Tuesday 25 June 2013

Monkey business!



This cheeky monkey was bought from my lighthouse man! (See other blogs). He's pretty old I think n is beautifully jointed with beady glass eyes. I am tempted to hold onto him! Talking about monkeys, I've recently been clearing out our loft which has thirty years worth of memories up there. There were hundreds of cuddly toys, some very special and some bought randomly by my children at school fairs, charity shops etc for twenty pence or so. I have found these characters from the monkey family of various sizes, colours and characters (see below). All this time, there has been a veritable zoo above my head. Some of them are heading to new homes.There must have been a secret loft world which I have now disturbed. Baby clothes, toys, games, tins, as well as pure rubbish, if rubbish can ever be pure! I don't think so, considering how dirty I am when I come out after a session cleaning up there! It's amazing how much we keep. Often the things we keep are really beautiful items worth holding onto for future generations. My daughter's baby has inherited some of her mummy's clothes, even her christening robe as well as lots of great toys from the eighties! I have photos of both of them wearing the same things thirty years apart! However, there are things which I think, why on earth have they been kept!! An old pair of trainers?? Two old pillows? A broken football game where the spinning teams have no pitch to play on as it was used as a stepladder until someone's foot went through it! Why you may be wondering, did I hold onto these things? Well, your guess is as good as mine. One positive thing though is that my and other people's hoarding instincts protects items which will become our collectables of the future. When I sell a lovely old tin, I wonder where it came from and why someone held onto for all these years so that I could find it and then pass it on to someone else. I do often wonder in this minimalist age, where will all the collectables of the future come from? So at least when I'm despairing as I trail through my loft treasures/trash, I can feel some justification in holding onto things so that they may one day be someone else's treasure bought from a stall just like mine. I think part of the problem is that it's hard to treasure something which is so common at the moment such as all the big Roses, Quality Street tins which abound around Christmas time. Even I have thrown quite a few of these out after using many of them to store pens, nails, candles etc and exhaustingly ran out of ideas for any more uses. But perhaps in forty/fifty years time when they're a bit bashed and maybe tin isn't used anymore as a material, those very same tins will be fawned over by young people. You just never know!!!

They're escaping from the attic!!!










Thursday 6 June 2013

Woof woof!

Last Saturday was another lovely day at North London Vintage Market. We even had a dog show with lots of funny characters, dogs n their owners included! The proceeds went to North London Hospice. It was great fun. We took our dog along too. She even had a bath to prepare for the big day. Alas she didn't win any of the categories which were: best dressed dog and owner, dog with attitude and rough diamond. As a Border Collie, she definitely has a category of her own for intelligence. It was really great to see so many people with their pets out in the sunshine. That's the last market until September but of course I'm at Spitalfields as usual every Thursday. I've got some lovely T G Green Cornish Ware mugs together with a mixture of blue n white egg cups. I've still got a couple of Chef-ware jugs. Along with my haul of china from the lighthouse, I also have some great blankets, patchwork, knitted and crocheted, in beautiful jewel-like colours. I think now that the sun has finally put his hat on, I may keep them in storage until the autumn. Look out for them here later in the year. Meanwhile the enamel fest continues with lovely clean lines of blue and white plates, mugs, bowls n pie dishes. These are great for picnics, camping and some for going straight  into the oven for a great apple pie!