Thompson Family-Life

Home Tour: Steven & Dawn's Home in Hucknall, England

 I am so beside myself thrilled to share Steven and Dawn's home with you. I stumbled onto photos of their home while clicking around Flickr (sorry, Pinterest, I still love you Flickr) and I definitely had one of those "is this for real?" moments.. like HOW can someone have such a home as this? My dream home. Beautifully composed vignettes of some of the most amazing collections of vintage kitsch I've ever seen. Totally covetous. 

I was so excited when they agreed to let me feature their home and answer some questions! So here we go!

Where are you located and how long have you lived there?

We live in a small town called Hucknall in Nottingham, the home of Robin Hood, and have lived here all of our lives but we have lived in this house for nearly 18 months.

What kind of home do you live in?

We live in a Edwardian town house built in 1907.

Where do you shop for your vintage finds ? Online? Locally? Thrifts?

Mainly ebay, Charity shops and car boots. (Ok, I had to look up "car boot" for myself and any other non-English readers out there! Car Boot is basically like a big Garage Sale where people sell their goods out of the trunks of their cars. You're welcome. ; )

For how long have you been collecting your vintage finds?

We've been collecting since 1999, so about 12 years. It started with a Mathos lava lamp.

What are your favorite decades?

We like 1950's & 60's and some of the 70's.

Do you have an absolute favorite find? or is it too hard to pick?

Mine is a J.H. Lynch print entitled Rose and Dawn's is a 1950's pantry that was left in a house her brother brought.







 What are your favorite items to look for (i.e. your favorite collection)

Vintage Bambi's, fawns and big eyed prints (you can see their Big Eye Art collections here: 1,2,3,4)

What is your profession?

I work in the fashion industry as a Pattern Cutter and Dawn is an Embroidery Designer.

Please tell me more about J.H. Lynch, as I'm not familiar with him, but I see that you have quite the collection. His work is fabulous!

(from Wikipedia) Joseph Henry Lynch was a British artist, better known under his signature J.H. Lynch. His mass reproduced paintings of sultry women, especially Tina (1964) make him one of the protagonists of Mass Market Art. Nymph, Autumn Leaves and Woodland Goddess are some of his best known works, some of which are shown in the movie A Clockwork Orange by Stanley Kubrick.

From Clockwork Orange: source
 

Does your love of vintage carry over to what you listen to, music-wise? If so, please share any musicians/bands that you like!

We do like a lot of 60's music like Dusty springfield, Scott Walker and Sandy Shaw, but we also like a lot of 80's camp HI NRG disco through to synth pop and italo disco.





 

photos: Dusty Springfield, Scott Walker and Sandie Shaw (with Rita Pavone and Marianne Faithful)

Please explain more about "Kitchen Sink Dramas" as I'm not familiar with those either. They came out of the UK 60's, correct?

It was a cultral british movement that came out of the 1950's and 60's and was mainly based around working class northern people films such as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Stillitoe and A Taste of Honey and A Kind of Loving. 

Are there any movies from these eras that you love that you can share with us?

Apart from the above mentioned we also like Sweet Charity (Bob Fosse) Loneliness of the Long Distant Runner, Billy Liar and also not really a film but Bewitched and I Dream of Jeanie.

Can you share links to any inspiring photos or things that are on your wishlist? Or any vintage finds that you have yet to uncover or get your hand's on?

Flickr is great for inspiration, you meet such great people.

The shop Caravan Style for the Toadstool and Bambi Lamps and Pedlars featuring several classic retro items.

We'd love to get our hands on a ship shaped cocktail bar and an original english rose kitchen.

source

 When did your love of vintage kitsch begin? Were you influenced at all by the decor in your childhood home? Or did your inspiration come later?

We both grew up with parents who didn't throw things away so we were surrounded with 1960s items as children like sideboards, spanish dolls and coloured glass which now have been passed on to us and the love has grown stronger and stronger.








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Thank-you Dawn and Steven for sharing your home and interests with us! I for one have been introduced to so many new things, movies, music and I'm particularly in love with the J.H. Lynch paintings and would love to find out more about this painting and the artist - I have a crush on the colors and her blue skin! This painting also sparked a new obsession with the artist Tretchikoff who painted similar blue-skinned portraits (and I'm thinking was probably the originator of that style.) Portraits are one of my most favorite items to use in decor (there's something about the human face that instantly adds warmth to a room) and I love the way you have utilized portraits throughout your home.

Be sure to stay in touch with Steven and Dawn through their inspiring Flickr stream and Blog.

We Love the Circus

vintage images/cards: 1, 2, 3

blythe images: 1, 2

We loved the Circus. We went last weekend and it really was amazing. I remember going as a child when we lived in New Jersey. I think Ethan and I were just as in awe as the boys. We went when Cooper was two and we can tell they've really pulled out all the stops since then.

Thanks for all of your lovely comments lately and for stopping by! We are still knee deep in tonsil/adenoid surgery recovery-mode this week. And I think we're ALL eating copious amounts of ice cream and popsicles. ; )

Most of my time lately has been spent giving this little man some TLC and just dealing with some major life-change-stuff like looking at new schools for Cooper (we're being redistricted probably), looking at the possibility of a private school (never thought we'd go down that road!).. so, so many possibilities. Things haven't changed for us in a good 12 years! So we're a bit in shock right now.. with so many things up in the air (will we move! will we stay! etc!) it's made for some stressful times around this household.. but change is good at shaking things up, and we need a lesson in change. It's been too long.

It's going to be a very interesting year.

Other than that, I'm really buckling down on lots of projects when I'm not taking care of Cooper. It feels good to refocus on so many projects that have been in the works, but just need completion. I will still be around on this blog, but maybe not so much elsewhere online (I'm talking to you Twitter). I can tell when I need to refocus and not be so distracted by certain things! I will still keep you updated on just my general goings-on on Twitter though, so don't count me out there! : ) I post random sale codes just for Twitter folk so you don't want to miss those. 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend! We're enjoying some lovely Spring-y weather here that I hope continues!

I have a new kit coming out soon and should be putting the finishing touches on that Custom Printable Stationary for kiddos this weekend/next week.

Vintage Love: Thrifted Edition

Vintage Love: Holiday Fair edition

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15

Today I want to celebrate the super kitsch-tastic and colorful items that Holiday Fair, Inc. out of NYC offered in the 60's (and 70's?), produced in Japan (of course). You might recall this post of mine from December, geeking out over the amazing neon colors in Japan-made vintage items like these from the 60's/70's. They are my absolutely *favorite* colors right now, and I honestly cannot get enough of them. One of the reasons I put this together was so I wouldn't buy every single darn one of them. So this is my virtual way of "claiming" them but also enabling you. ; )

The chalkware banks are something that I would looooove to start collecting. But they aren't exactly cheap on ebay and etsy, so it adds up (with shipping, etc.). So I will withold from breaking the bank and hope upon hope that I will stumble onto some of these gems at the thrifts and antique malls. I am not entirely innocent though, as I have claimed a couple of the above as well as this lady below. ; ) (sshhh)

I especially love the organizational items that I'm sure adorned the desks of young girls across the country in the 60's. Like this desk organizer and the bookends above.

It's funny, because I wasn't exactly a girly-girl growing up, but I think I'm making up for that ten-fold as an adult. I eat this stuff up right now. : )

In unrelated news.. :

1. Cooper's tonsil/adenoid surgery went great! He could use your thoughts during his recovery!

2. Turns out that Campbell might possibly have swollen adenoids as well. I knew it. Mother's instinct. When you have a boy that never breathes through his nose and sounds like he's talking through his nose, something's up. Not to mention, chronically sick as well. I wouldn't be surprised if adenoid surgery is in his near future as well.

3. Remember Cooper's Letter-Writing Kit I made him for Christmas? I've been working on similar designs for custom printable stationary that YOUR letter-writing-kiddo can use, too! Can't wait to share when they're done. I'm thinking they'll be ready for release in a week or two. Will also be designing some polymer stamps for later release.

4. I have the most amazing Home Tour coming soon. A home I'm fairly positive you haven't seen before (hoping). I'm way too giddily excited about it. Vintage kitsch lovers tune in. : ) 

 

Sponsor Feature: Sue May Ardila of See Sue Stitch

I want to welcome new sponsor Sue May Ardila of See Sue Stitch this month! She makes the most amazingly cute and well-crafted things including one-of-a-kind vintage inspired rag dolls (if I had a little girl, I would be adding one of these to her room decor without a doubt!), crazy cute crocheted bear coffee/tea cozies, crocheted pouches adorned with pretty fabric bows and more! Her dolls really blow me away with all of the details and hard work she so obviously puts into these. (And her prices are kind of amazing.)

Be sure to check out her super-cute DIY Repurposed Jars Tutorial to hold all of those miscellaneous supplies in your craft room. SO cute!

Find out more about Sue on her blog, tumblr and twitter, and don't forget her adorable shop!

If you missed it, be sure to check out the Sponsor Feature I posted on Friday all about Wild Olive. She has a free embroidery pattern for you!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. We had a basketball game (for Cooper), visited the Circus (photos to come) and went to a rock-climbing birthday party. It was a busy weekend. Now we're getting ready for Coop's surgery tomorrow. Wish him luck!