Today's Thrifty Finds

It has been a lovely sunny day here in Sheffield, the perfect weather to drag your boyfriend round jumble sales, charity shops and car boot sales and I am pleased to say that I managed all three. The jumble sale and charity shops weren't a huge success but I managed to buy some new (to me) things at the car boot. 

I bought this bag of vintage Coats threads for £2. Aren't they the cutest colours? I know these will come in handy for future quilts. I particularly love the old wooden spools and labels. 

I also bought this mismatched set of 1960s melaware. I was a bit of an eager beaver with the photography and haven't yet had chance to give them a good wash as you can see, so apologies for that. I was attracted to them because of the bright colours and somehow I have visions of these becoming the start of a new collection.

From the same stallholder I also bought this set of three nesting containers. Who can resist bright orange with a daisy pattern? Certainly not me.

 Next up I bought a couple more vintage sheets which will soon be cut up and making their way in to the fabric shop

And finally, I actually bought this a few weeks ago but had completely forgotten to share. It is an old baby blue hairdryer with it's original box in full working condition. It only cost me £1! What I haven't picture here is the fact that it comes with a long plastic tube attached to what looks like a shower cap so you can put your rollers in and dry your hair around it. Fantastic!

Pyrex & Chrome

I found these pyrex bowls in my local charity shop. I love the fact that they are in a stand which makes perfect for serving snacks at parties. When I bought them, the chrome stand was in a bit of state. It was covered in rust patches and ugly green calcium spots. I had a quick search online and read that wet pieces of aluminium foil act as the perfect abrasive to remove rust and calcium, without damaging the metal itself. Being in a bit of a hurry to try out this theory, I failed to get any decent photos of the before, but hopefully you get the idea from this not so great iPhone shot...

After I spent about half an hour scrubbing every little nook and cranny the end result was fantastic. I also read that you can use this same idea for cleaning up old tap and chrome car parts. It's well worth a try.

The best charity shop find ever!

I nearly had a heart palpitation today when I wandered in to one of my local charity shops on my lunch break and saw this...

Yes, that's right, it's a gorgeous cathrineholm lotus enamelware bowl. It was actually hidden away inside a larger glass bowl so when I pulled it out I couldn't believe my eyes. I have never seen one in real life before, nevermind owned one. And here's the best bit... it only cost me £2.49! Looking at the prices that these go for on Etsy and eBay this may not be the beginning of a beautiful collection, but maybe one day I could strike it lucky again.

My cat seemed quite keen on it too...

Now I need to go and buy a whole new shelf just to display it on.