Islay finds, makes and bakes...

Vintage crafting heaven, basically

 That, my friends, is just the beginning of an (almost) endless source of vintage crafting goodness. Just to the left of that is a doorway. And through that doorway:

 And the cherry on the cake? There's two more attics much the same. But bigger.

Oh, and the chocolate sauce on the cherry on the cake? It's all mine. Well, my mother's, but she's given me (almost) free rein to scour it for goodies to share with you lovely lot.

Before you begin to question whether my mother is, in fact, one of those women who has too many cats and hasn't thrown out any rubbish since 1983, I feel obliged to point out that she used to be an antique dealer. Even though her shop was more about mahogany desks and fine art than fabric scraps, she kept every gorgeous thing that came into her hands, and recently she's allowed me to go through it for stock for my Etsy store.

Stacks of magazines and ephemera galore? Check.

 
 Chests full of amazing vintage fabrics? Check.

Boxes of buttons? Check. Several times

  
(And there are a lot more where those Art Deco beauties came from)

Of course, not every single box is a treasure trove... Lightbulb, anyone?

 

Sometimes things turn out better than you expect. Sometimes worse, of course

Went boot fairing today. It was pouring, so wasn't expecting much, and I wasn't disappointed. I was really hoping that a woman who is alwaysthere would show up, as she sells second hand printers blocks and I have big plans for some printers blocks and some fabric paint (I'm thinking customised cushions, Christmas bunting, you name it). However, she mostly sells textiles, which aren't a great success in the rain I suppose, so I can understand her no-show status.

However, there were some wheeler dealers there fresh from a house clearance, and I napped a battered old suitcase full of sewing bits and bobs for a mere £7 (he wanted £10. I am haggler extraordinaire). It didn't look much, but the rain was beginning to hammer and I wanted to go home with at least one prize.

Once I got it home and pulled out all the rubbish, which included some chopped up stockings and a broken letter opener, I was left with:

 
Fabulous, no? I'm going to start washing and sorting in a minute. One of my favourite activities is sorting buttons. I'd like to pretend I'm embarrassed about that, but given the vast majority of my shop contents, I don't think I'd be fooling anyone.

Now, dash back to the beginning of the post. Remember that bit about printers blocks? In the absence of any blocks I started playing around with my ink stamps, some acrylic and fabric paint and a bunch of vintage linene. Will tell you all about it tomorrow... 

One man's trash is another man's treasure

One of my most prominent childhood memories is being dragged round car boot sales at stupid o'clock on a saturday morning. My mother (an antique dealer) used to spend hours at the things, and my sister and I would have to entertain ourselves running in amongst cars and random strangers (ah, the innocence of the 80s). However, since I started living frugally, I suddenly get car boots (the sales, not just hanging out in car boots, obviously).

There's a pretty good one at Ford Airfield, just a couple of miles away, which I frequent, still with my sister (although she can now be trusted to shop without a warning not to wander off with strangers). In fact, she enjoys them so much that she makes a living from buying and selling wonderful vintage bits and bobs from charity shops and boot fairs (and evil imported crap from Thailand, but I gloss over that in my head). If you particularly want to, you can read about her lovely vintage finds here, as well as find a link to her shop.

Despite looking less than joyful to see me at 7:45am when I bounced up to her doorstep, she was a bit jollier by 8:45am, after a huge bacon roll and a bunch of bargainous suitcases:

 Of course, there are downsides to going car booting with someone who loves vintage junk as much as you. I bought this plate before she could get her grubby mits on it:

 But she pounced on this one the moment I pointed it out and bought it from under my nose!

 She'll probably make a good profit on it too (not hard when the outlay is only £1).

Of course, when attending a car boot, it's always important to remember that you don't need absolutely everything there. I have a permanent vague list of things I'd like to buy, which currently includes, among other things:
1) A cast iron skillet
2) A chest of drawers for Teddy's room
3) A Kenwood Chef mincer attachment.
Although I will occasionally go off list if there's something particularly good (the other week I bought a massive roasting tin for 60p, which I didn't have on my list, but will come in useful for the few of times a year we roast a huge chicken or whole lamb leg. Did I mention it was only 60p?), I am quite strict with myself about not just buying everything that looks vaguely nice and/or remotely useful for some distant point in the future.

It's wonderful seeing the things people buy at car boots. It really shows that what you might consider absolute junk will almost certainly be valued by someone. Stand by the exit long enough and you'll see people wandering out with torn lampshades, three toy prams, a broken jug, a park bench, a set of legless dining chairs, countless broken tools, and anything else you can imagine.

Speaking of off list, I only just resisted the temptation to ask how much this fellow was:

 (Yes, he was alive and no, he wasn't for sale. As far as I could tell).

Charity shops: sometimes worth the effort

Look what I got! For the grand total of £2:

 

It's all merino wool, which is lovely and soft, and I've already got plans for the lighter blue to make a lovely winter jumper for Teddy. It will go really well with jeans, should he ever actually work up the energy to crawl/walk (and therefore make it worth dressing him in something other than sleepsuits). At current rate of progress on the movement front, I should probably make the jumper in an appropriate size for winter 2010/11...

Charity shops can definitely be a great source of anything and everything, but really only if (like me) you happen to have the time to trawl them every week or so. Most of the useful stuff for the aspiring Efficient Sufficient-er (preserving jars, clothes that you might actually want to wear, nice fabric etc etc) goes quite quickly once it's put out.

In general, I think it is a million times easier to be frugal when you've got time on your hands. It's got to be seriously challenging to work full time and manage to go foraging, make jam, tend vegetables, trawl the charity shops etc etc. I certainly never used to have either the time or the inclination to do any of that while I was working full time. Does anyone manage to live a frugal life and actually hold down a real job?