snAPP happy

You would be correct to assume that I should be frantically working away on Christmas window displays, filling new wholesale orders and making stacks of lovely treats for our Christmas market in a few weeks. Clearly however that assumption would be wrong, instead I have been trying out the iPhone app recommended to me by Miss Pen Pen. I must confess I have been more than a little snAPP happy, snapping everything in sight. I love the grainy, moody, colours not quite right look of these snaps, and we have so much divine new stock to snap I got a little carried away. 

These two hat boxes are FULL of vintage Swiss and Italian millinery braids, so many colours and textures, divine! All in perfect vintage condition. We also received rolls and rolls of silk grosgrain in lovely shades of olive, slate grey, eau de nil, navy and chocolate, elegant colours perfect for menswear and hats.

This beautiful trim is so chic, a very narrow ribbon threaded with a fine line of white straw.

l'uccello looooooves poodles especially insane 1950s porcelain ones like this one

Our new absolute favourite book arrived this week, Cafe Society, filled with the most glamorous, most extravagant people, fabulous photos.

Lovely balls of vintage French hemp thread, don't they look lovely in the cabinet with our other specialty threads?!

Yayyyy we received our copies of the new Meet me at Mikes book, lots of great projects, can't wait to try a few of them out.

Gratuitous ribbon cabinet shot, we're not sure how we will fit all of the new delivery in, we desperately need some bigger display cabinets, maybe after Christmas.

Gorgeous French silk bobbins with Bakelite ends

Vintage stamens

Fabulous new stock of vintage french linen thread cards Mephisto and Solar, in perfect unused condition.

Snap snap snap

The shop looks quite bountiful at the moment, it's always great to arrive in the morning.

Not happy to snap everything in our shop, I had to have a go next door at Harold and Maud, a new shop full of wonderful brocante, handmade and up cycled treasures 

The blue fairy wishes you a fabulous week xx



Birds do it.....

Despite appearances over the last few days, Spring is definitely here. After so much rain I can't believe how green everything suddenly is. But the most obvious sign in the neighbourhood is our sweet little blackbird couple (as featured in my post How to build a nest). They have a new nest in the cumquat tree, this time much higher and well hidden. They have been very busy preparing the nest and it seems a privilege to have them here for another Spring. Our midnight caller has also returned, we have a willy wagtail who visits most nights around midnight and sings the loudest and most lovely birdsong I have heard, surely it must work on the ladies.

Just in time for the romance season, we have finally finished a few of our Vintage wedding charms, to complement our Vintage Garters. They are hand made in our studio using pure silk, antique lace and ribbons and beautifully presented in silk organza bags, they are available in ivory, dusty pink, blush, soft blue and black, so romantic.

Shame I didn't spell check the labels..

The perfect soundtrack for this post!

We have some fabulous new Vintage Rhinestone buttons, very sparkly. We have mounted them on these pretty antique postcards, don't they look lovely?

These buttons are antique hand carved mother of pearl mounted on antique post cards from Rome and Paris, L'Amour L'Amour!

These are the biggest buckles we have seen, each disk is close to 10cm wide, two of them hook together to form the fastening. They are celluloid, unused and in perfect condition, classic 30's glamour.

Very special deliveries this week include, delicate little hand sewn monograms, 19th century silver plated filigree waistcoat buttons, lovely little spools of silver and gold thread and a bone tatting shuttle circa 1850. The most special delivery is the carved bone needle case, it is called a Stanhope because it contains a tiny viewer, through which you can see two views of Paris. It is in beautiful condition and a wonderful souvenir from the Paris Exposition in the 1870s.

Also just arrived are lots of lovely spools of vintage and antique threads, including Scottish and Irish linen thread, Japanese cotton and more spools of mercerised cotton. Much of this thread is surplus from the services and is around 70 years old. It is beautiful quality thread particularly well suited to projects involving hand sewing such as quilting and book binding.

Last but not least, we have a fabulous new collection of antique French laundry cloths, known as mangle cloths. They are 2-3 metres long and 90cm wide perfect for table cloths/runners or curtains (they make great roman blinds too). Many have little monograms and the colour and the texture of the linen is perfect. To complement these we also received a new delivery of these fab ticking from French General for Moda, love love love stripes!

We hope you have a great week with plenty of L'Amour L'Amour. 



Hot Haberdashery

Who knew press snaps could be so hot?! The Mad Men were having a good day when they came up with this packaging idea, what a great way to market these clever new devices, so much quicker than buttons! Old packaging is so great, when was the last time you were buying modern haberdashery and you thought wow this packaging is just too beautiful to use?  Like never...

I was so distracted by all the new loveliness I forgot to charge the camera, so these are my first iPhone photos, hope they are OK.

We have had so much lovely stock, especially millinery arrive this week we don't know where to put it all. This is the main millinery area, we have lots of beautiful new plumes and stamens.

 Luckily we have been able to source more lovely antique hat trimmings, including these fabulous  flowers, curly spikes, bouquets and horse hair "feathers" all made in Paris. We also have a small collection of bunches of fruit.

We are so excited by the mountains of new vintage stamens that have come in, so many beautiful colours, and interesting shapes and textures. We also found lots of pearl stamens, berries and little fruits. I forgot to take a picture, we have new vintage Swiss braid too.

We are finally back in stock of these lovely little chaps and miniature hummingbirds too.

Just in time to compliment last weeks new stash of bobbins, we have new vintage Kokeshi, lots of gorgeous new girls, I think I have a new favourite.......

How gorgeous is she?!

Did I mention our fabulous new haul of vintage buttons form France, luscious colours and interesting shapes and textures.

Finally a sneak preview of some of the goodies that have started to arrive in preparation for Christmas, too sweet.

It's so new season

Its' all about the new season this week, day light savings, packing away winter woollies, wearing sandals on the first sunny day. Soup and risotto are off the menu this week and I made my first salad in a while the other night. Tonight on the way home it poured down buckets with lightning and thunder, more like a summer storm than a wintery downpour.

  And so it goes at l'uccello, the sale has been great, lots of fabric samples and remnants have been snapped up, lots of cute vintage buttons, lace and balls of wool have been carried off. I have packed away our crochet trees until next winter and have been moving everything around to accommodate all the new stock that is arriving.

Max made this from the pattern in the French General book Home Sewn and I filled it with some of my collection, such a great way to display your favourite things.

This gorgeous book full of great projects is now back in stock.

Also recently arrived are some of Moda's French General Lumiere range, we have started production for Christmas with these beautiful patterns.

So many new vintage bobbins, these are from silk manufacturing, they are made from wood and bakelite and the colours are gorgeous!

These antique cotton reels are wound with 3m of vintage ric rac.

More vintage French bobbins

These vintage wooden bobbins are wound with 10m of vintage trim

More lovely vintage French linen and this beautiful series of books with lots of projects, perfect for the classic French country look with a contemporary feel. We also have new stock of antique Scottish linen thread, great for hand quilting, book binding etc.

It's all looking a bit French at the moment, lovely pure olive oil soaps, lavender linen water and some great books on creating classic French style.

Just so the English get a look in we have a great range of Cath Kidston books and stationery, including these cute stickers, very handy for labelling all that strawberry jam I'm planning to make for Christmas presents.

Divine vintage French children's books, they are new and around 60 years old in mint condition.

Finally we have these super vintage baskets from Les Halles market in Paris, perfect for displaying stash!

We have lots of new buttons, buckles, beads, threads, stamens, and ephemera due to arrive shortly, we will post updates as soon as they arrive, have a great week.

Thank you and welcome

Thank you to all the lovely visitors to the store and the blog over the last few months. It's been about 6 months since we opened and looking back through our photos of all the fabulous things that have come and gone through the store is quite amazing. I hope you are all having fun making some beautiful things with all these different treasures. We have had quite a few new visitors sending thoughtful comments for us recently, thank you and welcome to l'uccello.

This is my new most favourite tapestry, I'm trying to decide whether to make it into a cushion, or to see if Miss Pen Pen at Cottage Industry would consider turning into one of her fabulous ottomans.

Our little dolls house is always so popular with the kids, and quite a few grown ups too. The wheel of fortune always has words of wisdom to offer, it's so charming and whimsical.

We are so excited we could do a few high kicks (how cute is my new flea market find?), we will be announcing all the details shortly for some fabulous Glamour classes to be held at l'uccello by Candice De Ville. Stay tuned for all the dates and booking info.

Have a fabulous weekend (someone please win the footy so it will finally be over!)

ps. SPRING SALE continues next week!