Random acts of kindness...

 

 

 

Aren't these a breath of fresh air 

 

I've never seen tulips so early in the year before. They were given to me by a very kind lady who I've never met, who took my place on a pre Christmas lunch  that I could not attend due to a funeral. She belongs to our local church and a mutual friend from our Home Study Group asked if she wanted to go. I love acts of kindness and remember seeing this quote.

 

"I expect to pass through life but once.

If therefore, there be any kindness I can show,

or any good thing I can do to any fellow being,

let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it,

as I shall not pass this way again"

 

William Penn (1644-1718)

 

On a similar note I must just show you these lovely old Dutch bobbin-lace bobbins that were very kindly sent to me by  Heidi from Holland. who knew I was starting a small collection and posted them off to me..

 

Such a kind thought and a lovely addition to my collection which you might remember seeing in my post here

 

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted

 

See you soon

A Yuletide message - peace on earth

Yuletide greetings to you all - don't you love this old card?  I'd forgotten that this was among my collection of old postcards which was sent to a lady in Lincolnshire in 1912. The postage stamp with King George V's head cost one halfpenny - a tad different from today which I believe now costs about 48p for a second class stamp. Anyway I thought I'd share it with you.

We had a very sharp frost last night and together with the freezing fog this morning created some very stunning pictures. After returning from the school run, I grabbed my camera and went over to our local common to capture the following photos:

This really is Peace on Earth

 



 

 



When I came home I found these in my back garden

 

Aren't they gorgeous?

It's still pretty cold out but oh so pretty - the sun is shining too and everything is glistening.

 

Hope you're all having a great week - keep warm and enjoy!

Ribbons and Bobbins

Firstly thank you so much for all your lovely comments on my last post. I can't believe that my little collection of pottery and china would bring forth so much response from you all.

On another collection note, I love buying ribbons and braiding and have accumulated quite a stash over the last six months or so, meaning to use them for wrapping gifts, sewing onto projects etc. But have I? - No. The collection is mounting but I just love the look of them and keep them in this lovely old apothecary jar.

 I have also been on the look out for some of those vintage wooden bobbins and have been scouring the internet and vintage shops. It's taken a while but I now have a little collection of those too.

Aren't they gorgeous? These came with the ribbons already on them.

 

 

These arrived yesterday which I'd ordered on the internet and wrapped some

of my existing tape around them

 

 

 

So now I have several methods of storing them

 

 

 

But then, I remembered something that was hidden away in our loft - Yes another trip for Hubby - but he was going up there anyway to get the Christmas decorations down

 

 

A bit battered but it is at least 70 years old and belonged to my late father-in-law

 

 

But - an idea was festering and after lining it with some Cath Kidston

fat quarters, turned my vintage case into yet another storage solution and am really

pleased with the effect

 

 

Well I did have another photo to show you but I've just had a pop-up message from Blogger to say OOPS YOU'VE JUST RUN OUT OF PHOTO STORAGE SPACE.

Grrrrrr  ....How frustrating is that!!!

 

Anyway once it's sorted there is something else I want to show you that came down

from the dreaded loft and all being well, I'll write a post this week.

 

Have a good week everyone

 

 

Reflection of Polperro

Last week I read a lovely post about the Cornish fishing village of Polperro posted by Sarah from Down by the Sea which you can read here. This evoked many memories for me as that is where we spent our honeymoon in 1970. Excuse the photo - no digital in those days.

Polperro has a wealth of art galleries and potteries and I still have a few pieces that we treated ourselves to. These two have been sculling around the house for years and I never knew where to put them - normally at the back of a cupboard somewhere as they went out of fashion many moons ago but I could never bring myself to throw them out. So glad I kept them.

Having found these two pieces I rummaged around in my sideboard to discover these two sixties vases made by Whitefriars - they were popular at the time because they had the fashionable 'Tree Bark' finish to them. They were wedding presents and I do still use them from time to time.

But my 'piece de resistance' was in the loft (needless to say hubby wasn't best too pleased to have to go up and search for them!). Does anyone remember or seen this coffee set on their travels? - made by J & G Meakin back in the 1960s. Again another wedding present and oh this has got me thinking now about more hidden treasures that may be lurking in the loft!!

When my daughter E saw them she was amazed and wondered whether I'd been watching Kirstie's Vintage Home on the tv. Apparently just the kind of things she searches for when designing people's homes. Methinks hubby has another loft trawl coming soon!

Do you have any old  vintage style pieces that you'd forgotten you had?

 

 

Welcome to my new follower Tangled Sweetpea - it's lovely to have you on board.

 See you soon and have a good week

What a difference a day makes.....

What a gorgeous weekend - caught up with lots of jobs in the garden and by Sunday evening we'd finished and sat down with a glass of chilled Pinot Grigio! We've begun to realise that whilst we are always working on making the garden look nice, we never actually take time to sit and admire our hard work - changes afoot methinks... 

What a difference a day makes!  Just goes to prove we should make the most of our good weather when it's here. Talk about Monday morning blues - wet, cold and windy for the early morning school run and to top it all my faithful old tumble dryer has given up the ghost. I don't use it a lot but it's always a back-up when the weather's bad.

Part 2 of my charity shop finds last week.

Two vintage lampshades that look good with the curtains in my guest room; Glass jar filled with my own baubles and beads to be used as a bookend. Dainty glass dish for pot pourri; Pretty jug; Lots of lovely lace and edgings; Sweet little jam dish

Two gorgeous bags

Red leather by Faith and black silk evening bag

Considering we've recently sorted out a lot of paraphernalia that has accumulated over the years - here's me buying more!! It's all good fun though.

Bye for now

Back on track

Welcome to my new followers Angela at Bright Star and George at Kylie's kitchen
it's good to have you on board.

I also want to say a big thankyou for all the lovely lovely comments you have all

left on my recent posts - they mean such a lot

I hope I can get back on track now as I've had a busy couple of weeks one way or another and have certainly missed keeping in touch with all my blogging friends.

I took myself off to browse around the shops today - I haven't done that for a long time. Normally it would be to do a bit of clothes shopping etc but today I steered clear and visited a few charity shops instead. Now this isn't normally my forte but I'm on the lookout for some vintagey bits and bobs and some fabric to make some bunting and as I know many of you have found some excellent pieces I thought I'd take a look. Well I have to say that I was very pleased with my purchases and thought I'd share them with you.

First there was this lovely embroidered tray cloth - which is too small for my

 large tray and as you can see too large for my small tray but hey ho!

Next I found two bone china tea cups and saucers -

I'm on a mission to collect several now after my finds a few weeks ago

This little doilly will definitely fit my round tray

I'm not sure if this is a tea or coffee pot

but it goes beautifully with the cups and some white china that I have already

Don't they go well together?

This second-hand shopping could become addictive!

I did buy some other bits but I'll leave those for another day.

Bye for now

Collecting and reflecting

Welcome to my new follower BeautifulDees 

and a big thankyou for all your lovely comments recently.

We have promised ourselves that during the summer months we are going to attack our loft hoping to dispose of the many items of household 'rubbish' that have been stored away and been forgotten in the depths of time. To my knowledge there is a large collection of our children's toys (they are now 38 and 36 years old) and clothes (why?).  Old vinyl singles, EPs and LPs (which will never be played again) as well as numerous table lamps (dated), suitcases (full of toot) and no end of boxes of stuff that we 'just couldn't throw away' including old dinner sets, saucepans, cassette players etc - you name it, we have stored it.  But no more - enough is enough and it's all going - either to the tip, the charity shop or a boot sale.

That being so, I recently came across a selection of Coronation mugs that I'd been collecting over the years and simply would never throw out. They were hidden away in a box in our garage of all places. Anyway with the Queen's forthcoming Diamond Jubilee celebrations I couldn't resist sharing them with you.

Firstly Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee mug - it does look a bit sorry for itself

but it is 115 years old after all. Victoria was crowned on 28 June 1838

I love the 'all round' depiction of Victoria's reign as both Queen and Empress

Unfortunately I don't have a mug of Edward Vll's Coronation - (yet!)

Next came the Coronation of  King George V and his Queen Mary of Teck

who were crowned on 22 June 1911

Then came the 'King that never was' Edward Vlll

whose Coronation should have been in May 1937,  but of course his abdication

 meant that he was never crowned and he subsequently married Wallis Simpson.

Edward's brother George Vl stepped in and was crowned on 12 May 1937

alongside his Queen - Elizabeth Bowes Lyon

Finally, last but not least our own Queen Elizabeth

who came to the throne 60 years ago and whose

 Coronation took place on 2nd June 1953

(This was my mug given to me as a VERY young child!!)

 

We are planning to go to London to see the Jubilee Flotilla on the Thames and then indulge in a few family barbecues over that weekend. What will you be doing to celebrate?