Busy busy

 I've had a busy weekend putting some of my advertising mug collection on Ebay and doing two carboot sales before my house move tomorrow (well technically Monday as I’m decorating first). Although I was meant to be selling at the carboot sales rather than buying, I abandoned my aunt for a bit to have a wander around and below are a few pics of my finds, including an enormous oriental fan with a hand painted design. I love oriental artwork and have a beautiful picture of birds in a blossom tree which I picked up from a booter a few years ago and that will be taking pride of place in my bedroom again once the move is complete. I have the spare bedroom/craft room in mind to display the fan.

Excuse the terrible photos. I just couldn't get a light/unblurred pic.

Above is a couple of my Cath K purchases, along with some recycling shop buys and my new milk bottle holder. I can't bear the usual boring ones.

Today my Mum and I headed to Bicester Village to the Cath Kidston outlet. I bought a coin purse as part of my friends birthday box and also bought one for myself to keep my carboot sale change in. I was meant to be looking for bits and pieces for the house but nothing caught my eye and I ended up buying a lovely big bag in the cowboy print and a carrier bag holder which I’ll use at the next Bicycle Bazaar to tame my usually unruly load of carrier bags.

Tommorrow is a busy day as I not only get my house keys, but also have a hospital appointment to be tested for a hereditary breast cancer gene. After that I’m off to Evesham to pick up six Belfast sinks that I’ve just bought on Ebay for my new garden and on Thursday a pair of Laura Ashley Hydrangea curtains will be arriving and I’ll be measuring and negotiating with my Mum as to whether I can steal her Laura Ashley curtains in the living room for my new house (if they fit!) and she can have the new Hydrangea ones. I’m hoping my Mum’s will fit my French doors in the new house as I not only love the print, but managed to pick up a matching blind to fit the small window in the living room at a carboot sale last week for a bargainous £6. I In fact I realised this week that I’m getting quite good at pretending to be blasé about items at carboots, when really I spy them from a distance and have to fight the urge to run run run, grab the item and say I’ll have it before even asking the price.

These Hotel Chocolate chocolates are exact copies of vintage buttons and I love them. My friends/famnily know me so well since I've now had two boxes of them as gifts. Yum yum.

'How you doin'?'

I arrived back in England on Friday after my week long New York trip and have taken so long to blog as I’m still adjusting to the time difference, have caught a horrid cold off some diseased person on the plane and took so many pictures while I was there that it’s taken me two days to attempt to get them into some sort of order. As my cousin said, ‘you have way too many pictures on your Facebook. I mean, once you’ve seen one Manhattan skyline you’ve seen them all’.

So, New York was amazing. We had a strict itinerary with as much as possible packed in and we did all the main touristy stuff; The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Central Park, Top of The Rock (70th floor of The Rockefeller Building), The Empire State Building, Times Square etc. We also fitted in lots of routes on the open top bus tours, which I love, mainly because I can see everything from high up without having to walk miles in the heat. I bought a few bits and bobs from the Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market, which was disappointingly small, and also went to the famous Magnolia bakery credited with the ‘cupcake revival’. I left with two cupcakes, including the Sex in the City 'Carrie' cake and a ridiculously expensive 50s style apron. We also did an amazing food tour in Greenwich Village, which was an artsy kind of place back in the day, but is now an artsy ‘you can only live here if you have a few million lying around’ kind of place. It was much less touristy than any of the other places we’d been, and not only was the food delish, but I got to hear the phrases I’d been waiting for all week; ‘How you doin’?’, ‘Eh, ya tellin’ me’, ‘Eh, forget about it’. I was overjoyed!

Purchases from the Flea Market: Tooled leather bag, 70s scrapbook, Coca Cola Memorabilia, Camcraft book and a Jewellery box.

One of the strangest places we went to was The American Girl Place. It was a must after me seeing it on TV a few years ago and is the most surreal/scary place ever! Basically it’s a doll shop, but so much more. They sell a collection of dolls, all of which come with basic clothes and accessories, and the rest of the three/four storey building is taken up with extra clothes, shoes and accessories for EVERY occasion. I really do mean Every occasion, whether it be horse riding, cheerleading, camping, going to the salon, recovering after an injury or camping. You can even buy matching outfits for your little girl and their doll (Terrifying).

If all of that wasn’t strange enough we went to the next floor and found Mums and Daughters queuing for the Doll Salon, where about eight dolls at a time were sat in salon chairs having their nylon tresses pulled and poked into French plaits, bunches, buns etc for about $20 upwards. They could even have their ears pierced! As I turned away amazed, I accidentally stumbled into ‘The Doll Hospital’ where an extremely concerned Mum and Daughter were checking ‘Lanie’ in to have her head put back on. After a bit of research back at the hotel (The American Girl Place had had a profound effect on me by then) I found that the doll would leave the ‘hospital’ complete with hospital gown and wrist tag, and that the doll wheelchair was a popular purchase for the doll’s recuperation at home. We left after half an hour, confused, amazed, but also a little bit sold on this whole surreal world. I mean, how could you fail to be impressed by a place that has ‘doll stands’ in each restroom?

My cousin demonstrating the doll wheelchair.

 I got carried away with New York kitsch/tacky souvenirs.

I bought these before I even stepped on the plane. How could I resist Cath Kidston duty free?