A FUN SHOPPING TRIP, PICTURE FRAMING, WALK-IN PANTRY REVISITED, AND A MISSING DIAMOND FOUND
Picture framing
Yesterday my hubby and I went to a lovely part of town where there is a pedestrian precinct with interesting and quirky shops. The main reason for our outing was so that I could take a couple of drawings in to the art gallery to be framed – the drawing of my hubby’s friend’s cat, and another that I have done and will post about at a later date.
A friendly meet-up
Next door to the gallery is the estate agent’s which dealt with the purchase of our house. Lyn, the agent, was, of course, acting on behalf of the vendor but we had endless trouble with this woman and the purchase was quite protracted. The situation was resolved with Lyn’s help, and she managed to push it through eventually. She was so lovely and we so appreciated all that she had done for us. I’ve seen her a couple of times in the ten years since we bought the house, and yesterday I decided to go into the shop and see if by any chance she was still working there, and there she was! She said she’d been with them for 17 years and they’d have to carry her out in a box! We had a hug and a lovely chat and caught up with news. It was so good to see her again. My hubby said she would never remember us after all this time, but she recognised me instantly and came running towards me full of smiles and laughter, and remembered all about our house, and asked if we were happily settled in it, which of course I was able to tell her that we were. She was equally pleased to see my hubby when he came in after finishing what he had been doing.
Charity shop haul
I wasn’t intending to do any charity shop shopping as I always get tempted! However, we went in to one, and I immediately spotted two dresses which a) were too small for me and b) I wouldn’t anyway be seen dead in, but I bought them. Why? Because they were just crying out to be cut up and upcycled into something else! I also found some beautiful scarves which may or may not be upcycled; I may end up keeping them to wear.
I took this turquoise dress apart last night, and ended up with several quite large pieces of the black lace which is embellished with tiny black sequins and beads in places. Of course, the photo doesn’t pick these up, but they give the lace a bit of sparkle. The lace is beautiful. The fabric underneath was a combination of normal lining fabric, and something a little more substantial with the look of Thai silk, but it feels synthetic. There is also quite a decent zipper. The dress looked brand new, which made me think that perhaps someone bought it for a special occasion and didn’t want to wear it again. Taking it apart, I could see that it was very well made, and probably cost quite a bit when new.
The second dress is also double-layered, this time with a rich navy fabric underneath, and metallic silver thread medallions machine embroidered on a decorative mesh reminiscent of crochet. There are two layers of long blue fringing at the hem. The motifs can be cut apart and used to decorate bags or journal covers etc. Where the silver thread is carried across to the next one, I would probably have to glue this to prevent it unravelling. (The photo hasn’t quite captured the colour of the fringe, which is much more like the colour of the rest of the dress but a bit darker.)
This beautiful chiffon scarf has autumn leaves with touches of gold. It is very soft. It is not a colour I wear very often and it will probably end up being used in projects but for now it will go in the bag with my other charity shop stuff until inspiration strikes.
The other two scarves are definitely wearable. I love the colours in both of them. This first one, also very soft, is fairly loosely woven and probably wouldn’t lend itself to any structural-type projects. I don’t have any scarves in this particular colour so it will most likely be worn and not upcycled.
This is the final scarf, which is full of gorgeous colours. It has an interesting, partially-frayed fringe.
The weave has a definite look of ikat about it, and there are fine gold threads woven throughout.
These scarves are all gorgeous, and they were not expensive.
The final thing I bought in the charity shop was a couple of pictures, for the frames. Both of them have double mounts.
The larger one’s black frame doesn’t show up too well on the black background. This picture is of a couple of horses which someone has painstakingly worked in cross stitch. It is not a picture I would want to hang, but I feel very reluctant simply to throw out something that someone has obviously spent a lot of time working on, and they have done a good job. When I take the back off the frame, I shall probably find that the embroidery has been stretched around a board. I shall put this back in a charity shop for someone else to enjoy, and provide it with a new frame.
The frames and mounts of both pictures are in good condition and will be useful for framing some of my own work in due course.
The bazaar
Also on our shopping trip, we had to visit the Precinct Bazaar, a large shop at the bottom of the hill, run by three generations of a Sikh family. They have been there for years, and unlike many small businesses in the area, managed to survive the rigours of Covid. The place is absolutely stuffed to the gunnels with everything under the sun – kitchen ware, gadgets, toys, garden stuff, ornaments, beauty products, and so on and on. My hubby bought a bucket and some sanding blocks, and I bought a hanging thing with clothes pegs on it for drying small things, some nail files and a couple of new towels for the kitchen. In my wanderings I discovered some blank VHS tapes – I had no idea these were still being made! – and pocket calculators and USB cables and torches and magnifying glasses and haberdashery… There were pots and pans hanging from the ceiling and not a single square inch, apart from the floor aisles between the shelves, that was not stacked with stuff. It is a truly amazing place, like Aladdin’s cave, and it beats the Pound Shop hands down! Everything is really cheap and the family are so sweet and friendly, and it’s always tremendous fun to go in there and just wander around.
Online picture framing
Talking of picture framing, the other day I ordered three frames from an online framing company. I have a few recycled frames in the studio but none of these was the right size or shape. One of the pictures in question is a print I bought years ago, of a duck. It has been propped up on the hall display cabinet, still with its plastic wrapper around it – it has a white mount, and just needs a frame. I’ve ordered a bespoke fairly simple frame for it and look forward to hanging it in the hall in due course.
The other two frames I ordered are plain white. I have two beautiful Jewish paper-cut pictures which I bought at a conference, also several years ago, and they are also plastic-wrapped and have been propped up in the bedroom all this time. The actual paper cut is a very dark blue against a white background. They do not require a mount. The white frame will match the background colour. I still have to decide where I am going to hang these.
The process of choosing and ordering the frames (and mounts if you want them) is very simple on the site, and there is lots of choice. The delivery is very quick (due to arrive tomorrow, I think) and they will make them whatever size you want. You can upload a photo of your picture to put in the virtual version of your chosen frame to see how it will look. It is quite a bit cheaper than the two frames I have ordered from the art gallery, but in that case I wanted the advice of the framer, who has been doing it for many years and knows what looks best, and together we were able to make the right decision. He suggested two or three different variables and I was able to make the final choice. I was prepared to pay extra for this advice for these two pictures which are for special gifts.
Walk-in pantry
Today I photographed my pantry again. I wanted some updated photos to show someone, and I made a montage of them. It’s extremely difficult to photograph certain views of this pantry because it is so small – jut big enough to walk into, and it’s hard to get far enough away when you’re in there, to photograph the sides.
The miracle of the missing diamond
Last Thursday I discovered to my horror that one of the diamonds from my diamond cluster ring had fallen out. This ring is a family heirloom and belonged to my grandmother (and probably my great-grandmother before her) and I inherited it from Mum. I suppose I really shouldn’t wear it all the time because I do a lot with my hands, and I should keep it as a dress ring, but I do love wearing it.
I was devastated because that day I had been absolutely everywhere in the house, looking for a particular box of stuff that has gone missing. Doing my studio tidying I had hoped to find it but didn’t. As a result of my searching, the diamond could have been anywhere, and being so small, I had very little hope of finding it, although I did have a good try over the following days.
When my cleaning ladies came yesterday I told them about it and asked them to keep their eyes open for it just in case, and at the end of the hour, we emptied both Shark vaccuum cleaners onto a large plastic sheet and went through the contents (mostly cat hair!!) to see if it had been sucked up, but to no avail.
I thought that the only way I would find it would be to spend goodness knows how much, getting it replaced – that would be sure to make it turn up again!!
Today at lunch time, I was on my own because my hubby was out all day, and as I pushed my table away from the settee to clear away my lunch tray, I noticed something catch the light on the carpet in front of me. I picked it up, and it was my diamond!!
Mandy had hoovered that carpet yesterday. How had it not been sucked up? Both my hubby and I had examined the carpet, he with a torch, and we would have spotted it. I think this was a little miracle and that God put it there for me to find. There is no way it could have survived the rigours of yesterday’s cleaning. I simply couldn’t believe it – there it was, just sitting on the carpet!! I immediately put it in a small baggie with the ring, and my hubby will take it down to the jewellers in a day or two and get them to put it back in the ring. What are the odds against this?
