Simply Thimbles

Hi all, Lots of places have souvenir thimbles which can be taken home as a small memento of a journey to a far away place, a visit to an historic building, a theme park, or even a popular tourist attraction.   Most of the souvenir thimbles in my collection have either been given to me by friends and relatives or purchased in charity shops or from ebay.    Rather than being a record of places that I have been they are more of a wish list - a thimble trail of places I would like to visit. One of my friends brought this back from a recent trip to Scotland. I picked the next couple up from Ebay. Both Scotland and the Lake District are places that I haven't been to yet but would like to. That isn't the only thing they have in common.  They are both a bit soggy and grey at the moment so maybe that's a trip I should save for summer months ☺. In the meantime, here are some thimbles with ...

Hi all, Time flies doesn't it? Seems like only yesterday when I last posted to this blog. Can't believe it was March 2015! I think I must have been asleep because I have no idea why it has taken so long to post. These thimbles show the passage of time. All of it a lot before mine, I hasten to add. These little ladies show the changes in fashion in the United States from 1900 through to 1947. Originally part of a collection from Avon in the1980s. The four above are from left to right, 1910, 1900, 1928 & 1927. These four are 1923, 1938, 1942 & 1947. The 1920s must have been a great decade for fashion in the US, with 3 examples from that era included in the collection. In fact the 20s were a time of great change and not just for clothes. It was the interim period between two world wars. People thought that with the end of the First World War, conflict was over and there was a new, vibrant, buzz for the future. It was the age of bobbed hair, the Char...

I quite like vintage cars. I also like vintage sewingmachines . So imagine my surprise when I found out that the White Steamer was made by the same company that made White Sewing Machines. How cool is that? When Thomas White, the founder of the White Sewing Machine Company bought a steam car back in the 1890s, it inspired his son, Rollin White to develop a steam generator which was made up of stacked coils.  Water was pumped into the top of the coils with steam being produced in the bottom coils closest to the fire. Not only did his design allow water input to be regulated, it also allowed temperature control. He patented the design describing it as being a quicker, safer and more economical way to generate steam power. Even with the improvements though, the engines still had to warm up enough to start producing steam. That’s probably why the combustion engine became more popular. It was a lot quicker to get going. Eventually, when steam power could no long...

It's amazing what you find hiding on your desktop when you're looking for something else. I don't mean an actual desktop, I'm talking about the desktop on my laptop. When I'm working on something, I always save it to my desktop so I can find it. It's a trait that really, really annoys the IT people I've worked with. You see, the more stuff you have on your desktop, the harder the computer has to work just to wake up in the mornings. Somedays, I know just how it feels. You see, every document and photo sitting on your desktop becomes part of the starting sequence or boot-up routine for your computer. The more it has to load, the longer it takes to start. Until, eventually, you've got time to go pop the kettle on, make a cup of tea, come back, drink it... and still have to wait ten minutes for the PC to wake up. IT techies everywhere, fed up with solving problems caused by overloaded desktops are yelling, "Use Shortcuts!" My desktop g...

Hi all, Most people will be aware that man first landed on the moon in 1969. What might not be so well known is that the world's first supersonic flight was also in 1969. Supersonic means faster than the speed of sound which at around 768 miles per hour, is pretty quick. Although not as quick as 7 miles per second which is the speed Apollo 11 had to travel to escape Earth's gravitational field. 1969 was definitely the year for speed. Up until 1 st October 1969, flights had been subsonic, meaning that they were slower than the speed of sound. Concorde's first supersonic flight meant people could now travel across the globe in a fraction of the time. Concorde was a collaborative project between the UK and France and was heralded as a triumph in modern engineering. The planes were operated by Air France and British Airways. The name was chosen to reflect the partnership between the two countries. The words “Concorde” in French and “Concord” in English, ...

Hi there, These guys are the characters from Dad's Army, a British TV comedy from the 1970s.  It was a sit-com about the Home Guard during the Second World War. Originally called Local Defence Volunteers, the Home Guard was made up of men who were either too young or too old to enlist. Most were too old. Hence the nick-name Dad's Army.  Their job was to defend the home front against possible invasion. In the early days, the Local Defence volunteers had to wait for equipment as the regular army had priority.  This is where most of the more comic moments of the TV series came from.  The never-ending enthusiasm to invent ways of hindering an invasion using whatever tools they had to hand.  The re-runs are still popular today.  An everlasting tribute to the real band of Dads and Grandads, all of them volunteers, who watched over and protected our coastline and homes. Dad's Army is and always will be one of my all time favourite comedies.  Which is...

Hi there, Ironing has never been one of my favourite pastimes. I know it's something that has to be done but I always put it off. Usually because I've found something better to do. There is a pile of washing waiting for me right now, nicely stacked in the airing cupboard, waiting patiently. It's going to be there a long time, or at least until I run out of other clothes. I'd honestly rather de-ice the freezer than pick up an iron. I'm not alone. I know lots of people who hate ironing and find it a boring chore.  Why is that? Why is it such a chore? Is it because it hurts when you accidentally iron your fingers as well as that tricky hem that just will not lie flat? It never ceases to amaze me that we can fly across the globe, we've even sent man to the moon and yet, after all this time, we are still ironing clothes. These days ironing is easy. With fabric conditioners, modern fabrics and hi-tech modern irons, it really is a breeze compared to wha...

Hi there I found this thimble at a local car boot sale for 50p. It's Inspector Clouseau from The Pink Panther cartoon series. I love the way that thimbles can turn back the years and remind me of things that I didn't even know I had forgotten. One minute I'm walking around a car boot sale on a wet and windy present-day Saturday, the next I'm transported back to the care-free sunny Saturdays of youth, sitting cross-legged on the floor, eyes glued to our first ever colour TV. Well, not literally obviously, it's a thimble not a time machine. Anyway, the slight down-side is that thimbles can highlight the passing of time.  When Eldest and Youngest saw this little guy, they hadn't got a clue who he was.  Watching him on Youtube didn't help much.  They thought it was too slow and didn't really get the humour. They thought it was weird. These days they are into sparkly vampires and Manga. Ah kids. They have this uncanny knack of making you feel... old!...

Hi there Aluminium (aluminum) is a light metal which is workable from cold and although it can corrode, it doesn't go rusty.  The metal has the same drawback as silver though - it is incredibly soft and damages easily. I came across this thimble in a local second hand shop. It was part of a block purchase that I picked up for 50p. This thimble is made from an aluminium mix.  Its 90% aluminium, 4% copper about 1% magnesium and a little bit of manganese. This makes a very hard, durable aluminium alloy called Duralumin.  Duralumin was discovered in 1910 by a German man called Alfred Wilm.  It was first used for aeroplane parts in the first world war, but it didn't take long for other industries to catch on to the benefits of using the stronger alloy.  Stratnoid is a brand name for Laughton & Sons of Birmingham who not only produced millions of these stronger aluminium thimbles between the 1920s - 1940s, but also...

Hi all I was delighted to open the post this morning to find these lovely thimbles. They are an exchange from Silvia in Spain.  Muchas gracias Silvia, me encantan.  I love them Silvia, thank you so much.  Thank you for the fridge magnet to.  A very nice surprise!  Gracias por el imán de la nevera. Una muy grata sorpresa.     Silvia, yo tambien enviar algunos a usted. Debe conseguirlas pronto. I am sending you some which should be with you soon.   Bye for now   Olly       

Hi all, According to the back of the thimble these two comic characters are Arthur Stanley Jefferson and Oliver Norvell Hardy.  Better known to millions as Laurel and Hardy or even more simply as Stan and Ollie. I have some fond childhood memories of watching re-runs of Laurel and Hardy on the TV with my family.  They had an innocent comical magic that could appeal to all ages. Slapstick at its very best. Oliver is probably the most famous Ollie that I know of and is one of the reasons why I am called Olly.  When I first started school, my friends caught on to the fact that my proper name, Olwen, is very similar to Oliver.  It didn't take long for everyone to start calling me Olly and it stuck. Now there are a few things about Stan and Ollie that I didn't know until I bought this thimble.  The first one is that Stan's surname was Jefferson, Laurel was just his stage name. The second is th...

Hi there, I'm finally starting to get settled again after moving for the second time in 6 months!  I've picked up a few thimbles over the last few weeks, all of which went straight into a box and I've only just had the chance to take a good look at them and to take photos of them. This first one is a Morris Minor, also known as a "Moggie". The Moggie was designed by Alex Issigonis and went on sale for the first time back in 1948.  Alex Issigonis also developed my favourite car, the Mini in 1959. I'm not sure why the Morris Minor got the nickname of moggie but it was so popular that in 1961 it became the first British car to reach 1,000,000.  This milestone was celebrated by the production of a limited number of Lilac moggies. What a cool colour for a car. I think that's really sweet. Sticking with the Moggies theme, this thimble is also really sweet. As long as you are not the little chick... Bye for now Olly

I found this thimble at a local car boot sale for 50p. Well, technically it was T who spotted it first. He pointed it out to me as he thought it looked wierd. It’s made from metal, possibly brass, and has a small round hole at the top. It's a peephole thimble, otherwise known as a Stanhope thimble. It has an inbuilt lens for viewing micro pictures. You put the top of the thimble up to your eye, tilt towards the light and you can view the little tiny picture inside. The pictures inside could be of famous people, historic events, seaside resorts. Some could even have been a touch risqué. Basically, they are souvenirs or novelties. Unfortunately, the picture in this one has been lost so I can only guess at what it might have been. The name Stanhope refers to the lens on the inside and is named after the 3rd Earl of Stanhope who is generally accepted as being the inventor of this style of lens. He didn’t invent it for looking at micro pictures in souvenirs though. He d...

We have an exchange student from Japan staying with us at the moment and one of the things that she wanted to see whilst here in Cornwall was the Minack theatre.  It's an open air theatre perched on the side of a cliff just a little way up the coast from Lands End near a little village called Porthcurno. T, Eldest, Youngest and I have never been to the Minack Theatre so we thought this would be a prime opportunity to put that right. We went to see Madam Butterfly. A very sad tale of betrayal and lost love.  Now, the play itself was pretty good.  I couldn't understand all the singing.  It was a bit high pitched and the sound kept dropping out if the actors moved away from centre stage, but that didn't really matter as you can pick up the general idea of what is going on by just watching. I can't really say that I was impressed by The Minack Theatre though.  There are signs as you enter the Th...

Hi all, I find pewter amazing.  It's such a workable material, made up from 90% tin mixed with copper and a few other things that I have never heard of such as Antimony and Bismuth. I had to look those last two up on Google.  Apparently they are chemical elements. Pewter has been around for a long time. Mostly famous for making utensils, tankards and plates, its pliable nature lends itself to souvenirs, models, curios and thimbles.  The designs on many Pewter items can be really detailed. Like this narrowboat... otherwise known as a canal boat or barge. An invaluable mode of transport in the Industrial Revolution. Or this dragon... with its pointed sharp claws and long tail that spans the whole diameter of the thimble. Or these swans... their majestic grace just radiates as they swim effortlessly around the base. It's no wonder that some of my favourite thimbles are Pewter . Bye for now Olly Facebook.com/olwenwhite/ ...

Have I mentioned that I love a bargain?  Well, I was browsing in one of our local second-hand shops when I came across a bargain that I just couldn't pass by.  Twenty Dollars for 99p. What a brilliant exchange rate.  Te He.  Bye for now Olly Facebook.com/olwenwhite/ instagram.com/olwenwhitewrites/ Twitter @OlwenWhite