Stall Stuff

Change is afoot at the Tea Rooms stall...Former stall partner Rory is now off to greener (and much better paying pastures), and I have partnered up with a fishy little purveyor of Toot. Come and check out the new layout (in the same old space) if you're in town. 

Old ladies, horses with broken legs and naked men with half an arm -we've got them all!

A naughty alphabet - avert your eyes, children!

We also have an occasional inhouse tarot reader, who comes with a set of cards she designed herself. What clever people!

Little Old Lady

Hello dearie, look who I met at the boot fair on Wednesday!

My two most favourite parts - her raised finger and braided bun. 

Granny Armitage (from the little label sewn onto her petticoat) was made with such care and attention. Her clothes were made with the most perfect little hand stitches, and her little plaster face has been painted with so much expression. Could she be a close relative of Granny Weatherwax?

Marche aux Puces de Bruxelles

I was not joking when I said in an earlier post that we managed to cram a lot into a mere day and a half in Brussels. Not only did we squeeze in visits to the Atomium and the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, we also managed to have some mussels at Chez Leon, and perhaps most importantly, visit the Marche aux Puces not once, but twice! 

Having arrived in Brussels too early to check in to our hotel, we decided to make our way to the Marolles district to visit the flea market. If you're the sort of person whose heart beats faster at the thought of a new market or boot sale to explore, and who daydreams about trawling through boxes to uncover that one perfect item, then welcome to your dream. 

She came home with me!

Look at that - boxes and boxes of stuff, from travel kettles to antique dolls, vintage dresses to dead birds.  Neon pink ballroom dancing dresses. Antique French laces. Rainbow sets of Victorinox kitchen knives (plenty of those there - everyone in Brussels must get given a set as a wedding present). Absolute heaven. I had to rein in my desire to purchase huge framed wedding portraits and antique chandeliers. Some stalls were fairly nicely organised, with items displayed on rails and tables, and neat little aisles carved between  rows of boxes. Other stallholders resisted the temptation to make their stalls look presentable, and simply laid their goods on the ground. I find that I tend to gravitate towards the messier looking stalls - more chance of finding a treasure among that mess, perhaps? 

Treasure-hunting made us very hungry, so we headed across the road to Charlotte, lured by the wonderous smell of cooked onions and burnt meat, and shared a very massive hotdog. 

Jumble Sale

Alright, listen up, Londoners (or those in London over the weekend)! Artquest are holding their annual jumble sale this Sunday at The Rag Factory off Brick Lane, so make your way out East if you're looking to get your filthy mitts on some goodies. 

Fellow Bake Club member Yusuf and I have got two stalls there. (Yeah, I started a baking club, because I am soooo cool. Deal with it!) We'll be selling heaps of fantastic homemade cakes, biscuits and possibly truffles, and also a bunch of our old stuff - clothes, CDs, badges, knitting/sewing supplies. It's a sorta fundraising event for visual artists and crafters, so your money will go towards helping starving artists buy another pint of beer and a pack of fags. It's all for a good cause!

So, please come along if you're looking for a fun day out, or if you'd like to judge the quality of my baking skillzzz for yourself. I'll try not to poison you (unless you're an idiot, of course). Click over here for the map if you want to find out how to get there. 

Found

Some second-hand goodies I picked up recently.

Awesome Halina 35x in fairly decent condition except for a little ding on the metal bit near the lens. I've run a roll of film through it to test it out, and should get it back tomorrow. It was attached to a leather case which was falling apart and missing the front flap, so I'm working on making a little padded bag to ferry it around safely.

Some awesome tea and biscuit tins. The bus-themed tin is a recent Marks and Spencers biscuit tin, and the bottom two are much older, the one on the right is a Twinings tea tin. They both contained a heap of old buttons, beads, and a crochet hook, so it was a double score!

Blue polyester cardi from the £1 rail that was in perfect condition and looked virtually unworn, and a white faux-fur scarf that actually fastens with a magnetic clasp. 

A mega-ton of old photographs, including a photo album that isn't pictured here, and some mini Swiss postcards.. I'm gonna try and scan them all in so you guys can enjoy them too. Most of them were still in their original paper envelopes, from Boots! Their photo packing was so much nicer back then. That little photo of the father and son (I assume?) at the top right corner makes me a little sad. Also, don't you think the son looks a little like Michael Cera?

Speaking of old-school packaging, I also ended up scoring a beauteous Avon pressed glass jar. The top looks like metal but is actually a type of plastic coated in silver paint. It's only little, but surprisingly heavy for its size. I'd probably be more tempted to purchase Avon potions and lotions if they still came in such pretty jars. 

Girls Can Do Anything

Anyone remember these?

Girl's World - Fashion Designer!

If you were a girl growing up in the '80s then you very well might recognise that sickly shade of pink - reserved for the manufacture of every toy marketed at girls between 2 - 14 years old.
I had one but my mum threw it out when we moved - that's why I live a good 24 hours flight away from them now (am I kidding? Who knows?)

Inside view

But it's alright, I found one - with all parts included - in a second-hand shop last year, so all's well with the world these days. Strangely enough, the shop decided that the box needed one of these warnings.

Of course it's suitable for children! It's called "Girl's World". It's a kids toy...for kids! It even has that cute little Tomy logo in the corner with the happy children! And it's not even like there's tiny pieces in it that kids can choke on. Unless you knew a kid with a monstrously wide mouth - maybe an 8 year old Steven Tyler?

Sexy lady

Back of lady

When you turn the front bits over, you'll see textures on the back pf the plates. Once you've traced the outline of the outfit, you can then fill it in with patterns and textures. Not just a pretty face.

Mine even came with already coloured-in drawings from the little girl who owned it before me. She seems to have given them all names and personalities too.

Serina SmartiePants - Bahahahaah, my favourite

This one's my favourite picture coz it looks like she has hyper-trichosis. It's actually a picture on the side of the box, so I'm guessing it wasn't drawn by a kid. What the fuck's going on? Maybe the product designer had a crush on Jojo the Wolfboy?

All the single ladies...

Now I wanna go get awesome vintage fabric and make 70's tennis outfits. Instead, I made a little owlie.
This little guy was meant to go into the store, maybe as a pincushion, but I dunno if I can bear to part with him. And I don't like the thought of some random sticking pins into him. I might give it away to someone I know will treat him well.
Speaking of the store, I was getting all depressed coz no one had bought anything for over a week, and no one even seemed to be looking at any of our stuff, then I logged on yesterday morning and saw that I had sold two aprons overnight!
The buyers will receive their aprons in a very nicely wrapped up package. Coz I like wrapping things up.

And lastly - are those weeds growing in my terrarium? Can someone with more plant knowledge than me please let me know? I was excited when I saw little green things sprouting, but now that they're bigger some of them look suspiciously similar to those weedy things you see in cracks on the street. I dunno what to do! If they look like they're going all Triffid-style in the mossararium I might pull them out.