Thank you for all your good wishes for the fair I did in St Albans yesterday.  Sadly it was a bit of a flop and I wasn't the only seller to not sell a single thing  .... there were hundreds of people outside in the high street but the advertising was very weak and they just seemed to miss us up in the Old Town Hall.  The visitors that did make it up the very steep old staircase were full of appreciative comments and some took my business card so the day was not totally wasted .... every opportunity to get to know people and showcase your makes has to be a good thing.  I also made good progress on a crochet cushion cover while I sat there.  I had a good spot with a lovely old fireplace behind me which of course I took advantage of.  This is my daughter before she skanked off and left me because she was bored!!

When I was a child (BC before computers) and it was safe to play in the streets and wander up and down to friend's houses one of our favourite pastimes was bead swapping.  Us girls would have an old sweet or biscuit tin and we would collect beads of all sorts and thought we were the greatest if we had big shiny onesMy next door neighbours were a childless elderly couple and I used to love going into their house as it was like Aladdin's Cave .... Mrs Robbins used to have a huge jewellery box with loads of costume pieces which she used to give me.  I have had a guilty conscience ever since because we used to prise the pearls, paste, gems etc out of brooches and break up strings of beads to add to our tins.  I think this is why I collect old pieces of jewellery now as this memory jangles in my head whenever I see vintage pieces.

Last Saturday I went along to a little church summer fair instead of the usual car boot and came home with this little lot all for a fiver.  My darling daughter asked if I had been mugging old ladies again!!

This dainty little basket brooch is silver.

This bracelet has tiny little pieces of mosaic to form the flowers

 

This clover shaped brooch is so sparkly I couldn't get a clear photo .... I will take it to be tested at some point because it is such a quality piece

Did any of you have a bead tin or was I the only one guilty of this heinous crime against vintage jewellery ???

xx

This is where I will be tomorrow

Wish me luck girls ..... I have taken the plunge and have taken a table here tomorrow .... hoping for a lovely sunny day with lots of visitors who will hopefully have a little bit of dosh in their purses.

You won't miss me I will be wearing my new red dress which I finished today ... I haven't made any clothing for myself for ages and really enjoyed making this.  The pattern is an old 1993 sundress pattern from ME magazine which was in a bag full of similar patterns from old Prima mags etc which I got from Freecycle earlier this year.  The fabric has been sitting in my stash and was purchased for a whole £3 at a car boot .... can't get thriftier than that!

I won't be showing as much leg however.

Off to paint my nails now .... have a great weekend whatever you are doing x

Henny Penny is my hero (or should that be heroine???)

 Yesterday morning as I sat in the beautiful sunshine with some embroidery in hand there was a knock at the door. The postie with a box .... a very large box ..... stuffed to the gills with loveliness. Was it a coincidence that as I had been sitting there thinking about our holidays in Dorset and dreaming of visiting that lovely county again that the box had arrived from the very same place.

I had been extemely lucky to have been picked in Ted & Bunny's Very Vintage Giveaway by the gorgeous Henny Penny and you would just not believe the generosity of this lovely blogger and the splendiferousness in the box.  Wow, wow and thrice wow!

 

You are truly a woman after my own heart and I love every single item which was carefully wrapped in tissue paper and gingham ribbon ... I now just have to decide where to place them in this highly disorganised clutterholic's paradise of mine  .... thank you so much Ted & Bunny and of course Henny Penny xx

The Queen of Mean or the Gift of Thrift

Yes I have been out there again making up for lost time last weekend!! 

With DD1 and Ellie we set off this morning for two favourite boot sales and we were not disappointed.  Ellie the wise old shopper found two lovely Care Bears and some more Baby Annabell bits (a pull along case and car seat) that she hasn't got and I found the Etch-a-Sketch, Piglet ice cream sundae dish and books for her. 

I got three pairs of curtains ... Next Traffic Jam, some pretty floral gingham which are brand new from John Lewis and some applique cotton ones which I haven't photographed yet as they are waiting to be ironed.

A green & blue enamel lidded dish

A Victorian china bread plate

I stopped at a stall to buy the Blue & White Cross Stitch book and at the next stall the lady noticed the book and said she had some cross stitch magazines .... as I bent down to look at them I spotted this little lot of vintage women's magazines from the 30s/40s/50s .... she seemed to think they were just an old lot of tat but my heart skipped a beat and I got the lot for £2

TOTAL SPEND = £16.00

This afternoon has been spent tidying up my sewing room and look what I found .... the original pattern for the bridesmaid dress I blogged about yesterday .... was I really a size 12 once

This dresser top has been stored upstairs for 2 years awaiting a paint makeover and tomorrow, weather permitting, it will get a coat of Laura Ashley Linen paint and then be hung on the wall over my sewing desk.

Memories and booty bargains

What have I been doing with myself this week???   Well, my sister celebrates her Silver Wedding in August and my nephew is busy arranging a surprise party for them and asked if I would sort out anything I had that he could use.  Being the perpetual hoarder that I am I ventured into the black hole that is called the loft .... anything I can't bear to part with (useless and useful) is popped in there, to see what I could find.

Here we all are on the day ..... that's me on the right and my first born is the little man with the dicky bow.  The bridesmaid's dresses were handmade by me in a peach cotton trimmed with lace and you guessed it I've still got it.  Modelled by my new Freecycle acquisition .... hopefully to be recovered in something a little more fetching.

I also found in the same battered old suitcase this quilt that I made for said first born (he's 28 now!)

and a UFO which was going to be a crochet cotton bedspread which I must have given up on

and my own wedding dress .... again hand made and now 32 years old ..... my darling grand-daughter looked at it this morning, raised her eyebrows and said you're not going to wear that are you nanny (we are off to a friend's wedding reception this evening!).  We got married on a very tight budget on a wet and windy November day and I'm not a meringue type of girl anyway.

and I don't stand a cat in hells chance in getting in either of them these days (thank goodness!)

We went off to the car boot this morning and I'm pleased to report a successful morning of thrifting

Four curtain panels in a lovely floral chintz .... very useful and they are lined too which comes in handy for the backing fabric for string blocks

A vintage 1960s souvenir from Switzerland which opens to reveal

and the music mechanism still works while the little ballerina twirls

A Brixham Pottery nursery rhyme money box

A naked baby with cry mechanism (sadly not working) which I think again is 1960s as I had one very similar when I was small

Some Sanctuary hand treatment and a vintage sugar shaker

Two pretty dresses BNWT in lovely fabric that I am going to repurpose.

and finally some vintage linens which are a little tatty and stained in places but there is some useful crochet edging and hand embroidery that can be repurposed and what's left used as string block backing fabric.  Waste not want not ladies ;-)

Total spend = £15.00

As I mentioned earlier in the post we are off to a wedding reception this evening and it is a football free zone !!

Have a good weekend everyone x