Monday again. Where did the week go?

At last we got a non rainy Sunday so I got to go to a boot sale. Yayyyy :)

It was a bit dissapointing but I managed to snap up a few bargains.

I stuck to my mission of filling my walls with artwork.

This lovely collection of quite large prints cost me the princely sum of £2.50. I think they were originally illustrations around a map (there are outlines of a country on the bottom right corner of pictures 3 and 4)

More art.........

This time old colour book plates. Some of them have quite a lot of foxing on them but I think they are just beautiful and they are themed on London (where I live) One is of Greenwich park - 5th one down(Very local) This was my big spend of the day at £12

 I'd better get framing.

Last batch of art was a framed set of cigarette cards. The series is 'Cries of London' and date from 1912. I was chuffed to get it for £5

My last few bits were a lovely necklace for 10p

I also got 2 scarves for 50p each....

The last thing I got was a book on ornaments. Not the dust traps that sit on the mantelpiece but scuptural ornaments. The illustrations are wonderful and the plan is to colour the plates and frame them. The problem with that is when it comes to it I can't actually bring myself to deface a book! I have a complete set of Cassells Illustrated History of the World upstairs and I get as far as chosing the plates I want to frame then....then.... nothing. I can't do it!

Can you imagine these lightly watercoloured and framed though?

The book is from the 1950's and there are lots of them on the market but....but.... arghhhh

I'm such a book wuss!

I shall sit in my craft room with my watercolours and my scalpel and not come out until I deface a book....

It's going to be a long week.....

I may need a food parcel!

Linked with Magpie Monday over at the wonderful blog of Me and my shadow

Magpie Monday

It's been one of those weeks where it seems someone has been in and nabbed all the good stuff before you. I have been in and out of charity shops more times than a fiddlers elbow. I didn't even make it to the bootsale because of torrential rain. I tell you it's enough to make a girl cry. However.......

God bless the auction!

I found this wonderful little box a goodies and got it at a knockdown price of £12. I honestly expected to pay at least double for it.

All nicely laid out......

The odd looking object at the back is a silk purse that has seen better days. I reall have no idea what I'm going to do with them but they were so pretty......

Item 2 I bought for Nicky (actually I bought the pill boxes for her too but I'm sure she can share!) It's an original publication (advertising booklet) from the 1960's for Carnaby Street and cost a whopping £15. A bit more than I was happy with but Nicky is over the moon. She's going to frame it.

Although I said I got nowt from the charity shops I did eventually find this picture for £3

It'll join my husbands nautical wall.

Last but not least is this material i got for £2....

There is tons of it. I'm intending to make a bag (eventually) and maybe have a go at freehand machine embroidery or beadwork. I have buckets of beads so that's the favourite plan so far.

Update on the cardigan from hell...... 24 cm done....22 cm until the underarm dec....arghhhhh

Linking with Magpie Monday over at Me and my shadow

Midweek Miracle

Why Midweek Miracle?
It's Wednesday and somehow I've found a little time to blog :)

There is a woman at work who is on her last week before taking maternity leave. We'd somehow got into a discussion about Etsy which of course led to having a quick look online (for research purposes!) On the front page there was a baby hat in the shape of a tomato which she adored. After clicking on it she said it was from a woman in America and was debating whether to buy it. I did a quick search online and found the pattern. When I offered to knit it for her she jumped at the chance. One evening later and....

It took about 3 hours to do and instead of using circular needles I used double pointed instead.

Link to the pattern: http://acechick.typepad.com/knitchicks_patterns/2006/01/strawberry_bean.html



Now this is finished I don't really have an excuse not to carry on with an aran cardi I'm supposed to be doing for Nicky. I started it 2 months ago and I've done about 4 inches of the back. I did unpick it all and change the pattern after a month though in an effort to make the ruddy thing more enjoyable to knit....epic failure on that point!
Only 15 more inches until the underarm decreases............

Magpie Monday

As this is my first Magpie Monday I thought I'd have a bit of a roundup of the things I've bought in the last few weeks since I've moved. These are a from a trawl of the local charity shops and auctions (I'm downright dangerous in an auction!)
In no particular order.....
Last weekend we had a bit of a mammoth picture hanging day. I'd previously bought a lot of old book illustrations at the auction and framed them so we had a few to hang. It was only after we'd finished that I realised they were all picture my hubby liked (ships and car/vw prints) In an effort to even things up I decided to have a least one wall of the house for me. As luck would have it I saw this for £4.50. It will go up on the wall in the next round of picture hanging.

The pictures below were bought at an auction for £10. They are miniatures but the frames are so detailed. My youngest daughter has nicked the flower one for her bedroom :(

My youngest loves decoupaging things. We bought this dish for 10p in a charity shop. It was a rather tatty looking terracotta dish that looked like it had been in the garden but looks brilliant after she worked her magic. The brooches in it are from an auction lot.

More decoupage....  Nicky and I were wandering around one of the local Greenwich and Bexley hospice shops and we found a big box filled with wooden letters from Urban Outfitters. I think they were originally about £6 in the shop. We paid £1 a letter. It took us about half an hour to find the right letters and all the time we were blocking up the gangway. Talk about not popular but the woman behind the counter was lovely telling us to take our time. Trust me, Nicky wasn't going anywhere without all the letters she wanted :) Anyway she got them home and painted them white then decoupaged them. I think they look brilliant!

The soap dispenser isn't a charity shop find but it did only cost 20p in TK Maxx so I'm including it - Before and after shots :) The lavender oil was 50p in a charity shop box

These tins were from the same box as the lavender oil and were 50p each.

Another decoupaged bowl that cost 50p. It started off life as a wooden bowl and I got it in a second-hand/vintage shop. The china pill box was £1 and a charity shop find. So was the silver bowl they are sitting on

This is a copper tray I found in trhe second hand shop and I paid £1 for it. I have to be honest and say its still got a few stains on it but it looks good with my perfume on it so I can put up with some beauty spots :)

FIngers crossed it doesn't rain on Sunday and I can get to a boot sale. I haven't been to one in months! I've been saving my change for weeks!

Linking with Magpie Monday on Me and My Shadow :)

Make it up as I go

We moved house for the first time in 18 years just 6 weeks ago and I thought it was time I started crafting again. I am lucky enough to have my own craft room here rather that having to dive into boxes in the loft when the mood struck me. So far I've not been too creative apart from..... well.....

There are 2 crafts I've always wanted to have a go at and never got round to. One is stained glass window making and the other is mosaics.We've been using a small table under the lean-to in the garden. As the table is for indoor use it's life expectancy is pretty pants! So...as it's on its last legs (so to speak) I nominated it for a mosaic makeover.

I've never mosaic-ed anything in my life. I had no idea what I was doing and I didn't even bother to look it up. I just sort of made it up as I went along. I had some acrylic mosaic tiles (not my idea of perfect but they'll do) and I stole some tile adheisive from the garage. I drew a mariners compass in the middle of the table and, armed with a palette knife, I got to work.

I was reliably informed by one of my daughters that it looked like a 'very nice ice-cream cone'

Not one to be deterred I kept going.....Hubby and daughter had to get a look in and place some tiles (daughter more than the 'one' token tile hubby placed) so they couldn't say I did it all.

The finished result!