My Vintage Pad - Home Tour - by Happy Harris of Happy Loves Rosie

Hello there - My name is Happy Harris   and I am going to take you on a little tour around my home showing you my   favorite things in my home and what inspires my creativity...but first   you will have to know a little background information, I was born in 1965 in   Barking, East London, yes right in the middle of the swinging 60's and on my   dad's birthday.  I was an only child and hated going to school.  I   would always fake an illness just to get home to Mum, where she would make me   very comfortable indeed, moving the setee nearer the fire place and providing   me with a cup of cocoa and my latest library books, which where often craft   books as I loved the bright pictures of things to make and do, and whilst   watching Ken Dodd and the Diddy Men, I would sneak down under the covers   and dream of what I was going to make next...

...My Mum is a very big   Inspiration to me, she has showed and encouraged me through life, that   you can be whoever you want to be - you just have want it enough, my mum has   suffered from a disability all her life and the determination that she has had   through life has taught me alot, so i have many photographs of her and my   family...my Mums Mum was a hoarder and such a jolly lady...I   have very fond memories of her and its with her that my character Happy   arrived from....she gave me much inspiration through laughter and fun, she   hated housework and instead we would go out walking around Hampstead Heath,   laughing and joking, eating Jellied Eels and watching the band play....often   we would be walking home and she would have to disappear behind a tree or in a   phone box to retreive her pantaloons as they would fall down and we would roar   with laughter all the way home!...armed with a little more knowledge, I hope   you will understand why I endeavor to acquire the things that i do,   everything i buy has a little history behind it - there is always a   reason...buying snippets of my memory of days gone past. (Photograph, his is a picture of my mum and a necklace that I have made...the color red always makes me happy and i have always had a love of round things and this includes buttons i am an avid collector...my Nan used to wear fantastic clothes with the most gorgeous buttons in them and I always remember thinking that the buttons looked so much nicer that the actual clothes they were on!) 





I also have a love of vintage enamel and whilst looking for a home in France, we collected so many pieces, to many in fact, that we couldn't afford to move there in the end!! LOL! This young lass is also another inspiration to me...This is Rosie my daughter and I teach her at home, when she was at school, they used to tell me that she wasn't very good at her work and since leaving school and being at home, she has just taken 3 GCSE's at 14 and will hopefully be starting an NVQ in hairdressing next year...she is a lovely girl and I am very proud of her...she inspires me everyday... the things we learn together...its SO fun!

 

I love this picture...vintage floral material and   spotty bits and pieces with black and white vintage   photographs are amongst my favorite things and this Blythe style doll   made from a wooden spoon by Rosie.

My   most favorite things in this room is the hooks above and this dresser   and my favorite things are the floral enamel and vintage postcards and   photographs of family.

I love this picture...whenever I look at this pic it makes me feel full   of the joys of spring...its just a happy cheery kind of picture...and I love   my Cath kidston shopper - now theres another lass that inspires me...we have   sold to her in the past, mainly vintage material and small household bits, you   will see a lot of her things in my house, if you want a happy house with good   karma - stick to bright colors, lots of floral, red, pinks and blues, in fact  I always say paint your walls white...they can be the   canvas....and then add shelves and coat hooks and hang your favorite   things....our house is rented, so we decorate like this so that when we move   to the next house, we can take it all with us...this house has a blue carpet   in every room...it always goes with the color scheme, but really I do   love wooden floors with rugs to set the color scheme...I never choose, purple   or orange and i never used to like yellow either until just recently   in fact....i now like it faintly in floral material, as a lot of the vintage   pieces have it in there.

Vintage material and books are one of my favorite   things. I love the patterns and textures and just by looking at the   material, you can see its age,I love that.

I love Old books and annuals - the   stories in them are so unique and of a time gone by....the days before   television....the days when, if you said your were bored it meant you   really were BORED!.....these are all my favorite things in my   house.

Basically, I love color. I feel its brain food that inspires the   mind and collecting ephemera of a time gone by.In the future our children   will not be able to collect things like this so I feel it is important to keep a hold of it all. I feel this is the legacy from my Nan, she was a   hoarder and now in my collections I want to be too. Computers are here to   stay, so the collections will never be the same but thankfully there will   still be us bloggers here to type about it and keep all these memories   alive!

(Photography, My Nan's Postcards...I love these as they are so cheeky just like she used to be...)

A special thank you to Happy Harris & Rosie for a look into their Vintage Pad and all the wonderful stories and things that inspire them. I have to mention their on line store Happy Loves Rosie. The store is just as cheerful as their home is. You will fall in love with the home wares, jewelry, vintage finds and more. 

Comments

[LuAnn Smith]

Wow, I am so inspired. Absolutely, love, love love Happy Loves Rosie.

[Gina M. Smith]

What cheery pics and a cheery read!

[Domestic Chicky]

Hi Happy!

I love your style - do you think you can convince Kath to open a store here? It's SO not fair for you to have ALL the pretties there!

[Cathe Holden]

Oh my gosh! These photos rock! Now I HAVE to completely redo my entire house. Delicious!

[Patrizia]

Your home is GORGEOUS! WOW! Your blog is beautiful too!

[Gabreial, Vintage Indie]

Thanks Patrizia for stopping by. I wish this home were mine, but it's not, Happy Harris is wonderful designer!