Swallows and flowers

We were all set to go to our last indoor flea market of the year on Sunday before last.

It was, in fact, the perfect outing for the neither here nor there weather we'd woken up to. It had rained during the night and, while the sun was out for the outfit photos taken just before we left, the weather forecast was indecisive and more rain had been predicted.

The vintage dress I'm wearing, its print vying with the best of herbaceous borders, has been hanging unworn in my wardrobe since last Summer. The fabric is fairly heavy, and the dress is fully lined to boot, making it too warm for balmy Spring days, let alone hot Summer ones, while its just-over-the-elbow bell sleeves make it hard to add a layer on top during the colder months.

But ah those sleeves! Surely you can guess that this was one of the dress's selling points? And what about that fabulous print?

No need for layering that Sunday, as the temperature was just right for wearing the dress on this mediocre May day.

My necklace, with its colourful wooden beads, and the fuchsia vinyl belt, were charity shopped, as was the scarf I'm wearing with my faithful orange leather jacket, which was a Think Twice find.

In spite of the weather, our expectations for this end-of-season flea market weren't great, but we were still a bit letdown when we spied the half-empty hall, and the many gaps between stalls.

But if we'd initially thought we'd made a wasted journey, this turned out not to be the case. Still, it took us until we came across Tanja's stall for us to make our first purchases.

Tanja is a follower of my blog, and her stall is always a joy to behold. I even remembered to take some pictures of it for once. They're the ones on the top left and right.

On the bottom right is the stall of another one of my followers, Rita. The picture of the jumble of buttons was taken at a random stall. I'm usually far too busy browsing to take any pictures. Plus, lighting conditions at the venue aren't exactly ideal.

In fact, with my new glasses, my eyes had a bit of a problem adjusting to the event hall's light conditions. Their website boasts that it has natural lighting during the day, due to the profusion of oval openings in the roof construction. You can pay a virtual visit to the hall here, so that you can see what I mean. All very well in theory but alas, even on the clearest of days, there never seems to be enough light and what's more, those pesky skylights play a very annoying game with the artificial lighting.

But enough about that. I'm sure you're all dying to know what we found, so without further ado, here's a group photo of all our treasures, displayed on our garden table after we got home. And look, it turned out to be sunny after all.

In case you are wondering: yes, we bought the plants at the flea market too! 

Let's start with our finds from Tanja's stall. 

I love all kinds of vintage packaging, and even more so when they still contain the product, so a lovely little carton of laundry whitener and a pack of Q-tips have joined our collection.

Talking of Q-tips, here are some vintage ads for you to enjoy!

The floral canister decorated with quintessential Summer flowers like foxgloves and delphiniums, was made in England, and will be used for storing odds and ends in our bathroom.

Finally, I also fell hard for this turquoise beaded bag.

Tanja threw in the pink storage box for free! Isn't that sweet?

These leather watch straps were a bargainous € 1 each. The lady we bought them from had boxes full of them which she told us were deadstock from the shop her mother-in-law used to have. 

I have several cheap watches which I'm using on rotation, and I like having straps in a variety of colours, to coordinate with my outfits!

Always on the lookout for additions to my ever growing collection of brooches, I was happy to find no less than seven.

Five of them were picked up from the same stall, the odd ones out being the celluloid dog brooch (above, top left) from Rita's stall, and the Lucite roses brooch (below, bottom right).

There's an intruder in there! As I didn't have enough brooches to fill this collage, I sneaked in this gorgeous little flower, which is currently going strong in our garden. Self-seeding like mad and popping up in the most unexpected of places, Aquilegia 'Nora Barlow', with its frilly petticoated flowers, has been residing in our garden for many years. 

In one of the flea market's last aisles is a stall selling all manner of vintage haberdashery, where I usually have a good rummage through the boxes of buttons. 

As many of you are aware, I only have very limited sewing skills, but it often only takes a change of buttons to completely transform a garment. Some of my stash might never get used, but I simply cannot resist beautifully crafted old buttons. It must be something in my genes, as I remember playing with the buttons in both my grandmothers' sewing boxes when I was a little girl.

Our star find of the day were these vintage canisters, displaying their contents in both of Belgium's national languages, Flemish and French. I was instantly drawn to their swallow decorations and rich colours. Dating from the late 1920s, early 1930s, they are in extraordinary condition considering their age, with hardly any scratches and with only a smidgen of rust at the edges.

When we showed them to Tanja, she advised us to use some WD-40 to stop any rust in its tracks and give them some shine, a job which had been added to Mr. S.'s to-do list!

As we walked past the plant stall upon entering the flea market venue, we promised ourselves to buy some summer flowers before leaving. We hadn't made it to the garden centre yet, and the area just outside our back door was badly in need of sprucing up.

Apart from pots of Million Bells, Dianthus and Osteospermum, we chose a couple of pink Pelargoniums to be put into the green enamel cone-shaped planters hanging on our potting shed.

These were found at Blender Vintage Shop many years ago, and nobody seems to know what they were originally used for. There's a hole at their tapered ends, allowing for drainage, which makes them the ideal plant holders.

Now, what else can we add to our garden to rival with the flowers on my dress?