A winner, an inchie and a dilemma

Gosh, you girls are a patient lot. Remember a few weeks ago the wonderful Vicki hosted a Grow Your Blog party I took part in as well, as I was looking forward to finding some gorgeous new blogs to follow. I did say at the time that in the middle of February I would have a little giveaway for one visitor who posted a comment on that particular post, because at the time I was in France and totally without craft supplies. Anyhoo, I finally picked a winner, and her name is ........

Wendy, from Apple and Apricot!

I'll be getting in touch with you, Wendy, to have a little chat about the giveaway :-).

And so on to the inchie for this week. HAPPINESS was the theme. Now before I show the inchie, I just have to explain that I was in a bit of a silly frame of mind today, lol, after traipsing through puddles and ankle deep mud when we were walking the dogs this morning. I quite enjoyed the squelching and splashing, took me back to walks with my brothers when we were kids. You won't be surprised by this inchie then, will ya -

Ahem, swiftly on to the dilemma bit of the title. I haven't been to an English bootfair since last summer, and I really really needed to get out and look at stuff. Old stuff. There was a jumble sale advertised on Saturday and I relished the thought of being able to rummage through lots and lots of stuff. The only slightly worrying thing was, it was advertised as a POSH jumble sale. Ohoh. Posh kind of equals expensive in my mind. And thats what it turned out to be. Expensive. Individual stallholders, not a jumble sale but more like a mini indoor antiques fair. Needless to say, I didn't buy very much, but I did come home with a few little bits of jewellery because the beads were so gorgeous, colourful and heavy, and three scarves. And thats where the dilemma comes into it. The scarves are just lovely, beautifully embroidered, and I bought them to cut up for collages and fabric books. And now I am sitting here with them on my lap and I can't do it. I keep thinking, ooh, they would be so lovely to wear. But how often would I actually wear them? See my dilemma? Here they are -

 

Cut or wear, cut or wear, cut or wear??? Do let me know what you think!

Oh, and these are the bits of jewellery I bought for the beads -

Toodlepip xxx

Catching up

It seems we had quite a busy bank holiday weekend, but I am finally catching up with things. So, here are the last bits and pieces from the weekend's boot fairs. These came from the late start Sunday boot fair.

I got all excited when I spotted this lovely beaded fringeing on one stall -


and even more excited when I unearthed this in a paper bag, a piece of gorgeous Victorian jet beaded fringeing. I have to confess to fondling it for quite a while, lol -


This Edwardian copper planter had seen better days, the rim is somewhat "fluted" to put it kindly, lol, but its big and bold and solid copper, and I love it -


And a couple more copper bits, dirty, dull, and in desperate need of a polish, but luuurvely -


Isn't this just the dinkiest, girliest, fluffiest, loveliest little powderpuff? To-die-for pink swansdown with a pretty little pink bow, never used as far as I can tell -


I bought it really to go with one of the one-off crystal powder bowls I have been collecting, filled with the talc free body powders I make, but it is so lovely, I may just have to keep it for myself.

Still going with the soap business side of things, I found another shaving mug, this time a Crabtree & Evelyn one, to go with the shaving soaps I make, again special edition one-offs -


When I look at the things I have bought over the years, it really looks like I collect just about anything under the sun, lol. But come on, tins are not just collectors items, they are so useful! They can be filled with buttons, and pens, and beads, and a million other things, so I didn't feel at all guilty for adding this little darling to the others. It is a Cadbury's Three Queens tin -


Can't go to a boot fair without getting a necklace or two to recycle, remake, restring, lol. That lovely green one is some kind of stone, no idea what, the other one is plastic, but so pretty -


I thought I had done quite well until then, total spent £5.40, that was until I hit the last row and spent 15 minutes and £5 all at the same stall! Almost unheard of for me, lolol, but this is what I spent the fiver on, thinking all the time how happy my friend JJ would be for me -

BEADS BEADS BEADS BEADS BEADS BEADS SWAROVSKI BEADS BEADS BEADS BEADS


Oooh, oooh, look, drool, swoon, drool some more, Swarovski crystals -



Thats it folks boot fair wise, probably for a little while. I won't be able to go booting this weekend, I have a two day craft fair to do, but I may be able to squeeze one in the weekend after, weather permitting.

Hmm, I just had a thought, I suppose I really oughta mention another purchase I made, which was loads of dosh for me to spend at a boot fair, but................ they are plants, so they don't count. I bought two hanging baskets absolutely frothing over with the most delightful pink petunias. The baskets are massive, and I so adore that gorgeous light pink. They are for the garden, which is outside the house, so they are not part of any collections, so there.


TTFN xx