STILL CREAKING!

I am still creaking around but managed a full day at the coal face, although I must admit I needed much assistance. My Other Half had to help, I couldn’t lift anything more than a feather, and with the addition of pain killers and a very nice pub lunch including a glass of wine I just got through the day.

I had to give up on sorting out the last few boxes though so they have gone in the car just as they are. It is nice to have some surprises when I am setting up. That is my theory anyway. And I know that I probably have far too much again so I needn’t worry, but you know that I do tend to fuss.

I am cautiously optimistic about this fair. When we look back through the account book, this usually turns out to be one of the better ones of the year money-wise. I do hope so because generally, up to now they have tended to be pretty average this year.

People seem to have even less money in their pockets to spend on fripperys than ever. I think that this is something that the ‘Trade’ as a whole are feeling. The very high-end, proper antiques that will hold their value and the very bottom, House-clearers and their ilk, cheap as chips and bargains to be had are the most likely to make good money at the moment. The rest of us are learning to adapt and compromise, or go to the wall.

It is a hard business to make your living out of at the moment. It is a good job that we are part-timers. We are getting too old for working 7 days a week, and we would have to if we wanted to pay the bills etc.

OUCH!

I was quite pleased with myself this week.  Everything was unfolding more or less the way that I hoped that it might.

We took a picnic to Rutland Water to cheer Tilly on for the last bit of her 17 mile walk on Sunday.

And on Monday we sorted and loaded most of the car for Bingley Hall, Stafford Antique Fair.  We are off to unload there on Thursday afternoon and  my Other Half has a check up at the Hospital sometime in the  morning so it is quite important that we are in front of ourselves.

Yesterday I went to School, catalogued a load of books, tidied up the library and heard many children read.  Came home and cooked for Kate and the Grand children.  It was Gardening Club after school and then Tallulah’s maths lesson, so it is easier to eat at my house than spend time backwards and forwarding.  Oh, and whilst waiting for them to arrive for tea, I mopped the kitchen floor.

I was very impressed with myself, as you can imagine and then I bent down to pick something up and my back went click!  And I have been in agony ever since.

It happens every now and then, and hopefully this is going to be one of those times when it rights itself quickly, meanwhile I have taken a socking dose of pain killers and am praying that shortly I shall be able to get up and get on without grimacing with pain.

It is one of those times that I regret being a book dealer, my Father always wanted me to be a florist!  I have no idea why?  His trade was wines and spirits.   I feel that wafting around with beautiful bouquets would probably be less wear and tear on the back than boxes full of books.

THE HOLLY!

This is the ‘Holly’ Carnival glass bowl that I have been struggling to upload the pictures of.  Sadly still not a good picture but I finally got it here.

This is what it looks like without the UV Light.

I can’t say that I am thrilled at these pictures, on the other hand it has taken about 3 days of tearing my hair out to get them this far.  So basically back to the drawing board.

Hopefully you can see why people go into ecstasy about them.  Meanwhile I shall soldier on and see if I can make them into good pictures.

Got to go, the Dentist awaits, we have no groceries again, the kitchen floor is crunchy!!!

GLOWING IN THE DARK!

As you might have gathered if you are one of my quartet of regular readers, every now and again, we put things up for sale on the Ebay auction site.

It is a simple thing to do, and yet complicated!  Like all things it is complicated by people, us as much as everyone else, and can make me mutter and moan quite a lot.  But occasionally, it can be surprising and delightful!

We have sold a couple of pieces lately (unknowingly)  to old friends, which is lovely.  Rather like unexpectedly meeting someone  you haven’t seen for ages and it gives you an excuse for a bit of a catch up.

Not that we really need an excuse but you know how it is,  life seems to whirl you along and before you know it months have gone by.  So I like being prodded, and reminded to say “Hi” and “How are things?”

I wrote the above 2 days ago and have only just got to sit down at the computer again, and here I will add,  to do things that I want to do, like blog.

I have however spent a long time poring over the internet, trying to re-size the latest pictures of the ‘Vaseline’ glass that my Other Half has had taken.  I call it ‘glow in the dark glass’ because it was made with uranium, and needs a ’black’ light or a ‘UV’ light to make it fluoresce, and we find it really hard to photograph.

Anyway now we have the pictures but they aren’t the right size to put on Ebay, and our computer Guru is currently in Bulgaria, so it is me, slaving over a hot computer keyboard.  My Other Half did offer to help, which consists of him standing at my elbow, asking questions and sighing,  none of which I can answer, so I am going solo!

And if I ever get it sorted, we shall be putting our three pieces on Ebay, and I will put them on my blog as well.  Don’t hold your breath though, it might take some time.

THE BURNING BUSH!

Yesterday morning, at the crack of dawn my Other Half woke me up crashing around the bedroom!

“THE HEDGE IS ON FIRE”

” What time is it”?

“THE HEDGE IS ON FIRE”!

“The hedge”?

“THE HEDGE”, he yelled hurtling down stairs.

I staggered sleepily into the back bedroom and looked out on a tranquil garden, maybe I dreamt it, old age does funny things!

Back in the bedroom I gazed blearily out onto the front garden, just in time to see him gallop across the drive and through the hedge, pyjama’s flying clutching a large jug of water, and sure enough when I put my glasses on, there was smoke and flames.

My first thought was ‘Thank God’, they are his good pyjamas, and my second, as the cat and I rushed down the stairs was, his heart must be sound!

Afterwards, when it was all out there was about 4ft of blackened hedge and we supposed that some passing driver threw a cigarette end and as the hedge bottoms are so dry, it just combusted.  Either that or someone, sadly did it deliberately!  But one thing that I have learnt over the years is that Vandals and trouble-makers don’t function well when the weather is bad, or at the crack of dawn, and it transpired when we paused to look at the clock,  it was just gone 5am!

We went back to bed, me very aware that I had to be up at 7am.  Tuesday is a school day. The cat obviously thinking that we were insane but happy to join in, went through her morning routine and joined us on the foot of the bed.

It took me about half an hour to begin to doze off again, when with a loud wail the cat sicked up a hair ball and once again I leapt out of bed and whipped off the top cover.  Glancing at the clock it was about 6-ish we all subsided again, and what seemed like 2 minutes later the alarm went off!

Over breakfast I asked my Other half what woke him, and his reply was typical of him.  Apparently he woke, went to the loo and on the way back thought, “I wonder if the car aerial got put back right after having the car washed” and opening the curtains to have a look couldn’t believe his eyes to see 2ft high flames leaping out of the hedge!

I usually wake up thinking things like “Not morning yet” etc.  And he wakes up thinking about cars!

We agreed however, that someone must be looking after us, because if he hadn’t woken and found the fire, if it had caught the big conifer, higher than the house and only a few feet further along, it would have gone up like a roman candle.  And a few jugs of water wouldn’t have put that out!

So we have had our biblical moment.   ’The Burning Bush’  Who knows what tomorrow will bring?  I wait with trepidation!

POST OFFICE?

I sold some old 1960′s sewing patterns on Ebay, for between £1 and 50p.  I spent an hour checking that they were complete before I put them up for sale and they have caused me nothing but grief.

It’s the postage, what with the last round of increases, and the fact that our local post office is now a cubby-hole behind the counter at the Spa shop round the corner is driving me insane.  They do have a dedicated postage person, but when she is not there the girls who serve in the shop stand in, and to be frank I think that half the time they just make it up!

In some ways I don’t blame them, sending anything, anywhere is a ‘mine field’, which is why I have everything double checked before I post.

The patterns are a perfect example, I didn’t have any pattern sized envelopes left so I made small flat parcels, then I couldn’t make my mind up whether they would go as letters, They fitted through the slot?  Or small parcels, they were too flat really.  So we duly took them around the corner and had them weighed, each one individually and paid, happy that there would be no complications.  And this was first class mind!

But each one was apparently 9p postage short, which has cost each recipient £1.09 because you have to pay a fine and if they weren’t at home they have had to collect them from the post office!

So I have had to refund each one the extra postage, all except the one who hasn’t even received the parcel/letter yet.  So much for first class!

I know all the things to do, I have receipts etc.  But these were tiny petty-fogging bits and pieces.  It should have been so simple.

I am going to have to change my post office, and then  eventually they will close the local one.  Do you think that it is deliberate, first they turn it into a cupboard and then sabotage the service and then it will be no more?

 

 

 

WAFFLING!

I did manage to get 2 bits of glass put on Ebay for my Other Half

                          

Pretty aren’t they?  I love the little Sauce Boat, it is called ‘Fan’ in Peach Opalescent,  made by Dugan in America in about 1910.  Very Victorian I think.  And in complete contrast the Scroll Embossed Compote, the exterior pattern is Eastern Star.  I like it but it is not so dainty as the other, again made in America, this time by Imperial, and in the same year.

And I went to the meeting at school and took the minutes and brought them home and made enough sense out of them to type them up.  Although in my usual fashion I manage to chop the bottom paragraph off of the 2nd sheet, lost never to be found.  Some where in the back of this computer is a mountain of the bits and pieces from where I have hit the button and they have vanished!

And the rest of the day sort of filled up with things, and eventually I went to bed at 10pm, paralyzed with exhaustion.

I filled in the ‘Million Women Survey’ yesterday and sent it back, so the details of what it asked and what I ticked are rather hazy, even though I  do remember ticking the box for ‘Good Memory’.  I get one every 5 years, and always do fill it in.  I find that it is good for me to have to think about the questions.  It gives me a kind of summary of how I am doing.  Fairly average I think.  But it is a good idea, especially as they refine and alter it as they go along.  It must be useful to collate the findings and compare them with the previous ones!

Waffling a bit now so it is obviously time to go.  I could have had the first load of washing out by now if I was diligent!

COVETING MY NEIGHBOUR’S SHED!

 

My Other Half has a load of glass that he wants me to put on Ebay for him, and I have to go into school this morning to a Teaching Assistants meeting.  We have one a Term, and it is meant to catch us all up with ‘what’s what’ and to make sure that we are all happy, and to tell us if we are doing it wrong.

And the house has got to that crunchy stage and I did sort bedclothes intending to do the bedrooms yesterday, but went shopping instead.  Yet again the week is running away with me.

I need to be more disciplined, my neighbour gets up every morning and fettles her house first thing.  I love going around to hers, it is just how I aspire that my house will be, but never is, and never will be.  She doesn’t do clutter, and I feel that is the secret.  I only do clutter!

She also has a beautiful little Summer House in her immaculate garden, I say little but it is almost the size of our lounge and beautifully furnished.  She tells me that they never really use it.  I covet it, I can visualise me sitting there of an afternoon, with my books and embroidery,  an oasis of peace!  I would never catch up with myself then would I?

We are still dieting, that is the reason that we had to shop early this week, we had eaten everything down to the last lettuce leaf.  It is hard work losing weight, we never seem to stop eating, but fingers crossed it is beginning to work, we have both moved a fraction downwards on the scales.  Our next big test will be Tilly’s Birthday Bash on Saturday.  Life is full of hurdles!

Well I can’t sit here all day coveting my neighbours shed, I must away.  If only I had got up and got on, instead of gossiping away here with a cup of coffee – but then I wouldn’t be me would I?

 

 

THEATRE, DARLINGS!

I am into Theatre Programmes at the moment.  I always think that they are a good social comment with their advertisements and pictures they evoke a picture and standard of the time.

I have 1920/30′s ones at the moment, although as I get further into the boxes in the garage I am sure that I shall find others.  They tend not to sell very well and take up space on my stall, so often they get left behind in favour of more commercial things.

Great adverts and fashions, and Afternoon Tea!  More gracious times 1929

        

1929 again, different Theatre though.  a Tragi-Comedy with Charles Laughton!  I just love the ‘Maison Lyons Chocolates’ advert, Ask the Attendant for ‘Small Size’.  Just lovely.

Got to go now, I have filled the keyboard with today’s quota of crumbs.  Things to do, places to go!

A BIT OF GLITTER!

A pretty ruffled edge on a marigold ’Coin dot’ bowl

From Germany, Brockwitz, although some say Eda from Sweden, A beautiful blue, the interior pattern is called ‘Headdress’ and the exterior ‘Curve Star’  This one was made around 1930, sometimes you find them with no iridisation, not then strictly Carnival glass but lovely just the same however not worth a fortune.

A lovely green ‘Dragon and Lotus’  with a Three-in-One edge.  Very pretty.  Legend has it that,  there is in America  a woman who is known as the ‘Dragon Lady’, this is the only Carnival glass pattern that she collects and apparently she has hundreds and they are all different!

This is known as a ‘two sides up’ plate.  The pattern is ‘Three Fruits’ made by Northwood around 1912.  The back pattern is ‘Basket Weave’

Another Northwood bowl, I like this one better and it stands on a little pedestal foot. Rather a lovely colour as well.