...he gets you your dream house...

...out of a skip! 

This is the most exciting thing thats happening all week.... sorry will try harder next week!

The weather in the UK right now is amazing! I can't remember the last time we had a summer with this long a hot spell, the only down side is trying to keep all my plants going as its hasn't rained in over two weeks. Luckily the flowers seeds I planted around the fruit tree fence seem to have survived (mostly thanks to my Neighbour who has generously hosed the bed down most evenings (we have no outside tap, very annoying once the waterbutt's run dry as it means haling watering cans full of water from the house).

In this bed I have a mix of pretty flowering ground cover, wild flowers and dwarf lavender all supplied as either small plants or seeds by Victoriana Nursery. Ever things looking pretty tidy for once (well as much as it ever does!)  as I was outside cutting the hedges and mowing the lawn at 8.30 this morning so I didn't get boiled to death trying to do it in the full heat of the day.

Its just been nice to be outside and be able to enjoy the garden for once and of course the added bonus of being able to eat outside!

Rich has even broken out the little bucket bbq! Poor thing didn't get used once last year.

Before...

After...tada!!

Ok, the only thing I can offer right not is a quarter of a small bottle of whiskey, never mind will have to buy the alcohol later!

I really love this little unit, it looks so much better in this corner that the blue dresser (which was too tall and made the corner quite dark). Its looks especially nice next to Rich's guitar and my shell collection.

Am now on the look out 50s/60s cocktail glasses at the carboot sales! We made a good start this weekend, my Mum donated the red cocktail shaker and we picking up the green soda siphon at the carboot for just £3. Rich also picked up these super cute little shot glasses for just £1 for all 6!

In fact we had rather a bumper hall at the carboots, we picked up yet more Ladybird books for 50p each.

Rich brought these plastic 50s egg cups, they are the coolest colour, I love them!

And then the best buy of the day, I have been hunting for a particular set of plates for ages. I'm sure some of you have heard of the Homemaker range of kitchen wear that came out in 1957 and was famously sold though Woolworths. It was design by the amazing Enid Seeney who only designed ceramics for just seven years. This range is now a design classic  and as such has become really hard to finds pieces at affordable prices. So I snapped up these three little plates for the barginus price of £3.

These aren't in perfect nick which is way they where cheap but as I intend to actually use them day to day I'm not to bothered. I would love the dinner plates in this pattern but as this is the first time I've come across any Homemaker at a carboot since I started looking 3 years ago I'm not holding my breath (of course you can buy them of eBay but I cant afford them them once you take into account the postage as well!)

Aarrr, being used as intended!

As I'm here though Id give you a quick bathroom update, things have slowed down again as Rich has a load of deadlines looming so is working flat out. I've been quietly grouting and it is starting to look really good!

We have also managed to get a new/old light fitted over the sink (which is still in its box in the kitchen!), we wanted to use this cool outdoor swan necked lamp. My dad brought this from a carboot years ago and I found it in my Mums loft a few months ago, its nice to know that my Dad is still contributing to our home decorating fours years after he's gone.

This will look great once the mirror and the sink is fitted, it looks a bit weird all on its own right now! As we are going for the slightly industrial look in our light fittings we have brought a new ceiling light (as our current one is very boring!), we found another cool bulkhead light in a salvage place last week and had it rigged up for use in the bathroom.

Luckily we managed to get it at a good price because we didn't want it cleaned up at all, we really like the pale green patchy paint! However this thing weighs a ton so its going to require some extra bracing between the joists in the ceiling to bolt it to, this is a big job as it means lift the bedroom floor so not sure when we'll get round to this!

So thats it for now, the lovely sunshine has meant a lot of sitting and soaking it up so house jobs are taking a back seat for now! Will do a garden update soon!

...certainly not me apparently. So on Thursday night we went up to Shropshire, we havent been since March and I was taking part in a craft fair on the Saturday so the car was loaded to the roof again!

We stayed with Richs parents in North Shropshire, which seems to be a breeding group for secondhand shops, lots of lovely places selling furnture for very good prices. It also seems to be one of those places that hasnt quite got into the 50s/60s revival thing. Down here in the South West genuine retro furntire will set you back a small fortune, which most of the time knocks Rich and I out of the running leaving us to window shop in case we win the lottery!

So anyway, Richs Mum took us to a great little shop/barn/warehouse selling old furniture and up stairs tucked in a corner we found two peices we had been looking for. The first was a little 1960s glass fronted cabinet and to prove that is had to come home with us it was a corner cupboard. I have been wanted to replace the corner pine dresser we have and now I can!

Sorry for the blury pic, I only had my camera phone and the light was weird! Heres what will become our new drinks cabinet in Rich's Mum & Dads garage.

This was on at £48 and we got it for £42. Am well pleased, all done up and will a nice lamp on the top it will definitely brighten up a dark corner of our living room. The vase on the top if also from the same place, this is a Keramic West Germany pot from the same era, amazingly this was only £3.50 which stunned me as I've seen them priced up for much more.

We also managed to get (but I stupidly forgot to take a picture of) a G-Plan sideboard which is something I've been after for about 18 months, and for the amazing price of only £40! It will need a little tlc, but it will look great in the alcove in our living room with the TV on and plenty of room for the DVD player and game console in it too!

Unfortunately we have had to leave both of these finds up in Shropshire as our car was so packed! Also I now need to sell the current furniture to make room for this lot! So anyone coming down from Shropshire in the next month will be asked to lug our finds with them once again. I think we might been to invest in a trailer at this rate!