Step back in time..

Hello readers.

I had myself a little weekend getaway in Norfolk over the last few days, courtesy of some lovely friends. I had never been to Norfolk before and was very excited to see a new corner of the country and some new countryside. There will be a post to share some photos and the best parts of my adventure but for now I simply had to tell you about my visit to Sheringham..because I simply can't wait to share. Patience isn't my strong point.

Having never been to Norfolk, I had never been to Sheringham but on Sunday we found ourselves in the quaint little town, famed for its steam train and vintage station. Well, of all the days to pay the town a visit, we picked a good one. We landed right in the middle of the 1940's, well in the form of a forties weekend and boy was it a sight to behold.

Having never seen quite so many 1940's enthusiasts in one small area I was really quite taken by the effect and for a second or two I let myself get swept away and imagined I was in the 40's too..because my mind works like that, of course, someone carrying a great big camera would soon walk by and ruin the entire effect..(I'm ignoring the fact that I was one of those people with a big old camera). As we walked around the town and through the crowds I found myself feeling dull, modern and severely under dressed. They were everywhere, servicemen from every country, nurses, ladies, gentlemen old and very very young. Amazing really.

Well..see for yourself..

I loved these two, they looked so refined and
honestly looked like they had strolled right out
of the forties. 

I think I spent too much time looking at these two!

I didn't really get to look around the station itself, it was packed with people which made photo taking quite interesting. I just had to look over the fence from the outside like a commoner but it was wonderful all the same.

As we walked down the street a procession of service men and women passed us as all the shops played 40's wartime music..and then there was the window displays, all fitting in with the forties theme. What a great time to visit a place, that's all I can say.

Having spent the morning at a 1950's costume and textile fair I was feeling all kinds of nostalgic as you can imagine.

What an experience.

In other less interesting news, I made my first sale in my shop today!! Have you stopped by yet? Better have a look at my china before I decide I can't part with it!

With love,

Lexie


♥ Instagram ♥ Pinterest ♥

Teacups for sale

Good evening all,

Feast your eyes on these beauties for a moment:

Are you in love as much as I am. These beautiful specimens of vintage china lovliness are now for sale in my shop. Head on over and if you love them enough to keep them forever then make sure you use the discount code 'WONDERFUL' when you check out to get 10% off.

Happy Tuesday!

Lexie

♥ Instagram ♥ Pinterest ♥

A beginners guide to bootsaleing

Happy Saturday petals and a happy 3 day weekend to you as well.

At this moment in time I am pretty tired. I have seen every minute of every hour since 5am this morning which is not something I can usually say.

Today was boot sale day, which as I mentioned previously, I have been busily preparing for! Before packing up the car last night with all my prettiest props, my second hand tat and my hand made pretties, I was in two minds about whether or not to bother. After a lot of debating, do we, don't we, will we, won't we? I decided to wait and see what the weather was like this morning.

Well at 5am this morning there was not a drop of rain in the sky so off I went with my bestie in tow (who by the way, is an absolute star for helping me).

Now, I had only been to this boot sale once before and in all honesty I had forgotten what it was like. I just remembered that it was hard standing and had lots of antique stalls. Well, this may have been a big error because the sale did not go according to plan, sadly.

We were squeezed into a small area of the grounds due to limited space, and from the very second we started setting up (at 6.30) we were surrounded by forceful dealers, trying to get a look into the car and asking for jewellry and mobile phones. As I spread my polka dot table cloth over my table and told another dealer "no" for the thousandth time I did wonder how they could possibly think I would be selling mobile phones with the sheer amount of polka dots and flowers in the car.

Nevertheless, we got everything set up and it looked really very nice actually. What do you think?

However, it didn't take long to realise that we were a bit out of  place surrounded by jumble and junk thrown over wall paper tables. Boy did I feel like a lemon with all my bunting and tea cups!

Time passed and the real pro boot salers came around first, as the bitter cold began to sink into our bones I struggled to pick up the change between my numb fingers for the few people that were buying my dresses and old clothes. My beautiful trunk, with it's lovely makeover, was full of 50p clothing and was doing a splendid job of attracting lots of people, many of which tried to buy the trunk itself from me (definitely not for sale). But even though I had to fight to stop people from trying to buy my cake stand (it was display only) it soon became apparent that I wasn't going to have a very successful boot sale. By about 8am I was giving up, despite my friend reminding me that most people weren't even out of bed yet.

More time passed and I did manage to sell more bits, not as much of my hand made stuff as I would have liked but a lot of my second hand tat that I didn't want to take back home with me. But....then came the rain! Now we were cold and getting wet! We persevered, and it is good that we did because there were a large amount of panic buys from people desperate to get bargain clothes before we started packing up but depressingly, nobody wanted my vintage china, or my bunting or my broaches or hanging hearts. I was really quite disheartened by this but it was at this point, as I stood clutching two umbrellas over my stock, my whole body trembling from the cold, that I realised my error. I was in a concrete landscape, surrounded by steel buildings and trucks..much more shabby than chic and therefore the wrong environment by a long shot. I dawned on me that this kind of boot sale, quite stark and rough around the edges, was completely the wrong place to be selling this kind of stock. People want bargains at bootsales, not crafty lovely bits, or vintage china trios.

I was hoping to get a visit from a few more china loving, Cath K fans but alas, there were but a few..where were you all huh? I was visited by various lovely ladies, but most were being tugged along by their other halves and despite fawning over my pretty china they were briskly reminded that they had too many teacups/too much bunting etc etc...this made me both disappointed and also a little bit glad that I am single!

In all honesty, it wasn't a complete bust, my clothes made me lots of money and I came home with much less than I left with. And, if I had a pound for every time someone stopped to tell me how pretty my stall was then I would have had a very full money box. I may not have been rich in profit, but I was definitely rich in complements and that was just lovely. Hearing people from all walks of life tell me that my trunk looked lovely, that I had made it over superbly and that I had "the prettiest stall in the whole boot sale" was just wonderful because I had put a lot of thought into the whole thing even if it was a bit wasted in the end, so next time I am going to look for a more appropriate setting and put my stall dressing skills to good use again.

After packing everything away we went for a quick stroll around the damp remains of the sale and I managed to bag myself a bargainous tea set at just £3, from the most wonderful antique seller, he was a real sweetheart and he admitted that he has a problem pricing things properly (his wife gets very angry at him). I told him I thought his pricing skills were excellent!!. He definitely made my day.

The set also consists of 4 other cups and saucers.

So that's my boot sale tale. Definitely not a guide to be followed! Although, I don't have too many regrets about it.

Austen approves of the latest tea set addition.

In other news, me and my camera are getting on very well. Our rendezvous has been fleeting so far but I am already in love with it...most ardently! Ours will be a deep and lasting love, I just know it! And it definitely won't tell me I can't have more china! Win!

Enough about me, how are you?

Lots of love,

Lexie x x x


♥ Twitter ♥ Pinterest ♥

Tea set of the week...and bunting!

Well my unexpected weekend at home has been rather productive. Yesterday I posted about my triumphant completion of operation vintage trunk makeover. I also mentioned that I planned to make lots of loveliness in preparation for my stall at my local boot sale in a few weeks. And that, my dears, is what I am here to share with you today..well that and a rather beautiful tea set...I know how much you love them!

First things first, this tea set was part of a job lot of odd china that I found on Ebay for an incredible price. My plan is to sell it all on. Sadly, when I received the package full of china wonderfulness...the cup was missing its saucer and plate. A week or so later and the nice Ebayer seller had sent me the missing pieces and the matching sugar bowl as a gesture. Needless to say I won't be selling this set! It's far too lovely and definitely deserving of the 'Tea set of the week' accolade. Do you like it..?

And so, on to my lovely Sunday creations..

I made mini bunting, not so mini bunting and I made over an old cd storage box to sell on. It really was the most hideously garish polka dot design and I was planning to sell it anyway. I just thought it needed beautifying a little first. I painted it in a pale blue colour and covered the top with some sample rose print wallpaper that I got free from an online wallpaper website. (try it if you want to stock up on beautiful papers). The box isn't finished, I need to glue down the edges of the paper once the paint is completely dry.

As for the not so mini bunting, it was my first attempt at making traditional bunting and it was much easier than I thought.

I am a little bit in love with the colour and fabric combination and I am loathed to part with it..but I will..and I'll just have to make some for myself won't I.

I hope you have all had a nice weekend..don't they go quickly!

Lots of love,

Lexie

♥ Twitter ♥ Pinterest ♥

A project for Lexie

Hello petals.

Is anyone else as confused about what day it is as I am? Totally lost!

So I have set myself a little project, it doesn't take much for me to get carried away..I just need to see one little picture and the cogs get turning, the creativity stirs and an idea gets under my skin. I sense that some of you can relate!

I have a chest..

It has seen three different coats of paint and now it sits prettily in my living room adorned in nick nacks. Now, for 6 months it has sat in the same spot and as far as I knew...it has been locked, impossible to open. I decided last week that I wanted to try and get it open! Well, would you believe after trying to research the type of lock and how to pick it..all it took was some pressure. It wasn't locked..it's just old. So I got it open and carefully peeked inside. The inside is in a terrible state, the paper is all crispy and needs removing but it really is a lovely chest. I'll peel off the paper, I thought, and I'll paint the inside. Perfect. Easy...No.

So just when I think I've got myself a little plan, along comes Pinterest with all it's pretty pictures and rose tinted loveliness to tempt me and of course, I spotted something, a better something. A much more complicated refurbishment for my chest. Sigh, My mind runs away with my heart and suddenly I'm convinced before I've even had a chance to protest.

I have decided to wallpaper the inside of my chest. Why? Because in my mind it will looks just like this..

Image courtesy of My Vintage Party

Complete with the lovely lace trim. Sadly I couldn't find a blue paper as lovely as this one but I have settled on a pretty Cath Kidston paper instead (Got to love Ebay).

So wish me luck on my project, and do please share an advice you have if you have done something similar.

With love,

Lexie


♥ Twitter ♥ Pinterest ♥

Ode to mismatched china..

Oh my Gosh you guys, I'm giddier than a school girl today!

First of all Happy Easter sweet peas, I hope you're having a fabulous bank holiday weekend! I am banned from any chocolate or hot cross bun type substance so not feeling very Easter like. Second of all, I need to tell you the story of my weekend so far.

I popped on over to Wales yesterday to see my mummy who has been poorly of late. One of my mums most favourite things is boot sale-ing so off we went to one of mum's local Saturday Sales. "I'll just keep an eye out for some china" I thought, I didn't have much more than pennies in my purse and it wasn't a very big boot sale at all. Well, I was in for a shock readers because looky what I found..

Most of these beauties came from the very first stall I visited. Being so used to London prices where anything remotely 'Vintage' or 'shabby chic' is marked up beyond all reason, I expected these to be pretty pricey..I was wrong readers, I was wrong.

Austen likes them too. (The cake stand was an Ebay bargain and arrived in the post
yesterday so it also needs some attention)

The yellow tea set consists of 2 matching trios and a matching jug, it cost me £1. The mini tea cup and saucer cost me 50p and the two gorgeous pastel yellow plates were 10p each...TEN PENCE! And the other two jugs were 50p each. Now that's my kind of pricing.

 Later I found a stall selling dozens and dozens of mismatched plates, there were rows and rows of them all over the floor. I spied the pretty rose bud plates instantly and started counting my change...I ended up getting these five plates for £2! I'd be lucky to get one for that price anywhere else!

So, that's a total boot sale spend of £4.70.....what a steal!  It turns out that if you ever need bargain china pieces, head to my beloved homeland of Wales!! Now do you understand my giddiness? Well it doesn't end there...

Later, back at the house surrounded by my new treasures, my step dad casually says to me "I have a box full of old china you can have"...do you think I hesitated? The box content was mostly a no no but look what treasures I managed to unearth amongst the rejects..

All this and a 6 piece tea cup set as well.


Now this all works out quite well for me, as you can imagine, I don't have room for all these treasures but..I decided a little while ago to do a boot sale in a few weeks time, I have boxes of clothes and accessories in my loft that need to get gone so a boot sale (and some charity shop donating) seemed the best way. But, I don't just want to sell clothes and second hand nick nacks at my boot sale, oh no! I want to sell some of my handmade bits and I want to sell some of my extra mismatched china pieces. I have it all envisioned, I know how I will set it all up and what props I will use to make a truly inviting (and profitable) stall...and now I have even more mismatched china to sell to the deserving public. It will be impossible for me to part with some of these pieces but most of it will be going to someone else's loving home, although I did take plenty of pictures..

These plates are all definitely staying with me...look at those
gorgeous pastel yellow ones! 

So between the boot sale bargains, lovely freebies, the arrival of various ebay bargain china that I also brought to sell on and the fact that i don't have to go to work tomorrow, it has been a lovely, china filled, weekend . Although, the best bit by far was the mummy cuddles. Giddiness overdrive!



Lots of giddy love and china tea cups to you all,

Lexie

x



♥ Twitter ♥ Pinterest ♥

Rosey Tea

Two posts in one day, you're positively privileged dear readers.

I just had to come and tell you about one of my purchases from the Country Living fair last weekend. Are you a fan of fruity tea? Generally I would say no but so beguiled was I by one of the concoctions that I tasted last weekend that I simply had to bring it home. The tea that I speak of is Rose Garden Tea made by The Lawn  When I tried it last weekend it had been turned into a syrup and served with Champagne..it was bliss in a shot glass, no lie!

I took a little snappy snap of my pretty rose tea in a pretty rose tea cup, what better way to serve it?

Of course, you should strain it before drinking but just how pretty do those little rose buds look? Once strained you are left with a delightfully pink beverage that tastes heavenly with honey. I see it being a summer staple on all the (healthy) picnics I plan to have.

I have also discovered that the tea remnants make the most scrummy smelling pot pourri once dried, a subtle rosey, tea fragrance that looks cute to boot. Perfect. No one likes waste do they and it's far too lovely to be thrown away anyway.

Until next time my dears,

Lexie


♥ Twitter ♥ Pinterest ♥

All the fun of the fair..

Happy Saturday dear readers,

Are you enjoying the sunshine? I'm slightly worried that this might be the closest we get to a summer! You know what England is like!!

So the sun is shining for now atleast, that hour we have got so used to is about to be snatched away and the evenings will be lighter for longer..we've done it, another winter gone another summer to come. And what a blissful time of year this really is. I am so excited to see my garden coming back to life and I can't wait to fill it with colour!

It's not just the sunshine that put a 'Spring' in my step today (pun intended). It was time for me to visit the Country Living Spring Fair. It was my debut visit and I have to say I will be returning every year forever and ever. It was a truly wonderful day out, full of the delights of spring. Heaven in a business design centre, to put it bluntly. So many beautiful stall, and some lovely vintage bits and pieces it was like looking at all my favourite Pinterest photos in three dimensions. And I did manage to pick up a few treasures of my own too. I loved the pastel colours, the food stalls, the great variety and the atmosphere. Just lovely.

So how about some pictures my dears?

The main floor (there are three floors in total)

Beautiful dried flower bouquets

Beautiful Brocante, I wish I remembered which stall
this was.

Exquisite wreaths

I came home with some treasures, including a box of
delights from Simply Vintage Designs (my favourite stall).
I am definitely keeping that box!

My beautiful mis matched vintage china from Simply Vintage and some
artificial posies. Simply Vintage was the first stall I visited and definitely
the best!

I had to buy a dried flower bouquet!

I also managed to pick up some lovely buttons (and another peek at the
simply vintage plate)

I was very pleased with my china. Simply Vintage Designs definitely stood out for me, it was the first stall I stopped at and everything else failed to live up to it in terms of its lay out and more importantly, price. There were a lot of beautiful vintage stalls and I could have spent a lot of money, but Simply Vintage had the perfect mix of bargain and beauty! Just how I like it. Plus the ladies were simply lovely! They have their own blog so do pop along and have a look.

Now I need to rest my tired feets!

With love,

Lexie

x