Welsh Slate Tile Chalkboard

One of the places we visited on our Welsh holiday was Chirk Castle.  I'll write a more detailed post about our visit later but for now I want to show you the souvenir I bought from the very pricey farm shop on the castle grounds.

In amongst all the lush homemade cakes and goodies, organic meats and treats, plants and flowers was a huge pile of slate tiles.

I ignored all the goodies and went for the slate tiles.  At 50p each how could I resist!  The slate tiles were taken from the castle roof itself and were rather manky to say the least.

I thought they would make a great hanging chalkboard sign.  Unfortunatley they all seemed to have only one hole in them probably where they were nailed down.  But after a lot of rummaging around I found one solitary tile with two holes.  I know I could have asked the Big Man to drill an extra hole in but unfortunately I have a husband who does not really prioritise my crafty needs i.e. he would have chucked the tile into his "workshop" in the hopes that I would forget about it!

After much scrubbing of the tile, it came up lovely.  I couldn't find any twine in my stash so have had to make do with some ribbon (I hope it's strong enough).

The sign is now hanging in my porch.  It's all lumps and bumps and rather difficult to write or draw anything neatly on it.  But I think it all adds to it's charm. 

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Car Boot Loot #6

What a looty weekend I had!  The Wee Man, during one of his leaflet hoarding expeditions, came across a leaflet for the Ruislip Lido Railway and had decided that it was his right to ride on that railway.  So of course being the push over parent that he is, the Big Man agreed and we headed to Ruislip on Sunday.

As is the tradition now, we headed to a new car boot first before we got there.  The Big Man has found that this is the only way to keep me sweet on train day outs.  Very wise of him.  We found one in Ruislip and headed there first thing in the morning.  

What a great car boot that was.  So very civilised, lots of lovely sellers and buyers and lots and lots of vintage gorgeousness.  I got so much stuff I'm going to have to show you some now and some later.  I had to stop myself from buying lots of things as the pennies seemed to disappear from my purse.

First up a Rawlings soda water syphon.  It's etched glass and is pre 1953 as it has a royal warrant on it for HM the King.  

It's all rather mucky inside and I am loath to clean it as it has an original label on the top.  I'd hate for it to wash off.  Does anyone have any tips on how to wash only the inside of a soda water syphon?  I got this for only £2.50.  I had my sweaty hands on it and chatted with the seller for ages, all the while a man was hovering behind me and when I finally said I'd buy it, Mr. Hover exclaimed "I wanted that!"  It's always good to buy something that someone else so desperately wants.  Ha! 

Next up some gorgeous china jugs, both just 50p each.  The seller was selling off her collection of china jugs as she had moved onto collecting tea pots.  I think I may have to start stalking this car boot in anticipation of her selling off her tea pot collection. 

This one is Paragon "Lavinia" and has the most gorgeous flowers.

And this one is Royal Adderley "Cornflower".

I also bought a load of other stuff which you'll need to wait to have a nose at as the book worm that is the Wee Man is waiting for me to read some stories to him.  

I always find it difficult to get my photos bright enough to show off my bits and pieces.  I tend to photograph things on my dresser which is in a corner of my dining room.  Short of having a full lighting rig, I'm really not sure how to get my pics better.  Anyone got any tips?  I'd love to photograph them outside but my garden is more jungle than garden.  If you know what I mean!  

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...a day of vintage beauty and steam train rides

Yesterday we went to the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre for steam train rides with Paddington bear.  

It was all rather good fun.  The Wee Man and Big Man definitely enjoyed themselves and I really enjoyed oohing and aahing at all the vintage goodies that were used as props.  There were endless vintage luggage displays.  Just look at the gorgeousness. 

And tucked away in one of the train trucks in the museum I found this beauty...

...a 1920's Frister and Rossmann sewing machine.  The detail on it was simply gorgeous and it really didn't befit it's surroundings in a dusty old train truck.  I admit I did have a momentary desire to "rescue" it from it's surroundings but reality knocked some sense into me.  It really was gorgeous.  

Some more pics of vintage lushness...

But the bestest, bestest moment of the whole day was this.....

...use of her new Cath Kidston bag in London

It was the Big Man and my wedding anniversary on Sunday.  Nine years, or so he tells me.  I'm not good with dates and anniversaries.  It all started a few years ago when I conveniently forgot how old I was(!)

We had a lovely day.  In the past our anniversaries have been all about rekindling our love for each other.  Dinner, presents and whispering sweet nothings and then along came the Wee Man.  Now we have a no present and no card rule.  Mainly because it's just too much effort and always a struggle to buy presents for each other.  Just what do you buy a man who doesn't want anything?!  So I've given up and to play fair I've asked him to give up buying me presents also.

But saying all that Sunday did turn out to be a lovely day.  We all trooped into London and the Wee Man "drove" a DLR train all the way to Greenwich.  Where I disappeared off into Greenwich Market and the Clocktower Market and the boys went to the Maritime museum.  That's where I got to use my new Cath Kidston bag.  The one I got free from Easy Living Magazine.  Look what I crammed in it.

I had a fabulous couple of hours mooching around the markets.  It's the first time I've been able to have a good look around without the Big Man or Wee Man whining.  It was arts and crafts day at Greenwich market and there were lots of lovely and very overpriced goodies there e.g. tea cup candles for £20 and over!

The only thing I got from Greenwhich was a "Keep Calm and Carry On" metal sign.  All rusty and full of charm.  It's for a friend's birthday and I do hope she likes it, rust and all.

After a dish delish lunch.  Yummy, yummy in my tummy.  NB This was shared between the Big Man and me. I did not eat it all myself, though I wouldn't have minded if I did!  Ho Fun noodles with roast duck, vegetable spring rolls and some mouth watering chicken wings.  Looking at it now, there is a distinct lack of greens.  Oh well.

We headed into Covent Garden where again the boys went off to the Transport museum and I got to mooch around Covent Garden Market and Jubilee Market where it was craft day.  I bought a couple of scarves, one for me and another for my friend.

It was a fab day, though I'm not sure it can be called a good anniversary if I spent most of the time away from the Big Man.

The Cath Kidston bag was great.  It's light and can be folded into practically nothing.

It lives at the bottom of my bag now, ready to be whipped out to carry any goodies I collect on my travels.

It holds a lot of stuff for such a smallish bag.

I'd crammed a fair bit in.  You can see from the contents of the bag that I am a bit of a leaflet hog.  I like picking up leaflets and menus and business cards.  I love reading them.  The Wee Man has unfortunately/ fortunately inherited up this habit of mine.

All in all a good day and it did pain me to wrap and post the metal sign.  It would have looked great in my porch.  Oh well will have to keep an eye out for another one.

...the perfect day out for the Wee Man

Yesterday the Wee Man's nursery had an Inset Day so I decided we should have a special fun day.  After much debate and perusing of the web, the Big Man suggested the London Transport Museum.  The Wee Man loves trains, buses, trams, basically anything with wheels.  So the Transport Museum sounded like a great day out for him.

It's also in Covent Garden not too far from the Cath Kidston shop so I was rather excited myself.  Well the Wee Man was very kind and allowed me all of four minutes to drool at all the lovelies at Cath Kidston, before his demands for the Transport Museum got too much(!)  Well who am I to deny a desperate four year old.

The Transport Museum lived up to all of his and my expectations.  It really is such a great place for kids to play and explore.  You can get on practically all the exhibits and there are loads of exhibits (toys) for the kids to play with.

The Wee Man's favourite was the underground train you can "drive".  A large screen in front shows the train drivers view of the underground track, all dimly lit tunnels and packed platforms.  Very cool.

We had a great day out and we will definitely be going back again.  I would thoroughly recommend it.