My sewing corner

Every crafty girl needs a space that's hers and I've finally got around to making the space in the corner where my sewing machine sits, mine. My Standard Book of Sewing, an estate sale find, goes so far to suggest "your sewing corner should have sufficient light ... [with] enough room for your sewing machine, a comfortable chair, a footstool ... and easy to reach shelves ... on which may be placed boxes and jar for buttons and other sewing accessories". Okay so my corner needs more work but we don't have a huge apartment so we're fighting for space with all our collections between us but I wanted to mark this territory as my crafty zone. Lets call it a work in progress where my sewing and my vintage things sit happily together.

Starting with a few old music scores from of my favourite musicals - High Society and My Fair Lady [I also have Moonlight Bay which is waiting to be added to the wall] all picked up from a flea market in Pickering [UK] - one day I intend to get them framed properly rather then using drawing pins. To my somewhat small collection of sewing books sitting proudly on my sewing table of which I want to keep adding to. The sewing box if you remember I picked up for a steal of $7 in Frankenmuth and is my treasure trove where I keep all my sewing basics - from threads, needles, scissors to some sewing kits for future use. Lastly I had to resort to the student faithful of reusing bottles, in this case a tequila one for a vase for what was remaining of the surprise flowers from my guy. And of course, the pile is all neatly topped off with a boxed 1969 vintage Avon powder compact which is now on eBay [hint hint].

Do you have any special "me" corners where you live? Where do you craft - I'd love to hear!

MICHIGAN: A Sunday at Indian Springs

I've finally got around to taking photographs with my bridge camera again, I'd somewhat abandoned it because it eats up way too many batteries so all my blog photographs lately have been taken on my guys camera. But with new lithium batteries in hand a a trip to a metropark I thought I'd return to my camera for a change. 

If you do go to any park in Michigan you'll see so much wildlife, but I'd never seen to many different species until we visited the Indian Springs Metropark on Sunday to take advantage of the sunshine. Not only were there butterflies but I spied wild turkeys, fishes, chipmunks to crazy looking beetles plus countless signs for rattlesnakes - but I'm glad we never saw them. We took a stroll on one of the nature walks and came across rusting farm machinery randomly placed along the walk, perhaps as art pieces or as a reminder of the former agricultural history of the area. Either way all the old parts were great to photograph. Inside the Nature Center they have an under water tunnel taking you under a lake to see all the fish swimming around - it was pretty cool looking out in the murky depths to try and catch a glimpse of the odd fish floating by. I even overheard one little boy saying how it was "like the zoo" with the girl, possibly his older sister arguing it was "even better". 

VINTAGE: Wooden Maxine Compact

Sometimes you come across compacts that just surprise you, you were never expecting them too, but there's something about them that just make you fall in love with collecting all over again. That can be said of this little compact. I brought it in a lot with two others, I'll be honest in admitting from the look of the pictures it didn't look anything exciting. The minute I opened it up, this compact became a firm favourite.

What makes this compact different is that it's casing is made of wood in a somewhat horseshoe shape, edged in metal with a metal interior. As a material, wood was often used as an alternative to metal particularly during WWII when metal was short - and there are several things to suggest that this compact could be old.

There is a lot of machine etched detailing to the powder well flap with a fancy rogue compact in the bottom quarter of the mirror hidden behind a little flap, it takes a delicate finger nail to lift it up. It came complete with a cotton based puff, delicately edged with thread and a little hook to pick it up by. All these little bits of attention to detail make me think it's old, made before compacts became highly commericalised. When lifted the powder well lid is even edged with material to keep the powder in place - something I've never seen before, only ever on the bottom of the powder well. This compact is certainly something different.

Upon the wooden top Maxine is marked. First I thought this was a brand mark now I think it's some form of personalization yet I'm unsure if this occurred before or after the compact was purchased. While it's very neat it certainly looks hand drawn and looking even closer it looks like to have been marked with a pen running over it. Either way, to me it's pretty and totally looks right for the compact. Compacts to me are all about their history, their life and their use and if someone took it upon themselves to dedicate and personalize it - then it makes it all the more special to me.

I've also finally got around to putting my first compacts up for sale on eBay, they are both doubles from my collection so I'm willing to let them go to a nice new home.  If you're interested in having some of our own - have a little peek.

Collectors Club - Pin Badges

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the bloggers who collect series today hosted by Charr. This may well be the penultimate post in this little series as with all good things they must come to an end [or just when you run out of posts!]. If you still want to take part then just comment me your details.

But now it's over to Charr and her lovely pin badge collection;

It may seem a bit weird to some people but I collect pin badges. When I think about it I actually have no idea why I started collecting I just kind of did. My collection isn't massive and may look a bit weird on the display board (actually just a blank painting canvas from hobbycraft) because it's quite big compared to the amount of pins I actually have but I am planning on continuing my collection for as long as possible and filling up the board. I used to store them all in a tin but it seemed a waste so I decided to find a way of displaying them on my wall in my bedroom. I have them split into sections on the board from Disney to places I've been, Miscellaneous to charity to the car related ones from my dad I collect them from everywhere! If I go on holiday I will search the gift shops for a pin badge that says the name of the place just to add to my collection, if there is a charity around I will donate some money for a pin badge. It's become a bit of a thing now that any time we go anywhere new I get a pin badge to document it, its a nice little reminder of where I have been along the years.

I believe I began collecting when I was about 8 or 9 on the train in Paris with my parents on holiday. A homeless man was selling pin badges for money and he approached us and freaked my mum out so she gave him some money and he gave me the mickey mouse and Eiffel tower pin badge. It seemed to spiral from there like I'd pick up the odd one when I saw one I liked but eventually it got to a point where I had to pick up one, two, five when I was on holiday or went somewhere new! My favourite and most important pins are the two 'Flying shoes' as I used to call them, on the right. They were awarded to my Dad when he used to compete in athletics events as a youngster. He kept them for years then discovered them once and immediately handed them to me. I will treasure them forever because they are so meaningful to my dad and me.