Bye bye from Wooden donkey

Hi all, I see that I haven't written any posts since early May, a couple of weeks before my little boy was born. It has been a very busy year for me and sadly I have decided to close Wooden donkey as I no longer have the time to maintain it properly. I have loved scouring the country for exciting finds to bring you and I hope you enjoy any treasures purchased in my little shop. I have sold my remaining stock to the lovely people at H is for Home www.hisforhome.com so if there is anything you regret not buying, do get in touch with them. I will be keeping my Wooden donkey Flickr account going, to share some of my own little treasures with you (and my Twitter account too but that will just contain my daily ramblings). Thanks again for all your support. Emma x

roddy&ginger - new products

I'm a big fan of roddy&ginger's work and was excited to see their new designs, including this one of a hot-air balloon. I'm eight months pregnant and have been learning lots of relaxation techniques to help me through the birth, one of which involves visualising balloons floating away, so this design seems made just for me! (And it would look so nice on our grey sofa...) Cushions cost £26 and a print of the same design £35. Both are available from their online shop. 

Herzensart by Sandra Monat

I just discovered a wonderful site called Herzensart, set up by the talented designer and handcrafter Sandra Monat. She works from her study in Bonn, Germany where she produces one-of-a-kind soft toys, as well as printed stationery and some wonderful melamine ware for children, much of which is available to buy in her online shop. Her site is definitely worth a visit!

Lots more items added to the sale!

I'm not sure about you but I'm pretty glad January is almost over, and to celebrate I've added lots more items to the Wooden donkey sale. This is our biggest sale ever, with vintage wooden puzzles now just £13 and Carlton ware money boxes at £28, so please do take a look and pick up a bargain! www.woodendonkey.bigcartel.com

Have a lovely weekend!

Alice Melvin

I'm lucky to have lots of talented creative people visiting my shop and one such person is Alice Melvin. I love her style of illustration and couldn't resist buying a few things from her shop this evening. Her 'Cut out & make' range of greeting cards are so much fun and the 'Cut out and sew' owl puppets are very cute indeed. Definitely worth a visit!

January Sales!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you enjoyed the snowy festive season. It's back to work time, but to cheer you up, I've launched the Wooden donkey winter sale. There are lots of great reductions, so please take a look. I've also added a few new items, including these great vintage coasters.

Christmas present shopping

Still stuck for Christmas present ideas? At Wooden donkey we have lots of unique vintage treasures that make the perfect present. From the top: Set of six Worcester ware table mats £30; Cathrineholm coffeepot £50; Toy car £8, Owl moneybox £18; Soldier money box £25; Psychedelic storage tin £15, Set of six mod flower coasters £15 (three colour options available); Vintage Christmas Houze glass pin tray £22. I've also updated the shop today with some new finds, so hop on over!

New Creepy Tree cards

Creepy tree have some great new greeting card designs with a very retro feel. They cost £2.00 each (+P&P) and you can order online.

    

Shop update!

Some new treasures added to the shop today and more to follow shortly!

Site hosting problems

Oopsy - we're having a few problems with our website hosting @ www.woodendonkey.com but fear not - we should be back up and running in no time and in fact our Bigcartel shop is still working fine so there is no problem with placing orders. Until we sort out the problem, we don't have any email access, so if you need to get in touch, please use the contact form in our shop. Thank you so much!

Shop update and the big move!

Well it's busy busy busy in the Wooden donkey house at the moment. We are packing up to move house very shortly. With this in mind, I wanted to let you know that the shop will be closed for a month from Monday the 9th August. If you want to make any purchases, you've got till the end of this week! I've just updated the shop so there are lots of new, interesting items to browse, including this vintage tray which comes with a set of matching coasters. Click here to visit the shop.

Summer sale and shop update!

Just a quick post to let you know that I've just launched the Wooden donkey summer sale and I've added lots of new things to the shop today. Have a lovely sunny weekend everyone! 

Mid-century Altenkunstadt decanters

For a few years now I've been collecting a series of porcelain decanters which were made in West Germany during the 1960s* by a German factory called "Altenkunstadt". I've been surprised by how unknown they seem to be, but this has at least given me chance to gather quite a few! Although I'm sure there are more out there that I haven't discovered yet, I feel now is the time to share my collection with you. Pictured are three of my favourites.

As well as several other figural bottles, I also have one decorated with birds in a cage, one showing a bar scene and one showing a lady peeping out of a shower! My husband doesn't like them and thinks I'm potty for loving them so much, but I think they are fabulous. I will try to photograph them all, and then add the images to a special Flickr set, which I've set up here.

Altenkunstadt made other things as well as porcelain bottles, such as vases (some of which were designed by Cari Zalloni) and candlesticks like the one shown, which was decorated by a German illustrator called Susanne Dölker. I wonder if she also decorated the decanters. Jutta Lamprecht also produced illustrations for the company. The decanters were distributed in the US by Raymor, and they still have the Raymor sticker on the base. Some came with bath salts inside, others perhaps with alcohol? If anyone out there can tell me any more about these pieces I'd love to hear from you!

*Thank you so much to Larry, who has confirmed that he bought one in Germany in 1962/63, which gives me some concrete evidence of when they were produced!

Shop update!

I'm long over due for a shop update, but finally it's here and there is a bit of a seaside-y theme going on. There are beach puzzles and fishy tiles and wall plaques. Ok, so you don't see many elephants or tigers on beaches, but just humour me for now... This vintage Galt puzzle is available for £20.

Papery goodness

I picked this up recently and am thinking about framing it. It's a vintage advertising leaflet in Dutch. The words translates as "Do it Yourself. Do it this way!" I love the little figures and the colours are still very vibrant. Inside are more classic illustrations:

And I'm not much of a knitter but couldn't resist this little knitting pamphlet from 1955:

So cute! Last but not least I found this old light metre manual from the late 1950s and fell in love with the wonderful graphic design on the cover. The info inside is pretty interesting too! So it's been a good week for papery finds.

Bank holiday special - 20% off!

I was planning to go to Chiswick car boot sale today but as it's pouring with rain outside, maybe it can wait for another day. To cheer us up on this rainy bank holiday, I'm offering a whopping 20% off everything in the shop. Just remember to enter the code RAIN at checkout. The offer will run for a whole week (until the 10th May).

Shop update

Lots of new finds in the shop today, including this lovely Kenneth Townsend glass dish which is part of the London scenes series he did for Chance glass. Click here to hop on over and take a look...

Spring sale @ Wooden donkey

We're having a spring sale at Wooden donkey to make way for new finds, so hop over there and pick up a bargain! Included is this vintage Walls ice cream sign (was £120, now £100!) from an old café, featuring brilliant ice cream names like "Choc Top Woppa" and "Big Wiz".

10% off for this weekend only!

Spring is on its way and its time to freshen up my shop, so I've been fiddled around with the site colours (it actually looks a lot more like this blog now!). Hop on over and take a look and then let me know what you think. If you prefer it as it was, I can always change it back... And as I'm in such a good mood today, I've decided to give you all 10% off everything in my shop for the whole weekend! To get your 10% off, just enter "Splendid" at checkout when prompted. (The offer will end on Monday at 8pm.) Have a lovely weekend all!

Arrival of our new dining chairs

I'm very excited by the arrival of our new dining chairs today. I've been looking out for some for a while now and when these came up on the lovely vintage site Winter's Moon we knew they would be perfect. I keep going and having another look at them and a sit on them (and yes they are very comfy too!). Now to find a table to go with them...