Thrifted Vintage Treasures

Hello everyone!

On Sunday, Lola and I got up early to go treasure hunting at the local car boot fairs.  My boy was on a sleepover, so it was just us girls!  We found some amazing things, and what with it heading towards the end of the car boot season, people were keen to just get rid of stuff, so we found some bargains.

From the top –

Pottery and crockery.  Not only do I actually use it to serve up food, but I’m constantly packing crockery for shoots, and using it to style photographs for here and Instagram.  I have a bit of an obsession when it comes to old transfer ware ceramics, it’s just so beautiful, photographs really well, and is cheap as chips!  I think the bottom one in the picture will look lovely planted up in November/December with some hyacinth bulbs and moss, a bit like these that I made last year.  I also love the more contemporary pieces on the left.  I know nothing about them, so if anybody knows about this type of pottery, give me a shout!  I think the little one will look gorgeous with a little String of Hearts plant in it.

Old painted frame – I do love an old frame!  So brilliant for styling up by taping flowers or prints inside the frame.  This one has the perfect amount of patina too, and at 50p it had to go in m shopping bag.

Vintage eiderdown – I pick these up whenever I can.  Not only are they brilliant for my prop cupboard, but they are fab for throwing on the sofa or the bed in the autumn months.  This one was £1.  I told you we got lucky!  It’s not the plumpest, but it’s intact, and that price I didn’t mind throwing it the washing machine to freshen it up.  Although if you have a really beautiful one, I wouldn’t recommend that, take it to get it specially dry cleaned instead!  I also bought a lovely old Oxo tin from same person, I already have a couple but they look fab at Christmas filled with baubles.

Terracotta pots and plants – Car boot fairs are such a brilliant place to buy plants!  Those folks who are green fingered, propagate and sell their little plant babies for 50p/£1.  The pots were £5 for a job lot, and I use them all the time on shoots and for potting up little plants such as these.  The taller plants are aloe veras and were 50p each.

I also bought a lovely old clock cabinet (minus the clock!) which is a bit of a renovation job for the autumn, I’ll share some pics with you as soon as I can.

There are still some places left on our next Decorative Vintage Styling Workshop in Bristol in October.  I’ll definitely be bringing some of my more autumnal, rustic props for this one, so please do come and join us for a fun few hours of styling inspiration.  I’ve never been to Bristol before, so do let me know if there are any ‘must visit’ places to photograph/see!

Tamsyn x