A week of very nice things...

You'll never guess who popped over to comment on my last post. Martin Holland himself! Winner of BBC2s Great Interior Design Challenge. Woop woop! Made my day. Thank you Martin!

But the good stuff doesn't end there, no siree. I had a lovely parcel arrive from the delectable Curtise  which made me gasp!

First, this beautiful Christmassy vintage biscuit tin...

Just gorgeous, but look what I found inside...

A lovely old box of vintage glass baubles! Thank you Curtise! I love them!

And as if that weren't enough, I won Katies giveaway over at Hook Line and Sink Her. But this was no ordinary giveaway, oh no. This prize is a book called 'Craft Fail: when homemade goes horribly wrong...'

Yes, we've all been there...

Featuring the craft fail of Katie herself...Special Fox. I'm so proud to 'know' her and I forced her to sign it for me. If you're not familiar with Katies blog, do pop over. She cracks me up.

Thank you Katie!

Yet another wonderful thing; look what I found at the flea market for just £12...

The missing piece to Connies bedroom set! I'll let the brown one go. This needs some tlc.

It feels like it's stuffed with straw. The top is stained and Connie's appalled by the look of it. That can be changed.

I also found this little beauty for my desk...

Rusty and crusty and utterly perfect.

And Fat Freddy (not so fat anymore) is back to his old self. His wire is out, his jaw is healed and he's accepting the fact that he's not allowed out extremely well.



We think he's too stupid to be crossing roads. He's a very lucky boy but we can't risk him getting squashed.
Bad Bobby (the clever one) goes out but Freddy isn't even asking to anymore. He seems to know we couldn't bear to lose him. He knows he blew it. He's adjusting to life as a house cat very well. The cold weather helps!

So it's all good over here.

Still no progress on the Christmas decs but the pre decking the halls clean up is plodding on. We'll get there. And work has stalled on the louvre doors as my ebay selling has gone into overdrive. It's next on the agenda after Project Christmas Tree.

I hope life is good where you are.

The calm before the storm...

I'm afraid I've had little time to work on my doors. We spent much of yesterday clearing the garden of accumulated DIY crapola and taking it to the tip. I was very good and didn't bring anything home. There might have been a long lingering glance at a beaten up chest of drawers but I was very restrained. The reason for this clear up? A big storm is due this evening and we don't want to be responsible for one of our stray doors flying through someones window in the middle of the night. We are battening down the hatches, moving flower pots and garden furniture out of harms way.

This morning we set off at 6.20 to sell at the local boot sale. It was tipping it down when we left but dried up fast and we did very well. So well that Jason wants to do another next weekend. I'm happy to wait til spring!

I'll show you what I found a few weeks ago for £2 at the boot sale...

 This galvanised metal basket was £2. The top was nice metal. The bottom was coated in green plastic rather like the handles of an old shopping basket. I spotted potential but I must have spent two hours scraping off all the plastic with a knife! 

This little enamel number I bought separately from eBay to make it look like an old swimming pool locker. Erm, from a really big pool with one and a half thousand lockers. Hmm, I didn't think that through. Anyway, it adds a bit of industrial chic to the towel pile.

And without mentioning the 'C' word, (it's improper until after Hallowe'en) look at this years bauble harvest so far!

This is my favourite, it dangles on a spring...

It was very hard to photograph as it wouldn't stop bouncing!

This one is massive...

These two are unusual

I've never seen one like this before...

...it's indented on both sides...

...and this one is just beautiful...

We're going to be gearing up for our Hallowe'en party this week so I'll be back soon to show you the decorations.

Stay safe in the storm! 

Sunday booty and chazzing finds!

 I cannot bear the word 'thrifting' on UK blogs. We don't have 'thrift shops' they are 'charity shops' so it's 'chazzing!'

Sorry, needed to get that off my chest!

Time for my recent crapola...

Like most UK parents this week I was seriously stung in the Clark's shoe shop. I have therefore decided to up my game and amass a stockpile of good quality second hand footwear so I might never have to set foot in there again. Except for the measuring... All these were £1.

 Kitchenalia! Love love love it! One day these will be displayed in my Country Living worthy kitchen (more of that later...)

                               
                                 No idea what these guys are for but I love them.

 Oh yes! My husband had to almost spoil my joy by enquiring exactly why we need a very heavy old lump of metal that we're not actually going to use for anything. Honestly! Men!
This is beautiful and reminds me of my Grandad.

 You can never have too many vintage baubles. If you do, your tree is just too small.

 This is the thing I found in Topsham in the Air Ambulance shop. It's exactly like one that belonged to my Grandmother. But as this is not a family heirloom, just a stunt double, it might well be sacrificed for a bit of experimental spray painting. I do have a bit of a mannequin fetish, I'll admit, and I am still working on the previous one. I did some work one night before I went away and I'm ready to sew the cover up. But don't hold your breath...

This is in the corner of my bedroom and I keep stubbing my toe on it.

 This is my kitchen. Sadly. It was installed in the eighties and looks its age. I can't afford a new kitchen but I'm removing some tiles, and stripping the wallpaper. For now...

 Lots of plaster came off with the tiles but that's OK as I plan to panel this area... I have painted the ceiling which has a texture like porridge. I use 'Crack Free ceilings' by polycell which is fab in terms of stain coverage and I can get away with 2 coats on seriously discoloured ceilings! I plan to cove in here too. (If I can fit it in above those cupboards!)

                                                                               Nice tiles. (not)

 And lovely textured wallpaper...

 Trouble is, it leaves the walls in a very pock marked state when the paper comes off, so there's a lot to do before the walls are worthy of a can of Farrow and Ball!

And I found this cute retro radio at the boot sale yesterday which will look lovely in my kitchen when (if) I ever finish it.

Happy Sunday!

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