Wish List Wednesday – Family of Flasks Brooch by Ersterwilder

For this month’s wish list I have hearts in my eyes for the Ersterwilder ‘Family of Flasks Brooch’. Ersterwilder are an independent jewellery label based in Melbourne, Australia. They make limited edition layered resin jewellery with different themes and beautiful colours. Their influences include animals, vintage, retro and pinup styles, and art deco design – they also did a dinosaur collection recently! All of the characters they create for their designed come with a story and narrative. Their ranges include necklaces, earrings, collar clips and brooches. 

They launched the Pinup Picnic line in mid-February (summer over in Australia) and it included pieces that look like, water melon slices, ladybirds, a duck pond, a cherry pie, daisy’s and a honey pot but I totally fell for the Family of Flasks Brooch. It’s a group of 3 flasks, a wee red and white gingham flask and two with retro patterns at the back, I think it’s totally adorable. 

I really like Ersterwilder as a company because they really seem to value their customers and their opinions. They ask for help to name new characters and there is a page on their website where you can submit your design ideas to them. They have a great sense of humour and on the 1st of April announced they were going to launch ‘Ersterwilder Edibles’, a range of their most popular brooch styles re-created in edible form. They love sharing their customer’s pictures of their new jewellery on Instagram and Facebook so check them out! 

Wish List Wednesday - The Boys Toys Skirt by BOB

Wish List Wednesday is back! Huzzah I hear you call!

This week I'm swooning after the Boys Toys skirt from the new collection from BOB by Dawn O’Porter. The Equality Collection launch a week ago on the 20th of January.  It's a capsule collection with only four pieces in it, the skirt, a shirt, a dress and a pair of leggings, with prints on them created by the very talented Karen Mabon.

This is not Karen Mabon's first collaboration with Dawn O'Porter's label BOB. They previously created a beautiful selection of four skirts with designs including flying geese, nostalgic 90s school days and women walking dogs and my favorite, the blue one with sheets of paper with inspirational quotes on them.

Karen's studio is based in Edinburgh these days after studying here at the School of Art, so there is a local interest in this weeks WLW too. Her forte is quirky and colourful scarves and jewelry and you can check them all out on her website. The themes of her scarves very from dogs in fancy dress, Noah's ark to the classic greasy spoon cafe breakfast! They are all bright and full of interesting details.

The Equality Collection has three of Karen Mabon's prints; The Love Wins print which features the who rainbow of couples in love live a cat and a dog, two spacemen and a pair of figure skaters, it has been printed on a 60's inspired cream shirt and 80's style leggings. The Women and the Boss print features hard working women in in the work place, taking meeting and working with their babies. My favorite is the Boys Toys print, it's covered in Super Soakers, dinosaurs, Gameboys and toy soldiers and all of this is on a beautiful 50's inspired skirt. Since having her little boy Dawn O'Porter has been 'shocked by the gender specific toy industry' with girls toy sections being filled with 'tiaras and ponies' and the boys toy inspiring 'toughness and strength'. She wanted to highlight the fact that 'boys look great in pink and girls love being tough'. 

I love it! I always enjoyed playing with Lego and water guns when I was growing up and I do enjoy a great 50's style skirt too, especially when it has something positive to say about society. The Equality Collection is also available in sizes 6-18, which I love, and is all made in London.

You should also check out both Karen and Dawn's Instagram accounts too, they have both fun and inspirational, especially all of Dawn's vintage finds. 

Out of the Blue Flea Market

A couple weeks ago I popped along to the Out of the Blue Flea Market at the Drill Hall on Dalmeny Street in Leith. It’s an monthly event with different stall holder each time. It starts at 10am and carries on until 3pm on the last Saturday of the month, 28th of November this month.

Me channeling Lucy from Narnia

I’d been once before a couple years ago with my cousins and now that we are living in Leith I really wanted to go back for a nosy. We turned up at 11am and the Flea Market was in full swing. The Drill Hall was buzzing, the café was busy with folk drinking tea and chatting and we walked through into the main hall past the display cabinets full of local artists work for sale.

There were stalls selling all sorts, from home wares to haberdashery and, my favourite, vintage fashions. As usual I was drawn in by the shiny things and started riffling through boxes of old brooches and necklaces, swooning over the 50’s sewing boxes that we have no room for in our wee flat. Martyn was more interested in the records and petting the dogs that were there.

I like to have a plan with this kind of event, the rules were once around the hall looking but not buying and sussing out sellers, then second time around if it’s still there then it’s meant to be and then you buy, with possible haggling if required.

It took a while to get around the hall as we were chatting to the stall holders (one of them told me I looked like Lucy from Narnia) and having a good rake around the clothes rails. We pick a lovely set of 3 Pyrex dishes from the 70's that had never been used and were still in their original box for a tenner, I nabbed some clip on earrings that I plan making into collar clips and the Ladybird Book about Stamp Collecting for a friend. Martyn grabbed some music equipment and a Soul Jazz Records bag for under £25, he was very chuffed.

Over all it was a resounding success and I'm looking forward to heading back to Out of the Blue for the Vintage Kilo Sale held by Judy’s Affordable Vintage Fairs on the Saturday (21st November). 

Out of the Blue Flea Market - Out of the Blue Drill Hall, 36 Dalmeny St, Edinburgh, EH6 8RG 

DIY Notice Board

A couple weeks ago I popped my crafting hat on and made myself a notice board for the flat. We needed somewhere to put things like upcoming gig tickets, photo booth pictures and wedding invites etc. so they didn’t just pile up and eventually get lost. I’ve been wanting to make one for a while but couldn’t find a frame I liked for the price I wanted anywhere. One lunchtime I popped into one of the local charity shops and there is was, a lovely big frame in a pale turquoise, it had a pretty ugly oil painting in it and a few scuffs around it and was the bargain price of £4.99.

Once I got it home I pulled the tacks holding the canvas out at the back and took the old hanging string off too. I was thinking about sanding and repainting it but once I gave it a wee clean with some hot soapy water it looked fine. This is when the real crafting comes in.

For the notice board you will need…

One large frame.
Backing paper (Wrapping paper or posters are idea.)
Nice string or twine.
Staple gun. (Borrowed from my manager.) 
Teeny tiny pegs.

Once you have your frame in a state you are happy with have a play about with your string and decide what kind directions you’d like it to go in, I went with a simple diagonally across design. Once you are happy with what you like then grab that staple gun and attached the string at your top starting corner, leave a good 5 cm-7 cm tail. With that excess you should staple it to the back of the frame, fold it back over the staple and staple it down again (see photo below).

I found that the edge of my frame was going to be too thin to staple into because you’d see it come through on the front so I attached it to the adjacent side. Carry on that way down both sides of the frame making sure to keep the string taught and secure it at the bottom like you did at the top. 

Next you either want to cover the original picture, like me, or attached you backing paper to the frame. I used mini duckling tape by Duck Tape and some double sided tape. The paper I used was from Paperchase and is slightly larger than the frame, I'd recommend that you use nothing too jazzy as this will distract from what you put on your notice board. Once you've covered the picture you can reattach it to the frame, I just used the staple gun again for this (I really need my own one). 

Flip it around and you should have a pretty cool notice board. You can add extra decorations like my scrabble tiles that I got from local haberdashery Thread and Heather to spell out The Clubhouse, which is what we call the flat, or you could string some fairy lights over it or glue on some buttons. Once you are happy with it then hang it on your wall and add you favorite things with the tiny pegs.

Wish List Wednesday - Bespoke Barware's Cockney Rhyming Range

This week I discovered the delights of Bespoke Barware. They have an East London based studio where they create a wide range of barware including the most amazing tiki mugs. I have fallen for the Cockney Rhyming Range as well as a couple others. The range includes; Vera Lynn (Gin), Fine n Dandy (Shandy), Tom Thumb (Rum), Pig’s Ear (Beer) and Gold Watch (Scotch). 

The Cockney Rhyming Range

I think Vera is my favourite, and coincidentally my Nana's name, unfortunately I can't drink gin as there are far too many tears involved. If we were going for the appropriate mug fro the drink I'd probably have the Tom Thumb in hand most evenings, I do love a dark and stormy!  

Check out that lippy!

Bespoke Barware is the love child of Cheeky Tiki who set up and run some of the UK most famous Tiki and Tropical drinking holes including Mahiki, Kanaloa, Lola Lo & Bodos Schloss. Now Bespoke Barware is the arm of the operation who look after the barware and aesthetic elements. Their main workshop is based in East London with an artisan team of experts in ceramics, woodwork, fiberglass and more. They can create unique one off designs for a personal touch or they can do customising or branding on their current designs for you too.

While going through their many many designs I also spotted the Hemingway Mug and the Blue Lady Mug which are both also to die for! If you are planning a show stopping party of looking for a unique gift for friends or family then you should totally check them out.

Wish List Wednesday - Ollie & Nic’s Delicious Apple bag

Good news! The internet is back up and running in The Clubhouse again! The lovely man from Virgin came and fixed it on Sunday afternoon – this did mean we had to take down the fort we’d build in the livingroom earlier than we had planned but it was worth it to save the data on my phone!  …And yes we build a fort, after the craziness of August and having guests every weekend we decided that we would hibernate for the first weekend in September. It was a super fort with fairy lights and a wall banner that says ‘Hello Sailor’ that my best friend Ginge made me!

Enough of my rambling and back on with Wish List Wednesday! This week I’m swooping after Ollie & Nic’s Delicious Apple bag, to be honest I’ve been swooning over it for years and never need able to justify buying it to myself but I think this might be the year I finally splash out (or put it top of my Christmas list). I first saw it when Ollie and Nic had a shop in Union Square in Aberdeen, I would go in and visit it in my lunch break, have long discussions with friends about how much I wanted it but really it wasn’t practical. Basically I had a crush on it. As with all crushes I eventually stopped visiting it when the shop moved further away, every now and again it would pop into my head and I’d smile but I was never really over it.

Isn't she adorable!

In the last year or so there has been a massive growth in kitch and fruity looking handbags – I bought the orange slice and chocolate bar bags from New Look, these all echoed the Apple bag back into my thoughts.

Ohhhh look inside...

The bag it’s self is a red rattan and apple shaped with a detachable shoulder strap and grab handles. It is lined with a polkadot material and the popper close fastening looks like a stalk and even has a leaf detail attached to it. With an internal pocket and stud feet its practical too. Personally this would be a date night or night out with the girls bag for me and would have a treasured spot on display the rest of the time.  

Wish list Wednesday – On Thursday - Red cherry brooch by Luxulite

Wish list Wednesday – On Thursday - Red cherry brooch by Luxulite

My wish list Wednesday comes a day late this week as our internet in The Clubhouse is currently down. This week my heart is singing for one of Luxulites fruity looking brooches. Luxulite create 1950's inspired jewellery - brooches, necklaces, earrings and bracelets. My favourite are the cherry like brooches particularly the one with gold sparkly leaves and red cherry baubles.

Swoon! 

Katy, the owner and creator if Luxulite, writes in her Etsy profile that she aims to make one-offs and short runs of her pieces so that us vintage style gals don't end up matching at meet ups. She manages to do all this while keeping prices at very reasonable. £10-£17 a brooch for such unique pieces seems like a total baring to me! You wouldn’t find vintage style earrings for a fiver on the high street either.

Mah Jong tiles

I have a total soft spot for the Vintage Mah Jong tile items as they remind me of my Granny Maggie who loves a game of Mah Jong, you might know it as Taipei from you PC back in the day. I think my favourite 'range' is the Totally Tropical one with peanut shell and flamingo earrings and brooches with toucans swinging from them, the kind of designs that make you smile.

The history bit - Lucite jewellery boomed into popularity in the 1950’s, it is hardwearing and lightweight it can be carved, polished and poured into moulds, making it idea for crafting and easy to wear. Lucite is clear in its purest form and looks like glass or rock crystal, but it can be dyed all the colours of the of the rainbow. All kinds of things can be suspended in it like glitter and small objects, many years ago I had a ring with a small figure of a man suspended in it. I love that Katy I carrying on this tradition of jewellery design and making it easily accessible for us mid-century loving ladies! 

Date Night - Origano

Last Thursday was our second Leith based date night and we headed down the walk to our local Italian restaurant Origano. The restaurant has recently move down and across the road from 277 to 236 to a larger premises. I’d been eyeing it up before they had moved as we had been out exploring Leith, the shutter had a really nice mural on it and was always pretty busy. It was quite quickly put on the date night list.

As date night rolled back around this month we decided it had to be Oregano, one of the ladies in the office had been with family and recommended it, she said the portions were large which is always a good selling point with us!

I got home after work and curled my hair and popped in some wee victory rolls, pulled out my H! by Henry Holland navy dress with red and white swirls on it (I love it because the swirls look like sweets), my red cardigan and my vintage satchel.

We headed down Leith Walk to Oregano for 8:15 (we booked earlier that day and it was all we could get) We were greeted at the door by a man who appeared to be one of the managers/owners who took my name and lead us to two tables and gave us the choice, obviously I chose the window seat. The restaurant was very busy and but the tables weren’t crammed in so we didn’t feel as though we were crushed in. The place was dimly light with large lamp shades and red candles in old bottles. The interior was warm and welcoming with the kitchen open for everyone to see the beautiful purple pizza oven in the far corner.

We ordered our drinks, a large glass of house red for me and an Appetizer for the fella. We settled on 4 cheese garlic bread to share as a starter, the bread was fluffy baguette style with gooey, melty, garlicky cheese on top, it was amazing and the house red tasted superb with it. For our mains we both ordered pizza’s (Martyn took a long time deciding between pizza and lasagne), I had the Origano with tomato, mozzarella, onion, mushroom, red pepper, black olives, santos tomatoes, garlic and parsley and he had Vesuvio  with tomato, mozzarella, diced pancetta, pepperoni, nduja, onion, jalapenos, chillies, garlic, grana padano and parsley. We both ordered the 14” pizzas as it was the middle size, I’d assumed that the couple next to us were having the same size by looking at them… I was wrong! Two massive pizzas turned up at our table pretty speedily, both oozing with cheese and smelling amazing. They were huge, big enough to share between two with a side salad and the 16” were big enough to feed a family of four! I managed 2/3 of the pizza in front of me and had to stop, mostly because I still wanted to leave room for dessert, Martyn managed ¾ so the lovely waitress boxed up our left overs for us and took our gluttonous pudding orders, I had the most moist and creamy tiramisu and Martyn ordered a great slab of lemon cheesecake with a scoop of raspberry sorbet, both were beautiful.

After we had finished our desserts our plates were cleared and we still had our second round of drinks to finish, Martyn was on the Jack and coke by then, we were left to enjoy our drinks. It must have been after 9pm and people were still arriving for dinner and the place was still buzzing with chatter and flickering candle light. We didn’t feel rushed to finish up and free up the table and the staff were lovely and charming, we paid up and grabbed out left overs box and slowly made our way back up the Walk.

Overall Origano was a relaxed and very tasty dining experience. Great atmosphere, friendly staff and good value for money. We’ll be back! 

Origano - 236 Leith Walk EH6 5EL - 0131 554 6539

DIY Cake Stand

This weekend I managed to find a wee bit of time to myself! I had an itch for some crafting and I had been planning to make a cake stand for a while. Last Monday I had finally found the plate I wanted to use as the top of the stand after months trawling through charity shops. In the end I found it in Marks and Spencer’s in their Picnicware section, it’s a melamine antique floral dinner plate. The whole range is stunning and durable, which is very handy for butter fingers here. For the base I wanted to use an Edinburgh Crystal champagne saucer that I had picked up in a charity shop to decorate the Christmas table a couple of years ago.

My glass and plate

This is a very simple craft project, all you need is: 

A glass of your choice – any style will work

A plate that is big enough to hold a good sized cake

Super glue

A pencil

Something to cover your work surface

So cover your work surface because the last thing you want to do is super glue something to your dining table, I just used old newspaper. Pop your plate face down on the table and position the base of your glass in the centre and use the pencil to drawer around the edge or it.

Centre the plate

Next carefully open the super glue and gently squeeze the tube around the inside of your pencil outline. Pop the base of the glass back on top of the glue, be very careful at this point as super glue dries very fast and you don’t want a wonky cake stand. I also put a little extra glue around the outside for the glass base for a really strong hold. Leave the glue to cure for at least an hour before moving it, it will take up to 24 hours to dry completely so I’d wait before popping a freshly baked Victoria Sponge on it!

Leave it to dry over night

Once it’s fully dried then flip it over and Tah Dah! you have beautiful and unique cake stand to impress your guests with! I'm totally in love with mine and planning to get my bake on this weekend! 

My finished cake stand 

Judy's Affordable Vintage Fair

This weekend Edinburgh was treated to a visit by Judy's Affordable Vintage Fair. I was particularly lucky as they set it up in Out of the Blue and Drill Hall Arts Café on Dalmeny Street, Leith, just a couple streets away from me! It's an amazing space with plenty of natural light and a great atmosphere. I've been to one of Judy's Kilo Sales there and one of their monthly flea markets before and they are great and you can stop for tea and cake at the café too!

 

The Drill Hall

The fair kicked off at 11am and my lovely friend Elaine had agreed to meet me at the hall then, I had spent the morning curly and pinning my hair, picking out one of my favourite dresses, vintage(ish) style but from Primark, I popped on my current favourite sandals of choice and grabbed my big vintage woven straw bag for all my goodies.

Me by the Kirsty Whiten mural.

It was £2 for entry, which I think was the first bargain of the day! We started wondering, and chatting, around the stalls. One of the first we came to had some amazing vintage and retro furniture, great lampshades, working record players, sewing boxes and melamine tables but my flat is already too full so we just admired them and kept going. We trawled through rails of vintage and customised clothes, there were 80's sparklers, lumberjack shirts, shell suits and some absolutely stunning dresses unfortunately nothing quite right for us. We came across a great stall of vintage jewellery, hats, gloves and bags and I fell totally in love with a Lucite clutch bag, it was white pearl with wee brass clasp the made the perfect click when you closed it, £75 was out of my budget but I'm seriously regretting leaving it behind. She had beautiful pillbox hats, cardigan clips and box purse hand bags too. Moving on we passed some amazing vintage inspired jewellery and some great head bands with toy soldiers attached to them.

My major weakness is scarves, any size, colour or shape and I nearly fell head first into a massive box of them trying to dig one out that I'd seen a glimpse of, it was huge and really colourful, I also found a wee pale blue chiffon head scarf with a rain drop pattern on it and bought the two of them for £5 **bargain alert**.

My last purchase of the day was a pair of vintage champagne glasses with Scottish landmarks painted on them. The first one, my one, has Balmoral Castle on one side and Edinburgh Castle on the other, I grew up in Aberdeen and now live in Edinburgh so it's quite fitting. The second one has the Forth Rail Bridge and Loch Lomond on it. I fell in love with them and braced myself while asking how much they were, the lovely stall holder said £6 and I didn't even haggle.

My scarves and champagne glasses.

Overall it was a fabulous fair, absolutely packed with treasures for everyone. I would recommend keeping an eye out for one of Judy's fairs coming to a town near you and if you're in or around Edinburgh then check out the Drill Hall and what’s going on there, the Flea Markets are on the last Saturday of the month 10am-3pm (but not August because of the festival).

Date Night – Serrano Manchego

Martyn and I started ‘date night’ about 6 months ago when we were still living in Tollcross. There are so many lovely independent restaurants in Edinburgh we are completely spoilt! In a quest to work our way around some of these places we declared ‘date night’. 

The rules of date night;

Once a month on pay day.

Must be local (walking distance from the flat).

We take turns on who pays.

When he is paying I choose the location.

When I’m paying he chooses the location.

We never go to the same place twice for date night.

We visited some great places around Tollcross; Mezbaan, a brilliant South Indian place which is superb value for money and fab for vegetarians, Tuk Tuk, BYOB which I love and more modern ‘Indian street food’ style Menu and My Big Fat Greek Kitchen, traditional Greek food in a quaint wee spot that had the most tantalising flavours just to name a few!

Our first Leith date night was at Serrano Manchego, a bright wee Spanish tapas bar on Leith Walk, we’d walked past it a few times while doing food shopping or running errands. I had said that I’d like to go there and Martyn had nodded in agreement. On our way back from the weekly Lidl adventure I popped in to book a table for the next date night, the place smelt amazing and the staff were very friendly.

So Monday night came round, I got home from the gym, showered, did my hair, my face, put on my pretty new H! by Henry Holland dress and grabbed my we red Push Lock Cambridge Satchel bag. Martyn got home from work and changed his polo shirt (it’s so much easier to be a boy!) 

We arrived at 7pm and there were a handful of tables already in, it was that nice level where you can have a conversation without having to shout across the table. We were asked if we’d like to sit but the window, which I jumped at, and were handed a drinks and food menus. I chose a lovely Rioja, Don Paulino Crianza, and Martyn ordered a diet coke.

We had a look over the menu trying to decide what we wanted to share, what meat to get him and what mushroom based dish I should get, I’m veggie and he hates mushrooms! I would say we over ordered but our lovely, authentically Spanish, waitress would probably have let us order the whole menu without stopping us. We had bread with oil and vinegar, manchego cheese, quince jelly, grapes and nuts, pimientos de padrón, garlic mushrooms, patatas bravas, chorizo al vino, serrano & manchego croquettes and a last minute edition of chorizo sausage & chicken skewers (which really were not needed). It was a lot of food and it just seemed to keep coming! Martyn definitely didn’t need the chorizo al vino and the skewers! Saying that it was all delicious, the pimientos de padrón were a highlight for me as I’d had them on holiday last year and devoured them, the mushrooms were so tasty and the manchego was buttery and smooth. Martyn assures me that the meaty options were also to the same high standards and you could tell by the clear plates and bowls.

After stuffing our faces we were offered dessert, we ordered churros – we should have only ordered one to share… but we didn’t… They were sweet and crisp with a pot of warm chocolate sauce and a scoop of ice cream – dreamy! We took our time tidying them up, the feel of the place is very relaxed, we never felt rushed but at the same time didn’t feel as though we were waiting a long time for our food. As we over ordered the bill came to slightly more than we would normally pay for date night but I think we learnt our lesson and would still come back.

Over all we really enjoyed it, the food was fresh and tasty, they obviously take a lot of pride in it and the atmosphere of the place and the staff were friendly. I think it would be a great place to go with a few friends and catch up, order a couple bottles of wine and relax in the authentic Spanish feel of the place. I’d definitely recommend it to family and friends.

Serrano Manchego - 297 Leith Walk, Edinburgh - Website

Leith Market Adventure

Well its finally time for my first blog post. It’s taken me a while to get the guts to start writing and get organised. My first article is about our trip to the Leith Market.

A little background for you guys – Martyn (my bearded companion) and I have recently moved in together after going out for about a year. We have a fab wee place just of Leith Walk and we’ve decided to make the most of the local area but finding a free weekend if very nearly impossible. I’d found out about the market at Dock Place from one of my colleagues, it’s right by her flat. I already enjoy a trip to the Sunday Stockbridge Market but often forgot about it or was too wrapped up in Sunday Bruch to make it down the road.

Leith market only started on the 11^th of July and we were away then and by some miracle we found ourselves without plans his weekend. I proposed the plan during the week, which involved food so Martyn was in, and Saturday afternoon arrived and we headed down. It was a pretty sunny but windy day so I donned my vintage polka dot navy dress, new white sandals from Primark and my vintage woven straw bag, it’s nice and big for produce and off we went. The market is about a 20 minute walk from the flat, though Leith and to the shore.

The Market is at Dock Place by Customs House down at the shore, there were several stalls, not as many as it’s Stockbridge counterpart but I hopefully it’ll grow as it becomes more popular. We arrived just before 2pm so the hot food stalls and vans were busy with people eating amazing looking food around them, there was Mexican, African and the French creperie. The makers stalls were buzzing with prints, crafty trinkets and brick-a-brac, I saw some adorable vintage handbags. The show stoppers were the fruit and veg and bakery stalls, we bought some lovely nectarines,  eyed up some amazing looking brownies and bagged a couple of very tasty pastries from Au Gourmand. Perthshire Preserves were there with their award winning jams and chutneys, I’ve had their spiced plum and apple chutney before and their hot banana chutney has to be tasted, Delish! We also grabbed a jar of Chipotle Ketchup from Gusto Artisan Foods, it’s smoky, sweet with a little kick at the end.

All in all our trip was a great success! I would definitely recommend having a wonder down and checking it out. I’m already looking forward to heading back and sampling some of the food stalls, particularly the Mexican food and the brownies, possibly checking if the handbags are still there.

Leith Market - Saturdays from 10am until 5pm - Dock Place EH6 6LU -Website