I wish I lived in the 1960's!

I adore mid century modern design and have tried to incorporate in to the design of my house which was created by my husband architect Ciaran McCoy. 

We have little touches around the house including a mid century bar cart, 1960's sewing machine and a G Plan sideboard.

I think I am looking somewhat Mid Century Modern in this mustard dress posed beside my sister's bar (the red chair adds to effect).

One of the biggest design nods to Mid Century Modern is our conversation pit which is modelled on Sam Stephenson's amazing conversation pit in his Leeson Street house.

All of the above brings me to tell you about a brilliant resource that I use online. I am a member of a Mid Century Modern group on Facebook.  It is run by DC Hillier who really knows his stuff!!

DC runs the excellent mcmdaily.com website. DC plans to take his website to the next level  and wants to turn his website in to a full time venture with more media based content.

In order to get this venture up and running he is crowd funding for his website.  By supporting him through donating to his crowd funding request you also have a chance to win a most amazing prize!!

Check this baby out....

It's a 1996 fully restored Clairtone Project G2 stereo which has a market value of $25,000!! 

I'm heading on to the crowdfunding kickstarter page now to support MCM Daily - click here if you would like to also!

The drinks are on me!

My sister found this little gem of a drinks trolley for sale by a guy down a lane near her office in Dublin City near the historic Abbey Theatre. He is selling stuff from his garage every day from 12-3pm and she has bought things from him every now and again (including this chair). 

I am so happy that she encouraged me to buy this item - I think it looks perfect in my house and I was also very happy with the very reasonable price tag on it too!

Something else that was for sale was this Singer Futura 1000 sewing machine.  I was a little unconvinced whether this was a good buy but when I got home I cleaned it up and it grew on me.

The sewing machine can be lifted out and a wood panel can be put in to the space where the machine sits.  This means that the desk can be used for lots of other uses rather than just a sewing desk.

The desk/cabinet is marked as being made in France.

The machine was made in "West Germany" so it is certainly older than when the Berlin Wall came down. I would reckon it is from the 1970's. It can do lots of different stitches so I will have fun trying it out!

I carried it in from my car myself and also reattached the legs.  But I will need a hand to get it up to my studio so for the moment it sits in my hallway  :-(

Flea Market - Newmarket

I heard the Dublin Flea Market was on this Sunday so we called to it on the way to Ciaran's parents.

My first purchase was this great polaroid camera.  The girl who sold it to us said it worked but did say that the film was expensive (which it was!!)

There was lots of stalls outside and more inside.  Inside was where we came upon Kirk Modern and all their great mid century modern lovelies.  We were looking for a desk for our studio and were delighted to find the below desk.  It's from 1959 and looks like it has seen a lot of interesting times.  It's got great character and goes perfectly with my sewing table.

 


Ciaran has a real thing for lamps and when he saw this creation being sold by Kirk Modern (check out their website they have loads of really nice stuff) he couldn't resist buying it.  It's a funky looking thing - I like it!

We positioned it in our hallway as you enter the house on our sideboard.

 

 My sisters and I always received a Mandy Annual at Christmas so I couldn't resist taking a photo of this 1978 book and then texting the picture to them.  I think we all read this annual!







On the way to the other side of the city, I stopped at a camera shop and bought a film for my new camera.  At 35 euro for 8 photos the polaroid camera film cartridges are not cheap.  However, I decided to take one photo of Ciaran and his parents.  I really enjoyed the experience of taking the picture - the big clunky button on the side made you feel like you were really taking a photo.  Far more enjoyable and satisfying than using my phone!