Tuesday 28 January 2014

Vintage style left overs - the art of potting

In the current issue 11 of Pretty Nostalgic I have written a feature on the Art of Potting, this was totally fascinating to research and has now given me a new hobby and love of leftovers which I can process into yummy potted goodies.

At the weekend we had a roast shoulder of lamb.  A beautiful piece of lamb from Jane and Derek's Kennixton flock of Dorset sheep who live most of the year in our field.

Normally left over meat is put in a sandwich but not anymore - I used the left over lamb, a stray cooked sausage and the remains of the mint sauce to make potted minted lamb

And here is how:-

Ingredients - Left over lamb, cold sausage, mint sauce, Madeira wine, ground mace, cayenne pepper, butter

Mince up your left over meat - I don't have an electric devise so used by trusty 1940s Spong mincer.  My Jack Russell Josie is always present when the mincer is out to polish up the occasional escaped morsel.



I melted about 3 oz of butter and mixed half of it with the minced left over lamb, and mix in the mint sauce, ground mace, Madeira wine cayenne pepper - this has to be done to taste - just keep mushing it together and tasting until you are happy with it.



 I then potted the mixture in one of my lovely Melba Ware egg cup sets.  Push the mixture well down so there are no air pockets and then cover over with the rest of the melted butter.

Keep in the fridge, should keep for a good week - great with toast for supper or for a starter at a dinner party and nobody will ever know it has been made out of the scrappiest leftovers from a Sunday roast.

For more on the history of potting and more recipes, including potted shrimp and cheese then take a look inside issue 11 of Pretty Nostalgic Magazine - you can buy a copy online and it is posted to your door for free - http://prettynostalgic.co.uk/

Do share your creative leftover recipes
Wishing you all happy days from vintage ways

Nicole

Monday 27 January 2014

Look what I found! my exciting vintage find this week

We'll I suppose not everyone will find this as exciting as me - but I am sure there are a few pretty nostalgic people out there that will appreciate me sharing this with you.


Well a few weeks back I identified an old vintage baby food tin as one of my most favourite finds  and here is an explanation of why



  “This old battered tin was bought in a charity shop for £5.  It dates from the early 1920s and originally contained Allen and Hanbury's baby rusks. Old tins with paper coverings rarely survive, they were either disposed of or recycled after use and often the paper covering would have been soaked off and the tin decorated or labelled for another use.  I love the green colour and the photo of the beautiful contented baby, which obviously all babies which were fed on the rusks the box contained would look like!  It is vintage finds like these which make me really excited and provide a real tangible connection with the everyday past or ordinary people.  You can read more about my obsession with ephemera in issue 7.”


Any way!!!!!!! look what I found the other day on ebay!!!!!!

How special is this - a real vintage photo of a 1920's baby playing with a very similar tin!


This is what Pretty Nostalgic living is about for me - making tangible links with people from the past 

If you have had any such vintage discoveries do share them with me - I may even feature them in a future issue of Pretty Nostalgic magazine - I am excited by this now

Wishing you all a lovely week - and remember no matter how long the winter - spring is sure to follow xxxx

Nicole x

Tuesday 14 January 2014

My Pretty Nostalgic home


“This is my special place! My corner of the living room in the 1930s semi I share with my husband Jason and sons Archie, 11 and Ollie 8.  No boys’ toys are allowed into my corner!
I keep my most recent book purchases on the shelves, when I have finished pouring over them they move into my study, soon to be replaced by the many other books I avidly collect (it is an addiction!)
Also on the shelves are many little bits and pieces special to me, a forever changing display of family photos and little treasures I have found.  See the beautiful vintage children’s shoes I bought from ebay!


The wall is my personal gallery space, which includes a drawing by my husband and some beautiful Victorian prints (I am passionate about Victoriana)



My leather armchair is the most comfortable in the world and was bought from the owners of our previous house for £20.  I have prettied it up a bit by wrapping an old, but beautiful flowered linen curtain around the seat cushion (this also changes according to mood and season or when the dog has spent too much time on it!).  On the chair is a lovely cushion made for me by my friend Sarah from old bits of welsh blanket, an embroidered cushion cover found in a charity shop, and a welsh tapestry blanket which was given to my mother by her grandmother for her bottom drawer.

The early 20th century oak table with barley twist legs is really an old cutlery box and the top lifts to reveal a very handy compartment within which I keep my laptop, and all the adaptors for the camera and bits of technology that need to be kept safe, out of the way, but within reach.


The raspberry coloured rug with cream roses was a fantastic charity shop find as it was mistaken for a throw and priced it at just £4! And I love it!

Taken from - Pretty Nostalgic Home - Nicole Burnett 2012



Thursday 9 January 2014

The Pretty Nostalgic Pledge


The Pretty Nostalgic Pledge

These are the rules which I try to follow in my everyday life and in my business 

If you agree with what it says then you can go onto the Pretty Nostalgic and sign it 

http://prettynostalgic.co.uk/pledge/



Friday 3 January 2014

So What is Pretty Nostalgic Living?

So what is Pretty Nostalgic Living??


Here are my thoughts .......


Pretty Nostalgic Living is about looking to the past to recapture lost joys and ultimately to seek out solutions to the shortfalls of our present existence.   This may come as a shock, but if our lives were perfect then we would have no need or desire to look back with the intensity with which we do today and we would all be living in the moment and cheerfully moving forward into our futures. 
Most of us however, are not totally happy with the way we live and can’t help feeling there is something wrong, something missing and we remember fondly times in our own past when things felt good and so we try to reconnect to that same point in our history, recalling memories of making jam with Grannie or long bike rides through the dappled shade of overgrown country lanes. 


Nostalgia is described as a yearning for times gone by, but really it is also the yearning for feelings from our own past, the times when we felt loved, stress free, happy, valued and appreciated.

Today we have the tendency to use a sort of collective hindsight to look at the history, and to analyse the people who lived before us - picking details from their everyday lives and comparing them with our own.  This is not particular to our own times, for hundreds of years there has been a keen interest in history and the fascination with the ways of past civilisations.  It does, however, seem to be the symptom of increased industrialisation and rapid advances in society, because before the 18th century there was no need to reminisce about what life was like in times gone by, as they would have been very much the same as they were then.

Our modern lives however, have grown far more complicated in the past few decades than we could ever have imagined, as a human race, we are achieving great things, communicating with more people, accumulating masses of material wealth, experiencing wonders beyond belief and having many things that people used to strive to acquire, handed to us on a plate with no effort from us other than the transfer of digits from one bank account into another. 


By looking backwards and being nostalgic we can see a different world, one that is untainted by our modern trappings and we can select just the parts that appeal to us.  Being Pretty Nostalgic is not about faithfully recreating a time in history in homage to a forgotten era, there is no need to become a permanent historical re-enactor, giving up the use of toilet paper and soap in order to appreciate how people lived in mediaeval times.  Instead it is about how we as people today can use the lives of those who have already taken their turn to teach us, benefiting from their successes and trying not to repeat their mistakes.


Being Pretty Nostalgic is about fighting through the clutter of modern living to find out what is really important to us. By looking at the past, it is easy to notice the differences, we can see exactly what it is that we have gained over time, the many extra things which didn’t exist years ago and ponder “if they could live happily without them, can we?”  However, we also have the enormous benefit of spotting what wonderful things we have now that people in the past suffered from not owning and this realisation should help us to appreciate these things all the more.

How often do we hear stories of how people in the past were poor but happy? why is it then that we can feel so dissatisfied when we have access to so much? 

Well that's my great quest - how to get what I need for myself and my family whilst following the Pretty Nostalgic Pledge to:-

Spend Wisely, Waste Less and Appreciate more 

and above all else to enjoy life, feel satisfied and be proud of what I do

In essence

I want -  Happy Days from Vintage Ways!

 I would love to hear your views on what you think Pretty Nostalgic living is or should be  - so do leave me a comment x

Tuesday 31 December 2013

My Pretty Nostalgic life and why I am living it

Happy New Year!

Welcome to my blog 

This blog is my new year's resolution and is my attempt to share my life and experiences as the founder and editor of Pretty Nostalgic magazine.

I want people to understand why being pretty nostalgic is so very important to me and how it is at the very core of my existence and how it developed into my very exciting business.

Each day I strive to live in a Pretty Nostalgic way by:-

Spending Wisely, Wasting Less and Appreciating More - because I believe it is the way to a happy and satisfied life and also because I can't afford to live in any other way, I am not rich, I have no big investors in my magazine, and at the moment every penny I can get my hands on goes into helping it grow.

Through this blog I will share my world as the owner, publisher and editor of an independent magazine, as well as my life as a mum, wife, homemaker, avid bargain hunter, collector and vintage and history fanatic

First a bit about me
I founded Pretty Nostalgic in 2010, firstly as a business selling vintage and handmade and then in 2011 it evolved into an idea for a magazine which I launched in May 2012.

If you are familiar with Pretty Nostalgic magazine you will know that it just isn't like other magazines, hopefully it stands out to you for being better in many ways.  I am not a professionally trained journalist or publisher, I was a museum curator and history teacher for many years before becoming a vintage dealer, so I don't really know how to make magazines - but I am trying to do something new and I want to share how Pretty Nostalgic living inspires by life and my business.

I believe in Pretty Nostalgic living and hope you will too.......