I have been waiting for today for a long long time. Today was the day I FINALLY got to go the amazing Giant Flea Market at the Bath and West Showground. It is on reasonably regularly but I never seem to be able to make it, but this time I was determined!
It is immense. Hundreds and hundreds of stalls selling anything and everything you might possibly ever want. Some great vintage and retro furniture, vintage clothes, any kind of home accesories you might want, kitchenalia, fabric, sewing notions and more…
Unfortunately I was working to a time limit, as I had to be back to help at a car boot for BigSmall’s pre-school in the afternoon (more of that later!) but I could happily have spent all day pottering around and lusting after all the gorgeous things. I went ready to spend, but as is often the case when you’ve got money burning a hole in your pocket, I just somehow wasn’t ‘in the zone’. I saw some really lovely stuff but I could never quite envisage where it could go or what we would do with it, maybe I should buy first and worry about the practicalities later!
This is what I came away with:
- a bulk lot of vintage cotton reels (48 in total!). I just love these so much. The cotton will obviously come in handy for making and mending, and the reels themselves are so beautiful, I am bound to find something to do with them once all the cotton is used up
- some gorgeous fabric/trim-again not quite sure what I’m going to do with it, but I find it very hard to resist fabric, and it is only a small bit (that’s what I’m telling the lovely hubby anyway)
- 3 tape measures. I want to try making these into rosettes and bracelets, like this one here from Made You Look Jewellery
- a game of scrabble-I use the tiles to make fridge magnets and cufflinks, like these one’s here on my Shouty Cat Makes site
So potentially not the most useful or practical haul ever. I was a little despondent, but it did make me realise that as long as you’re prepared to wait for the next Giant Flea, and prepared to do a bit of legwork, you can find almost anything you might need-good news indeed for the year ahead!
My Make Do and Mend Year 