Skip to main content

It's always worth rummaging around ...

Sometimes you mooch around a charity shop and find nothing of interest.  Just the usual racks of cast-off Primark and Tesco brand clothing, endless DVDs of films you'd never want to watch, plus books ghost written on behalf of celebrities you've never heard of.  Then again, sometimes you strike lucky.  

Today's rummage was very productive.  I found this battered but still handsome vintage confectionery tin.  Apparently the Squirrel Confectionery Company are a Stockport based business, and the picture on the tin's lid is a reproduction from Sir Edwin Landseer's painting 'A Piper and a Pair of Nutcrackers'.  The tin was a mere £2.99.  I spent another 99p on this handy basket in turquoise and pink.  Always useful to have a basket for storing reels of thread or any number of odds & ends.  

I also paid 99p for a pack of  'Thank You' stationery, complete with pink envelopes.  I like the seventies feel to the floral design on the paper.  A quid bought me two packs of 10 white cards with a cut-out heart design.  Not sure what I'll do with these, but I'll find a use.  Added to my haul were a couple of applecore die cuts by Debbie Shore, the pack never having been opened, and finally - ta dah! - these fab cards in cream coloured card. 

I think they're for tables at fancy events, to show the table number so you can find your seat.  I love the stylish grey numbering, and want to use them somehow for my October Make a Book challenge.  Probably joined in a long line to make a concertina book.  I'm waiting for an eBay order to arrive, lettering stencils, so these cards could be printed with an alphabet theme.  Perhaps in black & white only.  

Well, apart from my charity shop delving I also nipped into Lidl for groceries, and besides a calorific white chocolate cookie I snaffled these rolls of washi tape.  

Couldn't resist 'em, just too pretty.  Especially the kitties.  Don't you agree?  

Comments

  1. Hello Valerie! Thank you so much for leaving a comment on my blog as it's led me to find yours!
    You're spot on with the usual charity shop fare, the poor quality high street fashion, the celebrity biographies and the odd DVDs and that's what finding an absolute gem all the more exciting, isn't it? I absolutely love your squirrel tin and I'd have snaffled that pretty basket, too. Those die cuts have a very deco feel to them and were too good to miss.
    I try to avoid the middle of Lidl middle but I may have to make an exception for that cat tape! x

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fabric bowls & electrical cables ...

To add to my seemingly never ending list of works-in-progress, I've started making a fabric bowl.  Or should I call it a fabric basket?  I'm not sure.  Anyway, I've made the odd bowl or two before, like this blue & white one that I keep cotton perle in.   I decided to use upholstery material, which has both advantages & disadvantages.  On the good side, it has a certain stiffness, which helps the bowl stay in shape.  On the irritating side, the kind of material I'm using frays like mad, and I'm forever picking up threads off the carpet.  The bowl's a simple construction, and I've used a circle of cardboard covered with brown felt for the base.   It'll look much better when I've embroidered and stitched into it.  I've made a start on that, and appliqued on a rectangle of plum coloured velvet for extra interest. When not stitching, I've been catching up on my reading.  I finished C J Sansom's 'Dark Fire'.   Real...

Threads of Freedom and charity shop bargains

  It's Saturday afternoon, and I haven't done half the things I'd meant to.  Partly because I spent most of this morning messing about with paints, stencils and the gell plate.  Never mind, everything on today's 'To Do' list will join tomorrow's 'To Do' list ... it's hardly life or death if I don't haul the hoover around the room or pull up weeds in the front garden.   I thought I'd show you what I made on Wednesday.  I'd gone to my monthly StitchArt group, and this time we did something a little different.  There's a project called 'Threads of Freedom' which is working with various community groups across the city.  It's about creating little stitched pieces, some of which will be included in a textile panel to go on display at Leeds art gallery.  There was lots of fabric we could choose from to sew with, and I picked this vintage tray cloth with the roses embroidery.   My own embroidery's not a patch on those flo...

Another fabric bowl & what's starting to look like a craft room ...

  Hello on what's been a beautiful autumn day.  Bright blue clear sky, a chilly start but warming up in the afternoon.  I've been on a long walk around a local nature reserve, not wanting to stay inside when it's so lovely outdoors.   In the last week or so, I've been finishing this fabric bowl, and have started making another.   But mainly I've been having a bit of a change-around in my house.  I've hauled furniture from one room to another, clutter-cleared cupboards and bagged up things for the charity shop, and generally hoovered and cleaned all those dusty corners.   I'd finally made a decision about turning the dumping ground of the front bedroom into a craft room.  It's taking shape, though it really has taken some effort.   Larger pieces of material are stacked on shelves, grouped into colours.  Lower down is my Sissix machine and die cuts, and at the base of the shelving are beads and jewellery making supplies...