There is a little horse in the garden

Here’s another one of my ceramic fancies, I so love these little bits of nothing. A friend once told me he had an aunt who had “shelves full of nothing “meaning all these kitsch sentimental orniments. Another one for the collection for the real fairytale. Found and bought this little one from a charity shop in Shepperton for £1.50 and it’s a gift aid, get me.

More royal mugs and prince and princesses

My fancy, collecting royal mugs to use as everyday use seems even more appropriate with the announcement of Kate and Wills wedding this year. For now here are some of the others who decided to either tie the knot or be king or queen. I am fascinated with the kitsch royal ceramics and have branched out into prince and princess orniments. Fear not there is a reason for this I have been collecting for a while now to use a characters for a real fairytale book, shameless TV programme style, when I get round to it. Found these royal mugs in an Berkshire antique shop in the £1 box and orniments 50p each in the 50p box, love a rummage through a get rid box.

Baby you can drive my car

I wish, I have been learning to drive forever and the closest I have got to own a car is this 1930s vintage pink glass ash tray. Oh well 3rd test lucky, try to pass this year and you never know the vintage ash tray could be a real car. Found this for £1 in a charity shop in surrey. Tip, vintage ash trays look great with a tea candle light in, a touch of the cosy needed right now to chase those January blues away.

Maggie’s got her tea cosy hat on !

Now I have a strange thing about Maggie Thatcher as a feminist. I find her power that was intriguing; it’s a love hate thing. I also have a thing about using tea cosies as hats. So this post is a two in one. The tea pot is an old find, found in a skip 12is years ago in Old Street, before the mass trendy move east. I keep my change in my Maggie head teapot as Maggie once said “look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves” Scary how relevant this is again. The tea cosy was bought at a church fate in Staines for £2, hand knitted by the lady I bought it from.

Heart of Glass

Can’t believe what a romantic I am, it’s shocking me. Wonder if I could have imagined this when I was jumping around to Blondie “Heart of Glass” desperate to be cool and live in London.
Totally enjoying doing this indulgent blog and reflecting on what I buy for a year and analyzing my attraction to the objects, why do I buy?


Heart glass dish marvellous for a dressing table and holding lady bits and bobs – bought at a boot sale in Surrey for £1

Feminist Princess

When it comes to my home I am such a Princess with plenty of comfort, softness and muted romantic patterns and images. Oh and did I mention I am a feminist, work that one out!



Tapestry Cushion covers – bought from Hampton Court Antiques, 4 for £12

Oh England my boot sale heart

What to do the morning after a 40th party night in the country near Rye, feeling a little worse for wear? Hit a gentle boot sale on mass, I loving going in a group and seeing what finds and objects everyone goes for. So no further a do here are our finds from the booty on glorious sunny day in the English countryside. Ahhhhh

Garage sale in sunny England!

After a great weekend including 40th Party, a boot sale topped off with a beach walk in Rye, it was time to head home. We needed to make a move as we had a long drive back from Rye, nudge nudge, wink wink! As soon as we did my fella and I both looked at each other and smiled knowingly. No words needed as we had both spotted a garage sale sign on the way to the beach walk when both our heads nearly fell off driving past. We popped into the sale, I didn’t buy anything. Chatting to the Woman who ran it we found out, she did it for herself and neighbours every week during the summer (grey pound). She told me this in her sun top from her deckchair through her Mr Ed style garage door, half open, loved her relaxed style. Another coo of the day was I spotted two well know dealers faces I recognised from Portobello, ohhhh err. Oh I we got caught by our friends as they drove past the garage sale, well they wouldn’t expect anything less!

Those Victorians

A book on Victorian jewellery has been on my “to find” list for a while because I would like to know more about it and how it looks. I seem too able to recognise jewellery from 30s to the 70s easier than the earlier Victorian baubles and bits. I knew that mourning jewellery was fashionable because of Queen Victorian’s husband’s death, Albert. Also associate cameos, diamonds and pearls with that time but not sure how the finished pieces looked. So I was pleased to find this book hidden away on a shelf at the back of a book shop in Weighbridge Surrey for £12.



Broaches galore, I wonder if I have some already and didn’t realise my treasures.



Check out the late 60s styling of a Victorian lady look, so dated, and loving the big bold statement rings, great scale.



The main lady Queen Victoria looking sad and miserable wears a dramatic black dress with a hint of lace.



On the same day my fella bought me this other book as a gift about William Morris, what a designer! Discovering his work when I was a student at collage opened my eyes to a new way of thinking about art and design and causes. He was a socialist with a business, interesting, very ahead of his time and would most probably have a thing or two to teach ethical business owners if he was alive today.



Everyone in the Morris family looks so fed up and board in this photo. Surely not, must have been the photography used back in the day when they had to stand like status for awhile to take the picture. My how things have changed with all our instant digital photography and mobile uploads straight to face book. Looking at this photo is making me want to find a dress like the one Jane Morris is wearing in this photo (second lady in from the left); I can but wish to find.

Forgot about this one- how could I the size of it!

I am doing my best to stick with this blog and show you everything I buy for a year, where and why but I forgot about this one. Another rug from a boot sale in Surrey. This one was £3, yes £3 for all that retro rug. I go buying with my fella loads and when we are visiting friends or on our hols, how can we not check out the local vintage and retro booty. It’s never ending fuys galore so that’s how this one slipped the blog net. Retro rug found a home in my work shack at the bottom of the garden, very cosy.

Garden rugs

Now here’s an idea, I came across when I was styling and photographing these finds in my garden. I found these rugs at a boot sale in Rye for £3 each. They look like they could be 30s rugs, love the floral design,colours and came up a treat when I washed them. So imagine if we had rugs in the garden made out of water resistant material, bringing the inside out. Put them in my bedroom for now and the idea has gone in sketch book, oh to design the world!

Tapestry – it’s a lady thing

Doing this blog and reflecting on my fuys I am realising I have got a thing for tapestry. I already knew I was drawn to colour, print and pattern but didn’t expect to be fuying so much tapestry and needlework. This tapestry picture was found and bought for £4 at a boot sale in Surrey. How cute is the little Deer in the foreground and can’t go wrong with a bit of vintage retro still life as the subject, very chic!

Garden gnome make over

Sunglasses can’t get enough of them and find it so hard to resist them in charity shops.
I found this pair of Vintage 80s tortoiseshell look sunglasses in a charity shop in Birkenhead. Whilst deciding to buy, do I really need another pair of glasses and then justifying well they don’t take up to much space and they are only 50p, done, sold to the lady with a draw full of sunglasses already. Inspired myself with my last “little I-deer for the garden” post styling the found objects around the garden and decided to give my gnome an ab fab sunglasses makeover, ohh sweety.

Little I-deer for the garden

So into grow your own, it’s my third year dabbling growing things to eat in the garden. There have been successes and failures galore, tomatoes, salads, potatoes, and raspberries great and radishes and peas not so great. I found this little deer ornament at a boot sale in surrey and bought it for 50p and thought she would look just fine hidden between the salad leaves in a big pot in the garden. Gives a new spin on ornamental garden!

Tea with the Queen

Royal mugs are where it’s at! Not last Christmas but the one before I bought one of my sisters a selection mugs featuring the royal family as a Christmas present. The credit crunch had just hit and I was looking for creative and thrifty way to buy gifts that year. After giving it to her, to my horror she couldn’t hide the disappointment on her face and said “oh no karen these are so wrong, I don’t have a cabinet and I am not into displaying things and letting them gathering dust” Once I explained the concept behind the gift that they are not for display and are not for best but for everyday normal best, she got it! I recently found another 6 royal mugs for my own use at a boot sale in Surrey. I bought them for a £1 each from a boot seller who told me he had another 38 boxes of a collection to sell. So I say go buy royal mugs for a pound and have tea with the queen and the royals for everyday best!

First Boot sale of the season and whatwefound there !

Roll out the green carpet, get the tea earns full to the brim, drum roll, first boot sale of the season few weeks ago. Never mind big fancy celebrity premiers this first was so full of it, real life , the type of public gathering Martin Parr would of wanted to photograph until his hearts content. Since being with my fella in the burbs (vintage retro heaven) and him being fully converted to shopping alternatively (he was half way there before I met him) I have noticed a cycle to finding and buying vintage clothes and retro home wear. It’s all about the charity shops in Autumn and Winter and boot sales in Spring Summer. Although its a double edge sword in the Summer the weekend booty’s may be full of finds galore but the empty space that occupies Sunday early evening without the Antiques Road show is to much to bear.

Never mind, moving on, for me boots sales are fab because they are unpretentious and democratic. Everyone has the same size pitch and I sense it’s what life must have been like in the olden days (love that saying) at markets before we had shops and shopping centres. I love snooping and rooting through what people don’t want anymore and guessing their lifestyle. Also how they display their finest goods and what prices they ask, their homemade graphics and how they decide to label goods or not. The fact that you can buy something and if your lucky enough to get offered a carrier bag the brand advertised on the bag is insignificant and doesn’t relate to the item inside, anti branding, love it ! As well as the mix of goods on sale or for free, yes for free I spotted one stall with everything on a plastic blue sheet with homemade signage saying “Everything Free”. I missed out on a free big Roland Rat costume head, don’t ask me why but I am sure it could have been used for something somewhere in my life .How could a big brand compete with this sellers generosity and green heart? I have been informed by my fella in the last couple of weeks he has noticed how physically bigger boot sales have got expanding into the farmer’s next field or the next car park. With more boot sellers since last year it’s a clear sign that austerity is going to be so very in for the next few fashion seasons!

Just heard about the coolest concept for a boot sale at Vintage at Goodwood, it’s a car boot sale with class as the cars have to be classic to get a pitch. The Festival is 13, 14, 15 August 2010 and the first music and fashion led celebration of creative British cool from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s & 80s, featuring the leading DJs, bands, collectors, purveyors of vintage clothing and vintage vinyl from each decade, as well as contemporary bands and brands,Oh my! Many fabulous happenings sounds like and festival and beauty of booty not to miss.

My first boot sale of the season had a mission attached as I started a blog in January this year called whatkarenfoud documenting my fashion and lifestyle items I find and buy in a year (fuys) from Charity Shops, Boot Sales and the good old Jumble sales. Trying to keep up with the blog has started to kerb my buying a little, darn! I am realising even more about my style and what I am drawn to since blogging my finds. Secondly we had friends stay and entertain they like a good booty so I asked them if I could document what they bought to for my blog and they were up for it. We free styled at the booty with the photos and it helped that they can both do photography as well a many other talents. So here are some of the photos from our finding and buying extravaganza at the first boot sale of the season.

Wimbledon Boot sale - 21 Apr 2010 - 31 Dec 2010
Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium Plough Lane Wimbledon London, SW17 0BL
Public admission before 8.30am Cost: £2 after 8.30am Cost: £1

www.vintageatgoodwood.com



Hand made signs such cool graphics , real!



More books , costume for my history of fashion shelf and a picture book 50p each



Anything that says cocktail glamour I am in ! 1960s drink mixer £1



Iconic flying ducks £2 , bad buy the one of the birds beaks was missing, never mind , win some , loose some.



Fab yellow pint glass , love the frosted effect and looks like such a girly pint glass 50p



Pink bottle with stopper , great for storing bubble bath adding a bit of glam to the bathroom, star buy 20p



Pool ceramic shell , great buy collectible bought for £3



Hand made rug sold to me for £4 by the lady who made it. She told me it took 2 weeks to make, I asked her if I could photograph her for the blog as she looked great a very elegant older lady but she declined. I wish you could of seen her.



What a buy , very 80s Lady Diana, its a big size but looks great with a big belt, love it worn it lots already £1



Love the shape of this vanity case and has a laptop look to it to , a good school bag.



Keith in action finding those retro bargains.



Keith doing his display of finds.



Marinas check dress very Hoxton



Marinas amazing vintage straw hat , I wish I had seen this first , but got to admit it looks fab on her.



Marinas 80s style leather woven top very tribal.



Marinas plates



Love this plate of bits and pieces for 20p each



Mikey in action buying his lamp.



Mikeys tanker, very cool !



Mikeys lamp



Mikeys picture



A stall featuring a British bulldog as its star item !



Red white and blue girls , fab !



"Everything Free" was so impressed with the lady that did this, had a good chat about nothing with her.




Gutted I didnt take this home it was on the "Everything is Free" sheet !



A full car boot full of our booty !

Photos : Karen Savage. Keith Ellis, Marina Perez Fuchs,Mikey Chestnutt