Makeovers

Before Christmas Mr C bought me an old dark wood, glazed cupboard. He could see it's potential and knew I had been looking for something with deep enough shelves for some of my bigger books.

He gave it a coat of Farrow and Ball in 'Lichen' and polished up the old hinges and it has been completely transformed. All I need to do now is fill it !

This very old rustic pine chest was found at the local recycling shop. Mr C has also painted it in Annie Sloan Chalk white, rubbed it back a bit and given it a wax. He will be taking this down to the unit at Brackley Antiques Cellar when it is finished.

This old suitcase also came from the recycling shop and has a lovely blue silk lining.

I recently bought a carrier bag of fabric from a local charity shop for the princely sum of £2. Inside were all sorts of pieces of vintage fabric including an unfinished patchwork bedspread.

At the bottom of the bag were approximately 100 patchwork squares in five different designs. My lovely girl and I are considering having a go at putting them together to make a throw for a bed.

Belated New Year Wishes

I have been rather absent from blogland this last few weeks but I am now back and with a brand new background. I have had a few technical problems with the blog as well as being generally pretty busy. I thought I would share a few pictures of some of my favourite Christmas pressies. I know it was ages ago now but thought you still might like to see.The little hand painted sign and vintage blue plastic cruet set were from my gorgeous girl along with a gorgeous Yankee candle and a couple of Cath Kidston goodies. I was so pleased because she had found things she knew I would love with no assistance from Dad ! Also she has obviously finally decided to embrace and accept my love of vintage.

This lovely handmade lavender bag was one of the wonderful goodies Debbie gave to me.

The lovely old conker brown gladstone bag and oil painting were pressies for Mr C but I love them too.

Christmas was spoiled a little by my lovely dog Josh being injured. On a walk in the snow on Boxing Day he badly cut his paw on a broken glass bottle someone had thoughtlessly left sticking out of the snow. He was actually very lucky as there has been no permanent damage but the sight of all the blood in the white snow and then all over the kitchen floor was very distressing. After seeing the vet he is ok but it has been constant hard work trying to keep him off it as much as possible and changing dressings.

Mr C and I have managed to find a few new items for our stand at Brackley Antiques Cellar. The yellow frosted jug and glasses and the large Molly Brett picture are two of my favourite finds.

Mr C has also renovated the old stool he bought before Christmas. It was covered in hideous furry fabric and had varnished legs.

He covered the seat in a lovely old Sanderson linen I had been keeping for a project. He painted the legs in a chalky Annie Sloan green paint and overpainted in her chalky white before rubbing back to give a distressed look and finishing with wax.

He is now busily giving my hall cupboard the same treatment and I have lined up my kitchen dresser shelves next !

Brackley Antiques Cellar

This is our new little venture, a small space became available over at Brackley Antique Cellar. This is an amazing place, one of the largest antiques centres I have been to and full of lovely vintage things as well as an interiors room with shabby chic style home wares and Cath Kidston goodies. There is also a cafe where you can get hot food or just tea and cake. Debbie and I are sharing this space to see how it goes. In fairness it is more Mr C than me. My work commitments are quite high at the moment and he has more time and flexibility to go backwards and forewards to re-stock and keep all the records etc. Not that I am complaining as it means he does the hard work and I do the fun bit going out on little buying trips with him. This is a picture as we were setting up on Friday and there is still some work to be done to pretty the area up a bit.

If you are anywhere near Northamptonshire I would recommend a visit and of course please look out for our little space at unit 95. If you do plan a trip allow yourself a good couple of hours to look round, you won't be disappointed.
Since writing this post I have now moved to a larger space which is unit 60.

Mr C spotted this little cupboard at Brackley and brought it home to do some work on it. The doors had been paneled in and covered with pretty paper but we want to use it for display so Mr C is re-fitting the glass in to the doors. It goes really well with my old W.I. cabinet so will probably go somewhere in the hall when it is finished.

I found the picture at the top for a couple of pounds last week.I bought it because it is by the artist Frank Sherwin who was famous for painting railway posters from the 1930s onwards. The picture below is an original Frank Sherwin water colour I found in a charity shop some years ago. When I found the picture at the top I thought it was a print until I got it home. Mr C took it apart to clean it and renovate the frame and we discovered it was yet another original ! It is of Barking House on the Isle of Arran.

Mr C, has been painting old frames in the lovely Annie Sloan chalk paint and re-framing old prints ready to take to Brackley. The yellowy, cream paint sets the pictures of beautifully and gives them a new lease of life.

Mr C found this for me as a surprise last week, yet another painted glass with a crinoline lady to match the one he bought me a few moths ago. I love painted glass and this one is a particularly elegant cocktail glass. I have to say he certainly seems to be getting better at spotting things he knows I will like, the training is obviously paying off !