Home making - cath kidston

Before I do my usual Thrifting find posts I thought I'd show you a little something I've been working on over the weekend.

Now I do love my bathroom as it is but thought I'd have a change of scheme for summer...

A while ago I sourced a Super King duvet cover in the lovely Boats fabric by Cath Kidston in TKMaxx and as we've yet to buy superking bed for the upstairs bedroom (in fact that room is far from finished - as we may be installing an ensuite) I thought I'd use the cover to create a 'boats' themed summer bathroom.

OK, with maybe a nod to the CK bathroom in the book Vintage Style.

So here is the result of my toil. I'm still keeping my red spotty towels and bathmat but the new curtains give it a far more airy look than the previous curtains.

I still have a huge section left to make wash bags from and a complete side to create an outer shower curtain from (when we get round to installing a shower) so fabric wise the duvet was well worth the money.

I don't want to go too overboard with the boats theme but maybe I'll pick up a couple of red wooden boats from the booty to use as colour accents around the bathroom?

BTW I sold my pink paisely duvet cover on ebay recouping all the money I laid out that day when I had a huge splurge at the booty! I was also going to advertise my two single rosali duvet covers on ebay ( I have 3 single covers in exactly the same pattern and only one single bed) but at the moment there are several listed so thought I'd wait til they go off. I'm not great with ebay - it terrifies me!

Finds - a rather expensive item

Hmmm well I posted 'Finds' for my post topic but please excuse a little rant first.

Back in March I attended hospital as an outpatient to see the Thyroid consultant about my high thyroid level; two of them discussed my case as I've had problems in the past. Conclusion was that I was to have a blood test and take home a prescription. IF the blood test came back high someone would ring me tell me to take the tablets and arrange an appointment. I never heard anything off the hospital and gave a sigh of relief throwing away the prescription.

This morning I went to see my GP about something else and found out that a letter had been sent to him stating my blood results were high and I'd been put on tablets!!

Two angry phone call later I'm now taking tablets for a problem that should have been gone ages ago. Talk about the NH Mess :-( That's the second time the department have lost my file/not followed up my case.

Now, for the fun bit.

Saturday was rained off but the DH took me to the sunday boot sale and despite the showers a few stallholders had ventured out.

I picked up three sweaters for autumn, two good names and one Asda one that was brand new with tags and I paid 50-£1 each. I'm determined to have a new wardrobe for about £100 by the end of this year.

As you may or may not know I'm writing ( or trying to) a novel that is a time travel romance set in the Stone Age (think hunky cavemen) and when I spotted this necklace it just reminded me of my story. I've got a 'thing' about necklaces at the moment and love wearing them - at a £1 I can pretend I'm my Evie romping about the Stone Age.

There wasn't much else at the booty until I came to the very last stall.......

I knew something was going on the way the buyers were flocking around like bees to a honeypot and I saw the arms grabbing things as fast as the lady and her daughter were putting them out.

The sellers had one of those expensive Range Rover and were dressed subtly in expensive items (you know how some people dress flash and want everyone to see their labels - these were from the old school were expensive labels are usually kept inside the garment).

There were too many people gathered around the clothes for me to get a look in but I picked up three bags that I rather liked. A Next tassled one for £1.

And then I saw a nice bright pink velvet one (OK I go for flash) and a subtle black one in the shape of a saddle. Now I've had horses most of my life and so it appealed to me on that level; besides which I could tell by the feel and look that this bag would be expensive.

So I grabbed and called over to the daughter, "How much?"

"£5 for the black one and £2 for the other."

I kept hold of them both and looked them over, seeing a blue stain on the zip of the pink one I asked her if I could have them both for £5.

"Oh yes," she said, "Certainly."

I paid her for both bags and slung them over my shoulder and sidled over to the clothes. Everything was designer. I picked up one gorgeous velvet jacket with matching bag for £10 and grabbed a cardigan to have a look at that - cashmere and silk £6. Both items were a size too big for me and a bit 'dressy'. While I was debating whether or not to buy I heard the stallholder say, "____ (daughters name removed in case this is seen) Have you sold my black Dior bag?"

Daughter looked at me and grinned, "No Mummy. I haven't seen it."

I decided that I needed to make a quick exit at this point and left the clothes were they were.

Here's my pink Jennifer Lopez bag.

When I got back to the car I excitedly showed the DH my black saddle bag.

My DIOR bag for £3.

Now I know there are a lot of fakes about but real or fake I'm still thrilled with it (and I bet they originally paid a LOT more than I did).

BTW I've also had a kingsize Rosali bedspead and duvet cover dropped off at my house recently. Which brings me to a delimma. I'm thinking of selling the king size pink paisley one on ebay - mainly because I've spent rather a lot recently and need to get a bit of money back. Any ideas selling tips please? I'm thinking of starting at £20 and letting it run? What do you think?

6 unimportant things I love Tag & Rosali news

Before I get to do the "6 Unimportant Things That I love" tag I thought I'd give you my latest bit of news on my boot sale Rosali find. On Saturday the lady I bought all my bedding, curtains and linens from phoned me up to see if I wanted a Kindgize bedspread and a King size duvet cover? Of course I said "YES!" She's calling round at my house later today and dropping them off for me :-)

The Booty was rained off on Saturday but I did go to the one on Sunday and picked up a few bits and bobs despite the rain. One item is of particular interest and an amusing story..... more about that on my next post.

So.... the tag.

Sue over at http://ournewlifeinthecountry.blogspot.com/ (our new life in the country) was kind enough to tag me to do a 6 unimportant things I love list.

First of all here are No 1 & No 2.

My daybed plumped up with pillows and cushions galore! So relaxing to lie on and read a book or just to simply 'chill' during the day.

No 2 has to be Rosali! ^ I love the flowery pattern and its everywhere in the house ^.

No 3 incorporates three things that I love. Englishness (check out the English Beefeater uniform and the silly hat) on my English Bull Terrier ornament. I also love roses blooming in the English rain, English summers, English gardens, old English houses, English post boxes and so on.

No 4 Baking cakes (or bread) in my breadmaker and then eating them :-)

No 5 Looking out at views like this one. Its great to just open my gate and wander off through the countryside. I've been lucky enough to be able to do this most of my life.

No 6

My Keep Calm poster which still has to find a permanent place to live and is for now sitting on top of a table.

Now to tag 6 other bloggers.....

Ok

http://florence-and-mary.blogspot.com/

http://thecraftytrundler.blogspot.com/

http://carbootcassie.blogspot.com/

http://www.makinggooduse.typepad.co.uk/

http://whatshappeningatmyhouse.wordpress.com/

http://thebalancingkiwi.blogspot.com/

Cath Kidston Rosali Boot Sale

On Sunday I had a really good day - well ok not a day, more like 35 mins at the booty.

The day was promising to be hot and it was so sunny at 5am that I woke up and decided to go to the booty early. First I had to sort out the dogs and the kennels and then we grabbed a cup of tea jumped in the car and away we went!

We were there just before 6am and split up, the DH going one way and me going the other. I trotted round picking up a few bits and bobs on the way....

Isn't this flower bracelet pretty? Especially for 50p.

Do you like my tan? I've been sunbathing in the garden and this year seem to be aquiring an amazing tan (usually I can stay in the sun for weeks and just go off white).

On the same stall I spotted another diamante bracelet again for 50p.

So that was £1 spent.

A little further on I bought a PerUna wrap around top for 50p and a Miss Sixty hippy top for £1

£2.50 spent so far.

I browsed my way down three rows and then looked up and spotted four cushions.....

Rosali cushions.

I nearly fell over my own feet trying to get to them! (If you've read my blog you'll know I have a Rosali addiction). The lady behind the stall must have seen my gawpy expression and smiled brightly and shouted 'Hello!'

"Hello," says I, "How much are your cushions?"

£3 each she says.

"I'll have them!" I replied and then spotted a H-U-G-E pile of Rosali linens piled high on her stall.

"Curtains," says I, "How big and how much?"

She replied that they'd been specially made and showed me some quite short curtains that were wide and said she wanted £10. And then she showed me 8 rosali pillowslips, 2 single bed covers, 1 king size pink paisley duvet cover and 4 pink paisley pillowslips.

"How much for everything?" I asked breathlessly (thinking Heck I've only got £35 left).

"£40 for the rosali and paisley stuff," she replied

"I'll have it," I yelped and began to count out my money hoping that I was mistaken and there was £40 in my purse.

As I was counting out my money -Laughing as I did so and she agreed to take £35 if that was all I had. I'd just got to about £30 and coppering up when I heard a woman's voice behind saying, "Those cushions are lovely!"

Next thing I knew she was grabbing them from between my legs, clutching them to her chest and asking how much? "They're mine," I snarled, "I'm just paying for them now."

Her face went all red and she put them down quickly saying she was sorry, that I had good taste and scuttled off embarrassed.

So for £35 I bought -

4 cushions complete with feather inners,

2 single duvet covers in Rosali

8 rosali pillowslips

4 pink paisley pillowslips,

1 kingsize paisley duvet cover

and one pair of curtians in Rosali very thick heavy cotton.

I had 15 pence left over so had to phone the DH up and ask him to give me a lift carrying all my treasures back to the car and we went home.

Lesson learnt. Always take extra money with you in case you see that 'must have' item

Here's a photo of the curtains up in my kitchen.

And the following day (after doing masses of washing and ironing - although they were spotlessly clean when I bought them) I made one pair of pillow cases into a set of small lined curtains for the tiny window over my sink.

The lady also had a ENORMOUS rosali bedspead with all her stuff piled up on it - which I only spotted as I was walking off. She said she wasn't going to sell it that day but intended to wash it and bring it back the following sunday with a kingsize rosali duvet cover. I asked her to keep them to one side for me and I'll buy them both from her.

The DH is feeling stressed - red roses are taking over his life (mind you I did wind him up by telling him I'd also bought a couch off her in the same pattern). :-))

Yay!! more stuff from the boot sale and my weekly adventures

I've been in a funny mood lately so haven't felt like blogging (noticed I'm not the only one out there who has disappeared off the blogging scene so I guess we must all feel in a 'funny mood')

So, what's been happening? Well last weekedn we got rained off on Saturday and the sunday I spent at an Angling day with the DH. I do have photos but won't bore you with them ;-)

Then I went to my little creative writing class on Tuesday and that was the last day we have an organised tutor there. From now on we are on our own hoping that the council will fund a new tutor for us :-(

On Thursday I went with my sister to a poetry evening at a pub in the town near us. Errr, who has ever heard of a pub that is colder inside than outside? I went in full of crazy dreams of heat and stuffy pubs dressed in a flimsy little top ( a Jane Norman 50p number from the previous booty), jeans and my brand new strappy high heeled sandals. My sister was similarly dressed for a warm balmy eveing.

Anyhow, they left the doors to the beer garden open so we sat in front of the sound man's wooden box against the wall (well out the wind). BUT It was freezing!

And then, part way through the first section I heard a drip, drip dripping sound coming from behind me... I thought that soundman is having a wee and spun round to give him a piece of my mind!

It wasn't the sound man (poor fella was only sat there drinking a hot drink). I did see however a pool of water on the floor near me and when I looked up spotted more water pouring down the wall - rivers of it running down all over the electric cables!!

I pointed it out to my sister and she shuffled up so I was out of danger of flooding/electricution but that put us directly in the wind tunnel and we were literally shivering with cold.

When the first half finished we decided to leave, vowing to come back the following time wearing Arctic survival suits and a built in umbrella on our heads! I got home, put on my nightie, a fleece over the top, a pair of long thick wooly socks and made myself a hot drink. It took ages to warm up - lucky we've not come down with 'flu.

Saturday, was a lovely day. Did you all manage to get out and about? Bargains?

First bargains of the day was on a lady's stall with a ground sheet covered with bits and bobs with the promising label stating , '£1 or Less'. At one side was a pile of vintage tablecloths, napkins, and other embroidered bits. The lady came over and said most of the linens were 20p so I started to dig in the pile. I found a lovely vintage apron with the crinolene lady design and somehow I keep thinking 1940's whenever I look at it?

Any ideas on how to date them?

I've put a close up of the actual embroidery at the top of the post.

This embroidered design was carefuly done on one of the napkins, I don't know why but I HAD to have this little bit of embroidery, such lovely colours and the closework is well done.

Another pretty embroidered napkin - a bright and colourful pansy and superbly done. I picked a few of these napkins up but left a lot more.
Sorry this mat was hard to photograph, its sort of done on net and there are some teeny tiny holes from age. I picked up two of them.

A tea cosy with yet again exquisite poppy embroidery detail. I don't know who made these items but their workmanship is absolutely wonderful. I wish I could tell this lady whoever she was that her work is appreciated.

I also bought a few other white work embroidered pieces but won't show you them as they photos didn't come out all that well. Perhaps the sun reflected off my whiter than white washing?

But I will show you this piece as a tribute to the unknown seamstress who must have spent so much time on these items.

Another embroidered cloth and yet again I keep thinking 1940's when I look at it...?

To give you an idea of size here it is under my full size wash bowl and jug.
Anyhow, I collected all these bits from the linen pile and took them over to the stallholder who charged me.....£1!!

10 items for £1. I nearly fainted and should have scuttled back and picked up another pile of vintage linens for that price!

However my eye was taken with a powder blue vintage set of scales on her stall also priced at £1 ( I heard her telling a middle aged couple that she just wanted everything gone). Anyway, I stared at the vintage scales - not as nice as my red ones but the second nicest I've ever seen and then walked away before I gave in to temptation!

I suppose I should have bought them and advertised them or something but I just thought 'heavy' and walked off. They were VERY pretty if a little bit chippy. Hmmm, well I suppose I can't have everything, the DH will be saying he is living in Steptoe's house (who remembers Steptoe? )

Actually, after saying all that I told the DH and he said I should have bought them!

Next came my bucket. 50p. Bought to store my washing up liquid and other bits in as I hate looking at bottle of washing up liquid.

What was next......?

Oh yes more knickers :-) Remember me buying underwear brand new with tags for 50p each? This time I went better.

This time I bought three bikini bottoms FREYA (off a lady selling new undies -yes with tags and hygene stickers in place).. price ? Beats 50p a go.

TWENTY PENCE each!

I must be getting to be quite Brazen - I never even flinched then when I posted that picture :-)

Then I bought this. The lady had rubbed it down so I gave it a coat of wax and put it in situ as soon as I got home






I paid a fiver for it. And no, I didn't struggle round the booty with it - I left it there and carried on; only going back for it last thing.

Bought this off the shoulder top for 50p. You can't see but there are roses embroidered all over it.

More tops 50p-£1I've been buying a few items of clothing recently, generally not paying more than £1 for any one item -my idea is to see if I can gather a brand new wardrobe by the end of the season?

(Having lost over a stone in weight most of my clothes are baggy)

I freely admit to having picked up a couple of mistakes along the way (too tight or doesn't suit) but for £1 or less I can always give to the charity shop and don't suffer financially.

I'm picking up nice names too, Hooch, Miss Sixty, Per Una, Principles, Jane Norman, River Island.... And choosing items that are like new. Nothing from Primark type shops(unless I fell in love with it) and nothing tatty.

So, my little challenge is to find a good wardrobe of clothes for less than say hundred pounds? Maybe a hundred and fifty?

Lets face it if at the end of the year I decide I don't like any of it I can always give it away!

Should I put my knickers on public view?

A strange post title I know and doubtless I'll now get lots of 'interesting people' from google with an urge to look at women's knickers.

Its been an odd sort of week. I've decided to give up one of my creative writing courses that is held in the morning in a rather odd place a bus ride away from me. Sorry for being vague but there are some lovely people there and I wouldn't like to offend anyone with what I'm going to say.

However...<>. There are just too many people attending, there is no structure, no proper tutor and I find it uninspiring. I've been there three times and two out of the three times there has been no proper lesson plan and just primary school homework, ie write a story or poem about a nut or last week it was a chair. Now how on earth can I, a woman with an interest in romance, time travel and history find anything inspiring to write about a nut?

It doesn't help that its held in the morning and as I have the kennels to clean first thing in the morning and the dogs to sort every time I attend I arrive slightly late and breathless to find there is no chair and no space for me at the table....

I'm moaning aren't I? Sorry.

Anyway, that group is going to be given up and my other course ends next week, boo hoo. Hoping that this one will restart after a short break as its a small tightly knit group with a good tutor who helps you with things you are interested in rather than forcing you to write about a nut. I still can't get over the nut....

OK, my knickers.....

Its been an odd sort of week (I've said that already haven't I?), red hot weather tempting me out into the garden in my itsy bitsy bikini - got a nice tan coming- and I was so looking forward to the Boot Sales last weekend.

What happens then but Saturdays is cancelled as my Dad had to wait for the dreaded BT engineer to come out and mend the phoneline. Why is it the operators in India or wherever they are always insist that it is YOUR phone that is the problem and they intend to charge you £120 or whatever it is for an engineer to come out and inspect it? They tried this with my Dad, even claiming he'd purposely damaged the socket at one stage (although they'd never seen either the phone or the line and were just guessing). I mean my Dad is a pensioner, why would he be sticking chocolate buttons in the socket?

Do these phone line operators actually live on this planet? I have my doubts.

So Dad had to wait in for a BT engineer who told him the fault lay in the box 750 yards away and I never got to my Boot Sale.

So at what point do the knickers come into it?

Well...

Sunday I persuaded the DH to take me to the Giant Booty and set my alarm for 6am so that we could be there for 7am at the latest. Next thing I know the alarm has failed to go off (dead battery stopped at 5.55am would you believe it!) and so we only got there for 9am.

I don't like going to these giant affairs later on, its packed out with fat people stuffing burgers into their enormous mouths (sorry for any thin burger eaters at boot sales at this point but is it only me whos noticed that 90% of the people eating burgers look like they are heading for a serious medical problem? It may just be me and my recent health drive that's made me notice these things - if so ignore me). Then there are all the masses of people you have to fight, fall over, squash against to get past each stall and when you go later on you know all the best buys have been snapped up.

So... there's me having a bad weekend searching for some little gem that will make getting up early(ish) on a sunday morning worth it.

Did I find it?

Well what I did find was two ladies selling a stall full of brand new underwear. Normally its something I wouldn't buy from a booty but this stuff all was labelled and looked as if it had come from some shop that had recently closed down.

Knickers, bras, bikinis and loads more stuff I didn't get the chance to explore and all at 50p each. Yep the store labels said £18 and they were being sold for 50p. I managed to pick up a pretty lemon set, a white bra, two evening bras (the type you can show under your clothes) and a bikin type top before I over heard a woman buying the entire stall contents for £300. So, I never got to explore the interesting looking boxes of undies or check out the bikinis or the rest of their knickers as the stallholders packed everything up and handed it over to the new owners.

Ok I'm going to be daring and show you a photo of my new underwear...

All great quality and a good comfy fit and cost £3 for everything.

Still buzzing off my new undies I walked round and spotted a lace edged tablecloth on a stall. Not as nice as the one I picked up last weekend for 50p but a good deep lace edge to it nonetheless.

I asked the price.

£15.

I nearly fainted and the stallholder must have seen my face as she asked what I wanted to pay and when I replied that I 'rescue' them and have never paid more than £1 she offered to knock me three pounds off the price. I thanked her for the kind offer and scarpered.

Just think what she'd have wanted for the one I got last week - probably £30.

I bought two books, one for my story research and one about the Magdelaine Laundaries in Ireland. I don't know why I bought the one about the laundaries I only get angry with the nuns who were in charge of these regimes and want to smack them for the abuse they gave out to these poor girls in their care.

Then I found something interesting..

Occasionally I'll pick up item of clothing at Boot Sales, just the odd top or something but its not often I see a woman selling what looked like the entire contents of her wardrobe. I spotted a young woman of about twentyish buying an armful of clothes and went over to look....She was buzzing with excitement and saying over and over again, "Look mum I have got an entire new wardrobe and I've only spent ten pounds".

Now I like watching people get a bargain, it puts a smile on my face so I went over and had a little browse on the stall. There was a makeshift rail with a few tops hanging from it, a massive mound on the floor and a trailor full of clothes....and it was in my size. I picked a few items up and asked the price. "everything is 50p"

Now I don't like scrabbling in a pile of clothes on the floor - its a pet hate of mine. I'll scrabble for other stuff don't get me wrong but scrabbling for clothes with foot prints all over them is a big put off to me.

Anyway, I found a few items and the stallholder charged me £4 and when I got them home and washed them I was surprised to see how lovely and fresh and unworn they were.

Left to right

Sassy little t-shirt which fits and hugs the figure like a dream, then a gorgeous mini white skirt from Pineapple brand that looks lovely in this hot weather. Next a pink fitted short sleeve shirt that is quite a sexy little nuber as its see through and fastens so your bra shows at the front, at the back its got lace up detailing. I love this shirt! Then we have an off the shoulder gypsy top which I thought was too tight (UK size 8) but the DH assures me it is not and looks great on.

Next we have a Lonsdale top which has glitery stripes down the arms, in the photo it doesn't look as new as it does in RL, I think the glitter must have spread a bit in the wash. I only picked this up for taking the dogs out in but I think its too good for that now I've had a closer look.
I found a pair of scarlet short legged cargo pants

finally I got these two tops....a white off the shoulder t shirt with ruffle straps and another sassy tennis type of t-shirt

So, now I can safely say I will also check out the clothes at Boot Sales as well as everything else! I can't wait to see what next weeks Bootys will bring..:-)

ttfn
Sharie