Vintage Love: Fisher Price Hospital

In the run-up to Christmas the toy-industry marketing machine goes into overdrive. Just like any other parent, I've wrapped up lots of new toys for my little girl. But I thought I'd share one of my daughter's favourite toys. Something she plays with nearly everyday. And it's not new...far from it. It was mine when I was a little girl. It dates from the late 70s and was part of a collection created by Fisher Price.




I had quite a few pieces, including this hospital. My Mum has kept all of them and as you can see from the photos, they are still in fantastic condition. Fisher Price made some amazing toys in the 70s and 80s. They really fired-up my imagination up as a child and they are still doing the same today with my daughter. She will quite happily play in her room acting out countless scenarios with this hospital...people get trapped, babies get sick, someone gets stuck on a roof.



What's so lovely about the Fisher Price toys is the attention to detail. I think the X-ray machine is my favourite part. It's a simple concept, press down on the footplate and the "X-ray" sign turns into a rib-cage. I love it, it's got so many humorous little touches. The ambulance is great too and the working lift, operated by a handle on the side, is as popular with my daughter as it was with me!
Obviously, it makes me feel ancient that my childhood toys are now classed as "vintage"...but it also goes to show, good toys never go out of date...

If you'd like to see more retro goodies, head on over to my "Vintage Finds" board over on Pinterest...

Follow Pouch : blogging + craft's board My Vintage Finds on Pinterest.

Beachcombing in the sunshine

Once the weather turns a bit parky, it's all so easy to shut yourself indoors. Given half a chance, I could probably quite happily hibernate from November 1st through to, well, April 1st. But with an energetic four year old in the house and an in-built desire all Brits have to make the most of every drop of sunshine, we went for a walk on the beach on Saturday. We're really lucky to live so close to some lovely, untouched beaches, so it would be a travesty not to go down there when the sun makes an appearance!

Although we don't face out to sea, even in the Bristol Channel we get some great opportunities to do a bit of beach combing. In the past we've found all sorts of things from sea-bleached driftwood, crates, fishing nets, plastic floats right through to a US Army truck wheel.

Weston Bay has one one of the biggest tidal ranges in the world, in the Bay, the low tide mark is over a mile away from the seafront. So there's great scope for a bit of tideline rummaging, especially in the Winter when the tides are even higher and even more gubbins is bought up onto the beach.

On our beach combing excursion we found lots of strange pieces of wood, there was even a whole tree washed up on the beach. It's par for the course that my daughter has to crawl and climb all over the driftwood. Plus we had a 'strange stone hunt' and decorated the washed-up tree trunk with or finds.

I'm linking up with the Country Kids Linky (#countrykids) hosted by the Lovely Coombe Mill

Free UK Shipping until November 30th

I'm offering FREE SHIPPING to the United Kingdom from today until 30th November 2013!

A great opportunity to grab some Christmas presents...

I've also added two new products to my online shop.

First up are vintage trim selection packs. I've put together these selection pack as a little taster of the vintage trims I have on offer. Perfect for appliqué, collage, mixed-media artwork, scrapbooking and much, much more...

I've also added a selection pack on vintage fabric hearts. Perfect as stocking fillers, wedding favours, a christening gift or housewarming present.

You will receive four lavender hearts and you can either let me choose a random selection of colours, or you can pick your own. More details here.

Half Term Fun!

I've been having a bit of an enforced blogging break due to the fact my iMac is poorly. My Mum has kindly leant me her laptop, so I've decided to do a half-term round-up blog post now that I have a computer to work on...

This half term we have:

Celebrated my daughter's 4th birthday with a bouncy castle, lots of fun food and a piñata

Decorated cardboard masks with felt tips & stickers

Walked in the local woods with our friends...sightings of fairies have not been confirmed or denied...

Visited Chew Valley Farm on a beautiful sunny day and fed the donkeys, goats, ducks & chickens

Painted a tea set (one of my daughter's favourite birthday presents

Dressed up as a pirate and danced at a Halloween Disco!

Carved pumpkins...scary isn't he?

And tonight we're going to Cousin K's house for some Trick or Treating

Phew! It's no wonder I've been falling sleep on the sofa in the evening!

I'm linking up with the lovely Coombe Mill and their Country Kids Linky!

Look what we've grown!

2013 has been the first year my daughter has wanted to take an interest in gardening. It's something I'm really keen for her to get involved with. It's such a fun activity to share. She's loved watching the process of making paper pots and using them to plant seeds in back in Spring. Then in April we started to see the first signs of Spring and our seeds started to germinate.

Fast forward to Autumn and we're enjoying homegrown tomatoes, beetroot, rosemary, thyme, chives, mint and a lovely crop of apples from the tree we inherited from the previous owner.

She also helped me grow borage to attract the bees, bright orange nasturtiums and huge sunflowers. I tried to choose plants with large seeds, so that her little fingers could get to grips with them.

By growing our own vegetables, I think it helps my daughter to try new flavours because she's been involved with the growing process. She loves grated cooked beetroot mashed into potatoes with creme fraiche, lots of butter and some salt and pepper for seasoning...we call it 'purple mash' and it's amazing with sausages, fresh greens and lots of gravy!

I'm celebrating being outside with my child, enjoying the Autumn sun and linking up with Country Kids from Coombe Mill

Last taste of Summer...

I have been taking a bit of a blogging break recently...I've needed to rest & recuperate after a rubbish end to the Summer. At this point in time I don't feel able to write about what happened, but maybe one day I will...

For now, I'm focusing on getting my health back and spending lots & lots of time with my gorgeous girl.

We had once last taste of Summer in Cornwall about two weeks ago. The photos you see here are of Praa Sands, which has to be one of the loveliest beaches I've visited in Cornwall. We had such an amazing day there, I think we had the last of the Summer sunshine before rain, mist & dark evenings set in.

Days like this stay with you for a long time and these photos will keep me going through the cold months ahead!

Baking with children: Monkey Muffins

This Summer I've been volunteering at my local library, helping out with the Creepy House Summer Reading Challenge. One of the perks of helping out in the children's section of the library is I get to see loads & loads of lovely books for young readers. Ever on the look-out for things to occupy my daughter through the Summer holidays, I gravitated towards the non-fiction section and in particular the cookery books. I love an activity where you can eat the end results! I spotted The Baking Book by Jane Bull and thought we'd give it a whirl.

It's packed with yummy recipes and great illustrations. My three year old daughter just loved flicking through the book again and again looking at the bright photos and lovely food. We decided on making Monkey Bread, but we chose to make the muffin versions rather that the loaf. Apart from making chocolate rice crispie cakes, this was our first attempt at 'proper' baking...we put on aprons and everything! Thanks to 'I can cook' on Ceebies, my daughter is taking more interest in how food is prepared and likes to get stuck in. Once we'd sung a loud rendition of the 'wash your hands' song...altogether now "roll up your sleeves, give your hands a wash, with slippy dippy soap, splish slapsh splosh"...we started on the Monkey Muffins.
We measured flour and butter and made it into crumbly breadcrumbs

Then we added sugar and sultanas and gave it a good mix...

Then we cracked some eggs, which require lots and lots of concentration..

Now the fun bit, whisking the eggs...

After adding the eggs and some honey to the dry ingredients, we got to mush some bananas up..

Everything had a last big stir...

Then we got our muffin cases and spooned the sweet-smelling mixture out...


The muffins went in the oven for 15 minutes. Once they were cool enough we scoffed one each. They were delicious, a resounding success! They last for about a week in an airtight container...except ours were eaten before the week was up!