It's a Wrap!

A good friend celebrated his birthday last week and during his lunch break he came round for a cuppa, slice of cake, and as you're never too old a surprise gift or two. 

I decided to make my own wrapping paper and had a good crafty half hour having a go with my new stamps bought in the Paperchase and my alphabet stamps purchased at a summer fair for the princely sum of 50p!

I stamped stars in both red and blue over the brown paper previously used to wrap a bunch of flowers I'd received, then randomly added "Happy Birthday" and a red bus, a graphic nod to "T" living in London in the spaces left.  Not rocket science, but a good quick, individual and cheap way to add a little extra to a gift!

Left to dry and when wrapped up his pressies looked ready to be ripped open, shame after all that effort! 

*Paperchase stamps reduced to £4 in sale (came with ink pads)

Paper - free

Alphabet stamps - 50p local village fair

Mini Renovation

I've been doing at little house renovation...

I found this in a junk shop on the way home from a trip to Ikea...

A few applications of paint and pretty paper courtesy of Tiger, some old dolls house furniture,  and handmade curtains with homemade curtain poles and we're beginning to look like home.

New Windows are just sheets of acrylic for little peeps to peer into a mini magical world. 

A few more tweaks and I'm done, hopefully the new young owner of this little Des-res will have as much fun with it as I had (have!) with my own. 

Having a dolls house when I was little allowed me many hours of quiet play in a world of my own. What more could a parent ask for!

Also, I've been doing a bit of this...

Missing in instagram

Has it really been 4 months since my last post? Shame on me! The Summer weather was just too good to miss (no excuse) When we last spoke I was just about to go to my home village fair,  which lead me to meeting friends and villagers I haven't seen for twenty years or more. These chance meetings lead me to a builder (husband of friend) who then did work on our house, we also had new windows & doors as well as painting the outside (TOH) did that and a great job he did too. 

All of this is fairly unglamourous, but has been punctuated with nice things too

So in pictures a few of my adventures in my missing months. 

The Village fair, bet they regretted that idea!

Make London for a lovely hen do!

a bit of making!

re-hydration (hu-hum) options

Vintage buys

sunny days out

spruced up house...

Bath wedding, I made the Lucky couple a vintage tea towel bath peg bag - oh the glamour!

Birthday boys old and new

and now here we are moving into Autumn getting nearer my favourite month of all,

can you guess which one it is?

Some of you may have seen some of these photos as I have been on Instagram all summer, youcan find me @katysclutter come and say hello!

Thursdays Finds

Last Thursday I had coffee and a mouch about with my Mum, we both have Thursdays off so if neither of us has anything planned, we get together for a couple of hours. This week she came to me. Firstly, and quite rightly, we hit the charity shops and then onto lunch…here are my finds

These are so sweet...

How delicious are these? That sunburst lid is just gorgeous...

Now this chappie was love at first sight, my other half thinks it is "disgusting and naff!" (direct quote)

I'm taking votes on this, not trying to sway the vote but I LOVE HIM/HER!

*Thursday was a good day!

*if your interested, Mum bought two pyrex casserole dishes with lids, a pyrex butter dish all in the Chelsea pattern and a vase.

Presents in the post!

I recently took part in my first swop, organised by Ada at vintage sheet addict. I was paired with the lovely Lisa from Littledottybird. I had a craft book, I'd received two(!) and with a few little crafty extras I was ready to swop! And I'm so glad I did!

My swops to Lisa

Lisa to me

Swop perfection!

Lisa, you must have been round my house a snooped because you are spot on. I love it all, especially the Dragon Fly. Thank you soooo much. Now I can't wait to get started with all the goodies you've sent me. 

Thank you to Ada for all her organisational skills with the swop!

Mouse about this house...

For Christmas I got a stash of craft books, another guilty pleasure to go with many others!

One of them has quick things to knit and crochet from stash oddments with a festive theme. The book is "Little Christmas Decorations to knit and crochet by Sue Stratford & Val Pierce". 40 projects of all capabilities to get stuck into. A few of the decorations, if you give the Christmas extras amiss, would do for any time of year.

 

So may I introduce you to Tina the Twirling Birthday mouse!

You knit her in the flat and sew the seams together,  with a little persuasion she eventually looked mouse like! Her arms and tail are worked as an icord, and ears in two parts then stitched together.

My only wish was a picture show you what she looked like in the flat, as a one point I nearly started again as it looked really, really wrong!

She's now twirled off wrapped in tissue paper to my chum, Cheryl. Happy Birthday x

Rummaging

Firstly, A big thank you to all my new followers and people who have left me positive comments, big hugs!

A recurring theme with my blog apart from my lack of grammar and spelling is my love of a good rummage (as my Nan called it) and a good bargain. It comes from a long line of women who had to make do and mend when money was tight. I find it hard to throw things away and now send any unwanted items to charity or to be recycled.

Many charities have specialised shops for furniture and these are little Aladdin's caves of styles gone by and the ever present change in trends.

 baby items

A lovely vintage wooden cot and dressing table (they had the tri-fold mirror) mixes with a futon

and an Ikea daybed...

A four poster! in the background you can just make out a formica table and kitchen chairs...

textiles

loads of lampshades and cushions all waiting to be up-cycled or used just as they are.

This particular charity shop arranges when it can, its furniture in room displays so you can see everything as it would look in your home. It also has an area of bric-a-brac and accessories. 

Have a look near you, you may just find what your looking for at a fraction of the price! 

What did I buy? My mirror, frameless with chain…£8 bargain!

Bank Holiday

To start our bank holiday weekend we had a birthday at thrifty towers, Bob's another year old and none the wiser, but I love him so...

Unfortunately he had to drive to Bristol on Saturday for work, by the time he returned the rain had stopped play so we didn't bother to do much during the day, we did however do the pub thing with friends in the evening, a late night was had by all. I fear i'm getting too old for that malarky, it took us ages to recover, soooo out of practice!

A cuppa and a toasted tea cake and a little light bargain hunting helped with the recovery process...

This little lady was on the 50p stall? I couldn't leave her behind could I?

Bob chose this, Donald's a chalkware lamp, his rifle is broken but I can live with that...

By the Monday evening and we we're chilled out and ready for the week ahead, 

for me, that's two weeks off work,  I'm d-mob happy! Bob's off next week so we're doing a few days out, Ardingly being the top of our list!