Aaahh, romance

It was a little bit of a tease yesterday, telling you I wouldn't show you my most favourite find from the weekend until today. Well, I loved it so much, I really thought it deserved its very own post. You'll probably think I am completely doolally ( and you could be right, of course ), but I can't help being a bit of a romantic fool. Or fool full stop, lol.

I am one of those people who can never pass a closed box on a stall without opening it to see what, if anything, is hiding inside. They draw me like a magnet. So there I was happily wombling about when I spotted this box on a stall in the distance ( madam eagle eyes, lol ) -


Ok, Lancome, good name, so there could possibly be something nice in there. Wombling turned into a rather fast walk, and honestly I didn't snatch the box up, I just grabbed it rather quickly. Do you get excited when you open a box on a stall? I do. This is what I found when I lifted the lid -


OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH, it was the prettiest wedding head dress with 2 matching hair combs. Gorgeous! Not at all your usual tiara, but a Flower Power ( dare I say Hippie ) girl style head dress worn on the forehead with the beautiful beads hanging down.

It was lying on bunched up tissue paper and when I lifted the pieces out to admire them, I found this under the tissue paper -

Yes, a beautiful short veil, embroidered all over with the prettiest little pink pearls. I know I must have had a really silly grin on my face at that point. It was so beautiful, so delicate, so very charming, the kind of thing I might have worn quite happily. I could picture the bride ( or me in my younger days ) so clearly, in a long, flowing white dress with a beautiful and gently swirling skirt and long sleeves, with these beautiful flowers in her long hair......... and then the stall holder starting talking to me, lol. Ok, so maybe I looked just a little bit silly with those flowers on my head, ahem.

Enough said, lol, of course I had to buy the set, I couldn't possibly leave it behind. It was the most romantic thing I had found in a long time. Of course I have no idea yet where I am going to display it, for the moment it has been carefully packed away again in the Lancome box. But one of these days I'll just know.



I'll go and dream a little more about romantic weddings now. Toodlepip xxx

A BIG thank you and a few boot fair finds

You know from the previous post that I joined the brilliant Bloggerette Sorority a little while ago, and, along with every other sister, made a little project with the image we were provided with. The big reveal was last Friday and, boy, did I have a fabulous weekend! I visited around 150 blogs of our new sorority sisters and was absolutely gobsmacked by the wonderful and highly imaginative creations they came up with. What really bowled me over was the fabulous response I had. So many lovely sorority sisters visited me, left wonderful comments, wrote such lovely emails. I was a real pleasure seeing some of them as new followers as well. BUT, with all the visiting I did, I haven't had much time to respond to their emails or to welcome the new followers personally, so please let me say a HUGE THANK YOU to all of you. You put the biggest smile on my face.


Before I get totally soppy ( not a pretty sight ) I'd better get on to the weekend boot fairs.
The weather was brilliant, and it was lovely just wombling about and checking out the stalls. No rushing around, just gentle milling about as it was quite hot, even so early in the day.

Ok, so I may have to put an extension on the house soon, or start listing in Vintageland rather more seriously, sigh, because I came home with, errmm, well, too many goodies again. But honestly, when you see something you really like, you can't just leave it behind, can you? You'd be kicking yourself forever.

Lets start with glass treasures then. This Art Deco vase is the most beautiful blue. I have a very similar already in the cottage's blue bedroom, so this one will go very nicely with it -


A whole bunch of small vintage glass bottles, some of them in the most delicious aqua colour, some in clear glass

This one is very very special indeed though, don't you think? -


EIFFEL TOWER lemonade!!! I researched it a little, and going by the neck shape and the text front and back I believe it to be from around 1910. For anybody who loves Paris and the Eiffel Tower, thats just such a sweet find. Funny though that it was actually made in Maidstone, England, now why would they call the stuff Eiffel Tower lemonade??

Another beautiful deeply coloured carnival glass bowl, so pretty -

and a set of three glass jars for trying my hand at altering them -

I do love my collection of Victorian moulds and I am always thrilled when I find one at a boot fair -

When we have very informal outdoor dinners with friends in France, I love to use bowls with different patterns. This sweet anemone bowl will fit in nicely with the my other flowery bowls -

Oh, and talking of bowls, I just had to get this gorgeous bowl for the cottage in France, it has the most beautiful rose decoration and a silver plated rim. Will I fill it with lace, or rose petals, or beautiful pearls perhaps? We'll see.

It is almost unknown for me to buy a teacup which doesn't have roses or other pink flowers on it, but this beautiful trio in BLUE was just way too pretty to ignore. I adore it -

Sometimes one just has to give in and buy a little bit of kitsch, when it is so prettily shaped and so shimmery and shiny. I fell for this little lustreware dish, the swans are so charming and the lustre is so delicate and pretty -

A little bit of bling and the cutest little silver plated dish ( with not much silver left, lol )


a little bit of fabric, smothered in the prettiest roses -

and lots and lots of gorgeous vintage linens -

a few old photographs -

and a brilliant set of very vintage Happy Families cards -

And of course there were books, I can't imagine going to a boot fair and coming home without a book or two -

This Paris guide is from 1922 and is full of fold out maps -

This is even better than the normal ledger, so much rarer, a bread delivery record book! -

This book, Epics and Romances of the Middle Ages, has the most fabulous illustrations, I especially love all the tiny little scrolls and thingies -

Last but not least is this sweet little rose garland, quite delicate and pastel-ly, perfect for the cottage -

There is one other thing which I found on Sunday, and I have to say it is my favourite out of all the weekend finds. It is so pretty, it deserves its own post. I'll show you all tomorrow! Until then,

toodlepip xx

The Bloggerette Sorority RUSH !!!

I was thrilled to bits when I joined the Boggerette Sorority a little while ago, never having been in a sorority before. I thought it was a great idea to be part of such a lovely group of creative women, and I am so excited thinking about future events, challenges, swaps etc etc. Now, in order to join we had to take this gorgeous old photograph,
supplied by the lovely Karen from the "Some Days are Diamonds" blog, who had the wonderful idea for the sorority, and make something with it. Anything. Anything at all. And frame it somehow. Arrgghhh, what to chose, what to do.......

Well, I have paper on my mind lately, I love messing around with glue and bits and pieces. I have also long admired the fabulous art journals which I see on so many blogs I visit. Plus, I can be a little forgetful at times. So, when you put all that together, it just had to be a Bloggerette Sorority Journal, to keep track of swaps, ideas for challenges etc.

I used the softly coloured back of a 120 year old French book as a frame for the Sorority photo, the beautiful little journal cards from Green Paper, plus bits and pieces I had lying around for the inside pages, a bit of lace, a couple of stamps, a piece of a tattered French embroidery magazine, music sheets, ledger paper, oh it was so much fun putting this together. Mind you, only having started last night, it really was a RUSH, lol. But I am pleased with my first effort, and will proudly use it for all matters Sorority, lol.

The only other rule was that we had to show a picture of ourselves with the project. Errrmm, there are not many photographs of me around, lol, I am somewhat camera shy these days. But I roped my DS No.3 in to take a couple of photos. Here I am, holding my Bloggerette Sorority Journal -


And the Bloggerette Sorority Journal -


I took pictures of the individual pages before I bound them together, seemed easier, lol -


See that really sweet little initial "L" stamped above the lady's head? That is a tiny French stamp, over 100 years old, which had been used for stamping linen nightdresses etc with a monogram, so that the needlewoman could embroider over it. I love that stamp.

You can find a LOOOOOOONG list of the other fabulous Bloggerette Sorority sisters on Karen's blog - Some Days are Diamonds. Have oodles of fun visiting them all and drooling over their gorgeous projects.

I'll leave you with a very silly grinny me, see? There is a good reason why I avoid photos, lol.


Toodlepip xxx