Vintage Adventures and Other Tales of Margate.

One of my favouritest favourite things to do, is wander around car boot sales and peruse junk and vintage shops. I could do it all day and forever, treasure hunting my way to a house full of wonderful things. So when I moved to London a year ago, I was very excited to have such easy access to wonderful vintage shops. (All time favourites: Old Spitalfields market on a Thursday, Rospo, and The Shop, Vintage Heaven).

However, these wonderful things come at a price, a very fair price might I add, for such marvellous shops, but not the prices that I long to discover again from squirrelling in charity shops and car boot fairs and house clearance shops. London, I'm afraid in my opinion, you fail in this department.

Thus, the idea was born, to take a week off work, borrow a car, and scour the South for vintage treasures. I'm pretty sure we must have averaged fifteen shops a day...we were on a mission to kit our houses out with lovely things, at a very low cost. Lymington served us well, and Brockenhurst surprised us with Pineapple Retro, a fabulous charity shop in Milford on Sea, Highcliffe had many many charity shops and Pokesdown blew us away with an amazing number of vintage clothing shops.

The real surprise however, was our final trip to Margate. It had everything we could have ever dreamed of. Some of the very finest vintage shops I have ever come across at very reasonable prices. Incredibly low prices at the British Heart Foundation furniture shop, we were almost crying that we didn't have a van with us. There were so, so many great vintage/junk/antique shops but the best were Showtime Retro Furniture, Junk Deluxe, Hunkydory-24, and the very best charity shop EVER on Market Street in between Madam Popoff and 20th Century Frocks. I shall be revisiting Margate frequently just to visit these shops, they were that good.

I picked up some absolute steals that I shall cherish forever, filled my car boot to the brim of secondhand/vintage homewares and came back with change from £50. When most things are under £1, my money went a very long way. We finished our trip with an ice cream sundae at the art deco Morelli's Icecream Parlour and returned, very cramped back to London.

Hooray for other peoples things, and hooray for all the lovely shop owners who we chatted to and helped us along the way!

All Aboard!

Featuring vikings and pirates, this summer's Anorak magazine is a hearty beast. It's packed full of beautiful illustrations and fun activities as usual, and I even did a drawing to illustrate one of Essie Jain's lovely songs.

A lovely feature in Oh Comely.

This month Oh Comely magazine has arrived in its sixth edition, and I am lucky enough to have a lovely little interview in it. For the more curious and creative of us, the charming magazine boasts that it is to,

'Inspire people to be creative, talk to their neighbours and explore new things, rather than buy stuff or lose weight.'

With fantastic articles on how to make a cardboard camera, stunning photography and a lovely little visit to the the delicious couple from Hope and Greenwood, I think Oh Comely should be a definite feature on your coffee table.

Available from all of these places and most WH Smiths.

1940's Stationers for Secret Cinema February 2011

Back in February I was asked to set up a 1940's Stationers as part of the vintage market that was created for Secret Cinema's viewing of the Red Shoes at Tobacco Docks. Here is my little shop that I had for two weeks....

I have heard tales that SS April in the tunnels of underground Waterloo station was sublime. Book your tickets for a spectacular night of surprises here, and to read my full post on the wondrous event itself here.

Royal Letter Card for Souvenirs and the Suchlike.

Hooray! Finally after all the excitement of the Royal Wedding, I have created a piece of my own Royal memorabilia, vintage style.

Based on old fashioned 'souvenir cards' for our seaside holidays, it is a little illustrated booklet that you can write on the reverse and fold into its own envelope; a little piece of London to tell of your city adventures.

Available in my little shop, here.

A Very Royal Window Display.

I have created a jolly window installation for Beautiful Interiors in Walthamstow. It sells lovely vintage furniture as well as many a handmade treat from lots of London artists and designers. If you dont have your bunting for your Royal Wedding Street Party, this is where to get it.

A Trip to Amsterdam.

1953 Retro and Chic

Boekenmarkt

Someone's strange house full of dolls

The Darling Boutique and Cafe

Fairytale Gypsy Village

Ahhhh, Amsterdam, you were not what I expected. I thought I would see ladies of the night and 'lads on tour' and general red light hideousness. Yes, I did see all of the afore mentioned, but luckily they are confined to only a small area. The rest of Amsterdam is dream of beautiful cobbled streets with canals, lined with little boutiques and design stores and bizarre little shops. It was a delight.

Day one was spent wandering the Negen Straatjes (The Nine Streets), a grid of independent shops and bars. We stumbled across 'The Darling', a very sweet clothing boutique with a little upstairs cafe serving tea and cupcakes. The walls were adorned with teacup lampshades and hyacinths and beautiful vintage furniture.

We visited the Postzegelmarkt, a market for medals, coins and stamps, where I picked up many early stamps of the Queen. The streets nearby were lovely to explore, especially Rosmarijnsteeg which was full of antique book and stamp shops. We also made it to Antiekmarkt De Looier which was an indoor antiques market full of interesting bits. The Otherist was quite a sweet little shop full of curiosities, and Kitsch Kitchen made us smile with its garish colours and plastic tat.

After accidentally exploring a gypsy village, Day Two was spent wandering Waterlooplein Flea Market, in my opinion the best of the bunch and Boekenmarkt, a little alleyway of books, maps and prints. We found 1953, easily the best of the vintage shops were stumbled across and we feasted on sumptuous chocolates at Puccini Bomboni.

Other lovely activities worth a mention across the rest of the trip included the best hot chocolate at De tart van m'n tante, an outrageously camp cake shop which had a 'Kate and Will' cake exhibition followed by lots of relaxing in the Sarphatipark.

A marvellous trip.

Darling

1953

The Glasses Museum

So long, farewell, adieu....

Just a little note to let anyone curious know that I am off to far away places here and there for the next few weeks, please email hoorayfor (@) alicegabb.com for any desperate enquiries as I will be flitting back and forth to London.

Normal service will resume after Easter. I hope you all have a lovely break and are all as jolly as Elizabeth and Margaret up there. I'm so excited about the Royal Wedding!

Back at Broadway.

After too many projects and general kerfuffle and mischief, I am back at Broadway Market, every Saturday 9am-5pm. I still don't have a set stall so just to keep you on your toes, I move around weekly....here I am playing Market Trader.

If you still haven't visited Broadway, you are missing out sir, located between Regents Canal and London fields, it makes for a grand day out.

Dress sharp mind, these Hackney residents have a fine eye for fashion.

(Well....some more than others....)

See where it is here, and read what TimeOut have to say about Broadway here.

The House of Hackney Pop Up Tea Rooms.

Quick! Get up to Dalston and visit the showrooms of the beautiful House of Hackney. Only open until Sunday 3rd April, Castle Gibson's flaking walls have been taken over; upstairs hosting two floors of House of Hackney's magnificent collection homewares and textiles, and downstairs hosting Lily Vanilli's tearooms. With more mismatched floral crocks than you can shake a teaspoon at, for £10 you may dine for high tea, sampling three baked treats and drinking unlimited pots of tea. I sampled the flourless orange cake, chocolate brownie and a lavender meringue, and they were spectacular. I do feel I missed out not sampling the absinthe and mint chocolate chip ice cream though....

I was lucky enough to have a consultation with the guest doctor, adorned in a fine tweed waistcoat and bow tie, he held my hand for a few moments across the desk and asked me to close my eyes, he then rang a bell and typed away my diagnosis and prescription at his typewriter. The treatment for my problem is apparently 'presents' and 'a good time'.

It was a very surreal experience, but I liked it.

Have a peek at the flyer here.

Poisson sans boisson- c'est poison.

Melodies Graphiques

Deyrolle's Taxidermy Emporium

Brocanté

Angelina's

Tombees du Camion at the Marche aux Puces.

Café des Deux Moulins

Here are the best bits from my recent adventures in Paris. On the first day we swanned down the Rue de Rivoli and it's back streets visiting gorgeous chocolates from Josephine Vannier, lovely design items from Astier de Villatte and Colette, and then to Angelina's for a well deserved macaroon and apparently the best hot chocolate in Paris (a bold statement I thought). It certainly was the best I have tasted, and despite being fairly touristy you could not fail to enjoy the beautiful setting of the high ceilinged decadent tea room, and despite the stroppy Parisienne waitress, I loved it. Once feeling feverishly full, we went to hunt out Deyrolle's taxidermy exhibition, which was definitely the highlight of the trip. I have never been so disturbed and amazed...ever. I saw a polar bear, a grizzly bear penguins, a giraffe and all the other safari animals and many other beasts all proudly posing against the wood panelled walls and antique cabinets. A fabulous collection.

We also sniffed out the Rue du Pont Louis-Phillippe to visit the paper and stationery shops, Melodies Graphiques, being the finest. I had a lovely chat with the owner who helped me pick nibs and a practice book to practice my penmanship.

To finish the day off we dined at the Café des Deux Moulins to lounge about pretending to be in Amelie and drink lots of red wine. I was pleasantly surprised at how similar it still is to the film, although the Tabac has been removed...

The following days were more relaxed (mostly due to sore heads), a picnic at the Champs de Mars to pose with the Tour Eiffel and a fabulous wander down the Canal St Martin for more Amelie reenactments and to visit the marvellous Artazart, a Magma-esque design book shop (better, in my opinion) finished off with a stroll around the beautiful cemetery Pere Lachaise where I went to visit Edith Piaf's grave.

The final day featured a strut around the Marche aux Puces, which was filled with over 2000 antiques stalls- heaven- with more vintage textiles than I have ever seen. Sadly it was bitter sweet as the prices were sky high *weep*. To distract from this sad discovery we visited the endless parks and lakes of the Bois de Vincennes, and finished with more wandering around lovely Abbesses in Montmartre where we stayed. It's been a year since I last stayed there and now every other shop is a stylish boutique with the occasional vintage treat. I highly recommend.

A marvellous weekend away.

Paper Heaven.

February saw the arrival of the Ephemera Society bringing their finest paper collections to Bloomsbury. Now, I make it my business to spend many an hour seeking out these 'ephemera' stuffs, but blimey do these chaps know their stuff. I spent many a shilling on beautifully typeset penmanship posters and advertising from the 1880's to 1930's, and picked up a hearty selection of books about the history of letter writing, paper folding and the type point system. The most lovely thing about the event was that the stall holders just loved talking about paper and printing, I was there for hours chatting about my purchases...a magnificent outing.

I also found some little treats for my stall at Broadway, including some original Edwardian embossed notecards, come and have a look if you get as excited about old paper as I do.

Check here for the Ephemera Society's up and coming events all over the country.

The Royal Bears Take a Trip to Selfridges.

My tweed bears are now available to buy in Selfridges as part of the fabulous Supermarket Sarah installation in the Stationery department. What an exciting day.

Other delights featured on the wall include the truly wondrous Merrimaking hoods, that I will get round to buying one of these days. Tatty Devine also have some marvellous treats up there too, and the excellent flat pets by GARUDIO STUDIAGE.

The wall frequently changes, so go and have a peek.

Things What Are Royal.

I am designing some invites for a London Underground themed soiree, and I came across these whilst swooning over old transport posters.

I wish I could own these typefaces.

If you like these, the London Transport Museum is holding a talk on London Underground's poster campaign during the Second World War. Sadly I cannot make it....

Harrington & Squires.

One of my favourite shops in the Secret Cinema, was Harrington and Squire's printing shop. As well as selling their beautiful letterpressed stationery, they had set up a press so that you could hand print your own Secret Cinema souvenir ticket (beautifully typeset in Gill Sans).

Other shops that deserve a mention are the lovely Swell Vintage for jewellery, Bunnies Forever for boutique underwear and The Powder Room for a well styled vintage makeover.

Secret Cinema.

I don't know how to even begin to describe the intricacies of what happened at the last Secret Cinema event, I know I wont be able to cover half of the beauty and madness that took place, but I shall try to explain the best I can what I have been doing for the last month...

This time the film was the 1948 classic, The Red Shoes, and the location was the now derelict Tobacco Docks, a failed east London shopping centre. The Secret Cinema team transformed the lower level labyrinths of the venue into a 1940's Covent Garden, featuring a mixture of actual shops and shop installations, with amusement and fairground props in every spare corner. You were collected at Wapping tube station and marched in a huge procession to the venue where actors and musicians entertained the queue.

I was asked to design and set up a 1940's stationers in one of the abandoned shop spaces. The attention to detail was really outstanding, there was even a designer for the area behind my shop which was transformed to give the illusion that you had entered a dark, eerie backstage area.

When you had entertained yourself with the hustle and bustle of the market, and explored all the beautiful theatre inspired installations and spent all your money on all things 1940's, the upstairs maze of oversized glass rooms were transformed into rehearsal rooms, as if the first dress rehearsal from the ballet in the film was about to take place. Ballet lessons were held, set props needed painting, Lermontov's office was set up, all dragging you further and further into the dream/dillusion that you were actually involved in the production and that the year was actually 1948.

As everybody religiously followed the 1940's dress code, you were unaware of who were the actors, and who were the audience. Dancers pulled you onto raised stages and danced to the Charleston, workmen made you stand on a step ladder whilst holding window shutters on either side of your face and made you recite the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. A drunken policemen in a tutu skipped around blowing a whistle, meanwhile 'Act 2' is suddenly called and dancers rush past you in a frenzy. After you had watched a circus act perform miraculous stunts suspended from the roof rafters , the atmosphere changed and the crowds were encouraged to witness the final climax of the show, which saw almost every member of the audience dancing together in a bizarre frenzy whilst dancers in nude lycra suits and rather disturbing masks which resembled animal skulls put on their finest show.

Just when you thought that there couldn't possibly be any more, you remembered that you were there to watch a film and dashing gents ushered you to your seat.....

For seventeen nights I manned my stationery shop and got to play make believe every single evening. Thank you so much to the team, I was so excited to be part of the project, and sorry to the actors who tried to bring my dramatic side out of me; I'm afraid my impov skills leave a lot to be desired.

All in all, I think it's best if next time, you take a chance and you book those mystery tickets. You are guaranteed a night you will never forget....But remember, it wasn't me who told you alright?