Since the since then...

 At the moment, after a lovely sunny summer that seemed to last forever, 
I'm sat at home with my legs stuck on a footstool like a lazy old tart with nothing better to do.

 I've been at home for 7 weeks so far and I have a couple more weeks before I can put one of my lazy tart legs on the floor again.

Yep it be a little bit busted.

Not just a clean break, oh no, my first ever broken bone has to be an awkward one with a fancy name and I have to break both my leg bones just under my knee. The very same knee I need to use for weeding & walking. Urgh.
A boisterous dog ran into it on the park, he took a playful bite out of of Frank's bum, Frank ran and hid behind my legs, boisterous dog hit my legs, owner cleared off sharpish.  Hmmm.
So here I am, still on crutches, no longer in a thigh to toe cast covered in paw prints having to do many a strange leg action that would make John Cleese proud, (thankfully) but a stretchy metal calliper type thingy to keep my knee lined up with the other leggy bits. Bald bloke calls me Forest Gump. Oh the joys.

I get to loll around the house in jogging bottoms (a new experience for me...I'm liking it!) and I have been rediscovering old hobbies like doing a spot of landscape painting (bit rusty at it mind you) reading books a plenty, watching the 'delights' of Jeremy Kyle, I've become obsessed with 'Homes under the Hammer' (and their ability to match any tune to suit the last sentence spoken about a house) oh and I've been eating lots of biscuits. LOTS of biscuits.
One good thing is that I don't have to drive bald bloke to work in the silly hours and I do get to ride around in a wheelchair when I venture out at the weekends. My bestest pal who came to visit thought it would be amusing to abandon me and my giant leg and take a photo. We also went to the local DIY centre where Frank very nearly 'watered' the artificial Christmas trees on display..eek! Sharp exit there!

There was nearly a tipping out up the curb incident at Ledbury recently which was slightly embarrasing but I'll let Baldy off for that one. Just this once. I think if I'd have fallen out and rolled across the cobbles with my giant sticky out leg, I might not have shown my face there again..

Well summer, as lovely and busy and long as it was has whizzed past and now it's Autumn and I'm desperately missing being in the garden or over the hills and in the woods with the doglets.

The very bored doglets that get walked whenever they can by whoever is willing. 

The garden looks seriously neglected  both front and back. We were in the middle of digging out the pond to rebuild the wall having moved the summer house, and planting a couple of trees I had grown from seed. I have precious plants dug out in bags and bulbs that should have been in by now but hey ho, Spring is not far off and maybe ( hopefully) I'll be able to dig and kneel again by then to pop them back in the ground.

Bald bloke re did the roof of the summerhouse and replaced the windows with proper glass. He made the window frames a little differently to give it a thirties look and the colour is a little darker than before. By next summer I'm determined to have it finished with a new floor and that wallpapered ceiling. It's been ongoing for four years for goodness sake,maybe more. If I can find the measurements on that piece of paper I've mislaid, I might even get round to finally sewing some fabulous vintage deckchair fabric into the blinds.

  
I have all this time on my hands but am really restricted as I can't get to the fabric stashed in the roof or under the stairs or pop to the shops for a reel of cotton and every little thing is such an effort. Luckily I have the making of tea thing down to an art now. Got to have my tea fix. It's the law don't you know..
Anyway, I can't think of anything much else to tell you, it's all just on pause really but I thought I'd pop by here, my poor neglected blog. If you're interested, I've recently discovered the joys of Instagram (far easier than trying and failing to write a blog post on my phone!) I'm on there as  @vintageprettyshabby. It would be lovely if you popped by and said hello!

Cheerio for now x

Ps sorry if my blog looks a bit skew-whiff, I'm doing it via my iPad or phone rather than on a 'proper computer' and it won't play along nicely and re-size my piccies.

Go on say it....

ABOUT BLOOMIN' TIME you old crow..I hear you shout. Yes, I know, I've been gone an absolute age but you know how it is some days, life comes charging by and sweeps you along at warp speed, (that, and the fact I lost yet another very old kitty which made me a bit sad and I'm not very good at doing anything else when I'm doing sad)
Thanks for the emails asking if I'm dead or alive. I think I'm somewhere inbetween so I'll make this one a big post about nothing in particular as no doubt I'll scoot off again, doing two highly knackering jobs with funny hours dependent on the weather makes you do that sometimes.

::Weird freaky stuff
Now you might think I'm two sandwiches short of a picnic when I tell you this, but this is how it happened so I'll just come right out and tell you.At the height of my feeling down and tearful and thinking that the whole world and it's wife hated me, I had a visitor.
I woke up with a start to find a lady stood by my bed. Just stood there looking at me. Needless to say when you wake up to find someone unexpectedly stood by your bed it freaks you out slightly.I freaked out big time and hid under the covers, waking Pete up with my absolute freaky-outy-ness. Maybe it was a dream, I dont know, but I do know that this strange perfect heart shaped mark appeared on my arm a few days later.

It usually takes a huge whack to bruise me and I haven't bumped into anything heart-shaped or been stung by a horse fly or anything like that. It was just there, not hurting or anything.It stayed for a week and vanished as quickly as it came.(It had faded a bit when we took this photo, believe me, it was a perfect heart!)
Weird and freaky indeed but strangely it did lift my mood, I feel ok again and feel like the world isn't against me, which is why I'm here blogging. Ok that really makes me sound like I'm barking mad, what a way to start a post!!

::The paper knickers saga

A couple of people have asked how George's nose is after his reconstructive surgery. It's very good thankyou and you can't see the join where they stitched it back together with a bit of his ear...very clever stuff.
It was a bit weird seeing him with a slightly different but very nice 'textbook' nose, no-one else could tell the difference from his pre-accident one but I could because I made it in the first place. Being the right wuss that I am, I must admit I shed a secret tear for the old nose.
We wont go too much into the saga of the surgical paper knickers he was asked to wear but eventually after such a blooming hooha and delaying the surgery he was allowed to wear his own boxer shorts. Vanity? My son? Naaaah.


::The Marmite chair

I bought a gold metal and nylon velvet 1950s chair for £6, took it home sprayed it red and am in the process of covering the seat. It spins round. I love it. Basil loves it too especially when it spins but then he's always been a bit odd..he also like to be hoovered with the vacuum nozzle. Did you spot him in the White Stuff catalogue in his spectacles? Fame has gawn to his head and he finally has his wish of posh princess sachet food..(well there's only two kitties left now so I think they are allowed)
Everyone else thinks this chair is vile. A bit like Marmite..which I can't stand and everyone else in this house loves. Urgh.


::The Rainy day lampshade

I spent ages hunting for a cheap large white linen drum shade for the £4 standard lamp base I renovated ages ago, only to end up covering it on a whim one rainy Sunday afternoon with some fabric I'd saved for a deckchair.
Mmmmm, 1950s painterly lushness how I adore thee..

::Things you thought you hated but have now decided you like

I grew up with things like this, 70s bubble glass and G-plan furniture.Funny how you can change your mind about stuff isn't it?

::Square balls.

Remember my round-but-take-forever-to-clip box balls? well they are now slowly becoming a hedge.
There's been a lot of changes in the garden, the extra cold winter we had killed off a lot of plants front and back so I took the opportunity to change a whole border in the front, taking out large shrubs and replacing with my favourite perennials, it's all still a work in progress but then that's how gardens should be, an ongoing thing.

The first year is always the crappiest as everything tends to be the same height.


I'm far better at doing other peoples gardens than I am my own, if I'm redoing a flower bed for someone, I've got a budget, a colour scheme and a soil type but when it comes to my own plot, well that's another thing altogether. I'm a bit like a kid in a sweet shop when I'm at the garden centre and buy the pretty stuff I love with no-where suitable to put it! oops!

::Chickypoos

It wasn't only our 21 year old cat Winnie, that died, I also lost several of my old ladies this year including lovely old Big Bessy so there are 3 new lovely young chickypoos joining the flock; Florence the Barred Orpington and a Black, feathery legged Cochin/Orpington hybrid who looks like she's got 70s disco flares on and a jacket of the most amazing beetle-black colours, she's called Fanny (after Pete's Granny incase you're wondering who was neither black nor had a pair of 70s disco flares but there you go) and a Lavender Orpington called Beryl. The Barred one is HUGE and still only a baby. They came from a fabulous farm near us that takes chickens in for boarding, they sell beautiful,friendly, healthy birds in immaculate pens (often occupied by an oblivious Bacon the Jack Russel too) a farmhouse looking like it's straight out of Country Living and to die for Shepherds huts, made on the premises to order. Needless to say, I rather like going the 5 minutes down the road for a chicky-fix. (there's a link HERE if you'd like a peek)

::London

Pete HATES London. Only because he has to drive a 44 ton lorry through the hoards of traffic cutting him up at every opportunity and giving him more verbal abuse there than anywhere else he goes to in Great Britain. It makes him grumpy and it makes him sweat alot as there are hundreds of low bridges and narrow streets down there that his Sat Nav always seems to miss and if you come to one of those it means a lot of slow manoeuvrings, hooting, being sworn at and hassle all round.
I on the other hand have rather fond memories of our capital city.We used to live on the London /Essex border so trips to see that huge blue whale in the British museum and the Changing of the Guards were commonplace. I had my 5th birthday at London zoo when Chi-Chi the panda came over from china and it causes a heap of excitement, (poor old Chi-Chi is a stuffed exhibit in the aforementioned museum these days) then there was my 10th birthday at Madame Tussuads and feeding the pigeons in Trafalgar square.My first proper visit to London with Pete was to go to Johnsons on the Kings road for a pair of much hankered after biker boots, a visit to Flip for some 50s American bowling shirts and a milkshake at Eds Easy Diner.
Although I haven't been there for years, I do rather like London.

Don't think my other half will be too impressed with this though when he gets home...
I, on the other hand, love it. A kitschy 1950s London souvenir tablecloth.

::Swimsuits
I am trying to find a swimsuit with a retro look. Not an easy feat when you are shaped like a baking potato...this is the lush list so far:

Laura Ashley

For Luna

Cath Kidston

Ideally I would like to be able to just appear in the water without having to do 'The walk of shame' to the pool, but if you're going to look like a walrus, you may as well look like a walrus with style...

::Mollie Makes

Oooh this is the most fantastic magazine ever in the world, like, EVER. I've canceled my Country Living subscription and subscribed to this one instead.For the first time in months I've actually wanted to make stuff and this is what has inspired me.AND, you get to see in some of our favourite bloggers' gorgeous houses so it's not only making things. Go get it, you really do need it in your life.


So there you go, see..told you, nothing exciting, just some stuff to waffle on about but I thought I'd better show my face sooner rather than later.

Cheerio for now x

Vintage Dogs and going AWOL

Why the long face, Red?

You may have noticed I skipped over of December, Christmas, New Year and most and January too, for good reason though, this blog was becoming more and more depressing and I became embarrassed to add yet more gloom to it, even though that's just our life and that's how it goes sometimes, you get on with it and do the best you can with a situation until the next one comes along.
as you know, our situations tend to come along a bit like buses, none for a while then several one after the other. It's a bit of a pain.
Not long after we had to have Maude put to sleep, we came home and found her sister Ethel had died of a heart attack.

It was a bit of a shock to say the least and very sad too.Two cats in 5 weeks. I have a house of depressed animals now, it's made all of the remaining ones act most peculiar.
Then Pete got put on a 4 day week until March which we could really have done without (hmmm Mr.Stobbart doesn't show you things like that on his cringy TV program where he swans around with his 1980's comedian's mullet in his helicopter betting a mans week's wages on a horse..cringe cringe and double cringe)
Then I had to tell Pete on Christmas Eve that his friend had died, not only a friend but the brother of his best friend who was killed on a motorbike several years ago. Double tragedy for his lovely parents.It was seeing them that really broke Pete's heart. We have also had some trouble with our dear eldest son, who also seems to get himself into situations one after the other. Pest.
So I do hope this belated Happy New Year means just that for all of  you and all of us..

 That's that then..onto other stuff...

Bunty

Buster

As you may know I have a bit of a thing for vintage looking Terriers.Especially those on wheels.
There's Buster who you have already met and his sister Bunty who lives outside in the summer house along with many others scattered about the house, which you can read about HERE. So you can imagine why I was drawn to this little chap;


 I found this little brooch in a gift shop in Totnes when the old bald bloke and I went down to Devon back in October.Many minutes were spent in the shop umming and ahhing and cooing over this one item.I bet the nice lady owner wanted to hit me with a broom when I finally walked away without it.

I kicked myself on the way home as I didn't buy it at the time as it was rather expensive.Luckily thanks to the wonders of  t'internet,  I managed to find the lady who makes them and a diddy dog on wheels brooch found it's way to my house.
Don't you think its just so cute? A cute dog on cute wheels in a cute box..Luverly

 At the moment we are busy giving the house a lick of much needed paint whilst Pete is on a four day week but as with most old houses one job turns into 500 and it seems to be taking forever. It doesn't help that half the leftover paint in the garage froze and went off so we have to do it as and when funds allow (which isn't very often at the moment!) flitting from one job to the next and then back again. I'm meant to be making blinds that I was meant to making this time last year and lampshades too and ... I think I need to make a list else I'll be procrastinating all day.. yet again
I've also been busy helping a chap out walking dogs lately, it's nice but very tiring. I did 30 in one day not so long ago.Utter madness I can tell you but it was great fun in the snow. I need to learn to do that big whistle thing that men seem to be born with the ability to do (one that doesn't require you to stick your fingers in your mouth because obviously the down side of walking dogs is the collecting of poo thing..mmm lovely) One dog is called 'Alan'. It cracks me up and I can't manage to call him across a busy park without it sounding quite ridiculous! "AAAAAAAAALUN"
cheerio for now x

A letter

Dear sir
(man upstairs/creator of the universe)

I wish to make a complaint.

You see I'm having a bit of a bad time at the mo and I thought by the age of 41 things might have got just a little bit easier. I was promised that life begins at 40 and instead it seems to be falling apart at the seams slightly, like an old pair of well worn knickers.

I kept my promise to work hard and be nice to people and love all those creatures that come my way (although foxy is at the bottom of the list along with those spiders with the hairy knees that come out the plughole) So I am hoping in return you may do something for me..

Firstly, I would like you to send a large bolt of lightning down upon the person who did the damage to my lovely little new car. I thought that it was a tad spiteful to pull off the wing mirror and dent and scratch the door whilst walking past on Monday night and I really dont want to have to sell Florence to fund the £300 insurance excess, not after you helped me with finding her after all these years. I have grown quite fond of her and have just purchased some lovely 1950s fabric for her curtains.It would be a shame not to be able to use it, now wouldn't it?

Could you also see to my truck battery please? We have fiddled and twiddled with it and now it's making me a bit behind with my gardening and a little bit cross if I'm honest.

Thank-you for keeping the fox away, the poorly girls are now better and for making Mr Stobart understand about the stolen orange juice saga, even though Pete has been the brunt of many "looking well..must be all that vitamin C you've had recently " jokes.
Thanks also for letting me keep my sense of humour through all of this, I dont know what I would have done if you took it away.

I will, with baited breath,await your response.
your faithful servant,
Sairer x

P.s. I'm still waiting for a bum like Kylie's but I imagine you get a few requests, so I'm happy to wait a little longer, oh and it's the SATURDAY lottery we play..just incase you forgot. x

4th September edited to say;
Florence is for sale on EBAY if you are interested :0(

ooh lets have a bit of bluegrass...

Nature lessons...

::Human Nature::

Monday.
There happens to be some lovely people around these days.
In the shop where I work, a customer visiting from Scotland came in to purchase a birthday card and had left his money in the cash-point, he was pretty gutted, but I said that round here we're quite an honest bunch and he may find someone had handed it in at the bank.They indeed had, it made his day and in his words had 'restored his faith in human nature'

Wednesday.
My truck did not want to start. At all. Not a bean from the old beast. Turns out the battery was flat as a pancake and two of my lovely neighbours helped me sort it all out and charge it up and make me feel a bit less of a dumb blonde. Next week I'm learning to change a wheel...

Thursday.
After what happened last night, I think I really do have the best neighbours. I'm very lucky indeed.

Saturday.
Parcels.Oooh how I LOVE parcels.

There really are some nice people in the world, especially blogworld. A lovely lady called Ella made me this beautiful, beautiful cushion.Crochet is something I just cannot master, I end up casting on like knitting, but ask me to cast on to knit and I wouldn't have a clue! So when this lovely lady asked if she could make me a cushion for Florence, I leapt at the chance and as you can see it is just gorgeous.GORGEOUS.

Cheered me up no end that did.

Gave me one of those lump in your throat things at the niceness of a stranger, but really cheered me up.


::Mother nature::

Wednesday.
I do so love my hens and my cats and the old black dopey hound.
Far too much for my own good.
I spoil them and talk to them and just sit and watch them somedays, wasting precious time I shouldn't be wasting really.

Wednesday turned into a very bad day.

That pesky fox came back for his chicken dinner.
I was late putting the hens in,sorting out my truck, trying to cook some tea,answer the phone and feed the other animals when I heard the most awful commotion in the hen run. I knew instantly what it was ,the noise will haunt me for a long time. I ran barefoot across the garden to find feathers everywhere, silent hens in a state of shock lying across the ground and one poor girl crying out in pain.I panicked, I couldn't see properly as the light was fading and they are in the darkest part of the garden,under the big conker tree.
I was devastated, wracked with guilt and crying and there was no-one home to give me a hand.

My lovely neighbour came to her door in her dressing gown to find me in floods of tears clutching an injured hen in a teatowel. They were brilliant, I sat in her immaculate lounge with the chicken still in a teatowel, whilst her husband collected up my poor remaining girls,checked who was alive, who wasn't and put them safely away.The burnt tea went in the bin and a hot sweet cup of tea was made.I wasn't looking forward to the following morning.

Thursday.
The big clear up. Not nice.The injured girlie has a badly bruised neck but surprisingly survived the night.Hand feeding her is keeping her going but I'm not so sure I'm doing the right thing..should I do the decent thing or let mother nature take it's course?
Betty, my oldest hen refuses to open her eyes and Bessie has lost the majority of her tail feathers and refuses to move and big Elsie looks positively ragged.
Dolly and Violet unfortunately didn't make it.

I'm down to 5 and a half hens now, it all looks a little empty in the hen run.

Mother nature created a devious creature with the Fox.
Such a beautiful looking animal with such cruel ways. Sneaky ways.
A fox will destroy a flock in minutes and only take one for dinner.This foxy didn't get the chance for dinner and left over the 6 foot fence empty handed.Oblivious to the few seconds of chaos and the resulting horror.
I've no doubt he'll be back again so I'm off to shut them in extra early..

Next post I promise to be a bit jollier with some pretty stuff. x

A testing time (with added expletives)

Hello again, I guess you all get by now that I nearly peed my pants when I won that caravan then?(totally irrelevant silly cat photo of Basil in his 3D specs)

Blimey I'm getting more and more rubbish at this blogging lark these days and I wont even get started on my message skills..(lovespangle the reply to your eiderdown query is underneath your message on that 5 million eiderdowns post, I couldn't reply to you any other way!) oh and hello to all these new people that have suddenly found me on here! Also, I'm so sorry to the lady who sent me an email about the underground map cushions, I appear to have lost it somehow but they are teatowels I bought from an online London gift shop for a couple of quid..Google should help with finding those, if not Rockett St George has a rather fabulous underground map ready made one..(ooh I love that website)(photo borrowed from google)

Harry has the green one and it's really,really lovely (if a weeny bit expensive)

Right, it has been one of 'those' months..yep I knew it was too good to be true..I did say though didn't I? really I'm a size 10 underneath ..it's just the layers of thick skin I seem to have developed that makes me the mahoosive size I really am.Harry's naughty ginger bunny got taken by a fox one evening.Poor old Eddie, he was a nice bunny and we had had him for quite some years. I used to stroke his nose every morning which I really miss doing.It makes me sad to think of it as he was so friendly he would have no doubt gone up to the fox to say hello. The Fox has been snooping about since so we are extra vigilant in case he fancies a chicken dinner.Apparently the stinky boys need to 'mark' our territory to deter them..ewww!
Recently, quite out the blue and for no apparent reason,my debit card kept being declined,not funny when you have a weeks shopping bagged up in your trolley at the supermarket or you need petrol and your husband works away all week. Turned out some w*nker had cloned it and was swanning around using my name spending my hard earned spondoolies on wallpaper (£249 worth) and various other extravagant items all over the world totalling over £800. Luckily my bank had spotted it before I had and recognised that my identity had been stolen and I didn't lose any money.They blocked all the fraudulent activity as well as mine.Now we are getting strange phone calls instead from foreign sounding people that put the phone down when you start questioning them.ARRRGH.They obviously still have some of our details like our phone number and my kids names who they keep asking for.I wish they would just bugger off and leave us alone.
To top that thrilling week off I had to go in for a hideously painful biopsy which hurt so much this time it made me cry, the nurses thought I was going to pass out as I think I went rather pale afterwards.Harry and his girlfriend came with me to the hospital, just incase I couldn't drive home. He made me cringe with embarrassment as he asked in a very loud voice in the waiting area 'Mum have you just had a Chlamydia test?' I think that was the only 'girl thing' he could think of at the time!! Erm, no Harry I haven't!
It's times like these that I really miss Pete being around.Sometimes only a nice big man-hug will do to make things seem better. Teenage boys look at you as if your demented if you ask for a hug and tell you to 'stop being such a girl'. They just loiter a bit longer than usual to see if you're ok and make cups of tea. Tea solves everything in 'girlie world' (then they leave all the washing up for you)

Then...yes, there is more.. both the truck and Pete's car failed their MOT's within a week of each other..my truck which is normally fine, needed £500 worth of bodywork doing which the nice chap kindly let me pay for in installments, Pete's piece of sh*t Peugeot which is 12 years younger than my pickup truck has failed each year, it rattles and smokes and this time was the last straw. It really has been an sh*tty awful car and you wouldn't think it to look at as he kept it immaculate. So for our 13th wedding anniversary after doing lots of sums and umming and ahhing we did something rather scary, we bought a new car. A little pearly white sporty looking new car with less than 4000 miles on the clock and £35 a year road tax. I'm not really a fan of new cars but I'm quite taken with this one.It looks quite cheeky. Hopefully it's a reliable one. I'm especially impressed on how far you can go with just £10 of petrol! I dont think the boys were too impressed though. I was told it was 'ok, but a bit gay'. Strange how that word has changed meanings over the decades from meaning 'pretty or pleasant' in my parents generation to 'rubbish' in my childrens' via homosexuality in mine, a lady I used to garden for used to tell me I had a 'gay face' I was never quite sure how I should have reacted to that but seeing as she was well into her 80s I took it as a compliment! Anyway, I'm sure though I can live with the fact that my new car is a bit 'gay' even though it's probably very politically incorrect to say so.(no offence meant and I do tell them it's inappropriate to use that word for that meaning before you all hunt me down with dogs and pointy sticks)

The two stinky boys had some sad news too, when one of their young buddies was killed in a very tragic motorbike accident.If you live in Worcester or Malvern you may have read about it in the papers. I think it is every mothers nightmare to lose a child so suddenly.Pete and I have both lost best friends at a young age and it was sad to see them feeling the same way we did all those years ago.(another irrelevant Basil photo)

Last night I felt really unsettled, Wednesday evenings always seem to be horrid, we both seem to get 'middle week syndrome' but this one was particularly bad as I was tearful, irritable and comfort eating like it was my last day on Earth, I hadn't a clue why but I didn't go to sleep until after 3am but was woken up with a phone call early in the morning. Pete had had his lorry trailer broken into and some of the contents stolen, he woke up at 2am to find a Van pulled up along side and a gang armed with knives,slashing the side to get at the pallets of..wait for it...orange juice... inside. Stupidly he tried to get out of the cab to see what was going on, all bleary eyed and half a sleep after 15 hours of driving from one end of the country to the other.The gang saw him and tried to get at him in his cab, luckily they didn't as they would have wanted to make sure he couldn't get to the panic button they are fitted with and gawd knows what they would have done to him..six armed men against one. Scary stuff. The worse thing is that it's a sackable offence if your lorry is broken into, they have to get to a proper truck stop before they run out of driving time and the one he got to was full up so he was turned away. He's worried sick, so I hope Mr. Stobart understands his predicament. I guess you become tuned in to each other after 20 years and maybe that was why I felt like I did..who knows.Poor old Pete.
I'll be glad when he gets home on Friday.It's been a very long week indeed..

So, anyway, would you like to see inside 'Florence'..my vintage caravan?
There is quite a bit of painting to be done, some rewiring, a new floor, the glass replaced on the toilet window and all the soft furnishings, so it won't be even attempted for ages, we've got a whole list of other jobs to do first..(namely finishing that summerhouse, which Pete has now dismantled, leveled the base and put back together again..yay!)
There were all sorts of bits and bobs in it, loads of brand new cushions which all didn't match and weren't to our taste, infact everything you see in these 'before' photos came with her..

YIKES!!

needless to say,lots went to the charity shop and the poo stained porta-loo (urgh) went to the skip. After a clean and a clear out she looked just a weeny bit better..for now


The cute yellow frosted glasses were lying in the drawers, I think they are called 'sherbert' glasses or something.

She even had the original 1960s awning in a cupboard, as well as these odd bits and bobs;

A full first aid case, a working retro clock and a box of robin starch from the 1960s.The Bush radio was unfortunately well beyond repair.
There were also some strange framed modern prints of spacemen landing on the moon, so I'm guessing 'Our Flo' must be as old as me!
The recent paint job is really ropey, someone has practically troweled the varnish and paint on inside and out, we will just sand down and paint the inside all white to start with with add some nice little lights and some pretty floral curtains or maybe some gingham curtains or even some retro curtains! I can't decide.
I'd also rather like some bright coloured Formica worktops and a checkered floor. Still, I mustn't complain, It's just a few little jobs and for what we paid for her, she's pretty much ok otherwise.

I'm trying to wean myself off Cath Kidston at the moment, I loved it when it was something new and quirky back in the early 90s but now it seems like the world and his wife owns a bit, it all seems to have become a bit cheesy and mass produced.
That little original 1950s fabric washbag in the photo below is one such design that was tweaked and re-introduced by Miss K 40 years later.
Currently I'm going cold turkey, but it isn't working very well as I bought that scouty looking campfire/caravan badge blanket recently especially for Florence. Oops.As proof of why you should never throw anything out, I've found I'm drawn again to the things I liked 20+ years ago, 1950s things again and it was funny that I was only thinking how I'd like to hang an old swimming costume on a vintage Butlins coat hanger in the bathroom..I have some serious bathingsuit love at the moment...these two are recent finds to add to my old collection

and I was also thinking how I'd like to get some of my 1950s fabrics out the loft to sew some more funky atomic cushions when the most fabulous magazine fell onto my doormat with just such articles..
I'm absolutely loving Homes & Antiques magazine at the mo, I've been buying it for quite a few years and it just gets better and better each month (they are the fourth people to have asked me to do a housey feature thing but the house is really too unfinished at the moment..but how flattering is that?!!)Righty oh , I best go..especially after such an eventful bunch of tales I've left you with.. blimey what a misery guts I must sound but I'm quite a cheery person in real life -honest!
Hope you all at least have a good month!!x