Magpie Monday - Sorbet

After the massive build up to how both Liz of MagpieMonday and I found fab bargains on our latest visits to the charity shops, I hope I don't disappoint you.

 I can quite honestly say when I saw these sitting in a basket I nearly screamed in sheer ecstasy !  Heart pounding and colour rising I rushed over to them.  Soooooo gorgeous.  Why would anybody give them away !!!  They are everything I adore about vintage style.  Beautiful fine English bone china in sorbet colours and six complete sets of cup, saucer and side plate !!



All pieces are base stamped with "Harrowby" Bone China England.  I have tried to find out more about this company but have come up with a blank.  Wedgewood has a design called Harrowby, but that's as much as I can get.  If anybody knows more I would love some information.  I am assuming they are around 1930's but really don't know.  They are in immaculate condition and have obviously hardly been used, one thing is for sure I will love them and never sell them.



I had to photograph them out in the hall as I think they match my wallpaper perfectly . What do you think ?

oh! yes, and the cost .......    £5 for the lot ! woop!

Please pop over to MagpieMonday to see all the other great people taking part this week.

White

I've been taking photo's of some of my favourite white "bits" from around my home.


Candlesticks purchased from a boot sale a couple of years ago.  I had intended to paint them, but ended up leaving them as they were.  They are tarnished and a tiny bit battered, but I like that. The white vase was a recent charity shop find £1 and very deco in style.  Tulips, one of my most favourite flowers - white of course.  The tiny silver coloured pot with candle inside was also picked up for a few pence from a charity shop and is Penhaligon's.  The most gorgeous scent.  The cream side table is from our old life when we had money and was a very expensive Laura Ashley purchase.


Table again, Laura Ashley.  White lamp base, £1 from a boot sale. I spotted it from across the road and expected it to be broken & or chipped, it was neither and worked perfectly.  I am now on the hunt for the perfect shade for it.  The pretty clock was an ebay purchase several years ago, I can't recall how much I paid for it, but as you can imagine, it wasn't a lot !


My GORGEOUS cream and white chandelier. I LOVE it, currently in our bedroom, but will be moved to the living room when hubby finishes decorating.  Another Ebay bargain, from what I can remember about £40 plus shipping (came from Sweden) .

Rachel Ashwell

Many years ago whilst looking for pretty items for my home on Ebay, I happened upon a book by a lady called Rachel Ashwell.  From that moment on I was smitten, here was someone in America (English lady actually) who styled her home just the same way that I did.  She loved white and pre-loved items, buying from yard sales, fairs etc, just like I did and was the originator of the term "shabby chic". 



I had to have her book, I checked Ebay and found at that time she had 3 books published. I bought them all and waited excitedly for them to arrive.  I was not disappointed. A feast of beautiful, pretty and sometimes breathtaking pictures.  A step by step guide as to how she had transformed her home (as a single mother ). I spent every single spare moment pouring over those books and waiting excitedly for the next one.



To date she has published five books and a dvd (I have been unable to find an English version of the dvd)
If you like my shabby style, you will LOVE Rachel's books.  Pop over to Amazon (cheapest place I have found to buy them) and treat yourself, you will not be disappointed.



Rachel went onto open several stores and a host of  lines, opening her first store in London's Nottinghill (sadly not with shabby prices) .  I really would love to visit it one day, just to look and long ....

Take a look at her  Blog  - Total heaven on Earth ! Sigh ........

Pretty in Pink

Something I am always on the lookout for are china sugar bowls and milk jugs, especially with  pretty pink flower patterns. 

I love the thought of days gone by when tea was a proper ritual.  Teapot, sugar bowl, milk jug, dainty cup and saucer.  Today everything is rush, rush, rush.  Sadly, its not likely anytime soon that the four men in my home would join me in my love of this ritual.

 When I was a single, childless, girl about town, I would regularly sit  on my balcony, looking out to sea, sipping my tea delicately from a china cup and saucer and flipping through my vogue magazine pretending to be a "proper" lady ! Ha! Little did I know that my neighbours (now very  dear friends) would watch me and smile at my "grandeur".


A collection of some of my bowls and jugs all but one purchased from Ebay.  The only thing I resent about winning an item off Ebay is usually the postage cost makes the item not such a great bargain .



This Sailsbury Regency bone china sugar bowl is a real favourite of mine.  Won for 99p on Ebay but with a hefty £3.95 postage. Bah !



The wonderful ashtray above was a real find at a car boot last summer at just 20p.  Filthy dirty in a box of junk, I spotted the pink swags and when I picked it up discovered it was back stamped with a mark from The Ritz ! The stories it could tell.  Hope they don't want it back anytime soon. 

Take a minute to pop over and discover the other pre-loved treasures found by those taking part in .MagpieMonday

Plate Passion

I have a passion ! 

for a pretty plate, it doesn't even have to be in perfect condition.  If I love it, I love it !

Over the years I have collected many, some are now chipped, some cracked and a few broken.  I am not precious about them, this is the beauty of paying (mostly) pennies for my lovelies. 

I use them everyday, the family are used to my mismatched bits and pieces.  I think it adds to their beauty.  I will say though that I don't put food on the cracked and chipped ones for obvious reasons but I cannot bear to part with them.


A Selection of my lovely plates



My most expensive single purchase £4.50 for this totally too die for Johnson Bros Pareek Bone china plate



Really pretty Noritake Plate



I love the fact that the guilding is worn on this gorgous softest of soft pink plate (make unknown)

The smallest room in the house

With so much work to do on the house when we moved in, after the first job of ripping up all the filthy carpets (see previous post).  We decided on our limited budget the one place we could afford to sort straight away was our upstairs loo.

Before (apologies for the poor quality of the photo (BB - Before Blogging ) 



AFTER


AFTER - Blue & white stripe wallpaper Laura Ashley sale, Bunting won in an auction on Ebay £4.99


Hubby has spent hours and hours bringing the original door handles back to their former glory.  They were almost black with dirt and age on all the doors in the house when we moved in.  Pretty hearts again an auction find on Ebay.


Love this wooden sign, cheers me every time I go in the loo.  Won in an auction on Ebay for £9.99, Hearts also off Ebay, gorgeous designer material (can't remember price or name)



Nautical inspired porthole mirror, the only item we have in our home that came from my OH's previous home (that he shared with his previous partner !) I am assured he choose it ! LOL!  

There you go the first before and after pics of the smallest room in the house.