Autumn Flowers

The house seems to have been full of flowers this week. On Sunday we took mother in law to the annual dahlia show at a lovely garden centre nestled between thatched cottages in a pretty village in the east of Northamptonshire. We regularly go to the garden centre because it is so much nicer than a lot of the well known ones we have locally that are the same wherever you go in the country. This year we arrived towards the end of the dahlia show and my mother in law was given an arm full of dahlias once they started dismantling the arrangements.

I have never particularly been a fan of dahlias but after living with these for a week I think I have been converted. They are so cheerful and such fascinating shapes and forms I can really see why people love them. We also have a lot of different varieties of sunflowers in the garden and they really cheer me up too. I love the colours of a lot of the flowers this time of year particularly all of the heather colours. The Autumn pots are now planted following our visit to the garden centre, I really like the purple ornamental cabbages I have used with pansies and ivy.

The house is in chaos this week as we are in the middle of decorating the hall stairs and landing and work is also pretty demanding. I am doing a stall at our local antiques and collectables fair with Debbie on Saturday so at some point between now and then I have the mammoth job of getting all my stuff ready ! Oh well, back to work.

September Bicycle Basket Bazaar

Yesterday was the September Bicycle Basket Bazaar. It was lovely and sunny and the Fishmarket was full of people enjoying the atmosphere. I bought some pretty yellow brushed cotton fabric from Job and Frances and a lovely little dog mirror from Lindsay at 'Elsie Sparrow'.

Today was The Affordable Vintage Fashion Fair at the University. I had never been to one before but it is great if you like vintage clothes. I bought a lovely little Barbola mirror,some pretty 1940s paper lanterns, a lucite flower brooch and one of the lovely old 1930s annuals that I have a weakness for. I really like the colour pictures they have on the covers as well as some of the colour plates inside.

Autumn Treasures

What a beautiful day it has been ! We went on a lovely walk with Josh the dog to our local park. The ground was covered in wonderful gleaming deep chestnut conkers. I couldn't resist bringing some home with me although I don't know what I will do with them.

On the way to the park we passed a man loading a skip with the beautiful old stained glass windows from his house. He told us we could have them if we wanted them. They are very similar to the ones we have in our house and we have a bit of a weakness for stained glass so of course we had to go back for them. When we went back with the car an hour or so later I half expected them to be gone but instead they were neatly stacked and waiting for us. We have 14 windows now stored away in the garage ready for some future project !

Red Tomatoes and Red Buses

This weekend is Heritage Weekend across the country with lots of interesting buildings open to the public. I spotted this lovely old bus in Northampton town centre this morning , it was doing 'heritage tours ' of the town. It was parked in front of our beautiful Guildhall. I regularly walk past it without giving it much of a thought but today it looked splendid in the September sunshine.

There was also an antiques market held in or historic market square, it was lovely to see the market bustling with people in the sunshine. We used to have regular antiques markets but they stopped some years ago so this was quite a treat. I managed to find a blackbird pie funnel. I have wanted one of these for years and he has already been given a home amongst my other treasures on my kitchen dresser shelves.

This afternoon I have picked more tomatoes from the garden. We seem to have a never ending supply at the moment and a range of varieties including some of the unusual stripy ones. I always use some to make batches of tomato puree and tomato soup to freeze.

1950s Pin Ups

I just had to share these pictures with you. I bought the two trade calendars at a local collectables fair yesterday. They were still in the envelope sent to a businessman in Lanarkshire in the 1950s. On further research I have found that the artist Archie Dickens is a well known pin up artist from the 1950s, known for his slightly saucy pictures. These pictures have cheeky little rhymes below them but they are fairly innocent. I love the coloured prints and am tempted to frame each individual page and then display them together. Part of me feels it would be wrong to take the calendars apart but they wouldn't be easy to display. Your thoughts would be welcome.

Happy Birthday

Today was the Birthday of my good friend Deb of 'Home Thoughts From Vintage Wants' and also of Annie from 'Birdcages and Butterflies' , so many happy returns to both of you. I hope you have both had a lovely day, I know Deb has been at work all day but is off out this evening for a very nice meal. I also thought I would share some pictures of a few of my recent finds. I had every intention of putting them by for the vintage fair but the little tin is definitely staying and has already found a home on my kitchen dresser as has the flapper perfume bottle. The barbola mirror is very pretty with no damage apart from a split in the plasterwork and the boudoir doll with a felt face reminds me a little of the one in the window of Liberty which I showed in my last post. I often buy things for my Etsy shop or website and then live with them for a little while and find I don't want to part with them ! I guess that's the problem with always buying things that I like myself.