Friday Find

No 7 - vintage metal cabinets

These little beauties are my pride and joy.

I bought my first one for £2 from a junk shop in Cardiff when I was at college, and it was love at first sight. Subsequent additions to the collection came in at £4 and £4.50 from long gone junk shops in Sheffield.

I love the fact that each one has a different mirror shape and distinctive handle.

I confess there are also another two lurking elsewhere in the house, and I would almost certainly have collected more but they've got very popular and I can't afford to buy them now!

They hide all our bathroom clutter and always lift my spirits just by being there with their slightly rusty and battered exteriors.

Below them, on the loo, you'll find a warped tin portrait of this chap. A fine complement for their rusty bits and speckled mirrors.

K x

Friday Find

No 3 - tin oil lamps

In 1988 I was very fortunate to be taken on the trip of a lifetime to Kenya. It was an amazing experience - truly unforgettable for many reasons, good and bad. Everything seemed very harsh and very real. 

We returned with a treasure trove of weird and wonderful things bought from street markets in Nairobi and Mombasa. The vast majority of my treasure was beads, but more of those another time.

These quirky little oil lamps are one of my favourite things. I love their mismatched, rusty appearance and how they're so beautifully put together.

One is made from an old tomato paste tin... 

   

...and both have top sections cut from a can of the fantastically named Cooper's Super Doom Insect Killer!

They're truly beautiful in all their rusty, patinated glory.

K x

Friday Find

No 3 - a vintage tinware grater

This little beauty was picked up for 30p from the regular Monday flea market that used to take place in Sheffield back in the early 1990's. It's a fantastic bit of kitchenalia and the detailing is really lovely. It's stamped with the Tala brand and probably dates from the 1930-40's.

It has a little compartment behind a sliding panel on the back for storing.....

 

......nutmegs!

It lives on the knife rack next to our cooker and gets used regularly. Especially in sweet potato mash and buttered leeks!

I love things that are interesting, beautiful and functional. Don't you?

K x

Friday Find

No 2 - First Aid cabinet

This week's Friday Find is part of my cupboard collection.

I have a bit of a thing about cupboards. Expect to see more as the weeks go by.

I found this lovely wooden First Aid cabinet on a car boot stall in Chesterfield back in the early 1990's.

I asked the chap how much he wanted for it and he said "Fifty."

I said I thought that was too much, and he said "OK, forty pence."

I gave him the full fifty.

K x