good things come in threes

I think I've discovered the key to charity shop success... booking health related check ups. Seriously. I found my gorgeous Royal Winton yellow cake plate after a trip to the dentist and this time I found a tray, pyrex serving dish AND an awesome pair of trousers after visiting the optician.

I've been hankering after one of these oval serving dishes with a divider for ages and was absolutely delighted to find a pink pyrex version. I usually only come across white pyrex with floral patterns so it's exciting to come across solid coloured pieces. It has a couple of marks and chips but still perfectly loveable and functional. I can't wait to use it!

After picking up my pyrex dish I spotted this tray. Although I generally find I'm less attracted to big, blousey florals these days I completely fell in love with this tray. It's actually very similar to one of my Mum's old trays. Tray twins!

And my third purchase...... super duper totally awesome high waisted sailor trousers. LOOK AT THOSE BUTTONS! 

I used to have a pair of sailor trousers when I was at university but they weren't half as flattering as these and they eventually became too big for me. I rarely find trousers in my size and length in charity shops (I'm convinced only really short people put trousers to charity shops near me) so you can imagine my delight at finding these beauties.

They fit unbelieveably well, like they were made for me! I think the creasing in the photograph is just due to my hands being in my pockets, plus I had already worn the trousers for a full day. The other incredible thing about these trousers is that they look completely unworn. The denim is unblemished and the back pockets haven't been unpicked. I can't believe my luck - perfect trousers for £3. These are going to get worn to pieces.

£5 worth of shopping in total - not bad!

pyrex and fabric purchases

I haven't been in the charity shops much recently but I have found a couple of pretty and useful pieces. I'm a sucker for pink rose patterned pyrex so these small casserole dishes came home with me.

They quickly became part of the pyrex dish family in the kitchen. I think every kitchen needs an exciting pyrex tower on display.

My other recent charity shop finds are these pillowcase sets. I've been keeping an eye out for pastel stripe pillowcases for a while so was delighted to get my hands on a pair and the floral orange ones were so cheery I couldn't leave them behind. I'm planning to use these for my underneath pillows - much more exciting than plain white.

Now onto my exciting fabric purchases! Aren't these florals fantastic? I used to be the floral dress queen at uni, wearing some form of floral at all times, but in the last couple of years I've been favouring stripes and polka dots and keeping my florals for homewares/interiors. Clearly the floral dress queen still lurks within as I could not resist these two printed cottons.

Mustard yellow, turquoisey blue, duck egg, sap green, dusky pink/purple, rusty orange, plum purple - basically all my favourite colours to wear, yay! I'll have loads of cardigan and tights combinations to choose from with these fabrics as dresses. (Is that a sad thing to get excited about?)

I also bought two Christmas-y fabrics, one of which has already been turned into a garment (blog post coming soon) and the other is currently being cut into.

Check out all that sellotape. I had an intense day of bodice fitting last Sunday. 10 hours to sort out my shoulder/sleeve/gapey upper back problem. 10 HOURS! All I can say is thank goodness for the internet. Fingers crossed this should become my best fitting Elisalex dress to date.

Also "hello!" to any new people who found me through Miss Crayola Creepy's cat lady sewing challenge. I hope you enjoy my jumbled ramblings about cakes, crockery and sewing.

Red and turquoise pyrex

Coloured pyrex dishes are like buses: nothing for ages then suddenly two appear at the same time! A couple of weeks ago Mum came back from her sister's with a little red pyrex dish. My aunty was having a clear out and had found Granny's bread and butter pudding dish and decided to pass it on to me. It used to get taken out for Sunday dinner every week when Mum was little and she always had soft spot for it.

Days later, I was in town waiting for Mum to come out from the dentist and what did I spy in the charity shop? A matching turquoise pyrex dish for 50p. Isn't it strange when things like that happen.

Both dishes are heavily marked and worn, but it just adds to their character and charm. They have been well used but still have plenty of life in them to make a few more puddings.

Mmmm, lots of pyrex.

new pyrex

My sister-in-law found these fantastic pyrex glass tumblers for me last week. They remind me of something I may have found at my Granny and Grandad's (on Dad's side) kitchen cupboards when I was little.

I might employ my sister-in-law to become my own professional pyrex finder as she also found a sugar bowl and gravy boat for me this summer. She's definitely got an eye for it.

Cherries, blackberries and strawberries. I don't think I own any tumblers other than a Pirates of the Caribbean one I bought in the Disney Store when I started uni, so these are a welcome addition to the crockery collection.

Naturally I had to rearrange the dresser to show off more of my pyrex pieces. I think the tumblers look great against the green :)

Has anyone else been given anything special or had a good find recently?

New crockery and fabric

New crockery makes me happy, something I need to remind myself on a rubbish week like this one.

I found this Portmeirion "crazy daisy" jug in a second hand shop in Glasgow a few weeks ago. It's a useful size and matches my Portmeirion cake stand.

My sister in law gave me this funky pyrex gravy boat recently (as well as baking this victoria sponge. Isn't she good to me?) I'm starting to gather an interesting pyrex collection alongside all my china.

And onto my fabric purchases! It's safe to say that my friend Alice and I got a bit overexcited in the Mandors fabric stores in Edinburgh and Glasgow. In fact, we were so overwhelmed by the choice in Glasgow that we went away to have tea and cake and ponder before returning to make our purchases. 

Tractors, cupcakes, dinosaurs, bobbin reels and elephants. Needless to say, I am a fan of novelty prints.

I've been looking for a suitable dinosaur print fabric for at least two years to turn into a dress and I've finally found one! Usually they're a bit too baby-ish in design or garish in colour but this one's unusually subtle; dinosaur print without being too in your face. I like that the dinosaurs even have happy faces.

The tractor fabric is destined to become a skirt. Who wouldn't want a skirt covered in tractors? It's going to be my first project.

Anyone else got any interesting projects on the go at the moment?

Pyrex and pastels

I haven't baked anything over the last week as I've been on holiday visiting family and friends in Glasgow but I thought I'd share some of my most recent charity shop purchases.

Two more Johnson Brothers Cloud pieces to add to my collection: a medium sized jug and a gravy boat with its original dish.

I was also delighted to find four Sprayware pudding bowls a couple of weeks ago for a mere 5p each! I've seen pieces like these before on ebay, when I've been casually browsing retro pyrex, (on a side note, why do Americans have far prettier pyrex? It's not fair!) so I was delighted to get my hands on them.

I'm aware not everybody likes pyrex or sprayware, but personally I like their retro charm. The hexagonal shape of these bowls really appeals to me.

Still on a pyrex theme, my sister in law bought me this little sugar bowl a while ago. For some unknown reason, whenever I see bowls or containers about this size I have visions of them filled with buttons.

However I'm thinking I might use this as a little used teabag container because, let's face it, those little teapot shaped dishes are way too small if you drink lots of tea throughout the day and empty glass jars aren't as pretty. I could just put used teabags straight to the bin but that would be way too sensible wouldn't it? Plus I sometimes like to reuse my teabags.

On a side note my laptop decided to stop connecting to the internet last week (amongst other suspicious things) which is a bit inconvenient. Thankfully this post was more or less written up last week and my brother doesn't mind me stealing his computer to catch up on blog reading. Fingers crossed my laptop is fixable! I'm so clueless with techy stuff.

Recent finds and lemon obsession

Oh dear it has been almost two weeks since my last post! My only excuse is that I'm settling into a new work routine. Don't worry, I've still been baking.

I know images of daffodils and cupcakes with mini eggs have been doing the rounds in the blogosphere recently, but surely a few more image won't hurt?

I've baked lemon cupcakes three times in the last two weeks, all with lemon curd centres, YUM! If you have been following my blog for a while you'll know that I love lemons in baking. I can't get enough of the zingy flavour and cheery colour.

I also felt it was time to do a little charity shop "haul post". First up is my Jasmine Woods Ware dinner plate. Yay, I've finally found a utility china dinner plate! What is on my plate I hear you ask...... lemon chicken! Mum has become slightly obsessed with making it. What can I say, my family loves lemon.

I also found four Grindley Petal Laburnum soup plates and few weeks ago. I can't remember their exact price, somewhere between 20p and 50p each, so pretty good. Although I like how practical and simple the Woods Ware design is, I do love the frilly edge on the Grindley design.

Last but not least I found two pyrex dishes for £1.50 which match mum's big casserole dish. Mum's dish used to belong to Granny but she gave it to us after ours exploded after an unfortunate toad in the hole incident....

Has anybody else been having success in the charity shops recently?

Beryl ware and pyrex

I found four, oval Beryl ware plates at 20p each in a charity shop last week. I don't know whether they're oval dinner plates or serving plates. Either way, I enjoyed eating Heinz spaghetti and toast on them last week. Here's an up to date photo of all my Beryl ware.

Although I'm delighted with my growing Beryl and Jasmine stash, I'd really like to find some Iris. I haven't come across any so far. Does anyone else find that they end up with way more of one style/colour than the other?

I also found a little pyrex jug in another shop for 10p. At that price I couldn't leave it behind.

I can easily see myself collecting loads of pyrex too but even I recognise that I need to reign myself in somewhere!

Unfortunately I haven't baked anything since the beetroot brownies but I do have lots of baking plans for the next week or so. Fudge is at the top of my list, I fudging love fudge! Christmas is fast approaching so I need to get a wiggle on with my Christmas baking.