Monday 1 June 2009

Car booty

What a glorious weekend of summer sunshine we had here in London! Mr Crafty and I spent Sunday at Battersea Carboot Sale getting rid of some of the vast quantity of junk that, as a right pair of hoarders, we have managed to accumulate over the years. After the usual mad rush of house clearance vultures asking for mobile phones and gold jewellery we settled down to a steady trickle of buyers and had a rather nice day of it sitting in the sun:

I was a little concerned that I might bring home as much as I went with but I managed to stay strong and made only one purchase. After my previous post this fella just had to come home with me:

Ok - you got me! There are clearly dayglo yellow plastic cups and plates in this rather butch tartan lined hamper rather than the pretty vintage crockery that I was eulogising about previously but it makes smile and, thanks to a bit of nifty haggling by Mr Crafty, was a mere £8 so just slightly less than the very beautiful Life's a Picnic hampers.

It also fits in with our new plan to do a bit of retro style camping in Sussex for our forthcoming first wedding anniversary. We are hoping to track down a second hand, old-school frame tent and kit ourselves out with a camping stove and some 70s style floral deckchairs. I want to tart the tent up with some bunting and solar powered fairy lights and the plan is to see our anniversary in with fish'n'chips and a glass of champers!

9 comments:

  1. Hey I went there too! Maybe I bought something from you? Hilarious! see my last post just in case ;)

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  2. Brill picnic hamper! Luck you - and in yellow too :)

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  3. ooooo... what is that boot sale like? good? I want to go, but its a bit tricky for me to get to... is it worth the effort? x

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  4. How funny Artemis! I don't think you would have wanted anything we were selling - years of unwanted presents that we have hung onto for sentimental reasons and old clothes that no longer fit me :) It's amazing what people will buy! Your finds look much more lovely.

    It's a proper sunshine yellow, Conversation Pieces! I think it will make me smile whilst eating my lunch of it.

    Patchwork Harmony - Battersea has a reputation for being one of the best in London (similar size and feel to Chiswick and Kilburn) and in general I would say this is well earned. There were a few gems there although, as always with carboots, there was also a lot of junk (I don't think we helped matters with our little lot!). It seemed like a lot of the sellers were house clearers like us as opposed to professionals so there were definitely bargains to be had. If I hadn't have had words with myself beforehand I could have easily come home with a few more treasures. All in all worth a visit I would say.

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  5. I love it! My kitchen is retro yellow and red (sounds awful, looks a-mazing), and everything in me wants that hamper, because it matches!

    You could perhaps line it with something pretty fairly cheaply (a flower print poly cotton perhaps?) and get some second had crocker to go in it. The it would have fulfilled the retro camping purpose, and you'd get the hamper you want!

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  6. Your hamper is so much nicer for being a bit butch - those beakers remind me of some I had as a wee sprog...

    I heartily recommend the New Forest for camping - the other half and I were there in April and it's old school tea shops (and giant scones) aplenty. Oooooh - and there's an otter and owl wildlife sanctuary - yay!

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  7. Well done you on the picnic hamper. I'm sure if I ever did a boot sale I would buy far more than I earnt, so congrats on the self restraint!

    There's a great book called cool camping and a website too. It was a chrimbo pres for the hubs in anticipation of a summer of random holidays.
    http://www.coolcamping.co.uk/

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  8. Great website, Flora - thank you! I might have to invest in the book.

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  9. love that pinic set! that yellow is fab!

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