Tuesday, May 8, 2012

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

Monday, May 7, 2012

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 

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

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)