Vintiquing All The Way Home

Since we were on a rare road trip we took the opportunity to partake in my favourite activity - vintage shopping!! Today's post is all about vintage let downs and weird finds.

Glasgow is a great place for shopping vintage, loads of indies tucked away in the west end and in merchant city and half the fun is discovering these gems on foot.

Not so well known and totally off the beaten track is Saratoga Trunk, quite literally a warehouse packed to the rafters with vintage fashion dating from the 20's to the 80's.

I first visited this many many years ago, a daunting experience with the taxi dropping us off down a dark, gloomy part of town and and a big steel door with a handwritten note on the outside to ring the bell. Quite intimidating but once inside we were rewarded by the sheer volume of vintage - rails and rails of dresses, tops, fur coats, miltary jackets from WW2, not to mention the shelves upon shelves of fabrics and curtains. The experience was truly amazing and the owners were so friendly and helpful. However ...

Who would've thought a Vintage shop lurks here

After our great first time experience I was really looking forward to visiting again but my second time was not so fun ... The guy was really stand-offish and followed us everywhere. Maybe he thought I was going to stuff some Victorian bloomers down my top and run off into the sunset. He even stood and and watched when trying on clothes!! The prices this time were also crazy inflated, I wanted a small teeny tiny bag of clear buttons, but guess how much?? £2? £5? £10? nope nope nope, he wanted £45!!!!!!! Ok maybe some of them were Art Deco glass buttons from the 30's but even if those were taken out it should never be that much. Then I found one half of a pair of retro curtains - retro 70's orange and yellow floral print, £45!! Needless to say everything got put back gently and we made a sharp exit. Which is a huge shame as I was really looking forward to going, mega dissappointed.

Not all was lost, we were informed about another store in Merchant City called Mister Ben, very retro and based on the cartoon. This store had a good collection of clothes, millions of bags and accessories. Prices were very reasonable as well, you would definitely find a bargain in there. I ended up with a 70's snakeskin shoulder bag for £10, so one happy customer.

Weird Find of the Day - retro washing powder

Day 2 of vintage hunting had us heading back north to Aberdeen via Perth, Dundee, Brechin and Montrose, stopping off on all those little towns just to visit the charity shops. I think we must've visited about 30 charity shops in one day! That is some hardcore treasure hunting, my legs felt like they were going to fall off after all the walking! Poor Mitchell had to drive the whole way as well as get dragged around the shops.

Weirdest find had to be the retro washing powder still intact in the box, I don't think I'll be using this to handwash my delicates! Before you think I'm crazy for buying these even though I have no intention of using the powder, I think they would add a nice touch to a retro style kitchen or bathroom.

Best find had to be the button box filled to the brim, lots and lots to be added to the collection. Crafters, I never buy expensive buttons so now you know how I amassed such a big button collection (the button box at I Heart Art is always admired)

Favorite Find - button box

       

 Retro Blackcurrant Cheesecake dish - yum

Retro BBQ Pork Chops dish - determined to collect them all

I'm sure many people will recognise these retro dishes, every house in the 80's must've had these along with the kelloggs bowls. Were these a collect the stamps from petrol station thing?? Maybe someone could shed the light! Anyway I'm determined to collect them all and as time has gone one I'm finding that there was ALOT of different recipes, spanish omlette was the one in our house! My favourite thing about them is the recipe printed on them, I wonder if anyone has tried them?

Winning Awards Should be Compulsory

Our award winning high is slowly dwindling but what a fantastic week, I feel every business should win awards to get that buzz. Totally addicted and determined to win more!!

Last Wednesday, myself and Mitchell gave ourselves our first "holiday" in 2 years since starting this entrepreneur roller coaster ride. We went to pick up an award from the Princes Scottish Youth Business Trust and BT Scotland. Which award we had won was shrouded in mystery until the prize giving ceremony in Glasgow. So off we popped bright and early in our teeny tiny city car, hurtling along with sat nav biatch telling us country bumpkins which junction to turn off.

The ceremony was taking place at Brazen studios in the lovely merchant city area and we were finally presented with ..... *drumroll* ..... Most Environmentally Responsible Business!!! wowzers was not expecting that one, but we do an awful lot with upcycling and teaching people to re-use materials in our craft classes so we're chuffed as we really want to grow that side of the business and this award helps with that profile.

Us with our award...

It was also lovely to have Neil and Cora join us on the big day and I must say we all look rather spiffing (if i don't say so myself!)

photography by Malcolm Cochrane

Peacing and A Jamming

Phew what a weekend, last saturday was probably the most crazy busy day in I Heart Art's history. We had back to back bookings all day plus a birthday party plus a vintage and craft event. Lucky we had Mitchell's mum Lena in to help! Free labor and she brings us lunch – boom! We went home pretty tired but extremely happy bunnies, just hope we get more days like that!

While Mitch and Lena were painting with the kids I was having a lovely chilled out time at the Peace and Jam event in Snafu. There was clothes swapping, vintage and craft stalls and loads of cocktails and cakes – yum! My stall had a selection of my vintage goodies and crafts, pictures are limited as it was quite dark but I beefed up my stall with fairy lights and a gadzillon tealights and it did the trick, but still too dark for photos...

I made some needle-felted brooches for this event so I present Christopher Carrot and Alice Apple...

I wasnt sure if Christopher Carrot would work when I first made him but he was quite the ladies man and drew many compliments so when I got home I made a few more. I'm definitely feeling the fruit and veg at the moment so needle felted beetroot?? brocoli?? courgettes??

Next stop is The Norwood Hall Wedding Fair on the 4^th March (click here for details) and Danestone Community centre Fundraiser. Will be making knitted hearts, clay hearts and hand warmers which Im dying to do since I discovered this tutorial by TheCustards. 

Our blog is finally here!! after much ummming and aahing we decided that the world is ready for our craft, vintage and I Heart Art chat. Be warned I have a tendency to waffle and disappear into weird and wonderful craft tangents. But stick with us and I promise I will have loads of craft secrets and tutorials to share as well as unload our studio's extreme highs and lows with you.

I suppose I should introduce myself and the ball and chain - Mitchell. We are the co-owners of I Heart Art www.i-heartart.co.uk, an arty crafty studio, workshop, hub type thingy in Aberdeen, Scotland. The studio is run mainly by myself, Janet. Mitchell is the purse, tea-boy, DJ, craft dabbler and generally keeps my feet on the ground otherwise I will have us knitting snoods and crocheting doilies all day long. By day we run drop-in paint and craft sessions and by night we teach craft classes as well as keeping our fingers in many other pies. Which is why this blog is called I Heart and Beyond. I want to show you the world beyond I Heart Art where we are more than a ceramic paint studio, we love vintage, upcycling, fashion and of course art and crafts so we want to share with you our many other passions. I love nothing more than having a rake at a car booter buying a basket of junk oops I mean treasure for a £1 and making something beautiful out of it. I cant wait to start sharing this side of I heart with you. From this point onwards my digital camera will be my friend as I tip toe into the blogging world. So welcome to our world where we like eat, knit, sew and fantasise about "the good life" whilst bombing round town in vintage fur. ENJOY!!