Weekend Finds And Utility Ware China Collection

First of all I wanted to show you this cute little wicker doll's pram Mr C spotted for me in a charity shop last week. It is painted a lovely green,the paint is a bit chippy though. I have no idea how old it is but it's very sweet. I will try and get round to making it some bedding and bring it along to the Vintage Fair.

I treated myself to these two pretty dried flower wreaths made by a lovely lady called Julie. Julie is also a vintage jewelery seller as well as being a trained florist. She now works with elderly dementia patients and I bought these on Saturday at a fete at the home where she works. All the flowers she had grown and dried herself.

Sunday morning we got up early and headed out to a couple of car boot sales, we haven't been to one for months. We were rather late but thought we would give it a go. I didn't find as much as I have done earlier in the summer but still managed to find this pretty glass jug.

I also found this unusual 1930s jug at a local collectibles fair Saturday morning. I will bring both jugs along to sell at the Vintage fair.

Back to the boot sale, I found the Tala icing set

and assorted books.

I hope these next pictures won't bore you as I know I have shared some of my utility ware collection with you before. A Thrifty Mrs recently did a posting all about utility ware so I decided to share my collection again.

Amongst the collection I have also displayed my pink, green and blue bee hive knitting wool holders. I have a mixture of designs including a Rose Dawn tea pot,yellow,pink and green Petal Ware jugs, lots of Beryl Woods Ware and lots of the common Blue Dawn. I also have a few unmarked pieces such as the large green jug in the back right hand corner and the blue cups and saucers.

My favourite pieces are this Peach Leaf Petal jug and the Lu-Ray Pastels cup and saucer which came from America.

I use my utility ware plates and bowls every day. The big Rosa platter gets used on a Sunday and the blue Celeste tea plates and dishes are used every day, along with a Grey Dawn bowl Peach Petal dishes.

Finally the Beryl Woods Ware tea pot which I found recently.

Holiday Treats

Last weekend I had a great day out with my lovely girl. She wanted to go to Hackney City Farm as we had spotted it the last time we were in london. It really is a little oasis in the middle of London with a lovely cafe too.

We spent a relaxed couple of hours wandering around looking at the animals and eating apple cake in the cafe.

The donkey was definitely our favourite animal with the pigs coming a close second.

Conveniently for me the farm is only a couple of streets from Columbia Road. Last time we visited most of the shops were closed but we decided to give it another go.

The street has great character and lots of little independent shops. If you visit their website there are pictures and descriptions of all the shops. This fabric shop would have been heaven I think to many of you. I loved the vintage car parked outside.

Back to my kind of heaven, this wonderful shop that was closed last time round. It is crammed with all sorts of vintage treasures especially tea sets and glassware.It has a lovely coffee shop in the back of the shop too, so you can drink your tea surrounded by vintage goodies. I spotted the picture and when I enquired about the price was pleasantly surprised. It turned out it was an old price and the shop owner had forgotten to remove it and re-price . The lady let me have it for the cheap price anyway so I was very pleased. The photo doesn't really do it justice but it is in a faded yellow painted wooden frame and the picture has lovely muted colours.

I took this through the window of 'Suck And Chew' a vintage style old fashioned sweet shop. I wanted to show you the row of lovely dogs on wheels under the table. Sadly they weren't for sale, I would dearly love one of these.

Instead I had to settle for this old photo I bought this week. It has been made in to a postcard and the sender writes that it is her dog that showed at Crystal Palace. I don't know how old it is as there is no stamp but I am guessing anywhere from the 1930s onwards. I love the picture with the dogs at the top of my post too. It is another scrap from my 1930s scrap book.

On Sunday we visited the Bank Holiday Antiques And Collectibles Fair at Lamport Hall. The weather was terrible but I found a couple of things including this pretty oil painting. It is obviously done by an amateur but is quite old and I love the soft colours especially the powder blue background. Sadly there isn't a signature but there is an inscription on the back giving it to someone as a present and saying it was 'painted by Jean'.

Lastly , these are a pretty set of crocheted mats I found in a charity shop this week. I had intended to put them by for the Vintage Fair but yet again Mr C said he liked the colours and suggested we keep them for a while. I am starting to get worried about him !

Northampton Vintage Fair and Bank Holiday Plans

This week has been pretty hectic, back at work catching up and waiting for the dreaded GCSE results. In the end my lovely girl made me very proud and did really well.

Deb and I finally got our act together and made some flyers for the Northampton, Vintage and Home Made Fair on OCT 23rd. Most of the stalls have already gone but there may be one or two left if any new sellers are interested.

I am now off work for a long weekend. I guess there may be a bit more baking going on,

quite a lot of this ......

and possibly a bit of this. I found two lovely old heavy wooden bedside cupboards at the local tip recycling shop and they need a lick of paint. These are some more of the lovely scraps in my new scrap book.

The lavender is dried and stored away in four large glass jars.

I have started sewing lavender hearts with recycled linens and vintage buttons. I do this every year but will try and make more this year to add to my stall at the fair.

I had a couple of charity shop finds this week including these pretty glasses

and this 1950s/60s Molly Brett print. I will try and get these listed in my Etsy shop over the weekend.

Anyway I need to get myself moving as there will be lots to cram in over the next few days. I know my lovely girl is planning a day out for us and I have lots of jobs to catch up on. Hope you all have a lovely bank holiday weekend with at least a bit of sunshine.

Last Days Of Summer

Last week I had a break from work and had a lovely relaxing day catching up with my friend Debbie. We had a great day visiting my home town, catching up with my mum on her birthday for coffee and trawling the local flea market and numerous charity shops.

My favourite find of the day was yet another vintage scrap book full of the cutest scraps. The seaside pictures are so nostalgic, the black and white scraps of English seaside resorts show that things haven't really changed in many ways, children still love paddling in the sea and donkey rides.

Sadly, I think the best of the Summer is over and the blackberries are ready for picking. We have had loads of blackberries, gooseberries and red currants from mother in law's garden.

It seems the rain is here to stay for some time to come.

Yesterday I came home from work to a house full of lavender. Mr C had finally harvested our lavender ready for me to use for lavender bags and hearts. I do this every year but almost left it too late this year to pick it. Hopefully it will be ok and if the smell in the house is anything to go by the oils are still strong.

Back to my trip with Debbie last week, it was lovely having a guilt free day indulging our mutual love of mooching around charity shops. We fitted in another local market town on our way home and between us were loaded with bags. We both agreed it was much better shopping with each other rather than with husbands who we know have a tendency to become bored after the first couple of shops leaving us feeling guilty for dragging them round. Debbie did especially well and found some amazing things for her little unit at the Northampton Antiques Centre.

I found a petit point dressing table set with 10 pieces and this pretty Midwinter Stylecraft toast wrack with sections for butter and marmalade.

I also found this great heavy glass fruit dish and bowls. It matches the glasses I recently bought in london.

On Saturday I found a couple of books and the Victorian papier mache rose pot at the antiques market on our market square.

Today I have been a little under the weather and had to have the day off work, the first time in over a year. I slept most of the day but when I woke up my lovely girl had been busy with her Hummingbird Bakery cook book and had made some delicious vanilla cup cakes.

Anyway, back to bed I think. Sitting at the computer isn't making me feel any better unfortunately, hopefully I will wake up feeling back to my old self tomorrow.

The Week So Far

This week I have some time off work and so far it has been pretty exhausting but good fun. At the weekend my sister and her husband and three young children came to visit. They live in Scotland so we don't get to see each other very often. We had a great time and made the most of the sunshine by eating in the garden.They were due to break their journey home with a couple of nights in Leeds but I suggested they head off on their own and leave the children with us for a couple of nights. They didn't need to be asked twice and were out the door pretty swiftly ! We have had a couple of days of paddling pools, parks, baking, lego making and ice cream eating and now the house seems very empty.

My lovely sister returned from Leeds with presents for me, these gorgeous cup cake bath melts that look good enough to eat. They are from a great shop called Rose and Co, check out their website and pictures of their beautiful apothecary style shop which apparently also says vintage dresses and other lovely things.

She also bought me another pretty Pip Studio cup and saucer to match my blue one and the sweet yellow rose. The little rosy pot in the background was a charity shop find along with the violets hat pin holder and are about to go in to my Etsy shop.

After they had all gone home Mr C took me to check out the new Recycle shop in town. This is where things that usually get taken the tip are being sold. Sadly gone are the days of rummaging on the trestle tables at the tip but the new shop is a much more civilised affair. Just as I arrived a lady was paying for the most amazing set up Cath Kidston style wooden kitchen chairs , I was very jealous ! However I found some nice old children's books so didn't come away empty handed.

This also arrived this week, a pretty vintage fabric, shoe holder. I am not sure what I will use it for yet but I don't think it will be for shoes.

Finally, please humour me while I show you pictures of my loo and bathroom ! I have waited so long for this ! Mr C has finally tiled the loo floor with blue/grey tiles from Fired Earth.These have been stacked up in the bedroom for ages and I have lost count of the times I have stubbed my toe. He has also painted the bathroom in a great shade by Farrow and Ball called Green Blue. The flooring still needs to be laid in the bathroom but it's a start. It also gave me an excuse to re-arrange my little shelf . The bathroom isn't pretty as such but I love it. The house is 1920s and the bathroom has the original tiles on the walls and we re-fitted the original deco chrome heated towel rail. The new wall colour seems very keeping with the period and I love the way it changes colour in different types of light.

Enjoy the rest of the week, I am off out now for coffee and cake with Mr C.