A few recent finds

Don't expect anything too dramatic, lol, because we only have one winter bootfair, a small indoor one, and trying to find vintage things there is nigh on impossible. I most definitely do not need my trolley, lol! Usually I only end up with one or two things and they fit in my handbag.

So, lets start with a bit of kitsch, not vintage, but quirky. I do love cheeses, and these little silver plated cheese markers are so cute, they had to come home with me -


A gorgeous old pressed glass stemmed dish -



A beautiful pressed glass bowl -


See the hearts in the pattern, isn't that just lovely? -



Old baking forms -


Escutcheons, these will be great for mixed media collages, with a tiny image behind the keyhole -


A couple of old watches, no idea what I am going to do with them, yet -


This dainty little ring, which is perfect for my tiny hand and baby fingers. It is marked "silver" and has a sparkly little stone, and I found it ( not recently ) in a box full of old buttons and other weird bits and pieces -


Two silver plated or silver metal little thingies -


I do love this little trinket or potpourri box, it is so feminine and romantic -


Not entirely sure what this is for, it does have a liner, so could be used as a little vase perhaps -


A few doilies, appliqued napkins perfect for a bit of Spring colour, and a very sweet tray cloth -


Once my darling little angel has finished riding his white swan ( tehehee, remember TRex?), I'll make the swan into a little pincushion -


I could really do with a bit of help on this last item. You have probably noticed before that I like fancy over-the-top things, so when I saw this on a stallholder's table, I had to have it. They didn't know what it was, I sure don't know what it is, but I love it. I think it is Japanese, because the characters underneath it look Japanese to me, but I could be totally wrong of course. Sooooooo, if any of you know Japanese ( or Chinese if it turns out to be Chinese, lol ), I'd really love to know what it says. Probably the maker's name etc. Any info gratefully received! -


Aren't the details on this thing absolutely amazing?

These are the characters I need help with -


Wishing you all a good weekend, I hope you get to do whatever it is you have your heart set on.
Toodlepip xxx

Flowers

Wednesday had been a sunny day, so of course yesterday was bound to be a rainy day again. That had been the pattern over the last few weeks, half a day or so of decent weather and then days on end of grey, miserable, wet weather. Yesterday morning sure looked that way. But to my utter surprise, the grey clouds vanished, and all of a sudden there was the blue sky and the sunshine again! What a relief!

I managed to take photos of a few bits and pieces which I had found over the last couple of weeks ( I'll post them tomorrow ), and I even ventured out into the garden. Of course the ground was still rather waterlogged, but I could see the beautiful flowers on the Hellebore (Christmas rose) which my parents-in-law had given me as a birthday present years ago and they called to me. I snipped a few of the blooms off and brought them inside, not quite knowing what I was going to do with them. I so love their delicate colours and I was beginning to wonder whether they would keep their colours if they were dried........... I thought that it would probably be best to dry them as quickly as possible to stop them going brown, so I plonked them on top of a radiator.

This morning I checked and I was thrilled to bits to find that they had dried beautifully and they had kept their colours. They looked like crinkled silk flowers, so delicate and so pretty, I just had to take some photographs. I can't believe how lucky we are again today, the sun is shining! It is bitterly cold, there was thick ice on the cars along the road this morning, but I have decent light to take photographs, woohoo!

Here they are, my beautiful silky and delicate dried flowers -







Have a great weekend! Toodlepip xxx

A first for me, a petite inspiration box

I wanted to try and make one of these little treasure boxes for such a long time, and this afternoon I took the plunge, emptied out the biggest matchbox I could find and set about decorating it. Now why is it that these things always develop a life of their own? I spent a lovely half hour or so looking for supplies and then ended up discarding half of them and picking up totally different stuff.

I wanted to make it look a bit like a bonbon, a big sweet, so I needed frilly lace for the ends. That kinda set the tone for the rest of the embellishments. I'll just show you all the pics instead of rabbiting on -








I haven't filled it yet, that will take another few hours, lol.

Toodlepip, xxx

Green Paper's March Collage Challenge

I have only taken part a couple of times before, as I wasn't around for some of them, but I really do enjoy Mary's challenges to combine elements from 3 totally different images into one collage. They are never easy, lol, especially for somebody as digitally challenged as me. I had to enlist my son's help with a couple of steps.

These are the images Mary provided this month -

Not all that easy, right? But I knew pretty much what I wanted to achieve.

First, I separated the three images. Then I messed around with the colours on the first one to get a sepia like colour for the sweet lady. I cut out her name, Mo, and the word Company from the second image and cleaned them up. Then I got my son to help me with getting the floral pattern of the third image onto her outfit, just in one place, because Victorian styles often mixed plains with patterns in an outfit. I then placed the words, put a thin border round the whole lot, and there you go, challenge completed! I am so tempted to print it out and add lots of glitter to the snow, lol, with my trusted GellyRoll pen, would look neat, don't you think? Anyhoo, here is the completed challenge -


I am happy with it.

It was a lovely sunny day here today, but bitterly cold. Still, that doesn't put dedicated geocachers off, so Nick and I spent a few hours hunting down a few caches. Most of them were off public footpaths, which meant that for most of the time we were ankle deep in mud, lol. Hah, I was prepared though, I was wearing my lovely flowery wellies ( children's ones, lol, they fit me so much better, I have small feet ). I couldn't believe how waterlogged the ground was everywhere. Well, I could, actually, because we have had so much rain lately. I hope that we will a bit more sunshine over the next couple of days.

All that fresh air, however, means that I am totally wiped out lol, and about to toddle off to bed. I wish you all a good day/night wherever you are,

toodlepip, xxx

Monday Inchie, Etsy Cottage Style PURPLE and an Artfire Collection

I know, I am cramming a lot into this one post, but if I don't post these things now, I'll never get round to posting all the other stuff, like the photos from France, and the recent boot fair finds.....

I'll make this nice and short though, well, short for me, lol.

Lets start with the Every Inchie Monday challenge for this week. The theme was "FROLIC". Now, when I think of frolicking, I straight away think of gorgeously fluffy little lambs frolicking in the fields and meadows in Springtime. I inked the background of the little inchie with blues and greens, added some tiny wool scraps at the bottom to simulate grass, a few red dots for flowers in the meadow, and a cut out of a tiny little lamb happily frolicking about. I used the tiniest little bit of white fluffy wool on the lamb. Got more stuck to my fingers than to the lamb though, lol.

Choice of backgrounds again, because I can never decide which one I prefer. Do tell me which one you prefer, and I'll add that to the Flickr group.

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NEXT, Etsy Cottage Style's monthly colour challenge, PURPLE! Not as easy as you might think, I don't really have an awful lot of purple stuff. Purple clothes from my purple days, yes, plenty of those, but lovely vintage bits and pieces? Not so many. Here is a little collection -


A vintage purple bow tie and a gorgeous purple crystal pendant -


Vintage buttons -


A gorgeous late 60s/early 70s art glass bowl, small but beautifully formed -


A white and purple crochet lace trim -


Light purple tassel on an old cedarwood fan -


Gorgeously soft vintage French toile de jouy -


I have been hoarding this fabric for many years. One of these days I'll use it, when the right project comes along.

This sweet apron is probably from the late 50s, early 60s, I remember this sort of fabric from when I was a little girl. Just the touch of it brought back memories of frilly summer dresses -


This old tin is so sweet with those delicate little violets on all sides -


I remember the funkiest purples from the 1970s. The wallpapers and the bedlinen, my oh my.
Just look at these sheets and pillow cases still in their original packaging, fab and funky purple and blue flowers -


Ah, and those fabulous candy stripe bedlinens I got introduced to when I first came to the UK in 1975, I fell in love with them straight away. and look, there are purple stripes amongst all the other colours -


Thats it, folks, my contribution to vintage purple!

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Finally, I was really gobsmacked when I got an email last week, telling me that one of my things had been included in a member curated collection on ArtFire. Really??? But I only have a couple of things on there, just to see whether anybody actually does look at things........... I was really thrilled though to find this little pillow in a beautiful collection of dreamy creams -


You can see the collection here -
http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=collections&op=details&cid=14648

Please keep your fingers crossed for better weather this week, I so want to photograph some finds for you, but the light is just awful most of the time.

Wow, three subjects dealt with, lol, now I need a cup of tea. Have a pleasant day wherever you are. Toodlepip xxx