pretty in pink

Happy Saturday! We're having a quiet weekend snuggling in doors, as poor Pearl has chicken pox and we're all a bit worn out. I'm hoping to get up to the allotment tomorrow, weather dependent, to plant my garlic (overdue job, I know!). 

This week, I saw in my 32nd birthday and I was spoiled with lots of lovely cards and presents. I also ran my first ever 5k, probably a bit of an odd thing to do on the evening of your birthday, but I'm feeling very proud as I've never ran further than the bus stop in my life! I'm hoping to run in a proper organised event later in the year, but I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to do a half marathon just yet.

I finished off the week with a rather exciting Pyrex purchase, spotted in a charity shop on a work-related trip to Somerset. 

It's the coral-pink sister of my blue Gaiety divided dish, that I was so excited to find last year. £2.50 of utter Pyrex joy!

Don't they look happy together?

I also had another nice Pyrex surprise this week, when a parcel arrived containing this fab pot stand:

These were being given away on the modern Pyrexware website last year, but were only available to those living in the USA, so I had asked an American friend to apply for one on my behalf. I had completely forgotten all about it until she contacted me just after Christmas to check my address. I absolutely love it- so much fun! 

I can't quite decide what to do with it, as it is far too lovely to use, so for now it's hanging by the bread oven in my dining room, complimenting some of my other favourite Pyrex-related bits and bobs.

tangerine pyrex embroidery hoop

Happy Saturday everyone, I for one am delighted to see the sunshine peeping through the clouds on this January morning. 

This week, I picked up a gorgeous scrap of thrifted vintage fabric and decided it would be perfect for a little freestyle embroidery hoop, but I was rather indecisive about picking a subject. In the end, I thought I'd stick to what I know...

I'm so pleased with how doodley my lidded casserole dish turned out, and the randomly sized lazy daisies seem to lend themselves so well to giving the impression of a vintage Pyrex design.

I love the sunny tangerine tones too- just the perfect remedy for those threatening January blues!

if i had a hama

The last few days of the school holidays have been spent getting up late, snuggling, drinking hot chocolate, a trip to the cinema and lots of fun making and doing. 

Having now taken down the Christmas decorations, Flora and I decided to make some pretty dangly things from the bumper tub of Hama beads that Father Christmas had brought her. Partly inspired by Lou's lovely Hama window decorations, and partly inspired by Tiff's tremendous Happy Hangers of Joyfulness, we made some cheerful little mobiles to brighten up this dull, dismal January.

I started off by making this little woodland-style mobile to hang in the girls' window. I'm hoping it will shine chirpiness into their room, even when it's wet and windy outside, as it is today.

Meanwhile, Flora set about creating hers, which features a random assortment of brightly coloured bits and bobs to hang over her bed.

I especially like this  cute little face (me apparently!) because she patiently sat designing and making it entirely independently.

I found myself feeling a little envious of the sunny little dangly things and promptly decided to create a few of my own in the shape of some of my favourite things- can you tell what they're meant to be?

This one is my personal favourite....

OK, so you know you must be ready to go back to work when you start making Pyrex dishes out of children's craft materials!

What are you doing to keep the January blues away?

erin ink pyrex calendar 2012

I was especially thrilled to welcome the new year this morning, as it meant I could begin using my 2012 calendar. No ordinary calendar for me, no sirree, my clever husband surprised me with this gorgeous recipe calendar, filled with beautiful illustrations of vintage Pyrex, all hand drawn by the uber-talented fellow member of the Pyrex Collective, Erin Mowry.

He also bought me these beautiful prints of more Pyrex dish drawings (please ignore the washi tape, I will be buying proper frames this week). What more could a Pyremaniac wish for?

festive french toast

❅2 eggs 

❅1 teaspoon of demorara sugar 

❅pinch of salt

❅half a cup of milk 

❅knob of butter 

❅6 slices of bread cut into festive shapes of your choice 

❅maple syrup/honey

 

1) Beat your eggs in a wide, shallow bowl. Stir in the milk, sugar and salt.

2) Heat the knob of butter in a small griddle or frying pan.

3) Place the bread shapes, one at a time, into the mixture, letting them soak for a few seconds on both sides.

4) Transfer bread shapes to the pan, heating slowly until bottom is golden brown. Turn and brown the other side. 

5) Serve hot on snowflake Pyrex dishes with syrup or honey. A dusting of icing sugar would look even more festive- unfortunately I had run out this morning!

car booty

 More carbooting this morning- how cute is this little 70s dress-up doll for 50p? The girls love her...

some Pyrex dishes, 50p the lot- loving the ducks...

and I'm especially stoked with this g-plan corner table for £4...

Happy days!

curry night

There's nothing like a delicious curry to lift one's spirits. Especially when it's served in a plethora of vintage Pyrex.

reality bites

Anyone else feeling a bit shell shocked returning to work after all the bank holidays? Luckily there are still a couple of reasons to be cheerful:

1. lots of lovely green seedlings on my windowsill...

and 2. a chirpy little lunch break charity shop Pyrex purchase...

Chin up peeps, it'll be the weekend before we know it!

a jobling lot

It's been yet another fabulous week for Pyrex thrifting

I started the week by picking up this lovely casserole dish for £1 in our own small town's little charity shop- simple but pleasing...

Then, in my lunch break yesterday, I ventured into a charity shop that I've not been in before, over the other side of town to where I normally forage. It was a rather jumbly and dishevelled Salvation Army shop- not very fragrant and the sort of place that gives charity shops a bad name. I literally had to get down on my knees and sort through piles of dirty tat, but it was very much worth it because

first I found four little Gaiety plates, £1.50 for all four...

I notice that, curiously, one of them doesn't quite match the other three. Three of them have a gold rim and the usual J A Jobling crown logo on the reverse...

However, the third does not have a gold rim and has a strange 'Jobling Opalware' logo that I have never seen before. The snowflakes don't seem to be quite as well printed on either, they are slightly more raised and flaked off more than on the other plates.

I wonder whether the charity shop had them in separately and then put them together as a set, although I suppose it's more likely that the original owner broke one and bought a replacement at a later date?

And now for the pièce de résistance...

Ta-da!

the most beautiful eggshell blue Gaiety divided dish for a mere £1. This is the very piece I have been coveting for months, as they never made very much block-coloured English Pyrex- this is one of the few. It's so pretty- I can't wait to have a Sunday roast to use it for my vegetables. Although, it is frustratingly minus its lid- where are all these millions of illusive Pyrex lids that have been misplaced over the years?

I now feel must apologise for the sheer geekdom to which I have descended since developing this peculiar obsession with vintage ovenware. Do let me know if I'm boring you all to tears with these OCD ramblings. I think my poor husband is a whisker away from having me sectioned...

it never rains but it pours

I can't believe it- I scored in my lunch break again today!

A set of nine beautiful bright pieces of Pyrex for the bargain price of £3.99 for the lot. Trying to explain to my husband exactly why we need yet another gravy boat is becoming tricky.





I'm finding it a challenge discovering the name of this pattern- it looks just like Matchmaker, but I've only ever seen that in blue and green, so I'm not 100% sure. Can anyone help me out?

It's officially the weekend!!! x

the drought is over!

I've been complaining for several weeks now about my extended dry spell in finding anything of interest in the many charity shops I routinely trawl through in my lunch break. But I'm pleased to say that I had a very lucky day today.

Firstly I picked up some super dooper JAJ pyrex- my first piece of Harvest

and a large Chelsea bowl, neither with lids unfortunately, but a steal at £1.99 each

My luck didn't stop there, in another shop next door I found the most fabulous 1970s Meakin full coffee set with pot, 6 cups and saucers, milk jug and sugar bowl for a completely ridiculous £4.99. I almost felt guilt handing over so little, as though I was ripping off a charity!

Just look how adorable the design is- those little stars on the flowers are the dinkiest things!

I then arrived home from work to find the postman had been and delivered the book that Maria from Me & Ma had sent me. This book was given away by the lovely Colette Moscrop as part of World Book Night a few weeks back. Maria was the first to receive it and has now passed it on to me and I will pass it on to one of you when I finish it. It even has its own tracking code so we can see where it goes and how many people have read it as it carries on its travels!

To my delight, Maria had included these beautiful little handmade bookmarks for the girls and I. Thank you so so much, we love them!

Finally, thank you to Gemma at Helloitsgemma for awarding me the coveted Liebster Blog award (get me and my awards recently, oo-er!).

Because their generosity has brightened up my week, I want to pass the award on to Me & Ma and Collette Moscrop who both have really beautiful, crafty and comforting blogs

and I also want to pass it on to the scrummy Lou at Little Green Shed, really just because her blog is and always will be my favourite of all. Thanks Lou for being my blogger bessie xxx

pyremania

Just popping by quickly to show off my lovely latest addition to my Pyrex collection- this stunning egg shell blue butter dish that I picked up for an even more stunning £1.50, hurray!

And also to give you the, no doubt, welcome news that in a bid to stop boring the pants off you here about my Pyrex addiction, I will now be venting my lust with 87 fellow pymaniacs over at The Pyrex Collective, where I have just contributed my very first post.

Come visit!



finding the plot

As well as the bird watching, we've had a pretty jam-packed weekend. On Saturday we popped to a local town to do some shopping and have lunch. There were many charity shops to nose round and I picked up my favourite Pyrex find yet- a mere pound!

It's been given pride of place inside my 1950s oak G-plan cabinet (itself a charity shop purchase) with all my favourite finds.

On Saturday night I went on a very rare night out with some girlfriends, complete with a Joan Holloway inspired up-do. I loved my hair so much that I might just become one of those slightly odd people who dress in a time-warp all the time, although I think I would have to get up at 4am  every day if I were to keep it up.

Being out late on the town was much better fun than I expected-  I really ought to stop being such an old woman and go out more than once a year.

Then, this morning I popped in to see my dad, who had been busy preserving the seasonal Seville oranges in the form of delicious shredded marmalade. Luckily he'd put a generous jar aside for us, mmmmmm...

But today's most exciting activity of all was that we were shown round our new allotment- yes we finally got our very own patch!

Look how lucky we are- lots of it's even been dug over already!

I'm really pleased that there is a shed, even if it is a little, erm, 'rustic'. I'm sure we'll be able to smarten it up a little bit, although at the moment it is full of hay!

What on earth could the previous allotmenteer possibly have wanted with all these bales- rather too much to mulch strawberries with, isn't it?!

It's so wonderful to think that it is really ours for who knows how many years to come- the first thing I'm going to plant is a little apple tree. I might even organise a little planting ceremony!

Hope you all had lovely weekends- even if it went far too quickly like ours. x