Winter Sun

Lovely winter sun illuminates some of my glass collection in the studio. I don't remember where I found each of them only some of them, but the little hand-painted green one is a bit of a favourite and from Clignancourt flea market in Paris.

Finds

It's been a good few days for finds. These glasses are from Brixton's Saturday market, they were 50pence each. I love the hand engraved stars, especially the mini elegant one which will go in my little collection of the few I don't use. The stem is so fine anyway I'd be worried it could break in transit.

I also found, but then paid for a piece of furniture being thrown away. I saw this cabinet at the back entrance of a charity shop.

It's the top half of a dresser that they said was broken. It's not, the 2 parts just come apart. I looked at the bottom half and decided to offer a donation for both and pay delivery. So in all I paid £40 - that's a good deal better than the haberdashers cabinets I'd been lusting over online! Fashionable stuff is a ridiculous price so I don't participate in that scrum.
When it comes to old stuff and re-using I really aim to have something that really was otherwise being thrown away.

Someone has given it a fake shabby chic dose of paint - not my style - but I'm yet to decide how I'll finish it. It is nuts that it was being thrown away from a charity shop - those of us already alert to minimising waste are clearly in a minority, there's plenty of education necessary to redefine 'waste'. Think of the fantastic flea markets you could have with all the stuff charity shops don't want.
Anyway I'm thrilled with my finds and I have very little storage where things are out of view so this is a real novelty.

Glasses

A friend gave me a box and a bag full of old glasses for Christmas. He works for a theatre company behind the scenes and there was a prop room clear out - so Thanks Steve for nabbing all these for me! I realised alot of these styles don't turn up at charity shops much anymore. These have facets and flat bits like lenses. A few years ago when charity shops started raising their prices I thought it was ok as it's always for a good cause.  More recently they all seem to censor the stuff and there's no junk - some of us were only drawn in by the box on the floor full of unsorted cheap dirty kitchenware! The prices have gone up again and I really don't like the ones that have barely any bric a brac except for a few ikea frames and some candlesticks priced at more than they cost new. I know all you flea marketeering bloggers will agree.

Anyway as someone who donates stuff to charity shops too I don't want to see it over-priced, it's supposed to be for those with less ready cash. Back to the glasses, they're so photogenic, I love the smokey silvery grey colour of the density so I couldn't resist a few family portraits.