Saturday's Boot Loot

What another glorious day especially for car booting.  I had the luxury of setting off early on my own today - last week my grand-daughter came with me and Oh how I got sidetracked!

Today I wandered round with my trusty shopping trolley and took time to browse properly and here are some pics of today's booty looty

Some lovely fabric remnants .... as if I needed any more!

An old dolly's drop side cot

These wonderful old books date from the 1940s to the 1970s .... when I have some more time I will scan some more of the illustrations.

These two pretty country garden scenes which I thought were prints but on closer inspection when I got home they are oils under glass ..... question is now shall I leave the frames as they are or give them a coat of paint ??   mmmm

Some retro 1960s Poole Pottery ..... this is Twintone in Seagull and Peach  .... there are some odd cups, saucers and plates too

A Royal Albert bone china cup from the 1950s Empress Range .... saucerless but so elegant

Total spend = £15.00

Feed me mummy ....

This little chap hatched this afternoon and hopefully is siblings aren't far behind.  He is a baby Border Canary and here are some that are now 4 days old ...

The large finger belongs to my OH who has kept birds since he was a boy with his father and he currently has canaries and budgerigars.  This is a very precarious time for these little scraps of life who rely on the food lovingly prepared by OH and given to the mother to feed her brood.  They have a mix of egg food and bulgar wheat which is the yellow mass in the crop.  She will stuff them with this until their transparent skin looks as though it will burst and it is amazing the amount of energy they muster at feeding time straining their necks to get to mum's beak first.  Their diet also includes fresh greens including chickweed & dandelion leaves

This time next week they will all be feathered up and I will update with some more photos so that you can see what colour they will become.

The budgerigars are more private and lay their eggs in enclosed boxes but so far all of their eggs have been clear ..... here is a daddy budgie ... you can tell the males from the females by the little crusty bit above their beak .... the males is blue and the females is a boring old brown colour.

The Handwriting Game

Yay my Easter holiday shift is over ... back to normal

whatever that is!!!

Our school had teacher training today so I had three children to look after  ..... tomorrow is back to school day and I can't say I am sorry.  I love them to bits but I am really looking forward to getting some time back for myself during the day and already have the rest of the week planned.  No doubt a spanner will be put in the works now I've said that and it will all go pear shaped. 

We had such a lovely week weatherwise and the garden was taken full advantage of .... it has been such a long winter and I think we were all getting a little stir crazy after being indoors for so long.  Last week we went to the park and visited the museum where they had two exhibitions .... one of local lacemaking and the other called squashy sculptures. 

The house and parkland was once a private house which was purchased by two local councillors in 1904 and generously given to the people of Luton.  It is one of the few green areas left in the town.

Tich and quackers

The colours of these primulas are an inspiration aren't they

This is the first sculpture .... all red and soft with some comfy seating inside

The second is like a giant mollusc and there are special lighting panels inside giving this effect

Car boot season is now in full swing ... me and the Ellie monster went off on Saturday morning to bag some bargains .... turned out she got more than me!  We came home with another Baby Annabel pram and doll (how many does a girl need??)  and from the same lady a lovely Triang 5 way sit in car for Jack which was absolutely pristine together with a ball tent and zillions of balls.

On Sunday morning we went off again, this time Ellie's parents were selling at the boot so she wandered round with me and the pram.  This time it was my turn and I went for quality rather than quantity.

A pair of Ikea Rosali roman blinds, a length of Laura Ashley Summer Palace fabric, a Laura Ashley candlestand, Annabel Karmel cook books, an M & S retro notebook, some pretty gingham hankies and the print was on the stall opposite my daughter .... the more I sat and looked at it the more I liked it .... I think I've finally decided on a pink and green colour scheme for my re-claimed front room (I'm getting there very slowly) so this will be perfect.  Total spend was £21.

Tomorrow morning after I have dropped the children at school I am off to the Watermill to get some dog & chook food and hey ho there just happens to be a bootie there too ;-) 

I hope you all had a lovely Easter x

Easter Holidays Week One

Well I promised myself that I was going to make the most of my week off and I certainly have!  It was all made so much easier by having some lovely dry sunny days to give me the get up and go that I thought had got up and gone.  My bedroom has been cleaned from top to bottom and de-cluttered (slightly) and I was collecting such a pile of bits and pieces I decided to take a pitch at my favourite local boot today.  I love this one because it is so well organised, I don't have to get there till ten and it is only £4 per pitch.  I left at two o'clock some £130 richer and have gained a few more square feet of empty space in the house.  What's left is going to the charity shop or on Freecycle

The view from my pitch .... it was slightly cooler today and a little breezy and I feel so much better for getting a lung full of fresh air.  I was very good too and didn't buy too much ..... a large bag of buttons (left on Jack's buggy so I haven't been able to sort thru them yet) ... some lovely first readers for Ellie .... a bubble machine (so handy because I went to Toys R Us on Friday and bought a large bottle of bubble mix and batteries for mine and the damn thing wouldn't work) which has saved me around £15 on buying a brand new one ..... ten wooden coat hangers for just a £1.

I even took along my crochet bag and managed to get a few rows done when the mad rush died down .... I've been working on these this week

The garden is coming to life too with a bit of colour emerging here and there ..... the patio is tidied and an old wooden bench that was no longer safe to sit on is now making a very handy plant pot holder.

The first Camelia flower

I've also been receiving from Freecycle this week .... a carrier bag full with sewing patterns from Prima and ME magazines dating to 1988-1992 .... some of them I remember buying all that time ago .... here are a few snippets which wouldn't look out of place today

My other find was a pile of knitting patterns ..... there are some gems in here

Don't you just love that trike!!

and Sindy ..... what a classy chick!!

Now for a quiet Sunday evening in preparation for the onslaught tomorrow ... I have six little darlings to care for and had better start thinking about how we are to spend the day which starts at 8.00 am with the arrival of the first ones and won't end till around 6.00 pm when the last one goes.  My friends think I am totally mad but I'd much rather be here with them than sitting in a traffic jam and stuffy office all day.

Hope everyone else had a lovely sunny weekend x

Up with the larks

Bank Holiday Monday and I'm wide awake at six o'clock and finally decided I may as well get up .... I had promised myself PJ days till the children return next week ..... I'm still in my PJs so I suppose that can still count can't it??

I've been catching up with some blogs and saw this post on Dancing on a Blade of Grass' blog which reminded me that I have two old director's chairs that belonged to my grandparents.  When they passed in 1996 and the house was cleared the family all had the opportunity to claim something before it all went to the house clearance people.  The two things that had always stuck out in my mind was a cuckoo clock which hung on their best room wall and the chairs that we used to sit it when we had weekends away.  I was extremely lucky and used to spend most summer weekends with them and my cousins at the seaside and also camping at Billing Aquadrome and Cosgrove Park in Northamptonshire.

I've been sorting through my mum's old photo box and found these

There is me sitting on the grass at the front in a very unladylike pose and great grandma sits in one of the chairs on the right ....grandma sits on the left with my brother and faithfull Candy the pomeranian sits by her side.

Great grandma looked like this at age 16

and this with her young family in 1905

Here we all are again with me on the left sitting in one of the chairs and the other is on the right of the shot.  Great grandma's youngest son (my grandad) stands at the back right.  They need recovering which is now on my long list of 'to do'  ..... thank you so much for the reminder Dancing xx