A LITTLE JAUNT...in the sunshine!!

Hi there
 I do hope you have all had a good weekend however you have spent it.
Yesterday I spent most of the day just catching up with housework (not very enthusiastically I have to say) whilst DH carried on with the room overhaul. This time he was tackling the electrics, lining up the sockets and lifting floorboards ready for the electrician to come and finally wire up. If there's one thing you need in a sewing room its plenty of power points so I am making sure these are all just where I will need them. I remember saying a couple of weeks ago, 'oh we only need to remove those cupboards and paint the walls', famous last words and you would think by my age I would have learnt my lesson. Any renovation job.. plan for two days and multiply that by 10!! Still we really are getting on now so hopefully it wont be too long before I am installed in my den once again.

Today though, in glorious sunshine (do you remember what that's like) we took a few hours off and went to a tiny car boot on part of the station car park. There couldn't have been more than a couple of dozen stalls and at first glance I wasn't very hopeful of finding any treasure. However  I was to be pleasantly surprised.

A great little tool box which has GPO carved into the top which I didn't spot until I handed over my £4 and saw the top of the lid properly. I was even more thrilled then as both DH and I worked  there when they were the GPO and have a few bits of old General Post Office memorabilia already. Of course we are now fighting over who should keep it!

A print of a Jason Partner water colour, a Lincolnshire artist whose work I love. His drawings are so precise, almost technical drawings and of course his main subjects the Suffolk and Norfolk coast are some of my favourite places. This now makes five in my collection..the bathroom walls are filling rapidly...

  This little cabbage leaf bowl has no markings but is the same colour and design as my Sylvac soup dishes and saucers, so will be used to hold my bread rolls. Don't ask me what is there appeal but I am always attracted to them .Quite a good haul already but there was more to come..

We then went on to Woodhall Spa to the Petwood Hotel and a small antique fair.

 
Such a beautiful building, the former Officers mess of 617 'the Dambusters' Squadron.

 We have been to many fairs held by Field Dog Fairs and always seem to find a little something and meet some really friendly traders who don't mind a bit of a haggle. Today, though the fair was a bit smaller than we had expected, it still produced a few things to keep me happy and to fill up yet more of my ever decreasing floor and wall space...

 
A sampler from 1950 with guess whose initials at the bottom....obviously waiting for me!

A coronation handkerchief which I think I will frame. If anyone has any great tips on how to do this without spoiling it I would be very pleased for some help. How should I attach it to its backing?

and finally a tiny side table whose flaps fold down and when lifted the whole top rotates in order to support it in the open position. I love it.

So as you can see I came home a very happy shopper indeed.

Before we left however we did have a walk around the village and I have to say it is quite impressive. Plenty of cafes and restaurants, the Kinema in the Woods, a lovely old style picture house, and family friendly park with a variety of activities and not forgetting a fitting memorial to the brave airmen of 617 Squadron who lost their lives....

 All in all a great day........

Hope you all have a good week, here it is the final week of school before the Summer break, so I think there will be lots of mums rushing to get things done while they have any time to themselves. I will be helping out with our two gorgeous boys, and I bet I know who will be worn out first! But I wouldn't change it for the world as I know how lucky we are to be so much of their growing up.....

TTFN

Jenny xx

DONT YOU JUST HATE......

.............The smell of paint being stripped with a hot air stripper!! I do and I should be used to it now. At least it wasn't me having to do this horrible job. No it was DH finishing stripping the window frame and door frame in my sewing room. It is coming on in leaps and bounds and I hope to show you the results very soon. He has already ripped out some awful cupboards in the alcoves and replaced them with thick shelves made from recycled scaffolding planks. The next job is many more power points behind my work bench and  better lighting with daylight bulbs above.
When we moved into this house 20 years ago stripped pine was all the rage and so every door, skirting board and even the stairs and 47 stair rails were stripped sanded to within an inch of their lives and left. Funny how our tastes change. Now  I look at the window frames and wonder if they should be white, well in my sewing room they will be but at least now they have a lovely clean base and the woodwork will look as it should !

 Note to self....I don't think all that stuff will fit on new shelves!!....

Of course all this renovation has meant access to my sewing machine has been sorely curtailed, but by no means stopped. So the other evening I set to and created a new cover for the Parker Knoll chair which my DH has in the dining room to watch 'his' big tele. It was perfectly OK covered in a large red and cream check, but being me and seeing it as slightly grubby I decided to wash the original and being a good fit to begin with it was a little like my clothes were a few weeks ago, not too small but certainly too snug a  fit for comfort (but that's a whole other story). So having seen these stunning patchwork sofas in many magazines lately,

 image c/o mydeco.com

 I thought I would be a bit more creative and make a patchwork cover for the seat cushion. Of course he is a 'bloke' and velvet and florals are not really his thing so the effect had to be a bit more subtle and voila..................

Amazingly he quite liked it!!

Well when the sewing machine was completely out of bounds I had to resort to the hexis and hand sewing!! My they do grow apace. Having found the new way of using the English paper piecing which does not involve sewing through the paper ( in my case card) templates, I am thrilled with the progress......

 If you haven't read my other posts check this site for hexi templates and links to easy piecing  here....it saves a lot of time and many sore fingers!

 Well yet again time has defeated me, why does it always take me a whole evening to write a post and edit a few pictures. Is it just me or does everyone go through this!
I have so many things to tell you but never seem to have enough time to do it. Never mind tomorrow is another day....and I will be back.....

TTFN

Jenny xx