Lovely weekend

Friday was such a fun day. My very dear friend JJ came over from Brighton to spend the day with me. She came over in her little Snow Drop ( the dinky new car ) and she was nice and early! Early for JJ, that is. After a coffee, we set off and spent an hour at my favourite wool shop ( droooooooooooool ), and came out with one or two hanks of wool from the sale section. Lurvely yarns! No photos of the yarns yet, but I'll show you a pic of the pattern I am going to use the yarns for. It is an African Flower Hexagon Square! I am pretty useless at reading a pattern done in symbols but my wonderful friend explained it all to me and I managed to make a square with bits of left over wool from my granny square lankie, all by myself, hurrah! This is it -


Now imagine this square done in the loveliest soft colours, silver grey, the most beautiful sea green, a lovely sand and a gentle aubergine. I am so tempted to get started on it straight away, but I haven't even decided what to make with the yarns yet, lol. I think it might be an idea to sort that out first.

We also had a rather lovely lunch in a little cafe with the loveliest back garden. Goats cheese flan and salads goes so well with a good old natter. Hmm, after that, we managed to womble through a few more shops, made a few more purchases, and finally got back to my house well after 4pm! We needed serious refreshment after wombling about in the summer heat, so for a little while we just sat in the garden with a delicious ginger ale float and relaxed. Aaaaah, bliss!

After that I got my lesson in reading crochet patterns, see above, more natter of course, and, heck, I don't know what else, lol, time just flies when you have fun, and before we knew it, it was time to part again.

And so on to Saturday. My faithful companion on many boot fair trips, DS No. 3, came with me again to the lunchtime bootfair. It was rather disappointing, only about a third of the size it usually is. So, not surprisingly, this time I didn't come home with a huge trolley load, lol. Here are the few things I did find -

A small bag full of vintage trimmings in really lovely soft, muted colours, perfect for fabric collages -


and another small bag with lots of bias binding in all sorts of colours and sizes -


I have to admit that I was more excited about my next find though, lots and lots of wonderful droolworthy ephemera from the early to mid 40s. I find these things absolutely fascinating and can spend ages looking through these things -


Look at this piece, for example, just a few sentences about the lives of this couple, but my imagination goes into overdrive and a whole life story develops in my mind -


Even the next piece, this innocent looking little book, had the same effect on me. I remember many years ago, when I first came to England and had my very first own home and mortgage, the insurance man came to the home to discuss policies with you. It wasn't done on the internet in those days, and it wasn't done on the phone either (like today, when you finally get through to a real person after playing question and answer with a machine for 10 minutes ). It was still very much the personal touch. Boy, did those guys have to be clever -


I find these bits of social history ever so fascinating.

Books, aaah, books, you have probably realised by now I have a thing about books, have done ever since my grandmother taught me to read. This is such a lovely bound book of Cassell's Magazines -


Isn't this just too cute? -


And that was almost it, except for this thing, a thin book for newspaper cuttings -


The cuttings were gone -


but the paper, aaaahh, the beautifully aged paper, 60+ years old and mellowed to perfection -


so lovely for journals.

And that is all, not the best haul ever, but enough to keep me happy! My last post for two months will be tomorrow, mostly about today's boot fair finds. Until then,

Toodlepip xxx

Finally, boot fair finds from the weekend

I only have a couple of hours left to keep yesterday's promise, lol, it is almost 10pm. I know, you weren't expecting me to be this close to the end of the day, but I am still busy taking my craft room apart ( how I wish I had never started, lol ). I am sure hours are shrinking, how could time fly by so quickly otherwise?

Anyhoo, I did take some time out this afternoon to photograph most of the stuff from the weekend. The pics are not very pretty, lol, everything is just heaped onto the table, no pretty vignettes, but at least you can see what filled my trolley to the brim.

My No. 2 son had phoned me up on Saturday to talk me into going to a different boot fair, and meet him and my almost-daughter-in-law there. Hmm. It would mean missing my regular stallholders at the boot fair I normally go to, but hey, when my No. 2 son wants to go to a boot fair once in a blue moon, I can't say no.

Lucky that I did say yes. I came across a couple of really nice things. Like these beautiful old bottles. Most of them are the most delicious shade of aqua, a couple are light blue, a couple are clear -


Some are old chemist's bottles -


some are poison bottles, and who knows what the little stumpy ones were for. And those adorable glass stoppers, sigh, I love those -


I spent ages at the stall chatting to the young man who had dug these bottles up. I getting rather fond of these bottles, that yummy aqua colour is just so pretty.

This tin has such a pretty shape, I had to have it, even though it is not in pristine condition. but the scene on the lid is so romantic, and just look at the sides of the tins, gorgeous, don't you agree?


These old brass thingies are tiny tiny tiny, and just perfect for mixed media collages -


Any kind of flower pot, vase, bowl etc with hand painted flowers draws me like a magnet. My favourites are roses, of course, but this little pot was so sweetly decorated with hand painted daisies etc, it had to come home with me-


A little bit of bling, can't go to a boot fair without buying something pretty to wear-

The honey coloured beads on the left are plastic beads, but on the right is beautifully knotted necklace of the most gorgeous pearls. I have looked ever so closely to find chips coming off, but I cannot find any fault with these gorgeously lustrous pearls. They look incredibly real. The other necklace seems to be made with mother-of-pearl beads. The have the loveliest soft shimmer -


Ah, yes, and then there was this big silver plated tazza! Very tarnished, but what a beautiful shape!


Guess where this beautiful soft pink dessert set is going? Yep, of course, to the cottage. It actually is French, so its only right that it should go home, lol. At another stall I found a set of 12 lace trimmed deep pink napkins that go so well with the dessert set, how lucky was that?


Whats next? Hmmm. Shall I risk you really hating me? You wouldn't, would you, just because I found a pile of the most beautiful ever crochet and crochet trimmed treasures. I just know that I must have had this insane grin on my face all the while I was looking through the box with the bits and pieces of fabric etc. Ready? Here goes -


This good sized table cloth in a delicious pink colour came from a different stall -


Beautiful old photographs and postcards -


A teeny bit more bling -

How about the Eiffel Tower, mounted on a piece of marble and sporting a thermometer?


I really liked the shape and colour of this little tin, an old repair kit ( complete with all the bits inside ) -


And last but most definitely not least, the bestest bit of bling! I really adore these vintage necklaces, they sparkle and shimmer and look a million dollars. I am pretty sure the crystals are Swarovski crystals, just look at the fabulous quality! I had to photograph the necklace on all sorts of different things, because each background made it look so different -


Ah, and just in case you wondered what that pretty pink thing was in the last photograph, well, it was this sweet little vintage bed jacket, probably 1950s.


And now I am thoroughly pooped, it is almost 11pm, and this post is massively long as it it, so I am going to leave the books until tomorrow. Have a wonderful day/evening/morning wherever you are.

Toodlepip xxx

Was lange waehrt, wird endlich gut

This is a German saying I grew up with, roughly translated it means something like - something which takes a long time to complete, turns out well in the end. That usually applies to me, like the granny square blanket which was two years in the making, and numerous other projects which take me ages to complete. Mostly because I leave them half finished so that I can start on yet another project, lol.

A couple of months ago, I took part in an apron swap organised by the very lovely Sarah, from the Red Gingham blog. If you have been around for a while, you will have seen the photos of the apron I made to my partner's specifications, which were - Dolly Angel style with doilies, lace etc, green and blue colours. If you haven't seen the pics yet, you can catch up here.

On Saturday I received my apron from Luisa, from the Dance in My Garden blog. It may have taken a long time to get here, but it was worth waiting for. It is a beautifully made, reversible half apron in lovely floral fabrics. But see for yourself -


This is the lovely little details on the reverse side -

But this is definitely my favourite side, the rose fabric is beautiful -

Thank you very much, Luisa, I wore it all morning, only just now took it off to go shopping after I have finished this post.

Sigh, I know I promised to post the boot sale finds yesterday, what can I say? Errmm, I haven't even photographed them yet. I got rather carried away with taking my craft room apart. All because I couldn't find the hexagons I had crocheted a while ago, and a persistent friend wanted to know all about the half hexies I had made to fill in the gaps. Found them, hurrah, but the work room re-arranging is taking a few days longer than anticipated, lolol. I wonder why.........

Promise I'll get the pics done for tomorrow though.

Toodlepip xxx

Happy 4th of July!

I would like to wish all my wonderful American blogger friends a very Happy 4th of July! I have seen from a lot of your blogs that you have already been celebraint, and in great style, I may add. I have seen some delicious party dishes, oh boy, did they make my mouth water!

I went to a couple of boot fairs this morning, it was a beautiful hot day with a lovely cool sea breeze, and I came home with a few lovely bits and pieces. I'll photograph them tomorrow and post the pics. Too pooped today from all that wombling about in the sun.

Carry on celebrating, girls, have oodles of fun!

Toodlepip xxx

Sometimes when you least expect it,

something really sweet happens to make your day. Yesterday morning I posted a comment on a blog, whose writer had received a package in the post which was a complete surprise, totally unexpected. How lovely is that? It certainly made me smile and it confirmed to me once again how wonderful blogland really is.

A couple of hours later there was a knock on the door. It was the postman with a little package for me. For me? I hadn't ordered anything and the one package I was sort of waiting for ( the apron ) I knew wouldn't arrive for, well, a long time, lol, if ever. So what on earth could it be? I looked at it and realised it was most definitely not a UK package. Closer inspection revealed it was from New Zealand. NEW ZEALAND!!! That could only mean one person, a very dear blogger friend indeed, Sarah from the Red Gingham blog. But why, what?

I ripped it open, none too gently I have to admit, and out fell beautifully wrapped little pressies and some cards. Why? Just because I had sent her a little CK bag a while back, which had come with a magazine! I was gobsmacked. Sarah does know me quite well by now, and she sent me some gorgeous little treasures to craft with, as well as the most deliciously rosy tea towel for the cottage in France -


There was tiniest ric rac in the yummiest pastel colours, pink and green


Some gorgeous flowers for my tags/cards etc

Paper lace and stick on pearls

tiny little embellishments including those pretty pretty crocheted flowers

sweet pink little roses

But the most precious, heartwarming gifts were these three cards, from Sarah and her lovely daughters -


They mean more than anything to me! Having said that, of course I'll thoroughly enjoy crafting with my new little treasures. Watch this space. THANK YOU SO MUCH, SARAH AND YOU LOVELY GIRLS!!!

Just thought I'd share one other thing with you, in case you didn't see the comments on yesterday's post. Now you know that I often sign off with a toodlepip, a quaint English goodbye from a different era, but one which I really like. Judy from the lovely tapestries of nature blog finds it quite funny and has often left comments with variations on that cute word. Yesterday's really had me laughing out loud, for ages, because she signed off with PIDDLEPOOPS! Judy, you are an absolute hoot!

Thats it for today, I am off to make wooden bead necklaces with my granddaughter now

Toodlepip xxx