Patterns

I couldn't resist rushing back indoors to grab the camera to take some photos of the amazing ice patterns on the car windscreen the other morning. Such wonderful patterns...like nature's own cut glass!

Neither can I resist a floral pattern when I see one...so these had to come home from the charity shop with me on Tuesday. I think they are supposed to be table mats, but I propose to use for small hand cloths in the kitchen. I'm not sure if they're vintage, but they're unused and of a lovely, thick, barkcloth type fabric and I just love those vintagey roses!

And more gorgeous, vintagey roses to look at on the cover of March's Country Living magazine, which has just arrived...a recurring pattern it seems!

Time for coffee and quick browse through the pages....

Back soon,

Rebecca

x

Memories

My 'Peace' rose (a wonderful, thoughtful gift from hubby a few years ago following a bit of a tiff!) has come into flower this week and I managed to photograph it in between the very heavy downpours of rain we've been having. Its yellowy, pinky tones always remind me of the little fruit salad chewy sweets I used to buy from the village shop as a child!!

Isn't it funny how different things bring back our memories...smells, sights, sounds!! The smell of Guerlain's Samsara perfume always reminds me of being in labour...a midwife that came and went during the long and protracted time I had with my son was rather heavily doused in the stuff!! I also find that music stirs so many memories, which is one of the reasons I'm sad that Playlist.com is no longer available - it's so quiet in blogland too!!

Talking of memories, there's something about these:

Apparently, they are also available in a dark chocolate, blue and gold wrapped, version, but I've not seen those around here!!

Yesterday, I took a trip to my favourite charity shop...wow, a new manager...and boy is she making changes, although she assures me that she will not be increasing the prices!! Quite often, I breeze in... and then out again, just as quickly...but yesterday it was hard to drag myself away...lots of vintage craft books and balls of wool...!!!

I love these from "The Soft Toy Book" from the 70s!!!

The charity shop manager said her main aim was to clear out all the "stuff" from the upstairs storage room...keep on bringing it out into the shop I say, especially after yesterday's fabulous finds!! I'll share some more pictures in another post as this has turned into a longer one than I expected!!

Back soon,

Rebecca x

Thrifty Finds

I love having a good old rummage in charity shops and at jumble sales and, last week, managed to do quite well at both! I found these at my favourite charity shop:

The tea cups cross stitch was hastily whipped out of its horrid pink frame and washed ready to be turned into something where the time and effort that have gone into its tiny stitches can be appreciated! The extra wide, old wooden rolling pin is just perfect for pizza dough - my growing son's ever increasing appetite requires larger and larger pizzas!! And the frame, well, I can never resist a wooden frame - this pine one looks as though it has never been used and cost 60p!

At the jumble sale, I picked up a large, thick cotton, floral bedspread for 50p - again, it's been in the washing machine, line dried and awaits its next adventure! I'm not sure what that will be yet but I love its pastel shades of lilac, pink, peach, grey and lemon. I found a gorgeously soft and fluffy cashmere jumper for my daughter that looks as good as new for 25p! I am always on the lookout for 100% wool items for felting so you can imagine my delight when I was hit on the head - yes, hit on the head! - by a gorgeous red with purple, pink and blue fair isle lambswool cardigan!! A lady was sorting through a large pile of her rummagings and, obviously, the cardigan was not for her so she hurled it the 6 feet or so back to the crowded jumble table! "Thank you", I'll have that!! It was scary in there - quite a bit of elbowing and shoving going on! Jumble sales are becoming increasingly hard to find - this one happens every couple of months and is always well supported.

I might go to an auction this week - something else I love to do when I have the time! And, of course, I shall be back for a rummage in my favourite charity shop!

Off to crochet more summery flowers now using bamboo yarn, which is gorgeous to work with. I am going to try to post more than once a week but, as with everything that I plan to do, it's getting around to it!! There are simply not enough hours in the day!

Bye for now,

Rebecca x