Best (boot sale) foot forward

I paid my first visit of the year to a car boot sale on Sunday with my Dad in tow; it was a lovely sunny morning and a very busy one too. As usual, Dad and I went our separate ways - he was looking for bedding plants and well, you all know what I was after!

First buy of the day was these Hiltons 1950s lovelies found underneath one of the stalls - and in my size too! They only cost £3 and have hardly been worn. Funny thing was, that when I showed my Mum the shoes she could remember having a similar pair.

From the same stall as the shoes I also brought a pair of seamed stockings still in their packaging (50p) and a silk scarf (£1)...

... these pieces were supplemented by a pair of pigs-skin gloves from another stall (£1). The morning had started off on an excellent foot so to speak and I reckon that I had luck on my side that day as I zoned in on some more bits and pieces:

Petal Ware cream jug - 50p, ceramic swan - £1, tea towel - 50p and 1940s glass beads - £4

I also brought a fabric bundle for £3; the large 1960s orange floral piece will make an great picnic cloth and will also match my orange Melmex melamine plates and cups.

My final buy at the boot sale was another Just William book; he's one of my literary heroes!

I hope you all had a great weekend too. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for hot sunny weather this weekend as we're going to a Morris Minor rally and a picnic is on the cards!

Roll up, roll up!

I don't normally do baking posts, but I thought that I'd do one for today's bake:

 A neighbour kindly gave us a jar of her homemade raspberry jam in exchange for some of our eggs (the chooks are still laying an egg each every day!) and this gave me the idea of baking a Victoria sponge. I browsed through a couple of my vintage cookery books for recipes and whilst looking at a one in a 1930s Parkinson book was distracted by a recipe for Swiss roll on the opposite page. As I hadn't made a Swiss roll in ages I thought that I'd give it a go.

What drew my attention to this recipe was that instead of mixing the eggs and sugar together which is what I've done before, you have to separate the eggs and whisk the whites first and then slowly add the yolks and sugar. This creates a really fluffy mix - even after the flour is folded in. After a 10 minute bake I turned it out as advised and found that it rolled up really easily - for once!

And here you go...my Swiss roll ready and waiting to be sliced up for Monkeychild's after school snack. It just goes to show that those old cookery books are just as good - and if not better at times - than some of the modern ones celebrity based ones we buy.

So macho!

One of the things that I love about vintage knitting patterns is the way the models look and the poses they adopt, like these two dapper gents...

Chap on the left is intently working his 1930s 'blue steel' glare, whilst the more amiable moustachioed gent on the right looks like he should have a subtitle along the lines of "I say chaps, fancy a round of golf then drinks at the club?' These patterns are part of a collection that a friend who works at a charity shop kindly put by for me. Their previous owner must have been a keen knitter of pullovers for her menfolk judging by the number of similar-looking patterns that she accumulated.

Amongst the mens' patterns were some assorted womens' patterns and books, but the pattern that really caught my eye was for a Sirdar jumper with a shaped ribbed waist, which I reckon is gorgeous. However, its only an advert so I'll have to keep an eye open for this particular pattern in the future.

I took Monkeychild on a trip to Goodrich Castle at the weekend and on the way back stopped off for a little charity shop browsing. The first shop we went into had nothing that caught my interest, but the second had far better finds including a tweed skirt length:

and an embroidered tablecloth:

Monkeychild also showed positive signs of being able to hunt out those vintage bargains when she found (by herself!) this 1960s La Soie evening purse, buying it for 20p to add to her dressing up box.

Finally, thanks goes to Loveknitting who have me as their current 'Blogger of the Week'. So if you want to know what inspires me knit-wise and how many unfinished projects I have hidden away, then why not take a peek.

A vintage af-fair

'Who Knows Where the Times Goes' sang the melodious Sandy Denny and indeed the time has gone by somewhat quickly since my last post a few weeks ago. I'm also behind with reading and commenting on your posts, but I will get there eventually - I promise!

We had a busy Bank Holiday weekend, fitting in a visit to Bletchley Park (more of that in a later post), a street party and also a vintage fair: 'Vintage at the Racecourse'. I'd never been to this fair before and as it was local, decided to go and have a look. The fair filled two rooms with about a good three quarters vintage and the rest craft stalls with a vintage flavour. This was another fair that had stallholders selling quality and also 'proper' (you know how fussy I am when it comes to vintage) vintage clothing. There were a lot of really lovely 40s and 50s dresses there, especially a gorgeous purple one that I lost my heart to but was far too small for me. I'm so dippy at times - I took my camera with me but forgot to take any pictures as I was too involved in hunting out those finds!However, I did buy a long, swishy 50s skirt, which'll be ideal to wear on a sunny day (if we have any more!) and a frilly petticoat to plump out the bell skirt that I brought a couple of weeks ago.

 Husband and Monkeychild came with me too for a browse, which was lucky as she could try on a cute blue and white 50s/60s St. Michael girls' dress that Lizzie aka The Washerwoman blogger had on her stall. It fitted perfectly and Monkeychild is now happy to have her own vintage dress! It was also nice to meet Lizzie too as our paths hadn't crossed before although we've both commented on each others blogs over the past years. Its always great to meet a fellow blogger.

Charity shop finds have been a bit thin on the ground in the past few weeks since I brought the sewing machine. I've only brought a paste brooch...

...and a 70s Dorma single sheet - both were a bargainous £2 each too! I had a couple of pillowcases in the same pattern but in pink, which I used a couple of years ago to make a summer top for Monkey (it still fits thanks to the adjustable shoulder-straps!). I haven't got any ideas what to use this sheet for, so it'll go into the stash, although I'm still in awe at the vintage sheet patchwork duvet cover that Loo made over at Jumbles and Pompoms blog. If you haven't seen it yet, then check it out as its brilliant and a duvet cover after my own heart.

Fingers crossed that the sun will return for us all next month!

See you soon, VK x