Larkin & Catcher

Another retro doll in the store (we just love those old dolls — this one looks earlier but we think it is from the 1960’s).

Retro Doll

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A lovely little vintage book in store: When We were Very Young by A.A. Milne.

I love this sweet little book  — if I had a child I would keep this book on a shelf in the nursery and sometimes take it out for bedtime stories (mine). It would make me happy, just knowing it was there. It is not perfect, but I like imperfect things.

We’ve now got some original 1940’s sheet music in store. I love them for the illustrations alone and they’re nice to have around. They just make me feel happy, somehow.

Moonlight Sheet Music

 High Time Vintage Sheet Music  

As we promised a while back — and had been planning all along — Larkin & Catcher have now introduced vintage items into the store. We’re at the early stages yet and won’t get into the full swing of things for some time yet but keep your eyes on us for some weird and wonderful curiosities and hard-to-find oddities.

 Vintage ‘Waa’ Doll

Useful post from Madison at Vintage Blue on dating vintage clothing.

La Meow — a great little vintage store on Etsy. There’s some lovely and unusual pieces there, including this cute dress:

And also look out for some elegant 1930’s gowns — it’s not too often you see those selling for such reasonable prices. There’s also an Edwardian top in the store right now that I’d have in a heartbeat — if I thought I could squeeze it on without busting the seams…

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Natalie Meza’s seriously freaky (but in a good way) Gloomy Goods website sells a variety of dark wares, including handmade goods, hats and accessories, some pretty strange ephemera and other ‘odd finds’.

   The Fan Dancer Lili Damila ($13) brooch is one from a range of one-of-a-kind, handcrafted designs and the Angel Pen (unfortunately now sold — or I’d be having it) is an example of the kind of quirky objects that can be found on the site.

Larkin & Catcher Update

  There’s been some more bags added to the boutique, including this gorgeous Ruby Gloom Heartbeat shoulder bag.

   The Flapper Style Doll (£32) and the Vintage Composition Dolls Head (£12) are from Niki Fretwell at Nostalgia at the Stonehouse. The items available on Niki’s site include handgrafted designs made from vintage textiles and also pre-loved retro finds, including housewears, a small selection of vintage sewing and knitting patterns and some really unusual 1940’s and 1950’s-style hats.

   If you’re interested in vintage style have a look at the Miss Vintage website. There’s comprehensive coverage of all things related to the fashion and beauty of 20th century up the 1970’s — with a special emphasis on the legendary icons from the Golden Days of Hollywood. There’s a great ‘how-to’ section on buying vintage clothes,  book reviews of movie star biographies, and pages which explore vintage style trends from the 1900’s through to the 1970’s. Have a look at the Hollywood Makeovers page, which features before and after shots of some of the old Hollywood greats – a good reminder that it’s not all about being born beautiful (though I do think Monroe had a bit of a head-start, beauty-wise)

   It’s taken me a while to work Petite Paris out and I’m still not there yet. All I know is that it takes all my self-control not to buy out their entire stock. See that gorgeous little ‘Elf’ ring pictured on the left? Well, I had it in my shopping cart and then I did something I never do – I put it back! This is because I’m supposed to be on a strict economy-drive, as I’m about to fork out a small fortune on furniture (there’s a serious storage shortage going on here at the moment). So I’m trying not to buy anything which is not absolutely essential just now but I can’t see that lasting too long.

The reason I was confused is that the site seems to be partly in Japanese and the prices are in Yen and Euros – it took me a while to gather that the site is run by someone from Japan, who is now based in Paris. The shop is full of the kind of quirky products that I so love and includes fashion accessories, fabrics, household goods and stationery – many of which are handmade. There are also some lovely vintage products, including that charming little tricycle. I’ll probably have to double-check this – but as far as I can see, it appears that they do ship internationally. Which is a good thing, if I go back for that ring…

Update: I’ve been informed that Petite Paris does ship worldwide with FedEx!

  I’m a big reader of blogs and I’d rate the Miss Doxie blog as one of my all time favourites — great writing, really funny and sweetly self-deprecating. The only annoying thing about Miss Doxie is that she’s so damn talented – not only does she hold down a job as an attorney but she’s also a gifted artist. The good news is that you can now buy her work at Shop Doxie and the very good news is that she’s got a sale on just now.

There’s a variety of cute little pieces, including jewellery, button sets and magnets and also paper goods and original artwork. The image on the left is one of her ‘stuffed Doxies’ (sweet little dachshund softies) – Miss Doxie has a bit of a soft-spot for Dachshunds and 10% of all the sales from her site go to the Dachshund Rescue of North America.

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