Happy Halloween?

Is there such a thing?

I groaned when the little jammers picked a pumpkin design for me to carve. Every year I hack away with a huge kitchen knife trying not to A) saw off a thumb or B) cut through vital bits of pumpkin. Every year I vow to buy a better tool for next year.

Disappointed with this years effort compared to pumpkins past.

 The full moon was looking lovely through the trees last night.

 We headed to Abbotsbury Sub Tropical Gardens for the floodlights and Halloween fun. I overdid it on photos last year so just a couple of the creepy crawlies.

 

Much of today has been spent with the jammers making decorations for the porch and recording spooky sounds on the laptop. Eldest jammer had a plan that she would cunningly hide a speaker in the recycling box and as trick or treaters come down the drive scare them with spooky sounds!! I love how they're both so resourceful and the only thing I've had to buy is the pumpkin (due to rubbish year in the garden).

Not sure what the visiting trick or treaters make of it all but my girls have certainly had fun.

Time to drag them upstairs now. I know as soon as I do the bell will ring and I'll answer it to teenagers who haven't dressed up and grunt 'trick or treat'. I shall have a supply of plastic toys ready to offer!



Friends, finds and fridges

 This week is half term, at last! Today the little jammers and I had a lovely catch up with friends at a play place. The littlies tore around like mad things whilst I caught up with my friend.

 A good friend, the kind that doesn't mind if you whip a bit of sewing out of your handbag!

 So whilst we nattered, drank coffee and nattered some more I finished off my vintage sheet coathangers.

 

I needed to restock after Bridport Vintage Fair last weekend. Lots of my new carrier bags went off to new homes full of vintage and handmade goodies. I can never predict what will sell but this time the best seller was coloured glass.

I was reasonably restrained on the buying front but I have a weakness for rusty old tins. Don't you?

I couldn't resist the colour of this one.

 The budgies will look great in the kitchen so had to come home too.

 Those of you who've been popping in here for a while will know I started the year with good intentions to photograph what was on top of my fridge each week.

Partly to keep it tidy and also to make sure I stocked up on flowers and bulbs from time to time. The fridge is a pink beast and sadly this is the last pink on the fridge shot...

Little pink has been replaced by the big cream brother. She can't complain she was only bought secondhand as a stop gap when we moved house and really we needed a freezer too. The world of Ebay introduced us to big cream last week and so little pink will pootle off with a courier tomorrow to a new home.

x



My lovely old old house part III

Thank you for all your lovely comments about my old kitchen and old house. I promised to take you upstairs so here we go...

The main bedroom hadn't been used for years. The house had been rented and the owner stored her stuff in here. We didn't really see it or how huge it was until we got the keys to the house. Much stripping of floorboards, doors and wallpaper followed. We uncovered a pretty Georgian hob fireplace that had been boarded up and some nice pigeon skeletons!

Anyway here it is looking lighter and brighter.

The same treatment followed in the rest of the rooms. T

his was to be my first born's bedroom!!

 With Cooking Apple Green walls and curtains made from eiderdown covers, it became my favourite bedroom.

The first landing and a peak into the other rooms.

 You will see my love of old beds started quite some time ago.

So there you go, my tardis cottage!

 



Just in case...

...you were thinking of going anywhere but Bridport Vintage Fair tomorrow I shall tempt you with these.

this case was a real fiddle, loads of cutting and measuring.

 

 

 But it was worth it in the end!

 

This blue one got a different treatment

 Pages from old Ladybird books!

The van is playing up so I shall have to fill the cases with the rest of my goodies to make the most of every bit of car space.

Hope to see some of you there.

x



Vintage wallpaper fun

A while ago I was wow-ed by Ada's wallpapered suitcase. From then on everywhere I went I seemed to find suitcases. So I splashed out on some lovely paper from Jane at Teawagon Tales and got pasting. It's been a labour of love cutting round all the fiddly catches but it was worth it. I ran out of paper and had to buy more - thanks Jane for posting it so quickly!

I love my new case. Perfect for housing some of my fabric stash I think as it's currently overflowing like a waterfall from the boxes and towering piles and across the dining room floor. The good news is I've just got more cases out of the attic...

If you fancy having a go why not enter Ada's giveaway (because I stand less chance of winning that's why!) on her blog and win a load of papers.

 On the same theme I got stuffing lavender bags this week. All made from scraps of vintage sheets, they match my cushions.

I've run out of lavender so just ordered some more to get the rest filled.

More making planned this week in preparation for Bridport Vintage Fair this Saturday. If you're local please spread the word!

 Can't stay here any longer as work beckons but look at this cheeky chap who had a very fine lunch today.

Have a good week.

x



Tagged!

Today has been a rainy day. A staying in baking and making day. A waiting all day for a shed to be delivered kind of day.

In between making and baking I got on with this tagging lark. You see, last week Ada from one of my favourite blogs 'tagged' me. I wasn't sure what this meant but now I know. I have 11 questions to answer and 11 questions to set as well as having to share 11 random facts with you. So here goes...

 

When I was a child we had 20 guinea pigs, I leave everything until the last moment, I've only ever driven 2CVs, I don't like dogs, I wear vegetarian shoes, I'm rubbish at keeping in touch, I like VERY hot baths before bed, I'm quite lazy, my sister thinks I live in a bubble, I get itchy feet and move house quite often and I love greeny blues and bluey greens.

 

Now for the questions

What's on your bedside table? Take a look...

What's on the top of your wardrobe? Now you're pushing it Ada! A load of old junk mostly and I don't mean junk in the good vintage sense but real junk. Junk that's waiting to be put in the loft or generally has no home.

Happiest memory? Anything from childhood when you really don't have much to worry about at all.

Favourite toy as a child, or adult? My Mr Men pencil tops that I kept wrapped in pieces of loo roll each in it's own matchbox - didn't everyone?

Your perfect holiday destination? Anywhere that's not too far.

Spring or Autumn? At the moment I'd say spring but catch me on a sunny dry autumn day and I might be swayed.

What's your motto, number one rule, you live your life by! Always have a Plan B.

If you had a time machine, what year would you like to land in? I'd go back pre 1991 to when my mum was healthy and alive. I'm not picky anything from '72- '91 would do me fine.

 

Roast dinner or fish and chips? Would have to be a veggie roast - not something I have very often and now I've gone all hungry thinking about it. I love stuffing - the out of a packet kind.

What makes you 'belly laugh'? Most recently, the huge parents on the seesaw at the local playpark then on the trampoline...

Favourite outfit, past or present? My friend's 1920s black dress I borrowed and wore to my end of Uni 'ball'. It had a big 8 shaped hole cut in the back and was totally gorgeous. I was about size 8 and would never get in it now. Still a girl can dream!

My 11 Questions, in the style of a Boden catalogue

1. town or country?
2. your most unappealing habit?
3. what advice would you give your 18 year old self?
4. cats or dogs?
5. your most overused word or phrase?
6. your perfect dinner date?
7. red or white?
8. what are you wearing today?
9. spend or save?
10. dream car?
11. if you were an animal you'd be...

Now 11 people to ask?

I'm thinking...

• Cats, Dogs and Eiderdowns
• Aunt Jane's Attic
• The Snail Garden
• Florence and Rose
• Honey Bumble
• Marmalade and Catmint
• Miss Magpie
• Tales from a Happy House
• Josie-Mary
• Hearts and Bluebells
• Oooh Betty

Hope that's ok with you bloggy pals? Don't feel obliged to join in. I've had a few of these and this is the first I've actually got round to doing!

The only upside to the dismal day was I got to wear my new fuzzy jumper (thats the photo not the jumper).

Back with making photos when there's some better light.

x

Making ups and downs

This is the cheery view of my fridge today. Some dahlias and cosmos from the boot sale to brighten things up around here.

 Did you spot anything else new? Well Emily Button did. She's had her eye on this suitcase for a while now and today she bagged it for herself.

 A cute little old case I bought at Shepton Mallet a few weeks ago. I patchworked it in Pussy Willow paper and sealed it with a protective layer as dolly parties can get messy in these parts. Well Emily and friends moved straight in and I think I'll have a job to get it back.

 I put the case down as a making success. It was A painstaking fiddle and I had to tackle it over several days to stay sane but I got there in the end.

This stool was an altogether quicker and easier transformation. It's 1950's legs were just crying out for a mid century top and I had just the fabric. Sorry about the rubbishy photos. I keep forgetting it gets dark so early and missed the daylight today.

All good so far but there was a huge GGGRRRrrrrrrrr moment this afternoon. Transforming this cupboard proved to be infuriating and involved me ripping off the Cath Kidston wallpaper I'd applied to the back only this morning and throwing it in the bin! All hopes of getting it to my shop this afternoon faded and it was banished to the garage in the cold and dark until it can be better behaved another day.

 I couldn't finish with such a grotty picture so here's one of my latest refurbished beds that arrived at the antique centre on Friday. Perfect for little people!

 I'll be back with some answers to Ada's questions later in the week and who knows maybe even a cupboard ta-dah...

Have a good week.

x



My lovely old old house part 2

Thank you for all your lovely comments about my vintage kitchen. I ploughed my way through the photos on the estate agent's CD from when we sold it eight years ago and put together some collages to show you beyond the kitchen.

It's a Georgian stone cottage. One of a pair and owned for many many years by the local church.

When we bought it it had been rented out for years and had the most spectacular rockery in the living room!

Just a trace of the original behind.

 
  A sledge hammer took care of that along with a trip to the reclamation yard for a fireplace and a load of wide floorboards. It's not often you lift the carpet to find the rotten holes have been covered with flattened catering size baked bean cans.

 Damp proofing and replastering revealed interesting structure.

 Well eventually we got there. For a couple of years it was a deep red - lovely in the winter but very dark the rest of the time so out came the brushes and it ended up in Skylight. One of my F&B faves I've used it in every house since.

The pretty cottage garden with my chapel doors.

The bath was another auction bargain. Only once we'd hired a flatbed truck to bring it home and roped in several strong friends to lift it down did I start to have doubts as to whether it would fit in the bathroom... in the meantime a friend snapped a leg (of the bath not his) off lifting it down from the truck and it came to rest in our hallway for a couple of years. resting on it's remaining three legs because of course it wouldn't fit where the bath was. Oh no we needed to reposition the whole bathroom. As with so many bargains it turned out not to be one after all!

The high level cistern was rescued from an old loo at the end of the garden and shotblasted and painted to match the bath. It had the original makers name somewhere in Dorchester embossed on it so it seemed only right to make use of it.

So there you go, that's downstairs.

 

I'll take you upstairs another day!