The Wanderer Returns

Good afternoon, campers. How you all doing? (If anyone is still out there and actually looking at this.)

What a most glorious summer we've had and are still having. Mainly. Apart from last Saturday when my village got flooded and some silly sausage drove his car into it and had to be rescued. You always get one doncha? On the news and everything. And The Daily Mail. I wonder how it's affected house prices.

It's been a while and now and then I have popped in and read a few blogs but the urge to write hasn't hit me until just lately. I've taken a run up.

During this period of Non Blogness I have not bought much at all or crocheted or sewn or done anything very crafty at all. So it would seem that I have not very much at all to blog about but I thought I'd dive in anyway.

Yesterday I painted something. Wahay! My mate has started a painted furniture emporium in her front bedroom and is doing ok and we did a sort of swap. I gave her a crocheted blanket, (and believe me that wasn't easy,) and she supplied the Annie Sloan, brushes, wax, venue, lunch and a hand with the painting. We did my chest of drawers. (Hold up I'm going to try and put a picture in here and we all know how that normally goes...)

Well, goodness me, (I just typed something not half as polite as that but deleted it) it worked. Ok, it's small but it's there. You may notice that the quality of photography is a step up from what it was. This is due to me finally giving in and acquiring a phone that doesn't look like it belongs to Dom Joly. I appear to be in possession of a tiny, teeny, baby laptop, posing as a phone that does everything apart from make me a cup of tea and a slice of toast. Twitter, I'm there, Instagram, bring it, Facebook on the toilet, been there, done it. I have morphed into one of those sad sacks that walk about looking at the thing all day just in case anything happened when they took their eye off it for five seconds. Well, you never know, Danny Baker might make a funny tweet or someone I knew seven years ago might be hanging out her washing in Romford.

Anyway, the chest. It was horrible, orange pine and is now Annie Sloan Old White and heavily distressed by me and the pal. We had a bit of a business talk about somehow doing something together. The idea of a shop was bandied about (I could fill it from my garage...) but overheads are a bit too much. Then a unit somewhere, but still with the overheads. So we have decided to investigate the idea of rocking up at a couple of localish vintage fairs (if we ever find any) and seeing how we do there. Could be all talk, as is usually the case with me and my big ideas but we'll see.

I'll try another couple of pictures, just to break the words up a bit. Stay there.

 

The chest posing with the blanket (which some of you may remember or recognise) in my mate's gorgeous back garden just after being tarted up. We were both happy. And I even sewed (I say sewed...) a label onto her blanket.

Anyway, now I've done the first one, I would like to think I'll keep doing this. Painting and blogging. I was never happier than when I was painting something or writing something so all good.

Laters, girls.
x

 

Ps. Went here for my holiday. Olu Deniz in Turkey. Blinking fab.

Dotty Sparkle at the seaside...

Well hello! It's been a while...
Holidays have been taken, work has been resumed and blogging seems to have fallen by the wayside for a bit. I'm sure the bug will catch me again. I've been having a butchers at all yours though even if I've not been commenting very much. Thanks for all your comments on the last post and hello to any new followers. Welcome aboard!
Anyway, I thought I'd just pop in and let you know that next Sunday my sister and I are doing our first, much talked about but never got round to doing it, vintage fair. Edith Florence goes live!
We'll be here...

 ...trying to tout some toot. No really, being serious, we have a bit of good gear between us and also a shedload of my mum's more retro 70's 80's stylee stuff.

So, if you fancy a little day out at the seaside, get yourself down to Thorpe Bay next Sunday. Please God it won't rain and plenty of people turn up. If not we'll be eating too much cake and drinking too much tea and disturbing everyone with our loud laughing. It will be fun anyway.

I've been washing, sorting and boxing up and although we're a bit nervous it's also quite exciting now that we've finally got round to doing it.

Be there or be square!

Hope you're enjoying this late summer we've having... about flipping time though 'aint it?

Laters!

xx

Patchwork, Pyrex, Plates and Stuff

Morning chaps! And by the looks of it it's shaping up to be another nice day. Hurrah! Today I have plans to drag a sunlounger out and bask in it all afternoon. Quite handily, my garden faces west, so if I spend most of the morning doing all the boring stuff like changing beds, emptying the dishwasher and running over the Co-op for things, I don't feel like I'm missing out on the sun. I'm not actually a mad sunbather, but the combination of this horrible weather we've had and my legs being the colour of milk bottles has brought on this need to try and get a little bit of a tan. Plus Miss EF The Younger, the one who is coming on holiday with us only has to open a curtain and she's brown and she's been out there for two days solid and looks like she's had a month in a very hot country and I have some catching up to do on the tan front.
Right, a bit of business before we start, a big hello to girls who are following and thanks for your comments on the award post. Which leads me to this, after I did that post I kept thinking, 'oooh I could have passed it on to this one or that one' and I started to feel all rotten that I hadn't. So, I'm sorry, to all those ladies whose blogs I read and enjoy that I didn't spread it about a bit more. (and there are blimming loads, believe me.)

Let's have a photo shall we?
I think I'll start with my new craze. The English Paper Piecing. See me, even using the right name now...

I have actually cracked on a bit more with this and I have another row of the blues and have sewn the two blocks together. I decided that if I kept it to the nine squares I could stay in control of it, it would be easier to manage and it would be portable enough for me to take on holiday and do round the swimming pool if I fancied it. I won't sew the blocks together any more, I just wanted to see what they looked like. (And kiss it a few times and carry it round the house showing everyone and telling them how clever I am and that I never thought I would be able to do this until they all ran away and hid.)

The colours look clearer on this one taken in the garden. I think I will have to find a thicker white linen than the one I used here, it looks a bit see through. I will find another pair of gone at the crutch trousers to cut up.
I had a small disaster with the papers, well it felt like one to me, when I spent a good hour on Sunday evening using some 1cm square graph paper as a template to cut up some more and then realised I'd made them smaller than the lot that I'd spent hours tacking on to the last batch. I didn't cry, and I pulled myself together amazingly quickly, nothing thrown round the room, no swearing or anything. I just decided that instead of 8cm square blocks I would now be making them 7cm square and sat in the garden for an hour yesterday undoing all the tacking to start again. I told myself that us patchworkers have to remain patient at all times, mistakes will be made but they can be put right in a serene manner without tantrums.

The squares I did before the disaster. Some of them anyway. I have decided to make my tacking stitches bigger because they are barks to get out otherwise, so a lesson learned.
Right, moving on from the sewing before we have patchwork overload and you all run off screaming. Last Saturday Miss EFTY and I spent a nice afternoon in Leigh on Sea. It is my nearest lovely place and we go there quite a lot. There are lots of charity shops there but it is a rare thing that I find anything good in any of them. I'm talking toot now, not clothes. There could be good clothes but I don't always look when I'm there because there are so many shops to look in it would hold me up. I think the reason there is a lack of good stuff is that the people who live there 'get it' and also there are a few vintage shops there and I imagine they are buying up anything worth having before us lowly punters get their mitts on it. Which is fair enough and what I would do myself. What I mean about 'getting it' is this. Even though it's only a couple of miles up the road Leigh has its own vibe. Poncy word but I'm using it anyway. Where I live is very nice indeed but I get the feeling that most of the inhabitants, if they're not really old, like to buy their homewares in Next and shops like that. Nothing wrong with that and I applaud them because it means my local three chazzas have better stuff for me to buy because nobody else wants it. Indeed they are probably laughing at me for wanting to buy things in them. It's like a dirty secret and I look both ways in my village before I go in them in case anyone I know sees me. But in Leigh, it is different. It has an almost Whitstable feel about it but not so posh and distinctly more Essexy in parts. People go there to buy nice things and live there because it has rows of gorgeous Victorian terraces (murder for parking though) and lots of bars and restaurants. Anyway this is what I bought in Leigh. Not even in a charity shop.

He was one of three but I thought buying them all would make him look naff because I think with the other two it made up that see no evil, speak no evil thingy and I didn't want that. On his own he just looks like he's calling his mates to come out to play, or shouting  'Oi... you, get the hoover out and sort this gaff out pronto.'
I find I'm quite into cherubs at the moment, but I think too many would probably be overkill.

While I was in Leigh I went into the material shop there and was all excited at getting my hands on some fabric and batting. Did that, but came out quite deflated at the non -helpful and unfriendly attitude of the women who worked there. I will go in there again because we are short on fabric shops round here but I won't enjoy it.

You know the other day I said Pyrex was a passing fad with me, well I might have been a bit hasty.

Aren't they dinky? Well they are dinkier than they look in this picture and regular and long time readers might remember that I bought a bigger one of these some time ago. I actually left them in the charity shop twice and then woke up in the middle of the night in a hot sweat (that might have been an age thing) wondering why I had been so stupid and ran back and bought them. See that's the people round here for you. They were in the window display for days but when I ran in there, panting after running from my car, to buy them they were inside on the shelf and no one had bought them. Meant for me, see, waiting for me to go in and buy them. Same with this plate.

I had to ask the woman if they still had it and she went out the back to get it for me. Why I didn't buy them in the first place is a mystery. I think I must have been on a not spending so much money mission. £3.25 the lot so I wouldn't have been able to do much more with that money if I hadn't bought them. Silly mare.
As well as the charity shop stuff I had a little dabble on ebay too and got these.

I've had to stop myself from taking these to bed, I'm so in love.

This one was 99p. Really. 99p. I had to pay P&P which was about a fiver but still bargaintastic. And it came in a box with French writing on it which I have obviously kept because I am a mentaller.

This one came in at about £9.00 but still good I thought for French enamel. Please note we are on a different garden table here, when I went out this morning to take pictures, the leavings of wasp poison were all over the other table. I had more fun than I should have yesterday watching a man (no, he was old, and a bit too flippant for my liking) tog up and spray a wasps' nest up under the eaves. I was waiting for a swarm but my  sister later told me that apparently they go back in to die rather than coming out. I had to find that out from my sister, not the man who charged me £48 and then left his pump up my side alley and had to come back. Anyway, I digress, French enamel jars with all their rusty bits,I love them and will be looking out for more on ebay.

So that's what I've been up to this week. From today I intend to start The Holiday Ironing. The worst part of a holiday I reckon apart from the washing when you get back. I'm not an ironer. I don't go out with my clothes all creased, I'm an every day ironer, I only I iron what I want when I want it, I can't be doing with hours spent in front of an ironing board thanks. Too boring and too many more interesting things to be doing. My wardrobe obviously looks like carnage. Creased clothes all over the shop and gear stuffed in the top where I can't be bothered to find hangers. One day, when I grow up, (and can afford an ironing lady, my sole ambition in life) I will have a lovely organised wardrobe, with colour co-ordinated rows of perfectly pressed garments. I will be able to get up in the morning knowing I have a selection of outifits at my fingertips and not have to start dragging things out and then finding other things to go with those things and then ironing them before I can even go over the Co-op to buy a pint of milk.(And that's along with doing my hair and putting on some mascara and blusher so I don't look dead.) It would make life much easier if I took up doing the ironing but I won't. Apart from before a holiday and that's only just in case the suitcases fly open at Gatwick and a bundle of creased rags falls out causing thousands of holidaymakers to point and laugh and whisper behind their hands about my slatternly ways. So today I shall be ironing in the garden. Probably.

Have a lovely day wherever you are and for the people who live in England, enjoy the sunshine and get your flags out for The Olympics! And by the way, I know I could be on my own here but how excited am I that TOWIE is back? More excited than I should be that's how excited.

Laters.

xxx

The Blog Award Post

Morning, ladies!
What spiffing weather we're having! Well here where I am anyway. After lunch, when I have to take Miss EF The Younger to her mate's for a sleepover, I am going to pitch myself up in the garden with a sunlounger and my patchwork, (oh yes... I'm still addicted and will do a post soon) and stay there for the remainder of the day. Make the most of it I say.

Anyway, I've been given a blog award by Kate at Granny Taught Me To Crochet. It's this one...

the One Lovely Blog Award. So thank you most kindly, Kate! Apparently I have to list seven things about myself and I have been wracking my brains trying to come up with some interesting stuff, so here goes.

1. I am a true cockney. Born within the sound of Bow Bells at Barts Hospital. Bow Bells are actually in a church in Cheapside, whose name escapes me, and not actually in Bow, where I have never lived and wasn't born. I suppose when the term cockney was coined, London was a much smaller place and more people lived in what is now The City. The City is now more a financial and business area with not much housing. Anyway, that's me a cockney, London is in my blood in a big way even if I no longer live there. My dad was 'on the buses' and so was my mum, they met when he was a driver and she was a clippie and then my dad went on to be a taxi driver. My mum was posh. She came from Kent!

2. I can tap dance. Not like Lionel Blair or anything but I have medals. Some from when I was a little girl and some from more recently. I've done shows and everything. Drunk, admittedly, but I've done them. Well wouldn't any adult in their 40s have to take the alcohol before getting on stage wearing a top hat and tails. I love the sound of tap shoes on a floor and if I didn't think I would look like The Roly Poly's I'd think about doing it again now.

3. I'm a flitter. My blog will testify to that. One minute I'm all over crochet, the next it's reading books like another one will never be printed, other times I fancy myself as a vintage and antiques dealer and buy anything not nailed down, then I'm painting furniture and filling the garage up with tat off ebay. At the moment it's patchwork. My new thing. Let's see how long this lasts. My mates all know this about me and crack up laughing when I'm all enthusiastic about my next interest.

4. I can't sing. I've never been able to. My aunt was a professional singer and various members of my family seem to have the gift but it never got passed on to me. I'm laughably bad although I like doing it. I generally only allow myself to belt one out in the privacy of my own car. Also I had an operation on my neck a few years back which involved pushing my voice box over to one side (nice) and since then I think my voice has gone more growly and actually disappears when I try to hit a high note. I'd like to think I sound like Mariella Frostrup but I probably don't.

5. One of the things I flitted at was writing. I still do it on and off, (not on this blog, it doesn't count) but not as much as I did. I've had a few short stories published, nowhere you would have heard of, but it sort of fizzled out. The need seemed to leave me but now and then it comes back and I have a little bash at something. One day I would like to write a book, but then wouldn't we all?

6. I don't like cooking. I do it because I have to provide dinners every day but I take no pleasure in it and think it's really, really, really boring. I don't mind making cakes sometimes but that's mainly so I can lick the spoon and I like cake. I like eating and I can graze all day but I'm not that interested in dinners.

7. I think I'm French. No, really. My maiden name is Huguenot, well it's not that but it's a Huguenot name and when I've been to France, which is not as often as I'd like to, I feel all normal and like I'm meant to be there and not in Essex. (Although I like Essex, well the bit I live in anyway.) I've been thinking about this and I think my nan might have had a bit of a French thing too because apparently when I was born and my mum named me Janet (the most boring name ever invented, sorry to any Janets out there) my nan suggested I was called Jeanette 'because it's French.' My mum refused and told her I was English and that was that. My nan was German so there is definitely a continental vibe going on somewhere inside me. I'd like to think that one day I might live in France but being realistic it's not very likely. I don't how a cockney would get on out there in real life!

So that's me.

Right I have to pass this on and I'm struggling a bit because after having a scoot round it seems that most of the blogs I read have it already but I will pass it on to,

Gem at http://treasuresfromthecherrytree.blogspot.co.uk/

Sophie at http://fading-grace.blogspot.co.uk/

and Lynne at  http://pieceful-lynne.blogspot.co.uk/

I won't mind if you're not the awards type and would rather not take it.

Enjoy the sunshine!

Laters

xx

Parading my patchwork...

Afternoon!
Well, thanks to Sophie at Fading Grace, who wrote this lovely post with some gorgeous photos and very easy to follow instructions, this...

has turned to this...

 

by way of this...

and has gone from this...

to this...

by doing this...

and this...

So I'd like to thank Sophie, for inspiring me to get off my jacksy and give it a go and not worry too much about how it turns out. Do pop over to her very pretty blog, she takes the most lovely pictures and on her travels she finds great stuff.
Patchwork, I'm flipping loving it!
Laters, chicks!
xx

Jugs, quilts and books!

Wotcher, ladies!  Before I start I'll say thanks for your comments and a hello to the new followers. It's nice (and a little worrying) to know that there are people out there who like reading this.
Today I am linking up with Lakota over at Faith, Hope and Charity Shopping for Ta-Da Tuesday,even though I haven't got anything much to Ta Da about. I have bought a few bits, (quelle surprise...)  found something of note down in the garden room and been somewhere different, so sort of Ta Da-ish.
Yesterday I had to go and have the dreaded neck injection, (really not too bad, would even have it done again and not be so scared) which meant going to St John's Wood. In an effort to make the day a tad nicer I thought I would get there a bit early and have a meander down the High Street. It is very nice indeed and even though it is bang in the middle of London (almost, two stops from Bond Street) it feels very villagey. No photos because my phone is from 1978 and I never think to take a camera out. Anyway, there are three charity shops. Not bad, if you really had time you could find something to wear in there and some reasonably good labels if you are into that. (I sort of am, if I am getting a bargain.) I didn't actually buy any clothes but I did linger round an off white M&S coat for some time. It had been reduced to a tenner and was in very good nick and very heavy, but I tried to be sensible and thought about how miserable it would make me (or Mr EF) carrying it home on two tubes and an overground train. Added to the fact that I was already negotiating my way round with a very tall fake hydrangea and had a jug and a saucer clanking about in my handbag. I thught I might look a bit of a mentaller turning up to have this procedure done laden down with charity shop bags. So I left it.
Anyway, here's the jug.

The flash went off in every photo this morning due to it being like November round here. I really liked this little jug, I think it's Crown Derby or Devon. I might let it live on the new dresser. Talking of the new dresser, I had The Subsidence Man round last week and I know I haven't told you the story but it's been a three year fight with The Scout's Association and the council about an oak tree and we have an outcome. This means that in the near future I am going to have to pack the whole house up ready to be strengthened and decorated. As much as I'm looking forward to having new ceilings, walls all repaired and painted and various other things mended, I'm dreading the packing. We might even have to move out for a bit if they find asbestos. So be warned, never buy a house near an oak tree. Especially if it has a TPO on it.

Right back to 'stuff.' At the weekend I was nosing round ebay, like you do, well like I do, and I was looking at patchwork quilts when all of a sudden I remembered a quilt I bought years ago in Primark. Really a lot of years ago. I wondered where it was and thought the best place to start looking was in the garden room. Found it straight away. Smelling a bit musty and lying half on the bed and half on the floor but there and looking ok. So I washed it, nearly killed my washing machine doing it and it has been on and off the line since Sunday trying to dry. (I've just had to dash out and get it in, it's raining again.)

It's huge and reversible and I forgot I had it! I'm not sure where it's going, probably back down the garden room but I'm glad I found it. And I was looking on ebay and thinking about buying one. Silly moo. I still can't believe I found this in Primark. I know it was more than ten years ago and I know I bought it in Gravesend but I can't remember how much.

The other thing I've been doing is putting books on my Kindle. We are going on holiday in about three weeks so I'm getting prepared. Not ironing or anything but buying books.

I'm quite excited that this will be the first year I haven't had to earmark half a suitcase for books and then when I run out have to check out what other people round the pool are reading and sidle up to them and ask if I can borrow their book when they've finished it. You can see how much I've been reading this year, seven books, absolutely woeful. Although I have read a couple of 'real' books too and have to say that however handy these Kindles are I still prefer holding a paper book in my hand. Perfect for holidays though and I used it on the train journey yesterday.

So that's me today, I will finish with a picture of my sewing machine. Look how pristine and unused it looks. I think I've had it about 25 years and it's probably seized up. It's been out of the garage for weeks and sitting on this chair waiting for me to have a go at making something. Pigs might fly eh!

Happy Tuesday!

Madelief's Lovely Giveaway!

Do pop over to Madelief's very pretty blog. Her photography is wonderful, lots of lovely photos to look at and she is having a very nice giveaway indeed!

A happy weekend, girlies!

The one with all the shopping...

Morning, campers! Get me with over 50 followers! One of them doesn't count because it was me sodding about yesterday trying to work something out and I accidentally joined my own blog. Anyway, hello to new ones and I will apologise in advance for the quality of the photography. It really is pants. But, Little Miss EF has chosen photography as one of her options next term so if she gets it I will be after her for some tips. I might even employ her as my photographer. Nice to have you aboard anyway ladies!

Doesn't time go fast? I can't believe it's a week since my last post. All this sitting about doing nothing makes the days whizz by I can tell you. Hopefully this will soon be rectified and I can get back to work. (Just in time for the six weeks holidays...) Next Monday I am having something called a Nerve Root Sheath Infiltration. In my neck. A needle. Probably a long one. (Or not, I just made that bit up to make it sound scarier.)  I hope the name of it is more dramatic than the reality. I am trying to take the good out of it. I have to go to St. John's Wood, a part of London that is most pleasant indeed and where I will almost certainly be residing when I win the Lottery. My intention is to get a step on in the morning (ha ha) and get myself up there pronto so I can walk along the High Street and pretend I am rich and posh for an hour. There are charity shops that I shall most certainly be frequenting. Obv any purchases will be set out for perusal on here at a later date. And this time I am meeting Mr EF at the hospital so I won't have him sighing and looking all forlorn and making me feel guilty so I will have more time to have a proper root round.

So, this week. Bought a few things, natch. Finished a thing. Threatened to start a few things but didn't.
Let's have a photo, there's been a lot of talking so far and it will get boring.

A random picture of my dog, Manny. Just because he looks so gorgeous. Don't you think his eyes look human?
Right on to the real stuff.
Last Sunday I got Miss EF The Elder to drive me to the shops because I was having withdrawal symptoms and internet shopping, however fun, wasn't quite cutting the mustard. It also means I'm scared to get in the shower every day in case I miss a parcel. So, off we trot to Southend, our local proper shops. She, who works in a lovely big law firm in London and earns her own money, (more than me) was skint and I knew that she would only stand so much of me waving my card about before she got the hump. This actually happened in the first shop. TK Maxx. Ok, we were in there for an hour, who wouldn't be? Ok, I bought a load of stuff I don't actually need but wanted very badly but she didn't have to threaten to take me home as soon as we'd paid. I think it was because I left her holding armloads in the queue while I ran off to see if there was anything I'd missed. We managed to patch it up when I bought her a full English in Debenhams and treated her to her sun tan lotion for her holiday.
In TK Maxx I bought a couple of Le Parfait jars. Still languishing, empty on the side in the kitchen because I don't really 'do' jars, apart from keep buying the things. It was the French writing, I'm very easily pleased. I also bought this.

There were others but I resisted. Our phone chargers live in this now. Much nicer than having them all plugged in and trailing bits of black wire all over the shop.
A side view. (How can one get so excited about a tin?)

I even know what that means! Please excuse the flash. It was like night time in my kitchen this morning.

A couple of other tins. I saw the blue one on Chipper Nelly and loved it and dashed to Marks to get it. I didn't buy the Queen tin but I had to go back and get it a couple of weeks later. The biscuits were flipping gorgeous and I will definitely be getting the Christmas shortbread from there this year.

I'm a sucker for anything with a taxi or a bus on it, my dad used to drive both.

And Her Maj. I love the colours on this and it's been promoted to being our new biscuit tin.
I've had a thing about tins lately. I hope it stops soon.

Right, the cupboard. Last weekend Mr EF went on a racing jolly to Newmarket for the weekend. I waved him off and as soon as he got to the top of the road I shouted out to Miss EF The Younger to help me climb up on a chair and get the door off the cupboard. We had a bit of a job but after we'd charged up his electric screwdriver, (I think he's used it once,) we were away. Once the door was off I spent a good deal of time fart arsing about with bits of Pyrex and what have you deciding what was going to be in there. In the end I'm afraid most of the Pyrex lost out. I think, on reflection, Pyrex was a passing fad for me, most of it anyway, and it ended up back in a cupboard. I'm not getting rid of it yet, you never know when you might need to cook casseroles for 158 people do you? The prettier bits made the cut but I decided that the thing that I like seeing the most is my mugs. So instead of hiding them away they are out on the pretend open shelves.

With Pyrex. Excuse the washing in the dining room but what can you do when you live in England and it rains every day?

With mugs and not so much Pyrex just the nicer bits. Please notice the number of empty jars. Thank you.
For most of the weekend and occasionally even  now I was and still am trying to close the cupboard door. (You can see it in the background leaning against the dresser near the washing. It's still there.And probably will be for the forseeable future.) I am used to it now and like it. When Mr EF got home he asked if I wanted his honest opinion. I didn't, but felt it would be rude not to say yes. His opinion is that it looks like a cupboard with the door off. But what does he know? He likes brown. Nuff said. I will leave it like this now but I won't throw the door away in case I change my mind and do the fabric thing.

Yesterday I had a little trot to my village and had a look in the charity shops. I have decided that I like them because sometimes they get it spectacularly wrong, and all to my benefit. In one I found this.

Those of you who have been knocking about on here for a bit may remember a set of cups and saucers I bought a few weeks ago, the Gaylord plastic stuff. This is the matching jug. Standing there on its own for fifty of our new pence. I trembled slightly, looked left and right and grabbed it quick. Thinking about it, I wondered if they had more of it out the back and asked the lady, but alas she said this had come in on its own. I'm not sure I believe her so I will have to keep going back and checking.
Further up the road in another chazza, I found this.

Meakin Glamour Celesete. 75p. Yes really. And this.

Royal Vale, I don't know if that's good but I don't care because I liked it anyway, for 50p. The thing is I find these little treasures for no money at all and then further up the shelf  I see bits of old rubbish, like the jar you buy Stilton in from Tesco at Christmas for three and four quids. Mentalness. I like it though and I don't feel guilty because the other day I realised that by accident I had sent a bag of my clothes up there a few weeks previously when I was tidying the loft. When I realised I actually cried. I had to mourn the loss of some of these things. DKNY top, Karen Millen dress, a few Ralph Lauren bits, stuff I would have worn this summer, chinos and linen trousers, all gone. I actually saw a dress of mine that I wore once to Royal Ascot hanging in there for £7.50 and had to walk out because I got all emotional. I felt like a nutter getting upset about a few clothes but it really bothered me. I feel a bit teary now. So to get my own back a little bit I bought a Boden top in there for £4.50 and then sold it on Ebay for about £16. It helped a little bit! It has made me think though about how attached I get to things and find it hard to part with stuff.

Moving on, the latest blanket and the horrible edging. I changed it to this.

I'm happier with it now although I sort of wish I'd ripped that bright pink row out too. So another blanket to live in blanket town. The shelf on the table where all the other blankets live.

Now the thing I haven't finished. Or even really started properly.

Remember these? I bought them to try patchwork. Oh yes, I was going to make a quilt... I played with them, laid them all out on the dining room table and juggled them around for about half hour till I got them exactly how I wanted them, then walked away and left them. Then I cleared them off and realised that it wasn't a good idea to leave them there until I sewed them together because I couldn't expect my family to eat off their laps for five years. I actually pinned them and started tacking them together. And when I looked at them this morning it made me feel a bit sad that I hadn't even mustered up the enthusiasm to get to the end of this bit of tacking.

What a quitter. They are so pretty and I think my fear is that I will bugger it up. I almost certainly will so I don't even try, which is stupid because I could always try again. Also this week I have been threatening to make Manny a new bandana in an effort to make him look less gay, and so that people don't think he is a girl when we take him out, but I haven't done that either. I have the fabric all ready, red with white spots, and I know it will be easy but sewing scares the flipping life out of me apart from putting a button on something. Daft cow.

Oooh, oooh another tin. I forgot this one.

Debenhams, 70% off and down to three nicker. I wondered why they even had any left at all being as it's so gorge but then I realised that No2 also means poo and it might have put people off. Not me though! Oh no!  My crochet hooks and scissors have a new home and are within easy reach of my little nest now and I don't even think of poo when I look at it. Much.
 I also bought (and I think this may actually be bargain purchase of the week although it was the most expensive) a Betty Jackson red short sleeve shirt- waister dress (that I will wear open with linen trousers because I don't really do dresses) for £18 down from £60. Bargaintastic or what!
So that's me this week, plenty of retail therapy. Hurrah for shopping!
Happy weekend, girlies! And also thanks so much for all your comments, I really like reading them and they do make me laugh and make it worth wrestling with Blogger for an hour to get the photos in the right places.
Laters!
xx