Blue and white obsession?

I hope everyone has had a happy Easter holiday.  I haven't had any finds over the holidays so I thought I'd post about some of my blue and white instead. 

Here is a wall display in my lounge, the clock in the centre is a treasured possesion - it belonged to my maternal Grandparents Clara and Jack Dunn.  It is a hundred years old and I love it!  It keeps perfect time too.
The plates are by two makers, Booths and Royal Cauldon.
(Don't forget you can enlarge any photo by clicking on it).

The little mouse on the bottom right hand side of the clock is the one that ran up it.....you know, Hickory, Dickory Dock, the mouse ran up the clock!  (He looks a happy and relaxed little soul doesn't he?)

I love the thistle design on the pendulum. 

This is one of the larger 10" 'Booths' plates on the outside of the display.

An 8" Booths plate inside bottom of display,

This is one of the Royal Cauldon saucers from top inside position.

I love the blue dragons on all of these, and that the patterns are so similar to each other though the shades of blue are slightly different.

These are from my dining room.  The outside two 10" and bottom centre are 8" all Royal Cauldon plates.

The sandwich plate on the top is a Enoch & Ralph Woods Seaforth design

Here is the display from the top of my 'hostess' trolley in the dining room.

This is one of my best ever finds....Spode, Blue Italian 6 pint soup tureen purchased last year from a charity shop for £10! (Just need to track down a ladle now) The ramekin is also the same pattern and shown in a earlier post (£1)

This was another 'find' solid silver Mappin &Webb dish for £5

I got this Coalport 'Ironbridge' dish in the same haul last year for £1.50 - we live about 17 miles from the real Ironbridge.

You can read about the Ironbridge here:

http://www.ironbridge.info/

This is the Copeland Spode (£3) Willow pattern jug I mentioned on an earlier post.

The lillies are made from sugar and were a gift from my Sister in Law, Joy who makes these beautiful sugarcraft flowers and decorates cakes as a hobby.

I hope you've enjoyed looking at some of my blue and white obsession.  I'd love it if you'd leave me a comment please - I really appreciate and enjoy reading them very much.

Thank you for joining me, best wishes.

Changes, something old - something new.

I have been busy today on a project I've been putting off for a few months until I was in the mood.  It involved using this lovely old machine to sew a few seams......

Isn't it wonderful?  I love the gold writing and patterns on it.

I've had it for about 8 years, it cost the princely sum of £5 from a car boot sale.

I do have an electric sewing machine, but I'd rather use this - it reminds me of the old treadle machine that was my Nans.  She taught me to sew with it when I was about 9 or 10.

Now, I purchased this grotty old foot stool from my favourite charity shop in November last year for £4, and stored it away until now.

Someone had started to strip off the cover and given up, the legs hadn't been tightened up properly either.

I had just the place in mind for it, and knew exactly what to cover it with. 

Here's the finished project....hope you like it -( I decided not to button it as it would blend in better).

It is to blend in with an earlier project I did for our guest bedroom....now, I should explain that my husband is not a fan of painted furniture, and to be truthful this chair was so nice I didn't want to paint it anyway.  I got it from a local antique centre earlier last year, the seat was in a dreadful state, so I completely stripped and re-upholstered it in this lovely lily fabric.  It was on sale for £45 but I negotiated it down to £30.  I already had plenty of the fabric left over from another guest room project.

I didn't fancy stripping off the paint from the stool legs, so I just cleaned them up and left them painted cream.

I think it blends together well, and is plenty big enough to rest the breakfast tray on too.

Here is the original project I did for this room, sadly I lost the 'before' photo's when my old laptop broke.

I got the linen basket from Freecycle last year, it was in a terrible state, a REALLY BATTERED Lloyd Loom one.  I stripped it back to the basic frame and recovered it in 'bendy' MDF, and made a new flat top as well.  Then I padded it all with wadding and upholstered it in the lovely lily fabric.

It is now in the same bedroom.  And here's a peek at the bed.....

I hope you like my finished projects, though I do have quite a few more that I've done in different rooms.  Please let me know what you think.  Thank you for joining me and I hope you come back soon.

Best wishes

Oh! nearly forgot.  The something old, something new title?  My wonderful husband and I celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary today! 

Cats.

I love cats with a passion, and can hardly remember a time without having one in my life.  Some years ago I was given a lovely carved wooden one as a gift and it sort of snowballed from there!  I don't actually know how many I have, but I can only think of a few rooms in the house without at least one of them sneaking in there.
I've got most of them from my usual 'suppliers' a few more from flea markets, car boot sales and antique centres, and my 'special' ones have been gifts at birthdays and Christmas - but more about them at a later date.  Some of them are tiny - an inch high or less, up to real life size.  I also have a few paintings of them.  Despite what you may think I don't buy them just because I collect them, but because I really have to like them too.

To give you a taste of some of them I've taken a few photo's.... These are some of the ones that live in the lounge.

These are to the right hand side of the chimney breast, on top of a china cabinet.

Close up of the ones on the left - see the scared little mouse!  Far left ginger and white is Babacombe Pottery the larger black one is Sylvac and the small Black is an Avon bottle, the rest are unmarked.

Centre - your eyes are not deceiving you, there is a little Sylvac terrier in there!

The Sylvac one makes another appearance, the smaller black/white and ginger/white are actually salt and pepper pots, whilst the largest ginger/white and tortie/white are also Babacombe Pottery.

and to the right - the others not already mentioned are not marked.

This signed limited edition print is a favourite of mine....

It's called 'Peeping Tom' and it makes me smile whenever I look at it  :o)

Painted by John Mold - would you be surprised to know it cost £5 from a Charity Shop?

Well that's just a drop in the ocean of the cats that share my home, and I will put some more on at a later date.  I hope you've enjoyed a peek at them, and would love to read your comments. 

Next post....will be a surprise to me too as I have nothing planned at the moment!- but I'll try and make it interesting and different.  Thank you for joining me again hope to see you back soon.

Best wishes

Do I really have all this stuff?

I was trying to choose what to photograph for this post, and it hit me - boy do I have a lot of stuff!- I should have realised this before when I come to clean it every week :o)

This is another of my collections in the dining room.  Chinese, yellow with a honeysuckle pattern pottery.  It's taken me about fifteen years to collect these pieces, even though I'm quite sure they weren't originally expensive pieces they seem to be few and far between and I do like them.  I should also say that none of them have cost more that £5, and most a lot less.

Atop the corner unit...

This is the plate hidden at the back, it is the only piece hand painted Royal Crown Derby

I've put it with these as the yellow doesn't seem to fit anywhere else in the house.

Top Shelf

Close up of the largest ginger jar

Middle shelf

Close up of my favouite dish and spoon from that shelf

Bottom Shelf.  (Have to avoid finding any more pieces - no more room!)

Note: a little cat got in on the act.

(You might notice a few ginger jars...I have quite a few but nearly all blue and white, but thats for another post.)

And now for the few charity shop purchases this week.....

A Henry Dean votive holder - I thought this was a steal at just 75p

it's really heavy and the photo doesn't do the glass justice.

Peter Rabbit Money Box in perfect condition for just £1

And finally a ceramic bathroom set (sorry, chopped the top off the soap dispenser!)

in blue and white of course, as new unused £3 the lot!  (Could you have resisted them?)

I hope you have liked some of my things, and I'd love you to leave me your comments on them.

Next time I think I'd better show you SOME of my cats, Sid my helper is the only real one we have though.

Hope you join me again soon, best wishes....

As promised...

As promised, I said I'd add some more of my collections.

Here are some of my perfume bottles

The pink one front row far left is Isle of Wight Glass

Back far left is the latest charity shop bottle, the centre back is Baccarat (Dior)

front far right is iridescent cranberry Okra glass. 

The one above is my favourite one, I just love the iridescent lustre on it!

And now my paperweights.....A love started when I was very young by my Aunts collection which I was honoured to inherit a couple of years ago.

Don't you just love the cat?  (One of my Aunts, along with the 3 directly behind it) 

The small crystal ball is balanced on top of a Medina Glass vase.  The four surrounding weights were some of my Aunts.

The egg shaped one on the right is another favourite

(photo doesn't do it justice as it has a lovely lustre)

The wooden 'stick' is a Japanese paperweight made of Ironwood

and is deceptively heavy.  Back three are all Caithness Glass.

Here we have a mix of manufacturers, Caithness, Webbs and Isle of Wight Glass.

Now the next one means a great deal to me, it's the oldest by a long way (early Victorian) and it was used daily by my Dad on his desk at work - I really treasure it.  It's made of cast Iron.

The paperweights are kept on the window sills in the hall and at the top of the stairs, chosen on pupose as the windows face north.  If you have paperweights please do not be tempted to leave them in direct sunlight as the can cause a fire by magnifying the heat from the sun. 

Maybe I should have taken a few more close-ups?  But I don't want to bore you............

I hope you've liked looking as another couple of my collections, and I'd love your comments.

Next time, well I'm not sure - I've been bargain hunting again today so I've got another few things - or I might have another tour round of some more collections......So please watch this space!

Thanks again for your company!