Thursday 30 June 2011

Great finds at the Junk Shop today!

This doesn't happen often but I could have spent a small fortune at my favourite Junk Shop today, instead I limited myself and only spent a small amount but came away with some great finds!

First up this fabulous bamboo/rattan chair, I LOVE it, we don't have anywhere for it right now but I'm just about to move our bedroom around and hoping it will fit in there, if not, I'll sell it on, but I'm hoping I don't have to as these don't come around very often and never at the price I paid!!



I just love it, very pleased!

Absolute bargain of the day though is this folding lawn chair, which I think is either 50s or 60s maybe earlier I don't really know but the wooden arms are a give away to the likelihood of it not being later. I love the design on it, it needs a damn good clean that's for sure, and there is a little pull at the seams but it held me just fine and -sadly - I'm no lightweight! How much was this bargain? £2!





I think this really was a bargain and as we don't have much outside furniture so this one is definitely staying with me!

Next bargain was this great little shelf that I'm going to put up in the kitchen, nothing special but cute and old and most importantly super cheap!



Don't worry I'm not going to make Paul hold it up that was just for the purposes of taking pics I will put it up properly!!

And last but not least are some old African Art pictures which are amazing but we are going to sell them on, we love them but we already have some nice ones and don't have appropriate space, but they are fabulous!



I really like these but rescued them as I'm sure someone will love them and they were just dumped in a plastic bag in amongst the junk, despite that they weren't super cheap but definitely worth it!

So all in all a great day of junk shopping, this shop is my favourite you never know what you will find and more excitingly you can't see half of it cos it's piled up like an old Junk yard, however is prices are usually not peanuts, he's not stupid but they are nowhere near ebay or Antique shop prices, love it there, I could spend hours in there, well I could end up buried in a pile of junk there!

Monday 27 June 2011

Am I the only one who decorates in summer?

Every summer I have the urge to decorate or in fact finish decorating! I can't help myself the weather gets nice and I think, mmm painting and moving furniture around. Am I strange? Am I the only one?

I don't even know where the urge comes from, there is no family background to this, my mum and dad rarely decorated, their house was functional. But I just have this urge. Does it come from the fact that I can't sit out in the sun for hours on end as I burn and get overheated - read irritable!!  I don't know.

You can see what I did last year, if you look back at my posts from July and August  well I feel the same surge of 'doing' this Summer, so yesterday I sat down with my to do list from last year - of which I'd ticked off a lot! - and got to looking at what still needs to be done and what is new on the list!

Also I've been looking at others blogs and websites for some inspiration!

What kicked me off on this again was seeing Mary from Deluxeville's dining room she started painting, or ex dog room he he! I LOVE this colour she's used, not sure we get Martha Stewart paint over here!




Someone else who always inspires me is Tasha from By Gum By Golly whenever I see a shot of her in their home I love the colours that are used, they are very me! See here for instance



Those are the people's blogs I see regularly and think, ooooh I like that! I do realise I've mentioned both the lovely Tash and Mary in my last 2 posts, I'm not stalking them honest, it just happened that way!!!

Then of course there are great books which give me fabulous inspiration and recently I started stocking one of my faves Inspiring 50s Interiors, if you've never seen this book, believe me you have to get it! I sold out at the Rave, yep that quickly, it's a crappy cover but the inside *sigh* the inside!!! I want soooo many rooms from inside this book, every time I decide to decorate I get it out for a bit of inspiration.

Here are just a few





How cool huh? If only I had the time and money, but at least I can use them as inspiration!

So I'm off to look at my to do list, won't be starting til after this weekend I think, but we'll see, I have some very small paint touch up jobs to do first but then, mmm, downstairs loo I think it needs a makeover

So tell me am I crazy decorating in summer?

Saturday 25 June 2011

I'm back!

Hey all, I'm back! Well in reality I got back at the beginning of the week but with all the sleep catch up and work catch up I haven't been able to post til today!

As ever we had a great time at the Rave and as ever I didn't take hardly any pics, I always forget to take my camera on a night and during the day I work, so I'm a blogging failure ha ha!

However I did get some and I did meet some great people!

First up I thought I'd let you see the reality of setting up for a big show, so many of you just see the end result, there is sooooo much work that goes on before it looks like how you see it.

So here is my stall before anything happens!


Our neighbours, the lovely Bunnys Workshop, Jirral makes fabulous chalkware masks and did I take any pics, nope I did not, so stupid! But here is Jirral and Nicki setting up!


And this is what the main traders rooms looks like as they are starting out, if you've seen in finished you'll know how much work must got into it!


However I did mention that I met some new people, well new as in I've never met them in person but feel like I've known them forever!!

I met the very lovely Kim from The Kim Show blog, she was exactly as I imagined and we got on like we'd known each other forever! She also bought a fabulous pair of peddle pushers or clam diggers from me, which I was so happy for as I've had them forever but they were really too long for me but they suit Kim so much she went back and changed into them straight away as you can see in this pic! Lovely to meet you Kim, hope we get to spend some proper time at some point, sorry I was so busy!


Kim said she felt like an Amazonian woman next to me, well I am rather short ;o)

I also met 2 lovely Australian (I think!) ladies, now here is where I fell down horribly, not only did I not ask their actual names, I didn't even get a pic, cos guess what we started talking about all our lovely blogging friends all over the world and then it got busy and they left before I got chance to ask names and take pics! But they were lovely! Our respective husbands/boyfriends were extremely bemused that people who have never met were talking about the 2 weddings of the month in blog land, namely Tasha from By Gum, By Golly and Mary from Deluxeville and the fact that we'd all met Kim too! So hello ladies, please identify yourselves, and sorry we ended up just chatting and not connecting properly it was lovely to meet you!

As I said we had a great time, we always share at the Rave and Riot with Kaye and Martin from Rocket Originals and that adds to the enjoyment, they are great chalet mates! I would never take a pic of us in the chalet, it's less glamour & more PJs and looking knackered!!

Last but not least, the lovely Australian ladies asked how my grass was coming along, who'd have thought people were interested eh? I'm pleased to announce it's looking fabulous


However I do appear to have sown extremely fast growing grass so it doesn't look like this at the moment ha ha!

We are supposed to get stonkingly hot weather tomorrow and Monday, so I'm preparing for it! We've had a really crappy June so far in the UK!

Hope you are all well

Tuesday 14 June 2011

Oh my I've passed the 300 Follower mark!

I can't believe my little blog has reached over 300 followers! Truly I never thought that when I started this anyone would be interested in what I had to write about at all.

I also wouldn't have imagined how much blogging has enriched my life, I love connecting with people all over the work, my only regret is that I'm unlikely to meet some of those fabulous people but still it's nice connecting!

As I said in my last post I'm off to trade at the Rockabilly Rave this week, in fact I'm about to go and pick up the van to start loading it, my least favourite job uuurgh!

I'll be back next week and will try to tell you of my adventures, although do bear in mind I am pretty much stuck on my stall ALL the time so I'll do my best!!

Meantime I'll have a think about a giveaway for my 300, it doesn't seem that long ago that I was going my 200 which was won by Kim at The Kim Show who I'm actually going to get the chance to meet as she is coming to the Rave!!! YAY!

This was us last year at the Rave when some lovely friends delivered a fabulous cocktail to us on the stall, see it's not all work ;o)



See you on the other side, have a great week!

Thursday 9 June 2011

Busy life means quiet blog!

As usual it seems I haven't been around much lately, I haven't even had chance to catch up with my favourite blogs so apologies I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth I'm just having a really busy time!!

I did one of my most favourite things yesterday I had my hair cut at Nina's Vintage Hair Parlour. Not only do I come out of Nina's looking and feeling a million dollars, but I have the time of my life whilst I'm there, you can't really ask for more can you. I had every intention of taking loads of photos this time to let you see it all and experience it with me, but instead Nina and I (then later Claire) just talked and laughed for hours and hours!!

Anyway what I did do is take a before and after shot, it's been ages since I've been to Nina, it's shameful, but I've been broke, so my hair had gotten completely long and out of control, and believe my hair is thick so when it gets out of control, wow, it's really out of control!

I took this shot when I got there.


Wild and unruly hair begone!


I'm far happy than I look! I'd just sat in rush hour traffic from London, uuurgh, but my hair I was over the moon about, I'm a very happy bunny

I was also lucky to get a great book delivered today, I order from the people who supply Schiffer Books and I was lucky to get this! I love Schiffer books, I could run a book store and stock only their books and be very very happy although I'd probably not make any money ever ha ha

This books makes me happy and will provide me with hours and years of joy just gazing at the pretty fabrics, it's called Conversational Print of the 50s, and you know me I do like a conversational print!!





If I could find even one print from this book I'd be pretty happy for a very long time!

I haven't just been having my hair cut and getting stock delivered, I've done a day event, been to a trade fair to check out new stock for later in the year, in fact it's been non stop. Then of course I have the Rockabilly Rave next week, as traders we have to leave on Wednesday, so I load the van on Tuesday. I haven't finished my sewing yet and I still have to go to a supplier on Sunday to get more fabulous stock so I'm not sure you'll hear from me now before the Rave, see you in a couple of weeks, hope you all have a good couple of weekends!

QUICK EDIT - I just noticed I have 299 followers, lordy, one more and I'll have to do another fabulous giveaway, how on earth did that happen so quickly. Thanks all!

Wednesday 1 June 2011

Sewing up a storm!

Howdy all! Well wasn't the holiday weekend a washout in the UK? No problem for me though I planned to sew sew and sew so I was perfectly happy!

I haven't done any proper sewing in some time and I really do want to get back in the swing, the thing is that I have my lovely sewing area set up upstairs however when I sew at the weekend I liked to do it in the living room whilst watching movies, mmmm dilemma.

Well not much of one, here's a pic of the chaos of part of the living room as I got started he he!


Yep fabric & patterns everywhere, I like to see what I have around me, terrible huh?

Anyway I was going to sew something for the Rockabilly Rave coming up but I changed my mind, I enough nice blouses for wearing during the day, but what I don't have is day to day wear blouses, obviously I don't have to wear formal office wear as I work for myself but I don't like getting sloppy either and I'll be honest I have been lately!

So I decided first up to make a couple of work blouses! My first one was using some black spotty fabric, here's the pattern on top of the fabric, I decided on the bottom option.


I always have to alter patterns as I'm have a large bust and sadly a large waist at the moment :o( Anyway I messed about with this pattern and got a reasonable if a little loose fit, which suits me just fine for sitting in front of the laptop all day! I did take a pic of it finished but had to cut my head of, sorry people, I was sewing had no make up on and my hair looked a fright!!


Can you spot the mistake? I can't believe I made such a rookie error!! I got so far and then was in such a rush to finish, I put the buttonholes on the wrong side, it's very strange when you fasten it up, but you'd never really notice.

Next up was another spotty fabric, again, just for working around the house. I have this one on as I write this, I've felt so much smarter the last couple of days in my new blouses, I'm definately going to make quite a few more!





Then I decided I fancied sewing a sun suit, well a top and a skirt. I didn't have quite enough fabric to do the skirt of my choice so I had to do a basic a line with a nice top, this is the fabric. I promise I'll take a proper pic of me in it when I wear it!



Cute fabric huh?! There's a teaser for you!

Then I dug out a dress & bolero I have only worn once, it is a lovely print but a friend made it for me years ago and it just doesn't fit right, she made the bodice to short, which is a very weird experience for me as I'm pretty short! Anyway I am going to make a deep belt with left over fabric to shape it more at the waist and hide the fact that it's a little short in the bodice! I thought I'd show you this as it's such pretty fabric! Again once I've done the belt and wear it with hair done & make up on I'll show ya!



Then last but not least a project I haven't finished yet but I've started. I had some lovely 40s or 50s seersucker which I've always thought about making PJs from so I got started. This is the print, pretty huh?


And this is the pattern, I'm making it in short sleeves and actually with shorts instead of longer PJ bottoms as I think this will be more suitable for summer.


So as you can see I've been really busy! Once I'm on a roll with sewing that is it, I get the bug and can't stop, so I'm off to work for a little while on my PJs, not too long though as I was working til gone 10 last night and I'm a little sleepy!

hope you've all been great and had a great weekend.

Oh and what is with Blogger & Explorer, since I upgraded Explorer I can't use Blogger properly so I've taken to using Google Chrome, no problems there!
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...