Battersea Boot Sale

Where? 401 Battersea Park Road in the school playground.
When? Every Sunday from 11.30 (£5 entry at this time)

Battersea boot is one of the bigger sales in London, attracting a queue at 1.30pm when the public, as opposed to traders, are allowed entry for 50p. Every week different stallholders peddle their goodies. This week-end, there were a lot of second-hand clothes, some vintage. I found prices here a little higher than the usual car boot sales, but most stall holders were happy to haggle & there were some collectible pieces that deserved more premium prices.

My favourite find - 3 jam jars full of amber & green fake gem stones for £1. Perfect for embellishing clothes and crafty projects. These are normally quite expensive from traditional haberdashery stores!

I love buying dirty scraps of lace & doylies for 20p...then laundering them! Miniature green glass fishing float!

Still deciding whether to wear this 50p apron or cut it up to use the floral fabric!

I'll need a new dresser soon to house my crockery collection!

The size of this sale and variety of different stall holders each week, means there are always potential bargains & hidden treasures to be unearthed!

 

Sunbury Antiques fair & upcycled swan planters!

I love Sunbury antiques fair, held bi-monthly at Kempton Park race course. On my latest trip I found an old, kitsch swan planter. It's the ideal storage container for my sewing threads!

I was tempted by these old birds and basket too... but resisted!

I really liked the raised flowers and shape of this plate; ideal for resting my knitting needles!

Everything on this stall from the antique dentifrice containers to victorian toothbrushes, was dug out of landfills and building sites! The trader looks on maps for areas where old factories or big buildings used to be and then digs! Sometimes he's lucky, sometimes not!

I love old glass. This is an antique inkwell from a landfill. A snip at £1!

More unusual sights at the fair; an antique wheelchair and cast iron bath legs. I love their shape!

"Sunbury Antiques Market is the largest market in the country with over 750 stalls - rummage heaven!" 

Ealing Yard sale

I get a tingle of excitement when I'm walking along and stumble across these signs! Especially when the sale is taking place in the grounds of a recently sold grand house, on a lovely road...

...amongst my 50p bargains today, I found an antique lace table cloth (a little stained, but will make pretty trimming) and some Japanese fabric that I can use to make Kanzashi flowers...!

"A present from Scarboro"!

There's always a bargain to be had at Portobello Rd and Golborne road flea market...

...from old printing blocks to vintage handbags and nursing chairs...

...if you have a good rummage through the house clearance boxes, you never know what you might find... 

...this trader was a dog! All haggling/paying for these cushions was done through the van window...

....once the goodies were taken home and washed (& inspected by OT!), I had a pair of fairly old, cross-stitched by hand cushions for £1 and some china....

...I'm always on the look out for old shamrock pottery so was delighted to find an irish saucer! I've recently taken a fancy to old, twee souvenir china, like the mug pictured. Was happy to pay 50p for the floral "present from Scarboro"!!

Deptford Flea Market!

Deptford flea market was recommended to me by Mary Jane Baxter, author of "Chic on a shoestring". I was warned that I would have to kiss a lot of frogs, but as a "rummage queen", I quickly spied some handsome finds, including a wooden egg store (£1) which I'd seen on sale in an upmarket shop for £30. Also waiting for me was an old rusty french jug (50p). Every antique fair I've been to recently has sold these for about £12! Of course I had to snap up some more cheeky glass decanters and an old 1950's linen curtain - very Orla Kiely - but only 50p!

Waiting to be found....my treasures....dirty and buried amongst junk!

Found in Deptford and cleaned up in Ealing!

An old curtain amongst a pile of jumble. Washed and left to dry on my maiden.
Result - 3 meters of 1950's fabric for my next craft project.

The ones that got away...unfortunately too big and heavy to take home...but the egg store made it!

Some retro spots!

An added bonus to Douglas way is that it joins the food and general market on deptford high st, which is a wonderful market with cheeky traders, cheeky signs and cheeky prices! The market is soaked in atmosphere and being only 10mins from London Bridge, definitely worth a trip!

Capital Car Boot Sale!

Every Sunday, Pimlico Academy in London plays host to a huge Car Boot sale, selling everything from second-hand vintage clothing and bric-a-brac to 1950's pink hair-dryers! It's easy to find a bargain with so much choice.Today I found 6 pretty floral plates for £2 from Thomas Goode China shop in Mayfair, and an Art Deco tea-cup set. A real Aladdin's cave of goodies!

 

 

 

 

Rummage heaven!

One of my favourite pastimes is having a good old rummage at antique fairs, markets, charity stalls, house clearance shops and carboot and garage sales for old glass, china, buttons and curios...in fact anything that takes my fancy! I particularly recommend the Capitol Carboot sale in Pimlico, held each Sunday and the International antiques and collectors fairs held across the country throughout the year. A small selection of some of my finds....

   

Vintage cheese dish and soup serving bowl from house
clearance shops in Shoreditch and Islington

Vintage celery vase and apothecary jar, £1.10
Capitol Car boot sale, Pimlico

Charity shop find for the bathroom, 50p

OT examining the loot from a Garage sale in Ealing, June 2011, which included bone
 handled knives, an antique vase  and a Victorian glass castor cup - all for £4!

Vintage foot stool, £2, from an antique fair
 in Somerset. OT now owns this!

Antique baguette box, salvaged from a french
boulangerie when it closed down. Bought at an antiques fair, £5.
Now used to store wrapping paper and wallpaper rolls!