A Vintage Start to the Day

I am still on holiday from work until September, but Dave has returned to work and the only daughter still living at home is working, so when I get up in the morning I have the luxury of having the house to myself. Now as you might have guessed I just love collecting bits and pieces of pretty vintage china and housewares, but for me these aren't items to be simply stored away or set out on display to catch the dust, but things I like to use and treasure. This morning I decided to treat myself to a leisurely breakfast - nothing fancy just some wholemeal toast spread with butter and heather honey, but with a nice big cafetiere of real coffee to wash it down with. What better way to make an occasion of breakfast than by setting my vintage tea tray that I bought yesterday with pretty china and a flower from the garden.

This is my idea of luxury - simple I know, but using pretty things from the past that I continue to love and treasure.

Charity Shopping & Crafting Sunday

Well despite today dawning beautifully sunny my other half pointed out (rightly - unfortunately!) there were too many jobs needed doing for us to venture out for the day. I had to content myself with combining a mini food shopping excursion into the next village with a visit to their one and only charity shop, which, lucky for me is open on a Sunday. As it turned out the visit was quite rewarding. I came away with the lovely vintage tray pictured below for only £2.

I also got a floral print Monsoon maxi skirt for £3, a blue tie dye effect Jordash top, which will look great with jeans for £3, an Anokhi for East blue printed quilted jacket with a matching maxi skirt £3.50 for the set and a yellow Red Herring blouse for only 50p which will be ideal for when I return to work in September.

After my shopping trip I decided to finally make the table runner I've been promising to make for ages. A couple of years ago I bought a large Indian patchwork wall hanging - at least when I say wall hanging that is what I bought it as, but when it arrived it was huge. I contemplated using it as a bedspread - it would easily cover a double bed with lots of overhang, but it is very very stiff.

Sooo... it has hung around at the back of a cupboard, waiting till I could decide what to do with it. I would like to end up cutting it down so that some of it can still be used for the wall hanging I originally had in mind, but I needed to find a use for the rest. It was while I was in Newcastle one day, window shopping in some of the fancier - hence pricier shops, that I saw a dining table runner in similar Indian patchwork.  I can't remember exactly how much it was but it was upwards of £30. I promised myself that I'd get around to using some of the wall hanging to make myself a similar runner, but never really got motivated to do so - till today...

...finally!