the weekend

Hello all. How was your weekend? Mine was pretty lazy - a bit of baking, a bit of antiques hunting and an unhealthy amount of time bothering sea anemones on the beach. We went to the North Wales Antiques Fair in Anglesey on Sunday where I saw an episode of Bargain Hunt being filmed (I won't talk too long about how I squawked 'hello!' at an unimpressed Tim Wonnacott, but let's just say I was a bit embarrassed afterwards), and I obtained a lovely vintage Welsh wool blanket for our bed. Then, since the rain had stopped, we went to the beach at Aberffraw for a picnic lunch and rockpooling.



Now it's Monday and I can't be arsed with anything.

antiques fair finds

I hope you had a good weekend - ours was blustery and rainy, but it didn't deter us from going to nose around the antiques fair in Oswestry on Saturday. It was the usual mix of terrible ceramics, silver and glassware, rescued by the occasional vintage gem. I saw some pristine, unused 1950s bread knives with lovely coloured handles, and an amazing vintage route-length-measuring map which used a fascinating wire mechanism: the pre-cursor to Google Maps, I think. There were also some beautiful vintage RAF canvas sacks and three sweet children's school chairs - if only they had them in adult sizes!

What did I come home with? Four seriously dirty (I mean they've been stored in a shed and have dead insects, fossilized chicken shit and even egg yolk on them - I am trying to clean them without vomiting) wooden boxes to store our junk in, a giant glass mixing bowl/jug and a 1970s globe. I could have spent much more but I restrained myself! I'll post up a picture of the boxes as soon as I have finished cleaning them :-)

Wales

Here are just a few shots from some of our walking in Wales. I can't wait until I can do this every weekend!



Hope you all had a good weekend. What did I do? I filled in lots of forms for house-selling, roasted a chicken and raided some charity shops (EIGHT new Le Parfait and Kilner jars for 50p each?! A no brainer, I think). On Sunday we rounded up all the awful unwanted gifts and junk that have been cluttering up our loft space and carted it off to sell at a car boot sale. The husband and I looked like proper market sellers in his flat cap, my wax jacket and home-sewn florals, and especially with his Yorkshire accent. We even made money from some godawful things that we thought would never sell. OK, the leopard-print dessert plates that were a wedding gift were uniformly ignored, but we managed to get rid of some other horrors despite their ugliness. What fun!

a quick hello from Japan

Two things to note so far:
1) I cannot deal with eating so much SALT! I swear I am dying, even though the food is great. Will tell you all about it when I get back.
2) I have been sleeping too much

The picture above was taken in Tokyo wholesale market at dawn on Monday. It was amazing. Hope you are all keeping well! x

this and that...

Had a wonderful weekend in Glasgow doing lots of girly shopping, chatting and eating far too much sugar. What a beautiful and interesting city Glasgow is - undeserving of its rough reputation, it really is a great place, if a bit rainy and cold! I have never in my life seen so many good charity and vintage shops arrayed in such density. I stupidly didn't bring a camera on any of my travels, though. I came home with a bright woollen Pringle sweater that was pretty much brand new with its original tags still on it. It all adds to the country eccentric look I have been obsessing about recently.

Newark last Thursday was amazing, but it was so damned COLD! Seriously, even with my winter gear and sheepskin boots I was so cold I could barely think. Plus being on my own was a bit sad - wished the husband could have been with me. I passed by a trio of lovely big pressed glass German jam jars with strawberry logos on them. I didn't ask for the price and when I came back later to do so they were, of course, gone. Bought by someone with a bit more gumption than me :-( What else did I not buy? Some beautifully soft hand-knitted French socks, two pairs of stripey bloomer/pyjama things, a large piece of lovely printed fabric (seriously rude dealer didn't deserve my custom, and I was only being cheeky with my offer!), and two amazing French wooden pull-along toys that, at £40 each, were just too much for miserly me.



In the end, I purchased five extraordinary chemist's bottles etched deeply with the names of the chemicals they used to hold. Real beauties they were and it took a bit of haggling to get them down to a decent price. All they need is a good clean. I also ended up with a selection of vintage buttons and two large serving dishes for when we have guests. Ah, such happiness in spending!

this and that...

Hello. The weekend was, uh, expensive. Well, not too much, but let's say we got the chair, and the little wooden policeman and some other junky stuff from the auction. I couldn't resist the policeman after all - he was beautiful. Funnily enough, I just came across another very similar walking toy (above) at the splendid Three Potato Four. Cute, no? Expensive, yah?


And today the husband and I went on a rummage at Sunbury Antiques Market in West London. Got up way before the crack of dawn at 4.45am and drove there in the foggy darkness. Froze our asses off in the cold and bought nothing even though everything there was beautiful and I wanted it all, especially the stuff from the French dealers.

Hey, at least at both the auction and the market I got to work my new Norwegian-cardigan-and-wax-jacket look. Received a suitable and gratifying number of odd looks from people. Miraculously for someone as lizard-cold as I am, this combo kept me warm even outside. Shame about my frozen feet, but hey, you can't have everything. I think I'll wear my sheepskin boots to Newark in December.