Lots of treasure

Yesterday Mr Coast flew to France to pick up the boys for the school hols. (Although I have my UK residency permit I need to sort out an uncertainty with my French titre de sejour before I can travel to la belle France again).

We're one boy up this time - Nat brought his best mate, Enrique, with him. So I am outnumbered 4:1. It's a bit odd having someone else's child staying with us, particularly one who speaks very broken English (at best) and the dynamic in the house is quite different. I find myself speaking a bizarre mix of French and English that strikes me as quite comedic - however, we manage to communicate so something about it is working.

Large amounts of testosterone levels to deal with - even more impressive are the potent clouds of spray deodorant wafting about the house. Blimey those boys can lay it on thick. Oh and the noise! Doors opening. Closing. Slamming. In and out and out and in. Gruff adolescent voices rumbling non-stop (they talk more than girls) and one pipsqueaky 11-year old piping up over it all. Footstops overhead and thuds and thumps and bumps.

I shall have to find ways to keep myself sane.

Sewing is always a bit tricky whilst the boys are here - Nat takes over the sewing room - and I hate carting my things downstairs to the dining table and having to tidy up every time I sew. So it all stays firmly packed away.

Actually, there is something I can do to keep a smile on my dial.....

.....charity shopping!

I have had another pretty good haul this week, long may it continue.

More buttons - they are dirt cheap (pennies) and top quality so well worth stocking up on.

A lovely old egg beater for £1. I've seen these for sale in retro kitchenalia shops for ten or fifteen times that so I reckon it's a bargain. My Mum had some of those when I was growing up - looking at it makes me think of two things: whisking egg whites for lemon meringue tart, and Sunday morning scrambled eggs with chopped tomato and bacon.

An Alfred Meakin dinner plate - 75p. I love this pattern and feel fiercely protective about my plate. My heart nearly stopped when I saw it being piled with Nutella-laden toast this morning - it was all I could do not to squeal in dismay.

It survived and I told myself not to be so flipping precious about an old plate. If it breaks it breaks - there'll be more plates in my future anyway.

A Ridgeway plate which I will probably include in my wall of plates.

A bright, beautiful set of bowls from Solian. These are delightful and only cost £3. I got them late in the afternoon - the lady at the till said they had just been put out. So sometimes being a late-in-the-day-shopper is rewarding. Honestly, I do not need more pudding bowls but these sat on their shelf and sang to me. Loudly. Totally impossible to shut my ears and walk away.

And a Royal Doulton casserole dish and lid. Very pale and muted but elegant. Mr Coast is very much not-likey about this one. *shrug*

Oh here's another late-day buy.

I didn't like the frame and mount on this embroidered picture, (even thought the charity shop lady said she had taken it home and reframed it herself - as the original bright green plastic frame was hideous).  So I changed it when I got it home.

Ooh and my favourite find of the week was a pile of fabric samples - 25p each. They are all about fat quarter size and I bought twenty four. I spent about fifteen minutes sorting through the box and.. um...left all the boring ones behind. 

Here's a random selection...very pretty designs and I am sure I will find lovely things to make from them. What, exactly, escapes me right now. Still, the quality of the fabric is stupendously high - a lot of them are linen and some are heavy woven cotton or a linen-cotton mix. Such luck to find these!

And one bit of personal sewing this week - I finally used a piece of vintage French fabric that my neighbour gave me a while ago - and turned it into a cushion cover for our bed. 

The piping I made was a disaster as I used a piece of thick cream fabric (and didn't have enough to cut it on the bias) so you can imagine how wonky it is, (especially on the corners) but heyho it's only for me to use when I climb into bed to read and nobody else will see it. Bar all of you, of course.

Happy Friday!