Brollies and bikinis .....

Yesterday was the Lala family outing to see the air display on Lowestoft seafront.  The car was packed with all the necessities like rain coats, brollies and sun cream because you just never can trust our good old English weather can you !

It was piddling down here but the forecast for Suffolk was fairly good with a bit of sunshine and some showers ..... after a car journey of two and a half hours (minus a brekkie stop at MaccieDs) we arrived to beautiful blue skies and sunshine.  The organisation was superb and we drove straight to a park & walk car park at the football ground which was 5 minutes away from the seafront.  Some enterprising locals were having a garage sale and it would have been rude not to look, ha ha, much to the dismay of my daughters who exclaimed oh no mum can't we go anywhere without you finding a charity shop, car boot or something similar! 

I found some lovely 1930s Art Deco coloured glassware .... in the first picture are some vases by Davidson in a lovely design called Chevron .... I'd only bought one of the small ones in our local CS a couple of days ago and there sitting in the garage was a twin small one and a big brother too!

I had a lovely chat with the lady selling them and it turns out they had moved to Lowestoft from a town just 10 miles away from us.

Anyhoo bargain hunting ceased and we found a spot on the sea front and got comfy for the start of the display at 1.00 pm  which was a parachute drop

Can you see the UJ on the underside of the parachute??

In between the displays we all went for a paddle and make sandcastles and then true to form the weather changed in a split second to this

and then just as quickly changed again to this ......

some enterprising people on the seafront were doing things in style

The afternoon ended with a display from the magnificent Red Arrows

Unfortunately my poor old camera was having a bad day and kept jamming and then ran out of memory and apart from a short video clip that was all I took of them.  They make the hairs on the back of my neck stand out and when they did the manouevre where their tail smoke is in red, white and blue everyone was clapping and cheering.  It was such a lovely contrast to all the trouble broadcast in our cities this week and made you feel proud to be British.  Ellie exclaimed that Great Britain was truly great and this was the best day ever nanny and it was.  This is a great day out and the prices of everything from the vendors on the front were extremely reasonable and a refreshing change from the rip-off days out in some places.

This morning we went over to the Flea Market in Hitchin but it was quiet and only one little thing caught my eye.  You may remember that blue and white china is my favourite and I especially love collecting antique children's china so I got quite excited when I spotted this little fellow on a £1 table ....

A diddy little transferware tea cup from a tea service dating to around 1840 .... I've got my detective's hat on now to try and identify the pattern and if anyone recognises it please let me know.  I placed the pound coin next to it to give you an idea of the size .... so cute !!

This afternoon I popped into my local CS and just inside the door was a basket of these for just £1 a bag

 A little further on an Edwardian wooden folding cake stand .... only a fiver because of a break in one of the legs but that can soon be mended and I think with a coat of paint it will be very useful for display at the vintage fairs.

 and a Victorian crinoline lady with basket attached to her back which I think was probably for spills to sit on the mantlepiece.

I do hope the weather holds out for the weekend .... I can hear the car booties calling already.

Have a good weekend xx

A challenge, a thank you and today's thrifty find ....

Back in that dark old month of January I entered a photo of the Silver Cross Doll's pram that I acquired via Freecycle in A Thrifty Mrs January Challenge   ...... and guess what I won!!!!

I'm not usually one of life's winners so I am delighted to have won this and of course that gorgeous eiderdown from Sian over at Diary of a Tinyholder who has another prize draw in aid of the Alzheimer's Society

It was only fitting that I reciprocated the generosity of these lovely bloggers so you will remember that I offered to make a mini quilt for the winner of my 2nd blogiversary giveaway.  Last week I was cooking on gas and got loads done including the quilt for my lovely winner The Vintage Knitter and the Royal Mail excelled themselves as I only posted it at 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon and on Saturday morning Monkeychild was opening her parcel. 

I knew from Vintage Knitter's blog that this lovely little lady was a ballet fan and I had just the thing .... some vintage Laura Ashley ballerina fabric which I teamed with some LA pink polkadot, Clarke & Clarke Floral, Jill Northam Star Stripe and some lilac gingham check.  The backing is a super soft white fleece so perfect for snuggling under.  The phone rang on Saturday morning and I was delighted to speak to the VK in person who had taken the time to call and say thank you and then this arrived in the post today

a gorgeous thank you card with a photo of Monkeychild and her new snuggle quilt .... this will now be placed on the little dresser over my sewing machine table .... it is so nice to be appreciated and to appreciate in return and this shall remind me whenever I look at her little face.

It was such a beautiful afternoon here I took a walk to the school this afternoon and as I passed the charity shop this little beauty was beckoning me

a little wooden child's chair which I would guess to be around 50 years old .... the patination of the wood is lovely and there are just a few paint splashes to be cleaned off all for the bargain price of £1.50 so this will be entered into Mrs T's February challenge.   Our CS has been a little disappointing since Christmas with rather a lot of tat so this really made my day and I must have looked a right sight with it hanging on the handle of the buggy with six children in tow ...... I think my name should be the Pied Piper x

Weird and wonderful Wednesday ....

What a beautiful start to the day .... brilliant autumn sunshine and some warmth in it too while I walked Molly and Ruby around the park this morning .... I don't know if the colours of autumn are more vivid this year or whether is it just me noticing and appreciating them more as I get older.

I stashed the Halloween resources back in the loft when I got home and had a quick look at the Christmas bits and pieces up there .... then remembered I had been quite organised last year and had Freecycled quite a lot of stuff that gets brought down from the loft each year but never used.  I'm quite pleased really because that means I can spend some money on Saturday at the Spirit of Christmas Fair at Olympia.

The fireplace has been cleaned and dressed for the winter .... and despite what Miss Allsopp thinks she has not just invented upcycling, re-using and thrifting .... the Victorian cast iron insert was acquired from a junk shop around 15 years ago for the princely sum of twenty quid.  It was covered in a coat of cream paint and after an application of stripper and some good old fashioned elbow grease she came up a treat.  The reclaimed Pine surround was in a sale and I think we paid around £75 for it, the Victorian style blue & white tiles were £1 each and the slate tiles on the hearth were from Wickes for around a tenner.

The brass candlesticks and my mantel clock are from a general auction sale, the glass lustre from the charity shop and my lovely stained glass wotnot was in a mixed box of junk from the auction too.  It is original Victorian in Art Nouveau style and I think it must have been two small window panes in a former life which have been joined together in a triangular shape ..... with a tealight behind it on a dark winter night it looks really effective. So again Miss A stained glass is not something new for you to twitter on about.  Sorry to sound so cynical but are you getting my drift?  She may well be a lovely lady but I somewhat doubt that she has ever had to thrift in her very privileged life and I do take exception to being instructed on the benefits of thrifting and make do and mend and I refuse to worship at her altar.

Right off my soapbox now ..... where was I??? .... oh yes the decorations hanging from the mantel are stock for the Christmas Fair that I am selling at in a couple of weeks.  My crochet icicle garland and some tartan bunting with little jingly bells.

A little bit more thrifting in the charity shop yesterday ....

Vintage glass bottle and cheese dome which is extremely heavy

Delightful Beatrix Potter postcards

It's our 31st wedding anniversary today and Mr Lala has surprised me with these young ladies ...

this was them arriving as it got dark this evening so I will take some better photos tomorrow (weather permitting .... the forecast has just been on and it looks like rain)

Five Rhode Island Reds who in no particular order will be known as Matilda, Sophie, Trunchbowl, Honey and Veruca ..... Ellie is besotted with Roald Dahl stories at the moment so this will please her no end!

He knows that I have really missed my girls since Mr Fox got them back in the Spring and one of them kindly laid an egg in the transit box for me on the way here so I think we are going to get on famously.

Mum sent me some lovely flowers too

All in all a weird and wonderful day which I am going to finish perfectly with a glass of red and my crochet hook to finish this ....

The yarn is by Katia .... a Spanish company and it is sold in that favourite little yarn shop of mine in Baldock .... it is a cotton/acrylic mix and is so soft and so reasonably priced too at £2.90 a ball

Have a good evening all xx

Nellie the elephant packed her trunk ..................

and said thank you so much Freecycle!

I just happened to be in the right place at the right time yesterday and spotted an offer for a vintage travelling trunk.  The brain cell start whirring again and I thought I would take a chance as it would be ideal storage and for display at the craft markets and I was so lucky to be the receiver of this magnificent specimen ...

It has the manufacturer's name plate on the side which is John Pound & Co of London who had shops in various locations including Oxford Street and Leadenhall Street in the late Victorian/Edwardian period.  John Pound was also a Lord Mayor of London.

The surface looks like hide of some sort and it has wooden battens with brass protectors (but no key sadly) and original locks  ... internally it is very clean for it's age and has a sectioned insert.

I need to do a little detective work on how to clean it up but I don't want to strip it of its age and character.

As for the initials I think they must stand for Not Enough Holidays!!!

Jewels in the Crown

We seem to have gone jam crazy in our little corner of blogland and to follow up last week's Strawberry Jam today we have been picking redcurrants from the garden.  My redcurrant bushes are somewhat of a family heirloom .... they were originally on my dad's allotment but when he had to give that up some 15 years ago following a stroke, we dug them up and transplanted them to the bottom of our garden.  This year has seen a bumper crop and just over 4lb was picked this morning and they have now been stewed, pulped and drained and the liquid is waiting to be turned into jelly tomorrow.  The children thoroughly enjoyed doing this and one of them even arrived this morning with a tub of blackcurrants that she had picked from her own garden last night .... we now have six jars of blackcurrant jam to add to the collection.

While the littlies were busy picking the fruit I did a little weeding in the veg patch and pulled our first onions and baby beetroot.

and one large lonesome courgette!

We have a little sea of sunflowers in the veg patch which weren't intentionally planted ..... these must have been scratched in by my dear chooks before Mr Fox arrived.

I have also had a lovely lavender bush for years but alas Mr Lala was let loose with some secateurs last year which is always a bad move.  He has a nasty habit of snipping off all the new growth and leaving the dry woody bits underneath and this proved too tempting for one naughty spaniel last year .... she chewed it to bits!

So a dilemma .... I like to make lavender bags for the Christmas markets later in the year but with no lavender to harvest what was a girls to do???  Then the brain cell leapt into action and I posted a wanted on my local Freecycle group and received a tremendous response.  This is what I have so far and there is more to come.

It smells heavenly and should keep me going for a while.  One lovely lady also let me harvest some seeds from her lupins and said I can go back again for more lavender if I need it.  This got me thinking that there are gardens out there with an abundance of fruit growing this year, most of which will be left to the birds so what better way of food thrifting ..... join your local Freecycle group and see what you can find.

On the subject of thrifting I will end with some of my car boot goodies from last weekend.

Total spend = £12.50

On a more positive note .....

I've been sorting through my hand made stash and have listed some new items here and thought I would share my thrifty finds from the past couple of weeks with you

Double bedspread  £2

Pair of old frames .... £2  .... was going to change pictures but the more I look at them the more I like them

To be prominently displayed !!!

Replica Bush radio ..... £4  .... lady said she got it in Habitat

A stack of craft papers ..... £1

A metal 3 tier stand which I am going to paint and add some plates to and use as display for smaller handmades when I do craft fairs .... 50p

Our new puppy Ruby finished her vaccination course and was allowed out into the big wide world this week .... she was so good.

We almost had a new addition to the menagerie this week too ...  we found this hen pheasant strutting up and down with our chooks (she's on the LHS under the blue frame)  ..... goodness knows where she came from as we are not next to open countryside.

and this wee chap always makes me smile

Don't forget my 100th post giveaway .... just leave a comment on the previous post for a chance to win .... take care all x