Willow House

Basil & Bargains

 It was so nice of you to share some of your favourite things with me, I really enjoyed reading them all, and you know the nicest thing of all was that the things we love the most are for free. Things like snuggling up with children or pets. Lovely.

Something else for free now. Do you buy those potted herbs for the kitchen? Well you can have an almost endless supply of basil if you do. Simply snip off the tops and pop them in a jar of water, in a week or so they will have rooted and hey presto a new basil plant to pot up!

The first photograph is of my bargain of the week, a Flaming Katie pot plant from our local pound shop.

Irresistible?

Tell me please could you resist these

or these

or this

or countless other cute creations in Simply Knitting's Irresistible Gifts to Knit?

I didn't and I bought the pattern book even though I can't knit, remember this? I'm not sure if I should be  kicking myself for my stupidity or getting out the knitting needles and starting yet another project!

Inspirations

I just wanted to share this, new to me, magazine with you all:

Classic Inspirations - the worlds most beautiful embroidery magazine

It is full of gorgeous projects, beautifully illustrated with clear instructions, take a look

I bought my copy from W H Smith but they have a website here.

8 things

Selena tagged me to tell 8 things about myself, but, I'm going to cheat and not do it all in one go. My latest thrifted purchases are a bit of a clue to one thing about me.

I'm a gambling addict? A jockey? A race horse owner?

No, no, no.

Another clue.

I collect pictures of horses?

Well kind of, yes I suppose I do. These two are rather shabby but as they are over thirty years old I think that's okay and I do love them both.

The thing about me was -

I'm horse / pony mad. Always have been, always will be, can't help it it's in the blood. My Great Grandfather was a horse dealer ( That was usually said with a certain amount of distain by some of the older members of the family!)

So I guess that's two things, more to follow.

Look what I got

The Big Book of Needlecraft published by Odhams Press

it "aims to assist needlewoman in all branches of the craft, and every process has been described and illustrated clearly, and in detail, so as to be a help to the beginner and expert alike."

I think it was probably published in the 1940's.

It is a little tatty, but who could resist this little bunny?

And what did I pay for this gem? 10p!

More Wallpaper

A few of you have asked where I get the vintage wallpapers used in the previous post. Well I've been hanging on to rolls of wallpaper for years. Like this one which must be about 25 to 30 years old now, it's a remnant from my Grandparents dining room.

And I've had this Laura Ashley paper so long now that it must be vintage! I orginally bought it to redecorate with and never got around to using it. In fact I've had it so long I can't even remember where I intended to use it.

And then there are the end rolls that occasionally turn up in Charity Shops like this old Sanderson paper.

(I think if you click on the pictures to enlarge them they will look better.)

January Sales

Did you hit the January sales, or should I say Christmas sales as they now seem to be starting on Boxing Day ?

If I'm totally honest I can't really imagine anything worse than going shopping straight after Christmas. For me one of the simple pleasures of Christmas is that I've shopped until I drop prior to Christmas Day and then I don't need to go anywhere near a shop for at least a week afterwards. Bliss.

This year I had to take James into the big bad city, well Peterborough a small Catherdral City, the Thursday after Christmas and I couldn't believe the crowds. Far more people seemed to be shopping after Christmas than before. I also couldn't believe the way they were buying, I swear many of those shoppers were buying things just because they were cheap, not because they wanted them or even liked them. Well it was all too much for me, and I went home without purchasing.

But over the last couple of weeks I have picked up a few bargains.

T.G.Green Cornish Ware and Domino Ware. I needed these, honestly! They are replacements for the two Cornish Ware mugs that got broken in the summer. Have you noticed that the T.G Green mark on the bottom of Cornish ... now says Cornish Ware not Cornish Blue. I suppose that is because it now comes in all sorts of colours including pink, yellow and that lovely black. The black and cream mug is now Stuart's favourite.

Falling Cloudberries - a world of family recipes by Tessa Kiros. I really needed this. No I didn't, not really. I have been looking at this beautiful, beautiful recipe book for a couple of years now but couldn't actually bring myself to spend £25 on it. Seeing it marked down to £6.25 in the W.H Smith sale was more temptation than I could cope with and it has now joined a huge number of recipe books, many sadly unused.

 

Fabric. What can I say, we can never have too much fabric can we? This little lot, all remnants, came from John Lewis at 50p a piece. So many bargains!

Finally, well maybe not after all the sales are still on ...

A pink tool set, in a pink and black carry case, a 97 piece tool set for only a fiver.

Imagine the conversation in Willow House when I brought this home:

"Stu, look what I've got, it was such a bargain."

"How much have you saved us this time? What did you want this for?"

"Well now I have all the tools I'll ever need in one place and I will always know where to find them."

"What do you want tools for?"

"For hanging pictures and stuff like that."

"When was the last time you hung a picture?"

"Um, maybe 11 years ago before you started the business and were away from home working for someone else."

"Right! Confess you only bought it because it was pink."

I'm not saying a word!

Teapots, Cherry!

Did you see yesterdays' post on Cherrys' site : "Be Still My Beating Heart" ? Well I have a teapot just like the one that Cherry was writing about, when I told her she suggested we compare teapots. So here it is Cherry,

my very own Wood's Ware Beryl teapot. Purchased a couple of years ago from a charity shop in Kings Lynn. I was very pleased to find this teapot as my Great Aunt Lucy had one just like it when I was a child. I sometimes find myself purchasing things out of pure sentiment, the following teapot is an example of a sentimental purchase.

I bought this Staffordshire bone china teapot purely because I remembered the tea cups from my Grandmothers' house. My Grandmother never had the teapot to match, she used this one

when she used a china teapot. To be honest she had a stainless steel teapot for everyday use, to prevent breakages I suppose.

Strangely I never remember seeing her use Great Grandmothers' teapot

although I often saw her polishing the family silver!

So there you go Cherry, now you have seen my teapots. Anybody else out there want to play? If so be sure to let Cherry and I know so that we don't miss any of your teapots.

Vintage Finds

A visit to the local Salvation Army Care and Share shop netted me the wonderfully pretty Huntley and Palmers biscuit tin at the bargain price of 25p! The black patent handbag is all leather, including the lining and I love it. And of course I could not resist the opportunity to show you my knitting.

I can knit! Okay so I am inordinately excited that I have started to knit, but, if you had seen me trying to cast on the stitches you would understand why. I have to admit that I was very close to giving up, throwing the pink yarn on the floor and jumping up and down on it, but I did persevere and look what I've done.

No, I haven't knitted the mouse, my knitting is in the handbag. The little knitted mouse was another purchase from the Sally Army. Isn't he gorgeous?

I've been thrifting

Or spending as some husbands, who will remain nameless, would say.

Here is todays haul - a blanket for my knees!

A ceramic pomander made by Aidees of Torquay,

an oil painting ,

and a Bakerlite hair dryer complete with case.

Goodness knows what I'm going to do with the hairdryer, thankfully someone has cut off the wire to prevent electrocution so it's really quite useless except for display.

Any ideas?