The January Sales

I'm not a great one for the January sales anymore.  As I have got older I don't seem to be able to cope with the disorder, rails of sale items, tables piled high with last season's rejects and crowds.  I prefer instead to bargain hunt all year round.

Thrifty bedroom makeover

My bedroom has always been a bit of a dumping ground for laundry, stock and generally stuff that I just didn't want to look at.  I have tried over recent years to regain some order, especially as I am often sent bedroom related items to review.  

April #Stylewise

The trouble with having eleven year old twin boys is they no longer want to go anywhere in the school holidays.  Its a real trial trying to encourage them out of their bedroom and away from the computers and gadgets !  So I decided to take myself off yesterday for a bit of a mooch around the local charity shops in Heavitree and Topsham.  

March #Stylewise

I'm busy with real life at the moment, lots of follow up appointments with the husband and blogging is perhaps not a regular as it should be.  

Thrifty Shopping - #Stylewise

I found myself with a little time on my hands on Friday, so what better way to spend it than doing a little thrifty shopping, a great source of inspiration and white interior design bargains.

Boot Sale Treasure

Hubby is working today and I needed the car, so what else is there to do after dropping him at work at 6am, but pop along to the bootsale at Matford in Exeter.

May #Stylewise Charity shop Bargains

The half term didn't get off to a good start when I came down with a lurgy and actually took to my bed (unheard of ).

Thrifty Treats

Since giving up self employment its been a bit difficult to find the time to have a mooch around the many local charity shops in the area. 

Something to be said for a lie in

Since opening the shop I work 6 days a week.  Four in the shop and two days as a school secretary.  Leaving the only "day off" Sunday, to clean the house, catch up on the washing, spend quality time with the children and hubby and go treasure hunting of course.  Yesterday I was determined come rain or shine I would make it to the boot sale this morning but its been a particularly tiring week again and when hubby woke me at 6am I already knew there was no way I was dragging my tired bones out of bed to treasure hunt in the darkness and rain.

I turned over and went back to sleep for two hours.  I woke up feeling much better if not a little annoyed with myself that I had missed all that potential treasure at the boot sale.  Nothing for it I would have to go out searching "just in case".  The boys really didn't want to leave the house and hubby was happy pottering in his shed so off I went.  I have several places I like to visit on the Sunday and they certainly didn't disappoint today.

Here is a little taster of the goodies I found .

You might wonder what I could possibly want with this beauty, but I can tell you my heart skipped a beat when I saw it.  A genuine French Plum drying rack !  A what ? I hear you say...

 

A plum drying rack, a rack for drying all those delicious French plums from the sunny orchards of France.

Anything remotely French, vintage and rustic is so desirable at the moment.  I LOVE it and I have a great idea for using it in the shop (unless, of course I sell it first ).

Next up this great galvanised Herb and Flower drying rack, it has all the hooks too.  Would look fab hanging from the ceiling with herbs and flowers (obviously) or even pots, pans or cups etc .

Love the colbolt blue of these glass Salt and Pepper pots.

A large, silver painted wooden letter Y.  Just because I love collecting random large letters and thinking this could be the start of my YO, HO, HO for christmas.  Or maybe somebody called Yolander or Yvonne will buy it.

and finally for now because I have to spend some time with my family before I start all over again.

A huge ceramic bowl and platter in the most divine Mink colour.  So as it turned out, my little lie in today was worth it.

Linking up with MagpieMonday

The Tots 100 Home Club with Homebase

I'm thrilled to bits to be one of the founding members of the Tots100 Home Club in association with Homebase.   The other members are my great friend Jen who blogs at Mum in the Madhouse ,The very lovely  Violet Posy ,  Fellow twin mum Heather from GrowingSpaces  and the very undomesticated looking Domestic Goddess  (met her at the weekend complete with tiara and pearls ! ) xx

To kick us off the theme is "get organised" with a storage task.  We have have been given £100 to spend in homebase and can use it in anyway we see fit to improve storage anywhere in our homes.  This couldn't have come at a better time for me.  Working from home out of my combined dining/work room has always been a problem.  Even more so since I started selling vintage homewares at fairs.  I can't remember the last time the family sat down together at the dining table to eat.

Now your illusions of my perfect white home are about to be shattered.  Look away now if you are easily shocked !

THE BEFORE SHOTS

Oh Dear ! Thinking I maybe over sharing a little too much

There's a sofa underneath somewhere

The "office "

As you can see, this challenge is very timely indeed.  I am really looking forward to sorting it all out.  We even get a fab app to help us with our planning.  If you are on facebook you can find it here : Homebase - House of Inspiration   Its a great idea.  I've already had a play around with it. Its simple to use and you can even import your own pictures to really pull your board together.  Perfect to help you plan any renovations or decorating plans you might have.


As we are a vintage thrifty home I am trying to come up with ideas that don't involve plastic storage boxes so watch this space and please come back and see if I manage to achieve a tidy, usable dining/work space.    If you have any ideas of your own you can get involved too on the Tots100 Facebook page 

Excited !

Mad Blog Awards Finalist

 

I'm thrilled to say this blog made it into the finals of the 2012 Mad Blog Awards ! I am over the moon as there are just 77 finalists across 20 award categories.

There were 52,000 nominations for over 3,000 different blogs.  So its a BIG deal.

THANK YOU SO MUCH to everybody who nominated me.

If you would like to vote for me to win you can do it really quickly and easily  Vote Here  Just scroll down to the Best Home Category, click on the please choose button, select The White Approach, scroll to the bottom of the page and enter !

Please do keep following and reading my blog, lots of great ideas are coming soon.  I have made some big business decisions over the last few weeks and I would love you along for the ride.

Thank you so much once again for all your support, encouragement and great comments.  This blog would not be what it is if it was not for you.

Karen

XXX

Magpie Monday - Stuff, stuff and more stuff

Despite loosing an hour's sleep getting up at what amounted to 5 am to take hubby to work, I had a bumper morning at the boot sale.  The sellers were out in force (but so were the buyers). Elbows at the ready I ploughed in.

First find this gorgeous large cake stand from a (regular) seller who I haven't seen over the winter, but who has now reappeared.  She goes to France to source her stock.  Love it, so pretty.  The bonus is her items are always immaculate and clean too.

Lovely hand painted cup and saucer from the same seller

Set of three beautiful Soup bowls and plates or you could use them for a large cup of steaming coffee.  Yum.

I found lots of plates yesterday, this stunning plate is Royal Worcester

Another stunning plate from the same seller, hand painted flowers on a transfer print.

Set of really pretty unmarked plates.  These again, an example of how something can sit sad and filthy in a box but can wash up a dream.

Stunning Grimwades Byzanta Ware Lustre small bowl

Pretty Side Table already repainted in Craig and Rose paint !  I thought I recognised the colour when I saw it, got talking to the seller and managed to knock £4 off the price.  I will rub it down a bit, give it a wax and think it will look much better.  Looking a bit flat at the moment but I love the shape.

Absolutely beautiful coffee set.  I might not be able to bring myself to sell this just yet.  Talking to the seller, who was Dutch, she told me her three daughter used to play with it when they played house !  All I can say is they must be amazing children, its in immaculate condition.  I regret now that I didn't also buy a pair of the authentic clogs off her too.  She had about six pairs of children's clogs in all different colours.  Argh!  Always something you regret picking up.

Pretty Colclough tea set trios

Woop! another 1950's Meakin plate to add to my now growing collection.  This one is called Covered wagon.  I love it, so as with all my other "story" plates what do you think the story is here ???

I have lots and lots more stock but haven't the time to put anymore on today.  Will do another post later in the week.  Now that the nice weather is bringing out the fairweather sellers its looks like I might have to up my bootsale budget.

One last thing today, not begging or anything but if you like my blog and think its worthy I would LOVE you to nominate my blog in the home or photography category of the MAD BLOG AWARDS  You need to pop a blog name in first along with your email and name then you can go to the second page which gives you the catagories.  Thank you so much if you take the time to vote, it means so much to me xx 

Linking up with Lizzies MagpieMonday