What a week ....

What a busy week it was last week .... I am a registered childminder for my sins and as it was half term my house was rather noisy and hectic.  Of course Halloween was the theme with spooky decorations adorning the room, pumpkin carving, crafting, some of our favourite films including Hocus Pocus, orange playdough to model with and ending the week with a visit to a local discovery centre whose theme was ...... you guessed it Halloween!  

Stockwood Park in Luton .... gorgeous autumn colours and you can just about see a fluffy tailed creature foraging in the leaves at the base of the tree.

For the past 12 months I have just been doing my before/after school care for two reasons ..... one being the demands of the powers that be which imposes so many requirements for under fives that the paperwork involved totally detracts from actually caring for the children.  The second reason is that I am just getting too long in the tooth and 10 hour days really took it out of me last week.  Yes 10 hours, as the first family arrive just before 8.00 am and don't depart until just after 6.00 pm

So you can imagine I was really looking forward to the weekend with Saturday all to myself and I could hear another auction calling me.  An early start was necessary as there was only an hours viewing before the auction started at 9.30.  It is a lovely drive meandering through the three counties of Herts, Beds and Bucks, the sun was rising and I had an old favourite reggae/blue beat CD playing full blast as I tootled along.  My early teens just caught the end of the skinhead era and the start of the smoothies .... no not a fruit based drink ..... smart Trevira suits, shiny loafer shoes, Ben Sherman Shirts and Crombie coats and the backing track to this era was Toots & the Maytals, Desmond Dekker, Harry J Allstars, Bob & Marcia, Prince Buster et al.

through the Chiltern Hills past Whipsnade Zoo and in the distance a glimpse of the famous chalk lion on the hillside ..... carved during WW2 as a warning to the enemy that this was a zoo and shouldn't be bombed.

On to Ivinghoe with the beacon on my left as I drove by ...... we did climb this years ago but it is very steep and I couldn't manage it these days!

A little but further on is Pitstone windmill standing quite alone in the middle of a field

Over the Grand Union Canal at Bulbourne and into Tring

Despite marking off loads of juicy lots in the catalogue I came away empty handed.  In contrast to last week's bargains the bidding here was getting out of hand with mixed boxes of china/glass going for £30/40 plus commission and one lady seemed to be buying everything up single handed.  Bidding starts here at £8 so with commission of £1.44 to add onto that you are talking almost a tenner a lot at least ..... a couple of years ago I could get box loads for around £10/15 and being the ever conscious skinflint I gave up bidding and came home.  Time to find some smaller lesser known auctions methinks!

I did manage to grab an extra hours sleep on Sunday after the clock change and I'd promised Ellie I would take her car booting.  She is getting a dab hand at this now and digs around for her favourite Roald Dahl and Jacqueline Wilson books then stings me for a Caramel Cream Frappucino in Starbucks!  We have a new Poundland in Hitchin and we are both addicted already ..... she is the stationery queen .... a girl can never have too many pads and pencils in her opinion.  We made a quick visit to Letchworth and on the way home saw three of these little chaps on the grass verges .... black squirrels are quite a common sight in Letchworth and I have seen some in the churchyard in Hitchin.

 

Back to school today so some serious crafting to be done for the rest of this week .... watch this space!

Here come the girls .....

Lala is smiling again

Thank you so much for responding to my appeal for the giveaway,  sounded a little desperate really didn't I?  I know blogland is quiet during the summer months and I have to confess to not reading my favourites thoroughly and leaving comments during the summer hols but thank goodness normal service resumes next week when the schools re-open!

I have had a thoroughly enjoyable first day of the Bank Holiday weekend with a visit to an auction house general sale    ....  I haven't been for ages and was getting withdrawal symptoms.  I love them ..... piled high with other people's tut and house clearance but you know what they say ....... one man's trash is another man's treasure ;-)

We had an hour to view and this particular auction house has four different rooms, two with furniture, one with collectables & house clearnance and another with better quality items.  I eagerly marked off the lots that I was interested in and took my place .... when I first went to an auction I was worried to death that I would scratch my nose or do something silly and end up purchasing something I didn't want by mistake and I would shake when my lots came up.   As a seasoned old hand now I set my limit and don't jump in straight away .... I find it's best to let others do the running and then take them by surprise just as the hammer is about to fall.  One important thing to remember about auctions is that the house commission has to be added which in this case is 15% of the sale price and this is then subject to VAT.

I was surprised that in these financially testing times there seemed to be an awful lot of people bidding silly money today  .... one example was two boxes of textiles which had an estimate of £30 .... I had my eye on this one and would have gone to £50 but two daft bats went into a battle of the bids and it finished on £130 .... I was gobsmacked!   There really was nothing in there that warranted that sort of money and just shows how easy it is to get carried away.   The only lot I ended up with in this room was a group of framed prints of greyhounds which included four nice vintage ones .... mine for £8  ..... cheap as chips.

After a bite to eat we wandered into the main room ..... there were three lots of vintage dolls in here and I really didn't hold out much hope of getting any of them.  I set my limit and off we went ..... the first lot was a group of four composition dolls with an estimate of £70 and the second was two walking talking Pedigree dolls estimated at £50.  Someone must have been smiling on me today because the doll collectors appeared to be absent and I got both lots for £80.

Do you want to meet them???

Here they are in a naughty state of undress as the clothes they were wearing are having a gentle soak at the moment.

The two walking talking dolls are both Pedigree although the one with the funky hairdo isn't marked .... their mechanisms are in perfect working order and as the legs move the head moves from side to side.  Their 'mamma' cry boxes are also working.  They date to the 1950s and I confess now that when I was around 8 years old one of my friends had the black one and boy did I covet it .... I have a dilemma now ..... do I treat myself and keep her but having seen their current selling price I could cover my outlay on the whole lot and have some leftover if I sold her.

The others have no markings so I am still working on identifying them.  If any of you doll enthusiast bloggers recognise them I would love to hear from you.

Hope you have all had a good day too x

The Auction Part 2 ...

Well I have emptied all the boxes and have been washing and drying all the goodies and there were some nice surprises.  I have sorted everything out and will be taking some to the charity shop, some is priced up ready for a car boot sale, some will be listed for sale on the internet and there are of course some that I am keeping.  I was really surprised that very little was damaged and those that are not fit for use are being Freecycled for anyone who is fundraising and needs broken bits for a china smashing stall.  So nothing is wasted and what another excellent way of recycling and re-using.

Here are two lovely Victorian chamber pots ... the large white dish underneath is from Habitat and that is now in my cupboard

Some mixed glassware ..... champagne glasses, Babycham Glasses, a 60s smoky glass large brandy balloon vase with a twisted stem, a crystal vase, 7 piece dessert set, Luminarc tumblers, wine glasses, a pair of shot glasses with hunting scenes.

Box Brownie cameras .... the brown one dates to 1930-36 and the other to 1946-53 ... they are both in exellent condition

Vintage glass fruit bowls and a pedestal cake stand

A Royal Crown Derby Imari serving fork and a Hammersley Cake Slice

A little carriage clock .... not old but with a new battery it is ticking away nicely

A pair of late 19th century Continental vases with lavender in relief and violets ... there is some damage on one but they are still lovely

A 1908 Cauldon Blue Onion pattern platter which is now in my blue and white collection

Wedgwood Blue Jasper pin dishes ..... two classic scenes, one star sign Capricorn, one commemorative for the wedding of Charles and Diana

Late Victorian Old Foley Tea Plates

A pair of continental pierced border plates (on wires aghhhhh) and an oriental plate

Royal Doulton Collector's Plate ... Christmas 1977

A 19th century blue willow plate, Minton plate but it is sadly very faded and top right is a lovely old Ironstone plate dating to the 1860s

Booths Pompadour soup dishes and plate

A very unusual Spode Copeland Teapot which has me puzzled .... I have never seen decoration like this on a Spode item before and wonder whether it was originally plain and someone has handpainted it later

Some silver plate ... cruet, preserve pots, lovely cake stand with a ballerina holding the dish, bread basket, bon bon dishes, coasters and a platter and a stainless steel egg cup set

Butlins Holiday Camp Souvenir Tin (there are two of these) from the late 1950s/early 60s

Boxed set of two egg cups with matching Irish Linen egg cosies

Gilt trim tea plates and cake/bread & butter plate

Pretty late Victorian tea plates and cake/bread & butter plate

Noritake gilt trim coffee can & saucer

A little keepsake box containing three silver leaf cake decorations, a buttonhole flower, a little cake decoration silver slipper and a pair of white metal buckles

A complete 22 piece Gainsborough Bone China Tea Service

Phew ...... and I haven't started on the toys yet!!!

If anything takes your eye please e-mail me x

It's auction time again

As summer draws to a close and the car booty season slowly grinds to a halt now is the time that I like to visit auction house general sales. Sometimes they are a load of old tut just like the booties but sometimes there are little treasures to be found. Last Friday we popped over to Tring Market Auctions for the viewing day of Saturday's sale ..... a bargain hunter's dream ... table upon table and box upon box of china, glass, brass, old, modern, treen, plastic, toys, books, prints and mirrors. I had a good mooch around and earmarked some lots that looked interesting and then came away to have a think about what to bid. The secret of buying at auction is to work out in your mind the maximum price that you are prepared to pay and STICK to it! It's so easy to get carried away when attending the auction in person but now there is a facility to leave online bids so I took advantage .... I left four bids on one lot of linens & textiles, one lot of collectors Christmas plates, one lot of mixed china and glass and two lovely prints. Leaving bids online left me free on Saturday to go to the car boot and do some shopping and then it was just a matter of a telephone call to see if I had been successful .... and I had. The box of linens was mine so all I had to do then was pop back to the auction to pay and collect. Here they are .... all freshly laundered and pressed ..... embroidered table covers, place mats, napkins, table runners, tray cloths, Viking rugs from Norway ... I find this strangely satisfying and will be keeping some for home use and re-cycling others. There will also be some put up for sale in my blogshop ... if anything catches your eye please let me know.