One Lovely way to start the year

At the very end of last year (it still feels a little odd describing 2013 as "last year" but I'm sure that will soon fade), amid all the Christmas and New Year messages, I was delighted to receive the always-pleasant surprise of a One Lovely Blog Award from One More Stitch.

I can't say enough times how happy and genuinely thrilled I am that so many people actually read, enjoy and comment on this unassuming little blog.  When I started writing Eclectic Ephemera back in 2009, simply as a way to the fill the void left by my then-redundant job, I could scarcely have believed it would one day be entering its fifth year as a fully-fledged vintage blog - with a sponsored post under its belt and surrounded by so many like-minded online friends.  My very first post was entitled "Giant oaks from little acorns grow", which I'll admit was written with more than a little self-deprecating humour (fans of Laurel & Hardy may also have got the reference!) - as were my comments about it being "the best thing since sliced bread" or "dying a death within the month".  While sliced bread's place in history is still safe, things here are very much alive and the metaphorical oak tree is definitely well-established.  2014 could hardly have got off to a more promising start blog-wise and I hope this year will see Eclectic Ephemera evolve and grow even more.

So to this latest One Lovely Blog award, which I see has changed its appearance yet again.  The "rules" have stayed the same, though, but just in case anyone's still unfamiliar with them I have to thank the blogger who passed it on to me, reveal seven little-known facts about yours truly and pass on the award to seven blogs that I follow.

Many thanks indeed, then, to One More Stitch for passing on this award to me and for her kind words in re: my blog.  If you want to read about knitting pre-1900 and particularly in the 18th century I suggest you toddle on over to her blog.

Now, seven things about me.  Considering I was running low on "interesting" facts by the second one of these awards I'm really struggling now to think of seven more!  Like OMS I may come up short this time and I can guarantee we'll now be several feet below the bottom of the barrel.

source
Or a [Steampunk] submarine

• I am not a particularly strong swimmer and have never been able to swim underwater.  Couldn't tell you why; there wasn't any off-putting moment in my youth or a struggle to learn, I've just never been able to get my head around the concept.  No, it's not for me!  We spent millions of years as a species evolving to get out of the water so if we were meant to still swim about under it we'd have been given the means to do so.  Instead we've had to create our own devices and they're the only way you'd ever get me below the waves.
• I have always held an abiding dislike of wasps and balloons (this will count as two facts!).  I'm better now with both than I was as a child (the former in particular bordered on full-blown spheksophobia - there you are, I've just given you all a new word) but I will still move away from wasps or just flail about a bit, and balloons continue to leave me on edge (especially if they're in the hands - or mouth - of a baby!).  I'm no fun at parties or picnics, I can tell you!
• I'm not particularly fond of loud noises in general, as it happens (hence my anti-balloon stance). 

  

  Not in my house

  Crockery banging together, doors slamming, shouting - that sort of thing really tries my nerves.  Not that I'm a nervous person by nature, but I value my peace and quiet and don't take kindly to noisy interruptions.  I do my best to be as quiet and soft as possible in my day-to-day routine and it annoys me when others maybe aren't quite so considerate.  Sometimes I just like to sit quietly and listen to the silence around me (even more of a treat if I'm out and about and find there's a sudden quiet moment).  Doubtless this is a trait inherited from my parents - mother's side all have pin-sharp hearing while father's lot were peaceful - you never heard him even raise his voice and I'm the same, if I shout it sounds unnatural to me and makes me feel quite rotten.
• Thanks to a recently-renewed investigation into my family history I have been able to confirm an old family legend that held an ancestor of mine from Limerick, Ireland, plied the streets of the London as a blind whistler.  Lo and behold in the 1901 and 1911 census he is listed as clear as day - "street musician and whistler (blind)"!  The story further has it that he was "known to Queen Victoria"!  That's still unconfirmed, but as the first part is true, who knows...?



© IWM (A 9987)
Granddad's primary ship HMS Agamemnon,
pictured at the Kyle of Lochalsh, Scotland

• My late grandfather served in the Royal Navy during WW2 as a leading telegraphist - meaning he sent and received [coded] messages in Morse Code, a language that never left him.  He was for the majority of the war on minelayers in the Nothern Barrage, around the North Atlantic, the North and Norwegian Seas.  His stories, some of which I have written down, would doubtless make for interesting reading and I hope one day to have the opportunity to look up his war record.



Gathering dust...

• I think I may have mentioned this before (!) but my favourite board game is most definitely Monopoly.  Unfortunately outside of computer versions I haven't played it for years now because none of my friends and family like playing it.  "Boring and long-winded" they call it - the blimmin' cheek!  Will I ever find anyone willing to give me a game I wonder?

The seven bloggers I have chosen to pass this award on to all have equally splendid, well-deserving sites, such that I'm surprised I haven't already nominated them before.  They are:

Ruby Armoire
A Vintage Nerd
Vintage Follies
Mid Century Girl
Little Miss Bamboo
stories read aloud
We'll Meet Again

As always I know these things aren't everyone's cup of tea and anyone is perfectly entitled to do anything or nothing with this award - whatever they see fit.

Thanks once again to One More Stitch for nominating me, thanks to everyone for making it to the end of this post and congrats to the latest seven winners of the One Lovely Blog Award!

Another One! (Lovely Blog Award)

Yesterday proved cause for a double bloggy celebration - not only did I hit 150 followers but the charming Anna of the blog Miss Beatrix kindly gave me a One Lovely Blog award.  Thank you, Anna, I'm flattered!

Hello too to all my followers old and new - I hope you're all still enjoying my vintage ramblings.  Now, I'm fully aware that fifty followers ago I promised a giveaway.  I've been a naughtily remiss blogger on that account, but the good news is that I definitely do have something planned for very soon.  The prizes are all set, I have a box in which to send them, so watch this space!

Back to the award, and the same caveats remain for accepting it (although the design seems to have changed since Jennie from It's A Charmed Life munificently gave it back in 2010, unless it's a different "One Lovely Blog" award - "Another Lovely Blog", "One More Lovely Blog", or "Two Lovely Blogs" perhaps? - just joshing, I'm honoured to receive it twice!).

First I of course have to thank the giver and link back to their blog (see first paragraph).  I then have to nominate fifteen other worthy blogs (something that isn't hard) and tell you all seven things about myself (which is!).

Thanks to my prolific use of the "Follow" function in the seven months since my last award, I have many more fine and noteworthy blogs on my list (and more importantly, ones that haven't received this award recently but which truly deserve it).  Here they are (in no particular order, beyond alphabetical!):

1. A Harem Of Peacocks
2. Advantage In Vintage 
3. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes 
4. HATTATT 
5. Joyness Sparkles 
6. Lady Jardin - Vintage Views of the South Coast 
7. La Pépée de Paris 
8. Lil Vintage Me 
9. Love Letter from London 
10. Old Fashioned Susie
11. Ravishing Retro 
12. The Diary of Roxie Roulette 
13. The Lothians 
14. Vintage Secret 
15. Wartime Housewife

Now the hard part - seven facts* about me that I haven't told you before!  I have to admit to pinching some ideas from other nominees who have come before me for this time.  Here goes...

• My favourite blend of tea is Assam.  It has just the right mix of tannins, flavour and strength and makes the perfect cup of char.  I can go for Ceylon sometimes as well, although I tend to find that a bit weaker.  Currently my Assam comes from a certain orange-coloured supermarket but Twinings, Whittards and others have been known to be in my cupboard!
• I've been drinking tea since I was about 6 months old, when I suddenly went off milk (in all forms) and juices.  Following the doctor's advice to "try him on anything, he has to drink something", a warm and milky cup of tea was proffered and the rest, as they say, is history.

Mmmm, tea! ;-P  Check out that cottage suite - nice, huh?

• My favourite dessert (and cake) is cheesecake.  Strawberry for preference, although most varieties are appreciated (not so keen on chocolate/toffee, though).  It takes some not inconsiderable restraint to stop myself eating a whole strawberry cheesecake in one sitting.  Yum!

source

• I hate self-adhesive stamps.  On a personal level they make me feel like a child playing with stickers instead of a link in the chain of a traditional and time-honoured postal system.  As a philatelist they annoy me because they're the very devil to remove from paper - even prolonged soaking in warm water is not always effective and sometimes leaves a lumpen mess where the glue has remained and dried.  I've managed to overcome the former objection although not without difficulty.  Almost all British stamps are self-adhesive now due to "overwhelming support in public consultations".  It wouldn't have been quite so overwhelming if they'd asked me, I can tell you!  Sometimes I think these "public consultations" exist only in the mind of the companies who quote them, or are at the very least skewed to favour the preferred outcome (I should know, I used to work in market research!).  After much investigation the only stamps I can find that are still gummed are the Country Definitives, which bear the various symbols of each nation of the United Kingdom.  Over time I have stocked up on sheets of these definitives (the 2nd Class English three lions passant, for preference) until I have now got nearly 300 of them, setting me up for the foreseeable future (and avoiding the Royal Mail's recent extortionate price rise, ha ha!).

source

•  My favourite board game is Monopoly, but I'm alone in my liking of it, so I almost never get to play it.   I have to make do with Monopoly Deluxe CD-ROM and play against a computer, while hoping to find someone to play my Nostalgia Edition with.  Another of my favourite traditional games that I picked up from a charity shop many years ago is the card game British Towns.  Great fun, and at least the family enjoy it too so I get more of a chance to play it!

source

• My first word was nothing so pedestrian as "cat", "dog" or "car".  No, the very first word I ever said was "butterfly" (or to be precise "utterfly", as apparently I didn't quite make the "b")!  What a bright kid - where did it all go wrong, eh?

• Another of the most highly prized books in my library is a tome entitled Power and Speed: the story of the internal combustion engine on land, at sea and in the air, a 1938 first edition detailing all the latest advancements in engineering in all the disciplines mentioned and with lots of lovey fold-out cutaway drawings of 1930s cars, aeroplanes and boats (including some record-breakers) as seen in magazines of the day such as The Motor and The Aeroplane.  It even has contributions from the likes of Sir Malcolm Campbell and Prince Chula of Siam.  A beautiful book (despite 74 years of age and wear) that I am proud to own. 
  
  
  
   

Well, there we have it again.  Thanks again to Anna for the award, and I hope you've found at least some of this post interesting(!).  Don't forget to keep your eyes peeled for the forthcoming One Hundred and Fifty Followers Giveaway, in the meantime have a great weekend all!  Enjoy the sunshine now that it's here, and before it goes again!

* interestingness not guaranteed

Awards time!

The lovely Jenny over at The Life and Times of a Vintage Obsessive has very kindly bestowed upon me and my unassuming little blog the "One Lovely Blog" award! Such wonderful recognition; thank you! Coming just after this blog's first anniversary it makes the last twelve months seem even more worthwhile.


Now that I've got it, I must do the following:

1. Accept the award. Post it on your blog with the name of the person who awarded it along with a link to their blog.

2. Send it on to 15 other bloggers that you have recently discovered.

3. Contact those bloggers and let them know they've been chosen.

So, without further ado, having accepted the award I now pass it on to the following 15 bloggers. I have to be honest, this award seems to have been going around a fair bit lately and it was a bit of a job to find fifteen of the blogs I'm following that didn't already have it, but I managed it! Here they are (messages to follow):

Blighty Boutique

English Rose Vintage Style

Lady Ginger

Old Lady Chic

Red Legs In Soho

Retro Chick

Straight Talking Mama

Tea With The Vintage Baroness

The Affected Provincial

The Frog's Eyebrows

The Hunt for Vintage

The Swing Of Things

Tuppence Ha'penny
Velvet & Old Laces

Welcome To Deluxeville

Congratulations all, and thanks again to Jenny. Toodle-pip!