Sunday 13 October 2013

Patch For The Heart

There's been a lot if busy busyness in the last week. Ol' England has been digging out thick woolly socks and 'seen better days' slippers to cope with the Autumn chill that has descended, and the rains came. My hearth is crying out for the glow of coals on the fire, but the chimney sweep is super busy, and can't make it our way for a month! I thought I'd chance it, but the rain has encouraged a couple of little soot falls, which in the past has led to a black avalanche which saw my entire family, The Moo included, with black faces and utter shock, when we were covered in soot quite unexpectedly whilst tucking into fish and chips one Friday tea time last year. So I've closed up the chimney, and cranked up the antique overworked boiler....




Last Saturday brought a trip to Peterborough Fair. I ended up with a nightshift to do as well, but it left plenty of time for a saunter and a rummage, and a marvellous day with my marvellously wonderful friend S. I spied this incredible chair which called my name, but I didn't enquire after its price tag, as I positively cannot fit one more chair in my overstuffed house. Compulsively chair buying has led to the demise of two Lloyd Loom beauties which got left outside and didn't survive.
I did bring home these Le Creuset pans, which were a belated 'Welcome To Your 30's' gift to myself! I've hankered after a bit of Volcanic orange for an age. These weren't the easiest thing to cart back to the car, I can tell you!




This little trio came home with me too. At £1 a pop, I wish I'd bought the whole blooming farmyard, but maybe they were destined for different homes. The hen keeps falling over......I'm going to start locking the drinks cabinet.




This beautiful £4 curtain is most perfect for the kitchen door. I love love love it! A lining is definitely needed first, our nest is positively freezing from about now until April. The combatting of drafts is an ongoing battle I'm not sure we'll ever win....and our second floor bedroom still collects a sparkly layer of ice crystals on the inside come mid winter mornings.



I picked up a giant remnant for a couple of pound too, which I thought was beautifully ugly.








And this is simply the worlds absolute best basket I'm sure! I love it's collapsibleness, and the genius mechanics. 




These two crazy gals popped back for tea, and got on like a house on fire. They've been nattering face cream, hair treatments and possible husbands non stop since their visit. They seem to have settled and look set to stay.














It was a great day to be out in the sunshine with a sunny like minded friend....pootling and rummaging through objects of another era. Do you think there were two things there, perhaps at opposite ends of the field, that had once shared a time together in the same place? Maybe a fire poker and a mixing bowl that had once resided in a farmhouse in the 40's? All the things and stuff that have bore witness to a million different lives and stories, and had found themselves once again, looking for a home. They soak up the history and the experiences and the energy of the past, like no Ikea mug can. And that's why I love them. There's a beauty and a sadness in each. 

My tiny house exudes a past, rich and secret, and I can only feel the echoes of all that has been. I live with the draughts, because there can be no history without the scars. There can be no roaring fire without the dust and the dirt and the soot avalanches. Just as there can be no me without the heartbreaks and the wounds. 

One of my favourite little nooks of our house is a little cupboard, that is just deep enough for shoes and coats. It is housed by two little old pine doors, which shrunk in the paint stripping process, and no longer close to. 



It's a bit damp, and seems to be a popular hang out for creatures of the eight legged variety. 
I set about a little revamp yesterday....and gathered together a collection of wallpaper I've been hoarding. I couldn't bear to use the vintage paper I had, I'm saving that for our bedroom, but the pile of new was calling me.  



I got out the PVA glue. The girls watched back to back soaps on the sofa after a terribly hard week at school, and they moaned about the whiff of glue.



                  I started to stick.....


And after a couple of gluey hours, I stood back and thought I'd done rather a marvellous job!!









I did suggest doing away with the shoes and leaving the doors off, as it seems a massive shame to hide this patchwork away, but alas, a tiny house needs its storage, and unless we take a vow of barefoot through all seasons, we will have to keep the shoe cupboard. I've started on my plans of wallpaper stock replenishing, and fear I may patch the whole blooming house!!

Hope you've had a wonderful weekend!! Xx


20 comments:

  1. I wonder whether your two Polish Dolls would share their secrets? I have a gang who are beyond hope and need revamping but I'm not sure if I'll ruin them.
    Is it okay to Gok a vintage doll? Loving the patchy nook, would look good on the stair risers. Eco Ethel xx

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    1. I'm not sure they'll talk you know....they look pretty tight, whispering back and forth. It may take some time before I win their trust. Now I need to see your beyond hope dolls! I think they'd be ok for a Gok treatment, what girl wouldn't love a makeover??
      We were going to do exactly that to the stair risers, till be considered the dog would probably break her neck without carpet in the stairs :/ maybe a compromise is in order with a narrow runner?! Xxx

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  2. Lovely fabrics and great salad shaker basket, we had one just like it when I was a kid. Watch the le Creuset handles...I'm always burning mine on the gas hob.

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    1. It's a salad shaker Fiona?? I had no idea! Am I to show my iceberg in it and twirl???
      Yes, the pans have a bit of a burn to the handles. I set fire to my hob diffuser handle not so long ago, several tea towels, and once a paintbrush, so my record isn't great! Xxxx

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  3. Love the patchwork wall, what a transformation and I would be tempted to leave the doors off now! You searched out some great finds at the fair and I also would have been tempted by the armchair.

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    1. Oh it's grieved me to put those doors back on, I can tell you x and I can't stop thinking about that blooming armchair now! I hope it found a nice home x

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  4. SO much gorgeousness in this post Jo :-) Great reading with my morning cuppa. You certainly found some amazing bargains at the Fair ... yes I wouldve seriously contemplated that chair also. I have a bit of a "thing" for stools & want to cart them all home with me (stool addiction!!!) Your fabric finds are amazing ... your little hen that keeps toppling over, have you tried a tiny bit of blutack under its leg?? I have several little "adopted" critters that need help standing up around here :-)
    But Oh That Cupboard .... be still my beating heart. Your wallpaper patchwork job is just amazing ... Love it. Yes can imagine you just want to keep walking past & admiring it. Hope your week goes great. x0x Julie

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    1. I've just read your post to my other half, thank you! So your thing is stools huh? I can completely understand that. I hate acing to pass these things by because the house says no, I'm full. I will dig out a bit if blutack thank you....do you think it'll keep me standing up straight after a few vodkas?
      I'm glad you like the patchy wall, it was a really fun morning glueing away!
      Have a fantabulous week too Julie xXx

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  5. Ooh I absolutely love this post! So much vintage loveliness all in one place ... Every time you open that cupboard door your heart will sing ...

    Haven't been to a car boot sale this weekend as I had a stall at a vintage fair, but like you, I like to think of the past lives of the things I buy ... what a tale they could tell! I would have just HAD to take the chair home though ... such discipline!

    Love Claire xx

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    1. I wish I had got the chair now Claire! I could have passed one of my chairs on to make room for this, surely!
      How was your fair? Whereabouts do you live? We don't seem to get much vintage activity close to us, it usually involves long drives. Xx
      Enjoy your week x

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  6. What a full post of fabulousness. That chair! Yes where would we be without pva, but where have to coats gone? I bought some great hooks recently to go into Maud recently ( eBay 111056072179 ) I'd been searching for secondhand all year with no joy so finally succumbed. I'm rather envious of the fair findings prices! I've a smaller bit of the blue fabric how lovely to have a whole curtain are you going to line it will a blanket, I'm on the lookout for one to line mine. Those orange beauties are really heavy aren't they... I remember carrying the 24mm casserole combo back from a bootie it nearly finished me off! I became a proud trolley puller after that... Cxx

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    1. Cass, well you may well ask about the coats! It seems that I should have marked the wallpaper to show wear the holes were drilled for the coat hooks, and now can't find them for love nor money despite poking and prodding around. Those two coats of PVA have made it pretty unprodable! I've learnt a lesson anyway.
      Are you pleased with your hooks? (I've not had a look yet)
      I hadn't thought about using a blanket to line the curtain, you clever bean! Ill definitely do that, thanks for the tip! It should help a bit more in keeping the winter out. I haven't forgotten about you or your much deserved reply.... I will be in touch! Your address wasn't in the box, but I have it now on email x
      Take care trolley puller!! Xx

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    2. Yep they were just what I wanted... I love my hooks! Xx

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    3. Just had a look at your hooks, very nice! Pricey though! Do you know, I saw some, completely different to yours but tasty, in a £1 box at the fair, and I'm kicking myself for not having them. A POUND! What was I thinking??? Look forward to seeing them in the van x

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    4. Yep always grab good cheap hooks for later! That's why I was looking around for so long... but I really wanted the 3 hook style (best use of space) so I sold something on ebay and bought 5 with the paypal credit. x

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  7. What a lovely post nice to read. Love the little farm animals best out of all your grate finds...

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    1. Oh thanks Amanda! I wish I had bought more of those little farm friends. Mind you, I always come away from theses things thinking "I wish/I should have".....
      Hoping you have a lovely week xXx

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  8. crikey i don't know where to start but like everyone else i am bowled over by the patchwork wallpaper!!!!! i love love love it - where did you get vintage wallpaper from? i'm planning on getting samples from b and q now every time i go - i'll soon have a cupboard wallfull!!!!! ("wallfull" new word for today) i'm also loving those farm yard animals and the armchair - i continue to be astonished that there are others who also wonder about objects previous lives!!!! i can hardly pick flowers from the garden because i feel i am separating them from their friends - oh dear that's probably a completely different problem!!! my husband would love the maps - he had some wainwright books given to him for his birthday and is currently in heaven every night gazing at them .......... glad you had a lovely time in peterborough xxx

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    1. Hi Lynne! I bought the vintage wallpaper (not shown) from Sarah Moore Vintage.....you order online and it's £15 for a pack of 5/6 pieces. This is expensive for me, and so I'm buying a pack a month until I have enough for an alcove in my room. The paper I used was all free samples off the net. Shhhhhh. I had some from when I ordered samples to decorate my lounge last December, so only needed a few more. Try Sanderson online.
      I think all the time about the history of objects and buildings....and I can understand your reluctance to cut flowers. It doesn't bother me so much that I'm splitting them up, but it crosses my mind that I'm bringing its life and freedom to an end. Are we both crazy???
      Have a marvellous week! Hope you get some good samples x

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  9. Hello Jo, just me catching up. I am very glad that we are both free on Saturdays so that we can go off to fairs & galas together...like the St Mary's school gala recently...it's a bit hard lugging an old painting ladder, 2 trestle legs & a wheelbarrow back to the car all by yourself! So i can imagine how awkward that your cruesets were & heavy! Shame about the chair..wasn't it a charmer. At least we got to see it : ) The blue $4 fabric is a Sanderson linen. My grandmother had chairs covered in the same pattern. LOVE the patchwork wallpaper. I use some of my more modern stuff to wrap & post parcels too..think, attractive & pretty waterproof. We so very rarely come across vintage wallpaper here for some reason. I also adore what you've written between the book & the cupboard..brilliant! Much love catherine x0x0x0x

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