Last Boot Fair of the year?

I don't often go to indoor boot fairs, as they are usually very much lacking in vintage things, and I really don't want piles of clothes, heaps of toys or general household stuff. But I was suffering brocante withdrawal symptoms so I went to the last Tesco indoor ( carpark ) boot fair of the year.

I bought stacks of books, crime, mystery, fantasy, science fiction, but not much else. A little heavily tarnished silver dish and some bling. Can't have been all that bad, lol, if I came away with bling, right?

The sweet little silver dish -

Faux pearls with sparkling crystals -

And brooches, lovely vintage brooches -

I also made my Tag Tuesday challenge tag on time, woohoo. The theme was Black and White. I used scrunched up tissue paper over a white tag and highlighted the raised bits with a silver ink pad. I thought the black lace rose would be perfect for this tag, I had it quite a while and it had been patiently waiting to be used. I added a little bit of bling, some pearls and that was the tag done -

Toodlepip xxx

How time flies

I seems that since Nick and I took up geocaching, the days just fly by. We have been enjoying some much needed sunshine for the odd hour or two over the last few days and we have been out and about enjoying the blue sky, Spring greens appearing everywhere and flowers poking their heads through the grass by the roadsides. Geocaching is even better when the birds are singing and the sunshine puts a spring in your step!

But it also appears that I haven't posted for ages, lol, I have been so busy enjoying the outdoor life. I hadn't realised how many days I had missed. So, not only do I have to catch up on last week's Tag Tuesday challenge ( which thankfully is a 2-week one, phew, so I have a few days more to think about it ), but I also need to get cracking on this week's Every Inchie Monday, AND I want to show you a few bits and pieces I have brought home from a couple of jumble sales and a little antiques and collectors fair JJ and I went to on Sunday.

It was sunny earlier today, so I took some quick photos of my finds. Not very much in the way of lovely antiques, but useful stuff nonetheless. Doilies, of course, and a large crocheted table runner -


A piece of fairly modern lace fabric, but great for cutting out lots of different motifs like flowers, leaves, etc -


Beautiful beaded fringeing -


which very neatly brings me to lots of beady jewellery bits. They are mostly modern, apart from the earrings, but perfect for taking apart and using in different projects. Lots of mother of pearl pieces, crystals, which will be fab for embellishing fabric collages -






A cross, useful for a mixed media collage -


A couple of brooches, this gorgeous seahorse one -


and this sweet little horse -


Staying with the animal theme, I found this cute little teddy keyring, which I'll give to my granddaughter once it has been cleaned properly -


Three Limoges gilded swans -


This absolutely gorgeous 1940s/50s Bambi -


I adore these vintage trays, which come in all shapes and sizes, and I can never pass them up when come across them -


A retractable brush, I think it is a hearth brush -


Silver plated dressing table set, which is in dire need of a clean, but so sweet -


A little silver plated dish -


A delicate little porcelain dish decorated with sweet little flowers -


And two little round china boxes, which are a perfect size to put into a couple of geocaches for swaps! -



All the above bits were from a couple of jumble sales. As I said earlier, JJ and I went to an antiques and collectors fair on Sunday and unfortunately my worst fears were confirmed - everything was sooooooooooooo expensive! But, and there is always a but, lol, isn't there, I did find some books. I love books, always have done, and when I saw these gorgeous books, dated 1871, I really couldn't resist, they had such lovely engravings in them -






Apart from the books, I only bought a few postcards, but I totally forgot to photograph them, arrggh. I'll scan them in tomorrow and share them with you instead.

We left the antiques and collectors fair at lunchtime and went to Brighton Marina to visit a bookshop, when we saw a bootfair! Well, the very tail end of one, lol, we had about 10 mins to have a quick walk round the few stalls which were left. Oh, if only we had known about it earlier, lol, we would have given the expensive antiques fair a miss altogether and gone to the boot sale instead! I did manage to find a few things in those few mins, this fabulous tome was first-


It was missing its cover and didn't look much, but the pages, oh those pages are crammed full of lovely old stuff and will make great backgrounds for collages -


On the same stall I found these old Estate papers, lovely crackly old parchment and the most beautiful handwriting -



I couldn't get the darned thing to stay flat, as it had been folded and tied up, probably for the last 90 years or so, so I only photographed a couple of little snippets.

I bought a handful of teeny bits and pieces from another stall as well, but of course, I forgot to photograph those as well, sigh. Tomorrow, lol, along with the postcards!

Hopefully tomorrow morning I will have time to get cracking on the tag and inchie. I'll try. I will.
Until tomorrow then, toodlepip xxx

Winter carboot fairs are not terribly inspiring

There is very little in the way of vintage to be had. So why do I go? Well, you just never know, do you? Amongst the many piles of clothes, toys, modern china etc, there might just be a teeny weeny little something that takes my fancy. And the habit is just so hard to break.

So yesterday morning my long suffering hubby and I set off to have a look at the one and only indoor boot fair in the area. The weather was pretty bad, it had snowed, it was grey and overcast and people had obviously preferred to stay at home, in bed, or in front of a lovely warm fire, lol. The hall was only half full. We wombled about, picked up a thing or two, went to the exit, and out into............ a snow storm! Ooops. The weather had changed so dramatically in just the half hour we had been inside. Thankfully we didnt have a long drive. Oh, I do love cars with heated seats.

Do you know what? I just realised that the photos I took today are from the boot fair and jumble sale LAST weekend, lol. I haven't unpacked the bag from yesterday. Not that there is much to unpack. Ouch, old age is not much fun, rofl. Guess I'll have to do yesterday's tomorrow then.

So, here are the pics from last weekend, sigh -

60s/70s is not really my thing, but this small purple bowl is such a luscious, rich colour, I had to have it -


Modern as well, but I do love these silver plated star shaped boxes. They just need a good polish -

What a great American pack of cards! Well, the game itself it quite ordinary, but I love the back of the cards, the graphics are so funny -


A sweet little jug, a girl can never have too many little jugs/pitchers -


Oh look, lol, another little pitcher, this time an Ironstone one -


And talking of Ironstone, I also found this really pretty brown transferware Ironstone plate -


A few bits of jewellery. The pink heart necklace is a modern one, from Avon, but the rose quartz heart is so pretty, I want to use it in a fabric collage -


Pretty little rosary though -


The colour of this little vase made me go WOW! Isn't it just so pretty? -


A Sylvac vase -


A gorgeous little dressing table tray, for your rings, or change, any little bits and pieces really. They also make lovely little pen trays for your desk -


I adore this little glass jar with the silver lid, which is just crying out to be gently embellished, don't you think?


As I said before, yesterday's will (probably) show up tomorrow, lol. Until then, toodlepip xxx