Little Owl Ski

Alpro #deskfest Competition

littleowlski — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 21:39:05 +0000

We’ve entered a competition with Alpro to try and win a weekend in New York City. Now, I know what you’re thinking… New parents? Trying to win a holiday? Well, the chances are slim but it was great fun doing it!

The details for the competition are here and this is our entry below:

You had to tweet a picture of you enjoying your Alpro breakfast at your work desk. Aidan being Aidan, he can’t resist the opportunity to do something a bit out of the ordinary. We’ve got another entry for tomorrow, but I’ll keep that one a secret for now.

If you like our picture and would like to help us out trying to win the holiday (!) then please click here and tweet about it, share the picture on Facebook or ‘pin’ it… Thanks in advance!

We went into Aidan’s office at the weekend to take the pictures – he’s not dared tell anyone at work about this, so it might be highly amusing if we do, by some miracle, win! Corliss had a whale of a time with the paper from the office paper shredder:

At one point, she went suspiciously quiet and I found a piece of paper tucked inside her cheek. She was gumming away on it – amazing how they quickly learn to keep quiet when they’re up to no good! If this is what she’s like at 15 weeks, I dread to think what tricks she’ll have learned by 15 months! Much to our amusement, she’s desperately trying to roll over from back to front, usually accompanied by all manner of unladylike grunts of exertion…

If we hear anything about the competition (yeah right!), I’ll obviously blog about it here. Not getting my hopes up but… imagine the blogging from New York City…!

February Ramblings

littleowlski — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 23:07:03 +0000

As every new parent will know, the first few months with a new baby are fairly manic. Some days, it gets to about 5pm and I think, ‘What have I actually done today?’ Usually the answer involves feeding, nappy changing and playing.

Luckily, we seem to have quite a chilled out baby, which means we can still get out and about at the weekends. Our latest discovery is the bowling alley in Hadfield. Bear in mind that this is a tiny town, with one main street of a few shops, a couple of cafes, one bakery, a couple of takeaways, a post office and a butchers. Yet, we have a bowling alley.

We went there for Aidan’s birthday; when we arrived, there was our group and a seven year old’s birthday party…

Aidan’s been upping the amount of West German pottery he’s been listing each week.

It’s great fun watching it end each week! The latest pots are all from boxes we have still not unwrapped from last year’s Germany trips, so it’s exciting to open them up. The quality of the pottery seems to be improving with each box. My only complaint is the amount of parcels I now have to carry to the post office each week… How old will Corliss need to be before she can carry one or two?!

Next month, my aim is to get more listed myself on eBay; to not buy as much from eBay; go for a walk every other day, whatever the weather; write a few more blogs… We’ve got lots of new and interesting pieces of pottery and glass about the house. I WILL find the time to photograph them and share the pictures.

Back into the Selling Swing of Things

littleowlski — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 14:13:29 +0000

You know, I made a promise to myself when I wrote my last post that I would really try to write a blog once a week. Once a week, I thought to myself, that’s more than do-able. It turns out that’s not really the case when you have a very active baby who rarely naps during the daytime…

However, I have managed (with the help of Aidan and his wonderful photography skills) to get some items listed on eBay. They were bought a few weeks ago: perusing chazzers is something that we can still do with a baby in tow.

Caithness Glass Vase

‘JAJ’ Pyrex Cups

Vintage Glasses

Baret Ware Vintage Biscuit Tin

Serpentine Dish Souvenir

The pictures of the Serpentine dish are my favourite. The seagull reminds me of this video by Metronomy:

Aidan and I celebrated our ten year anniversary last Saturday (ten years!!!) and he got me a digital radio to match our Cambridge Audio stack. Unfortunately, it was too late to listen to the BBC 6 Music Greatest 100 rundown on it, but it’s barely been turned off since. Most afternoons, Corliss and I have a dance around the living room to whatever either Radcliffe and Maconie or Steve Lamacq are playing. Great fun! If we’re not dancing, we’re playing, reading, cuddling or just laughing at each other:

Getting her started on the books already!

She manages about three minutes before she starts to whinge – it’s about the length of one of the stories!

Aidan has been continuing with the West German Pottery selling since early January. In fact, these are what he has ending this evening:

West German Pottery ending tonight!

If you click the pictures, it should take you to the eBay listings for the relevant items.

Tonight, we’re having Rachel round as it’s her birthday today. Happy birthday, Rachel! This is the lady in question:

It’s the lady to the left…

I’ve given up all hope of finishing one of her presents for this evening… and the other one hasn’t arrived yet! So, we’d better hope I can get some tea on the table at least!

Until next week*…

*By week, I mean month and most likely the month after that. Shall we say… May time?

Hello 2013, Goodbye 2012

littleowlski — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 10:03:36 +0000

It’s been so long, I almost feel the need to reintroduce myself. Hello, my name is Emma and this is my blog. Here I share pictures of my passion for various mid century ephemera and some tit-bits about my life… will that do?

It’s safe to say that 2012 was a big year. Not just for me, but for the nation as a whole. Obviously, I don’t need to rehash what has been written (to a finer standard!) elsewhere about the Jub-Olympics. On a personal level, 2012 has been my favourite year to date, and not just because I was finally introduced to the joys of Rhythmic Gymnastics… Here’s some of the highlights that happened last year:

In February, Aidan and I finally bought a bigger, better house and renovated it.
I gave birth to our beautiful dandelion of a baby, Corliss, in November. Looking like the ’80s love child of Pat Sharp and Jon Bon Jovi, she has a penchant for retro knit wear and loud music.
We attended six weddings, including that of my sister, Kirsty, and her fab fella, Stan, in December. All six of these weddings were sober (for me!) affairs. Three of them were attended with a baby in tow…
Aidan’s brother and his girlfriend welcomed their baby girl, Elwen, in May.
With friends, we went to watch the Olympic road race at Box Hill. Despite spending most of the day itself hiding from the sunshine on a picnic blanket underneath a tree, I thoroughly enjoyed popping out like some kind of pregnant Jill-in-the-Box to cheer on the cyclists.

I hope all of my readers have enjoyed my ramblings over the year and that 2013 turns out to be an equally as exciting year for all of you.

Baby Owl Ski

littleowlski — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 01:01:16 +0000

Baby Owl Ski has arrived! Baby Corliss arrived this week, a huge baby girl weighing in at 9lbs 5oz. We’re all doing well – the Potsandpots eBay empire has even continued to trade and Corliss has had her first trip to the post office already. It may be some time before I get back into regular posting so bye for now!

Vintage Halloween Adverts

littleowlski — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 09:39:25 +0000

It’s that time of year again… cold, dark nights; clocks are turned back (this coming Sunday!); blustery days… Halloween and Bonfire Night are just around the corner. This year we’re having a Halloween party and have asked people to dress up. Aidan and I have got some pretty snazzy costumes to wear – although, as I’m typing this, mine isn’t exactly finished… or started… To get some ideas for the food and drinks, I decided to look up vintage Halloween adverts. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I wasn’t disappointed. Here are some of my favourites, gathered together in one place. Thanks to anyone I’ve nabbed them off!

Brach’s Halloween Candies Advert

1950s Pepsi Halloween Advert

Reddiwip 1950s Halloween Advert

Vintage Halloween Sweets Advert

Vintage Griffin Boot Polish Halloween Pinup advert

Vintage Curtiss Sweets Halloween Advert

1950s Milky Way Bar Halloween Advert

Blatz Beer Halloween Advert

Cracker Jack Halloween advert

Vintage Wrigley’s Gum Halloween Advert

Vintage Halloween Chewing Gum advert

I’m not sure I’d want to answer the door to that last kid… My favourite advert out of these is the Pepsi one. Perhaps next year, I’ll be able to copy that costume rather than being restricted to ones of a rotund nature!

Day 3: Antiques Galore

littleowlski — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 21:16:00 +0000

There are lots of lovely little antiques places in Southwold. Today, we managed a walk up the high street and a look around a few of them. My challenge of just doing one picture a day has already gone out of the window, so just enjoy the pictures of old junk!

I resisted buying the Italian donkey as he had a chip. He was on display in the ‘Garden Room’ aka the shed outside. Tomorrow we’re off to Lowestoft, mainly so I can visit the wool shop there. We’ve been warned it’s not the most beautiful of towns in the area… We’ll see; Aidan and I quite like a rundown town.

Day 2: Settling In

littleowlski — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 20:24:14 +0000

After a relatively late arrival yesterday, we had a lazy morning over a cooked breakfast and a slow meander along the seafront. We took the ferry across to Walberswick… When I say ferry, I mean a man with a rowing boat. Once there, we walked to the cafe and just had a little look in the couple of shops. I managed to forget to charge my phone up so no picturesque images of Walberswick I’m afraid. Instead, this is of inside our cottage. The jumper is Aidan’s dad’s, knitted by Aidan’s mum decades ago. There are lots of keen knitters here this week, all far more accomplished than me! The cottage is beautiful, albeit far too warm for me! And we’ve managed to get all of my five month old niece’s reusable marshes stuck in the washing machine. Fingers crossed we get those out soon! The handy man who came today had a hangover so said he couldn’t fix it today…

Day 1: Elsecar Heritage Centre

littleowlski — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 16:55:30 +0000

We didn’t set off until this afternoon, after a very late night and mad morning of decorating. We have a finished study and spare bedroom now though. Our journey to Southwold has also been delayed by a stop off at Elsecar Heritage Centre.

Run by the same people as Bygone Times, we were a little late today to look around all of the traders in the courtyard. However, we did manage a good look around the main antiques centre.

There were quite a few pieces of West German pottery on the various stalls. Also, lots of fantastic mid century glass: Whitefriars, Sklo etc.

We even found a Scheurich 414 in a glaze I don’t have. But I’m not supposed to know about that until Christmas… I also bought a piece of purple Sklo glass to give to my mum for Christmas. We’re very good at buying presents in advance in this household!

After a quick wander round, we’re now back on the road. We’ve got about three hours to go, but after our epic journeys to Germany, it doesn’t feel like such a long trip. We’re very much looking forward to sitting in front of the log fire once we get there.

A Holiday Project: Southwold

littleowlski — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 18:59:35 +0000

Image found here

We’re off on holiday tomorrow, travelling for over five hours to Southwold in Suffolk. Our cottage doesn’t have any internet (shock, horror!) so I’ve concocted a holiday project to keep me entertained. Using my phone, I’ll find a picture of something each day to upload to my blog. I’ll try and find vintage/retro inspired shots; if not, then I’ll use the Retro Camera app and at least make it look old! This will of course depend on there being enough signal for me to be able to use the internet on my phone.

I’ve never been to Southwold before. Not being particularly mobile at the moment, I’m looking forward to lazy days in front of the log fire; sitting wrapped up on the beach; reading; knitting and eating far too much than is probably good for me.

See you when we get back!