Catching up

I can't believe it's been over 3 weeks since I last posted, It's not has if I have had nothing to talk about. In the last few weeks I went to Ardingly Antiques Fair, been to several birthday parties, had my twenty-fifth birthday (and got some lovely presents!) and done my first craft fair, so I have lots of lovely things to show you.

Here are my purchases from Ardingly....


Some very useful folding steps for £15, I'm debating whether to give them a padded oilcloth seat so I can use it as a stool as well, what do you think? to cover or not to cover?

This lovely floral enamel bucket I got for £6 after a little haggling

A biscuit tin for a £1, you can't beat a pretty tin


and finally this pair beautiful french marble-topped pot cupboards for either side of my bed, bought as a birthday present for me from my wonderful and very generous parents, thank you mum and dad xxx

I had been looking for a pair of bargain bedside tables for a while now, something elegant, not too chunky, but not too flouncy either, but to no avail, even the re-pros are expensive, and the cheaper ones, the ones with the fretwork design are a little too small, and not very sturdy.

So when mum and dad took me to Ardingly for a birthday outing I was determined to find a couple of nice ones, not necessarily matching, but similar in size.
3 1/2 hours later I was beginning to give up hope as I still hadn't found anything quite right, and at 2pm all the stall holders seemed to have decided to go home early and where slowly packing up. Feeling a slight panic rising in me that I had come all the way down to Surrey for this huge fair and I was only going to be going home with a bucket and a biscuit tin, I stepped up the pace, and I discovered the lovely steps from a very nice lady who knocked a fiver off the price, oh well I thought, maybe it wasn't meant to be, I turned around to look for mum and dad, only to discover these pair of perfect tables. Bracing myself for disappointment, I asked the man how much they where, £250 for the pair - he said, I said - I only have £180 left, he made a call to his man in charge, and eventually said I could take them for £180. Now I had to think - this was much more than I wanted to pay for my bedside tables, but on the other hand they where 1920's, french (with makers label still in the drawer), marble-topped in pale grey, one still had the original enamel pot liner in the cupboard, and they where matching. I decided it was much better to spend £180 on a pair of well-made original tables, than spending £100-£120 on a pair of poorer quality re-pros that might not stand the test of time. I think I made the right decision.


The only thing I wasn't keen on was the buttermilk cream colour they had been painted in, it just didn't go with the pale grey marble, so I went out the next day and bought a pot of pale grey paint, I given them one coat and they look much better, so I will show you an after photo when I get the next coat on.

Well that went on a bit, I shall post some photos of the craft fair, and my birthday presents in the next couple of days to break things up a bit.