Sunday Purchases!

Mark and I were up bright and early today to get to the Brighton Marina boot sale and grab some bargains.  The boot sale is actually more of an antique/collectables market with a few ordinary bootsellers thrown in.  Some weeks you can find tons of items for brilliant prices and other weeks you come away with your money still burning a hole in your pocket.  This week was a good week and I made some great finds.  My favourite was this SAS 1960s ammunition tin.  The colour is a gorgeous soft green and I love the stenciling.  On its own it looks good but maybe a touch masculine, add some gorgeous soft pink roses and it turns into something faded, feminine and delectable!

Vintage SAS Ammunition tin and vintage bee smoker

I just wanted to show off my new bag!

Ammo tin as we found it

The next find was this cool little vintage bee smoker.  I thought it was a petrol can at first but then saw the bellow on the back.  Smokers are used in beekeeping to calm the honey bees.  I don't know why but it just evoked an image in my mind of being in a sunny cottage garden with bright flowers all around me and tending to my bees (I don't have bees) with my little cat rubbing herself round my legs (I don't have a cat either!) and the nightingales singing whilst I wear a pretty 1950s dress with a flower in my hair.........(ok I've been watching too many Darling buds of May, time to get back to reality :)

Bee smoker and ammo tin

Vintage bee smoker

Mark and I have been known to have tiny disagreements about the things I buy.  He tends to wonder if the early start has affected the good taste part of my brain and I can't understand how he can have such bad taste!  Anyway today we seemed to agree on everything and he even liked this little beauty!

Pose doll

Little French maid

She is a pose doll from Japan and I think this one dates from the 60s.  I have several pose dolls from the 1950s wearing the fashion of the day but have never seen a little French maid....until now!  She is very cute and even has seamed fishnet stockings with a garter belt holding each stocking up.  Her shoes have tiny high heels and I think she's a little bit quirky!

On the same stall I found this little french lamp.  Once its got some little silk french shades I think it will make a very nice addition to any ladies boudoir.

Little French Lamp

Finally even though I said my favourite purchase was the ammo tin, I actually think this was my favourite recent find.  A photo taken in the 20s or 30s? of 7 men and women dressed as pierrot.  They were possibly an amateur dramatics society or they could have just been going to a fancy dress party. I love. love. love this image and it is so evocative of the Bright Young Things from the 20's who were a group of young people determined to dance the night away and for whom decadance was everything.  I have to admit that the people in my photo don't look that young but you get what I mean!

Not so bright young things!

Bright Young Things photograph by Cecil Beaton

Arrrgh, I forgot about this buy!  This my final one, promise :).  A little mirror which the lady said she had had since she was 15 years old.  I think the mirror is from the late 50s, early 60s and is in the shape of an easel.  It has painted flowers which have rubbed off a bit but I don't care, it gives it character!  The screw covers are particularly pretty and one of the main reasons I bought it.  One is missing but I'm sure I can find a spare one in my stash.

60s easel mirror

All in all we had a good day at the market and we were done by 10am and back home having a cuppa and chocolate brownie by 10.30am.  Chocolate brownies are an essential item in the world of boot sales as they allow you to keep your energy up after trawling around stalls at some ungodly hour, I highly recommend them!

Can't wait to see what I can find next week! :) x