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Beat the Monday Blues

January 9, 2012 in Your Vintage Office

Beat the Monday blues by checking out something or someone we love. Here at Your Vintage Life, we feel it is important to share great finds with you all as well as support local business.

So this Monday, I introduce to you the gorgeous notebooks from Retro from Scratch.

I first saw these amazing notebooks through following a link on Twitter. When I caught sight I straight away was shouting WANT, WANT, WANT! Then I remembered I didn’t need a notebook but I did need a diary. I casually tweeted to the owner and creator Becky, asking if she did diaries. She didn’t. But she would!

So then started the best customer service I have received in ages. She painstakingly designed the inserts taking time to get it just how I wanted it. She added special pages such as vintage conversion charts such as shillings to pounds which was a nice touch.

The just before Christmas it arrived. And this is it……

Gorgeous huh? Becky scours charity shops, car boots etc for old children’s books that are in need of a little tlc. She removed the spine (which is usually broken anyway) and adds rings. Hey presto….gorgeous individual notebooks.

I bought this one too!

By day Becky is a trained archeologist who now works in a museum. So she clearly likes old stuff!

She sells on etsy and at fairs around London and Essex. For more details why not follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

The Pop Up Vintage fair

I love the old Ladybird books. We read them to our children and know there are a lot of battered versions out there. These make such a lovely gift..infact I ended up buying more this Christmas. (If you are a friend of mine expect some this year!). They are beautifully made and well packaged.

One of Herbies favourites

The good pages within are not wasted either as Becky makes them into bunting. I have some too but am not sure whether to give it up to the kids or store it away for when I eventually get an office! I love the nostalgic feel to it and lets face it…no one else will have it!

Vintage beer mat notebooks are also available. Perfect for the boys!

Here are some of my favourites.

Tags: childrens, craft, Home made, Ladybird books, notebooks, retro from scratch, vintage
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This week’s weakness

October 2, 2011 in Your Vintage Office

My weakness is shopping. Actually, not just shopping. My weakness is shopping, thrifting, collecting….I can’t drive past a car boot sale without dropping in, I can’t visit a new town without thrifting through the charity shops, I can’t ignore a sign saying “Garage Sale”..to be honest I can’t even drive past a skip without meer-catting my neck up to see if there’s any bounty inside.

So maybe I should share with you my weakness..in fact here is this week’s weakness.

Yesterday at Judy’s Affordable Vintage Fair in Lincoln, I bought this wooden pencil case. It cost a whole £4 and dates from 1951.

The lady who sold it bought a whole load of stuff from a lady aged 80. This belonged to her son as a small boy.

It has a cute, colourful lid with chocolate box houses on. The colours are still vibrant.

He obviously looked after it well as there are very little chips and scuffs. It’s a shame he didn’t write his name on it!

The big question is this: shall I give it to my Herbie in his Christmas stocking for all his pencils (bear in mind I bought him a modern Gruffalo one last year for the same very reason and it’s still lying about redundant)

OR shall I put it on my desk and use it myself? What do you think?

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Simply: 1. Sign up to the blog 2. Leave us a comment about the blog 3. Tell your friends through Facebook, Twitter etc so they can join in the vintage fun!

Winner will be drawn on Thursday 6th October x

Tags: 1950s, case, collecting, judys affordable vintage fair, pencil, shopping, vintage, wood, wooden
1 Comment »

Hanging on the telephone

July 22, 2010 in Your Vintage Office

I love my vintage telephones so much, I thought I would share some with you.

My number one love is for the Ericofon or the Cobra phone. This was designed in the late 1940s in Sweden by Gosta Thames, Ralph Lysell & Hugo Blomberg. This was a revolutionary design, it was the first marketed phone which incorporates the dial and handset together…maybe a forerunner for the cordless and mobile phone. It was made in 18 colours for the US market…red, white and pastel shades but never black!

I love the dial underneath and the strange buzzer ringer. It hit the UK in 1956…amazing to think such a beautiful radical design is over 50 years old. They were made up to 1970s but these were a squarer shape…and be careful for all the repros out there. The originals will have the Swedish numbers and will more than likely need converting for use in the UK.

This is my pastel green cobra which sits pride of place in my lounge.

In the 60s BT started to mass produce phones: the most popular being the plastic, rotary dial 700 series. These came in various colours, cream being the most popular due to matching colour schemes. The blue was introduced for the Jubilee year 1977, black was considered serious and used in men’s offices, red was quite flash and left for the young! I had a cream one in my bedroom as a teenager, it took ages to dial the numbers!

Remember the wall hung kitchen phone, getting tangled around the curly wire whilest you cook? This one is in my kitchen now! These were quite rare in the UK, preferred in the US.

In 1977, BT introduced the Jubilee wall hung phone…a slightly stunted version of the 700 series. It came in blue and black…well done if you find one with the original crest paper in the centre of the dial. My one sits on a retro telephone table in the hall!

In the 1980s phones became more fun with the introduction of the Genie. This was designed by A. Besson and had a push button dial that looks like a rotary dial. I love the adverts….so glam for a phone which up to now was quite a functional item.

Here is my orange one in the dining room.

The novelty phone was introduced Daleks, Mickey, Snoopy and a pair of bright red lips…so brash yet totally summing up the era.

Finally, I must mention the Trimphone….the one phone I don’t have (but keep hinting). This was introduced in the 1970s as a rotary dial and then with push buttons in the 1980s. They had such a distinctive ringtone and came in some great colours. Snowdon produced a range in 2 tone colours….I lust for a baby blue one…….a girl can dream!