Political Monday

So its conference season, where we all get to be bored to death , the other week we had Gromit gurning aka the leader of the opposition  , then we had Mr Carrier Bag Clegg the most irritating man out . Now its Dave and the public schoolboys . Dont you just wish his wife would get a life and run off with a hunky ex SAS bodyguard , Dave could take to drink in a big way , the kids could go to rehab, might make any of this interesting . Heres Dave in his second job , modelling knitting patterns . Sorry fellas and ladies we realise youre the biggest bunch of self serving backslapping liars out there.  The countries gone to the dogs , the only boom industry is Foodbanks .
So lets all shop on ebay , just to save the VAT...lol

.Meanwhile in the world of ebay its the end of the month , which means I must try to use up a bunch of free listings they gave me for locking me out of my account, struggling to find little bits and bobs . Maybe more craft and knitting patterns they make pennies but they do sell . Or postcards? ive a box somewhere lol...

Day off Sunday

Not a single car boot today , Mr Bah Humbug pointed out im not abiding by the one in one out rule...lol..If only he knew . So instead a day of domestic servitude and a few crafty pursuits , trying to finish my window quilt for the winter. Freezing house, crap oil heating that we cant afford to run , no fireplaces, single glazing. Do I need to say more? Had an idea for the little retro train case , time consuming and fiddly but very low cost because ive pack ratted the stuff i need to do it , so that can go into the WIP pile .  Not listing tonight because a teenager wants to steal the puter , in fact hes tapping his foot as we talk , so I will continue to rabbit on ..lol
I will leave you with a bit more of my rehomed  Victorian Sunday collection .

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Saturday Something Different

All the readers of my blog (Thankyou) you  must think i do nothing but drive around, wander round car boot sales and sit and play with my ebay . Its the weather, its the end of September and its just nice to be outside , its sunny and pleasant and your not turning into a sweaty crispy critter .

Today  Mr Bah Humbug  took me to the Auto Jumble at Hemswell , you do get strange looks at an autojumble if your female, they assume you must have been only going out with your fella for a few weeks and are just indulging his interests ..lol.
 But I love them , you can find the strangest items to repurpose , theres nothing like the look on a sellers face when you tell them its for your bathroom wall and its a lump of something oily and rusty , didnt buy anything today which is unusual , but Mr BH was a happy man.
This afternoon I dragged a protesting teenager to a Jumble Sale , not been to one in years but it was local , picked up this odd item. I thought it was reproduction it looks so new , Royal Worcester transfer printed plate from 1896 . The Mayor was having a bit of an ego trip so when he got elected he gave one of these to every school child in Worcester, bet they were all baffled . Sadly all I bought , but it was worth it for the experience  ,little old ladies are still vicious when it comes to bargains, dealers still pretend theyre poor needy folks who should be sold stuff for pennies and I just enjoyed the spectacle

Car Boot On A Friday Whatever Next

You know when you see that sign car boot today , you automatically assume its just been left there since Sunday. Driving past Market Rasen Racecourse and theres a little car boot sale , so i was forced to pull in and have a look , probably 20 stalls , but even at half past 10 they had nice stuff , mind you the weather was on its side, glorious sunny day in late September. I filled a bag , a miracle for me .Fabric for ME and yet more breakables WHY.  But another month and there will be no car boots , so got to make the most of it while it lasts .
I think its game and fox hunting week for me today , nice JAJ Pyrex hunting cup and saucer , set of tot glasses and a Edwardian China planter that boasts pheasants and roses

So please can someone answer a question , I dont quite grasp Pyrex Love , for me its just a functional item, thats used on a daily basis even if some is my mums from the 50s, it seems to be taking off in the UK now , but its still cheap and cheerful except at Vintage Fairs...lol

Be proud of me look at the dust on my Singer !!!

Motivation Thursday

Ive come to a conclusion that Thursday is just not my day for motivation 

Up at 6am read blogs, online paper ,sort grandson out for school, pick daughter up from school run , do some paperwork realise its nearly lunchtime and youve forgot your breakfast and to hang the washing out in that small window of drying time you get this time of year .  Realise the kids have returned the hoover full and bunged up ...lose the will to live at this point . 

Spend an hour looking for a wretched paperweight id lost thats sold , list a pile of stuff on ebay  , do post run ,cook tea. Then its 6oclock and my daughter makes me a cup of tea ( Thanks Love) She says I must mention the fact that she managed to scald my crotch with it ..lol...

Now in an ideal world i would be going for a nice hot soak and an early night with a good book ..Nah 

Ive come to talk to you instead , im amazed people seem to be reading my ramblings , so please feel free to comment , i dont bite , mainly cos im old and toothless..lol

Alvingham Love 

Anyway , how much Alvingham can one girl own , They make the pots in so many sizes that you can stack them inside each other like Russian Dolls !! Pin dishes can be hidden by the dozen in your filling cabinet . I'm banned from bringing home any more table lamps and the birdy feeder things are hard to hide . Its a 70s retro dream. Love the colours its doesnt break or chip easily and its slowly creeping up in price which doesnt matter to me. I dont collect the brown tableware which is lovely because i havent got space.  Spot the odd one out in the picture ? The white one is signed Pru Green 67 so its my oldest .

Torksey : Kill some time

A Lunch hour treat for me today , Torksey Car Boot , starts at the very civilised time of 12 oclock . Got to love this place the familiar rutted hell hole car park, lots of wasps , and the aroma of burgers . Not as much there as on a  Saturday, but the quality is better , lots of house clearance folks with nowhere better to go , lots of retro, lots of everything really . Once youve dodged the men with the big bags in the rugby scrum when they open the gates , Im sure you know the type pig ignorant experts on everything youre selling , ive always found the best way to deal with them was to double the price on everything they wanted, listen to the sob story about how their dying granny cant survive without it, then laugh as they gave you a mouthful and walked away . Tons of stuff i could have bought , but im on a strict budget and one  sold one bought regime at the moment ( bit like the steps programme for alcoholics ). Anyway heres my diverse haul . The big stonewhere vase is a thing of retro loveliness , this is a crap photo , its has a gorgeous handle and a very 30s vibe going on with the landscape, deer and flowers , its still got its original sticker for Blue John Pottery on , condition isnt great, its got a fair few flakes to the paintwork , i will try and clean it and see how it goes , to big and heavy for ebay , so might have to be creative with the resale of this one, could be a guest for a little while i think . Just look at Mr Piggy , a bargeware hand painted 60s Scarborough piggy bank , hope someone on ebay likes him as much as I do . And just to prove im not welded to retro , a Margaret Sherry Cattitudes sandwich tray , another for ebay methinks

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Before Pinterest?

Long long ago , i developed a really bad idea and started saving pretty book illustration from dilapidated books , then it developed into the even worse habit of keeping the books lol...Day off today and to relieve the tedium , i rooted through a box that had been buried for years , it was full of my old picture files , everything from the fronts of 40s and 50s sheet music , book illustrations , wrappers you name it i'd pack ratted it . But thats what you did years ago and im an old bird so i come from the generation that made scrapbooks , sitting at the table with that evil yellow glue cutting up Womans Own and Look in , postcards ,quality street wrapper borders anything that caught my magpie eye

 Does a magpies eye equip you for a life of Thrift? I think so , youre always looking in the next box , the next shop , the next skip ..lol But now we have Pinterest for a new generation , ive tried but i just get bored , i know people love it ,but i think im always going to be a paper in my hands kind of person . But the kids will need a big recycling bin when im gone...lol

Gainsborough . WHY

Yes i spent my lunch hour wandering round Gainborough , spent a stunning £3 including lunch...lol.
Its a strange place in a very English way , its not on a road to anywhere much , theres little employment except for Smiffys and Ping and the charity shops are pretty much picked clean , it has some lovely buildings ,The Old Hall right in the center of town and  the big Church. Hidden on Church street is the Antique Centre , very much a rambling Tardis kind of a building with saggy floors and a real variety of stuff and very reasonable price wise, but shut on Mondays , seems im always in the wrong town on the wrong day. Even the Sally Army on  the housing estate had nothing to offer , they built a new shopping center in the old Ruston plant , so it has all the new chain shops in the town center.  So today I leave you with our Liz another sympton of my collecting disorder

Car Boot Sales

Wandering around on a Sunday morning looking for bargains is something i didnt think id do again, but today was so glorious, plus  there was a teenage bloodbath helped along by a 4 year old going on at home and Mr Bah humbug had dragged his trike out .
So off to New York i go. Sounds very glamorous but its a little village near Boston , with a windswept field . 30 stalls approx, which isnt bad for rural Lincolnshire , I feel i was very good really, I resisted the urge to buy a huge box of vintage wooden coat hangers , realising im never going to get round to making them funky, a la Mollie Makes , did buy some nice thin cotton curtains for the fabric , daughter keeps moaning for a green themed quilt . Spotted some vintage christmas stuff , the lady practically gave me it, then kept adding more boxes to the pile, which was kind of worrying . Im trying to downsize the mounds of stuff i already have !!!
But im sure Ebay will help with that problem . Ringtons tea Jubilee mugs all boxed up as new 20p , couldnt turn them down and they dont sell so theyre MINE. plus a little tiny victorian pansy jug , not sure what i will do with that but its pretty .. Then on the way home I saw the sign again , so Tattershall Lakes car boot had to be visited , I suppose it was half 10 by then and all the good stuff could have gone , but still it was pretty bad , a glorified Sunday market with the same old car booters with the same stock week in week out ,spent a grand total of 20p   on a Hillstonia little planter that i will use .
But now heres my rant for the week , why is it every big commercial car boot has a proper car park thats like a rutted land rover play area , all the money they have, can they not fill in pot holes!!!!

Creative thoughts

This bit of retro ugliness , was the item that they said in the Sally Army "are you sure you want that?" at the till. Im still looking for inspiration if anyone has any going spare ? Ive debated about colour, what to reline with , uses, as im not a vanity case sort of girl . It just reminded me of Audrey Hepburn stood at a glam 50s airport and i had to have it. The trays missing and one stud off the bottom , interior is grey, drab and a bit tatty , unamed and a bit unloved . The deciding factor was price a whole 50p !!! for something for Me rather than the ebay shop

Friday On My Mind

Work just spoils a good day trip out..lol..not a single charity shop , nada . So ive had to list a few bits that seem to have been here forever , I could probably list for the next thousand years and still have to much stuff , it hasnt quite turned into an episode of hoarders yet , but theyre have been times when ive had to stop taking my purse out with me? Is that bad?
 Anyway heres my next boring lazy day job , you cant sell jigsaws without of a photo of the completed item, unless theyre new and sealed , I love retro jigsaws and ive sort of bought loads and then never got any down

time to actually do them , ho hum, so what did I buy yesterday , youve guessed it jigsaws !!! These are my favourites  Waddingtons 500 round jigsaws  these are from 1969 /1970 , ive not seen the moonprobe one  before , so now i just need a grandkid free few days and i can puzzle to my hearts content .

Thursday : Gloom

Lovely day for it?  just returned to the bat cave after a drippy day at work. Thats the gloomy bit ,on the plus side , I managed to thrift shop my way round the county . I came back laden up with all manner of strangery , best comment of the day, as i go to pay "are you sure you want that ?" . Sadly not a lot for ebay , but an awful lot of stuff for ME...Ive ended up with of a pile of 1975 Fashion maker , a part work ive never seen before , not just dressmaking lots of knitting and crochet I want to wade through , sadly clothes for skinny chicks and if i put them away for 20 years they may have value...lol...Big pile of jigsaws as well , all will be revealed .  So no listing tonight , ive an appointment with a stack of magazines

Spilsby Amuse Yourself for an hour


I confess not a lot of work done today , so a scenic tour of Spilsby had to be done. what can i say ? Im really getting to loathe Age UK or whatever other rebranding its done , made the effort to go their and their clearance shop was shut .AAARRGGGHHH it doesnt open much just Tuesday Wednesday 10-3 but in the few weeks its been their ive bought all manor of useful items , they still have their normal shop as well so at least that was open. , The hospice shop was open and Keiths Dog Charity managed to yield a nice few of my favourite 1940s knitting patterns .  I leave you today with my favourite vintage cat artist Mr Archie Mason

Motivation A Challenge

Do you get days when you struggle to motivate yourself ?  Ive decided after lots of self analysis that
A: Im a lazy cow
B: Every home should have a washing pile that resembles a Mongolian yurt
C: If the kids steal the hoover , make no effort to find it!!

So for the next few days I may just list the weird items ive found in the drawer beside my desk , because i cant be bothered to walk across the room to the filling cabinet...lol

Another strange day on ebay , i listed a bunch of my mothers xmas decorations , these have been gathering dust for years. i listed them last year and not a flicker of interest , have they suddenly become trendy and nobody told me ?

 Meanwhile heres a little singer treasure that earns her keep , born 1917 in Glasgow and no she wont be going on ebay ...lol

Jesus Day

So thats it nobody will ever read my blog again , I admit I run a rescue home for all manner of Christian objects . Not in any way because im a church going converter of the your going to hell brigade , just because i grew up surrounded by weird religious folk and i love tracts and the Victorian images of Jesus . im a believer in a quiet keep it to myself kind of way , not that posting it on here is quiet . But hey its Sunday the day of Saint Tescos . Once upon a time it meant something, so it peeps out all over the house, meet bedside Mary , she couldnt possibly stay in the skip I rescued her from could she?

FRIDAY THE 13th

I had a real busy at work day planned...and then Microsoft Office crashed and burned, seems they only give you a year when you buy a new computer ., so now ive got to sell a kidney to buy the wretched thing , corporate greed at its best . But it may inspire me to list more on ebay , plus a lousy weather weekend always generates sales
 Bonus of the day , just dusted off ten years of dust from a Butlins tin only to find it was full of all manner of patches and badges, Elvis from the 70s , they appeal to my closet Elvis fetish and i cant see them going far i think theyd make an excellent bag addition

Yesterday I was working in Boston Lincolnshire,  i managed a couple of hours in town haunting the charity shops .The first thing you notice about Boston is that it has a thriving market still , mainly because once you retire thats where you go on a wednesday. Ive visions of compulsory bus trips herding them all on board with a cattle prod in the villages. Another question once you retire is it compulsory to wear beige ? Ive reached the age where "on trend" is meaningless not quite got to the beige stage yet but who knows .
Did wander into a few charity shops , Katherine Holme nice enamel casserole £39.00 ..no thank you , yes Age Concern im talking about you !! Butterfly Hospice , love you, 3 gorgeous 1930s knitting patterns , lots of rather nice stuff in there , reasonably priced even the retro stuff goes on the shelves rather than in some dealers boot . RSPCA why did i bother ?  Took a ride via Kirton home, this has a little Scouts charity shop which i love , tiny so they have to shift stuff fast and cheap, erratic opening hours , lovely staff , a proper old school charity shop.. So yesterday i managed to do my job and spend a stunning £1.60 , this includes a couple of books which will be recycled back to the charity shop

Im doing really well ive motivated myself into doing a second episode !!! once i get the hang of this i may even attempt pictures . In the meantime i will just continue to ramble on. Todays chore is put more of the totally strange objects i buy onto ebay , thats me Katies Recycle, long term sporadic ebay seller . Sometimes it grates a little selling on ebay , when you come from a family of hoarders its hard to part with stuff that belonged to your mum or grannie , but i have this little motivational voice "pay the rent , pay the rent" , plus a ginger cat who thinks he should have Iams instead of Value cat biscuits .
I read a fair few bloggs , some have been going for a long while others have suddenly vanished , Hardup Hester where are you? Some have gone on to get sponsership deals and loads of goodies sent to them , but they tend to be the yummy mummies , not the evil old hags like me with teenagers to police , hair like a greying scouring pad  and a washing pile the size of a small country .  Do people really live in these strange white painted homes with children? How many granny squares can one person crochet? Theres the really baffling American ones where they just lay tables with different china every day and take photos ...strange
ENOUGH....time to list OHs Dr Martens that he wont miss and my mothers glass crimbo ornaments

Day 1

This may be be my first and last day as a blogger!! As a technophobe with little patience the urge to hurl the computer out of the window has been with me for the last hour trying to access my own account .ARRRGGGGHHHHHH

Strange blog facts . This will need to be hidden from the family as anything grandma does is treated with contempt.
Ebay is now back in my life as ive decided i cant keep working 60 hours a week for little return , driving all over in all weathers then just coming home to slump in front of inane facebook games .
At some stage i will get the hang of this Blogger thing it may be a slow process so bear with me