Scratting About In Skips!

I can’t resist a crafty look in the odd skip or bin when I see one, so when I saw the bins at work overflowing, well,  it would have been rude not to have a mooch wouldn’t it……?

….. and I so glad I did! When I first saw these tins I thought “Well they’re coming home with me ….. in all their shabby chic, retro glory” ….. and then I shook them ….. there was something inside ….

…… Oh Mon Dieu, Mon Dieu, Mon Dieu, they contained hundreds and hundreds of pen nibs …. the handwritten stickers on the tins corresponding to the size of the nibs in the tin!

I know pen nibs are big with Tim Holtz at the moment ….. and I know these don’t have fancy words embossed on them ….. but they are manner from heaven for altered art etc. I just can’t believe they were chucked ….

I also rescued these two flasks, they were completely covered in paint, but after a week in my dishwasher they are now completely clean …… I have always loved scientific bottles, flasks and test tubes since way before they became trendy, the glass is always so delicate and thin, and the shapes oooooo, don’t get me started! I am now thinking that this pair will look very lovely filled with small bath beads on my new glass shelves in my new boudoir bathroom, when it is done.

It would have been nice to have found a pile of wooden rulers, also very on trend at the moment, but I did however find a lone scientific measuring stick thingy ….. which I am sure will come in useful for a project in the future …… but,  leaving the best till last …… this was what was left outside in yard for a couple of weeks …….

IT’S beautiful! It used to be in the site supervisors office for years and is now surplus to requirements ….. but there was no way I could leave it …. so my name was put on it until it was “decommissioned”.  It needs a bit of tender loving care, but nothing major I don’t think ….. and I am just going to have to find a space for it, either in my kitchen or craft room ….. I need to have a think!! But a very, very happy day mooching!