Sunday 31 July 2011

Cheeky little finds

What a scorcher today!  The bootsalers were out in force and they even had to employ a parking attendant to guide the cars to the outer back of beyond to park, there was a lot of walking to be done if you wanted those bargains!

Well there was a lot of sellers but so to came the uprising of the mobile phone accessory stalls and the antiquers with silly prices so I didn't come home laden with goodies.

Here is the few bits I did bring home:

My 'Hands off the bump' lady was back and with her came more vintage wooden reel cottons! She remembered me from last week so again I bagged these for 10p each:



She also threw in a vintage Sylko cotton reel case for free:





Vintage Mary Quant stockings, still sealed - 50p each.

Now how have I been able to live without:

These paramount invisible mender sheets! These are recommended by the following people:

So if they are good enough for the office boy AND the professors then they are good enough for me, and hey for 10p who can complain.


 Shabby chic or just plain tatty - little leather suitcase. Ideal size for jewellery display so am going to put a little love into this to bring it back to life. How much? £1 :o)

Flower power double sheet and two pillow cases - £2.

Now for something VERY cheeky....


I spotted this straight away on a lady's stall.  It has two things rather special about her:


Oh yes her boobs can transmit radio waves! lol.  This sassy minx is a radio and she still works! I asked the stall owner (who was probably in her late 60s) how she happened to own this novelty...well turns out her father bought it back from Singapore after the war and she had only recently discovered it again in the loft. The funny thing is that her dress has been ripped from too much knob twiddling ;o)


My husband was gobsmacked when i produced her from the bag, least she will be a talking point. So how much for a girly radio? Well i pushed the boat out and paid a whole £3.

Goes to show you never know what you will find at the booty!

Witnessed at a Boot Sale:

Two ladies were sorting through clothes on a stall, one picks up a top right next to the stallholder and loudly exclaims "oh no these are far too large for us"

A middle aged couple selling their home goods:
Female: "Get us a drink from the van please"
Male: "Blimey I got you an ice cream earlier and gave you sex two years ago what more can you want!"
(I must admit I did snort with laughter while trying to be subtle over my ear-wigging!)

A stall without a seller, just a sign saying "everything 50p please put your money in the tin" - complete with open tin of money! Totally trusting or totally stupid?? You decide...

Hope you have all had a fabulous weekend

Scarlett x

Linking to: flea-market-finds

Friday 29 July 2011

Chazza go go

So the charity shop prices have been on the up the last few weeks and I got quite acquainted with the same tat on the shelves week in week out.  There have however been a couple of fresh treasures that have come home with me.

These are my charity shop finds this week:


 I saw a couple of good looking birds in the charity shop
....i knew I just had to take this vintage glass juice jug home!  Not bad for £1.50 :o)


 
Queen Anne rose design sandwich plate - £1.


I was excited when I spotted this granny blanket:

I have been after a more nautical coloured one for the little man's nursery as most of the ones I've seen recently have been pinky colours and also priced at stupidly high amounts.  I wasn't the only one enamoured by this and was stalked around the shop by a middle aged suited lady who was sending out clear "put down the blanket vibes"  no chance sweetheart at £3 this blanket was mine! 


 A 1960's Bohemia glass bud vase complete with original label. This was found in the most expensive charity shop in my area, i usually go and have a look but rarely buy but when I saw this marked up at 50p I couldn't believe my luck.  I would like to thank the new girl for pricing this one :o)
 
I think I had Jem's eye for sparking glass when I saw this big breakable ball:
 

I was strangely drawn to this large glass bauble, its very tactile even hubby has had a feel ;o) So I had to buy it for £2.50 even without a clue to where I am going to display it.  It has silver elastic attached but to be honest its so heavy that the elastic is a full stretch when hanging! It is a beauty though so I'm sure I'll find the perfect spot.

Now a purchase from my new favourite charity shop in my town, that being the Barnardo's shop. They price things to sell and they always have new goodies. I saw this in the cabinet:



I wanted a mantle clock for a while and this was fancy enough for my mansion *wink*.  I asked the price...£3. It was out of the cabinet and wrapped up before anyone else could get a look in. I was pleasantly surprised when I got it home to find out that it was Laura Ashley - sweet :o) 

Now hows about a little...

Overheard in a Charity Shop

Two old ladies chatting in the stock room while a third is sorting through bags:

Lady 1: "Jean told me she saw a lovely golden knob at the weekend"
Lady2: "Really!" (Guffaw) "How exciting" (more tittering)
Lady 1: "I know she wont tell us anymore about the magnificent knob though, oh look she's going red"
Lady 3 is suitably crimson "Oh come on Anne, you knew what I meant"
Lady 1 and 2 burst out laughing at Jean's expense.

A tall elegant lady was trying on a jacket by the store mirror
CS Worker: "Ooh very nice, how about you take it to the changing room so you can admire yourself even more than you are"  (ooooh biatch!)

And I did chuckle to see the 'No more donations' sign up at the one charity shop here than never seems to sell anything...hows about getting rid of the year old tat?

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend :o)

Scarlett x

Wednesday 27 July 2011

Sponge Gremlins

As it was my little boys first birthday I had my mind set on making him a pirate birthday cake to go with his pirate themed birthday party. I had seen several simple(ish) designs on the net and Lakota made a lovely one for her son so I has to give it a go.

Now I am no domestic goddess when it comes to the kitchen, the reason why you will never find a recipes/cooking blog post on here. I do also however have an extra disadvantage and that my friends is the sponge eating gremlin who lives in my cooker.  This pesky little beast can ruin even the simplest recipe and so I was dubious when I put my cake in to bake....




20 Minutes later I took it out and all looked ok but when I turned them out to cool...



...the blooming middles fell through the rack!

There was no repairing these bad boys and the gremlin had made short work of the middle so I had no choice but to rush out for more ingredients and do the whole thing again.  This time however with the gremlin having a full belly they came out ok - hoorah!  So I managed to tackle the icing and with lots of cursing and rolling pin bashing the cake was ready:


 
My little man however couldn't care less how his cake looked:

 

Maybe next year I'll buy one ;o)


Scarlett x

Monday 25 July 2011

Tits and Tat

The sun was shining yesterday meaning that it was bootsale-a-gogo!  With the sunshine came the abundance of new sellers selling everything they could lay their hands on in their garages, there was boxes and boxes of tat which really should have been taken to the dump rather than being displayed in the middle of a field. 

So although there was a good turn out, the vintage treasures were a bit thin on the ground.  I did however come home with a couple of bits:


Vintage cottons on wooden reels 10p each :o) Bought from a lady wearing 'Hands of the bump' t-shirt who told me she was selling "her nans junk" and was surprised anyone "did sewing stuff anymore".  One for the 'witnessed at a bootsale' spot!

Vintage tea towels:





Got to love a bit of flower power :o) These were a steal at 20p each.

Vintage suitcase complete with blue candy stripe lining and original keys - £1.50.


 Pair of kitsch bambis. Mama and baby which also match one I bought a couple of months back:

Reunited the deer family and all for the price of one English pound :o)

And the biggest buy of the day was:

 A wooden carved cabinet complete with florals and birds, what more could I ask for!


 It also has decoration on the sides:
 The seller has just moved into a Victorian home and the previous owner has left this one the wall. They took it down as they were going with a "modern white decor"  hmmm not what I would do with a beautiful Victorian house.  She also commented that if she didn't sell it then she was going to take it home and paint it all white!!  I had to save these little birds!

So for £4 I got myself a new cabinet, and saved it from the white gloss.  I'm not sure yet where in my house this is going to live, maybe my bedroom to store jewellery but I do know that each time I look at it I love it a bit more :o)

Its that time again....

Witnessed at a Boot Sale

Along with the sunshine came the onslaught of gold chain covered burnt cleavages displayed in tit skimming tops, pasty tums shown off by girls tying their vest tops in a knot at the back, a nice array of heeled shoes getting caught in the soft ground, men wearing socks with sandals, and the Adidas tracksuit crew ;o)

A stallholder saying "you need to get that thing trained" to an owner of a  puppy which pulled towards a basket of soft toys on the ground. 

As I walked past a couple selling their wares I saw the male pick up an Elvis book and throw it in a box on the floor:
Male :"Bloody Elvis" 
Female "Yeah I know, rubbish, I didn't even open it to look at the pictures".

That's it for the booty.

One last thing from me is to thank you all for your lovely comments on my sons birthday post, you are all so fabulous :o)

Scarlett x



Thursday 21 July 2011

Happy 1st Birthday...

...to my little boy! This time last year it was sunny and too hot for a heavily pregnant Scarlett. I was 5 days early with feet like an elephants, I was resigned to wearing a hideous pair of croc sandals as they were the only things that would feet my HUGE feet! Seriously in my opinion there is no fashionista in the word that can make crocs look good!  I wont fill you in on the whole natural childbirth bit (i can still remember the pain) but it was all so worth it for my beautiful baby boy:

A little 7lb 14 oz bundle.

In his first year we've had laughter:


and tears:


Lots of naps:


and playtimes:


Sunshine:


and snow:


And now my little baby boy is 1 and wont stay still for a photo :


 Happy 1st Birthday Finley. Its been the best year of my life :o)

 Mummy Scarlett x


Normal post to resume ;o)

Monday 18 July 2011

Smells Bells

The good old British weather meant that the Sunday boot sales were rained off yesterday here :o(  So i thought I'd share a boot sale buy from my laptop free week.

I have a thing for floral ceramics, the more twee the more I love it! One such item is the humble pomander. Ive been seeing them pop up on blogs around blogland for some time and while I own a few I never really thought about them. Kat did a lovely post showing her pomander finds on her window which looked lovely.  So when I spied some at a boot sale I thought I'd take the opportunity to re home a couple.

Now there is one more thing I should confess before I start the show and tell and that is when faced with a choice of items I like, I am terrible at choosing just one....

This pomander started the ball rolling:

Very cute, but I also liked these:







 And I wanted to own the french one of the lad wooing his lady with a flute ;o)


 Blue and white is always a good combo:


 ...and what about the egg and pepper shaped ones:

 ...and yet more floral:





 The seller was selling all of her late grandmas collection and she didn't like them herself.  The price was 70p each but I couldn't just choose a couple so decided to take the lot, all 25 of them!

Now I must admit the seller wasn't the best at maths and so when I offered £4 for the lot she accepted straight away and bagged them up...not realising that she had sold me them at 16p each :o)

Looks like I've got a new collection in the house! Now what to do with them all?

My blogging and commenting might be a bit sporadic this week as I'm gearing up for Finley's first birthday on Thursday and the pirate party on Saturday. Better don my rubber gloves and pinny for the house cleaning marathon all ready for the influx of family and friends, anyone want to help? *wink*  At least I now own enough pomanders to mask any dodgy smells that dare enter my door!

Scarlett x