Scrummy Vintage Finds...

As soon as I saw this it had to mine, I had no idea what it was immediately, but did I care? No, it was wonderful! It was all old and shabby and stuff...

It would look great in my house, and was going to be useful for something, well I'd find a use for it!

Guess what it is yet....

....Its an old Letterbox! 

The pretty side would face outside for your letters to go in and then you could open the other side (see the little hole to lift it up at the back) to retrieve your post.

I like it here at the moment on my hall table that I previously made shabby chic, but it will probably relocate to my bedroom for my jewellery.

Now that's not the only thing I found, the other item that accidently slipped into my bag was this metal shelf with a row of hooks at the bottom...

I spent about an hour wandering around the house, offering it up to each wall to see where it would live.

I'm liking my collection of Heart's happily hanging off the ends...

It's probably going to find a spot in my utility room, I tried it out with my peg jar...

...and then I could hang up my apron, towel, dustpan and brush, etc...and line up my storage jars along the shelf.

Wherever they both end up I'm glad they've found their way into my home.

Bex x

Turning your photos from lovely to gorgeous!

So I'm not really the green fingered type and manage to kill most plants and flowers I come into contact with....luckily for me the previous owner of our house was a gardening genius and so our garden is constantly blooming with something lovely that smells delicious...

...don't ask me what they all are though, sure I can recognise Roses and Bluebells and last year found out what a Peony is....but that's about it. 

Therefore I need to cheat to achieve an amazing display of flowers within my house and so I wander out to the garden cut a few stems and pop them into an old jam jar or bottle....and ta da...a beautiful arrangement instantly and best of all...its free!!

But because my photography side comes out whenever I see something gorgeous I start playing with the flowers to see what happens....

I love the faded look of this one and so continued to play and discovered you can make them look....wait for it....Vintage!!

Love it...

So cute...

Then I wondered what they would look like almost black and white but with the tiniest bit of pink still in the flowers....

brightened it up....

Gorgeous!

Bex x

Wind in my hair, salty spray on my face...

A walk along the beach is my favourite thing to do. Its like a ritual when I visit my parents, a beach walk needs to be factored in somewhere! I usually end up pockets bulging with several interesting pebbles/shells, bits of driftwood, old rope etc and some fab photos....

 My parents beach is so beautiful, as you can see, not just the normal sand and pebbles, but you get all these beautiful flowers living beside the best view ever! 

I really wish this was my bench on my own beach and I could just wander down to it whenever I wanted to and sit with a good book listening to the sea...

Bex x

snOw hOt!

With all this lovely hot sun I need some ice for my cocktail....but on this occassion I'm going to use snow. Yes you read that correctly, I'm about to reminisce about my skiing holiday this year in Chamonix....enjoy x

The photo below is of the end of a building in the town and believe it or not the image you see is completely painted on, absolutely nothing is really there, not even the balconies or shutters!! It was so realistic we had to stand right up against the building to be able to tell...



I found these great pictures of old posters used many years ago to advertise Chamonix....

Very Vintage, love them!

Driftwood en francais

I couldn't believe my eyes when I was walking Ella and saw this gorgeous piece of driftwood washed up on my parents beach....

   

My mind went into free-fall of all the things I could do with it. Finding an abandoned inanimate object like a piece of wood, pine cone, an old bottle or a heart shaped pebble is as exciting for me as someone else finding a £20 note on the street, sad but true!!

A few weeks ago I found a stencil set in the sale at my local craft store. I had always wanted one but refused to pay a ridiculous price. This set at 99p, however, was fine! 

So together with my new craft paints that my mum found in a sale, we're a thrifty lot, this was born...

This has been, for now, placed in our new downstairs shower room. Where a beachy style theme has evolved from the slate floor and gorgeous little slate stones with a white vein running through them positioned in the floor of the shower reminding me of being on a beach in Cornwall.

(don't look at the walls though, they are work in progress!)

Thank you Ella x

Cottage Renovation

Even though I seemed to be MIA (missing in action) on the blog front I have still be tinkering with little projects and taking endless photographs, which can be seen in my slide show of images. I've also been busy with our cottage renovation, turning it from another's well loved home (i.e dark, small, avocado bathroom, green painted  living room, you get the picture!) into our well loved home (light, bright, extended, yummy bathroom, open plan living but in a cottage style, again I think you get the picture).

An example of some nice old wallpaper!

discovered when we did this.....

....knocked the back of the house down....

The part of the house on the right is all new, the sloping glass roof is where the new kitchen sits. It lets in so much light it completely transforms downstairs.

A heart shaped jug from my collection...

Coffee, Sugar & Tea canisters from my friend 'J'...

A Kilner jar decorated with ribbon and tea pot charm for my peppermint tea...

I'm very pleased with this new edition to my kitchen, an egg rack...

More Kilner jars for storage...

My new kitchen in a sort of grey/green colour with oak worktop and oak flooring. There is a breakfast bar on the opposite side to the oven which is where we all seem to gravitate to...

and finally my lovely Butler sink in the utility room, we actually have two original ones that were already in the house but they have far too many years of grime to use. They will however find a home somewhere possibly in the garden for veggies or herbs??

Rebecca x