Presents & bed update

Yipee yipee yipee I got a parcel in the post today!

I won my very first give away - very lovely hangers handcovered in CK material by the very
lovely MelMel :)


With cute button frilly bits!


And there was a big bundle of CK goodies in the parcel as well!


A sweet little mirror, floral tissues, rose postcard & cute keyring


I squeaked with happiness when I saw the keyring - it is the very same one I have been coveting! I got the parcel when I came in from (yet another) driving lesson - I seem to be stuck and unable to get better so I was a bit fed up. The parcel cheered me up no end & so I have decided to keep the keyring by for now - one day it will have car keys attached to it!

(hmmm or maybe I should just use it now so I can see it everyday & then move it over if I ever become a motorist!)

Thanks so much MelMel! so thoughtful & generous :)


Look, the hangers have found a new home already! I am using them to hold the 3 seasonal coats I keep on hooks on the back of my cupboard door. (ps I am also proud to point out those 3 coats cost me a grand total of £1.80 ;) minus the brooches - they were a graduation present from my mum. I couldn't choose between the dolly and the gingerbread man so she got me both!)

While we are in my bedroom would you care to take a peek at my first attempt at princess-and-the-pea inspired bedding?



Mmmmmm, mismatched


Had to test it out...


Ouch! I must be a real princess!

Toothache

I have a toothache today where my wisdom teeth are coming through. Boo hoo. I don't even want to eat any dinner (unheard of!)

So I thought I would show you my tooth fairy pillow from when I was ickle, that I have hanging on my living room door handle...


The best bit is the little note to the tooth fairy that is still tucked in the pocket. I had to write it when my tooth fell out when we were out and about and my mum went and LOST IT! I was determined not to be done out of my 20p...



And it worked! Although technically I still owe the tooth fairy a tooth as it never did turn up. Hope she never comes looking for it with a pair of pliers...

£20 spree....

What can a gal get on a £20 shopping spree at a jumble sale and a couple of table sales, I hear you cry. Are you sitting comfortably? Then lets begin...

Lets start with clothing...


50p for the lot! 2 pairs of shoes, black jeans, and a jumper new with tags. And I couldn't resist this vintage pinny, even through I have far too many already.


This bundle was 'fill a plastic bag for £1' - cropped jeans, 2 tops, 3 vintage windmill hankies, 2 nighties new with tags, scarf, victoria plum bag & vintage handbag


I really like the bag, so let's have a close up!


Now on to the crafty goods - a handmade patchwork bag, 2 handmade cards, 2 balls of 'peter pan' wool, and pink knitting needles (a girl can never have enough pink knitting needles)


Now for the 'clock section' - enamel wall clock for my kitchen, felt man clock, and a pink 'next' watch with a GIANT face (just the way I like watches!)


Do you like my new hot air balloon lampshade? It was 20p and all dusty and tangled. Well, it still is dusty, I just put it up to see what it looked like. I looks ace in real life. Is it wrong to be in love with a dusty lampshade? Is it wrong that every day my house looks more and more like it has been decorated by a child? hmmm....


Homeware and kitchenware now. Handknitted pot hlders anyone? Vintage egg cosie? New stripey ironing board cover (you know, just in case I ever decide to iron anything). Lakeland tupperware thingies? Box full of cupcake recipe cards?


Or how about a new icing set, a set of star shaped placecard holders, 2 polka dot plastic beakers, a glass lid for a pyrex dish, a little bucket or a lakeland plastic lettuce knife (which apparently stops the edges from going brown - this has been on my jumble sale wish list for ages)



I also picked up a 'few' bits of jewellery. Just 7 necklaces, a bracelet and a pair of earrings (ahem)


Boo hoo my camera doesn't seem to like close-ups. But you get the jist.


Got to love the phone number of the jewellery shop on the box of this green necklace - 'FOU 1407-8 (2 Lines)'. When were phone numbers last like that???


Not many books/dvds today - a few old fairytale books, a big 30's-ish needlecraft book (which seems to be magazines bound together rather than a book??), and a copy of 'school for seduction' which I remember wanting to see at the cinema a million years ago.


Nearly at the end now. Just a few knick knacks to go. Vintage red gingham bed for a dolls house, little shell box, and a glass bauble with sand and shells isnside it.


Another knitted teddy for me to tart up with buttons and bows, and a set of pink russian dolls.


And finally, a butterfly card wallet, a brand new digital photo frame keyring, and a brand new 'burts bees' toiletry set.

I also got 2 vintage christmas decorations and 2 things for my present stash, which I sent away to live at my mums house and forgot to photograph.

Phew. Best haul I have had in a long time! I can't bring myself to tidy it all away yet... I've made a 'display' of goods in my room for me to admire at regular intervals throughout the day ;)

An award, a tablecloth and some new tat!

Yay! Look! I got my very first blog award, from the lovely Annie at Birdcages & Butterflies, thanks Annie! xxx

I have to list my 5 latest obsessions...

1) Mary Poppins Comes Back - I'm reading this at the moment and I'm loving it, even through I got a funny look on the bus this morning for reading it (not the first time this has happened, I can assure you)

2) Blankets - I'm attempting to knit my own (hmmm not looking that promising!) and I've also bought a couple of fab ones lately (MUCH easier!)

3) mismatched pillowcases - i recently got another two pillows for my bed (I used to have just the two) and I like how I can now stack up four different patterns. Yay!

4) blogging & recording EVERYTHING! I've not had my blog for long, but I have caught myself going 'oh, I wish I had brought my camera so I could blog about this!' a few times already

5) making badges - I dug my CS badgemaker out from my mums, where I was storing it as I didnt have a good place to keep it, and now every book, picture and scrap of material I own is potentially wearable (I have a bit of a 'thing' for jewellery - will have to post pics of my 'shop' one of these days...)

I will have to research who hasn't had this award already and come back and edit who I am going to pass it on to ;)

Next on the agenda - I need your help as I have a very serious decision to make. Very very serious indeed. I nicked this vintage snow white tablecloth off my mum (I have had my beedy eye on it for a while) -


I do love it, and I am definately going to keep it, but I'm not sure if I should keep it for tea parties and the like ;) or have it out on my 'found table' everyday, instead of oilcloth. I still want to paint the legs, and if I kept the cloth I think I would go for the salmon pink colour that is on the cloth.

Hmm or would floral oilcloth be better? Whaddaya think?

Lastly, I have to show you my new tat (I know, I know, all I seem to do is shop, but I just started training for a new job so I'm not doing many hours yet... and its far too tempting to 'pop in' to a few charity shops, especially when one of your loveliest friends invites you out for an afternoons perusing)

I was very reserved though and only got 3 bits - this china posy brooch, and this floral skirt (new with tags) - yes, I am wearing it already in this photo!


And this little bitty teeny tiny toadstool demanded to come home to my little bitty collection


Aww, see, I couldn't leave it behind, it's only a baby!

Ladybird Library

You may have noticed that, like any sensible person, I have a bit of a 'thing' for vintage ladybird books. Would you like to see my ladybird library? You would? Well, I must warn you to look away now if you are of a jealous disposition...


Isn't is great? That is an old postcard stand that I got out of a skip. Well, I say 'I', but I sent my mum and dad to get it in their car under cover of darkness after I spotted it on my way home. I called my mum to tell her about it, and she had actually spotted it the day before but had forgotten to tell me about it! Great minds think alike, eh. When they went to get it there was already someone having a look in the skip so they walked past to the end of the road and then came back, hoping he would have left... but when they got back there was a different old man in the skip - with a torch!


It was missing its base so I screwed it into a wooden ikea plant pot stand on castors (which I got for £1 at a CB of course)


And I got this big 'ladybird book of london' canvas print off ebay with some of my birthday money - I have wanted one of these for ages but was not likely to stump up full price (I think one that size is about £50!)

I sorted them all out a few weeks ago, and removed all my doubles to make space for new ones. I allowed myself 2 copies of the 'well loved tales', as they are, ahem, well loved. I took out all the 'read it yourself' ones as I realised I HATE THEM. I also organised them into categories so that I can actually find what I am looking for, as its blimming difficult to see the spines.


This is them lined up when I took them all off to organise them. I think I have about 250, I bought them for about 20p each. I sometimes pay up to 50p, and I have only splashed out on one 'expensive' one - a copy of 'the nurse' for £1.99 from a charity shop, that I bought to cheer me up the day before I had an operation last summer ;) it says in the front that it will 'help to dispel any fears of the unknown which might be felt by a child about to enter hospital'


This is me on the operating table...


Although I must admit I was MOST disappointed not to receive a hand knitted gift from a nurse. You tricked me, ladybird, you tricked me!

Any excuse...

Am I the only one who literally cannot resist popping into charity shops? especially if they are 'little old ones' where things are cheap/unpriced and you have to root around!


My mummy picked me up from a training day today as it was in a funny place which would have been difficult to get to by public transport (yes, I am spoilt rotten) and said she had discovered a great little charity shop just round the corner... 15 minutes later I emerged with a hand crocheted granny blanket, a yellow top with a bow (still with tags on), 'the best of jackie' which i wanted when it hit the shops a few christmases ago but didnt want to pay full price for, two yellow stripey pillowcases for my princess and the pea bedding 'project' , a vintage tape measure (the old man serving me really did not get why I didnt want the brand new one they had which 'also has centimetres on it'!), a vintage jam jar lid (i have a collection of these on a cake stand in my kitchen), and a twee little cow sugar bowl which is exactly the same as one that was in the kitchen when I was a little girl. I had completely forgotten about it but recognised it instantly when I saw it.

oh how i love tat...

pimp my blackboard

Take one blackboard that you never really liked...


Get out the ol' badge maker and knock up a few magnets...


And a bit of goldilocks cutting and pasting later...


Ta-da!


I'm going to sit it under my 'new' table to cover all the uglyful cables and plug sockets

feeling a teensy bit naughty

I did something today that felt so wrong but so right at the same time...


I cut up two of my ladybird books! Although to be fair they are ones I have plenty of copies of, one of them was falling apart, and I have several crafty projects planned for them


I made a set of goldilocks badges and a set of rapunzel badges. They look really cute, the photos don't quite do them justice!

'New' Table

Do you spy what I spy out of my window?


Look... wouldn't that be lovely with a bit of oilcloth on top? Looks just the right size for a laptop/sewing machine table...


You can see the potential, right?


Look - it was fate! the binmen came literally one minute after I went out to rescue it!

(hmm I wonder if anyone noticed me taking photos of a bin, running out and dragging in a table, and then taking photos of the binmen???)


A wipe down, a bit of furniture re-arrangement, and a bit of cloth flung over the top to 'get the effect' later and - I think it's looking pretty good already!

My mum and dad did NOT agree when they popped in. Ah, they clearly have no taste!