A few thrifting finds

Its been a tough week for me so please excuse my lack of posting recently.

One of my dogs, an old boy who I've had for nearly eleven years, died this week. Thankfully in his sleep but it's still knocked me for six.

Anyhow, besides that I had my first Reiki/Aromatherapy course session which at the moment I'm not so sure of. I'll explain further in another post. The digital photoshop course also kicks off properly tonight - lets hope some of the info will sink in as I'm not feeling as mentally perky as normal.

Thrifting wise the Boot Sales are getting poorer in both quality and quantity as the season draws to a close. I still managed to pick up a couple of bits and bobs though.

A decoupage kit for 50p (I've got a couple of others in this set) and a vintage Ladybird book for 20p. The graphics in this book have amazing colours and details - eautiful!

The two candlestick 'dangly crystal' things (LOL haven't a clue how to describe them) were £1 for them both. You sort of pop them on top of a candlestick and it turns them into a crystal candelabra.A pretty vintage Sindy doll to join my collection. Originally in a crocheted teacosy type of dress which I discarded. She was in a box of crocheted toys under a table and cost me 20p. There was another Sindy in that box with short cropped blonde hair which I didn't buy and am kicking myself over now.

I've just joined a Sindy Collectors forum to try to date and price my dolls. The above girl seems to be made before 1982 and I'm having problems finding out exactly who she is. Maybe someone on there will be able to help me.

Hmm, am I starting a Sindy Doll collection now?

Finally, I bought this jacket from a lady who told me she'd worn it once and it was expensive when new (colour in real life is darker). I imagine it was expensive - especially when I saw the label.

The jacket cost me 50p. :-)

Book Sale at The Library

Books, books and more books. Books in boxes, books on racks, books heaped up on the floor and all priced at 20p each.

I was good and only bought 12.

Then promptly bought another 6 at the car boot the following day! Have I got a book fetish, do you think?

Award

I've been given this lovely award by What's Happening at My House (link in the links section)

Seems I have to give you 7 interesting facts about me and then choose 7 others to tag......Hmmm. I'll give you a combination of normal and weird facts.

1. I have passed my Kennel Club examinations to be a dog show judge. I've still got to pack in the experience though before you'll see me in the main ring at Crufts.

(no the fella in the red jacket does not look anything like me!)

2. Still on the dog theme.... I breed dogs and dogs from my breeding are shown sucessfully all over the world ;- Australia, Italy, Sweden, Canada, USA, France, Spain, Denmark etc etc. I always did have plans for world domination but never thought it would like that LOL.

3. I am the youngest child of my parents - the afterthought by ten years. I was never sure if my mother regarded me as a curse of a blessing! I suppose it depended on how well behaved I was that day :-)

4. I have a deep love of books and the countryside and both loves came from my parents. My Dads relations are all farmers while the family joke is mothers relations are gypsies. Mum loved nature, could tell fortunes and had bluey black hair and a dark colouring -please note she didn't sell pegs for a living :-) .

5. I eloped with my (then) future husband. I suppose I'd been reading too many Georgette Heyer novels and thought I'd do a Regency run away marriage. I didn't climb out the window though. Oh well you know what its like being young, silly and in love (and having a dramatic streak like myself).

6. Going back to the gypsy comment - sometimes I wonder if I have the gypsy wanderlust in my veins. No sooner do I become settled in a house than I get the urge to move. Someone once said to me 'Is this your FOREVER house?' I wasn't too sure what they meant and turns out it means the house you'll only leave in a coffin - the one you'll die in. [shock] As soon as I think that I want to up sticks and LEAVE!

7. This winter I'm taking three courses to try and improve my mind. The first of the creative writing course, the second is a Photoshop course and the third is a Reiki/Aomatherapy course. They are all paid up and I'm raring to go!

There you are 7 facts (probably weird ones) and now 7 blogs to hand on the baton too. Well I'm afraid I can't possibly choose as I know several of you have already done this one. Therefore if you haven't already done it please feel tagged

Next post back to the thrifting and housey bits and bobs.

Allsorts of Everything....

(Does anyone remember the song All Kinds of Everything Remind Me of You? My mum used to sing it to me when I was very small and everytime I hear it I think of her.)

Anyway, I went to a church fete at the weekend and bought hardly anything. The hardly anything that I did buy consisted of two faux leather cream lampshades for 50p. Ugly pieces of work but structually sound. Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the ugly shades as I didn't have the camera handy when I commenced execution on them after arriving home.

So imagine two cream fake leather lampshades.

I bought them to fit my thrifted Laura Ashley lampbases (£1 for Two)


Here is a photo of one of them wearing my bedside tables lampshade to refresh your memory.

Anyhow, there I was with two ugly shades and wanting to recover them with a pretty Cath Kidston print and not knowing how to do it. I knew in the dark mists of time I 'd been taught how to work out the diameter of a circle just by knowing the circumference and some weird mathematical symbol and had to check up on the net what I'd forgotten. Ummm, divide by Pi 3.14.

So, after completeing a gruelling formula (felt like that to me I always hated maths at school) I cut out two semi circles of fabric and joined them to form a shade like shape.

Voila! (hope thats right my school girl french is pretty off too).

lampshade number 1

lampshade number 2

So, from thrifted goods (bases and shades cost £1.50), a bit of Cath Kidston remnant left over from another project (free) and my Time, blood sweat and tears (working out the maths) I've now got two pretty table lamps, one for either side of my living room.

Hmmm, definitely all sorts of everything that day :-)

Hope you like my no sew revamp :-)

Thrifted bargains - running to a theme again

Have you all been enjoying the last few days of sunshine? Isn't it lovely to look out onto a sunny day instead of those horrendous dull and deary wet days we've had throughout August?

Fingers crossed that I'll get out and thrifting this weekend as we were well and truly rained off last week.

I still have a few things to show you however from the Bank Holiday weekend. I always spend August Bank Holiday Monday at two small car boot sales held by local schools. No traders are allowed and its mainly local people selling off unwanted goods at very reasonable prices!

One of my first purchases was an Art Deco style mirror, not vintage but very attractive all the same. It wasn't the cheapest purchase ever at £4 but its a lovely heavy metal one and appears to be good quality and I just love the decoration of butterflies and dragonflies that decorate the mirror edge.

It is rather vintage looking isn't it?

Talking of vintage I found myself buying more vintage tins. Two large ones at £1 each that once contained biscuits. The one on the left I'd have said wasn't my style yet something drew me to this tin. Maybe I had a relation who'd a similar tin when I was growing up and that's why I couldn't leave it.

The one on the right looks like the cover of an old 60's Bunty Annual - you know the type where the girls went adventuring to Switzerland? In fact it once contained Co-Op biscuits.

Both tins have come in handy for holding my huge cotton reel selection.

Another tin found its way into my bag. 50p and in almost perfect condition. I thought it would look good on my new 'vintage tin' shelf. The new one - over the top of my 'vintage Bag' shelf.








And, still thrifting along the vintage line..... What girl (ok woman) can turn her nose up at a double string of vintage pearls for £1? Check out the clasp. Modern day jewellery doesn't seem to have such interesting clasps any more. The colour of the actual pearls is interesting too, my more modern pearls are whiter while these almost have a pinkish hue. The lady told me the jewellery she was selling belonged to her elderly aunt and stupidly I only bought this one necklace. Now why didn't I buy the crystal beads and several of the broaches as well? Silly me. Ah well, you know what it's like trying to save the pennies and trying not to bring too much 'junk' back.



Throw in a few vintage Ladybird books (20p each) and you see that vintage was the theme for the day :-)

Have you started any new (or vintage) collections? Do you find yourself collecting things because they seem to want to be collected? If so I'd love to look at your collections.

BTW I seem to have been tagged ;-) . I'll pop that in the next post.

My Old Home

I was browsing through some old files today and spotted a few photos of my old home. Before we lived here we were lucky enough to live on a smallholding on the small isle of Angelsey for several years. Leaving only because a family member became terminally ill.

Anyhow, I was thinking about how my house style has changed recently and though I'd post a few photos of my last home with thoughts of how I'd change it if I could go back in time.

First of all here are a few views of my cottage. Mine is the long cottage to the left of the bigger farmhouse (converted barn). It was situated down a private trackway over half a mile long and just behind us was the sea.

Here's the paddock looking towards our barns and outbuildings. I really, really miss our paddock; it was a brilliant place for sunbathing or sitting reading a book under one of the huge trees that grew there. No one could see you and as it was miles away from anywhere the only sounds you could here were the sea in the distance, the birds and the wind rustling the leaves.Many people have said to me, 'how could you bear to leave it?' And it was easy - family means far more than bricks and mortar.

Here's my kitchen - inherited from the previous owners as was the deco. Now I'd be getting out the paint and either painting the cupboards or the walls and most likely both! Gingham curtains on the windows and a pretty tablecloth. Oh and that washer would be hidden by a pretty floral curtain.

Next up is the living room.

A huge room - the estate agents photos managed to make it look small- and doesn't it look bland! It was dual aspect with two foot deep windowsills. If I had my way I'd have had window seats, a real fire, knocked the plaster off to expose the stonework, took off the ceiling to expose the beams and created a more olde worlde effect.

Mind you these are the estate agents photos and we'd hidden much of our own junk and personal stuff in an effort to appeal to a larger market.

So, your last home.... Looking at all the old photos of it how would you change it to meet your present style?

"Its Vintage Darling!"

Do you know I'd forgotten to tell you about my recent trip to Bygone Times.

Bygone Times - heres the link http://www.bygonetimes.co.uk/ - is a collection of stalls selling vintage/antique wares in a large warehouse in the north west. Many years ago I was a frequent visitor with my parents but haven't been since. However, they have a nice offer on at the moment giving free membership and access into the building and so I thought a visit was long over due.

There's lots of tempting goods displayed on the stalls ( I saw a beautiful 1930's mirror for £35 which I was dying to buy) and the majority of stalls are very well priced.

Some of the goods are new but look old, like this vintage inspired mug that I bought for £2. I saw a similar one advertised on a website for £4 plus £4 shipping so I was very happy with this little purchase.

It fits in well on my kitchen shelves next to my vintage red scales.

Anyhow, if you fancy a visit to Bygone Times just be sure to print off the free coupon from their website and have a browse round the place. But don't blame me if you overspend!

Stumbling Upon Hidden Gems

First of all its been nice 'meeting' a few of you via Facebook. I was always a little wary of using it in the past but its a pleasant way to keep up with friends, and play games! I'm wearing myself out in Farmville and Treasure Mania at the mo but you're all welcome to join me :-)

Now, thrifting.

I was sauntering along the booty the other day and idly browsing through a rack of clothes (nothin special - Asda, Primark, Matalan stuff) when I overheard a conversation between the two girls on the stall and a lady who seemed to know them which sent me on to 'amber alert'.

Girl One , "We haven't a clue what we are doin."

Girl Two, "We could be selling priceless heirlooms for 50p!"

Friend, " Your stall looks nice but how come you've got all those old tobacco tins? You don't smoke roll-ups do you?

Girl Two giggling, "No they were part of Grans collection. She was always poking round secondhand shops and jumbles and collecting unusual things."

I walked round to the stall at this point and spotted the old rusty tobbacco tins and looked on the stall carefully for 'Gran's collections'. I didn't see any, but amongst the pile of cheap plastic handbags thrown down in the mud and grass I spotted the gleam of..... something interesting.

Putting the newer handbags to one side I lifted up a blue beaded bag.

"You can have that and the other one for 20p each," called over one of the girls glancing up as put out more plastic toys and other modern bits and bobs.

I, meanwhile, dug in my purse and bought the two beaded bags that had been thrown carelessly on the ground. Truth is, I thought for 20p they wouldn't be any good but I liked the colours and couldn't walk away from a possible 20p bargain.

Then, amongst the rusty tins I saw that one of the girls had placed a lovely sweet little tin with the nursery rhyme 'Simple Simon' printed all around the sides and a vintage looking picture on the lid. I gave 50p for this one and popped it into my bag and walked away.

Later I really regretted not hanging around to see when else those two girls brought out the car boot and now I'll show you why...

The sweet little tin is a small toffee tin and probably dates back to the '50s/60's, maybe even earlier as its hard to pin down a date on this one.

Its next to my Cath Kidston pin tin (its about twice as big) at the moment and I've found I much prefer it in appearance to her pin tin. Its making me wonder if I should sell the CK one and keep all my pins in this one!

As for the two beaded bags well I enjoyed researching a few sites and if anyone knows any good sites with further infomation can you please let me know?

Here is the first one that I was drawn to...

From the top of the clasp to the ends of the beaded fringe it measures around 12/14 inches long. The design is created by tiny coloured beads sewn on to a cream coloured cloth.

The colours are lovely and bright and there doesn't appear to be a single bead missing. Inside the lining is cream silk and unmarked.Its actually only when I got home and dug this out my trolley that I realised how very pretty it is and how much work has gone into it.I've been trying to find similar beaded evening bags and think this one dates from between 1900-1920's. One similar in USA was advertised at $900 while another in the Uk (but damage to the beadwork) was only £70.

I'm not sure whether I'm the most suitable person for this bag - I keep thinking of selling to a collector. Not that I know of any collectors and then how would I price it? At the moment its hanging from my dresser handle where i can look at it as I walk in the room.

Next up is the smaller beaded bag which sadly has about 4 beads missing. What's even more annoying is when I took it out my trolley I noticed two loose beads and thought I'd put it down very carefully so they didn't drop off and get lost. But somehow they did.

This one is about 6 inches long and the label inside states;

The other bag is made in Germany (stamped on the clasp) so both are Eurpean bags.This one is called a Milk Bead bag and I know they were popular in the '50s.

Isn't it sad that these bags were lovingly kept clean and tidy for decades and then just chucked on the ground and sold for 20p each? Or is it just me being overly sentimental? Never mind bags, I rescued you!

So, I had quite a good day at the booty! A new vintage evening bag collection started and a vintage tin to join my other jumble sale one from a few months ago.