junkaholique

Gentleman's Rust

2012-01-24T11:22:00.000-08:00

This our RUST Gentleman's shop in Tokyo which Nao has been re-designing, pretty smart eh!. Its on the floor above or main Tokyo shop, and downstairs sells ladies and wedding jewellery.

He is now selling lovely gents accouterments and potions {made here in South East London} as well as clothing from the 1900~1940s and leather bags.

Believe it or not, there is a blinding amount of jewellery in there too, but its tucked away in the huge plan chest, which you cant see in these photos! I think guys like looking through drawers ; )

{animal heads by R Mason}

R Mason's - a fox for RUST!

2012-01-18T04:51:00.000-08:00

we are currently in the process of updating our Rust Men's shop in Tokyo. Nao is designing the new look, and he will be selling some vintage/antique clothing and men's grooming products {made in London} there too. All very exciting! The other day we happened across the blog of artist Rob Mason and fell in love with his bonkers and slightly ironic art works. So we asked if he could make some of his friendly taxidermy for the new shop display. First came the fox!

I think its a she? I love her snout!

We also have a beautiful stag head and wild boar to add {i didn't have time to photograph them yesterday as they were fedex-ed away before I had the chance!} You can see pictures of them over on Rob's blog 'A musing' which is one of my new favourite blogs so you must take a look...especially his amazing shed studio that he built. You can see more of his wonderful work on his website too.

In a couple of weeks I'll show you the pictures of the heads in situ!

Shop Update

2012-01-16T06:12:00.000-08:00

At last! My Junkaholique Shop has been updated. There are some nice woollies, jackets and blankets and a few things for the home too. Click on the shop to see all the new items.

p.s. crikey its cold!

wonderblanket...

2012-01-13T11:48:00.000-08:00

did you know...im a big fan of Wales. Not only does it have its own language and some of the worlds best singers...they are also pretty nifty when it comes to blanket making too. I always wanted a Welsh tapestry blanket, but they are always soooo expensive. but...I just sniffed out this little single bed sized one for not as much pennies. As with all Welsh tapestry blankets, it has a different pattern on the reverse which is very pactical me thinks! Oh I love it so much, and another thing...this blanket is a special one because it will be meeting one very special Italian in two weeks...I absolutely CAN'T wait to tell you what I am on about.

Another fact...I lived in Italy for a year when I was 18. Sì, è vero!! {and no, I can't speak Italian, only a few phrases like...'I'm sorry I'm English' and 'large cup of ice cream please'.

another new piece of tapestry... this little Swedish wool mat, which will make a perfect pot rest for our Campervan.

lastly, as I know I have such knowledgeable readers! anyone know the name of these flowers? They have lasted for about two weeks now and I love the wild look, I'd like to grow it in the garden if it's a local specimen.

well, bit of a random post now I've just read it back...sorry about that! Best wishes to everyone and may you all have a safe Friday 13th.

fur and lace

2012-01-11T08:49:00.000-08:00

{locket available HERE}

This lace dress was destined for my vintage shop, but unfortunately it is way to fragile to make worthy of the shop, in fact its full of holes. Sadly, this is probably the last time this ninety year old dress will ever be worn. Its rather figure hugging, bias cut with a fish tail skirt and deep 'v' back...very thirties!

I took these photos in the graveyard at the back of our flat...some dog walkers thought I was some mad lady prancing about in the woods like a ghostly bride. Anyways, it was all good fun, and i get to show yous all my fakey furry snood, which has been a life saver this winter. I love it {even though I can hardly see out of it}.

By the way, my Junkaholique Shop is open, but I have not added any new stock yet...I hope to do that this weekend if all goes to plan.

Now, i just need to find my way out of this january funk...

out with the old...

2012-01-07T12:46:00.000-08:00

so the christmas twee has gone, and my desk has come back in from the shed. From now on it is spring in our flat, I don't care what the calendar says. We have daffodils everywhere!

Do you like my new lampshade? Its from Lush Designs, I love their illustrations, so this is a post-xmas pressie to myself.

Nao got me this cushion from the same place too...hairy pigs! {i hope its not a hint}

so the last remenents of the xmas food stuffs is slowly coming to an end, my VW camper chocolates are dwindling down to six. They are too cute to eat, but now its the only chocolate in the flat, their days are numbered.

By the way, a few peeps asked where those paper PomPoms are from, well they were sent by a friend but they came from this company in Holland.

The Bucket Tree SALE!

2012-01-03T12:42:00.000-08:00

Oh yes indeedo! As I previously mentioned, I am swapping my vintage shop The Bucket Tree over to my new shop 'Junkaholique Shop'. So, no better time than to have a little sale! The New shop will be ready soon, but until then, sale items are available on The Bucket Tree as of now. Click here to take a look >

brand spanking New Year!

2012-01-02T12:55:00.000-08:00

so its another new year! Nao and I don't usually do much on New Years Eve, we are a bit old fogey-ish, but this year I wasn't feeling too chipper, so we did even less!

At about 20 to 12, we hopped in our van and drove about 100 yards around the corner of our flat, and parked by the roadside. Its on a big hill, and we could get a good view of the London Eye {where the London fireworks exploded on the count of Big Ben}. It was a last minute decisions, so we grabbed the champagne we happen to already have, and an old sauce pan for an ice bucket, classy.

amazingly, we saw that others had the same notion, and were gathering on the pavement with little fold-up tables and champagne glasses at the ready. I had my Ukulele and managed my first tune...

the fireworks didn't pick up on the camera, but they were pretty impressive and so loud considering how far away they were.

Since then we haven't done much to be honest and am actually quite ashamed of how much I have eaten and how little {Nill} exercise I have done in the past week!

Today though, we thought it would be nice to go out in the van and have a lunch somewhere. We went to Knole Park but annoyingly, it was closed for vehicles, and we had to back our van out onto the main road with a whole queue of traffic behind us...

We ended up parking on a country lane near Biggin Hill as we were starvin.

Even just warming up food in your campervan is exciting.

I love this photo Nao took, of the steam rising from our soup.

A very satisfying way to spend an afternoon...

and the husbond mastered a new trick of balancing a mug of tea on the belly whilst also sleeping.

Its a quiet way of life, but y'know, we are getting on a bit...so we are practising for when we are proper old fogies.

Theres always lots to contemplate this time of the year, and we have spent many an afternoon in our van, drinking tea and pondering whats in store for us in the coming year. Well, we have a few things that we have planned, which is quite exciting, but generally speaking, we like things the way they are!

Happy 2012 lovely readers!

the time inbetween

2011-12-31T08:28:00.000-08:00

yes, its that time again, ...when I regret eating so much and i cant work out what day it is...

I meant to tidy the flat for the last three days but somehow it hasn't happened yet. I have though, made up a few of these amazing PomPoms sent from some lovely friends in holland.

I will hang them above my desk {once I have tidied the flat}.

Husbondo and I decided that we would learn to play instruments for when we go camping in the summer, and due to the space limitations of our campervan, I decided on the Ukulele {as i already play the guitar a little bit} and Nao is going for the bongo drums!

We bought each other the instruments for xmas. Ukulele is alot like playing the guitar luckily, but the chords are all different! Anyways, I have picked up about 8 chords so far...hopefully by summer I can play a little song for you!!

I plan to learn a Hawaiian song...so if any Hawaiians out there can recommend me any, Id be greatly grateful! {a long shot I know}

So I have been spending the days thinking about all the things I should do, but without actually moving much. I think the xmas decs should come down tomorrow and be replaced with bunches of Daffs.

Nao and I have been enjoying the BBC's new production of Great Expectations on the telly so much that Nao bought up all the other Dickens dvds for us to watch...

Im too lazy to read the books ; )

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

christmas in a campervan

2011-12-29T12:15:00.000-08:00

We are back from our three night christmas trip to the Isle of Wight. We have eaten plentifully and I have been spoilt rotten with pressies : ) It was lovely to take our van home to the Island on the ferry, kind of emotional {I was born on IOW}.

...We arrived an hour early at Portsmouth and had a cuppa whilst in the queue.

So funny when people look in through the windows and then realise we are inside, they looked so embarrassed, ha!

I think Lewes enjoyed the sea views {but not the salty air, vw's worst enemy}

after years of denial, I have to admit I now own an iPhone, and it is great for watching telly in the van. I have a wooden case for it to disguise its iphoneness.

We took so many pressies in the back, all for the familly peeps...

we managed to stop and catch a beautiful sunset on one of my fave roads on the Island.

and we had numerous cups of tea.

we parked our van outside of my Mum's flat, which is on a cliff edge, overlooking the sea. The power cable from her flat was very useful indeed, as we had bought a portable radiator with us.

On christmas morning we opened some of our pressies to each other, Nao got me so many...I couldn't believe it! and so beautifully wrapped too...

He made me a stunning ring of white gold, with an opaque diamond...

and some vw campervan chocolates...

and a heart shape locket, from RUST of course!

On Boxing Day, it is traditional for all the village folk to jump into the sea like lemmings.

needless to say, we just went to the pub after the exhausting watching.

A very lovely and memorable xmas indeed! I hope you all had a great one too! New Year next up...I cant believe how fast the years spin by these days. xxx

thank you all!

2011-12-22T12:21:00.000-08:00

Well my lovely readers, its time for us to head off in our camper van for Christmas...so me and Nao would like to wish you all a very peaceful, relaxing and enjoyable Christmas!
Thank you all for your very kind comments as always, I look forward to reading them every day {every few minutes in fact!} and they have kept my head above water when real life is a bit stressful! I'm really looking forward to next year, so there will be lots more to come from Junkaholique in 2012...

Also, I have already started making motions for next year...I have set up a Junkaholique facebook page, and Junkaholique Twitter which I have as of yet not done much with {as I just did it today!}, but please do feel free to follow me on there too ; )

Another big change afoot is...'The Bucket Tree' will be no longer! In January I will be moving my shop to www.junkaholique.bigcartel.com which will be the exact same shop, just a different name & link. It will link directly from this site and from The Bucket Tree when it is fully operational. In January I have a mountain of goodies to upload to the new shop, and also having a SALE!

Quite a few changes eh?

Another change...I just bought myself some glittery gold eyeliner!! ...I'll be wearing high heels next! XXX

christmas pressie wrappings

2011-12-19T12:12:00.000-08:00

my fave part of christmas is buying/making and wrapping up pressies for the nearest and dearest. I get really into it actually, and i can stay up all night wrapping pressies, grinning to myself and stuffing my mouth with mince pies at the same time.

This year I found some glittery paper which I quite liked, I don't usually buy paper {i just make it myself somehow}as its a bit pricey, but I did miss a bit of glitter. I made some initial labels out of that same book I was chopping up before {btw, that was an old book from a charity shop which had some kids scribblings on some of the pages}. Luckily no one has the same initials except me and my mum {A}, but I quizzed a bit whether it should be an 'M' for Mum?

I also used some book pages with tissue paper over the top...at this point I was getting a bit too creative I think ; )

does anyone know what these are called? Y'know, when you cut up paper to make a chain of people, I used to do it at primary school. Great fun!

We had some lovely visitors at our Rust shop Open days. A lovely Japanese lady came from Brighton with these flowers for us, she follows my blog...hello! if you are reading this...nice to have met you, and we love these flowers!

aren't they amazing? I would love to know what these are called, or even what country they came from. They look like wool, in fact I bought some wool from Liberty's {when I attempted to learn to knit} and they were the EXACT same colours! I hope these flowers will be dry-able, because I'm planning to make them a permanent feature in our flat. {they are real by the way, but i did have to double check!}

also...a little sprig {i love the word 'sprig'!} of mistletoe came with them, Ive kissed Plimsoll a few times as she often wanders around that area, but she does not appreciate my affections.

and also, some gingerbread men from some lovely friends of ours. I can never bring myself to bite them though, so I might have to eat them in the dark so they cant look at me.

Our mantle piece is beginning to look like a small museum of sentimental items, which I rather enjoy looking at, whilst munching the odd mince pie as usual.

Happy wrapping folks! XX {if you havent done it already or course!}

Elle Mariage Japan

2011-12-17T07:27:00.001-08:00

recently we were contacted by a lovely lady who wanted to feature our wedding in the Japanese Elle wedding mag. How funny it is to see our wee faces in there! I think there is a tiny mention of our Rust wedding rings too ; ) x

titchy flat xmas decor

2011-12-15T09:15:00.000-08:00

Ooo Christmas...

this year, I got snipping away at some unfortunate books and made some {almost free} decorations.

Those gold baubles are edible, thus being recycle-able. win win!

Its not easy to decorate our flat because it is SOOO small, nearly every wall already has some thing, furniture or domestic items, shoved up against it, so no just to make it look sparkly.

So we have like one corner and a few lights in the bedroom, but, its enough to add a bit of festivities to our place i reckon.

our toucan picture has now been adorned, and i think he like it.

I also chopped up some wrapping paper to make holly leaves, and I used some vintage gold Rick-rack trimming to tie onto the tree.

a few cards from the past year or so.

Every year Plimsoll wonders why the humans have bought a tree into the house.

we have a few crackers left over from last year, you can read about those here.

i loved this reflection on the wall from our Angle Chimes...

the only modern thing on the tree are the lights and my new whale...

a bit smaller tree this year, I hope it will stay alive in its pot until next year too.

xmas trees always look better when all the other lights are off, don't you think?

ahhh, not long now eh!

ahhh the smell of Christmas!

2011-12-14T05:08:00.000-08:00

Its that time of the year again...when one poor tree gets to live with us for a few weeks.

off we troddled to the local garden centre to select the specimen...

Its quite a tricky operation, because Im very fussy about the shape. But, then i start feeling sorry for all the odd looking wonky trees that didnt get picked. In other walks of life I'd like to chose the ugly one, but when it comes to Crimbo trees, I have to be ruthless.

we opted for a potted tree, and a fairly small one this year. The pot is massive and very heavy, and even though that tree is about the same height as me, it nearly didnt fit into the car. {or rather Nao almost didnt fit into the car}

I hope to get the chance to finish the decs this week, so I'll show you our {hopefully} twinkly flat.

BUT, we'll actually be camping in our van on the Isle of Wight this christmas! just for a few nights...

p.s. Dont forget our second RUST Jewellery Open Day is this saturday!!

Christmas at RUST

2011-12-10T06:58:00.001-08:00

so, today is our open day at Rust, and it seems to go from tumble-weed, to Piccadilly circus from one minute to the next! Very odd, anyway I had a bit of time this morning to take some snaps around the shop area after we finally tidied up and put up some xmassy lights etc...

this is where customers order their wedding/engagement rings. I recently painted the top of that old table because all the old paint was coming off and sticking to people's clothes. nice.

our opaque diamond rings have had a couple of new additions, and also a necklace.

I used some different wool tweed in the cabinets, actually looks quite good with the shiny metals on top.

we found these seaweed prints in the market, they are so old, but have really nice colours in them.

our rose-cut diamond necklaces live under this dome.

we also just added some white gold 'Little Diamond' items such as studs and necklace. The are 9ct gold with Rhodium plating.

also, 18ct gold plating onto silver. Due to the rise in metal prices, we found the retail price of gold is going to be very high, so we started doing plating as a more affordable option if you like traditional gold colour.

make sense? I hope so, anyway they proved to be pretty popular so far!

Nao painted those twigs with emulsion.

so thats it, our crimbo decorations are not that xmassy this year for some reason, but anyways, I think the place looks cleaner after our floor sanding episode.

Hope all you's in and about London can come and visit us today or next saturday {17th} during our Open days as it is always nice to see blog fellows in the flesh! You might even get a glass of something cheap and bubbly ; )

RUST Jewellery Xmas open days

2011-12-06T11:56:00.001-08:00

Yep. we are having a couple of open days at our jewellery workshop this month. We are normally open by appointment only, but the next two Saturdays are free for anyone to come and say hello!
Hope to see you all there : )

New RUST Jewelleries!

2011-12-03T16:11:00.001-08:00

Hello! I love this buffalo {?} creature don't you? I used him a lot in our new jewellery photos. Its his expression, just kills me!

I have just finished making these new leaf rings, with either oak leaf or bay leaf, in solid 9ct gold and silver.

You can see them all on our online jewellery shop here.

and bracelets and necklaces too {some have the option of 18ct gold plating}

and we have re-stocked all of our popular items too, at long last...

I made these little lockets which are engraved on the outside and inside are little poems, you might need good glasses or an obliging mouse to read them though.

and some are lined in Liberty print silk fabric...

this tiny acorn is engraved with the words 'mighty oaks...'

...now I'm ready to shut my eyes and get some kip! I can't wait for a Sunday morning of nothing-ness, I feel like a zombie. x

RUST New Opaque Diamond Rings

2011-12-02T09:47:00.001-08:00

Gosh peeps, we have been working hard here y'know! I'm currently trying to get all our new christmas jewellery stock all ready for the shop. I'm nearly there, just have to take photographs tonight.

Anyway, I'm just announcing that our latest 'Opaque Diamond Rings' will be available online {Under 'Opaque Diamond' category on our RUST Wedding shop} from Saturday 3rd december, from 7pm GMT. We had such a lot of enquiries about our last two rings, so these will be a 'first come, first served' basis only. So, if you do see one you want, be quick!

Please please make sure though, that if you are thinking to buy one, check your size because these rings can only be sized from J - N {UK size}.

We hope to make another batch in the New Year...if these ones are popular.

Announcement over.

p.s... its December, Horrrayy!

handpainted RUST signs

2011-11-27T02:49:00.001-08:00

things are happening at Rust HQ...

its been a year and a half since we moved into our new workshop, and still somethings are not finished! We have managed to be in business withous a single sign except for the one on our door {which was carved by my brother by the way}. Our workshop is at the back of a block of workshops and some customers have to phone me because they cant find us.

So, FINALLY we spent all day yesterday painting some street signs.

it was quite a job actually, i got a bit of back ache this morning.

In Tokyo we paid someone else to do it, but here at home I always think if we can do it, we can spend the money on something nicer, like some nice perfume or a posh diner!

Nao painted a lovely one in gold, on slate to hang on the door outside.

I love that old Victorian style painted signs that remind me of Dickens stories, and thought that would suit Rust well.

so now we have seven signs in total, I'm pretty sure no one will have a hard time to find us now.

The big one is one of two matching, that we will make into a pavement board. Look out for this during our forthcoming openday {dates to be confirmed soon!}

Nao's masterpieces.

This gate used to be red, but I painted it pale grey, and the leaves gold.

Nao has painted the manky railings outside too, and next we are going to sand the floor a bit {as our sink flooded and some chemicals stained our new oak floor!} so it will hopefully look much nicer, and nicer workshop = happy artemis & nao.

I have a few xmas decorations at the ready, but I'll get to this later as I'm still working on all the new jewellery for xmas. We are aiming for the 1st December to have them all available. I will announce as and when, on here and on facebook/twitter etc...

p.s. I took these photos at about 10pm so as usual, they are a strange colour and are a bit fuzzy, apologies about that!

antique junk

2011-11-25T09:08:00.000-08:00

recently at the market, we found {amongst a lot of other stuff we bought} this lovely jug to keep flowers in at our workshop. I'm really taken with the fern decoration, nice!

also, we found an amazing deck of 1900s {or there-abouts} unused playing cards. They are hilarious, so thick and impossible to shuffle.

this is actually just one deck!

We are going to use them for display in our jewellery shop, as I am no gambler!

pub dog

2011-11-24T08:40:00.001-08:00

Although I have very much been a cat person all my life, lately me and Nao have been dreaming of having our very own mutt. How lovely to have a little hairy beast scampering about, sniffing out treasures in the market. But, alas, Plimsoll is not too keen on other furries, and runs a mile if she get whiff of one.

Also, you do have to pick up their poo, which is hard to get my head around, but suppose you get used to it!

Our own dog will have to wait until we have a big enough house for Plimsoll + pooch to live in harmony. Until then we have bonded with a our local pub dog, who, until the other day just ignored us. We were at the pub 'working' when she came up and sat on my lap, usually it is too busy looking for chips that fell under chairs. This is exactly the kind of dog we would have, small, scruffy and a bit cheeky maybe {Oi, i know what you are thinking!}.

Here she is helping me to design our next collection.

and in return, I give her a new hair style {or earstyle}.

nahhhhh, pub dog love.

p.s. I'm keeping pub dog {and pub} nameless to protect their identity.

the fog.

2011-11-20T10:27:00.001-08:00

nothin like a bit of fog to brighten up your sunday eh. the gloom, doom and general dank feeling, drove me and Nao to the pub again for a sunday roast {I had veggie toad-in-the-hole}.

my pet meerkat.

urgh.

I love these dried up flower heads though, especially when the dew hits them.

the way back from the pub was a hazardous affair. But peckham looks better in the fog.

electric avenue.

2011-11-19T11:36:00.001-08:00

we went over to Brixton today to visit our friend Madeleine. There is so much happening in Brixton these days, so its always very inspiring to see whats new. It is a lovely place to go and eat, there is so much choice {although its hard to find a table at peak lunchtime}. Madeleine showed us this amazing place called 'Seven at Brixton'. I loved the decor. Upstairs there are lots of little rooms with art installations in, and you are free to wander about and peruse.

an amazing huge anglepoise lamp.

Madeleine also took us to a new little vintage market, I could have parted with all my pennies here, but I resisted. There are other craft fairs and boot sales planned for this space too so I'll definitely be back.

Me and Nao are always admiring pooches that we pass {although I never thought I was a 'dog' person!} I loved this one....

{sorry these pics are all fuzzy, it was getting a bit dark!}

In other news...

We have been so busy at work, I'm trying to make some stock for xmas as we keep running out and customers are not happy about that! But it is tricky to juggle all the admin-y stuff and do creative things too. We normally get to work around 12.30 and then get home around 9.30 -10pm so we've been eating take-aways in the workshop for dinner : (

We managed to get away earlier on Friday and ate at a pub around the corner. I had goats cheese salad and Nao had a Partridge with three bullets in it.

I LOVE these old London pubs, I'm so pleased that people aren't ripping them out any more. That glass is amazing!

Happy weekend XXX

mighty oaks from little acorns grow

2011-11-16T04:31:00.001-08:00

I'm working on a few new items for RUST Jewellery which should be ready soon. Tiny acorn necklace, oak leaf bracelet and ring are starting to take shape. The acorn started life like this.

Lots more things to come, in fact the mountain is still pretty high on my desk, but things are happening!

a little story...

2011-11-15T04:53:00.001-08:00

I nearly inhaled my tea this morning when, whilst browsing my statcounter, came across this post! .

It is news to me {and Nao} that he is being listed as a 'writer/musician/photographer and artist', unless he has some hidden talents?

EDIT: I have since found out the error arose, because the blogger saw another blog, who was actually writing about her partner and she got them mixed up. So there you go, before you know it, the world thinks youre a multi talented writer/musician over night! its so easy ; )

Although it is lovely when peeps write nice things about you, Its not the first time I have read things that gave me the same uneasy feeling, and it set me off thinking more deeply about the subject.
When did my blog become 'their' blog? I'm pretty sure Nao doesn't know the password to Junkaholique. Is this what happens when you get married?

Also, it feels weird when people write about me and Nao by making up what we do, or just getting the facts wrong {as in this case}, so here I shall write the true story {oooo, thrilling eh?}

Once upon a time, there was a poor and unemployed Fine Art graduate that had just left her dull and dreary desk job in search of something more creative to do with her life. She didn't have a penny to her name.
She lived in a huge crumbly Georgian town house with seven other housemates {who annoyed her greatly}.

She had been living there for a few years when one day yet another a new housemate arrived to fill a vacant room. The usual 'welcoming' procedure of allocating a fridge shelf and explaining how the gas bill works ensued.

It soon became general knowledge that the new Japanese housemate worked making his own jewellery, men's silver jewellery and leather wallets, and had just set up his own company and taking his first orders. We were all intrigued, and she was invited to visit his workshop for tea. How very impressed she was, to see a fine collection of vintage junk arranged neatly all over the place, and to be served English tea in a vintage cup with a silver spoon by a Japanese man. Hmmm, how very interesting, she thought.

Anyways, to cut a long story a bit shorter, He asked her to help him thread leather through silver chains to fulfill a huge wholesale order for Barney's New York, he could pay her about £8 per chain and she could even do it in the garden whilst drinking tea! Oh yes PLEASE! What a relief that she could now pay her rent and even eat!
So that carried on for a while, and she progressed to soldering silver and then gold, and he thought she was a pretty quick learner {as he had also taught himself to be a silversmith}. Soon, he even let her help designing some new collections for Paris Fashion Week. By now she had a full time job in his's workshop, and after a few years ticked by, they knew they were destined to be together. {well, after a LOT of arguing that is}. And eventually they stopped arguing and got married.

So, since then, I have pretty much taught myself all that I know, how to take pictures, make a website and design jewellery of course! With the two of us, Rust has become something quite different over the years, it has gradually evolved from a Men's jewellery brand, to Ladies jewellery and then wedding rings.
Generally, Nao is in charge the Tokyo side of things which is the main part of Rust, and I deal with the London based side of things. Together we make a good team, creating new ideas all the time {on napkins and backs of envelopes etc}.

{London}

{Tokyo}

We are both creative people who get bored easily, so we are always making and doing something! We work together on Rust, but we also like to do our own projects too {me: Junkaholique, Bucket Tree. Nao: Rust Japanese blog & Twitter, men's vintage clothing shop etc...}. We'd go crazy if we always did everything together!

We love being married, but I do feel it important {for ladies in particular} to hold on to your identity and achievements, at the same time being part of a double act, don't you think?

Hope you enjoyed reading this nonsense! XX

making friends with autumn

2011-11-13T11:53:00.001-08:00

we went for a little walk today, in the woods tucked in between Forest Hill and Dulwich. London is amazing sometimes when you find patches of nature where you wouldn't expect it.

we had a very huge roast lunch at the pub, then walk, then back to the pub for pudding {gingerbread and custard} then back to watch telly. Not a bad way to spend a day I say.

we past this wonderfully crumbly building, its huge and has been this way for many years.

I found that little boys wool blazer in the market, also my new {old} scarf, and under my jacket although you cant see it, is a 1920s cotton vest that I wear all the time! Its pale pink and is about to fall apart, I will wear it until it dies. That is love.

I'm quite keen on my Welsh tapestry bag and black moccasins too.

Nao is wearing an old school blazer and college scarf, so we are both looking a bit academic today, which is ironic because I can barely count on my fingers. {Nao is pretty good at sums though}

So, it is now getting dark at 4.30pm and we are working out our survival plan for the coming months. It involves lots of eating. {actually thats as far as we got on the plan}

bye for now peeps! X

lately...

2011-11-10T07:41:00.000-08:00

Not much has been going on of interest lately, hence the rather sparse blog. Nao and I are coping with the winter blues, combined with a mountain of jewellery and shop things to get done before the big 'C' looming, so we are looking a little glum.

Anyhow, one way to cheer us up is to spend money! So off we trotted to the West-End to see what we could find to put a smile on our faces.

We went to the much talked about 'Anthropologie'. Although normally the more people go on about something, the less interested I become, but we were curious what was so good about it.

Well, I have to say I did enjoy browsing that huge shop, and although not much tickled my fancy in the end, I did spot this lovelyglass whale bauble. Bit pricey, but if it makes me happy then it's got to be worth it right?

I love its cheeky grin and glittery blow-hole {that sounds really rude, apologies}.

we couldn't resit popping into Liberty of course, no West-End trip would be complete! Nao purchased some rather fine aftershave, its smells gorgeous and even comes with his name printed on the bottle {if you look very close!} wowsers, we were sold!

I found some nice battery fairy lights from Muji for the van, although they are little blue/white colour, I am planning to put them into paper lined jam jars and use as table lamp whilst camping.

we have also been to quite a few markets lately, I bought loads of stuff, and these are a mere smidgen of the batch. Most of them are for the Bucket Tree, which I am not sure if will get the chance to upload before xmas, I'll keep yous posted on that!

This little fella will help put many smiles on my face this winter ; )

Yesterday, Nao assembled this cardboard theatre {instead of doing the accounts!}

We are going to use it for display in our Rust shop somehow.

it is Cinderella, and even comes with the script.

Plimsoll is just happy with the tissue paper left over...

so next time I see yous here, I hopefully will have a huge pile of perfectly finished jewellery, and accounts all up to date!

hmmm....now wheres that cork screw gone?...

plunging into winter

2011-11-05T09:49:00.000-07:00

Oh november, not my favourite month I have to say. Nao and I have been treating ourselves to nice things to compensate for the dark days ahead. We bought a new candle and have been consuming many cups of tea and choccie biccies.

after renovating our van, we had a large off cut of carpet left over {actually it is about four sizes bigger than the bit we used}. So we have put it on our living room floor for the time being.

Plimsoll has just discovered the delights of 100% pure wool loop.

{and her new snack of choice...trout flavoured chewy sticks}

however she most certainly is not amused by all the firework noise outside, in fact she hates it. She normally runs under the bed terrified. She will look like this for the next few days around Guy Fawkes night...

and very sadly, someone was shot and killed just yards from our house recently so I think she has reason to worry about the bangs. It really makes you appreciate and enjoy the small things in life like candles and fresh flowers and peace and quite.

{i do like fireworks very much though!}

opaque diamond rings

2011-11-01T07:14:00.000-07:00

Gosh 'n Blimey, its been a while since I posted any RUST Jewellery pics.
To be quite frank, that's because we have been absorbed by project Campervan, and so we've had some new samples waiting to have their photos taken.
Anyways, enough of the jibber-jabber, our new collection of Opaque Diamond rings are just emerging from the jewellery bench as we speak...I have just uploaded the first two onto both the RUST Jewellery & RUST Wedding online shops.
By the way, in case you're not sure what Opaque diamonds are, well its just a fancy name for the parts of the diamond rock which are full and bursting with natural inclusions and colours which all change and sparkle as the light hits them producing some lovely effects on your finger. If you are not a white diamond kind of gal, then these are surely the stones for you...organic, natural and unusual.
As no two diamonds are the same, we will be making up all the rings and selling them individually, each will be re-sized to fit. We do have some diamonds that are a similar shape or colour, but never the exact same.

Also, I am adding a few more men's samples to the wedding ring shop too {above photos}, like our new 'Tattoo' engraved design and 'Herringbone' pattern. They are 6mm & 5mm wide and made of Palladium {although we can make most metals and widths}.

Happy Halloween folks x

Heaven Farm & Sheffield Park

2011-10-24T07:57:00.000-07:00

I love chickens.

...and cows.

and ducks!

So when we disappointingly pulled into 'Heaven Farm' in West Sussex, and found that only one field was open this time of the year {as the cows had taken over} I didn't mind too much because this campsite has squillions of creatures running about.

Check out this pair of ducks catching 40 winks under someones caravan.

It was a lovely spot though {but we could hear the cars on the nearby road, bit of a shame}, its a beautiful old red brick farm complete with pig sty, oast house and all. The owners even have budgies and Love birds {i think that what they are?} they were the cutest things I have ever seen.

great views over the rolling Sussex countryside, dramatic as always.

Before we set up camp we did pop into Lewes {the town, not our camper!} and browsed a few junk shops there. We found some nice enamel bowls, two the same, which is handy as they slot into each other thus saving space. Also some very nice tea towels {I have an obsession with tea towels, I will be know as 'that old lady that has a million tea towels' one day}.

and a cushion...

Nobody bought this German jug from Bucket Tree, so I decided to keep it myself. Perfect for transporting coriander.

and a Japanese Tatami mat for our tea cups.

a selection of condiments {'wild' camping this is not}

as the sun began to set I got on with my first ever campervan cooking experience.

It was actually good fun for some reason. Nao took soom lovely photos that evening.

a bit of pasta {I am no culinary expert you see}

Logs were too big for our stove, doh!

Next day we went to Sheffield Park, not in Sheffield, just 5 mins from campsite actually.

we were told on arrival that the Autumn colours were not that good this year, but I beg to differ!

It was 18 degrees with blue sky, we lazed by the lake under a maple tree, and I made a wicker summer house for a small invertebrate out of pine needles...

...and Nao made a canoe out of a bamboo leaf.

If you ever feel the need for some tree hungin' then this is the place to go.

{its National Trust by the way}

I don't think Nao has taken that scarf off since I made it! {he did wash it once}

there is also a little old garden nursery next to the park which has its own vineyard.

I am crossing fingers that we get more of this mild weather, before the cold shudder of winter sets in.

By the way, when we go to these National Trust places, I'm always amazed that it seems to be about 99% old people visiting. Come on you youngens, get out there!

Wakehurst Place and Standen House

2011-10-20T06:30:00.000-07:00

During our first short camping trip in our camper van, we went to two lovely places. First was Wakehurst Place which is right next door to where Ardingly Antiques Fair is held. We had been past it many times but never had the time to go in. It is a sister of Kew Gardens, and they have their Millennium Seed Bank here. The grounds are open free to National Trust members.

after a spot of lunch we had a quick snoop around before heading off to the campsite. They have the most beautiful huge tree, the type that you really want to hug.

...and some funny looking ones.

The house was closed to the public because of a private function, but we weren't to bothered as it was such a lovely day.

these fluffy things remind me of 1970s front gardens, but here they looked spectacular.

I pretended to be David Bellamy in the Japanese Maple tree.

a Pheasant came to say hello...

Xmas baubles?

after a good nights kip in our camper, we went off to visit a house called Standen which is the home of a friend of William Morris {actually he is the architect that designed Morris' own house, but I forgot his name}.

Its really tucked away down many a wobbly lane.

Amazing flowers about, considering it is the middle of October.

The house still has some of the original William Morris wall paper.

Inside was pretty nice too, but me and Nao were suffering from nocakeyitis and headed off to the cafe {again}

I loved this 'over the top' picnic hamper, can you imagine eating fine pate and quails eggs and a glass of chilled champagne from this oh yes?

{this bit is just the farm house/barn}

p.s. a few of you's have asked us what happens to our cat Plimsoll when we go away. Well, if we go away for longer than one night, we hire a cat sitter. Luckily Plimsoll is a very independent cat and has a huge meadow to keep her entertained, so I don't think she notices if we are there or not. We have tried to take her away with us, but she doesn't like not being in control and get scared and does a poo in the car. Her poos are very stinky so we gave up on that idea. We might take her in the van though, if we bribe her with Sheba Tuna flakes.

our vw camper van is finished!

2011-10-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

After a lot of blood, sweat and tears, our camper 'Lewes' has had a complete internal renovation!

Its been hard work to do it ourselves with no experience of this kind of thing, but we were so ambitious that this little van was going to take us to some mighty fine places, we worked our fingers to the bone {quite literally}.

We bought our 1978 Volkswagen Type 2 Bus from a lovely couple in near Lewes in Sussex a few months ago. Their three boys were growing out of it, and so had to put it up for sale.

After coming back from a camping trip in Dorset, I received an email telling me the van was still for sale, so we made a detour and headed along to view it. We fell in love and although we looked closely for any rusty problems, our eyes were blinded by love I think!

It came with all the original Devon conversion interior which is extremely 70s {and makes me feel so old that I was born in this year}. I loved it, but we knew it would need a bit of work to make it nice and cosy.

{'before' photos taken by the previous owners}

When we had it back home, we took out all of the interior so that we could get a good look at the bare metal and inspect the rust properly. We un-earthed 33 years worth of fossilised insects and some

sweet wrappers that belonged in a museum and other crud. In fact there was evidence of probably every trip, tucked down the crevasses between the units that are impossible to reach without taking them all out. The cupboards and units themselves are made from chipboard, and we found they were quite rotten at the bottom and swollen up, it was time for them to be replaced.

We found mostly surface rust in patches, but unfortunately, all four seat belt anchor points had rust through to the wheel arch, ouch! {amazingly it came with 12 months MOT!}We knew about some of the damage but not all of it. And, we discovered the battery tray so rusted that it could have just fallen out onto the motorway!

After a lot of Internet searching, we found a lovely guy called Ian from Mayflower MG & VW Services Ltd in Brixton, and after a lot of tutting and chin rubbing, {like mechanics seem to do a lot of} he fixed our van up a treat and gave us lots of helpful info and a free spare wheel!

So then, after a few weeks of sitting idle, we had Lewes back and we started work cleaning, sanding and treating all the rust, re-spraying the interior metal {as it was a bit rusty and with green spray paint along the window sills}, insulating and laying the flooring etc etc etc...

I had already done most of the upholstery work, which you can read more about here although fitting it into the van took longer than the sewing and covering!

FINALLY, we were ready for our first weekend away, the most exciting day of my life {except our wedding of course ; )} We went to a campsite near East Grinstead, about an hour and half from South London.

Our van now looks like this...

Two very proud owners!

Actually 90% of the work we did is hidden underneath all the carpet and walls etc... but anyways...

Nao sanded down the original table legs that screw into the top and made a lovely new table out of pine, beautifully sanded and oiled.

We found two little bedside cabinets at a junk shop and thought they were just the right size for our van and looked quite 70s. We repainted them in off-white and sanded down the wooden handles.

And I made some bunting out of some vintage Japanese silk remnants which were a present from a very good friend of our in Tokyo, who's parents own a Kimono shop. I love the silk manufacturers stamp!

we used pure wool carpet, of course very impractical! but extremely cosy. So no shoes allowed.

the cab part had a face lift too, after a lot of sanding and re-spraying, we laid down seagrass matting but kept the original VW black matt at the front {I washed it in the bath!}.

so nice to have kitchen drawers! we don't even have this in our flat.

and a TINY fridge...

because of the fumes, I decided to fill our old hurricane lanterns with fairy lights instead...they are battery operated.

What a treat to go away camping and taking a suitcase...its like going on a train trip...

a few essentials ; )

The seat folds out into a very comfortable bedroom with dual aspect windows {I learnt that phrase from an Estate Agent}

I was very happy with the way the sun light shone through the curtains bringing the animals to life!

I also made a linen padded spare wheel cover, but it didn't go to plan! I will have to re-make it at some point. You can just about see it behind that bag. {by the way, wellies from B&Q!}

The bed frame was in a bad state too, all the white plastic coating was coming off. I just gave it a quick sand and enamel paint but needs a bit more work {one day!}.

There are clips in the corner to store the table legs when not in use, clever innit!

It was very lucky of us to get such nice crispy Autumn weather, and a good view too...

The table comes with four legs so we can use it outdoors too, so you can have tea and bicces and look over the rolling English countryside...

for your information, this was very agreeable.

There was a lovely fishing pond at the campsite too, and funnily enough, about ten other VW campervans!

After having an Automatic Nissan Micra, Nao soon got the hang of driving this VERY manual bus.

...and I think, he is looking like a bus driver already.

We went to some lovely National Trust properties during our stay, but this post is WAY to long as it is, so I will save that for another day.

But, there will be plenty more tales from Lewes soon, I am sure you are going to get very bored!

If you are a crazy person and havent seen enough already, you can see more of the inbetween stages on my Flickr album here.

just add socks

2011-10-13T12:08:00.000-07:00

Its that time of year again when my flip flops get shuved under the bed or some such dusty place and I start to wonder what on earth am I going to put on my feet for the next eight months.?

I like my feet to be free and in the air, so winter shoes to me are just to stop me looking stupid, otherwise I would wear flip flops all year round.

I decided to adapt my summer clothes by simply adding socks and boots to my attire. My boots {a pressie from Nao} are one of my very few allowances of leather as i generally don't like the idea of it {linked to me being veggie I suppose?} These desert boots are roomy enough for my chimp-like feet and nice and soft too.

'what d'ya think Plimsoll?'...

'No comment'.

anyways, not a very enthrawling subject, but now you know!

skirt & cardi - primark,

t-shirt - h&m,

socks - peacocks,

boots - by Mott

rings - Rust

sunset re-posted

2011-10-12T11:32:00.000-07:00

After such lovely comments, I decided to re-post the photos of the sunset when we went camping near Seven Sisters cliffs. It was so beautiful up there!

Also been doing this...

and this...

and eating this...

veggie of course ; )

also, I should say that we are making some new RUST jewellery designs too, we haven't forgotten ; )

...and Xmas is coming up next so we will be knuckling down to make lots of stock for that.

AND I have such a huge load of lovely stuff waiting to be uploaded to The Bucket Tree, lots of cosy wintry things and some nice bits and bobs for Xmas pressies too! ...coming soon I promise.

Lewes' make-over part 3

2011-10-08T03:43:00.000-07:00

Now here is a very boring post for you! another step on the long journey to renovate our campervan, I had to cover these new interior panels. we bought new ones as the old ones were like this...

I used this upholstery foam {from ebay} and some lovely thick Swedish linen from the Cloth Shop, Nottinghill.

My idea was to use the staple gun to fasten the fabric, but they came through the other side and also crumpled up.

I thought about using glue, but as I had to pull the fabric very tightly, it wouldn't dry in time. So temporarily I used some gaffer tape, but im hoping to find some very tiny tacks to fasten it properly.

there are five panels to cover, all different shapes. This one is for the rear door {tailgate}.

The fold lines you can see came out with a quick steam iron.

I love the texture of the linen and slightly spongy feel of the foam, hopeful we will be all snug in the van this Autumn!

Nao has been busy applying insulation to the walls before these can go on, lots of work still left to do this weekend.

p.s...

I removed the post from yesterday about the last day of our camping trip and watching the sunset upon the cliffs at Seven Sisters. Unfortunately I made a comment about how easy it is to fall off whilst taking a photo, but very stupidly said it in a jokey way and it deeply offended someone. I sometimes forget how powerful the internet is and so many people are reading it and I will definitely be more careful in future. I wrote a lengthy apology and explanation, but a few hours later I decided to delete whole post, as it had now taken on a rather dark tone which was the opposite of what I had intended! So sorry if i ever offend anyone at any time with my clumsy language, please say, and I will remove it straight away!

I do wish everyone to visit the beautiful cliffs of Seven Sisters, they are spectacular, peaceful and gentle, especially at sunset. {but please do be careful up there!}.

Have a lovely weekend everyone x

another summer {part 3}

2011-10-05T23:47:00.000-07:00

we spent the next two days of our three day miracle autumn weather camping holiday epic, at the base of the cliffs, named the Seven Sisters {because there are seven tall chalk cliffs next to each other} this part is called Birling Gap. It was stunning, the light bounced off the white cliffs onto the beach and onto the sea, it was extreme light therapy.

because the chalk is so soft, it washes into the sea and turns the water all milky! it made the sea look very inviting and we imagined we were somewhere in the Caribbean, not south coast of Ol'Blighty in October!

I went for many a swim and felt like Cleopatra.

the beach gets really busy, but we were down the 'nudies' end {that sounds very wrong as I'm typing it} and there were indeed lots of nudies everywhere. It was hard to know where to look.

the tide kindly came up to the cliff at Cream Tea O'clock, and there happed to be a cafe above the beach. It would be rude not to...

then we went back for more lazing as the tide began to recede...

and I loved watching this man and his amazing swimming dog, that dog would have swam to France had his owner been able to throw a stone that far.

this has to be in my top 5 beaches in Britain so far!

another summer {part 2}

2011-10-05T01:15:00.000-07:00

so we ended up at lovely corner of Sussex,...Dernwood Farm. After the shocking £36 fee {and they tried to sell us wood for another £10! so we bought some at the petrol station instead for £2.50}, we then found we had to take all our stuff by cart through the woods to the campsite, ah how quaint! Well, after a few minutes the novelty wore-off pretty quick. Especially when you forget a gas cylinder at 7am and have to go the 20 minute walk back to the car in your jammies, not exactly relaxing! ANYway, it was a nice big field and quite empty when we arrived.

This campsite is called 'wild' camping, meaning they don't have much in the way of facilities {which is fine for us}...but you still pay the same as if it did, hmmm. I though wild camping meant you only take a piece of waterproof cloth and a pen knife, but everyone there had foldout picnic tables etc... Oh well...we made the best of it, and the weather was so good, we soon forgot about all the heaving!

the toilet was at the other end of the field, but when you can't hold it in anymore, a misty damp stroll awaits you...

after washing my hair in a bucket {which was lovely!} we made our way off to a different beach.

the woods n the way were stunning...

I always take my trusty woolly cardi where ever I go, even though BBC said it would be 30 degrees, I tend not to believe them {I wonder why?}

After this holidays camping experience, we are tempted to compile our own 'top 10 campsites of Britain' as there are much better ones out there, my own personal opinion of course!

part 3 of this epic tale of freak British weather continues shortly...

another summer {part 1}

2011-10-04T08:04:00.000-07:00

what on earth! a heat wave in Autumn, in Britain? We didn't stop to ask any questions, just jumped into the car and sped off in the direction of the sea!

We went down to the south coast, in Sussex. After leaving central London at 4.30pm, with car packed with camping gear, we finally made it to the campsite. It was pitch black and a weird low mist had formed. We couldn't find the campsite and were directed to drive across-country through a field not able to see 1 metre in front of the car! A very strange night, and empty field with a 'pond' {i.e. drainage puddle} and lots of insects for company. We managed to put up our tent in the dark, but had already decided to move to another campsite the next morning, as the site was situated right next to the A22 and felt like the cars were actually driving right next to our tent. Not exactly what we had planned. Anyways, next morning was beautiful despite the noise, and we discovered a few hairy neighbours too.

we spent the next day at Camber Sands beach, which is our fave beach near London. Its HUGE and very sandy. We drank a lot of wine, I went for a swim and Nao read the paper.

Lovely, and fully recovered from the drama of the previous evening. We went off in the direction of our new campsite - Dernwood Farm...

and saw some lovely Oast houses on the way, the evening sun was beautiful and the next days forecast was for 30 degrees! this kind of news makes Nao & I very happy campers indeed.

part 2 coming up!...

Lewes' make-over part 2

2011-09-24T11:47:00.000-07:00

A job for me today was to make some new curtains for our VW camper 'Lewes'. I thought this would be a quick job, but like usual I was wrong. You would not believe the amount of curtains that came out of that van, like miles of curtains. Anyways, the idea was to use some old thick linen bed sheets that we had purchased from the flea market. It has a lovely texture is just the right side of white.

it took forever to cut out the fabric, I just laid the original curtains on the top and cut around them, simples!...I nearly ended up with a cat shaped curtain.

then in the shed for some power sewing. I think it was 7 or maybe 8 curtains...blimey.

you have probably seen these animals before if you read this blog regularly, they are early 19th century illustrations of animals for classification purposes. We use them as a backdrop to our jewellery in photos, and we even made last years xmas crackers from them too!

I searched far and wide for some nice fabric, even Liberty's upholstery department {with some of the most expensive fabrics known to human kind} but, alas, nothing floated our boat. So we decided to make our own pattern instead thus, we have the animals. We spent ages at work photocopying them onto fabric transfer paper and cutting them out...

and then carefully ironing them onto the bottom edge of the curtains as if they are waiting for the bus or something.

I think it worked quite well, and once they are bonded, you can wash them in the machine as usual.

so the van is coming along nicely, and we really cant wait for it to all come together and have our tiny home on wheels. We are aiming it to be ready early next week {fingers crossed}.

Lewes' make-over part 1

2011-09-17T13:53:00.000-07:00

I have just completed a MAHOOSIVE sewing project, well, for me anyways. It was hard to get going as I was quite happy chilling with Plimmy on the bed with a cuppa. However, now that our campervan is booked in to the docs awaiting surgery, it a good time to get all the sewing done for the interior.

So my job is to cover the three big cushions that make up the seats/folding bed.

although many of yous out there might relish the diarrhea brown and burnt orange plaid 70s original, we however, felt something more neutral might enhance our other bits and bobs. I managed to find some nice tweed on ebay for hardly much money at all. Only problem is that it comes in limited lengths, so we had to compromise and use a different tweed on the reverse and some edges.

tweed made in England.

and a tweed made in Scotland. {this is for the front of the cushions}.

this is the largest piece of sewing I have ever undertaken, and to be honest, I hadn't the foggiest how to go about it. So i just made it up as i went along, so no measuring/pinning or ironing of course ; )

I managed to find a tiny bit of floor space in our flat to lay out the fabric, then using a pastel crayon, drew around the piece to cut out. This took me AGES and was very tiring and boring job. At this point I spent most of the time staring blankly into space, not knowing if this was going to work out at all!

anyways, all the bits eventually were cut out, and I started sewing the Velcro fasting on the back.

I couldn't do much more before I fainted for lack of tea.

I joined Plimsoll on the bed and had a little nap. {by the way, I also dyed my hair today, can you tell? its hard work sometimes to graduate my dull mousy blondish hair roots with highlights, without looking naff. I look pretty weird with my natural hair colour, like as if I am really ill or something}

So in the shed tonight I actually managed to sew up all the pieces and soon worked out how to do the corners. Only a few small disasters. The biggest cover didn't want to go on, and it ripped! but luckinly after re-sewing, I worked out away to squeeze the cushion in and it kind of just popped into shape, hurrah!

It was too dark by the time I finished them all to take pics, but you get the idea! Next I have to line the interior wall panels with foam and linen. A much easier job me thinks/I hope.

I even missed the crappy Saturday night telly that I was looking forward to. Did I miss anything good?

a pressie for moi!

2011-09-15T05:50:00.000-07:00

a beautiful parcel from a very thoughtful friend...

a little blue apron, wooden pegs, wine bottle stopper, tiny heart soap...for our camper van!

{Tried to model it unsuccessfully, it was very late by the time i got home and found the parcel hence i'm wearing pygama bottoms!}

I love the tape, and the stamp too...

aaahhh...simply lovely.

this weekend

2011-09-11T10:29:00.000-07:00

here are some pictures of our very domestic weekend. cleaning our flat, and discovering more and more rust hiding in our van!

but we still love it, though it may need some surgery before we can start fitting the new interior. we have been busy treating and priming some rust spots on the floor, but its really only the tip of the iceberg...

we have already bought the fabric to cover these cushions, and ordered some carpet for the floor, and fabric for the interior panels, all very exciting!!

so now our flat is tidy-ish, and Nao and I have shamefully taken to watching Xfactor on telly whilst having a bed picnic. Really not sure what this means, I hope we are not turning into old fogies already, we've only been married a year, another 60 to go!

road to recovery...

2011-09-06T09:53:00.000-07:00

Hello Peeps! Horray, I am still alive...and what better way than to get better, than to go camping I say.

Nao and I had enough of feeling miserable with me moaning and rolling about on the bed like a beached whale, so on hearing the news that there was going to be a few more sunny days to squeeze out of the summer, we drove to Kent for a little break.

first stop was as Botany Bay, near Broadstairs {yes all places in Kent seem to have funny names that are like words}. Not feeling too chipper, I just managed a little swim and a rest on the beach, the sun on my skin made me feel much better. The beach was amazing, surrounded by unusual chalk cliffs. I found some more of these Cuttle-fish eggs? and we had lunch and then back again for cake at Alison's Tea gardens which is in her front garden, next to the beach.

We found a last minute campsite, quite near to Canterbury, which was set in an orchard. Opposite us was a HUGE Winnebago Brave, we spent both nights, asking questions to ourselves about how you would drive such a thing, and how big is inside, and how much does it cost to park it...etc etc....needless to say, its not our cup of tea, but it was rather impressive {and very American!}.

I finally collected these old wind breakers {is that really what they are called??} from my mums shed where they were in storage. I bought them from Angel market a few years ago believe it or not.

we had lots of wine and fruit and Nao made some sandwiches...

Next day we drove to Sandwich {yes, as in the Earl of Sandwich who invented the Sandwich!} which is a beautiful little old town, and nearby Sandwich Bay...

we bought delicious French goodies for lunch from the Deli in the town, and a nice bottle of white wine {remember I am recovering, so I deserve it}

philosophising...

T'was loviliy. We stopped in the Sandwich town on the way back and had a walk about the river and had a tea etc...

and we did the very same thing in Canterbury...

and then looked forward to returning to our little camp for Nao's delicious bbq of sweetcorn, shitake mushrooms {all covered with a butter and soy sauce mixture} its sooo good.

we finished off our French deli delights too and then feel asleep in front of the fire...aahhhh....

last day, we went to Whitstable. Gosh and Blimey, this is a nice place. We happed across a few junk shops and a small jumble sale where old grannies were selling prize junk finds for like 20p, perfect.

the sea front is lined with these gorgeous little wooden houses, if you peek inside the windows, you can see fresh white beds almost on the beach! I guess these are holiday chalets, blimey.

of course Whistable is famous for its Oysters, which look like snot but apparently taste like heaven. I'll just take their word for it.

even little kids eat them, I cant look!

Nao did have a plate of some rare Whistable species, and he said they were the best he'd ever tasted .

So then we drove back home. Next day we went to Notting Hill to the Cloth Shop to buy some fabric for our camper van interior...but more to come on that later!

I still feel pretty wobbly and a bit dazed & confused, but the break really did me the world of good. Also coming back to London and reading all your lovely comments for my last {rather wingey} post, has made me really appreciate what good friends I have out there, I certainly am a very lucky Laydee.

a new season is upon us...

2011-08-31T13:53:00.000-07:00

Hello lovely readers out there! there is a definite whiff of autumn in the air today, that's why I dug out these summery pics from Syon Park, London. I saw a conker on the ground this afternoon when I went for a little stroll in the meadow, I cant believe the year has passed so quickly.

I should report that I am a tad unwell of late {nothing too serious!}, so not much happening blog wise, and maybe not for a few more weeks...but I will see how things pan out and get back to my ol'self again.

Nao is doing some work on the campervan, he took out all the insides of the van as we found a family of earwigs and spiders behind the cupboards, and when doing so, found two bad looking rusty holes!
So he is busy treating all the surface rust on the floor and deciding what to do next. Generally though, its in quite good nick and the holes are only pea sized.

We need to buy lots of materials for doing up the interior, hopefully it will be all cosy, and I am going to make curtains and seat covers...when I feel better that is ; )

Anyways, thank you all for your lovely comments, I am always taken-a-back by the generosity of strangers who say nice things to me. As I have been in bed for quite a few days now, I have been reading back a lot of my blog, (laughing at my creative spelling!) and re-reading all the comments, and realising how lovely you all are!
So I will see you all when I am vertical again X

p.s. I have suspended sales from The Bucket Tree & Rust Jewellery shop for the next week or so {Rust Wedding rings are available as usual} all sales up till today will of course be dispatched as usual.

introducing...

2011-08-27T13:17:00.000-07:00

So, here is our new home! This is 'Lewes' {we named it after the town near where we bought it} the 1978 VW Devon Camper.
It is THE biggest ever purchase for us, so a bit nerve-racking, but its so lovely to be in!
I know its not a very intelligent vehicle purchase, a modern one would be much more economical and reliable, but can you imagine us in a modern camper-van? I can't! I think the heart rules the head, hands down.
I took these pics just quickly when we stopped in a car park on the way back to london, so apologies they are not great. I was going to take some better ones today but was feeling a bit peaky so stayed in bed instead!
Inside is all original with the cooker/sink etc... but we are thinking to take them out carefully storing them, and giving it a bit of make-over inside. basically we love the original bits but we but we also want to make it a bit more 'us' without doing anything permanent. I have to learn how to do an oil change and basic maintenance which should be amusing - like Charlene out of Neighbours! {However I may be on the phone to my mechanic brothers every five minutes}.

Anyways, sorry the blog posts are still a bit erratic, but be prepared for MANY more posts about our van to come (sorry!).

By-the-way, this van is born in the same year as me, but it looks much better!

Going home to Isle of Wight

2011-08-23T09:05:00.000-07:00

So sorry for the lack of activity on my blog of late. I don't really have a valid excuse other than our ambition to go somewhere whenever the sun is shining. These British summer days are so scarce that we decided to make as much of them as possible before the long dark depressing winter sets in, so my computer has been left to gather dust. But anyways, last weekend we went back to my homeland...The Isle of Wight.

after a mad dash from work to catch the ferry at Portsmouth, we had a pretty relaxing trip...the sun was actually shining!

I love the 70s seats in the rusty old car ferry.

as per usual, we went straight to one of our favourite pubs for dinner.

a kid left his catch on our table.

there was a stunning sunset...then we went over to my Mum's place where we were going to camp in her front garden but it was too windy, so we slept on her living room floor instead.

this is Chippy, Plimsoll's mum.

in the morning we went around Ventnor junk shops and gathered a huge collection of junk in a massive old suit case. Very successful! and people were getting ready for the carnival that night...

crab pasties at Steephill Cove...

back at Ventnor, I managed an evening swim, mighty refreshing.

next morning, after crab sandwiches and a nap on the beach at Steephill, we went to some more remote places of south Wight.

Rocken End.

and Nao managed to stash some crab pasties in his bag. {Unfortunately I cant eat crab as it come straight back up!}

I had a scramble about on the rocks whilst Nao had a nap.

a very nice cafe at Niton, which has the best view, and the steep climb back to the car...

all very nice indeed! I hope we get a few more sunny days left of 2011, but some how I doubt it looking out of the window today.

P.S. we will hopefully have something very exciting to show you later this week! I CANT wait!!

New Forest

2011-08-16T07:43:00.000-07:00

having been born and bred on the Isle of Wight, I thought it quite odd that I never had visited the New Forest! Its a huge area of National Park land on the south coast, just a short hop over the water from good ol'Wighty. So, we chucked our stuff in the car and went in search of some sun {ANY sun!} for our first wedding anniversary weekend.

I loved the damp green velvety moss all over the trees and the ground, the huge tall pine trees and of course, the wild horses that roam about freely in the woods and heathland areas. Within the park lies some towns and villages, and quite astonishingly, those horses are free to walk down the middle of the roads, into the villages, eating anything in their paths, we saw one big old horse standing head on to a car coming the other way, looking as though it was going to charge at it, its all very amusing. Lots of foals too which are unbelievably cute!

one day we took our camping stove and various pickles and cheeses to a steam in the woods and had ourselves a very fine luncheon.

we were staying at a campsite right in the middle of the woods, on a farm. It was horrendously full, but we found a spot at the bottom field right opposite a pond, which was lovely.

as a treat, I splashed out on some new sleeping bags, I hate that sweaty nylon feel of our old bags. These are from Anorak, 100% cotton, made in Britain! mine has seagulls on it, and Nao's has stags.

a nice bbq and a rest in front of the pond, looovelllyyy.

next day was our anniversary, one whole year of being a Mr. and a Mrs. {accept of course I'm a Ms.!}

we had lots to ponder about, but i have to say that being married is very nice indeed and highly recommended!

I made Nao a card in the few minutes before we left for our trip, it leaves little to be desired but its the thought that counts, right?

and Nao made me a ring! a little Laurel Leaf carved ring of 18ct white gold. It is the same design as his wedding ring. He also lined an antique ring box with Liberty print fabric, amazing!

we had a nice leisurely breakfast as we'd found out that we had to vacate that field on sunday! what a weird campsite eh?

after packing up we went down to Lymington which I am fairly familiar with as it has a car-ferry connection to the Isle of Wight. But we went on a Puffin Cruise, a small boat which takes people out onto the Solent. We wanted to go on a long trip to see the Needles lighthouse but it was cancelled, so we went for a quick trip to the Solent and back anyways...

the sky was grey and spectacular.

back at the harbour, we had a drink and sat on the harbour wall and admired the locals...

lots of crab fishing going on!

after inspecting every campsite in the Forest, we ended up going back to the original one seeing as we had already paid for it, it was very busy and tightly packed, but we managed to have a very lovely evening in fact!

We ate asparagus and shitake mushrooms, {asparagus make my wee smell really odd, is it just me?}.

Nao washed his hair in a bowl, and I helped.

going back home, we met some more locals who seemed to think the roads are there for them...

we stopped by Beaulieu and had a nap in a meadow and fed some horses...

and then back to London, ACCEPT we made a de-tour to west-sussex where we also broke down! But thats another story {which i will tell you later on!}.

Bucket Tree update

2011-08-08T10:07:00.000-07:00

I have just completed a mahoosive update of the Bucket Tree! I think it may be the biggest EVER. Blimey, I think I collected a lot of stuff lately, but they are all gems i have to say. There are lots of clothes and three Edwardian cotton blouses that are beautiful, and easy to wear with modern clothes.

a couple of straw hats, very hard to part with as I have a bit of an obsession with straw hats!

more leather bags as usual, including two school satchels...

and two Welsh tapestry purses to go in them!

I love finding vintage Liberty print clothes that people have made themselves, this one is from the 50s...

and this dress is pretty special, also from the 50s...

this satin jacket is from the glamorous 30s, it would look stunning over the top of a wedding dress this autumn...

and there is a few bits and bobs for you house too...

these are just a small example, please click here to see all the new items!