Vintage shopping

A recent arrival in our home is this amazing wooden hippo piggy bank. His little leg pops out of its socket so you can retrieve your pennies!

Amelia is totally spoiled rotten by her grandparents in terms of toys, books and clothes, so I wanted to pick up something for her first birthday that she can treasure for years to come. It's robust enough to stand up to a bit of childhood rough and tumble (obviously it will be staying on the high shelf for a few more years to come) but delicate enough to be taken good care of.

Happy Birthday, little one.

Strange coincidences

So I was getting ready to send out the latest zines from the Answers on a Postcard project to one of my subscribers, as well as the winnings from my recent Haunt contest and I was looking for a postcard to write a little note on.

Would you believe that the first one that came to hand was one from the same area where Haunt is based? I visited the Catskills in 2000 on the most amazing rickety old Adirondack Trailways bus out of Port Authority with my room-mate Sophie for a fun weekend out in the wilds.

Photo by: http://www.seaoats.etsy.com/

Also, I was randomly browsing Etsy and this pencil case by seaoats leapt out at me from someone in my Circle's favourites list... The photo the designer has used to make the screen print for the fabric shows the skyline of Exchange Place, a swift glance to the left from where I used to live, and a very familiar sight from days when I would take the World Trade Center ferry in to work. I tried to find out if the ferry still runs (it doesn't) and this led me to the PATH website, and their photographic archives, which are available for sale. I love this shot from 1912, the railroad has only added a handful of stations in the last 99 years.

And now I feel all homesick for NJ, so I put together this treasury to help me wallow in it then feel better. Enjoy!

Next time, I may bore you with places I have lived in Edinburgh... or Paris maybe.

Postcard pals

I took part in a really cool snail mail swap organised by Claire of Miso Funky last month. I was so excited when my post card arrived! Molly sent me a tea and flowers themed card - you can never have enough of either tea or flowers in my opinion, so I was delighted to receive it and will be putting it up in my craft room to remind me to take a break now and again.

I also made a new Twitter friend when Liz, cake maker extraordinaire, received my geeky Popeye fold and mail notelet, too. I used to love sending letters to my penfriends Martine, Elin and Olivia when I was a teenager - although I cringe to think what I must have written. Yikes! Luckily I'm still in touch with them via Facebook so it can't have been that bad :)

I hope Claire does another swap soon - I still have a huge postcard and notepaper collection that I'd love to put to good use. Not too mention a good few upcycled envelopes... You can find one or two of my favourites in each of my paper destash boxes. It's all good stuff in there!

Haunt lip lust giveaway

Hi everyone! To celebrate the summer opening of wonderful bath and body emporium, Haunt, I'm giving away two of the shop's wonderful products from my very own stash.

First up is Bettie, a lip lust in a delightfully exotic flavour, evocative of the glamour of days gone by. Secondly we have the fresh zingy flavour of Vanilla Pear, sweet and clean. Both soothe and moisturise your lips, giving them that little extra shine, too.

I'm going to give the pair away separately, so that's one tube for each of TWO LUCKY WINNERS. This is your chance to see what I've been going on about for the last couple of years, Haunt products rock!

But of course once you've perused Erin's shop, to see her description of the two flavours, I'd like you to tell me in the comments here which flavour you'd prefer to win, then hop over to my etsy shop and tell me which of my products you like the best. I'm having a big sort out in my craft room and want to streamline the things I sell, with your input.

Please tweet, blog and repost about this giveaway to your hearts' content and most of all, good luck, I hope you win! Closing date is 30 May at 12 midnight British Summer Time.

UPDATE: Giveaway will remain open until 31 May at midnight due to accidentally putting that date on my update post. I am an official idiot.

If the baby ever naps today...

... I will do a giveaway right here! Clue: it's something to do with the fact that Haunt is having a summer sale this weekend...