Exploring London

Last weekend I had a great couple of days away with my lovely girl in London. It's not far for us to go and my daughter loves it, especially planning to explore new areas. We managed to find a cheap rate at The Hoxton where we have stayed before. It is a great hotel with delicious food at The Hoxton Grill. Also it was bang in the middle of the area we wanted to start exploring. First off we headed to Spitalfields and explored the wonderful covered market. There are some great little shops and cafes in the surrounding streets and a lovely buzzing atmosphere. We stood and watched a tea dance taking place in the middle of the market square.

We then headed off towards Brick lane and stopped to look at the wonderful houses with their original painted shutters. This area was once home to Huguenot refugees who were weavers and needed the tall houses and high windows.

Brick Lane was bustling and had such contrasts of styles and cultures.There were lots of wonderful smells in the air but it was too early for curry so we headed in to a traditional style American diner and had a milkshake.

There were lots of vintage clothes shops in surrounding streets. This one was crammed with shelves of scarves, pretty aprons and pinnies, hats, eiderdowns and linens. We walked a bit further to Columbia Road where the famous flower market takes place on a Sunday. Most of the shops were closed because it wasn't market day, including a shop full of vintage lovelies. I will definitely be heading back one Sunday.

Next stop was the V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green. I could have spent a lot longer in here but we were pretty tired and hungry by this stage but still had a good look round. One of my favourite things was the doll dressed in green at the top but Snow White and the Seven Dwarves were lovely too.

The dolls houses were fascinating but quite hard to photograph because of the detail.

I love this picture of the two boys with their sailing boat. It would be great to track down a copy.

The next day we were up bright and early to go on a tour of the Houses of Parliament. Very touristy I know but something my daughter really wanted to do. I can honestly say I really enjoyed it and found it fascinating. The place is enormous and full of amazing Victorian interiors and paintings.

We then headed off to Chiswick and explored the shops including of course Cath Kidston and The Old Cinema. After a delicious lunch I checked out the charity shops, and made a few purchases.

Final treat of the day was a trip to Harrods and sharing this very naughty Harrods Special ice cream sundae.

My charity shop purchases were this Beryl, Woods Ware tea pot which matches my cups and saucers.

Also this wonderful set of vintage place mats decorated with scenes of Cornwall by George Hann. These will probably go in to my Etsy shop although Mr C seems to have taken a liking to them.

I also bought this pretty set of glasses which match a jug I have. The prices were much higher than I would pay in a charity shop at home but still worth it for such lovely things. The Cath Kidston makeup bag is in one of her new designs 'button rose'.

We headed home tired but pleased we had seen some new places and planning our next trip to Columbia Road !

Vintage Books

After reading Tamzin's latest post about her tin collection over at The Little Vintage Company blog I decided to share a few of my collections. I thought I would start with books. Anyone who knows me knows my house is coming down with books of all kinds. I have books everywhere and my new cupboard is now crammed with books. I have put some of my vintage books at the front because their covers are too lovely to be hidden from view.

I didn't intend to use the cupboard for books but for now that's what it holds. I am still debating whether to take the paintbrush to it but will live with it for a while.

The stained glass doors match the windows above .

I love old annuals for the pictures on the covers.

The annual in the basket is one of my favourites, it has a great picture of a vintage caravan on the front.

The Josephine books have beautiful illustrations by Honor C Appleton. The Mabel Lucie Attwell illustrated Water Babies was a charity shop find some years ago.

Last weekend we went to Birmingham for the first time in a few years and I had a good look round the Cath Kidston sale in Selfridges.

I couldn't resist the miniature basket and the little cases. They were all in the sale and although I know they are meant to be for children I couldn't resist them knowing I would put them to use as storage for something.

Birmingham really has a lot to offer these days including some amazing architecture and a talking bull outside the Bullring shopping centre!

Tea For Two ?

Saturday morning Mr C and I decided to try a new car boot sale and arrived bright and early, it was great to bump in to a few vintage loving friends but overall I think I prefer our Sunday morning trips. However I did find this over sized tea pot. I couldn't resist it although I have no idea what I will do with it. It doesn't look so big in the photo but it is the sort of thing you would find in church hall kitchens. It goes very well with the Beryl, Woods Ware cups and saucers I found in a charity shop last week. I already have some of these but couldn't say no to a few more, the pretty violets tea cups were also found in a charity shop.

Today I was very excited when I got home and unwrapped my lovely bag from Ted and Bunny. The bag in the middle is my absolute favourite and also purchased from Ted and Bunny a long time ago. The bag on the right is from the lovely Hesta Nesta.

Last week Mr C and I spotted this cupboard at the Northampton Antiques Centre. We have been looking for one to go in the alcove at the side of our fireplace in the back room. We knew this was perfect when we saw it and Mr C immediately set to work on putting it up. Sadly it was not to be. It is incredibly heavy and was obviously designed to sit on top of a dresser and not hung on a wall. After hours of work fixing batons to the wall etc Mr C had to tell me it was not going to happen. I am now left with something of a white elephant although I still love it. I am trying to convince myself that it looks ok stood on the hall floor as I really don't have room for a dresser base as well. I think I will have to fill it with some vintage treasures and live with it for a while.

These are a few things I found at the Saturday boot sale, the coronation tin has already been purchased from my Etsy shop .

I also found this framed set of C Klein vintage rose postcards with the backs showing on the reverse. A man was selling his whole collection of framed sets which still had old, very high price stickers on them. Luckily for me I snapped this one up cheaply along with the big tea pot.

Sunday we had a slow start and gave the boot sale a miss. Instead, in the afternoon we headed to the lovely village of Castle Ashby to meet my parents. We had a wander round the little shops in the shopping yard, bought a few treats from the deli and then headed over the road to the pretty Falcon Inn. Sitting in the pub garden with a glass of wine was a lovely way to round off the weekend.

Floral Arrangements

I knew it couldn't last long, the slightly bare Lloyd Loom shelves. I had a bit of a re-arrange at the weekend and used one shelf for some of my floral themed bits and pieces.

The little 1930s style flower basket is actually a hand made brooch I found at a boot sale a few weeks ago.

After a long day at Hampton Court on Saturday we didn't get up early enough for our usual car boot. We headed instead to another smaller boot sale. It was very disappointing although I did find some pretty damask tablecloths. Just as we were leaving fairly empty handed I spotted this pretty pink glass painted posy vase. It was only 25p and I knew it would go really well with my green glass painted bowl. Mr C told me he had spotted it earlier but thought it was just a piece of junk ! After I had pointed out the loveliness of it he quickly changed his view although I am not too sure what he really thinks.

I used it to display some of my first sweet peas from the garden.

Mr C has been busy in the garden with his pond project. It is only small and is far from finished but is starting to take shape.

The first water lily opened at the weekend.

I found this towel rail at the antiques market on the market square. It was very cheap and needed some care and attention. After a bit of glue in the joints I gave it a coat of paint.

I raided Mr C's paint stash again and used Farrow and Ball's , Teresa's Green which is a blue/green we bought for our front door.

It's great the garden is getting some much needed rain but I do hope the sun re-appears for the weekend. I know it's selfish but I prefer it not to be too hot and sunny during the week when I am at work because I never seem to be able to get as much done.