How time flies

I seems that since Nick and I took up geocaching, the days just fly by. We have been enjoying some much needed sunshine for the odd hour or two over the last few days and we have been out and about enjoying the blue sky, Spring greens appearing everywhere and flowers poking their heads through the grass by the roadsides. Geocaching is even better when the birds are singing and the sunshine puts a spring in your step!

But it also appears that I haven't posted for ages, lol, I have been so busy enjoying the outdoor life. I hadn't realised how many days I had missed. So, not only do I have to catch up on last week's Tag Tuesday challenge ( which thankfully is a 2-week one, phew, so I have a few days more to think about it ), but I also need to get cracking on this week's Every Inchie Monday, AND I want to show you a few bits and pieces I have brought home from a couple of jumble sales and a little antiques and collectors fair JJ and I went to on Sunday.

It was sunny earlier today, so I took some quick photos of my finds. Not very much in the way of lovely antiques, but useful stuff nonetheless. Doilies, of course, and a large crocheted table runner -


A piece of fairly modern lace fabric, but great for cutting out lots of different motifs like flowers, leaves, etc -


Beautiful beaded fringeing -


which very neatly brings me to lots of beady jewellery bits. They are mostly modern, apart from the earrings, but perfect for taking apart and using in different projects. Lots of mother of pearl pieces, crystals, which will be fab for embellishing fabric collages -






A cross, useful for a mixed media collage -


A couple of brooches, this gorgeous seahorse one -


and this sweet little horse -


Staying with the animal theme, I found this cute little teddy keyring, which I'll give to my granddaughter once it has been cleaned properly -


Three Limoges gilded swans -


This absolutely gorgeous 1940s/50s Bambi -


I adore these vintage trays, which come in all shapes and sizes, and I can never pass them up when come across them -


A retractable brush, I think it is a hearth brush -


Silver plated dressing table set, which is in dire need of a clean, but so sweet -


A little silver plated dish -


A delicate little porcelain dish decorated with sweet little flowers -


And two little round china boxes, which are a perfect size to put into a couple of geocaches for swaps! -



All the above bits were from a couple of jumble sales. As I said earlier, JJ and I went to an antiques and collectors fair on Sunday and unfortunately my worst fears were confirmed - everything was sooooooooooooo expensive! But, and there is always a but, lol, isn't there, I did find some books. I love books, always have done, and when I saw these gorgeous books, dated 1871, I really couldn't resist, they had such lovely engravings in them -






Apart from the books, I only bought a few postcards, but I totally forgot to photograph them, arrggh. I'll scan them in tomorrow and share them with you instead.

We left the antiques and collectors fair at lunchtime and went to Brighton Marina to visit a bookshop, when we saw a bootfair! Well, the very tail end of one, lol, we had about 10 mins to have a quick walk round the few stalls which were left. Oh, if only we had known about it earlier, lol, we would have given the expensive antiques fair a miss altogether and gone to the boot sale instead! I did manage to find a few things in those few mins, this fabulous tome was first-


It was missing its cover and didn't look much, but the pages, oh those pages are crammed full of lovely old stuff and will make great backgrounds for collages -


On the same stall I found these old Estate papers, lovely crackly old parchment and the most beautiful handwriting -



I couldn't get the darned thing to stay flat, as it had been folded and tied up, probably for the last 90 years or so, so I only photographed a couple of little snippets.

I bought a handful of teeny bits and pieces from another stall as well, but of course, I forgot to photograph those as well, sigh. Tomorrow, lol, along with the postcards!

Hopefully tomorrow morning I will have time to get cracking on the tag and inchie. I'll try. I will.
Until tomorrow then, toodlepip xxx

Two things - Michelle Palmer and Sunday's boot fair

I am sure most of you know Michelle Palmer, she creates THE sweetest, most gorgeous drawings on fabric, and I have admired them for a very long time. When she started her Christmas drawings, I couldn't resist any longer, I had a real good excuse for going ahead and ordering some of her delightful drawings. I wanted to use them on little stockings for my two granddaughters and one other little darling girl dear to my heart. So I emailed Michelle and asked her whether she would create 3 little drawings for me, all similar but with little differences to they could tell them apart.

They arrived yesterday, and I am absolutely thrilled to bits with them. They are whimsical, delightful, the sweetest little drawings and I am so looking forward to making three stockings with them. I am going to use some of my antique French hand loomed linen to make the stockings with. Have a look for yourselves, aren't they the cutest?



They arrived with a lovely letter from Michelle ( you have no idea how I envy her handwriting, it is beautiful ) and three of the sweetest smelling little tags -


And now to Sunday's Indoor boot fair, the one and only winter boot fair in our area. As I said in the last post, it wasn't a complete waste of time, I did find a few pretty little treasures amongst the 99.9% modern tat, baby toys, clothes, cds and books. Where is all the lovely old junk gone?


The glass flowers I really do like an awful lot, I think they are charming -

Poils, well, a girl can never go wrong with poils, can she? Especially when they are beautifully shiny shimmery faultless poils -

Tin, I really needed another tin like I needed a hole in the head, but when it is this pretty, how can one resist?

This brooch with millions of dangly bits took my fancy, mostly because of the lovely crystals at the ends of the danglies

Little jugs/pitchers are irresistible, this one is dainty and so sweetly decorated

And I found another piece of Carnival glass. I am not normally I big fan of orange, but the orange Carnival glass shimmers so beautifully with those oil slick colours, and that I adore

And then there was that box. A smallish box, barely open, by the side of a table. I cannot pass closed boxes without having a look inside, lol. Ever. When I folded the top back properly, I saw linens, what looked like doilies, table runners etc. I asked her to give me a price for the whole box, as I really didn't feel like taking everything out, and having vultures ( other lovely ladies wanting a piece of the action ) trying to get at the best bits, lol, while I was still rooting through the box. That does happen, you know! They pull the bits out of your hands if you aren't careful. Anyways, I got the box full of stuff, took it home and then started taking out the bits one by one.
There were damask serviettes, doilies, table runners, odd bits and pieces, and some stunning tablecloths. Yep, beautiful whitework embroidery, gorgeous deep crochet lace trims, it was such a pleasure unpacking this little box. Here goes, have a look -


Two dinky little pillow cases, probably for a child's bed, so so pretty-


Some colourful 1950s embroideries on tablecloths, tea cosies ( outers only )


and this darling nightdress case. Know anybody with those initials? What a pretty Christmas present that would make for a vintage lover

Another tablecloth with beautiful whitework embroidery

And look at these gorgeous crochet borders, aren't they fabulous?


And now I am off to make something else from the Romantic White Christmas workshop.

Toodlepip xxx