A Handbag!!!

I have been neglecting you dear RRs and OVs.  The last few weeks of term were hectic and stressful and, when it was over, it took me a week to unwind. But now I'm back to show you my finds from the last week or so.

Last weekend I bought this splendid thing ....

Now, I thought it was a Gladstone bag but I was mistaken - it is a conversation piece!  Normally, my peregrinations around the car boot a fairly solitary affairs:  I have short conversations with sellers generally consisting of a comment on the weather, a quick haggle over price (always my favourite bit), good wishes for the day/their health/continued good weather and a good bye.  I might stop for the occasional encouraging word to a small child or to pat a passing dog on the head but I am rarely accosted by strangers wanting to discuss my purchases.  Not on this day though - suddenly I was public property and was stopped by all sorts of  people congratulating me on the splendour of my bag, asking where I bought it, what I intended to do with it and, several times, a rather blunt enquiry as to how much I paid for it.

I've also bought some lovely vintage embroidered table cloths ....

and this wonderful vintage knitted doll's dress...

So far, so good on the taste front.  Then I had one of those moments .....

and bought these totally OTT examples of the art of cartonnage.  They are about 12" square and are covered inside as well as outside.  Someone is going to love them ....




Unfortunately, the aged parent does not want to do the next Shepton Mallet Flea Market on 26th August, so my next fair will be The Vintage Bazaar at The Victoria and Appleton Centre in Hartley Witney on Saturday 22nd September.  Put the date in your diaries!

One swallow does not a summer make ....

Any one flicking through the pages of the July edition of Country Living while waiting in the queue at Waitrose, cannot have failed to notice the number of swallows (or swifts, or house martins) it contains.  So I decided to knit one.  Here it is ... looks rather like it wearing jodpurs but it was the best I could do ....

Some weeks ago I bought this box.  It's marquetry floral decoration was missing from the top so I painted on some flowers to replace it. 

 The real reason I bought it is inside ....

Isn't that lovely?

At the same car boot sale I bought another item.  I happen to love it but Northern Man and Youngest Child were appalled.....

It's all done in the best possible taste ....

Boxes, birds and bubbling mud ....

Pity me, dear RR, I am a broken woman whose fragile but fondly held illusions about not looking her age have been thrown to the floor, smashed and casually stamped upon.  'Why?'  you ask.  Well, this morning's jaunt to the car boot sale was going quite well: I had bought enough goodies to put me in a contented, complacement frame of mind and was quite unprepared for the ego-denting one-liner that was about to come my way.  I came across a stall which had some nice silk and velvet fabric pieces on it and I was admiring the same wondering what I could do with them when the (male) booter said 'you could take those silk pieces home and make a waistcoat for your grandson'.  Now, I know I wasn't wearing any make up and the morning sun, when it's in my face, really shows my age, but 'grandson'?  Surely not!

I did, however, score a small victory over the male sex at another stall.  I picked up two jugs, asked the price and was told '£2 each'.  As one of the jugs was quite badly chipped I offered £3 for the two instead but the owner counter-offered with 'no, but I'll take £2.50'.  I paid and left ....

Now for the latest buys....

Lots of boxes, chocolate (empty), fabric covered and carved  ...

And birds ...

The shawl is hand-embroidered wool.  These bird pictures are painted and then feathers are added - there's a fine line between artistic and awful and I think these pictures may just have slipped over it.   Here's a close-up so you can make up your own minds ...

And more birds, this time embroidered onto silk and framed ...

and ...

Finally, some lovely vintage wooden salt and pepper sets.

That takes care of the eponymous boxes and birds, but what of the bubbling mud?  Half term was two weeks ago and Northern Man and I were off again, to Iceland this time.  When  told that we were going there most people said 'why?' or even 'what for?'  and I have to admit it wasn't my first choice but I was quickly smitten.  Landing at the airport was not unlike arriving at Inverness after leaving London - such clean air and so much sky.   Having spent so much time in the north of Scotland, the absence of trees and the harshness of the rock-scape didn't worry me but I can imagine it is a shock to many visitors.

We stayed in Reykjavik, very near the city centre.  It is far more like a large town than a city, compact, clean, very safe and almost cosy.  The older buildings are covered in what Northern Man referred to as 'crinkly tin' painted in lovely colours ...

We swam in hot pools, gasped at geysers and hot springs, walked through open air saunas made by steam fumaroles and  picked our way over lava fields.  Unfortunately there was no bubbling mud and I didn't get to see a glacier but we did visit the City Museum in Reykjavik where I found myself wondering if I'd been transported back to Colonial Williamsburg ..

The early population of Iceland must have been very hardy and inventive.  The earlier houses had turf roofs and great stone buttresses on either side to keep out the weather and stop the wind blowing away the building ....

And some ingenious beds ...

which extend and contract depending on how much room is available and, presumably, how tall the occupant was.  There were also some that could be widened to make room for two people to sleep together.

My favourite Icelandic idea was these ...

... knitted woollen shoe liners - brilliant!

What is the collective name for a group of gargoyles?

A pandemonium?  A Notre Dame? A threatenting?

This is the latest addition to the collection bought yesterday at the car boot. 

He bears an uncanny resemblance to Northern Man working on his new ipad.  Obviously, Northern Man generally keeps his wings folded unless he needs to shield the screen from the sunlight to stop any reflection .....

I can resist everything ... except temptation

New Year's resolutions are for sissies .....

What would you do if you were offered all these hours of amusement for £10.20?  I thought so ....

NOTHING is so beautiful as spring –

NOTHING is so beautiful as spring –
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.

Gerard Manley Hopkins knew how to write a poem:  he could take some alliteration, add a few metaphors, mix in a sprinkling of similies and put it all down on a page in a way that makes my heart skip like those racing lambs.  GMH obviously didn't have the dreary, depressing, drizzling April we've just endured!

I have a hen party to go to this afternoon and I am required to wear a pink sash.  I haven't worn a pink sash since I took my Grade I ballet exam four and a half decades ago and I don't intend to do so today.  However, by way of apology, I have made the bride-to-be a little something which I hope she will like ...

I have managed to get to a couple of car boot sales so I'll show you the best of the last few weeks ...

Embroidered pictures and some more china.  I seem to buy china every time I go out at the moment.

Lovely vintage boxes ...

Vintage bags and more (non-vintage but pretty) china.  So far so good on the only-buy-it-if-it-will-fit-in-a-shopping-bag rule but then I weakened and bought these ...

Boring at the moment but I have plans ....

I am a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles ....

It's lovely to be back car-booting again after such a long winter shut down, but I must say that there has been nothing of any great pith and moment to buy so it has had to be beauty before age.

I bought the tray from the lady who made it forty years ago when there was a fashion for such things.  She told me how cross her mother was when she went to take a bath and found the wicker in it soaking until it was pliable enough to use!

Pretty things on a theme of white and cream ...

These lovely little cottages are made from paper and matchsticks then painted and varnished. 

Roll on tomorrow's car boots ....