A family day out to Bristol Harbour and the M-shed

If you love nostalgia then you need to make a beeline for the M-shed in Bristol this Summer. They are hosting an exhibition entitled "The Story of Children’s Television From 1946 to Today" and it runs until 25th September 2016. As soon as I heard a host of beloved characters from my childhood would be on display, I knew we had to pay a visit.

Magoo had been asking if we could "go on a double decker bus" over the school holidays. Because we all like visiting Bristol and the bus stop is situated at the top of our road, we decided to jump on a double decker and head to the city. Like I say, I'd been itching to see the Story of Children's Television" exhibition for a while now. Because this temporary display covers Children's Televison from 1946 up to the present day, I knew Grandma, myself and Magoo would all find something to enjoy.

The M-Shed is situated right in the middle of Bristol Harbour, so there are plenty of boats to see. At the moment there is an impressive tall ship called the Kaskelot moored opposite the M-Shed. It was a truly magnificent sight and you can't help marvel at the size of it. If you look at the ship's website, you can see images of it at sea in full sail.

After admiring the Kaskelot we stopped off at Millenium Square to see the Official Team GB FanZone where live coverage of the Olympic Games from Rio is shown on a big screen. Grandma and I drank a cup of tea from the @Bristol Cafe and we all ate homemade cake watching the swimmers do their thing at the Olympic Games.

Once we'd finished our tea and cake, we headed across Pero's Bridge to reach the Queen Square side of the water. Whilst on the bridge, we stopped to look at the padlocks covering the sides. These 'love locks' are attached to the metal grids by couples as a romantic gesture and the amount of padlocks has steadily grown over the years. I was surprised at just how many locks are now on the bridge, they seem to have covered every available space.

The council don't like them and there were attempts to cut them off in 2015. Bristol citizens have a habit of not doing what is expected of them. It seems the council's dislike of the locks has prompted a whole sea of them to appear. I don't find them offensive and we all enjoyed looking at the names, inscriptions and different shaped locks.

We walked past the Arnolfini and across the swing bridge on Prince Street. Before we went into the M-Shed we took a moment to look at the sun shining on the water in Bristol Harbour and admire The Matthew. The "Modern Matthew' is a replica of the caravel ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497 from Bristol to North America.

It is a beautiful boat, run by volunteers and funded by charitable donations. Magoo was keen to climb down the wooden steps to see below deck. We found about eight small bunks crammed into a tight space. It's hard to imagine how the 1497 crew sailing to Newfoundland lived, ate and slept in such a small space. It must have been horrendous in severe storms and rolling waves.

After our tour of The Matthew we headed into the M-Shed. There is so much to see and lots to learn about Bristol life past, present and future. One of my favourite parts of the M-Shed are the perspex boxes cut into the wall looking out over the docks. There are quite a few of these 'windows' and each one is filled with intricate model boats. I love the juxtaposition of the tiny models against the impressive sight of a real tall ship outside.

The museum is divided up into three main areas, Bristol Places, Bristol People and Bristol Life. Each section spans past history and places through to modern day characters like Banksy. There's even a bright green, full-sized Bristol Bus from the 1960s for everyone to jump aboard. Magoo loved this part the best and she had the opportunity to sit on the top deck of a modern bus and an old fashioned one all in the same day.

Once we managed to coax Magoo off the bus we headed to the Children's Television Exhibition on the top floor. It was, as I had hoped, a complete nostalgia-fest! So many memories flooded back and I adored seeing Humpty from PlaySchool, Gordon the Gopher, puppets from Button Moon, DangerMouse and many, many more.

Magoo was also in her element as the exhibition features modern day TV programs from Cbeebies and CBBC. Having said that, she was glued to the compilations being shown on various televisions around the exhibition. The clip of Pogles' Wood which was made back in the late-1960s caught her attention and she particularly loved Roobarb and Custard. I know watching TV often gets a bad rap, but we all have shows we loved as kids and this exhibition celebrates that. Children's TV holds happy memories for lots of people and we all loved looking at the exhibits.

Once we'd had our fill of nostalgia we headed back out into the sunshine for an ice cream. As we looked out over the water I promised Magoo we would make a return visit to the M-Shed. We had barely scratched the surface of the vast array of items on display and we'll definitely be back...

This week I am linking up with:

"Country Kids" over on www.coombemill.com

Giving Annuals and Yearbooks as gifts: a Christmas tradition

I remember as a child looking forward to receiving an annual book at Christmas. I think my favourites were from Twinkle closely followed by my beloved My Little Pony. I also loved reading my brother's annuals from the Beano and Dandy. Reading about Dennis the Menace and Desperate Dan's exploits became an important part of my Christmas. I'm not sure if my brother was as keen on reading Twinkle...he might have had a sneaky peek when noone was looking.

I bought these Tiger Tim Annuals at a jumble sale a little while ago. One dates from 1924 and the other from 1954. It goes to show that giving Annuals as a gift at Christmas is nothing new.

It's amazing to think that over 90 years ago a child unwrapped the 1924 annual on Christmas Day morning. Because I purchased the two Annuals together at the jumble sale, they may have come from the same house. So there's a possibility the 1924 child grew up and maybe had a child of their own. In a bid to instill a love for Tiger Tim, they may have bought the 1954 Annual for their offspring. When you're a collector of vintage items, you often can't be sure of the back story, but I like to think this scenario could have been a possibility. After all, that's how most Christmas traditions are kept alive, by family members passing them down through the generations.

I think getting an Annual as a gift was seen as a special event for most children. You would see and read things in these books that didn't appear in the weekly comic. There was also something lovely about holding a hard backed version of your favourite comic too.

The 1924 Tiger Tim Annual is still bearing up pretty well, despite its age. I particularly like the colour illustrated plates dotted through the book. This endearing image of three children dressed as rabbits on their way to the Bunnies Ball in the snow is really lovely. I would love to have this as a framed print, but I would never tear a page out of this Annual!

Most of the characters who appear in the Tiger Tim Annual are way before my time. But I'm sure children of that era loved "Peter and Olliboo" and the "Brownie Boys" to name just a couple...I'm sure they were the Peppa Pig or Bob the Builder of their day.

The other thing I love about these vintage annuals is the adverts on the back and inside the book. There is one for Green's cake mix and Green's is still going strong today. There is also a Cadburys Car Race for children to play in the back of the Annual.

There is also an advert for the weekly "Playbox" and "Rainbow" comic books. The publisher obviously needed to engage young readers in Tiger Tim's adventures on a more regular basis.

Finally I love the little letter from Tiger Tim to his readers. I believe that Fleetway House on Farringdon Street in London has been a centre for book and magazine publishing for many decades.

Even in our technology saturated world, you can still buy annuals featuring today's generation of favourite characters. A quick search online reveals that most major retailers have Annuals in stock this year. I have seen Annuals for Peppa Pig, Ben and Holly, Match Football and even Strictly Come Dancing. It goes to show that some Christmas Traditions never go out of date...

This week I'm linking up with:

Share with Me over on www.letstalkmommy.com

Pick 'N' Mix over on mummyandmonkeys.com and www.acornishmum.com

Old school My Little Pony: a trip into 1980s nostalgia

I can't tell you how much I love the fact my Mum kept many of my childhood toys. A firm favourite in our household are the My Little Pony figures dating from the early 1980s. I loved them as a child & would save up my pocket money to buy a new pony to add to my collection as often as I could. What is truly amazing is seeing my own daughter play with them & love the ponies just as much as I did.

The ones pictured here are commonly know as 'generation one' ponies. My Little Pony continues to exist in many more forms and has been rebranded more times than I care to think about. My daughter watches the latest version of the MLP cartoon and I find it a bit fast paced for my liking. Must be getting old and I'm probably just being nostalgic about my ponies, but I feel like the G1s were the best. I only have to hear the My Little Pony theme tune from the 1980s & I get misty eyes.

The first pony I ever bought was Cotton Candy. One birthday or Christmas I was given the twin baby ponies, complete with nappies, bottle and necklaces. I used to imagine Cotton Candy was their Mum.


Cotton Candy was soon followed by Apple Jack. I spent many hours coming her golden mane...

Over the next couple of years I added to my collection. The ponies evolved to have glittery logos on their flanks, their heads were positioned to look up more & there were even unicorns towards the mid-1980s. I owned Moonstone & she was secretly one of my favourites. My head was turned by her rainbow mane & the shiny planets on her bum. I thought Cotton Candy looked a bit glum in comparison. Children can be so fickle...

Despite being over thirty years old, Magoo loves playing with the My Little Ponies from the 1980s. She gets completely lost in a world of mane-brushing just like I did when I was her age.

I'm linking up with these lovely linky-hosts:

'The Ordinary Moments' over on www.mummydaddyandmemakesthree.co.uk

Image of the Week over on www.trulymadlykids.co.uk

Happy Days over on www.whatkatysaid.com

Brilliant Blog Posts over on honestmum.com

Magic Moments over on theoliversmadhouse.co.uk

1970s nostalgia inspired fortieth birthday canvas: a handmade gift

Back in May, my friend Lisa turned 40. I wanted to make her a handmade, personalised gift, so I decided to embroider a canvas for her. This canvas features a number of the most iconic events from 1975. I think the 1970s were a heady mixture of glamour, glitz and political struggles. I wanted to try & reflect this in the canvas.

The 1970s gave us David Bowie, Disco and the birth of Punk. It was also an unsettled time politically for the United Kingdom with high inflation & industrial action by coal miners. This triggered the Conservative government to try & restrict electricity consumption with the Three Day Week.

I transferred my selection of 1975 events onto a cream calico fabric using a transfer pencil. I then used back stitch in various, bright embroidery threads to create this piece. I love hand sewing and find it relaxing, so making this canvas was really enjoyable.

I was born a year later in 1976, so may have to make a similar one for myself as the big 4-0 is looming on the horizon...

Vintage Love: vintage Fisher Price mini bus toy

Fisher Price toys were such a huge part of my childhood. I think some of my earliest memories consist of me pulling the Chatter Telephone around the living room. This mini bus was also an early addition to the family toybox. I blogged a little while ago about my vintage Fisher Price Hospital, which is still going strong. My Mum has kept many pieces of my Fisher Price childhood collection. My daughter loves to play with them when she visits Grandma's house, some are nearly forty years old. Proof, if proof were needed, that good toys never go out of date.

We had a Fisher Price circus train, followed by this mini bus, the hospital mentioned above, an A-frame woodland retreat and finally the 'Main Street' toy. The mini bus is a favourite of mine, mainly because I love the way the people bobble up and down as you push the bus about. It was a rough ride across the kitchen floor, but the Little People never stopped smiling. I loved all the Fisher Price toys given to us by our parents, each new addition fired my childhood imagination and added to the world inhabited by the Little People.

I only noticed the other day that the label on the back reads "copyright 1969 Fisher Price Toys Division of the Quaker Oats Co". I had no idea Quaker Oats owned Fisher Price toys. After a bit of online searching I found this interesting page from Collectors Weekly detailing the history of Fisher Price Toys. The site explains in more detail:
"Up until 1969, Fisher-Price was owned by the four (original) founders and a handful of stockholders. From 1969 to 1991, the company was a subsidiary of Quaker Oats. Briefly, in the 1990s, the company became independent again, only to be swallowed in 1993 by Barbie-making toy behemoth Mattel, which still owns the brand today."


Fisher Price toys are still going strong and manufacture many of the best selling toys available to babies and preschoolers today. Our daughter has grown up playing with many of the modern Fisher Price toys alongside my 'vintage' versions. I hope they will become as big a part of her childhood memories as they are for me.

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.

Vintage Love: 1970s GALT wooden wobbly head tortoise toy

I've had this little GALT wooden tortoise toy for about as long as I can remember. He's such a cute little thing and he sits on my hand painted dresser.

Once upon a time I played with him all the time. I used to push him across our living room or the kitchen floor and watch his little head bobble about.

Made by GALT, he dates from the 1970s.

The beauty of this toy is in its simplcity. If you turn him over you can see the mechanism. Four wooden wheels drive him along, but the front two wheels are joined to a slightly bent metal bar to which his head is attached. The motion of pushing him forwards makes the bent bar go up & down and this in turn makes his head wobble about. So simple, yet so effective & really engaging for young children.

He measures about 12 cms (including his head) by 7 cms by 5 cms tall. He is varnished and has hand painted details on the face.

At nearly forty years old, he's wearing well. I think he's adorable and have no intentions of parting with him.

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.

Vintage love: children's books

I am constantly amazed at the things my mum has kept from our childhood days. She recently asked if my own daughter would 'like to read any of these' - as soon as I saw this collection of children's books I was flooded with memories of reading them as a child. They were my favourites and I must have read them over and over again.

Any child of the 80s will recognise these books! In fact if you are a child of the 80s, you'll love this website

I love a bit of nostalgia, so couldn't resist sharing them with you!

Play School

Babar the Elephant

Munch Bunch

The Wombles

And finally the Berenstain Bears

Vintage love: Christmas decorations

I'm a huge fan of nostalgia. If there's one time of year where people feel nostalgic, it's Christmas. These decorations were bought out of the loft every single year when I was growing up. The pom pom robins were made by my Mum before I was born, so they are at least 35 years old. They still look in good condition considering their age. It probably has something to do with the fact that we were under strict instructions as kids to never to touch them!

The cardboard gift boxes are also a Christmas decoration from my childhood, they are at least 30 years old. Mum would put them under the tree with gifts in. Somehow they managed to survive years of manhandling by me and my brother, eager to get at the presents inside them.

I now have the pom pom robins on display in my house in the living room and the festive boxes take pride of place on the dresser in the dining room - I think they are too delicate to put under the tree. I think it's lovely for my own daughter to see decorations from my childhood - hopefully she will love them as much as I do and maybe in a couple of years we'll have a go at making our own pom pom robins...

If you'd like to see more of my vintage finds, head on over to my Pinterest board...sharing images of my fabric collection, ceramics, childhood toys and much more...

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