Boot Fair Booty Part 1

I didn't think I would be able to get to a boot fair on Sunday, as I had been booked to do a town walk with a group of German school kids that morning, right in the middle of prime boot fair time. 9.15 to approx 11.30 am. But it was a beautiful morning and a boot fair about half hour drive away was supposed to start at 6.30........ quick calculation, yep, just about enough time to have a quick womble about, get back and be ready for the tour at 9.15. We are early risers anyway so we took off at 6.15 and got there about 6.45. Too early! Darn. Most of the stall holders there were still setting up, and not that many had turned up at all yet. But it wasn't a wasted journey, I am happy to say, we came away with a few little treasures which made the trip worthwhile.

But what to do about the big local-ish boot fair I usually go on a Sunday? Hmmm, even though it is supposed to be a late start one, by midday its almost over, and some of the stall holders start packing up. My darling No.3 son came to my rescue. He picked me up after the tour, drove me to the bootfair, which was still going strong at 11.45 and left me there to go treasure hunting. I did have my trusted trolley with me ( son had thoughtfully put it in his car for me ), and of course it came in very handy indeed, because treasures were found! I don't care how many of you laugh at me for having a ( rather funky ) trolley, and I do get a lot of stick, but it saves my back and that I am very grateful for. Books are heavy, gals!


I honestly can't remember what I bought where, The sensible thing would have been to do a post for each one. But when have I ever been sensible, lol? I think I have to split the post anyway, because there are so many photos. Yes, yes, I know, I get somewhat carried away taking pics, can't help it.

Ok, lets get started then. The beautiful bedside lamp I had in our bedroom in France was one of the many items stolen in the break-in, and I have been looking for something to replace it for a long time. I found this lovely Art Nouveau style lamp at the first boot fair ( yay, I remembered, lol ), and it is perfect for our yellow bedroom, as it has the prettiest yellow glass shade -


I also finally found the perfect old jug decorated with roses, again to replace a stolen one. It is soooo pretty, with the gorgeous colourful roses on one side of the jug, and the much plainer design on the other side.


See that cup in the first photo? It is huuuuuuuuge, lol, and really beautiful. The guy selling it said he thought it was about 80 years old, it had belonged to his great grandmother. She must have been some tea drinker, lol -



This little trinket box was too pretty to pass up, don't you agree?

And I found another "rosy" covered vegetable dish for the cottage, yay! I love mixing different patterned china together when there is a big bunch of us eating outside under the trees in the summer

Well, those are the items shown in the first boot fair photo, so I suppose thats a good place to break off and finish this post. The rest of the finds I'll show in Part 2 tomorrow, or maybe tonight if get a chance.

Have a wonderful day/evening wherever you are xx

I love Sundays

Sunday mornings mean boot fairs, yay, well, at least between April and September. Getting up early is not a problem, we are so used to it after many years of Andy working in London, and even if we wanted a couple of extra hours, the doggies wouldn't let us. So , yesterday morning around 7am we toddled off to the first boot fair. It wasn't huge, but big enough to spend an hour wombling around.

It was definitely worth going, because I found another reasonably priced stoneware hot water bottle for my stair collection -


The instructions made me laugh though, " remove stopper... before filling ", lolol, oh really? So thats where I have been going wrong all this time.

I also found a little bunch of artificial flowers, 5 white lilies and lots of, errmm, grassy things. They are destined for our cottage in France -


Next, I found another gorgeous cut crystal powder bowl, with a huge, slightly faded powder puff still inside. Sigh, I love those big old fluffety puffs -


Oh, and then I found these absolutely delicious vintage postcards, some a little naughty, some a little saucy. They gave me such a giggle -

I made one other purchase, oh such a wonderful thing, but just to tease a certain friend of mine, I won't tell about that one until the very end of this post, teehee.

So that was the first boot sale. We went home, had a lovely cup of tea, did a bit of crocheting, Andy went off to do his Sunday shopping in Sainsburys, and then he dropped me off at the second boot fair, while he and Nick went off walking the dogs in the Firehills.

This is a strange bootfair, lol, it says booters allowed in at 12 midday, however, by the time we usually get there 10.45 or thereabouts, it is absolutely heaving with hundred odd booters and masses and masses of shoppers. I heard from lots of booters that they usually get there around 9! It was a lovely warm morning, everybody was cheerful, and I did find a few more lovely lovely things.

First was this sweet little fabric covered box, complete with little tassels and a little cord handle. Great for storing little bits and pieces, of which I have many, lol -


I also found another Victorian jelly mould for my collection. I absolutely adore these -


I was so excited and delighted to find this fabulous, heavy solid copper hanging bowl. It is perfect for our kitchen in France. I'll hang it from a beam and keep the onions and garlic in it I think. It needs a lot of polishing, but thats just about the only cleaning I do enjoy, I find it quite therapeutic to sit in the sunshine, polishing away and seeing that wonderful rich copper colour emerge from all the grime -


The last little treasure I found was this 20p piece of Victorian jet bead embroidery, it is so delicate and so very pretty -


Apart from that, I bought a whole stack of books of course, and that was about it. My darlings picked me up just after 1pm, and we went home and watched the Grand Prix. Andy had brought a couple of kilos of delicious French white asparagus home, so I prepared some of that for a late lunch, served the continental way, with finely chopped boiled egg and slices of parma ham. YUM YUM!!!

Goodness, another hugely long post. But this is definitely it now. I think. There is something bothering me, I seem to have forgotten something. Hmmm, oh yes, OOOOOPS, that fabulous purchase from the first boot sale, the one which will totally delight my dear friend, and will certainly give her a giggle.

Here it is.........

coming.....

almost there..........

are you ready for it?
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Tadaaaaaaaaaaa -


I tell ya, I was so pleased that I did splash out £4 on this brand new shopping trolley at the bootfair, otherwise I would not have been able to buy all the lovely goodies which I did buy.