The Fabric Room

The Fabric Room
Originally uploaded by thefabricofmylife.

On Sunday night I was very sick. I haven't been that ill in years. Monday I spent most of the day in bed, sleeping, recovering. I NEVER go to bed. I HATE going to bed because I always think I am missing something, but this time I had no choice. I was proper poorly!

On Tuesday I hobbled out of bed to clean up my fabric room as I needed to take some high-res photos for publicity. It was no mean feat believe me. This room was filled with bags and bags of fabrics that I had bought and just popped into the room thinking that one day I would put them away. The problem with that was there was simply nowhere else to store them. All drawers, shelves and cupboards were full to bursting. So after lots of effort I removed all the bags to be stored elsewhere so that now I have an organised, useable and (I think) beautiful room to work in. My Sylko dispenser is now right at home on the counter. So here, for your eyes only, is the fruits of my labour. Come on into my shop, pull up a chair, let me get you a tea and enjoy rummaging around the shelves. (click on the photos for close-ups) Pin It

Thrifty Tuesday

On Tuesdays I try to do a quick whip around the charity shops to see if there are any lovely things that I couldn't possibly live without. Very often there isn't or maybe there will be one thing. This Tuesday I was very pleased to find a beautiful blue jug with two tiny yachts inside for the grand total of 40p!




A beautiful blue teapot. I am trying to introduce more candy colours into my kitchen and this teapot is perfect.

A pretty little spring time tablecloth

But the piece de resistance has to be this wonderful vintage sylko cotton dispenser. I am not ashamed to say folks that I begged the lady in the shop to sell this to me as she didn't want to. They were selling the cottons individually and she was quite reluctant at first. I can be very persuasive when I need to be and she made me very happy when she said I could buy it, cotton reels and all. How perfect is that for my vintage sewing room? I won't ever have to buy cotton again!


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The Little things

You know sometimes it's the little things in life that bring the most pleasure. Take for instance the other day, when I was in Woolworths. I found the most beautiful pink and floral broom for the princely sum of £3.50. I gasped and said to the lady standing next to me 'isn't that the most beautiful broom you have ever seen?' She looked at me askance and said gruffly 'it's alright'. Well, it made me happy!!

In fact it made me so happy I bought the matching dustpan and brush.

I have also had some great vintage finds recently. Here are a few of them:

I love this little Scottie with his smart polka dot scarf. He is a pepper pot. I only wish I had the salt pot to match!

My favourite Forties floral fabrics

Lots of vintage Rick Rack braid

Some cute vintage Scottie dog ribbon

A delicious polka dot teacup and plate

And a great vintage shop display hand

The background was another purchase. A couple of ex-display items from Accessorize which I bought for 50p along with 2 gold disco glitterballs, hollowed out, for putting our speakers in for the bar. An eclectic mix, that's me!

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Parallel Universe?

I was over at Lark checking out Allison's delicious blog when I came across her post about her budget tin. It reminded me of the tin I bought just before Christmas that I hadn't shown you. During my visit to Saffron Walden I found this delightful tin for saving for those good things in life.





On Wednesday I won some lovely egg cups at a local auction and had taken photos to show you. Allison has just posted about her recent find, a Big Ears egg cup from the 1960's. I have collected these for a while now and some of them were mine from my childhood so I was delighted to win 3 more to add to the group (even if they are a little battered).




So you see, we are living a parallel universe Allison and I. Me up here and her down under!


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All the fun of the thrift

I had a great day thrifting on Friday. I spotted some mannequins for sale in the local paper. Mr Big Stuff had been looking for some for quite some time and the little old man who was selling them was retiring from running his clothes shop in Ilfracombe and was selling up. Thinking he may have some old shop fittings I accompanied MBS there. Sadly the shop was completely gutted ready for refurbishment but the mannequins were fabulous and just what MBS had been looking for. While he was loading up I decided to venture into town as I had spotted some charity shops on our way through (It's the first thing I look out for when entering a new town). Now I don't go to Ilfracombe very often, especially in winter. It's a funny old down-at-heel North Devon seaside town, all fudge and fairy shops, but the charity shops were great. I love going to charity shops in places I don't normally go. Their stuff always seems more exciting and unusual somehow. I also liked the fact that the charity shops were scruffy, independant charity shops for obscure charities. I find that some of the bigger charity shops like Oxfam, Barnardos and CLIC are a little sterile these days. Their stuff is sometimes too new and I wonder what happens to the old smelly stuff. I fear the worst! Anyhow I found some great stuff like this........

Flour shaker to go with my sugar shaker



A gorgeous pile of crockery in ice cream colours



A scottie



A shabby chic jug









Some tablecloths


A linen Teatowel





And my favourite thing of all, a kitsch poodle tin full of buttons!!

I know, I'm easily pleased! I also got some fabric, some old kids books and a teletubby rucksack for Lizzy who was beside herself with love for this tatty old thing (like mother like daughter!). Oh and I still had change from a tenner!

After all that thrifting I was quite hungry so we went down to the quay and had lunch in Damien Hirst's restaurant. It was lovely. As it was a fine, spring-like day we took our time driving back along the coast marvelling at the views and reminding ourselves how very very lucky we are to live here. I just wish I had remembered to take my camera.

When I got home I sorted out boxes and boxes of stuff for a lady to take away for a local jumble sale. She had a car load and could have held a jumbly with my stuff alone! It's my new regime, one out, one in.

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Turning Japanese

Morning all. I was woken up early this morning by one boy with a toothache and a small girl who just wanted to be up and about. So, stumbling into the kitchen to sort little people out I decide to tackle the huge amount of ironing that is making its way across the kitchen floor. I put on the kettle, whilst waiting for it to boil I switch on the computer. Major mistake, whoops! Oh to hell with it, who needs uncrumpled clothes anyway? I shall just pretend that they are a Yohji Yamamoto creation! I am currently into all things Japanese. For example take these beautiful little wooden dolls that I found in a charity shop yesterday. They are called Kokeshi but I know little more than that. I just loved their little faces. There were about 6 more but I left those for someone else to buy. The brightly coloured one on the end I already had, I bought it at another charity shop months ago, and she has sat by my computer ever since. Her sisters are much older but I think they look just wonderful as a set.




Whilst on the Japanese theme, I got these beautiful little Japanese lunch bags from Tasha. We were involved in a swap where I sent her some vintage fabrics and she made me a bag from one of the pieces. I was totally surprised when I got three of her gorgeous little bags! They are so well made. Just how lucky am I?


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