Analog

I spend an unhealthy amount of time rummaging through rails of vintage clothing, waiting patiently for treasure to find its way into my hands.  Most days I come home empty-handed.  But sometimes I'm lucky, and last weekend I almost squealed with excitement when this lace beauty came into my life.  I found it at Spitalfields market on, incidentally, Analog's very first day of trading.  All the items which this brother and sister act sell belonged to their nana, who, it seems, had as bad a spending habit as me!  Analog's beautifully hand-typed labels (made from old, recycled typewriter servicing cards) tell me that this lace blouse was handmade for nana while on holiday in Italy some time in the 1950s.  I'm so glad I could give it a good home - I hope nana approves!

What I'm wearing  |  Lace blouse: Vintage, Analog  |  Trousers, bag and belt: Vintage  |  Shoes: Topshop

Time enough

"The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough."

Long time followers of Take Courage may remember that I've mentioned these butterfly boxes before (excuse the dodgy formatting, my blog has changed a lot since then!).  Well, a year and a half later they are finally ready to put on the wall!  It took so bloody long because to do it properly we had a spend a little bit of money - so the Texan and I bought each piece we needed as and when we had the spare cash...

Here's what we did:

• The Texan stripped and revarnished the boxes and added a strip of wood alongside the inside walls to create a frame.  
• We had to scour the internet for special entomological foam, which we covered in a nice white fabric which I found in John Lewis.  
• Some of the butterflies needed repairing - this involved using special glue to delicately piece their wings back together again.  
• We then pinned each butterfly and its label in place (this was the fun bit!).
• The Texan and I spent a while debating whether to use real glass or a plastic alternative to place on top of the frames.  In the end we opted for a high-quality plexiglass, since this would be safer (in case the glass ever popped out of the frame).  I was afraid it would look cheap and nasty, but actually it looks just as good as real glass and I don't have to worry about it breaking.
• Fixing the plexiglass into the wooden frames was a challenge.  Should we use glue?  Tacks?  Nails?  Whilst pondering life in the shower, I came up with the idea of using little corner pieces of wood to rest on top of the plexiglass and hold it in place.  And it worked!

And here's the final product!  I'm really pleased with how the boxes have turned out and I'm glad these beautiful butterflies have a chance to be admired.  As I said last time, I'd personally never buy new taxidermied butterflies (I think it's just awful to kill them for aesthetic pleasure) but these butterflies are over 50 years old and it's only right that they be enjoyed.  And now they can!

Whitstable

I am currently getting over a horrible case of flu and, still feeling delicate, the Texan and I decided to head to Whitstable for some much-needed medicinal sunshine.  Vitamin D really is the best vitamin.  While there, I made friends with a bearded dog and found this lovely vintage mac for a bargain price, both of which made me feel considerably better...

Ok ok, Whistable isn't quite Bermuda, but it comes a close second!

What I'm wearing  |  Cardigan and dress: Vintage  |  Mac: Vintage, Vintage-on-Sea, Whitstable  |  Shoes: Vintage Ferragamo  |  Straw bag: Vintage, Junkaholique  |  Sunglasses: Chanel

Whitstable has a good number of vintage and antiques shops (not loads, but certainly enough to satisfy your inner thrifter) and it's only an hour and a half from London Victoria.  If you're in the area, check out:

Vintage-on-Sea, Kearns Yard on the seafront  |  Geoff Laurens Antiques, 2 Harbour Street  |  Pearl & Hemingway, 14 Harbour Street  |  Show Off, next door to Pearl & Hemingway  |  Polly Pleasance, 61 Harbour Street  |  Valentines Vintage, 21 Oxford Street  |  L'image, 44 Oxford Street  |  Ormsby & Co, 64 Oxford Street  |  Warehams, 68 Oxford Street  |  Antiques & Vintage, 3 Canterbury Road  |  And if you head a bit further to Herne Bay, there's also Pretty Green Vintage, 8 North Street

And, after all that shopping, make sure to stop at Sundae Sundae for a proper old-style ice cream!

DIY jam jar pin cushion

I don't know about you but I have been bitten (or perhaps more aptly, stung) by the sewing bug since watching The Great British Sewing Bee.  Four episodes later and I'm itching to pick out some beautiful fabric, dust off my sewing machine and conjure up something special.  I was thinking I might start with this skirt, which I found on Tilly from the Sewing Bee's blog (she's a blogger too!).  But let's not get ahead of ourselves.  Fail to prepare, prepare to fail has always been my motto and so, thinking ahead to new sewing projects (aka disasters), I thought I'd make a jam jar pin cushion.  Here's how it's done.

You will need  |  A Kilner jam jar (I found mine in Robert Dyas)  |  Fabric  |  Cushion stuffing  |  Glue gun or superglue  |  Scissors

I'd never come across a Kilner jam jar before and, in case you haven't either, essentially the lid of the jar comes apart in two pieces: a disc that sits on the top of the jar and the bit that screws on top.

Step 1: Fold your fabric around the cushion stuffing and pull tightly into a ball.

Step 2: Stuff your cushion into the bit of the lid that screws on top of the jar and place the disc bit of the lid on top, with the excess fabric poking out around it.

Step 3: Glue alongside the edge of the disc and fold the excess fabric over it, sticking it all together.  Leave to one side to dry.

Step 4: Draw around the top of your Kilner jar onto the fabric and cut out a circle.

Step 5: Trim off any excess fabric from your pin cushion.

Step 6: Glue the fabric disc onto the inside of the lid to cover up the messy bits.

And there you go, you are now ready to get sewing!

I just love quick little DIYs like this - have you got any good ones too?  Let me know in the comments!

Deliriously planning

I have been poorly with the world's worst cold-but-not-quite-flu (ok, maybe it is flu) for the past few days and, between my bouts of delirious sleep on the sofa and cuddles from nurse Lily, my mind has turned to things I must make sure to do over the next month.  So here they are...

Always have flowers in the house
Flowers can be (though are not always) the cheapest interior decoration you can find and it's amazing what a difference they can make to a home.  I often forget to stick a bunch or two in my basket when grocery shopping, but I must make more of an effort to stock up.  A Sunday morning trip to Columbia Road is in order, I think...

Learn to play the ukulele
I've been wanting to learn to play the ukulele for forever and, like with most things I do, I gave up too easily.  I've finally managed to find a teacher (which was surprisingly difficult in London) which I hope means I'll start to take it seriously and actually learn a tune or two.  My goal is to eventually be able to play like this - looks my teacher has his work cut out for him!

See more of England
I think this is a common problem for most Brits but embarrassingly I have hardly seen any of my own country.  Living in London, you'd be fooled into thinking there's nowhere else worth bothering to visit. Oh, how wrong you'd be.  After visiting Hastings and Birling Gap a few weekends ago, I've been itching to get in that Zipcar and head out of town.  What usually puts me off is that I have to do all the driving (the Texan can't use his Texas licence after a year of being here) but - thank the Lord - that is no longer an issue because the Texan passed his UK driving test last week!  Hoorah!

Surround myself with family photos
For a couple who spend the majority of our spare time taking photos and go nowhere without our camera, the Texan and I have (I'm sorry to admit) no family photos on display in our house.  It's terrible!  The Texan's brother emailed over the photo on the left a few weeks ago and I'd really like to get it printed and framed - it's his grandfather, on the left, and his great-grandparents.  And that's my Nana and Nonno in the photo on the right.

Repair our growing collection of alarm clocks
This is really a job for the Texan because my brain does not work properly when it comes to taking things apart and fixing them, but I'd love to see our collection of alarm clocks restored back to their former glory.  I don't know why but they always seem to be covered in grease - and the Texan took apart the clock in the photo above last weekend and one of the mechanical pieces inside it even had a thumbprint in the grease!  I'd love to know when it came to be there...a vintage thumbprint!

Take more photos of our lovely flat
Some of you have expressed an interest in a flat tour on the blog and I really want to do this (as soon as it's "ready"!), particularly now we've reached the break clause in our lease and I'm conscious we could be turfed out at a moment's notice.  I absolutely adore our little flat and I really wish I could afford to buy it.  I could manage the mortgage payments (after all, I've paid extortionate London rents for the past 8 years) but where on earth is anyone with student debt and living parents meant to find the £50,000+ deposit needed to convince a bank to lend?  It's insane.

Shoot with film
The Texan and I went through a phase of shooting with film but we then bought our beloved 5d and couldn't be bothered to faff around with light metres anymore.  It's a shame because we actually took some real good 'uns with our little film cameras.

Put the moggy on a diet
This little lady has really gained weight over the long cold winter and so, unbeknownst to her, she is going on a kitty diet!  She won't be happy when she finds out...

It feels good to sit back and assess some of the non-work things on my to-do list.  What's on yours, anything fun?