Catch-up, chickens, carpet bowls and bargains.....

Here I am again....at last :o)  I hope that life is FINALLY back on the right track again now (fingers crossed).  From the 1st of June until 1st July I have attended the Doctors or Hospital 16 times with either my Husband, Mom or myself :o(  So I'm so glad to be blogging again :o)

I've had plenty of time to think what to feature (lol) and I've decided to show you my carpet bowls, a collection started by my Daughter buying me some as a gift.

I got the lovely old basket last week for £2 from my usual charity shop - before that they were in various dishes about the conservatory..

As you may guess a large majority of them are blue and white!  None are old or antique, but I love them anyway :o)  I'm pretty sure that they were around in Victorian times and really used for indoor 'Carpet Bowls'  The only real antique ones I've seen were way out of my pocket though.  I suppose I've made this collection over about the last five or six years.

Then, I had a look around and remembered all of those great Roosters that our American cousins love so much; and realised that I'd got a few too :o)  With the exception of the Rooster they are all in the kitchen...

(sorry, a little blurred)

The four large ones are on top of my wall cupboards.

The smaller brown one is Portmerion Oven to Tableware, a gift from my Sister in Law.

The blue glass one was purchased many years ago from a shop in Camelford when we stopped off on the way to a Cornish holiday.

The White one was a parting gift from my best friend when she left for Australia about 19 years ago.  It was kept very busy on her kitchen surface filled with eggs as she made the most astonishing birthday cakes.  (Thanks Lyn - still miss you)

The old brown one is a family piece that I've known all my life, first at my Nan's and after she died it lived with us at home.  Mom gave it to me just after we married and set up home, I too used it for my eggs for some years but moved it up to the wall cupboards to keep it safe.  The smaller ones are kept on a window sill with my cobalt glass

Sadly I broke the tiny ones' base when cleaning one day....still on the look out for a replacement ;o)

Here's the 'flock' together!

I LOVE the rooster!  I found him in a charity shop a couple of years ago, and he only cost a couple of pounds.  He stands about 18 inches high.

A close up of my 'family' chook!  Lovely old amber glass - I suspect it is a Victorian original.  It has a few chips on the base...but hey I'm a bit battered too and I'm not nearly as old!

And my lovely white chook.

This was found yesterday, just thought it's great. (50p) 

(Sorry Sandy - just couldn't part with it!)

Hey ducky!  I found this today in the charity shop.  He's about 16 inches long and 13 high.  It took my eye and cost £4.  I love (real) ducks too, but this one is my first...Oh no! Not another collection.

The damask fabric I've used as the background was purchased from a charity shop in Market Drayton earlier this week - there's about 6 yards of 60inch width upholstery weight with the price tag of £2, yes this REALLY was a bargain.  (I may pass it on to my daughter who makes a lot of costumes) .

Here's a few of the things that I've got over the weeks that I haven't been posting...still had my 'therapy time' in the charity shops!  (Will add a few more to my next post).

A silk orchid plant in a heavy urn - very life like for £1.99.

I have quite a few real orchids, but I find that they are only happy in our guest room and study.  I can put this one anywhere I fancy :o)

Just couldn't leave this 'bird cage' behind!  Would you?  the price tag was £1.99.  It stands about 18 inches high.  Here's what I did with it......

Okay, I own up to a weird sense of humour!  Thought feathers and a cat was a little wacky LOL!

(I did think of sticking a few little feathers around the cats mouth, but decided against it.....)

Okay, a little strange and random I know - a rabbit head.  It looks like it was probably a lid from a tea pot.  I went on another trip to Dagfields about a month ago and found it there, who knows why but I liked it!  £2  http://www.dagfields.co.uk/
It'll come in with the Easter bunnies next year.

A couple of gold glass beaded  candle shades I got on Thursday from a Stafford charity shop.  They were complete with the candle holders (but I don't like them) a fortune at 90p the pair!

A wasp trap - just needs a big bung for the top.  (My husband has a bad reaction to wasp stings, so I thought this was sensible).  Another Market Drayton bargain £2.

Here we have almost a full set of Elkintons silver plate flatware - someone beat me to the teaspoons and for some reason there's only 5 each of the dinner and desert forks.  After a quick clean by soaking them on a sheet of aluminium foil with washing soda crystals sprinkled on and boiling water added the chemocal reaction removes all the tarnish - NO RUBBING!  I got them today for a total cost of £11.  Still a bargain I thought though.

I can see these making an appearance at our next dinner party!  (Sometime this month)

Lovely paper lanterns (x5) all unused and waiting for me!  £3.50  3 x blue and 2 x white ones.

Now, this is a great extravagance for me.  A cream with gold pin stripes Wedgwood table lamp with a duck egg blue shade.  £25 (!)  I don't even know where I'm going to use it yet - just had to have it though.  Classy eh?

And Finally!  Something I didn't find - My Mom did.  The most FANTASTIC recycling I've ever seen :o) An old fashioned copper washing 'posher' made into a table lamp - how inventive..I just had to rewire it and find a shade. (Lamp, £8 from a local antique shop, shade £2.50 from my Market Drayton haul).

I hope you've enjoyed this extra long post as I've tried to 'catch-up' a little with you all.  Thank you for sticking with me, I'll try to keep up with the blog again.  Please leave your comments - I read and appreciate every single one of them.  Oh! Welcome to the new followers - great to meet you :o)

Very best wishes to you all.

P.S.  Happy 4th July to all American readers :o)

A bit off normal topics!

Finally, a post from me!

Today I made some Blackcurrent Jelly with some of last years frozen harvest.

Blackcurrent bushes evoke happy memories of childhood.   Nan grew blackcurrents in her garden.  I used to help with the harvest and the smell of the bushes transport me back, along with the purple stains on your fingers as you pick them.  The next day I can clearly recall home made bread slathered with real butter and delicious home made blackcurrent jelly. 

When we celebrated our Silver wedding anniversary my Aunt and Uncle gave us some money which we used to buy plants and a sun dial for the garden.  I just HAD to have a blackcurrent bush as one of the plants, as the memories of childhood were still strong.

Last year I had a bumper harvest saved from the blackbirds, so as I picked them I froze them with the intent of making jam or jelly.  As usual life took over and I just never got around to making it until I was prompted  today.

I placed 4Lbs of fruit in my maslin pan along with 3 pints of water and stewed them until they turned to pulp.  (I added the skin and core from an apple in case the pectil level was lowered as they had been frozen). I forgot to take a photo of this though :o(
Then I carefully poured the pulp and juice into my jelly bag and left it to drip through for about 4 hours.

I was left with a rich ruby red juice.

I measured this and added 1Lb of warmed sugar per pint of liquid, and heated it through stirring until the sugar had disolved.  Then turned up the heat until it reached the 'JAM' mark on my sugar thermometer.

Meantime, I sterilised my clean jars by pouring boiling water into them, leaving for about 10 seconds, draining the water and upturning them onto clean kitchen paper.  Then when the jam was nearly ready I put the jars into the oven at 160deg C to dry completely.  When the jam got to temperature I turned off the heat, removed the 'scum' from the top and left it to cool slightly,

 then I opened the oven door and turned off the heat for about 10 minutes to allow the jars to cool enough to handle.

Then I carefully filled my jam jars, added the waxed paper and covers and now they are cooling.  Waiting for me to slather some bread with real butter and home made jelly again!

I used two *Kilner jars, so I left off the waxed paper disks and sealed them as soon as they were full.  My only concern is with these two jars as there is condensation on the lids.

I'll be back soon with a normal topic post, but I was so pleased I'd made this jelly I just had to share it with you!

Thank you for joining me here again, I do appreciate your visits and comments.

Best wishes

* the Kilner jars were 50p each from the charity shop last week, and I got new seals cheaply from ebay :o)

Just to let you know...

I haven't forgotten you all.  Life has kinda grabbed me by the throat over the last few weeks, but happily things are starting to get back to normal :o)  So I thought I'd better let you know that 'normal service' will be resumed very soon.

Best wishes

Just a peek!

I made my usual visit to the charity shop on Saturday and got a couple of things.

There was a strange crystal 'thing' joined together with stiff wire - NOT a necklace but still pretty!  As it was only £1 I though why not?  I could always use the crystal on projects.  However when I sat and thought about it why not add it to a lampshade.....

Okay, I'll NEVER make a good photographer, but I've put it on a large Standard lamp shade, I think it's added a 'little' more.....

Then of course there was this plate, did I mention I like plates?  LOL!

£2 for a toile plate, it just HAD to be mine ;-)

and now a closer look.

I know it's modern, but it's toile!

So after no thought whatsoever I KNEW where it was going....

So now I'll see it every morning when I awake as this is the view I see when I look at the foot of the bed.  The dressing table was my maternal Grandparents - remember my clock?   The dressing table holds my perfume bottles collection and my favourite ginger jar with dragons on it.  The (partially shown)  door to the right is part of my wardrobe. (There is another on on the opposite side out of shot that is my husbands)  We built them in about four years ago.  The small Wegewood plates on the left are some I inherited from my Mother in Law (They are in a straight line, but somehow the photo has made them look slightly 'off'?) and the gold shelf below them was a TK Maxx bargain I got recently for £5.  Reflected in the mirror is a part of a painted panel on the wall above the head of the bed, showing one of a pair of wall mounted triple candle sconces and a painting that is in the centre of them.

When I awake and look up I see a heavenly blue sky......

This is my masterpiece!  I painted the ceiling with Cirrus clouds, (my favourite skys) when I redecorated our bedroom at the same time we built in the wardrobes.  The light fitting I found on Ebay and added the crystal drops, from memory I think it was about £35, which I considered a bargain.

This is the view I have when I lie in bed.  (Oooh, I bet you're surprised at all the blue and white on the window sill!)  These two houses and smaller detatched garage in the centre, are a SORE POINT; they were not there when we moved in 32 years ago.  We had beautiful open views of the fields (which are just the other side of the tall trees in the background)  but a local councillor owned this long strip of land and he applied for planning permission to build three bungalows. We (ourselves and neighbours) all attended the planning meetings and gave our strong objections, however we were over ruled at each turn and planning permission was eventually passed.  Once the initial permission was given the plans were altered a total of three times over about the following five or six years, the result was these buildings.  The one on the right hand side is 30 feet from the front wall of our house (Minimum building distance at the time)  }:-(  

But Hey, we still only have a two minute walk from our door, over a bridge and then we are into open farmland and beautiful countryside.

Hope you have enjoyed a peek at parts of my bedroom, and even though our rooms are not small by UK standards, oh how I wish we had rooms the size of our American cousins!  Don't forget to enlarge the photo's just click on them.  Please leave me your thoughts so that I know you've visited - and of course I love to read them.

 :o)

Oh!  I must just thank the lovely folk who've joined in as followers, when I started this blog I wondered if anyone would even bother to have a look around, so again a great big sincere THANK YOU. 

Best wishes to all

Some more bargains!

I've had a better haul over the last ten days or so, and mostly from my favourite local charity shop.  Maybe there's something that would have appealed to you too?  I'd settle down with a cuppa for this post as there's quite a few things LOL!

Firstly, I love cookery books and have a collection of over 250 that was started in my early teens, and when the charity shops charge as little as £1 each who else can resist?  They are much cheaper than a magazine!

I found both of these on the same visit.  Good old Rick Stein and the ultra posh Harrods one....both have some great recipes.

If you have read some of my earlier posts you will know that I collect some of the Poole Pottery range. This lovely pale spring green toast rack was just 75pence! I could hardly believe it, I've never seen one like it before - but it has the same satin like glaze and is very tactile.

Now, I can hardly believe that I bought this lidded jar myself, but after reading some of the lovely blogs from 'Over the pond' I realise just how useful they are when filled with favourite things or used in 'vingnettes'.....I'd really like a glass cloche or two, but sadly they are not the sort of thing that turns up in the UK without paying an extortionate amount for them off ebay.  (Something I'm just not in the habit of doing!)  Oh, I nearly forgot it was only 75 pence.

Here I found an 'architectural wall plaque' which quite took my fancy and will look a treat in our guest room, and here's the best....it was only £1.50.

This is one of my favourite pieces from this 'haul'.  A beautiful lead crystal candle stick, it's really heavy and stands about 14 inches tall.  Sadly my photographic skills do not do it justice.  It has stunning refraction when the sunlight or candlelight is bouncing off it, and can you believe it was only £2.75.  Why would anyone send it off to a charity shop?

Here I found a cute set of boxed and unused wine glass markers made by 'Pier' for just a £1.  (Click on any of  the photos to get a better look).

These are a couple of old pie funnels that caught my eye, they were 75 pence each.  I wonder how many wonderful home made pies they've had a supporting roll in over the years.  (Yes, I know I collect some pretty strange things, but after all these are quite easy to store and are a little different...Like me?)

These are two lovely large damask dinner napkins that cost 50p for the pair.  They were from a different shop - and when I took them to the counter to pay the assistant told me there had been a set of six which they had separated into pairs and another customer had purchased the other four!  I must admit to feeling more than a little disappointed with this news.  I couldn't understand why anyone would only have bought four at that price, and frustrated that I hadn't got there earlier and snapped up the six of them.  Oh well, you win some, you loose some :o(

Some more blue glass for the collection.  The candlesticks are just about 3 inches high and then there's the pair of cute elephants, total cost for all four pieces was £1.25.  Would you have resisted?

Now what about these then?

Another favourite :o)  A set of six, perfect Willow Pattern, Burleigh transfer ware dinner plates.  Now believe me I really don't NEED anymore dinner plates, but how could I resist these as they are such an unusual shape and cost the princely sum of £3.50 for the lot!  It beginning to look like when I redecorate the dining room this year I'm putting up a plate shelf around the top of the walls to show off some more plates!

Now, you know I love dragons?  I found a nest of them complete with their boxes (Myth & Magic ones) all priced at £2.50 each.  So okay, I went a little overboard with these and got four of them!

(Sorry, the a couple of them are a little out of focus).  They are all about 3 inches high and very detailed.  I would imagine they'd have cost £30 plus each originally.

This is a lovely old Shelley china jelly mould I got today, (now didn't you just know I'd have some old jelly moulds!) along with....

This lovely large Masons 'Vista' pattern bowl. (I've just checked the backstamp - it's for 1940's)  It measures about 12 inches across  The first ever piece of red transfer ware I've ever bought! (Though I think I may have a plan for this dish...)  The two lovely pieces cost a total of £3. Yes, I can hardly believe it myself!

(Post script about this Masons Dish - I've just gone to put it away and it has a chip on one of the corners (top left hand side - just visible on photo)...sob!  That'll teach me to give them the 'tap test' and make sure it 'rings' before buying..)

And finally......

Now if you've read my profile you know I admit to liking the weird and wacky.  Well I really do like Martin Brothers birds - http://www.ceramicstoday.com/potw/martin_bros.htm but I'm afraid they would be way out of my price range. 

 So when I found this little bird I'm afraid I took a fancy to it!  Kinda reminded me of the Martin Brothers ones..

And all for £1!  Well it makes me smile anyway.

Thank you so much for visiting me, and sticking with this rather long post!  I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoy reading your comments :o)  Please leave a comment, then I know you've visited here, and you are more than welcome to join in as a follower, the more the merrier you know.

My very best wishes to you all.