Monday 31 May 2010

Bank Holiday Weekend

And just for a change, the weather was not too bad. Which meant of course that we had car boot sales, woohoo! Sunday AND Monday!

Oh, where to start. Well, let me start with a lovely lovely man whom I met at the Sunday morning boot fair. He had a couple of boxes of postcards on his table. At first glance they seemed to be just fairly recent colourful postcards from all parts of the country. But when I pulled a few out the box, I found some lovely old postcards hiding inbetween the modern ones. Gorgeous old photos of people, lovely flowery birthday ones, all sorts really, and mostly from around 1910 - 1920 along with some of those really funny 1950s seaside cards as well.

Two shoe boxes crammed full of cards to look through, can you imagine how long that took? After the first box my back was killing me from being hunched over. I was merrily chatting away to the stall holder and mentioned that all this bending over was doing my back in. Guess what the darling man did? Brought over a stool for me to sit on! How sweet was that? What seemed like half an hour later, I had around 60 cards in my little hands, and made my deal with the stall holder. He mentioned that he had at least another 8 boxes at home, and that he would be at the Monday boot fair and would bring 2 different boxes for me to look through. So guess where I was this morning, lol? Yep, he was there, with the promised 2 boxes, and I found another stack of gorgeous old cards.

I would have gone home quite happy with just those on either day, but as luck would have it, I found a few other little bits and pieces as well - a lovely bunch of smallish cabinet cards, for example. I do love the old photographs a lot, but I almost love the backs of them even more, the graphics are so beautiful in some cases.

Anyway, I had better start showing you some pictures of the weekend finds, right? I might split it into two posts, because as usual I have way too many photos really. This photo shows most of the things which came home with me, apart from a huge linen whitework tablecloth, a huge whitework bedspread and other assorted linen pieces, which were too big to fit into the photo -


Ah, this was a lovely find, a gorgeous old silver plate cocktail shaker, soooooo stylish! It has a few dings and dents, but it is in perfect working order, everything fits together nice and tight -



Sweet little old keys. Hmm, small size doesn't equal small price unfortunately, gosh these little ones are dear. Still, they weren't happy where they were, they wanted to come with me, they did -


Cabinet cards, so precious -


And just look at these fabulous backs!


This is the tiniest little photograph, but just look at the beautifully embossed background its on -


And these are the two stacks of very vintage/antique post cards, drooooool -


I'll scan some of them for you over the next few days if you like. Do let me know whether you like photographs of people or whether you prefer the flowery ones.

I love this silver plated, MOP handled pickle fork -


A bit of bling, a girl needs something sparkly occasionally -


This gorgeous vase was a must-have, I have been collecting old pressed glass stuff for many years. I love the intricate detail -


How about this gorgeous Minton pot? Not entirely sure what it was for, but it is perfect for putting a small plant in -


I can't ever resist a tin with a flower motif, especially round tins with roses -


I may have mentioned once or twice that I collect carnival glass ;-). I found some rather nice pieces today. It is just so frustrating trying to photograph them, that beautiful oil slick colour never shows up properly, grrr.

Look at this little bowl, when the light falls onto it, it looks almost like the eye on a peacock feather -

These large bowls both have beautiful, intricate designs -



I only found two little bits of lace though, but they are pretty -


Goodness, this has already turned into a loooooooong post and there is still more. I think I'll leave the books and the linen til tomorrow. Yep, I am in need of a cup of tea anyway, so its a good time to finish this off. I have a few new tags to show you as well....

Toodlepip xxx

Friday 28 May 2010

I am messing around with paper stuff again, but don't have anything new to show you. Also, our granddaughter is with us today, so I am not getting a lot done, lol. So I thought I tell you about a couple of fabulous giveaways instead. First, there is the gorgeous giveaway from Treasures from the Heart for this beautiful little baby shoe flower bouquet -


Isn't that just the prettiest thing? I would love to have that sitting on my dressing table.

The other giveaway I would so love to win is this one from the fabulous Vintiquities Workshop blog -


Just look at all those treasures! Oh, the things I could do with those. I am almost drooling just thinking about it.

Well, all that remains for me to say is, keep your fingers crossed for me that it doesn't rain on Sunday/Monday, lol, because I need to go to a couple of boot fairs, AND....... HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND!

Toodlepip xxx

Thursday 27 May 2010

What is it with me and tags at the moment? I can't stop making them. I love collecting the vintage images I seem to use a lot, I love punching out iddy biddy bits like the ovals and tiny hearts, and I have so much fun finding just the right bit of lace, or the right colour paper. Stamping the background with metallic inks, thats just so satifying when the tag is looking all shimmery and shiny, lol. What a silly moo. But these little things make me smile.

So here is another lot of tags which I made today.

Set 1, pretty in pink -


Set 2, golden girls

Oh, and here is another little tag I made for parcel going to the other side of the world -

Perhaps I'll progress to cards one of these days, lol.

Toodlepip xxx

Tuesday 25 May 2010

Beautiful roses

Not in the garden, unfortunately, ours haven't started flowering yet, but on some gorgeous pieces I found at a boot fair not long ago. I couldn't believe it when I saw this lovely big set of matching pieces -

There is a set of three jugs in different sizes -


A small round wash bowl and water jug -

A large oval wash bowl and oval water jug -

I love the deep pink which frames the gorgeous rose design so beautifully -

I have finally finished my apron for Luisa from Dance in my Garden. I can't show you any photos yet, that will have to wait until she receives it, of course. It was such a lot of fun searching through my fabric stash and picking a fabric, and all the other bits and pieces for the apron. I think the last time I made an apron I was about ten years old and my grandmother showed me how to.

And because this is such an uncharacteristically short post, I'll give you some sweet images, which you may be able to use in your artwork -


Toodlepip, xxx

Sunday 23 May 2010

Sunday is for.....

...going to car boot sales of course! Oh, it was bliss wombling about in brilliant sunshine, gorgeous summer weather really, with just a little bit of a cooling sea breeze.

I really wouldn't have minded not finding anything at all, it was just so lovely to see so many smiley, happy faces enjoying the fabulous weather we are currently having. But I did find a few little things. We bought a couple of rhubarb plants ( 2nd year plants, and definitely no picking until next year, lol, the lovely guy who grew them told us ). And Andy wanted cabbage and cauliflower plants so we got some of those as well. Those were the sensible buys.

And then there were my treasure finds, lol. See? I was very restrained today, don't you think?

I love this dish, it is so beautifully decorated, and that sweet gilded handle, so lovely -


Another vegetable dish to join the ones I already have in France, total mix and (non)match, lol. This is a Meakin dish, and I adore the dainty little flowers -

I have a little collection of carnival glass in France. Most of it is the orange based glass, which I have on display in our yellow bedroom where it looks nice and cheerful. I was so thrilled though to find this green based carnival glass vase today. It is in lovely condition and the oil slick shimmer on it is fantastic. Photos never seem to do it justice, it is so difficult to photograph -

Next is this completely different bit of glass, a teeny weeny corked bottle with the tiniest shells inside. The woman I bought it from must have thought me completely doolally as I was oohing and aahing over it -

I wish I could make what that tiny little label says.

It is always good to find a little bit of bling, don't you think? I adore the little brooch on the right, which looks like violets, sort of. Well, its the right colour -

Oh, and what about this pretty pretty little piece? Sadler lustre ware or pearl ware, not sure what it is called, but it shimmers so delightfully. I think this is probably a lidded sugar bowl, but I really don't know for sure. If you do, let me know. It doesn't really matter to me, because I just love THE SHIMMER!!!


This tattered old book had such a gorgeous image on the spine, and despite it dilapidated state, I bought it because it has such lovely illustrations inside-

And that is it for today. I'll post some pics of more recent finds tomorrow. Now its ice lolly time, teehehehee. Toodlepip xxx