ditch. The ditching is inspired by William Morris who famously said:

"If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful"

(in other words, while I was having a bit of a tidy-up)

Anyway in the case of this issue of Inside Out, (issue 71 Jan-Feb 2008) I flicked, scanned and then ditched (the scanning made me feel better about the ditching)
Sharing these images with you guys should make me feel better still...

all photographs Michael Wee

The really cool thing about the Butterfly House (apart from the obvious) is that it remains exactly as it was when it was originally built. Same (gorgeous) interior (and exterior) wall colours, same furniture, same crockery, same bed linen! Pretty special eh?

Larrakeyah (I love houses with names, Larrakeyah is an inner suburb of Darwin and also the name of an Aboriginal tribe) is in Dromana on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. You can read more about it here

Speaking of beach houses, one of the reasons we have decided to d.i.y. instead of going for a full-on profesh (expensive) reno is to increase our chances of owning our own. One day.

I've got my eye on this little gem, in Albany in W.A's south-west...

check the view

and the fire place

these pics and more via 

What did Blondie say about dreaming?