Carpet love

We have needed a new rug for our living room for a while. Something thick enough for gymnastics, which will not show the dog hairs and will resist the sparks from the fireplace. Oh, and it has to look good too.

I had been searching for over a year, on Freecycle and Preloved, and then there it was on local ebay.  It is not in perfect condition and cost very little, but that means we don't have to be precious about it.

Woolly goodness

It fits with the existing furnishing and is easy to hoover. Thank you kind seller, who told me its history, from the Sahara in the 1960s, to a local water mill, to an attic.

Just needs a quick hoover

I love it. And so does she.




Making presents

So I am collecting bits and bobs at the rainy car boot sale. None of it is valuable or particularly remarkable, but just little things that have caught my eye for a few pence. And when I get home I wonder what I am going to do with it all.




Lovely bits and bobs

 

 

Christmas is coming, some things can go in my etsy shop, but I do need to start sorting out some presents.




Who lives here?

 

The little boot egg cup is really sweet, but I already have an awful lot of egg cups for when we have a lot of children over for lunch. We have bantam chickens which lay small eggs and I am always looking for tiny egg cups to hold them.





A house boot

Then I remembered seeing a you tube tutorial for making tea cups into pincushions. I think it was by Debbie Shaw. It was really clear,( and she had a lovely old dog which is why I watched it right to the end).

I was going to fit out a little sewing kit in an old tin for a friend and the egg cup fitted quite nicely. So I looked through my fabric stash and found a fabric that worked and then sewed and stuffed and glued, and finished it in about ten minutes.

Just right for a few pins

Hooray, now I just need to make a quick needle case and get some little scissors and the sewing kit is done.

Flower arranging, quick as a flash.

Vintage glass flower frogs

Now I am not a natural flower arranger, more of a find some flowers and stick them in a jam jar kind of person. Most of the year I manage to find something in the garden or hedgerows to use, even if it is only foliage and seed heads. 
At a recent fete I found some green glass thingies and my Mum told me they are flower frogs?? used by flower arrangers in the days before oasis foam.

Now I bought them because they were pretty and green, but I thought I would try one out.



Just right for a short stemmed lily.

I had some late Stargazer lilies in the garden and they only had short stems so the frog seemed perfect. Two minutes later, with some slightly geranium scrappy foliage and crocosmia and I had an "Arrangement" for the table.




Finished

 

 Not too shabby really.

Vintage dolly makeover

More than a hint of Katy Perry

I have  an ever growing collection of vintage Polish dolls, mostly dating from the 1950's and 60's. Some of these belonged to my family, and I really liked them when I was young, but didn't really play with them much as you couldn't dress them up.

Recently I have picked up some more from car boots, ebay and charity shops, usually in terrible condition and needing some loving care. So I decided to spruce them up.




Some of the girls (and boys)

The question is how to dress them?

 

Should I recreate their original outfits with tiny spriggy prints, or make new special ones for Christmas?




Clara is one of the oldest and looks to the right.

I started with some help from a small visitor who helped me name them all. Then we stripped off their manky clothes and gave them a wash.




They look a little worried about bath time.

 

I kept the old clothes to use as templates, which worked well. They all had a nice new pair of plain white knickers to start with and then I had a play with my lace and doilies.



Knickers under construction

 

I may need some time to work out the best look for each one, as each has her own distinct personality and will have to have something to suit her.

 

A few need some new hair. The original hair was mohair, but I may just see what I can find in my wool stash.

 

I will post more pictures as I finish them.




Annabelle says goodnight

What to look for in September....

September has whizzed by. The children have been back at school for nearly three weeks and all I have done is clean the house, repeatedly. All my plans for redesigning the garden, panelling the bathroom with tongue and groove and setting up an Etsy shop are still just plans.

Cleaning requires no thinking. Time to get a back to school attitude and get my brain working again. Can you hear the cogs creaking ?   Off on another day dream................

I found my Ladybird book, "What to look for in Autumn" while sorting out the bookcases. Such beautiful illustrations and so old fashioned, although it was published in 1960. 

 I have spotted some of the Autumn phenomenon mentioned : swallows on a telephone wire, beautiful autumn crocus at Hergest Croft Gardens and pheasants everywhere with such vibrant plumage, they glow in the sun. Wish I could see a red squirrel.

 

Still, I have started to clear and sort my immense stash of vintage stuff, some inherited from my Mum and Granny, and some that I have bought over the years. I have so much, I almost don't know where to start. Fabrics first I think. Watch this space!

 

 

 

 




Grumpy vintage money box