A Trip To Bilston Market.

A week or so ago, while I was back in Wolverhampton for a couple of days, Lu and I decided to nip over to Bilston for the morning. Bilston being the town where I grew up and where Lu loves the charity shops with their £1 racks and the historic, exceedingly brilliant and “proper” bustling market, something sadly of a rarity these days. Last time we were there we found a wonderful “Pound Stall”, where everything was just £1 and we hoped it would be there again.

Let’s just say Bilston didn’t disappoint!  There it was piled high and constantly being replenished from huge laundry type bags, all we had to do was wheedle our way to the front and then rummage to an inch of our lives, not knowing what on earth we would find. 

A lot of the bags were printed with the name “Whaline” which, after some research when we got home, sells on, among other places, Amazon, so I am guessing that what was mainly on the stall that day was Amazon returns and overstock from Easter, Halloween and Christmas, wrapping, decorations, party items, balloons, silicone moulds, giftware, homeware…….. it was glorious! So did I make a considered purchase or two?  You bet I did ………..

……… 12 green pumpkins with gold stalks, shared with Lu, currently selling on Amazon for £12.99 ……

…….. 10 assorted gourds, also shared with Lu, currently selling for £10.99.  I may re-paint a few them later on in the year ready for the autumn, in orange, green and yellows etc. just to add a bit of variation.

Then there was this mixed bag of autumn pieces (shared again) ……….. £5.99, again on Amazon ……. perfect for wreaths or a centre piece or two

……. along with a pack of 300 mixed maple leaves for £6.98.  Can you imagine my excitement, when one  pack of 50, alone, costs £1 in The Works

I couldn’t believe these Christmas Trees either (always expensive and currently on Amazon for £10.99), It was the bigger ones I was most excited by. I really hoped I’d be able to find another pack, but it’s the luck of the draw.  As the vast piles on the stall went down, the sellers would throw on even more treasure, even Lu, who is usually very restrained, said she’d give (almost) anything to be able to have the first rummage through all the bags still stacked in the van all to herself.

Lu loves a diamond dot, so she was well chuffed when we each found a set of these Christmas keyring/decorations. There are 8 pieces in each pack (currently £11.99 on Amazon).  Happy days!

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a few gingerbread men (currently available on Amazon for £8.99).  There were 15 in a pack, with gold threads to hang/tie them by.  I am thinking parcel tags, bag favours, or obviously, tree decorations.

I also found  a pack of 20, sizable hessian/organza drawstring bags (currently £11.99) …………..

…… as well as a pack of 24 bunny bags (£14.99) that’s 4p each! How cute are they? There may not be enough to give to the  whole class of my little readers next Easter,  however at that price I am more than willing to shop around when the time comes, to find a few more and then average out the price.

Goodness where I am going to keep these for the next year but at for £1 for 36 hanging Easter eggs (in two very generous sizes), it would have been rude not to.  I am thinking for Iris and Bertie to decorate an Easter Egg tree along the path in the school grounds as they did this year. I think a few could also be drawn on, Decopatched or decorated with stickers overtime.

However, I think I may have left the best ‘till last …… I had actually put these generously sized cushion covers in my basket on Amazon back in March, but I couldn’t justify the £15.99 outlay for just a week or so …… but for £1, that’s 25p each, well what’s a girl to do ………

…… and then, there were these, again a pack of 4 for £1, destined to be presents, I think.  How cute are they?

Then my heart skipped a beat when I found these, obviously I couldn’t get them out of the bag at the time, but I had a pretty good idea what they were likely to look like (still available on Amazon £11.99). Oh how I LOVE them!

My only “not quite sure” purchase were these 100 lollipop cards, because children with lollies, really gives me the eebbie-jebbies, however I am sure I can find an alternative to thread through the slits on their arm, chocolate lollies (Home Bargains) or small candy canes?  I will make sure have one in my bag at all times for when I am out mooching. If I don’t come up with anything, well, they’ll make cute tags or embellishments on cards.

In all, can you believe I only spent £14? Did I leave anything behind which, with hindsight I wish I had bought? Well, I should have bought a couple of packs 120 A4 sheets of Halloween or Christmas tissue paper, which would have come in  handy on numerous occasions when making favours etc., and I wish I’d also bought a couple of boxes of the various snowflake decorations they had, because at that price I could have banged out several very simple door wreaths to give as presents, if I’d thought about it at the time, but hey ho, the gurl dun gud!

Both Lu and I thought it would be well worth popping over every couple of months for more rummaging, although as I said, it’s pretty much the luck of the drawer as to what they would have ……… but if I do get over to Bilston soon, no doubt you’ll be the first to know.

Mermaid Mirror

Oh my goodness, this mirror has been sooooooo long in the making. When an idea doesn’t go/look/feel right within a couple of hours of starting, I am really awful and tend to put it aside, leaving it to niggle and fester in the background, until guilt makes me take it up again, which, with this, I did a couple of times ……

…… but now, it’s finally done, as I wanted it for Marc’s upcoming birthday.

It was the mirror that inspired me, found in the 3 for 99p box in a local charity shop, it made me think of swirling, underwater currents and at 33p (along with two other items) it would have been rude not to buy it.

The mermaids came from eBay ( a pack of 3 for £6.50), I glued them onto the mirror using B-7000 glue, which is when I realised that this wasn’t going to be a walk in the park, as the mermaids didn’t lie flat on the glass and the strands around the mirror didn’t offer much to glue anything to. So at this stage the mirror was “rested” for a while, while I had second thoughts.

Then …….. I found this box of aquarium bits in the Salvation Army shop in town for just £2.99 which inspired me into action (with plenty left over for Halloween?) …….

……. but oh boy, it was just as fiddly to glue, with so little to glue on to and for some reason said glue didn’t like the surface of any part of the mirror.  It drove me up the wall, even though I could finally see where I was going with the idea!  So it was rested yet again for a few more weeks, until it was make or break …….

…… as the time to get it finished was ticking. So over a long weekend I started to add the round mirror tiles and different sized, clear, flat back gems. It was so fiddly, even after buying several different varieties of Super Glue, things still didn’t  want to stick to any of the surfaces, goodness only knows why?

However, despite it nearly going in the bin at least half a dozen times, I got there in the end.

I could have titivated the mermaids some more, giving them glittery scales, jewelled bra shells and something in their hair, but against all the other stuff, it could easily have become overkill.  A mermaid, on her own, in a shadow box, against a patterned, blue background, then perhaps yes.

Once I had seen it hanging on the wall, I did decide to add a few more very small, flat backed gems, but I also removed the seahorses as they didn’t seem to go for some reason, against all the plastic and metal they just bought nothing aesthetically to the party!

With the glue issues, the mirror, with all the fiddle fart is not particularly robust, so I will suggest to Marc that when he’s found a home for it, it should stay there ……. and as for any dust that may accumulate, it’ll just have to stay where it is, with only the occasional gentle flick of a feather duster on high days and holidays.

Guest Crafter – Iris Roo’s One World.

My apologies, I really, really, really have lost my mojo of late, but thank goodness Iris Roo has been able to help me out by filling an otherwise empty post with this absolute treasure………..

If ever there was a set of dies that have proved to be worth their weight in gold, it’s the original Sizzix Doll Body, along with it’s various hairstyles and boy/girl outfits.

Iris has always spent forever putting them together, I even have a much treasured picture of her with Auntie Marc, cutting out hundreds of dolls and outfits when she was about 3 or 4.

We took an old Poundland bathroom plaque (25p from a Christmas sale years ago) covering the original image with one of the world, found on Google images and then printed off. 

I can now see in the picture (above) that it’s centring leaves a lot to be desired , but it’s Iris’s work, so “tush” Nanny!

She then added two googly eyes and a silver heart on the nose

I believe every doll had a special character, a family and a story ……..

…… with one having cancer, another with a broken arm, a queen ……….

…… and, I think, two missionaries, which is why Iris was very exacting when I helped her place and then glue them in place on to the frame.

Boy can that girl rock a self adhesive gem!  In all, it took Iris two mornings to complete her idea ……. two mornings of many, many memories ……..

……… where I proved that I could still multitasked showing Bertie how to use publisher, bless him, all be it on a very, very ancient version, he was soooooo chuffed!  Happy days!

Another Bertie Rainbow Jumper

Sorry, only one post this week ......... I am still completely out of ideas!!!!!!

Well, I’ve had my knitting bag out for the past couple of weeks and my evenings full of dropped stitches after young Master declared that “Nanny”, his last (No. 2) rainbow jumper was getting too small ………

Now in my 20s to 30’s I was never without a knitting project, but since everyone I used to knit for has grown up, I rarely feel inclined to pick up the needles but old Berts rainbow jumpers are our very special bond. 

He loves colour and lordie boys clothes are boring enough in both colour and theme for a boy who is his own person. Last month the children in school had to wear something that expressed who they were for Mental Health Week, so it was a no brainer what his lordship wore!

I guess I’ll have to keep on knitting them, even when he’s in his 40’s and a big and burly 6ft 2in, so that he’ll never be without one. His first one is in his treasure box and I think No. 2 will be too, now it has a replacement.

This time round I decided to use black on the cuffs, sleeve top and neck which helped make the colours pop even more, and little added extra texture I worked two rows of garter stitch to the end of each colour band. I can knit all day and sew in all the ends without too much grief, but boy do I hate sewing the garment together.  I used to be so good at it, but sadly over the years that particular talent has completely left me.

And how did he like it? LOL, he loved it, especially the bumpy bits! Precious, precious moments and more memories made, but I think I’m going to get another one started, with a slight variation as he is growing at a stupid rate of knots!!!!!