The 4 B's Not The 3 R's!

BAGS AND BIRDS

A little bit of inspiration landed on the house paddock fence this morning much to my delight.

Yes, you guessed it a Robin (Flame Robin) paid a visit, a rather long overdue visit considering we are into the second month of Winter.


My calender has been looking a little bare........ everytime I see a Robin in Winter I put a red dot on the calender for that day. Why?..... Why not!


So,to celebrate this most handsome little visitor I decided to zip up or should I say whip up a lovely, little polka dot bag.

These little bags happen to be my latest project. After studying a variety of tutorials on the net about lined, zip bags, these are my first two. Still needing a bit of tweaking, but getting better at it each time.

Don't you just love polka dots, they remind me of Noddy and his little polka dot scarf.

They are lined with a plain drill fabric, which coincidentally was meant to be the outer fabric but by happy accident we have polka dots on the outside. They are such cheery colours and I think I would even use the "J" word....Jolly!



Oooh, what have we here?

An unexpected purchase from an auction last weekend. There was an amazing collection of antiques and collectibles and when I saw that someone was going to purchase this little beauty for the meagre sum of $10.00 I suddenly found my hand waving wildly in the air and it was mine for $20.00.

I can see it gracing my market stall with all it's vintage charm, maybe with a few crocheted goodies on display.

If you click on the photo to enlarge you will be able to see a very special purchase hanging from the door handle, made by thetalented Karen at www.mimilove.net.

Little did I know when I purchased the dolls carriage that it was filled up with rubbish which I immediately threw into a bin.Buried underneath all that rubbish were these 3 beauties......

BUCKLES

Isn't it nice when you find little surprises like these gems tucked away somewhere?

I think the pale green one is made from Bakelite, so is ridgey didge vintage. Not sure about the dark green one but the white buckle is Mother of Pearl.

What am I going to do with them? Just admire them until I find a use for them.

BOOKS

A little op shop find recently has been keeping me entertained and feeding my love for the English countryside.

September Moon was written by John Moore an English author who wrote over 30 novels.

I always look for older style hard cover books. The picture on it's cover had me holding my breath as I read some of the reviews:- ..."

"A full blooded story of the great green world of the countryside and its fascinating people...." John Bull.

"....captures fully the atmosphere, the sensuous ripeness, which this writer always imports into his work..... " Richard Church, Truth

"John Moore is as quiet, authoritative and aesthetically satisfying as Constable or Crome when he is describing the countryside....." Oxford Mail

The story is about hop picking season in a corner of Herefordshire in September. There are colourful characters from the Midlands, Wales and gipsies as well add a touch of romance and I am hooked. So for the princely sum of $1.00 I tucked this little beauty under my arm and have been rationing myself to 3 or 4 pages a night just to eek it out and I am enjoying every sentence. In fact some of the phrases used would be seen as quite un PC these days, so I get a bit of a giggle out of them.

My other little find at the same op shop , was a brand new skirt (sorry no pic) by SATCH, who I believe are Melbourne based. It still had it's swing tag on it and was being sold in shops for $199.00 but I paid $7.00, yes you read correctly. It is a charcoal grey fleck with 3 pleats front and back, made from 85% wool fabric imported from Italy, so not a horrible puce colour and style that will date quickly.

Just between you and me I saw the very same skirts being sold in my local oppy, still with their swing tags on BUT they were being sold for $59.99!!

Now is that the bargain of the year or not?

Hope you have found a bargain or two recently or a little surprise tucked away somewhere.I hope your week has been enjoyable, have a great weekend.

Until next time,

Claire X