Spring Cleaning

Sometimes, no inspiration is a blessing.  

With no creative 'get-up-and-go', I have instead done some spring cleaning and sorting.  

The kitchen was awash with china that had been on top of the cupboards.  Ideally it would be in the cupboards, but there's no more room.

 Looks a bit precarious, some of that, but it was all well balanced! 

No china was harmed in the taking of this photograph!

I then had fun laying it all out to inspect.

Johnson Brothers 'Greydawn' - with two different styles of handle. 

 I love this because  it reminds me of helping with the cricket teas when I was young.  My Mum did them for a long while (her tuna and tomato sandwiches were legendary in the cricketing circuit, I believe) and then when I was about ten, and my sister eleven, we took over (but only for the second eleven!)  

On Saturday morning we'd go to the baker's and buy the bread and big boxes of assorted cakes.  There would always be some French Fancies in amongst the cakes, and we'd secretly pray that the players would not eat these, so that we might get a chance when the clearing up was being done.  But needless to say, the French Fancies always got eaten, and this left me with an (almost) insatiable appetite for them! 

(Almost, because years later at university, a friend and I decided to have what we loosely termed a picnic (as we were going to eat it on the lawn in front of our halls of residence) one miserable weekend day when most people had gone home. We went to the local shop and bought what they had that we fancied - a tin of pineapple slices, a tin of rice pudding, a bar of chocolate and a box of French Fancies.  The ensuing 'picnic' made both of feel quite ill and put me off French Fancies for years!)

A 'Gainsborough Pink' jug by Johnson Brothers and a 'Rosedawn' one (I think) plus more 'Greydawn' and a Grindley 'Peach Petal' dessert set that would be perfect for tinned pineapple and rice pudding!

These are Johnson Brothers too - I don't specifically look for it, but it sort of finds me.  They are a bit chipped, but lovely for a bowl of homemade soup (or Heinz Tomato).

This is 'Rosedawn' too, but prettily decorated instead of plain.

In amongst the china were a few old pressed glass vases and this lovely jug...

And then this set of French canisters which I got from a car boot sale last year...

 

As well as a nice old Colman's Mustard tin...

A chintz butter dish (Royal Winton) and a dish (James Kent)...

A Japanes honey pot, which I got in France last year...

And finally, a sweet little lidded pot, which is German.

It's all gone back on top of the cupboard now, but with a promise to get it all out for some slap-up tea parties this summer!

Tins!

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.

William Morris

One of the nice things about doing lots of sewing (other than the sewing and the creations themselves) is that I can indulge my passion for interesting tins in a vague attempt to organise buttons, bindings, and bits and bobs.  

These two Coronation tins contain buttons and pins.  I was given the one on the right by a colleague many years back, from the attic of a house she had just inherited.  I always think of her whenever I see it, even though we have sadly lost contact.

The Cadbury's tin on the left is from the days of Queen Mary.  On the back it tells you that the painting is a portrait of Miss Mary Moulton Barrett, called 'Pinkie' and that it was painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence and sold for £160 in 1795 , and later for £77,700 in 1926!  I wonder what it would be worth now - so pretty!

The tin on the right is a modern Spanish one, but I love the painting, so it houses a portable selection of embroidery threads and felt for creating cottages on the go.

These are the tins that normally sit on my old roll-top desk., giving storage for memory sticks, ink cartridges and paper clips.  I love the pixie-like, balloon-carrying children on the big tin. 

This one was an ebay bargain - I think I paid 99p for it!  It still had many of the contents inside, so I got an extra pair of tins.  I love the lettering!  I have scanned and printed the big tin onto linen and created little First Aid rolls from it.

The perfect place for plasters, paracetamol and wipes!

Another modern Spanish tin.  Beautiful design, lettering and colours!

A sweet French tin with a Parisian view - used to contain mints, but now it houses more pins.  Likewise the Dorcas tin.  I had to buy this when I saw it on ebay - my Mum has one just the same which I used to use when I was a child and first learning to sew.  

This is another pretty French tin, though my photo doesn't do it justice  It is for bobbins of thread and has two tiny holes in the lid so you can pull off some thread without any tangling. 

 Friday - Bingo!  Found a better photo!

 I wonder how long before these tins from Tesco acquire that essential patina of age?

P.S.  If you've been here before, do you like the new look?