All the fun of the flea!

If you're a vintage lover (and if you're reading this blog, I'm guessing you just might be!) and you live not a million miles away from the midlands, you simply must check out Malvern Flea! It's basically vintage heaven. It's a huge market that happens once a month and is a fantastic blend of vintage, antiques and oddities.

What's great about it is the fact that it isn't a full on antiques fair, so the variety of stalls means that you might find pretty much anything, and that's the fun of it. And for the odd stall that is selling nothing better than old tat, there are about twenty more selling amazing treasures. Also, Great Malvern is such a pretty little town, so you can pop in there afterwards for spot of afternoon tea, and you have the perfect day out! You can find out more here.

The Haul

We didn't actually buy all that much, we tend to buy a mix of stuff for ourselves and for Minimum Mouse, today we picked up some beautiful leather bags, a cool 1970's flight bag, a gorgeous Welsh tapestry purse and some pretty hand mirrors. I also picked up a 1930's guidebook to Glasgow and the west of Scotland, which I'm planning to give to my dad as it covers his hometown, and then, perhaps inspired by this, we spent quite a while at an amazing stall jam packed with old postcards and found a few hometown treats for ourselves - two old postcards of Aberystwyth for me (one is from 1904!) and a couple of retro 60's Birmingham postcards for James. We're going to frame them and add them to our growing collection of kitsch pictures at home.

A Busy Weekend - Sheffield Vintage Fair and Lady Luck Rules OK Trade Secrets Talk

My goodness, we have been busy! Whenever we are not grafting away at Mouse HQ we are off out hunting for vintage goodies, and whenever we aren't doing that we seem to be off all over the place for weddings, reunions - you name it, we are at it this summer! I'm also toiling away on a new webstore that will hopefully be open in time for our new autumn/winter collection - exciting stuff, but ever so slightly knackering too!

Last weekend, we were off to a city I really like, Sheffield. It was time for the Sheffield Summer Vintage Fair, and we were extra excited as it was at a new venue, The Circle. The venue is a vast improvement, it was light, airy and right in the middle of town. We held our summer sale which meant that all of our clothing was priced at the amazingly cheap price of £5 each, or 3 for £12! Naturally, we weren't the only people who were excited by this and there were lots of people leaving the fair with Minimum Mouse bags in hand!

Our neighbours on the day were SpankT Vintage and Gracie Airs, who were selling amazing greetings cards which featured vintage pulp fiction covers. A great day was had by all, and we can't wait until our next trip to Sheffield!

Another day, another dollar, and I was off to the Custard Factory on Sunday afternoon for Lady Luck Rules OK's Trade Secrets talk, hosted by the founder of the brand, Leona Baker. The event was held at the COW Shop, a place that I had heard of before but never had the pleasure of visiting. COW, which stands for Creative Open Workshops, is a very exciting project which runs arts and crafts events and workshops. They have a regualar handmade market which is soon to move to The Bullring, which is very exciting. Having a look through their programme of upcoming workshops I wanted to do them all - maxi dress making, fabric necklace making, soy candle making...and all with tea and cake! Check them out to feed that crafty craving!

I had been so excited about this since it was announced, as I have been an LLROK fan since around 2005 - I remember going on to James about this cool and quirky website that I'd found selling amazing kitsch jewellery that was totally up my street. Come Christmas, I was the proud new owner of a Blondie themed kilt pin from that very site (James has a good memory!). At that time I wasn't even vaguely thinking about starting a business, but I really admired what she was doing and loved the idea of making a living from being creative. A couple of years on, and I found myself starting up an eBay business with James, and realising that here was my opportunity to start getting creative and making some money from it. So, out came the jewellery pliers and jump rings, and I've never looked back.

Leona Baker's event was fabulously informative, yet fun too. The audience ranged from people who already ran creative businesses through to people who were only just starting to think about setting up a company, but it was pitched in a way that all levels could get a lot from it. She covered topics such as sourcing materials, getting help from organisations like The Prince's Trust, protecting intellectual property, trade shows, PR and marketing, production and employing staff, and charted the history of LLROK from the early days on a market stall in Portobello up to the very last collection and why she has decided to move on.

An extra treat was getting to make our own personalised russian doll necklace - the icing on the cake of such a great afternoon. I came away buzzing with new ideas - so watch this space!

Birmingham Vintage Fair, 12th June 2010

We always love doing events in Brum as it means we can have a bit of a lie in! Also, it seems that Birmingham folk have an insatiable appetite for vintage, which we are more than happy to cater for! So we were back at the Custard Factory on Saturday 12th June with a fantastic selection of summer delights - cute sun dresses, hawaiian shirts, denim hotpants and kitsch trinkets were the order of the day. It was the day of England's first match, so James Mouse showed his support in a 1982 England shirt, which attracted many compliments from vintage loving fellas.

We were next to the lovely Jill and Jim from Alfie Robot Retro, who sell amazing vintage homewares, as well as handmade coasters and placemats which feature images from 70's cookbooks (I have two on my coffee table, they rule!).

As usual, we scoffed our fill of cupcakes and had a good old rummage around the stalls. We met some lovely folk too, including a lady who was visiting from Northern Ireland and bought a one off reworked vintage necklace from us, and some regular customers who had popped along for a spot of shopping. All in all, a great day out!

Fairs Galore!

We've been busy little bees (or should that be mice?) this past week, attending two fabulous vintage events. The first was on Wednesday 3rd June, in St Paul's Square, Birmingham. It was a glorious day and St Paul's Square is a lovely spot to sun yourself for a few hours. The Nostalgic Love A Fayre was held in aid of the Alzheimer's Society, and took the theme of a traditional village fete, complete with coconut shy, hoopla and brass band! There was also a pretty ace fashion show, styled by Amy from Vintage Reflection. Here are some pictures from the day-

On Saturday we headed east to Nottingham, for the first vintage fair at the fabulously named Spanky Van Dyke's Eatery and Funhouse. It was a real scorcher of a day, but thankfully the heat and sunshine didn't keep the vintage hungry crowds from heading in to peruse our wares. Here are some pics-

We had a lovely time and sold out of many pieces - which means I am going to be busy replenishing our stocks in time for the Birmingham fair this coming Saturday. Hopefully see you there!

Sheffield Vintage Fair, May 15th 2010

We ventured up to Sheffield last weekend for yet another vintage fair, and had a lovely time. It was a beautiful sunny day, but thankfully people didn't mind ducking out of the sun for a few minutes to check out our wares! We were next to the fabulous Pop My Cherry, with their amazing range of patterned tights, and The Vintage Revolover, with a fantastic selection of clothing, and we had lots of fun. Thanks to everyone who came along and met us! Here are a few pictures from the day.

Vintage Fair & Fashion Show, Hennessey's Bar, Digbeth, 11th May 2010

We had a fantastic time at the vintage fair and fashion show last night. The event was organised by students from University College Birmingham in aid of Cancer Research UK. The event was a fun packed night, with The Lost Boys spinning motown, northern soul and reggae all night, delicious cakes from Sweet Disposition to keep us sweet and, of course, the hospitality of Hennessey's Bar (which is just a stone's throw from the Bullring.

We took up residence in the courtyard, along with Lemon Aide, The Old Wardrobe, Bow and Crossbones and Wooly Bears. There were some fantastic clothes, jewellery, toys and gifts and everybody seemed to really enjoy having a little browse and a drink!

The fashion show was the highlight of the evening, and our models did a fantastic job strutting their stuff! Here's a little bit of the action for your viewing pleasure...

Of course, the best bit is that the event raised over £500 for charity!

Manchester Vintage Fair, 17th April 2010

We had a lovely time at the Vintage Fair in Manchester this weekend, and met some lovely people. Here are a few pictures from the day...

A Christmas Bazaar at The White Horse, Harborne

Well, it has been mega busy here at Minimum Mouse HQ over the last few weeks, what with the Christmas rush (but hey, we aren't complaining!). Despite this, we managed to drag ourselves off to A Christmas Bazaar at the White Horse Pub, in Harborne, Birmingham on Monday. We were pleased to be invited to take part, especially when we saw how many other talented artists and craftspeople there were there. Here are a few shots of our little selection of jewellery-

I was exhibiting next to Jaggy from Citrus, a very talented beauty therapist with a lovely selection of wares. She even did my nails!
The nails were done using Minx, a new technique from the USA where a transfer is applied to your nails using a heat lamp. She had loads of designs to choose from, but I just adored the retro look of these flowers!
Here is some of the art that was on show, by Lewes Herriot and Shelli Graham (who organised the event).
And some very cool jewellery by Ruth Herriot.
Here is the event in full swing (I'm sitting by my jewellery), come the evening it got very busy with lots of people enjoying the free mulled wine and mince pies!


All in all, a fun day out. Now we are back to the grindstone for another week, and then we'll get our well deserved Christmas break!