Kims Wedding Planner

Thats it ive had enough , I need to find a new career and ive seen just the job id be good at , Kim Kardasians wedding planner , honey I could spend your money perfectly .
Want a palace in France for the venue ? we can do better , the Queens been told to make more money from her palaces . So how about Windsor Castle , sorry we cant do an abbey or cathedral except maybe the dodgy one in Liverpool . plus in the price she will even lend you a bit of bling from her collection and supply the carriages.

Then you want lots of A list guests , mmmmm a little bit more problematic , doubtless Kims side will be pretty full with relatives . But who can we get for Mr Misery Guts . he must have some family and friends out there somewhere? I suppose its the Obamas, Oprah and Beyonce   just be careful nobody thinks Michelles his mom or she may have him shot , plus inviting The Obamas will save you the cost of security . The Beckhams and family will fill a few seats . Prince Charles will go anywhere theres an eco event and Camilla , anywhere she can sneak off for a fag and a gin. sorted
As for the dress, please love not white again , youve a buggy parked by the altar theres nothing virginal about that , except if your a chav.

Bridesmaids , theres plenty of choice but the dresses need to be really bad, otherwise your little sisters are going to outshine you . Pippa Middleton will do anything for the price of a  handbag and she does have experiance ?
The reception shouldnt be a problem , weve loads of desperate for publicity celebrity chefs , but if you apply that great tradition the free bar it should liven things up no end . Beyonce can earn her free flight by doing a turn maybe a few of those strange blokes with the half mast trousers could mumble something .
Anyway chuck I will send you my CV after all what have you got to lose?  plus its a full time job a wedding every 2 or 3 years

Disorganised Wednesday

My blog Keeps growing ...Thanks to all those who have visited and especially those who have decided to stay , I think it may take me a week to make my way through the whole list. Meanwhile in the real world ive had a hard day tackling my tax return , theres nothing quite like leaving it till the last minute, it sort of energizes the whole experience , especially if youre chronically disorganized like me . Well I say me doing it , really I just hurl it at the eldest in a heap and say "do something with this" . not sure about our parent child relationship but it always ends with me getting a long lecture about how shes given me files and has done spreadsheets why have i not used them ...lol...
I look on in amazement at all those blogs that feature 101 ways to have the perfect life  , im a great believer in building my nest in this corner , more to keep the cold off me than anything , piles of craft supplies make an amazing draft excluder , USB gloves can also be worn on your feet and a ski mask is guaranteed to scare any burgler who looks in the window .Im afraid im a chronic muddle along sort of person . But you have to remember that come the zombie apocalypse I will be well prepared to stab them with an extra large knitting needle , crochet large zombie catching nets , and theres a good supply of bamboo needles that might come in useful for vampires .

 So heres a picture of yesterdays little score , Hornsea salt jar unusual pattern and colour and salt is quite a rare one to , straight into http://stores.ebay.co.uk/katiesrecycle. Lesley Anne Ivory Ginger cat box , well it it the image of my fur baby before he lost his figure . then there was quite a lot of wool which ive also popped into the shop having taken what i will use out of it

Negative Tuesday

Im here!!! it has been a long very damp , very boring day in the real world of work today . Not made better by coming home to child murder by my daughter ( doesnt that sound like a thrash metal track title? ) and that vacant whats for tea look from the rest of them .
Well sorry folks my back is killing me and all your getting is all the half bags of anything thats been chucked into the freezer in the last 12 months, the cook is on strike .
I wish i could say I have stacks of thrift finds , but a day in Skegness is always very lean on the thrift front , plus the constant driving rain didnt help. I had a whole 3 hours to kill between jobs and you only get 30 minutes to park in the town center without a bank loan .I did find one newbie to me charity shop only open on a Tuesday in the County Hotel , it was full of little old ladies who i think were hotel all year guests , they had a roaring fire so i did hang round and have a root . It was really reasonable and a clothes seller would have had a field day , lots of big name stuff . But I can hardly dress myself let alone buy clothes to sell ..lol
After picking my nails sitting in a car park on the seafront looking at errrr rain , I finally escaped and managed a quick pop in to my favourite haunt at
spilsby , Keiths Rescue Dogs , yeah £1.50 for a bag full,. I cant even photograph them because NOBODY has stolen my lightbulb , the inquisition will start shortly , cheese gratering their toes sounds good to me.
Do not annoy a crabby menopausal fat bird , we are dangerous !!!

My Blog Grew!!

I seem to have become a multinational operation overnight , ive had guests from as far as India and China , loads from the USA and Canada  , found more people who thrift , and scrap craft , lots of quilters . Ive still only visited half the blogs in the list and now the internet has died because the Sunday Layabeds  have all crawled to their laptops and sofas . Thankyou folks its so nice to know you have an audience out there even if it is for only the weekend , I hope a lot of you will stay around till we get to the Spring and boot sale season , but ive spotted an auction on Wednesday so may trot along or should I say hobble .
Yesterday afternoon we were that desperate to get out  that we went to the first Jumble Sale of the year , it must be bad I was chauffered by Mr Bah Humbug , but he did stay in the van .
That was a wise move , this was a seriously posh village jumble sale and theres nothing more vicious than a hard up Aigle Wellie wearing female whos dabbed horse pee behind her ears . They were queuing down the road  , it was hilarious they were scrapping over the posh brand childrens clothes it was a pleasure to watch , i recognised a few of the local ebay clothes sellers trying to elbow there way in, then staggering back with a couple of M&S bits .

 I spent not a lot on a couple of bits of china a Mikasa stoneware bit of gorgeousness, thats off straight into the shop,  a tiny cream jug that turned out to be Alpine Pottery Ohio, that my daughter may like  and a Wade Whimsy puppy for my grandson who rather likes little pot animals . I was so good I didnt buy anything just for me ...

Grow Your Blog

Today is Grow Your Blog Day a wonderful concept , that seems to be a worldwide venture . So today as well as eating Haggis , I get to tour the world of blogs.  The southern hemisphere , just because its summer there and i need  blast of sunshine . The States just because I envy the space they all have and the fact its acceptable to be a Homemaker and even a Christian , both much frowned upon in the UK . Canada just because Im green with envy of the place . There may be many more places to visit , I hope so. Where else can you get a world tour , from the comfort of your own home .
So welcome to Kates weird world where I thrift shop myself through my lunch hour and then try to sell it all on ebay , while hiding away the bits I can manage to find a use for . http://stores.ebay.co.uk/katiesrecycle.
Thankyou to Vicki for hosting this Monster Party  at  http://vicki-2bagsfull.blogspot.co.uk/

Robbie Burns & Other Gripes

Its been end of the month invoicing day today ,a little early this month due to my little incident with a back spasm . Yesterday i spent an awful lot of time wet through and freezing working in the real world . A hot soak and an early night cured the matter. Till I bent down this morning to put on my socks and spasmed . I literally just fell sideways onto the floor and couldnt move at all .
 So im laid there unable to move and realise im on my own in the house  , my mobiles wherever i put it down and the cats not much of a nurse . I was there for half an hour till it gave up trying to cripple me .
Is this the beginning of the end ? Am I officially a little old lady at 50 ? Will I have to wander round with a buzzer round my neck?
Its a sad fact that working for a living can leave you in a lot of pain by the time you reach your 50s , I spent my teenage years working on the land evenings and weekends and holidays . Then working in warehousing for years , so its just wear and tear for which theres no real treatment other than industrial painkillers which I dont take because i have to drive every day . I know its legal to drive with perscription drugs but its not a good idea for me .

But at least today has given me time to find a little bit of Robbie Burns from the Home for Redundent Volumes , this gorgeous bit of Victoriana  was another bin find , it still has the tissue paper over the plates and is internally perfect , I dont think its ever been read so I plan to curl up and indulge in a bit of nostalgia tonight  all ready for Haggis Day tomorrow

Alvingham Love

Ive just been trawling ebay looking for something for a craft project , when you live ruraly theres no just popping to the shop. When up pops my favourite search . Alvingham and its orange the one colour I dont have
Now im broke till April and ive promised faithfully not to buy a single thing for me so, instead im just going to have to lick the screen and just let it go ..AAWWWWWWW
In the meantime ill continue to live through everyone elses gorgeous finds and beautiful houses

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Studio-Pottery-Alvingham-Pottery-Samll-Bulbous-Vase-2-Tall-x-2-Dia-/161193272455?pt=UK_PotteryPorcelain_Glass_PotteryPorcelain_China_SM&hash=item2587de2487

Ladybird Love 2

Its funny you pick up your first ladybird book in months and the next day you find another, Ballet . I did have this one as a child , so I will tell you my ballet story .

My mother in her urge to be more middle class decided that ballet was a suitable hobby for me . so every Saturday morning i was dragged off to ballet class in a local drill hall , i think it was a bid to make me more graceful and fairy like . Now these days I would have probably have been statemented as having Aspergers and Dyspraxia, back in the 60s no chance . I am so clumsy its unreal and I loathe social activities, so it was never going to go well . After 6 months of having to be dragged there quite literally screaming and kicking it was time for the annual show , i hadnt progressed a single grade so the teachers decided I would have to be a tree and sort of lurk in the background , meanwhile the dreadful Melanie who I went to school with pranced round doing a rather appalling impression of a swan. The trouble is she kept smirking at the tree in the background , so the tree decided to attack her mid production . I was dragged home in deathly silence to be killed and my mother did take a belt to me. But my dad crept upstairs later to offer his opinion " next time get her on the floor , with your weight she wont get up again" Bless him , he really should have had a son

Now you may be wondering why Susan from The Inquisitive Harvest Mouse is modelling here , well Susan is the child I really wanted to be , look shes dainty and perfect she got the pretty dresses , she had curly hair and a family that cherished her. Everyone should have a heroine , I found mine in a Ladybird book

Linkin up with .. http://www.wecallitjunkin.com/link-party-17/

Ladybird Book Love

Once upon a time I was given a Ladybird Book , I was 3 years old and an aunty bought me Rumpelstiltskin for xmas . I was so frustrated that nobody would read me the story that i taught myself to read , I was a very annoying child and thereafter I have never taken  my nose out of a book for more than a few hours . as an adult i started buy ladybird books for pennies wherever I saw them , I taught my kids to read with Peter and Jane and now my 5 year old grandson prefers them to the rather odd reading scheme they have in schools these days .

 I recently found The Flickerdick hidden away , it was old when i was given it as a child dated 1947 . My daughters favourite was Lucy Leek & Bertie Brussel Sprout , well she is a Lucy . I didnt realise I had quite so many as i have there must be a couple of hundred , nowadays they cut them up to use them for decoupage but the quality of the illustrations has always been good and the topics a little strange sometimes.

Today I found Everyday Words for Numbers and  it still cost just pennies ...enjoy

Angelic Sunday

Ive done little today but indulge in an overdose of self pity. still havent narrowed down what i could possibly have eaten that gave me this wonderful Sunday .  Ive not ventured out at all .
I did trip over this as i ran to the bathroom , shes been sat here for 5 years she is my favourite Victorian print, I wouldnt part with her for the world . She hung at the bottom of my bed at the old house , but here the walls wont take the weight . Id wake up in the morning and she just made me smile . everyone needs a guardian Angel in their life dont they?

 .

Diary of the Frustrated Crafter

I really need to organise , but when all your crafting and ebay and real world work takes place in a 6ft square in the corner of the kitchen its just not going to happen is it . I exist in between the boiler and a filling cabinet..lol . Plus when it gets cold this is the worst spot in the house so nothing much happens in here once the sun goes down and the heat from cooking tea goes . Its also the coolest spot in a summer it doesnt get any sun so its swings and roundabouts .
Today has not gone well on the crafting front , started looking for empty cotton reels for a couple of projects , find them after trashing the place,  search out some of the other bits you need then realise youve put the spools down ...somewhere....and i still havent found them. AARRGGHHH
Decide to get on with another WIP then find the glue has gone off , its a 30 mile round trip to get some , plus £5 to park , totally skint so have to put that all away again .
Drag out my cross stitch do half an hour then the munchkins are home and want to help ..AAARRRGGGHH
So I guess its got to be my hexies this evening nothing could possibly go wrong with that could it?
This is just a portion of the mess ive made today , id be ashamed to show anyone all of it

Thursday Blues

Im afraid its the January blues setting in , ive thrifted so little this week , not listed much on ebay and read some seriously trashy novels . im informed that people can tell my mood just by the music that comes blaring from my corner when im down. At the moment im depressing everyone with the Carpenters greatest hits , skipping the weird space song of course . I think I suffer from musical schizophrenia, favourite cds in the car for work Gilbert and Sullivan and the Clash which are always good for picking the kids up with the windows wound down .
The kids know my wish list for my funeral already..lol  Johnny Cash Danny Boy and maybe a bit of Great Big Sea .
Its only January and I cant wait for Spring , the best ive seen is the catkins on my hazelnut bushes, then the music will turn to Guns n Roses , Bat out of Hell and Runrig or something ive picked up in the CD dump bins on my travels .

So tonight im off to sneak upstairs and watch my favourite chick flick The Jazz Singer , I was never a Neil Diamond fan till my mother and aunty dragged me to a concert under protest . He just seemed to enjoy what he was doing so much and he was damned good at doing it , then the dvd was a magazine freebie and i must have watched it a 1000 times . So please dont tell Johnny Cash my heart belongs to Neil Diamond these days  . He may just cure the January blues

The Pulling Teeth Season

Ive had a wander to the seaside today bonny Skegness then back to Spilsby  and bought nada !!...The charity shops are rammed to the doors with stock but nothing quirky or interesting . Ive Grimsby tomorrow so maybe im just being to picky . Every shop seems to have Pyrex ,has everybody replaced it for xmas? if they have what could they have replaced it with? Pyrex has to be the most useable collectable out there.
 Just one thing caught my eye  a set of 6 shot glasses in their original box the packaging is really tatty but theyre great it has vintage cars with a little RAC box and edwardian ladies and gents .
Ive sold the glasses before , they dont make a fortune but they do sell , so into the shop they go

Dragged from the Vaults

 This is something that has been sat hiding under the xmas plates tucked into the corner cupboard that we cant use , for the last 10 years . Its done 3 house moves and I still love it , I paid a £1 for it. Its a large 14 inch charger with a lava green glaze .
Ive never had anywhere it can be displayed

 its to big for a cabinet .
Now it is marked but all I can make out is Sweden . I know that a lot of you are into Mid Mod which I suspect it is , please pass this on because im curious to know what it is . Its going nowhere , I love it

Sunday School Thrift Score

Still suffering from thrift starvation , then i pop into my church coffee shop and find these beauties .
Heres the story , the church had had a visit from the Health and Safety Police and had been told they must get rid of these little beauties , because they couldnt be scrubbed with disinfectant . You really cant make this country up sometimes .
Theyre original to the church which dates from the 1880s  they have hundreds of years of use left in them and if i didnt live in a shoebox theyd be staying right here , sadly not a shipping item  but theyre into the ebay shophttp://stores.ebay.co.uk/katiesrecycle , im sure they'll find a good home very quickly

 

Boston & Pyrex

Trotted off to work in Boston today , finished by dinner so plenty of time to wander the huge amount of charity shops . Overflowing with stock and what did I buy a single summer shirt off the £1 rail so that was 11 charity shops and i spend £1 , some of them still have the space heaters on from the floods just before xmas .and a nice aroma of mould . Its a bit sad really theres a few shops have builders working but others are just stood sad and empty . Boston seems to have been forgotten because it picked itself up and got on with it , you didnt see Mr Cameron hanging round there for a photo opportunity and that night the church in the picture ended up with 12ft of water inside

Now I have a question for the Pyrex people out there . Was I mad not to buy a set of 6 JAJ Pyrex cereal bowls in this design ? one that ive never seen before . In the UK Pyrex isnt the big seller it is in the states , ive a weakness for Tally Ho and will buy it if its cheap enough and it does sell, but most of the other JAJ designs apart from the big casseroles and mixing bowls are really slow to sell , due to the weight they arent that good to ship either. We live in a country where the dishwasher is still a teenager , so its usually in really good condition,  i was debating buying a few bits to put away for a rainy day .

What Happened to films ?

Over the holidays we watched tons of old classic movies . Oliver Twist , The Titfield Thunderbolt , Kind Hearts and Coronets and tons more .

Meanwhile my five year old grandson is addicted to westerns the old black and white stagecoach and comedy indian variety . Carry on films have him glued to the screen . I asked him why he likes them so much and he said "because they have ugly people in them " It took me a while to figure out that one, then I realised what he meant.

 Back in the glory days of cinema people had facial expression , warts , scars. Men went bald and not every actress was a lollipop head , yes they were full of racial stereotypes but the baddie always came to a bad end so they were quite moral tales .  


So even at 5 my grandson realises that he cant reach the realms of the beautiful people? that its all false and not reality . I think thats so sad,  that what we see everyday lowers peoples sense of themselves . That the younger generation doesnt realise that those on the screen fart , belch and scratch their bums just the same . Will a filler face ever become the norm? do you look at some of the actresses on screen with admiration or horror ?

Thrift Starvation

Its been murder these last 3 weeks , unable to go and do the charity shops , stuck out in the wilderness . 

So today was a stunning anticlimax , all geared up for work and all work cancelled by 9.30 ..lol

But this did mean more time to wander the charity shops !!!

I have wandered most of Lincoln and what have I bought ? Nothing . there wasnt a single cut price xmas item , it was all awash with gift sets that nobody wanted , most of them priced higher than the original store price . i was so bored I was looking through the clothes rails, but it was all sparkly tents in the big bird sections , you know the 2 inches at the end of the clothes rail stuffed in a corner bits they make the fat lepers struggle to reach . (national bitter and twisted fat bird day,  in case you hadnt noticed )

Household linen? Nope not a 70s tea towel to be found.  Books ?  how many more Dan Brown clones can they churn out ? It was all a sea of Blah , it was like a visit to Primark . Is this the end of thrifting as we know it ? Ive nothing to show at http://sirthriftalot.blogspot.co.uk i must hang my head in shame , im a failed thrifter 

Love the 70s

Well the internets been a bit better today so ive managed to upload some of my mountains of listings on to ebay , ive lots more to do but at least were not swamped out or blown away yet . sometimes im glad were 25 miles from the sea .  It looks like this is going to be a winter of big destructive storms , theres not a thing we can do about it , just watch. The gardens a swamp and it rained under the front door last night . More to come i gather
Anyway , just because this made me smile I thought id share this 70s Kniting & Crochet book , with the infamous bottle dogs and loads of weird and wonderful animals , ive got a pack of vivid wool hidden away so i might have a play this evening .

Back to work in the real world Monday , so normal service may be resumed if theres anything in the charity shops . I so need a thrift fix

Progress , Well ive cleared one pile

Ive had a quite fruitful couple of days rooting and putting away , with xmas sales at  http://stores.ebay.co.uk/katiesrecycle  having been not to bad. I actually have room to move .
The shop is virtually empty , ive done loads of listing onto the terrible Ebay Turbo Lister and I just need one evening when the internets fast enough to upload them..lol  You can of course schedule your listings but they charge extra to do it , which when its low value items makes a difference .
I seem to have found lots of low value items , a box of postcards that i swapped with the gentleman on the next stall at a car boot sale , and yet more photographs .  But having moved everything I managed to get down to my shelf of craft books and as they were out for a dust here they are .

Do you think theres a bit of a theme here? Kaffe Fassett , Ehrman , William Morris , Cats and Victoriana , ive always been a sucker for coffee table craft books , most of them are from car boot sales and ive rarely paid more than a £1 for them , ive another shelf lower to get to , but i think that will be a while yet .

Anyway today im celebrating , I take dreadful photos , but one of my scannered bits of Victoriana has been featured at http://www.thecottagemarket.com/2014/01/upcycling-junkin-joe-features-linky-party.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheCottageMarket+%28The+Cottage+Market%29    thankyou so much .
Please be aware ive no intention of copyrighting any of my ramblings or images of what i find and collect , this is my little bit of public viewing space that anyone can view and enjoy
( I hope)
Meanwhile at the Thrifty Grove , theyre trialing a blog link up with a difference this week
http://thethriftygroove.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/jump-start-your-social-networking-for.html
hope ive got this right , it seems such a good idea

A Victorian New Year

Ive really had to search for these little bits of New Year , im rather lacking , which for me and Victorian cards and ephemera is rather strange , i will have to keep my eyes peeled on my travels.

First stew of the new year bubbling in the slow cooker , traditional beef with the twist of a sweet pepper and 2 big spoonfuls of Approved Food cheap mango chutney , the carnivore members of the tribe can winge this month im afraid , I havent a lot in the freezer , but its nothing new and theres more than plenty to last till the end of January or truthfully till Spring..lol
 Once youve had the experience of having nothing to feed your kids on , however many years ago , it turns you into a store cupboard hoarder . So ive enough rice couscous and pasta to feed an army tucked away . Theres all the xmas leftovers hidden in the freezer , stock, vegetables and  a mountain of mash . We roasted the last of the sprouts yesterday with olive oil and garlic. theyre nearly giving them away now so i may get a couple more stalks and craftily serve up sprout slaw.
Weve done really well this year nothings gone to waste , apart from half a black pudding that got left out of the fridge and didnt pass the sniff test . And an out of date double cream that was tucked behind something else in the fridge . Does anyone else bake with sour milk and out of date dairy products ? My gran always did and nobody died, but people look at you as if your about to commit mass murder these days ...ho hum