Autumn Leaves

Well hello beautiful strangers.

I have neglected you and I'm sorry! Life got in the way again and I have had nothing to say. It seemed as if September was pulled from under me before I even had a chance to enjoy it and here we are midway through October. Where has the year gone? I find myself just two short weeks away from my birthday..oh how I love my birthday! But it blows my mind to think the end of the year will not be far behind.

It's so nice to see the leaves finally changing colour in London and falling all around me. My absolute favourite time of the year. I have mostly been trying to avoid the lurgy these last few weeks while having some fun times in between. Some family time, some time back in Cheltenham, some outings, some thrifting. Let's see shall we?

I went back to my beloved Cheltenham for the day. Had tea in the best tea room with the best of friends. Strolled through much missed streets and parks. Found a new hat and started making plans to move back there in the near future..yes indeed.

I spent a weekend recently at my dads in Essex and had the pleasure of looking after my delectable niece and nephew for the day. I love them so much I could squish them!

Of course there is always time for china hunting..and always space on my blog for tea cups! I was delighted to find a basket full of saucerless tea cups in a Cheltenham charity shop. I chose my favourites and brought them home with glee. I have also found some lovely pastel plates and utility wear bowls recently.

While I am yet to see some real autumn colour, I have been loving the changing season. I just love feeling the colder breeze, the fresher air and seeing the crisper blue autumn sky. 

I am not the type to change my home around with the seasons but I do enjoy making my home more cozy as the nights roll in. That usually means the fairy lights get switched on and maybe moved around to new locations...it also means some much needed tidying and sorting. Perhaps to de-clutter my house and my mind and make room for the excitement of my birthday, Halloween, bonfire night and then...Christmas!!

And then there's these two...Buckley, the bane of my existence..a true devil cat. And my Austen..he follows me everywhere..preferring to perch up high so he's at my level...we call him shelf kitty.

And that just about brings us up to speed my dears! I am on birthday countdown..my usual crazy levels of excitement are kicking in..perhaps not just because of my birthday but because my birthday is the start of my favourite part of the year with so much to look forward to! 

If you are using Instagram please do feel free to follow me and see what I'm up to when I'm not blogging. 

Until next time,

Lexie

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A thrifters tale

Happy Sunday to you all.

It is time for my promised post about my thrifty adventures while on holiday in Cornwall. This post will be a little picture heavy, I hope that's ok!

Being, as so many of you are too, totally addicted to vintage china collecting, I make it my mission to visit every charity shop or flea market that I come across. This is especially fun when in a different town, or in my case, county.

I was lucky to be staying in a cottage just outside of a small town that had two charity shops, both of which were shops that were unique to Cornwall so offered something new to the ones you usually find. It didn't take long for me to find a way to pay them a visit and the visit paid off...

So that was that, if I didn't make it into another shop, I wouldn't mind, I had these new additions. But, no surprise, it wasn't long before I started looking up Boot sales and markets in Cornwall.

On the second weekend of the holiday we went off without the parents to visit some flea markets that I had found. It was not my lucky day, both markets were shockingly small and mostly a waste of time and petrol! I did console myself with this set from one of the markets though..

I had been looking for new (old) dinner plates so i wasn't going to leave these behind. 
After leaving the second tiny market empty handed (we're talking three stalls here) we spent some time walking around the town and stumbled upon an Oxfam shop where my disappointment was further quelled by another lovely find.

This is going to be a fruit bowl.

To make up for the disastrous flea market hunt I tried to find some boot sales to visit the following day. I found one that sounded great and a smaller back up sale a little further out. Great, I thought. Readers, it seems that something was against me because it turns out there were no boot sales, both of them non existent, just empty fields. Cue major annoyance and a mini tantrum as we headed home empty handed.

But all was not lost, the boot sale Gods were not totally against me and I spotted a sign for a Sunday boot sale in the town we were staying near. Cue a quick mood change.

So, we headed to the boot sale on Sunday morning full of hope. I saw cars, I saw boots. My luck was changing. It was soon very obvious that this was quite possibly the smallest boot sale I had ever seen with only 5 sellers. But that did not discourage me, oh no. Five sellers is better than none at all! I came away with some real treasures having only spent £2!

 Pastel green shades are my absolute favourite and I was very pleased to be able to inject this colour into my collection. And for the total price of £1, I wasn't going to resist. I also managed to find two big jars for £1 showing that when it comes to boot sales, it is not always about size.

My tale does not end there though folks. On a rather miserable Monday last week I decided to make another trip to the local town to look around the two lovely charity shops again..just in case. One of the shops, excellently named 'Sweet Charity' was having a china sale with a table full of china at unbelievable prices. I had a good rummage through the piles of plates, bowls and side plates and found myself a little three piece treat..

I found a beautifully shaped rose print plate, a powder blue side plate in a similar shape and a lovely rose print side plate to finish off. Care to guess how much this trio set me back...20p..that's right...20 pence. Didn't I pick a good day to pop back into the shop?

Needless to say, I am rather thrilled with my china finds and my collection is now full to the brim. It is definitely time for a bigger dresser!

It wasn't all about china though, I found a few other treasures to. Like a set of three vintage cake forks and then there was these little beauties..

So, thank you Cornwall. Thank you for these treasures but not for your rubbish markets and boot sales!

With love,

Lexie



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Thrifty Bliss..

Every now and again I make time to hunt through some charity shops for some thrifty finds. Since moving to London I haven't been able to do it so often (My choice of thrift shops is pretty dismal) but I still venture out every once in a while. This sunny Saturday was one of those days and as usual I found some little pieces of wonderful to brighten my home and my weekend.

Mismatched plates are my go-to thrift store item, I always find
at least one and they are always very pretty.
These little beauties are my newest addition.

Tins are another little love of mine, although thankfully I don't have many!
This one is my favourite colour, it's spotty and it says cute things
about happiness so it needed to come home with me.

This pink spotty plate is supposed to be part of one of those cute
vintage inspired cake stands but sadly the middle metal pole is missing.
This, and the smaller top plate were sitting all sad and unwanted on the shelf,
practically useless because of the silly holes in the middle of each plate where
the pole should be. I considered the pair, decided that I had no use for
holey platesno matter how spotty and walked away. Then I remembered my mothers old mantra
from my childhood. If it's no use in the house, use it in the garden! So I have, and they are
just perfect for my little garden!

And thats it for this thrifty adventure, nothing too spectacular but perfect nonetheless!