Happy New Year!

Welcome to my first blog for 2015, hopefully the first of many.

I'm a bit 'bah humbug' about New Year, as one of my friends put it : 'different year, same s**t' and I am inclined to agree with him.  I stay up to see in the New Year, finish my sparkly drink, wish my loved ones the best and pop off to my bed.  However, last night, as many of you may know, the BBC broadcast a Queen concert so it was a pleasure to stay up and watch the amazing Brian May, the new vocalist and sing along with the songs - a happy New Year indeed!

Seriously though, New Year is a time for reflection, for remembering what was good and not so good, what was achieved and what came up rather short. 

When 2014 was just over three months old, I began with Lily Maud Vintage online.  You know the story of how it all came about so I won't bore you with that again, but it was a very exciting time for me.  I found a lovely young man willing to put my crazy ideas into website speak, to put up with me saying yes to his work then saying I wanted to change it and, finally having the website you see today.  Rhys is still getting emails asking him to do things or how I can do things and he replies straight away with the answers I need.  If you wish to have your website designed then I'm happy to recommend Rhys.

I have tweaked and changed things about on Lily Maud but never seemed to have the time to work at it properly.  Lily Maud has a Facebook page and a Twitter account but neither has been that successful because, as soon as I had the time and the motive to actually do something, life always came up and hit me in the face with unexpected hurdles. As in many people's lives, these came almost one after another with little space in between to get back to my real passion - Lily Maud Vintage! I do sound like a real moaner don't I; these life hurdles happen to everyone and I guess if I had managed to be more organised about my life on a day-to-day basis, Lily Maud would be on her way to some success.

That success has eluded her is wholly down to me and my lack of time management skills.  I used to have them once, had to as I worked to a timetable on a daily basis, but working from home, even on something you love so much, needs much more of a steely resolve than I have had.  I think I have let the hurdles get in the way rather than jump over them as they came along - now that is out in the open I can do something about it and so I will!

All was not bad though.  I am so happy to have become a Pioneer for Pretty Nostalgic and the Pretty Nostalgic Society.  I resolved to write an article for the first edition of the new Pretty Nostalgic Compendium published in December. I loved every minute of the writing, got the manuscript to the Editor on time and was so chuffed to see my name in print - I admit to being on a bit of a high when I saw it!  Even better, I am about to become a proud seller of the Compendium on Lily Maud.

So what of this New Year which began today? I'm not one for resolutions because, apart from one, nothing I have ever resolved to do at this time of year has ever come to anything!  Guess I'm not alone there either! However, I have to get better at three things in particular if I am to achieve success with both Lily Maud and Pretty Nostalgic.

Firstly, I must get into writing myself a list of  'things to do', divided into two categories : A = Absolutely Essential and B = Better to be done. I don't have anyone to whom I can delegate so to put this into practise means that I will have to manage my time much better by using my calendar and diary and being very strict with myself. If I have time set aside for  Lily Maud work then that is what I must do at that time in that week. Anything else has to work around Lily Maud as far as possible.  I have done this in a previous life and it worked very well because it gave structure to the day and week.

Secondly, I must work on everything to do with Lily Maud by proritising : listing, facebooking, tweeting, promoting (alongside Pretty Nostalgic),  blogging, researching ..... mmm ...... this could be a long list! However, if I remember the phrase : 'Your yes means more when you can say no' : I just might make it work.


This has been a bit of a personal blog, I have indulged myself!  I have always believed that writing down things which are important helps in making decisions about those things and this blog has helped me do that. With luck, you will see the results of my deliberations and become more involved with Lily Maud.


A monthly review of how I am getting on and what is being achieved may well be here soon!

A very Happy New Year to all who read this and thanks for being with me.

Spending ages doing not a lot!

Welcome dear readers, it's Wednesday afternoon and so half way through the week.  I suddenly realised that, although I have spent ages at this computer so far this week, I don't seem to have produced anything concrete to show for it!

I've been to the backend of www.lilymaudvintage.com to make some changes and additions, though nothing you would notice from the front end! Much to my chagrin I have not managed to add any new lovelies to the site - part of the plan for the week was to get some pretty brooches and handmade vintage Christmas cards for you to look at - bit late for those Christmas cards now eh!

As you might imagine, I have a wonderful excuse which can be summed up in two words : Pretty Nostalgic!

Now I must say immediately that I do not think I have been wasting my time in any way by devoting some of it to this wonderful cause - if you want to find out more about Pretty Nostalgic and haven't read my previous blog, then pop over to www.prettyynostalgic.co.uk to discover what you are missing.

I've been trying to think (not helpful to my little brain as some of you might know!!) about how I might get more involved, what I might do to help etc. I am meeting with Nicole at Bristol on Saturday and hope I will have something more to report next time.

I really do not have an excuse for not uploading some pretty jewellery, almost all my brooches and other jewellery has been photographed and the pictures are just sitting here ready for use.  The actual jewels are here, next to my desk, in my traveling jewellery case - here's an example or two :

A beautiful porcelain brooch with gold an bronze coloured metal surround from Limoges, France

And a pretty brooch made from pale and dark blue coloured glass stones set in gold coloured metal.











So, the next thing which took my time space today was looking at the landing page of the website and trying to think of some improvements. Hence, long email to Rhys, my long suffering website designer with all my ideas.  As usual, he can do exactly what I think I want and so the changes will be made very soon.  I trust that will mean it's more welcoming and really make you want to browse.

Today's work time is up now so I'll say goodbye.  I'll be back soon with more ramblings!  Thanks for reading, please feel free to write a comment, your thoughts, anything you like really - I am not offended easily, honestly!

See you again soon!

Saturday morning -

It's so lovely to have a few minutes just before Saturday lunch to write about something really important to me and which I hope you will love:

As you all know, I am passionate about vintage lovelies and have been for a good few years now. I try hard to look after my website, not very successfully at the moment I agree, however, I have been giving some of my time and passion to a new venture in which I believe wholeheartedly and am trying hard to promote.

I am a pioneer for Pretty Nostalgic which you will find here : www.prettynostalgic .co.uk  I urge you to pop over as soon as you can!

So - what is it?

The original Pretty Nostalgic was a monthly magazine based on the following :

It was and still is, an independent publication, edited by an amazing lady called Nicole, helped by her art editor, Rae and supported solely by its subscribers.

Life became difficult for Pretty Nostalgic due to hitting a funding wall, so Nicole went to Kickstarter to try to raise the funding needed to keep going.  After this success, the next edition was published with the Goodwood Revival as its main theme.  Following this many amazing people joined what has become the Pretty Nostalgic Society. 

Is the Pretty Nostalgic Society for you?

Only you can answer that so here is some information to help you decide:

The Pretty Nostalgic motto is : Spend Wisely, Waste Less, Appreciate More

This can be interpreted in any number of ways but we pioneers generally yearn for more civilised times where life was less commercialised.  This means we believe in and try to live in a creative, sustainable way, enjoy crafting, baking, growing, sewing, preserving, upcycling etc. and love sharing our skills with others.  Personally I enjoy baking, growing, preserving and upcycling because these are things I can do and love; in another life I could sew, craft and brew but hey, sometimes it's important to choose to leave behind some things and indulge in others yes?

Having said that - we aren't all about living life without computers, mobile phones etc. - without modern technology it would be so much harder to communicate and so I wouldn't be able to write this nor you read it and comment.

If you think this might be you or something to which you aspire then have a think about joining us.  To help you make the decision and to give you more of an idea of what the magazine is about, then you can buy one of the back issues as a starter.  These are available via www.prettynostalgic.co.uk

If you know it is for you then a subscription costs just £40 each year and there are special subscriber offers on the Pretty Nostalgic website at the moment.  You can also tweet @pretty nostalgic or email to hello@prettynostalgic.co.uk

Hope to talk to you via Facebook soon.

-and along came the shop!

Lily Maud's retail presence came via Kay's Eclectic Vintage (KEV) via a Pop-up shop in the High Street Arcade in Cardiff one Christmas a number of years ago (probably 5!).

KEV was invited to join by the lovely ladies (who Bryn calls 'The Dreadfuls'!) from Joie de Vivre and had a great time in the upstairs gallery.  It was amazing how many people came to Cardiff for a shopping weekend and Bryn met so many people from all parts of the UK and beyond.

By it's very name, the pop-up shop had limited life, but The Dreadfuls managed to lease a shop in the Royal Arcade in Cardiff and KEV joined them, leasing the small first floor.

Precious things in cardboard boxes arrive in the Royal Arcade Shop







Cardboard boxes arrived first, closely followed by larger items to be used for display - you can just see the edge of a 1930s dressing table in the top left hand corner of the picture above.

Here you can see the dressing table without its mirror and, if you compare this picture with the one above, you will get an idea of how small a space Bryn had! 

Yet more 'stuff' to be organised!

Surprisingly, Bryn didn't take too long to sort out her vintage lovelies :

A beautiful up-cycled vintage dresser :

The same dresser :

now with vintage china and some Victorian/Edwardian jelly moulds in the bottom right hand corner.







Then the 1930s dressing table dressed with vintage items :

note the mess at the side still to be sorted!

And here's the 1930's wardrobe which goes with the dressing table, along with a shelf, just being sorted! Bryn's still has this wardrobe if anyone is interested!






Of course it did all become a quite cosy vintage shop and Bryn loved working there for three days each week for just over two years.

Hello Dear Visitors and Welcome

Hello Dear Visitors and a very warm welcome to Lily Maud's blog!

I thought it was about time I began this blog, aimed at telling you a little more about my alter ego - Bryn - who looks after my shop, adds my lovely items to it and puts pictures of them all over my pages on Facebook and Twitter.

Of course, I realise you don't want to know what she does with her time when she is not looking after my website, so this will tell you more about how it all came about, the lovelies you will find and their history if it is known, especially when new items appear.  So, here goes:

Bryn was born in Cardiff to my daughter which makes Bryn my grand-daughter.  Sadly, Bryn and I didn't ever meet as she was born some years after I had passed away, but she knows a lot about me from her mother.  

Bryn has a daughter who began a business making and selling extra special candles, wax melts, candles in cups etc.  It was a mainly web based business at first but then the business expanded into a small shop and Bryn and her daughter also became involved in the up-and-coming craft market scene in the west country and Wales.  

A craft fair stall

Bryn's talented daughter was ahead of her time - everyone you meet these days knows someone who makes candles, puts candles in cups, does wax melts and bath melts etc., all from soya wax and natural products. As one of the first, it was hard for Bryn's daughter to make ends meet and she had to stop making candles and get herself a job which paid real money! However, I can report that she has a lovely job which she enjoys and where she can use her creative side, though she still hankers to get back to her candles!

Bryn could often be seen around the craft markets and fairs in South Wales, singing the praises of her daughter's handiwork and meeting many lovely, talented people, some of whom had old/vintage items mixed in with their crafts and this began a train of thought which led Bryn to re-awakening her old passion for vintage things - linens and china in particular!

So began a new phase in Bryn's life as a vintage trader, running her fledgling business called 'Kay's Eclectic Vintage', selling at Vintage Fairs in South Wales and Bath and sourcing items from Vintage shows, Vintage Markets etc. Kay's Eclectic Vintage became a little more permanent over one Christmas as a 'pop-up' shop within a shop in Cardiff and then traded on the first floor of a shop in Cardiff's Royal Arcade for almost two years, leaving in February 2012.

A corner of the shop not long after opening.

That's the first part of Bryn's vintage story - the next blog will continue towards Lily Maud's Vintage:

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