School holiday thrifting

I managed to sneak a bit in!

A lovely mixed bag of sewing bits and bobs which still needs to be sorted. Hoping some of the bobbins and feet will fit my machine, but if not they'll be heading for ebay eventually.

I can never resist wooden alphabet blocks, and the little partitioned tray these came in is especially nice.

Love this tiny letter rack. Almost all my "nice" communications come by email and text, and this is far too nice for bills and junk mail, so I think it will be perfect for storing some of my notepads.

Hope everyone had a good week.
I'll be linking to Flea Market Finds and Thrift Share Monday.

Friday French Favourites

I was wandering around the blogosphere the other day when I came across the wonderful selina's vintage .
Not only is Selina's blog full of thrifty, crafty loveliness, but also some beautiful photos she has taken on her travels in France.

I love France. I love reading about other people's love of France, and especially seeing their photos. When Selina suggested that other francophiles might like to join in with her on a regular Friday French Favourites post I knew that I would not be able to resist an invitation to blog some of my own favourite photos of France.

I'm starting with the place I love the most in the whole world - St Malo.
Does it sound weird when I say that just looking at these photos again (taken in 2007) makes my heart flip over?
The view (above) of Intra Muros from Parame beach is one of my favourites.

And here's the view from almost the same spot but looking the other way, along Parame beach towards Rotheneuf.

And another one, just because.

Help Needed!

Bloggers and thrifters, can you help me?

I have just thrifted these four plates, purely on the basis that they are so unusual (and that they were only £1 for the lot!).
Although they are not my usual style, I am kind of drawn to them for their over-the-top madness, but will probably end up re-selling them due to lack of space in my kitchen cupboards.

My question to you is - what's going on with the mad multi-transfer thing?

My best guess is that they were factory samples. There is nothing on the back other than hand-painted numbers, so unless someone recognises one of the transfers I have no way of knowing which factory they came from.
I'm finding it impossible to Google them as I don't know what they would be called.

So - any ideas?
And equally importantly - Nice or nasty? Would you have bought them?
Do you think anyone else will buy them?

All comments and wild guesses gratefully received.


Linking up to Flea Market Finds and Thrift Share Monday

Beautiful Packaging

This afternoon I made a start on my big spare-room clearout. It wasn't long before I decided I'd earned a break, so I collapsed in a heap with a big cup of coffee and a Tunnock's Teacake.

For those who don't know, these little beauties consist of a soft biscuit base, topped with marshmallow, and encased in milk chocolate (there is now a dark chocolate version but much as I love dark chocolate I'm a traditionalist where these are concerned).

Coincidentally, I've just read Six Balloons comment on my previous post, and although agreeing with her that we do have much less variety in packaging nowadays, I felt the need to share this wonderful iconic box.

The caramel wafers are pretty good, too.

The lovely retro design is continued on their website.

I can't end this post without mentioning something that's really important to me as a vegetarian, - the marshmallow is veggie! No "bovine (bleeurgh) gelatine", no "pork (ugh) gelatine".

Last thrifting day until September

Now that schools have broken up for the summer my thrifting will be down to a bare minimum, and even that will cost me dearly (in terms of time and sanity, not money, fortunately). We have an arrangement whereby for every charity shop I go in, my son gets to look in some horrible, boring game shop or similar. It's only fair.

It would have been typical if the last morning I had free to check out my favourite charity shops had been disappointing, as it so often can be, but this week the thrifting fairies were kind to me.

These awesome 1970s Hostess Tableware "Black Velvet" bowls appear to be brand new. They still have the corrugated cardboard stacking inserts. £1 for 5!

As regular readers of this blog will know, I love fonts, so I was really happy to find this old book for 50p. I'm guessing it's from the 1930s/40s period, and it's really not in bad condition considering. The pages are lovely, heavy, slightly textured paper, and the spine is in good shape, though you can kind of feel that it is a bit brittle and the pages might start to come out if it's handled too much. If this does happen, almost every page would look wonderful framed, so it's a win-win situation.

I can't seem to get the dark purple of these 70s coasters to look quite right in a photo, but you get the idea. They are in good condition, and good quality, although I can't find anything similar in a Google Images search. They cost £1.50 for 6, and will be re-sold, as I can't stand purple!

Just as I was about to finish my thrifting trip I spotted two ornate, textured, narrow boxes at the bottom of a pile of ugly sheets. They were marked at 50p each, and each contains an unused Irish Linen traycloth.
They will be for re-sold, as they are not my style, but they are very good quality and the boxes and labels are lovely, too.
No idea as to the age of them, the Sundew Linens one looks 1930s style to me, the Webb's Irish Linens one seems newer, 50s or 60s, maybe?

Look at this gorgeous label! I really, really hope that the Irish Peasants were paid well for their work.
I suspect not.

Oh, by the way, the toilet door signs were 10p each. I may put them on the toilet door. I couldn't help thinking what fun could be had with them in a public building, though.

For the rest of the summer I will be excavating my spare room, re-discovering past thrift finds and listing them on ebay, on the grounds that if they have been in a box for 2 years and I haven't missed them it's time for them to go. That's the plan, anyway.


[thrifting]

New Toy

OK, I've been away for a while, so please forgive me if this is old news, but I have just discovered the most amazing new toy

You can now drag and drop any image into the Google Images search bar, and it will try to match it. I've tried it with some pretty obscure stuff, and it hasn't failed me yet.
The possibilities for identifying unknown thrifted items are particularly exciting.

I'm going out to play on the interwebs now. I may be some time.

Thrift catch-up

There hasn't been much thrifting for me in the last week due to my sneaking off somewhere lovely with Ryanair for a few days, so this is a bit of a catch-up post of a few bits I thrifted the previous week and have only just got around to photographing.

This Carlton Ware vase is a lovely thing, £2.50.

Another suitcase. This one is a beauty, and although I was very tempted to use it, I wouldn't like to subject it to all the dragging and bumping involved with airport shuttle buses and overhead lockers. £2.50.

I picked up this interesting-looking book from a 50p table and was very happy to find that it is illustrated by David Gentleman . It's also a First Edition, which is nice. Not so happy to find that a previous owner has written in it. In pen.
Why do people do this? I have NEVER written in a book, it just seems so wrong. Is it just me?

And here's where I've been. Not a hill town of Italy, but one of my favourite cities. I don't think David Gentleman ever visited Nantes, but there is certainly plenty of material there for him if he did.
I may be posting more holiday photos over the next week, apologies in advance if I start to bore you.

[thrifting]

Thrifting and Reselling Last Month

Here's a bit of a round-up of a few things I've thrifted and sold on ebay recently.

These leather and suede jeans were on a 50p Rail outside a charity shop. Not my style, but I bought them because of the lovely, soft leather, thinking I could cut them up and sew with it.
They are really well-made, though, and it seemed a shame to cut them up, so when there was a "free listing weekend" on ebay I decided to see if they'd sell.

If you're sharp-eyed, you'll notice a red "Levi's" tag. There was also a Levi tag inside, but the buttons and rivets were unbranded. I read up a bit on fake Levi's and decided that I couldn't in all honesty describe them as Levi's (although the labels checked out fine with the "fake label" guide). I sold them for £22, which was a great result, although if I'd been able to list them as genuine Levi's they would have sold for at least double that.


I don't often leave a bag/tin of buttons or other haberdashery behind in a charity shop, so over the years I've accumulated far more than I'll ever need.
I had a bit of a sort out and made up a mixed lot of vintage and modern bits and bobs, in the sort of tin that must have inspired some Cath Kidston designs. Sold for £21.


I paid £3 for these 70s Moygashel Irish Linen curtains, which were in surprisingly good condition for their age. Sold for £25.



This bakelite knitting wool holder was 40p. The acorn shape is not as common as the beehive shape, so I had an idea it would sell for a decent price. Sold for £24.00 to a collector in the US.


Even after being fleeced on ebay and Paypal fees, these items made enough for me to make an impulse booking on the Ryanair website.
More about that next week.

[thrifting]

Thrifting Round-up

They don't match my kitchen, but I couldn't leave these lovely 70s canisters in the shop at 50p each. I'll be reselling them, and hopefully someone will have some shelf-space for their glossy cheerfulness.

I bought these half-size 1933 playing cards for their lovely bird illustrations, I doubt I'll ever use them, and they'll probably end up being re-sold, but for 50p I think I just wanted to have them for a while.

Although I'm not a Pyrex collector, I was really pleased to find this Autumn 1971 brochure in with a vintage magazine I bought. I'm still a little bit mystified by the bloke on the front cover, he just doesn't seem right somehow, I would have expected a happy housewife. Having said that, he does make a refreshing change from the Stepford-type women that ad agencies seem to think spend their days getting over-excited about kitchen appliances and cleaning products.

Back cover of the Pyrex brochure, advertising a guarantee against thermal breakage until 31st December 2001 AD. Surely by then we would all be living in space-age homes with robots to bring us our food-pills? Well, if you'd asked me in 1971 that's probably what I would have predicted.

Actually, in 1971 I would have been more likely to have been knitting outfits for my Sindy dolls than worrying about the state of Pyrex in 2001 (AD).
Remember those sweet, chubby-faced, innocent dolls? Can you imagine a modern fashion doll wearing a knitted Wonder Woman suit or nurse outfit? Me neither. It would be soooo wrong.

January '69 Honey magazine...."Young, gay and get-ahead"......"Doing your own thing".....

I LOVE this cover, love the slightly spaced-out blue woman, the captions, everything. Now I can catch up with all the stuff I missed while making Sindy clothes.

All the above bits of papery stuff came in a bag for £1.

Hope everyone had a good week - linking up to Flea Market Finds.

[thrifting]