Pink Saturday

This week I am pleased to participate in Pink Saturday hosted by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound. On Pink Saturday (which happens to be every Saturday) you can post about anything pink. I wasn't sure if I'd make it as my telephone line was down for a couple of days this week. Even though I don't spent a lot of time on the internet, I like knowing it's there when I want and it was quite disconcerting to be without.

Anyway, today I'm showing a shelf in my china cabinet which just happens to have quite a lot of pink. Mainly figurines and flowers, as you can see, a mixture of old and not so old, but mainly old.

Years ago when I was a professional working girl, this Coalport figurine was a gift from a client (in the days when such things were allowed). She's not a favourite and has nearly been sold on a number of occasions but she seems to get on well with the other figurines so she might as well stay now.

The new girl, this pretty Royal Doulton lady was a present from Mr. Bloom last Chritmas. I showed him all the ones I liked and he chose one from them, so that it would be a bit of a surprise. ( I think I might have mentioned to him that this was my favourite ;-))

A pink-tinged souvenir shoe with a pink rose...

More china roses...

This cute girl, a memento of my one and only visit to a Flea Market in the States. Also in my working girl days, I was lucky enough to travel to the US a few times and on one occassion had to stay over the weekend when there just happened to be a flea market nearby. My eyes were out on stalks and I could have bought loads but my suitcase was already bulging with all the craft supplies I'd bought during the week! I think I bought a few other small items, but I can't remember what they were now.

Pin dolls and doll heads though there seems to be an imposter who's not strictly pink - I'll have sort her out!

Very unusually for me I did some baking during the week, my sweet dad had brought round some raspberries from his allotment - too many to eat in one sitting - so I found a recipe for Raspberry Muffins on the internet. They were really easy to make and turned out rather tasty. I added some pink icing, which wasn't in the recipe, and I think you could make them with other fruit too, I'm going to try strawberry ones next.

Hope you enjoyed my pink participation, for more pinkness pop over to Beverly's blog to see who else went pink today.

I must say Thank You to dear, sweet Jennie at Falling Down the Rabbit Hole for my Blogging with a Purpose Award. I shall have a look round and see who hasn't got one yet so that I can pass it on.

This weekend my dad has come over to help Mr. Bloom re-locate our living room door.

Rubble, dust and chaos reign in the Bloom household again. I wanted it moved, I must be glutton for punishment. I'm staying well out of the way upstairs in my workroom!

Lucy x

Musical Makeover

Well, loosely, it's a makeover of my old piano stool. I don't have a piano so it's not really much use as a piano stool.

I used to have two pianos in a previous home - I learned to play as a child, I was rubbish but it didn't stop me inflicting my playing on everyone! I only play once a year now, carols at Christmas on my mum's Yamaha electic piano which she keeps for that purpose.

Sadly, in subsequent moves the pianos were relinquished, I don't have room for one now, but somehow the piano stool managed to stay with me. I don't really have room for the piano stool either, but it has sentimental value and with this makeover it could go somewhere where there is room for it.

First of all, the lid was removed - I was left with some rather nice decorative hinges which I will be able to use somewhere elsewhere. Unfortunately it had sustained some damage to the legs - tiny teeth marks, Pickle took rather a liking to it when she was a puppy, hence the reason I can't bear to part with it. The teeth marks don't really matter for this makeover.

First I gave it a good coat of PVA to seal, then a few coats of cream garden paint (a glass of wine always helps these thing along!) and a few holes drilled into the base.

Contrasting panels of green and it was ready to go to it's new home as a garden planter.

I thought it looked a bit plain though, so out came more paint and a bit later it looked like this. I haven't planted it up properly, just put a basket of plants in there for now. I think it would look lovely filled with nasturtiums - can you get them in pink?

I have put it in my little garden nook, a suntrap where I like to sit now and again, when there is some sun - but not for too long!

I have some bunnies to keep me company here sitting on top of my hanging basket hook. I didn't make any hanging baskets this year, so I've hung a lantern there instead. It's so cosy to sit out here at dusk with the candle lit.

The top of the stool is being put to use too, as a really comfy garden kneeler.

I think I'll re-cover it some time though, a nice vintage looking floral would look much better.

This week's flowers from the garden:

Have a good week!

Lucy x

Mini-Break (and PIF result)

As well as our Shropshire mini-break, I seem to have taken an unplanned blogger mini-break as well, don't know where the last 2 weeks have gone!
Almost old news now but Mr. Bloom and I had a few days away during Bank Holiday week, a bit of a tour really.

Day 1 we stopped in Ross-on-Wye on our way to our first stop - Hereford. Half a day in each, just wandering around the shops, and a visit to Hereford Cathedral. This is worth a visit, it holds the Mappa Mundi - a map of the world as interpreted by scholars in the 13th Century.

Day 2 on to Shrewsbury, stopping in Leominster on the way - it's been mentioned on other blogs before, but Leominster is fantastic for lovely antique shops, a real paradise for vintage-lovers. I could have spent the day there but didn't, we went on to Shrewsbury for the afternoon and overnight stay. Shrewsbury is lovely, lots of old Tudor buildings, but a nightmare one-way system in the town centre, we missed our turn for the car park and it took us 20 minutes to get round again, being lunchtime didn't help. Shrewsbury has lots of charity shops, so many that I didn't manage to get round them all before the shops closed - a good excuse for another visit then!

Day 3 - homeward via Ludlow, Leominster again (a change of mind about something I hadn't bought, fortunately it was still there!) then a final short stop in Newent, though we didn't have enough time to visit the Shambles Museum, before heading home.

p.s the pics are all from Shrewsbury apart from the first one which is Hereford Cathedral. I didn't notice a smudge on my camera lens which ruined a lot of my pics - plus I was busy shopping most of the time anyway!

Thought you might like to see where we stayed (Mr. Bloom takes me to all the best establishments ;-)).

Well, actually it was my idea, for those you haven't heard of Travelodge, they are a budget motel chain, usually located roadside or in town centres. We use them quite often, they are very basic but if you book in advance you can get a room for £29 per night (or £19 in sale time), about half the cost of a regular B&B and much cheaper than hotels. Breakfast is extra, but we don't bother and find somewhere nicer to eat.

The accomodation is nothing fancy but percectly acceptable (if you don't mind orange walls!) for an overnight stay. Some are better than others. I go online to see what's available, that's how we ended up going where we did.

So, on to my shopping. I picked up a few nice things, not the huge haul I usually manage to bring home, but I have to start considering where I'm going to put it all, so some self-restraint was necessary.

I was thrilled to find this vintage chocolate box drawers. I'd been on the lookout for one like this for ever, but they are rarely found, even less so in my price range (£single figures).

Another vintage box full of sewing bits and bobs

Someone went to a lot of effort to crochet this pretty pinny and trim with lace - too nice to use I think, though a stain shows it was, hope it will wash out!

Some millinery flowers, the pink peony is just divine.

A lovely chunky pressed blue glass cake dish.

A vintage Laura Ashley catalogue from 1984. It's hard to find the older ones of her catalogue now, I used to have quite a collection of them but let it go some years ago (drat!)

It's quite recent to be vintage and some of the pictures and furnishings still just look dated (to me) but there were a couple of pretty interiors which I wouldn't mind in my house.

Now that there's some colour in the garden it's so nice to be able to pick a few flowers to bring indoors. This little posy is currently brightening up my telephone table in the hall.

My PIF I posted about last time is now closed, congratulations to Laura and Linda Lilly Cottage and Sue in Chester who will be receiving something from me sometime hopefully soon. Please email me your postal addresses ladies and any colour likes/dislikes.

I'm painting our utility room today and I think the paint must be ready for it's second coat so I'd best get back to that now. Hope all's well in your corner of the world!

Lucy x

Piffed and Made Over

I mentioned last time that I had won a PIF from Jennie at Falling Down the Rabbit Hole. My prize was this darling teddy, full of detail, that lovely and talented Jennie had made. I also got a packet of cute pastel coloured buttons and a bar of Turkish Delight - no need to tell you what happened to that!

Ted immediately made himself at home and started limbering up...

Turns out he's quite the acrobat!

Thank you Jennie, he's quite adorable!

Not sure if everyone knows about PIFs - it stands for Pay It Forward, you win some goodies and you then hold your own PIF and send goodies onto someone else. So to continue the PIF which states that I must sent PIFs to 3 other people (I am bending the rules slightly):

1. Anyone, anywhere can enter - non-bloggers too.
2. I will pick 3 winners randomly - 2 bloggers and one non-blogger.
3. Blogging winners are to hold their own PIF and I ask only that you choose one winner. (You can of course choose more if you wish, but that can be quite a commitment and I wouldn't want anyone not to enter for that reason).
4. The prize you send can be anything you choose, big or small, handmade or not.

I don't know what I will send yet, I think I'll keep that as a surprise, but it will include something made by me. If you would like to enter just leave a comment on this post. If you are a non-blogger please indicate with the letters NB at the start of your comment so I can do a separate draw. I won't assume that you want to enter the PIF, so if you do, please indicate so in your comment. I will close the PIF at 7pm on Sunday 15th June.

I thought you might like to see this makeover I did this week. It's one of those CD storage units, originally wicker and black metal. I don't use it for CDs any more, but it's handy for storage of bits and bobs. I had sprayed it cream some time ago, but wasn't happy about the contents being on view, plus it looked rather boring.

I toyed with the idea of making little curtains, then I thought about drawers, but the prospect of making 4 of them rather put me off. In the end I opted for flaps, which actually look like drawers but much easier to make.

I cut the flaps from mounting card and covered them in fabric (Laura Ashley's Arundel, one of my favourites). I left the bottom strip of fabric free, which would be attached to the shelf. I lined the inside of the flaps with wallpaper and added a ribbon loop to use as a handle.

The extra strip of fabric was glued to the bottom of the shelves, and to finish off I lined them with more covered card cut to size.

I cut the flaps just slightly wider than the shelf openings so that they 'wedge' in place and don't fall out. It only took about an hour to do. I think it looks much prettier now and no-one has to see the mess inside!

I'll be off now, hope you're having a good week so far.
Lucy x