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i'se just arrived ...

That's the title of my latest Mabel Lucie Attwell postcard purchase - 1922 Boo Boos!



I've been having a bit of a spend-up on ebay!

I won this beautifully made basket interwoven with plastic ribbon. It's not vintage, but made for the original owner in 1980 by a blind friend.



I also won three lovely handpainted Dartmouth Pottery Seagull sideplates. I've been wanting some of this design for ages.

I've two more purchases waiting to be picked up from my local sorting office.

I'll show you next time.

o

my music memories, 1970s ...

Which waveband was your family radio tuned to?

In our home it was Radio One on 247, playing all day, every day. Remember Junior Choice with Ed 'Stewpot' Stewart, Noel Edmonds on the Breakfast Show, David 'Kid' Jensen and Dave Lee Travis, the Hairy Cornflake! Mike Read, Peter Powell and Simon Bates' Our Tune?

Remember the portable cassette recorder, and recording the Top Forty on a Sunday afternoon, stop/starting at the beginning and end of every tune. Losing your favourite tape when it got all caught up and tangled around the spools!

Remember the music centre, in trendy plastic casing! When songs were cut on vinyl, singles played on forty five and albums on thirty three.



Remember the Disco 45 songbook, with all the latest lyrics? Look at the price, 5p! I bought every copy, from Issue No 1 until the time came when it was taken off the shelves. Then one day I lost my marbles and binned them, every single one of them!



I also remember buying the Words songbook at an increased price of 15p, well, inflation was a big thing in the 1970s! At the time when a David Bowie calendar shared my bedroom wall with The Police!



I really liked the magazine Smash Hits, my collection starting from Number 1 to whatever number it was when it dawned on me where would I find the space for another copy?

I'd love to get to hear any music memories from your childhood, or who you had plastered to your bedroom wall during your teenage years!

o

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the comfort of strangers ...

There are many definitions for the word stranger, one being 'any person whom one does not know'.

o

I hope you don't mind me calling you a stranger, but I sort of know you and I sort of don't.

I like the fact I have virtual friends.

o

Part of the fun is to build up a picture of just how you might look. Skinny, well built, short, tall, young, old ... not once have I ever got it right.

o

Part of the fun is to discover the personality you have, by the style in which you write and in what you write about ... finding we can be very much alike.

After reading about my postcard collection, and knowing I was feeling a bit down in the dumps, Sarah from The World of Twiggypeasticks e-mailed me these sweet Mabel Lucie Attwell compilations, accompanied by a smile and friendship.

Sarah's thoughtfulness made my day.

A big thank you to those who left kind words on my Mum post. I lost count of how many howls I had during the day, but there were many.

o

Your thoughtfulness made my day.

o

These are just a few of the reasons why I won't give up on my blog ... not just yet anyway.

o

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sea escapes ...

When your feeling low, take the doctor's orders and pay the beach a visit, or give the closest to you a hug. I love the postcard above, it's my favourite from the little collection of Mabel Lucie Attwell postcards I've put together over the years. Posted in Eastbourne in 1925 from Lil to Nellie, the message reads Everybody's Loved by Someone.



I'd love to see that cute mermaid sitting on our local rocks, and the golly!



Another one from the collection, the message being The Song of the Sea. When your feeling low, drag your best ragdoll through the sand! This card is really lovely, with lots of fairies floating through the air. Posted in Cambridge in 1921, from Mother to Jean.



This photo has all the elements of why we love our coast. Blue sky, blue sea, a sailboat, seagulls, sand, seaweed, groynes and rocks. I just wish I could have got a stick of rock and a donkey in the photo too!



The message reads SOS!

o

in stitches ...

Finks you may like to know, i'se off mending after surgery. I'se recovering, and hopes to get to your blog soon!

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memories of yesterday ...

Mabel Lucie Attwell's list of art-related contributions was enormous. During the thirties her extensive output did not diminish. In addition to illustrating books and cards, she designed tablecloths, bibs, figurines, dolls, soap, biscuit tins, and even the children's nursery china that was owned by Prince Charles during his childhood.

The stylised toddlers of Mabel Lucie Attwell with their jaunty captions have had a worldwide appeal which has charmed generations of children and adults alike.

The Memories of Yesterday figure above called Comforting Thoughts produced by Enesco in 1993 is now for sale in my webshop A Home With A Heart. It is priced at £15.00 which includes P&P and would make a lovely gift or treat for a Mabel Lucie Attwell fan.

Also today I am listing items on ebay, so go take a look and attempt to grab yourself a bargain while you can.

Rather a dangerous thing for a toddler to be doing, filling a hot water bottle with a kettle full of scalding water. Where are the parents I ask!

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cheese 'n pickle anyone ...

This is what I am going to suggest we do over the extended Bank Holiday, that's if we don't get the rain that's forecast for the weekend.

The picture is taken out of Lucie Attwell's Rhymetime book, thought I'd share it as it is so cute. The car reminds me of a yellow MG my mum had.

Whatever the weather I hope everyone enjoys their weekend.

Louise x

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all that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother - abraham lincoln ...

I have quite a few photographs of my Mum, and I often look through her wedding photos. I have always thought she looked so lovely on her wedding day. Her two-piece outfit was Jackie O style, and she wore the most fantastic gold stillettos, which I remember she kept for a long time, although I don't know what happened to them?



I love Mabel Lucie Attwell and Mum started me on the road to my growing collection. This very pretty little girl above is showing how I feel about my Mum no longer being around. Infact the little girl could have been me, with those chubby legs!



Lily of the Valley for my Mum, she loved its flower and scent. It is 6 years today since I lost my wonderful Mum to cancer, a day I would very much like to forget, but a Mum I would very much like to remember.

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a real good gossip ...

As these two sweet little girls are saying 'sums up blogging perfectly, me finks'!

my dad ...

A happy birthday to my Dad, who turns 70 this month. Look at those curls!


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As you know I love Mabel Lucie Attwell postcards, and have a small collection. When this one came up on e-bay I just had to have it. It reminded me so much of my Dad in the photograph above, and the postcard perhaps shows him holding his brother, who is four years younger. Although little Fido would be purely for artistic licence! The postcard is circa 1920, so a little before my Dad's time, although it doesn't look as if the fashion for tots had changed very much by then?

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two of my loves ...

May your flowers be even better than the pictures on the packets!

Now you know where my love for gardening and Mabel Lucie Attwell comes from. My interest in Mabel Lucie Attwell postcards started with my granny, a few years before she died she had to move into a home, and whilst we were sorting through her photographs I came across this postcard. It was the first time I had come across Mabel Lucie Attwell, and I thought it was just so sweet and was in raptures, anyway not surprisingly I ended up taking it home with me; a little boy holding a packet of seeds, surrounded by flowerpots.

This card was produced in 1936 by Valentine of Dundee, and is postmarked 24 June 1937, addressed to my grandparents. There friend Molly was having a lovely holiday in Margate.

Kath from Beeswax has dedicated a garden theme MLA card on her blog to me, how kind is that!