Treasures from the fair!

So yesterday I had the pleasure of a fabulous day out at the Silver Springs Antique Fair with the lovely Miss Mona Bells to hunt for treasure! 

My big prize of the day of course, is this incredible 19th century HMV gramophone, complete with tin horn, a collection of wild swing records and plenty of needles to keep us going for a while! It has the iconic and beautiful background crackling, and I adore the little hand painted logo on the front. Doesn't it look so sweet in our kitchen? Perfect for the odd dance around the place in the morning with Heidi ;) Needless to say, my life is now considerably more complete now.

I also got my mitts on some bits and pieces of beautiful hand painted china, as well as some fun, colourful Royal Tara. I'm come to accept, that a girl can never own too many pretty teacups, no matter how small her kitchen may be and don't even try to resist any more.

I got this dinky little Victorian trinket box, which well to do ladies would have kept on their dresser to store their engagement ring and other precious pieces of jewellery in at night. I love glass boxes and display cases in general, and it reminded me of a terrarium, so I had to have it!

Finally I got a good deal on a handful of lovely silver thimbles which I plan to make into necklaces, I especially love this one which says 'Forget me not' across it.

We also have a date planned for next weekend as I'm going to be attending my very first auction, with lunch and drinks after, and I am beyond excited about what bargains await! What vintage treasures have you dug up lately?

Away from it all... if only for a day

 

Sun, strawberries and kitty cats!

 

Today was spent out at our allotment, weeding, watering and picking strawberries in the sun and muggy heat. I don't know how we did it, but I have never seen such huge strawberries as the first few ripe ones we picked from our own plot today! Although we are quite behind with our garden this year, we have still been able to enjoy our own salad, kale, herbs, rhubarb and strawberries so far, and the broccoli and beetroot haven't long to go before they're ready too!

When we got home, we had the strawberries with whipped cream sweetened with the last few spoons of the mountain wildflower honey we brought home from our travels in Bosnia last summer, and gave the cats a little of the cream too as a treat. They then spent ages licking their lips and washing their faces like little bunnies after.

Then we went up to the garden and played with the cats in the grass for an hour or so. We're moving to a new house in a couple of weeks, and while we will have a small front garden and patio there, we want to make the most of our chance to play with them in the long grass.

When you go down to the woods...

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Summer we made a pact to go on as many adventures as we could. So we went exploring in the woods and we found a big old broken house that nobody wanted anymore. They didn't even want all the things they had brought with them when they were going to live there. No one really knows what happened. The last of the family who built the house drowned herself in the lake at the bottom of the garden years ago. Maybe it was too sad a place to live in after all. Now all the books and things and memories are left alone to gather dust and damp, and the plants are slowly climbing their way in through the broken glass. I took some photos so we, at least, could remember them instead.