Boy, its been hectic!

The days just seem to have flown by, and I have had very little time on the computer. I managed to have a quick scan of some blogs on my reading list, but that was about it, certainly didn't have time to comment much or post myself.

So whats been happening? Nothing earth shattering , lol, mostly mundane things really but they have kept me busy. Friday was such a lovely day, my son and I tackled the jungle in the front garden. We chainsawed ( well, he did that, after all he is the qualified tree surgeon, not me ), we chopped, we secateured, we moved masses of branches into a huge container ready to be taken to the tip. After that, I was way too knackered to do more than have a bath, drink copious amounts of tea and by 8.30 I was in bed! What a lightweight, eh?

Saturday lunchtime I went to a car boot sale, and found some nice things, including a set of 9 Fiskars craft scissors, you know the ones that cut the funky edge patterns. Woohoo, I am so pleased with those, especially as the whole lot was only £2. In the afternoon, we were invited to a BBQ at our friends' house. As Nick had offered to drive us, I was able to have a little drinkie as well, yay, so I thought I start off with a lovely Pimms before we went. Aaahh, Pimms is such a lovely summer drink. I was extremely good though, only had a couple of Kir when we got there, and then went onto soft drinks. Truth is, I just can't take more than that, lol,

Sunday morning was a bit iffy, it had rained heavily the night before, and I was pretty much convinced that both boot fairs would be cancelled. Sigh, yes, the early one was cancelled, just because of a bit of moisture on the grass, humph. But, to my surprise and immense relief, the later boot fair was on! So No. 2 son, my faithful driver, and myself toddled off for an hour or so of happy hunting. Even though it was only half its usual size, I managed to find a couple of things. The book man was there and lo and behold, he did have a wonderful huge old ledger for me! I was practically drooling and could have hugged him.

So here are photos of some of the weekend's finds, do let me know what you think of them. First up, some tins. If you have been following my blog for a while, you will know that I have a thing for tins, a BIIIG thing, lol. I love them, French, English, old or fairly new, as long as they are pretty, I just have to bring them home.

This is a modern tin, but I fell in love with the beautiful tactile wisteria design. It reminded me so much of our cottage in France, with the wisteria growing over the barn doors -

This one though is a very old tin. It commemorates the 40th anniversary of a company which was founded in 1907, so the date of the tin is 1947. Isn't just lovely? Floral tins like this one are definitely my favourites -
Front
Back
Sides

and lid

This one is so pretty as well-

And a proper tea tin, with instructions for making the perfect cuppa -

Now the next tin I didnt' buy at the boot fair, but in France on our last visit. I hadn't shown it before but it is in good tinny company here, lol. I think it is rather special, as it is from from Lourdes -
I have listed this one in Vintageland.

Now back to this weekend boot fairs. I do love old jugs for the French cottage, they look so charming filled with wild flowers or big blowsy roses. Isn't this one gorgeous, even with the little chip?

And how about this gorgeous 3-part Victorian lidded soap dish? I love it! It does have an old faint hairline crack, but it doesn't seem to go right through.

I know I buy some weird and wonderful things occasionally which make my husband shake his head in dispair, lol. This is one of them. I think it must have had a unique glass bottle inside it at some stage, perhaps a liqueur bottle or a sirup bottle. It comes apart, so that a new bottle can be put inside. It is old silver plate, terribly tarnished and somewhat worn at the moment, but isn't it just the most fantastic thing? I am determined to find a glass bottle to fit it. On one side it has a blank cartouche for the owner's initial, and on the other side is this, ermm, heck I don't know what it is. Got any ideas?

I also found a few crochet bits and pieces, all rather pretty and beautifully made-

But the best thing was this stunning lace shawl collar. I looked at it really carefully and very close up, and I am pretty sure that it is handmade lace. I went all gaga over this piece. What sort of grand dress must have had a collar like this?
Heck I am still drooling over the collar, just looking at the photographs again.

I also found a sweet little loose powder tin-

A cut glass powder bowl ( for the body powders I make )

and...........

The fabulous ledger and an equally fabulous book! Just look at how beautifully the pages have been decorated, I love this sort of marbling on the edges of the pages
The inside covers are gorgeous-
The book is crammed full with the most fabulous engravings

And finally, finally after goodness knows how long, I have managed to find a ledger, a HUGE old ledger with beautifully aged pages. This is the label on the inside front cover-

The huge ledger -

and the beautiful pages, drool


There are a few more things, like a dozen or so almost new inkpads, including distress ink pads, some nice stamps, and errmm, can't remember anything else right now, lol. Its late, blame it on that. And also I was doing another town walk with a bunch of German school kids this morning, up and down the Hastings hills, lol, thats tiring.

I am off to try and catch up on some more blogs now.

Toodlepip xxx