The Beatrix Potter Toys and Designs Book

I was lucky enough to receive this book from my aunt last week; it's an ex-library book and someone had passed it onto her. Little did she know that it has been on my eBay watch list for quite some time!

What I find fascinating about books like this is knowing that Beatrix Potter herself was such a clever lady, that seeing the success of The Tale of Peter Rabbit it was her own idea to make merchandise to accompany it, and her other stories that came later. It's an interesting thought when you see Beatrix Potter themed goods wherever you go, and tut at the commercialisation of literature.

Beatrix and Benjamin.

Here is the first Peter that Beatrix made with her own fair hands. He was registered at the Patent Office in 1903.

So this book appeals to my crafty and Beatrix Potter-loving nature. It's quite dated now, having been published in 1992, but when I think about how much commercial fabrics - especially plush and velour - have improved in the last twenty years, I get excited about how much better these projects could look today than they do in these images!

So here are some of the projects in the book: 

Plush fur fabric is much nicer than this now

A typical nineties image. What amuses me is that while the girl in this photo is about the same age I was in 1992, I have a jumper and tights remarkably like hers today. And I often put puppet shows on for my dog. (I don't.) (I do.) I so want that Peter puppet on the left. 

Think of these in today's velour fabrics! Squidgy!

Anyone else have one of these cloth animals in a bag?
I had completely forgotten about mine until I saw this.
Probably another weird nineties thing.

I also had a dressing gown a bit like that, also blue, but with Noddy on it.
A disturbing thought now!

If you fancy a copy of this book so you can make your very own Beatrix Potter goodies copies still quite regularly wash up on eBay, and there are currently a number on Amazon Marketplace. 

Beatrix Potter merchandise, while always around, does seem to come in waves. As a child I remember it being everywhere, with seemingly every other nursery being done out with a Beatrix Potter frieze, Beatrix Potter baby toys, and Beatrix Potter christening gifts. So it's funny that I should receive this book now, while we seem to be at the peak of another wave of popularity. 

My own childhood Beatrix Potter mug.
I have a cheap copy too which I now use as my water pot for button painting.

Did you have Beatrix Potter items in your home when you were growing up? Or perhaps, like me, you have more now!

A Most Serendipitous Vintage Find

It was one of those strange weeks last week where all routine goes out of the window. I was lucky enough to benefit from a snow day on the Monday, and then my working days for the rest of the week were shuffled round, and so it was I found myself ambling round Chesterfield Flea Market on a Thursday.

Having arrived with my parents, and stopped off for a quick chinwag with Debs of Once Was... Beatrix and I soon wandered off on our own, noseying at stalls packed with vintage crockery, lace and linen, books and brass.

Bea pulled me over to one particular stall having cottoned on to the potential for fuss and attention from three male stallholders (such a flirt) and it was there I spotted this.

I could tell it was Beatrix Potter, but couldn't immediately recognise the scene. All I knew is that any picture by Ms. Potter depicting guinea pigs was meant to be mine. Anyway, at three pounds I took the curious framed print home, did some scouting and pootling about on the internet, and lo and behold, it turns out to be a picture of the scene from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, in which Bill the lizard is bundled down the White Rabbit's chimney, and where he is booted out again by a rather enlarged Alice. Potter seems to have added the guinea pigs herself, as they don't appear in the book.

I may have done a happy jig at this discovery, as it so happens that not only am I a huge fan of all things Alice and Beatrix Potter, but I have been known to impersonate Bill the lizard's terrible Cockney accent in the Disney film ("Why, guv'nor, I've cleaned more chimneys...") and when life throws situations at me that I can neither explain nor do anything about, you'll often hear me muttering, "Well, there goes Bill..." (I may also have a slight infatuation with the dodo - "No co-operation, no co-operation at all.")

A most serendipitous and interesting find; this one will be joining my new collection of pictures on my alcove wall. Once it's had a good clean and I've untaped the print to see if it has anything else to tell me, of course!

A Few Vintage Acquisitions

A few little treasures to show you today! Firstly, thanks to a tip off from Miss Imogen Smith, I have completed my collection of Beatrix Potter 1980s biscuit tins, nabbing the three above from eBay and adding them to the original, my Peter Rabbit tin...

...And the Tom Kitten one I fought very hard for at a car boot sale a few months ago.

These will be handy for storing all sorts of small craft bits. I'm still trying to retrieve the Tom Kitten one from Bea who is storing her spare collars in it! 

Secondly, I was lucky enough to be given some odds and ends of vintage crockery by my aunt, left over from my cousin's wedding in the summer. 

Hopefully I should be able to finish decorating my glass topped desk with these saucers, and will show you the results.

Finally, I added a few more Enid Blytons to my collection.

I'm hoping to get the chance to revisit my childhood and read one or two over the Christmas holidays! (I have so many plans for the Christmas holidays, I really must think I'm having about six months off. In my dreams, eh?)

Have a thrifty Wednesday (last Wednesday before Christmas, hurrah!),

The Fairy Caravan by Beatrix Potter

It's no wonder that I've been after a copy of The Fairy Caravan by Beatrix Potter for so long. Firstly, Beatrix Potter. Need I say more? Secondly, it's a tale about guinea pigs. Third, there is magic afoot in this book! 

Every copy I had come across on eBay had been £40 or more, so you can imagine how excited I was to bag this 1952 copy for £2.99, and such a beautiful copy it is too! 

A novel at 225 pages long, it was first published in 1929, making it one of Potter's later books. And this was because it was never intended to be published at all:

Through many changing seasons these tales have walked and talked with me. They were not meant for printing; I have left them in the homely idiom of our old north country speech. I send them on the insistence of friends beyond the sea.

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                               BEATRIX POTTER.

In the Land of Green Ginger there is a town called Marmalade, which is inhabited exclusively by guinea-pigs. They are of all colours, and of two sorts. The common, or garden, guinea-pigs are the most numerous. They have short hair, and they run errands and twitter. The guinea-pigs of the other variety are called Abyssinian Cavies. They have long hair and side whiskers, and they walk upon their toes. 

When an attempt by Tuppenny the common guinea pig to grow his hair using a mis-sold elixir goes horribly wrong, he runs away into the big wide world to join the circus, making new friends along the way.

The book is beautifully illustrated by the author, as you would expect, with a combination of watercolour and black and white ink drawings. The story is set in Potter's favourite landscape - the Lake District - like her other stories. It retains its original dialect, to the delight of her intended American audience, who loved her tales of the English countryside. 

The book is divided into chapters to form a whole novel, yet each chapter could almost stand alone as a single story in its own right. Fairies are littered throughout the book, and the animal kingdom operates as a society, just like in Potter's more famous tales. 

Despite being a very different format to her other tales, I'm so pleased I finally managed to own a copy of The Fairy Caravan because this is Potter as she was when she wrote The Tale of Peter Rabbit, writing for her friends and her own entertainment, and not necessarily for publication. 

Having been a life-long owner of guinea pigs myself I think she captures their sociable, brave - yet sometimes naive - personalities perfectly, and her love and respect for animals, as always, shines through. 

All this talk of guinea pig adventures inspired Alfie to go on one of his own. He was still back by teatime though, as guinea pigs always are. 

Do you have a favourite Beatrix Potter story? 

Enjoy your Monday!

A Beatrix Potter Collection

Beatrix Potter's stories have always played a quiet yet significant part in my life. I've always loved reading  The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tailor of Gloucester and The Tale of Mrs. Tiggywinkle, loved the life-like watercolour illustrations, and how each story was the perfect length to be read before bedtime.

My mum loves Beatrix Potter too, and although neither of us set out to collect Beatrix Potter items, she's ended up with quite a stash, and I find myself turning to the stories time and again for artistic inspiration, or escapism. They always make me want to leave my busy life behind and go on a country adventure.

These books were given to my mum by her grandparents when she was small.

My mum collects the Beswick Beatrix Potter figurines, though because they're highly sought after they've always been kept by my parents as investment pieces. Their number has swung between three and two hundred, according to demand at the time! Peter here is a limited edition, and is special because of his gold buttons.

My childhood Beatrix Potter treasury.

This is the only figure I own, and I chose her because I love the original illustration from my favourite of the tales, The Tailor of Gloucester.

These buttons have been hanging around my parents' house since the 1970s. I'd like to use them on a special  project, but the right one hasn't come along yet!

When I visited a friend's hometown in Wales I thought this edition of Mrs Tiggywinkle would made a quirky addition to my mum's library.

This picture hangs on the wall in my parents' dining room. It always makes me smile.

This cup was a gift to celebrate my birth.

I remember watching the television series at my grandparents' when I was little. After a day of scampering around the welsh beaches and woods they were such a tranquil way to end the day.

As well as admiring her stories, Beatrix Potter was a lady of many talents, and you can read my blog post about why I find her so inspiring here. Her furry namesake now wears her name on her ID tag with pride!

Miss Beatrix herself

Are you a fan of the Beatrix Potter stories?