Christmas Gift Guide Volume Three : Experiences Not Things

It seems the Christmas build up is well and truly underway and it's time to start stepping things up with the Christmas Gift Guides.

This third guide focuses on experiences rather than material things which, lets face it, it's all too easy to get hung up on at this time of year. We've all panic bought more gifts because it doesn't feel like we've done enough, and I've already had to be reminded that it doesn't matter if I've spent different amounts of money on friends children if they both love the things I've chosen for them.

I love a gift that extends beyond Christmas day, that gives the recipient something to look forward to, something to make or learn and, more importantly, facilitates the making of memories rather than clutter!

Some of the things I've listed here, such as workshops or nights away are ideas rather then specific items as they depend on your location, but I've mentioned some of my favourites too! Also, some of the prices I've listed are very much 'ish' depending on where you get things from and again, where in the country you live!

I hope it inspires you to buy a few less things and a few more things-to-do...

Outdoor Hot Chocolate Kit - £40ish

This can be done really inexpensively but is a gift I would really love to receive! A hot chocolate on the beach (or the park/woods/riverbank/garden etc etc) on a crisp winters day is such a treat, and would definitely brighten up a dull January or February day. Grab a nice jute or hessian bag for life (you could of course choose a more expensive receptacle for your bits and bobs, a nice cool bag or rucksack would be lovely, but a hessian bag for life is cheap and will do the job!) and fill it with the following:

- Camping Stove (unless you know the recipient has one) - Approximately £15
- Flask (or glass bottle) for milk - Less than £5 at Ikea or similar
- Milk pan (optional) - I've found these anywhere from £6 for a basic one to £30 for this lovely one from the Hambledon. Obviously everyone has a pan they could use so you could leave this out, but I think it's nice to have a special one for taking out and about, and enamel is nice and light. We have this one and we use it all the time A spout is also very useful!
- Enamel Mugs - super cheap and indestructible. Falcon are my favourite but I've spotted them in the pound shop recently.
- Jar of hot chocolate mix - I really don't think you can beat Jamie Olivers Epic Hot Chocolate recipe, and a big jar would add about £5 to the cost of the whole gift
- Marshmallows, sprinkles, and if you're feeling extra generous maybe some miniature spirits too, I'm rather partial to an amaretto hot chocolate myself!

All in, this could be done for around £40 - not half bad for a gift for the whole family which can be used again and again!

Festival Tickets - £350ish for a family of four

I've spoken at length about my love for The Good Life Experience so obviously I'm going to recommend you buy tickets to that, but I'm aware there are other good ones around the country too and I've heard excellent things about Camp Bestival, and Just So Festival. How exciting to unwrap a gift will give the recipient something to look forward to throughout those cold winter months before Spring arrives. Expensive, yes, but so much more worthwhile than a mountain of plastic or another device.  

Cookery School Experience - £variable

Do you have someone on your gift list who would love to be more confident in the kitchen? Or, do you know someone who is already excellent but has always wanted to learn a specific skill? There are hundreds of cookery schools throughout the country and many run day classes as well as courses spread out over a few weeks. Before I started working there part time, I spent the day leaning to make macarons with Macarons and More and it was so much fun (plus everyone got homemade treats as presents for the next year so this definitely benefits you as the gift giver too!) 

Some other options that look amazing (and which I would totally love to receive, just incase Santa happens to be reading this) are:

- Rick Steins Cookery School - As you would imagine, a celebration of fish.

- River Cottage Cookery School - So much to choose from, from baking to fishing (this is top of my bucket list)

- Hunter Gather Cook - specialising in foraging, game and cooking over fire. Oh, and its in a tree house! 

- Hobbs House Bakery - Obviously lots of baking, but also BBQ, butchery and pie making!

(above image from macaronsandmore.com)

Recipe Book and Equipment or Ingredients - £20+

Sticking with the food theme, a recipe book is something of a Christmas gift stalwart. You can make it even more of an experience (and encourage the recipient to actually use it) by pairing it with a piece of kitchen equipment used frequently in the book, or maybe specialist ingredients needed for some of the recipes. For instance (I've linked to a few of my favourite books):

Italian + pasta machine

Bread + proving basket  

Wild Baking + fire pit (sounds extravagant but ours was only £30)
Baking + natural food colourings
Meat + Thermometer
Comfort Food + Casserole Dish
Healthier Choices + Suitable seeds/grains
Healthier Baking Choices + A sugar alternative such as rice malt
Hot Chocolate + Cocoa and Marshmallows

You get the idea!

The Workbench Box - from £95

Katie and Kirstie of The Workbench have been teaching ring making workshops for over three years, and have recently launched their at-home-workshop box containing everything you need to make a wax version of your dream ring. You then send it off to be cast and it comes back to you all res-life and shiny. Doesn't that sound like the best fun!  

Fort Kit £10+

This is such a fun idea for children and families and while you can buy fort kits that are already put together, I think it would be great fun to choose all the bits and bobs yourself. The options are pretty endless for things you can include, but the obvious starting points are:

- Blankets and flat sheets (Ikea usually have them for about £3, and charity shops would be an even better option)
- Battery Operated Fairy Lights
- Pegs

But to make it really fun you could also add:

- Stick on hooks (for when you run out of places to peg your blankets to!)
- Curtain rings with clips (attach the clips to your blankets, and hook the rings on your adhesive hooks)
- Bunting
- A custom banner to hang outside (I like this one)

I could go on, but I think you get the gist! Pack everything into a tote bag and get set to invited to play!

***

I've got lots more ideas for this one so keep checking back for more updates! I really hope you're finding these guides useful - let me know if theres something you'd like to see!

SaveSave
SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave

Christmas Gift Guide Volume One : For The Food Lover

Now, I'm very aware that some of you may be thinking that it's far too early to be considering Christmas given that there's still 54 days to go until the big day. However, I for one am very prone to ending up feeling stressed and flappy in December about how much I've got left to do, not really enjoying the build up at all and then ending up absolutely exhausted on Christmas day itself.

It's daft really isn't it; buying presents is the best fun, we all love making our houses look extra sparkly and Christmas dinner is really just a roast with extra vegetables - yet somehow we seem to get ourselves in an absolute tizz about the whole thing which is often over quicker than blinking.

With that in mind, for the last couple of years we've tried to get all our Christmas shopping done before the first of December so we can then enjoy decorating the house, planning all the food and watching Elf and The Holiday multiple times with one less thing to think about.

To hopefully make that process a little easier for everyone, I've put together a series of Christmas Gift Guides which will be posted throughout November. I've tried to steer away from aiming them at Mums or Grandads or Brothers or whoever and instead focussed on the interests of the people in our lives we need to buy gifts for. Hopefully there's something for everyone, and for a range of budgets too.

So first up, we have a roundup of gift ideas for food lovers...

Rivsalt Salt Grater - £25

This is something we came across on our recent trip to Stockholm, and I think it's the epitome of beautiful and useful combined. There is a small version for grating at the table, and a larger kitchen version for grating into dishes. I love how simple the design is and how it brings a real sense of occasion to seasoning your food. I think it would be perfect for someone who takes pride in the way their kitchen looks or loves setting a table to entertain. There's also a raw liquorice version if the recipient is that way inclined - which I am...liquorice hot chocolate anyone? 

Cocoa Runners Subscription - from £18.95

D bought me a Cocoa Runners subscription for my birthday back in September and I can't tell you how exciting it is to have a box of the worlds best chocolate drop through your letterbox. These are not your average bars of corner shop crap, but the most exquisitely flavoured (and packaged) bars of really complex and distinctive chocolate. If you know someone who is into wine or coffee tasting, this would be an excellent choice. 

The Ultimate Cheese Making Kit - £36.50

Every foodie loves a cheese board right? With this kit they'll be able to make 10 different varieties of cheese at home. I love that this gives total control over what type of milk is used and exactly how each one tastes. The kit comes with everything you need (except milk of course!) plus a recipe book, and enough ingredients for 40 batches of deliciousness!  

The Flavour Thesaurus - RRP £18.99

I have a LOT of recipe books. Like, 300 a lot. However, I don't always cook from them, and more often than not we just make things up as we go along, or base a meal on a recipe but change it around according to what we have in the fridge.  The Flavour Thesaurus looks like it would be so useful on those days when you can't decide what to eat, or when you know you fancy something cheesy but can't quite work out what else you want and you're not a student anymore so eating a single foodstuff and calling it a meal isn't ok. It's divided up into chapters based on the type of flavour, and has 99 foods listed along with pairings for each and over 200 recipe suggestions. Plus, who doesn't love a good book for Christmas.

The Raw Chocolate Pie Company Cacao Nib Grinder - £3.95

The Raw Chocolate Pie Company are based in Cornwall and are a longstanding favourite of mine. Their Cacao Nib grinder is used all the time in our house, and is perfect for adding a really intense chocolate flavour to sweet dishes, some of our favourites being crumble topping, porridge and ice cream sundaes, but also for adding a really interesting depth to chillies and stews. I think it would make the perfect interesting stocking-filler-chocolate-alternative for a food lover. 

***

That brings us to the end of volume one. I hope it's got you thinking about your gift lists and maybe started to spark some ideas. Say tuned throughout November for more gift giving ideas, including guides for new parents, coffee lover, bearded ones and those annoying people who seem to have everything! 

Currently Coveting - Wednesday Wishlist

I'm been feeling a bit rubbish this week, I think the January blues crept in just at the final moment and I  could quite happily have stayed in bed for the last two days. I don't usually buy into the whole 'New Year Blues' things, as I love the chance for a fresh start and a new outlook. However, maybe because for the first time since I was five I didn't go back to school (either for education or because that's where I worked!) I was a bit sad to see the end of Christmas and I've been really craving a bit more warmth and light!

However - it's officially the first of February and definitely time to shake off the funk! We've been sofa shopping, we're mid way through decorating our hallway and dinning room and we're also counting down the days until we head off to Cornwall for D's thirtieth birthday!

I've found some beautiful things for the wish list this week too, and a couple of them are firmly on the 'to buy post-payday' list! If you missed the wish list last week, and especially if you're a fan of a certain boy wizard, you can find it here.

Mini Enamel Cup - The Hambledon

My love for enamel goes on, and how adorable is this tiny tea cup from The Hambledon! Aside from sipping a hot herbal tea from it, I also imagine it would be the perfect size for a cortado, or a bullet coffee (espresso with butter and coconut oil!) which we've both discovered a bit of a fondness for recently! They're really well priced too so I feel a couple of these might be on their way to me once payday arrives! 

Mountain Necklace - Popeye and Daisy

Since my adventure in Africa I've had a bit of an affinity with mountains! The sight of a simple snowy peak has the power to remind me that no matter how hard something may appear - I have it in me to conquer it! This delicate brass and silver necklace is pleasingly geometric and I love the way the surface catches the light - a little mountain I could wear around my neck on the hardest of days! 

Golden Raindrop Ring - Little Joy Jewellery

I spotted this unusual ring while I was unashamedly sending D links to eternity rings I like (#sorrynotsorry!) It's so simple and subtle, but the unusual shape makes it really striking too! I think I might worry about catching it on things, but it's so pretty I think I could just about cope! 

N-FK Tee - Nor-Folk

I've featured Nor-Folk in the wishlist a few times and a practically live in my grey version of this sweatshirt! They're one of my favourite local indie brands (and we even have a couple of bits put away for our yet-to-exist children - I know...I know!) This design is a stripped back, minimalist take on their classic Nor-Folk Basics tee, and I love it! 

Aqua Gold Cushion - Katie Simpson Cornwall

I stumbled across Katie Simpson's work via Instagram and fell head over heels at once. Katie is a Cornwall based painter and textile artist who totally shares my feelings about the sea! Her work aims to capture in a physical form the feeling and emotion she gleans from being by (or in) the water and allow that feeling into our everyday via textiles. I spent a long time perusing her website, and I think this cushion is my favourite - it reminds me so vividly of peering over a craggy clifftop and watching the ripples on the beach below, gazing out at nothingness all the way to the horizon, the call of seagulls overhead and hair full of salty sea spray - oh to be in Cornwall! 40 sleeps and we'll be back in St. Ives.

Leon - Fast and Free

You can guarantee that if Leon publish a new book it will make it's way pretty quickly into the wish list, and then swiftly into our kitchen! We sampled a few dishes that are featured in the book when we were last in London and I'm rather excited to make them at home, particularly the chicken noodle soup! As usual, everything about it, from the recipes to the photography and the graphic design is delicious.

SaveSaveSaveSave

Spotlight: Pedlars (Plus WIN some wonderful stuff for your home!)

Pedlars is a treasure trove of homewares, bags, stationary and gifts based in North Wales, with a general store and cafe in London's Notting Hill, and vast online store. But it's so much more than that too - Pedlars is fast becoming known for it's vintage marketplace, and their website is a fascinating source of inspiration (and cute dogs!) 

I have long been a customer (and fan) of their carefully curated range (these pencils are the only ones worth using!) and eagerly anticipate each weeks vintage additions! So, when I got in touch to see if the lovely folk over at Pedlars Towers would be interested in being featured in a Spotlight Post I did a real-life happy-dance when they not only answered a few questions, but also agreed to support an exciting giveaway! Read on to the end of the post to find out more about the prize and how to enter! 

1. For those readers who have yet to discover it, can you introduce Pedlars and describe what you do?

Pedlars is a homewares brand, which was started by husband and wife team Charlie and Caroline Gladstone. We are primarily based online, with a bricks and mortar General Store and Café just off Portobello Road in Notting Hill. Pedlars offers a curated, considered, beautifully designed range of homewares, and a huge range of vintage from all around the world. We have recently launched our Vintage Marketplace, a new venture that enables vintage dealers and enthusiasts to offer their goods for sale via Pedlars. We have a solid reputation for sourcing and selling the best vintage items and a large and eager customer base, so our aim is to expand our offer by inviting sellers to show our customers their goods. 

2. Your range of homewares, stationary and gifts is so varied, yet wonderfully curated - how do you decide which pieces make it into the shop?

Pedlars founder Charlie is our chief buyer and taste maker. He has a keen eye for top quality vintage and an incredibly strong sense of style. This is played out in all the Gladstone’s businesses; The Good Life Experience, their Farm Shop and their pub The Glynne Arms. We also try to source from British and European manufacturers where possible. Oh and if it’s orange, it stands a pretty good chance of making itself into the shop, Pedlars loves orange!

3. I'm becoming more and more disillusioned by the mainstream high street and increasingly wanting to support local, independent makers. Pedlars is a big supporter of British designers and makers - why do you feel this is so important? 

We’re interested in products that have a story to tell, and the warmth and detail that you get when you move away from the mainstream and seek out small, often one-man-band manufacturers.

4. Every Friday you launch a new vintage collection, often with a french or military connection. How do you decide which pieces become part of this, and how do vintage items influence your main collection?

It’s really a case of whatever catches Charlie’s eye. And as a team, if it’s something that we would want for ourselves, we’re confident that our customers will love it too. At this stage it’s almost the other way around, our non-vintage collection complements our vintage collection, which is what people now know us for.

5. Charlie and Caroline also founded The Good Life Experience festival which takes place in Wales in September. What is the Pedlars definition of The Good Life? 

Charlie and Caroline founded The Good Life Experience with their friends Cerys Matthews and Steve Abbott. For them, and for Pedlars The Good Life is all about good food, friends, great music, learning new skills, new crafts and perhaps a new perspective. And a camp fire, that’s important too.

+++

I love it! Everything about the Pedlars ethos makes me feel all warm and fuzzy (plus the cafe is big in avocado which is the way to my heart!)If you missed my post about The Good Life Festival 2016, do pop over and have a look - it was the definition of magical!

I'm thrilled to be able to share a little of the Pedlars magic with you all, and they have kindly given me a set of three Military Prints to give away to one lucky UK reader! These prints are reproduction of military instruction cards that were bought at auction in the USA, and have been printed on 1950's printing presses in Yorkshire with fluorescent inks!

Fantastic aren't they? I'm a bit envious that I don't get to keep them for myself actually!

There are two ways to enter, and each way counts as one entry so that's two chances to win! 

First - Sign up to follow The Salted Tail via bloglovin or email - (you can find the links to do so on the right hand side) then leave me a comment to say you're in and would love to win! 

Second - Head over to Instagram and find the giveaway post. Follow The Salted Tail, like the image and tag three friends who you think might like to win! 

The winner will be drawn on Halloween (so thats nearly two weeks to enter and tell anyone else who you think might like to win this lovely prize!) and they will win all three, unframed prints. Once the winner is drawn I'll get in touch for your contact details and the lovely folk at Pedlars will send your prize. The giveaway is open to UK residents only!   

Thank you to Pedlars for supporting me in this adventure of mine - hope you all enjoyed the interview! 

Happy entering - and may the odds be ever in your favour! 

SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave

Currently Coveting - Wednesday Wishlist

It feels like a very long while since I've written a wish list! With the addition of The Language Magpie on alternate Wednesdays, then my complete failure to notice the passing of Wednesday last week I suppose it has been quite a while really. 

This week calls for a general round up of bits and pieces I've spotted over the last few weeks. So, without further ado, here are five bits of beauty I am currently coveting: 

1. Leon Happy Salads - Jane Baxter and John Vincent 

I have long been a fan of Leon, and vividly remember the day I fell in love with the cookbooks, both from a foodie perspective and also from the point of view of someone who adores the way a book feels, smells and is photographed and designed (Also, if you include stickers in your book I'll pretty much snatch it our of your hand) 

Currently Coveting - Wednesday Wishlist {The Magpie Edition}

Now, you may be wondering why on Earth this week is 'The Magpie Edition' , after all 'Back to School' makes perfect sense, but magpies...? As in the bird....?

Yes, magpies, as in the bird! Let me explain....

There wasn't going to be a wishlist post at all this week. I'm planning to put one together every other week from now on, and fill the gap with a different series, all about words and language. This is something I'm quite excited to start, but with a weekly wishlist, a recipe or tutorial, an interview thrown into the mix and now the addition of a language focused post, that doesn't leave much room for the fun, spur of the moment, real life posting I love doing too!

So, I decided to alternate between the two. I was writing my first post exploring a new-to-me word, and trying to think of a good title for this new feature. Wednesday Words occurred to me but I don't think it could be any more boring, and in any case it won't always be about words specifically. Anything else with alliteration made me feel a bit shuddery, and nothing else felt right, so I put the name to one side for a while and kept writing. Just as I was dropping off to sleep that night I was drawn back to the reason I love blogging, why I started in the first place and the inspiration behind the name 'The Salted Tail' - it's all about collecting things, ideas, memories and thoughts, playing with them, and sharing them. Quite suddenly 'The Language Magpie' flapped out of my subconscious and fluttered in front of me. Perfect! I really enjoy the notion of a magpie wearing librarian glasses and carrying a dictionary, flying around collecting pretty, shiny pieces of language knowledge!

Currently Coveting - Wednesday Wishlist {The Back-to-School Edition}

After last weeks Wednesday Wishlist, I ran a poll to find out if you lovely people would like to see more themed posts (like this Bookshop Edition), or the usual varied selection of things I've been coveting. Themed posts proved most popular, but the difference wasn't huge, so I think I'll be doing a mixture of both. 

This week marks the last week of the school summer holidays in the UK, and even though for the first time since I was 4 I won't be going back to school (be that for education or to go to work) Nevertheless, I still love this time of year and it will always feel like the perfect time for new stationary!  So, without further ado - here is my grown-up, back-to-school wishlist....

1. A New Bag

You can't start a new school year without a new bag, right?! These lovely duffle bags are made by Norfolk based Carrier Company. Everything they make is made by hand and the materials used are traditional, and designed to get better with age. I particularly like the grey one!

2. New Shoes

Now, I know red wouldn't really be acceptable for school shoes, but given that I'm not really going back to school I think I can get away with it! These wonderful 'GladiTorius' sandals are from Shoe Embassy, where my very favourite red 'Buttermilk' shoes also came from, and if they're anything to go by these would quickly become the comfiest sandals ever! The colour is actually called 'coral' and they also come in a much more school friendly black, or 'amber' which is a lovely tan.

3. Stationary

I don't need much of an excuse to buy stationary, but if you are in need of one there is never a better time for new stationary than the start of a new term! I find these Geometry Sticky Notes from Present and Correct incredibly pleasing, especially the hexagons and the small triangles. They appeal to the minimalist in me, and I think they'd be a great addition to my carefully measured bullet journal spreads! 

This Lettermate Writing Guide is also from Present and Correct (Seriously, if you're a stationary addict with minimal funds you might want to avoid it - everything is just too beautiful) I love the packaging,  and given that I am one of those people that has trouble writing in a straight line I think it would be genuinely useful, especially as I'm re-discovering sending letters through the post recently. 

Stickers!! I do enjoy stickers, and these ones from Sticker Stack are beautiful! This might sound a bit mad, but I really like how plain they are! The colours are a little bit muted and they would be great to highlight things in my bullet journal! They're cut into cute geometric shapes, as well as pre-cut tabs and tags. Mmmm so much colourful goodness!

I could easily go on with the stationary finds, but I think I'll leave it there for today! Do let me know what you think about these themed editions - and if you missed the poll you can find it here at the end of last weeks post!  

Currently Coveting - Wednesday Wishlist

Wednesday seems to have come round super quickly this week - I'm not sure what's happening but even though I'm not working 9-5 anymore the days seem to be slipping past faster and faster!

I'm technically still on my summer holidays (as if I hadn't left my old job I wouldn't have gone back until the beginning of September) but obviously given our current situation, breakfast in bed and reading in the garden aren't exactly on my to do list, so I've been pretty busy filling up the days.

One of those day filling activities has been gathering together some beautiful things I've spotted for this weeks currently coveting round up. It's a mixed bag this week, however I really enjoyed doing The Bookshop Edition last week and I'm toying with the idea of giving each week a theme. I'd really like some feedback on what you'd like to see, so if you've got a moment after you've had a look at this weeks offering, I would really appreciate it if you could answer the poll at the bottom of the post!

On to the beautiful things...

The first is this Resin Boulder Pepper Grinder from Dinosaur Designs. It's made from resin but it has a wonderful stone like quality, and those of you that remember my degree show will know why I gasped and cried "D - I'm in love with a pepper grinder" earlier this week. I'm always drawn to stacks, and specifically stacks of stones, and this is perfect! Dinosaur Designs have some really beautiful organic resin pieces, both homewares and jewellery and I feel like I'll definitely keep them bookmarked for later - everything has that wonderfully 'pebbly' quality that I just adore 

(Update - I've just looked through the entire jewellery collection and discovered that there is indeed a "Pebble" Bangle - you see, pebbly should definitely be a more commonly used adjective! 

Currently Coveting - Wednesday Wishlist

As promised, here is this week's list of beautiful things I'm currently admiring, things I've been pinning to my 'Covet' board lately, and a couple of things I spotted while I was walking in London last week. Enjoy...

One: Attelier Stella White Stripe Cat Pot - I've been following Stella Baggot on Instagram for a while. She's a Brighton based ceramicist who's work is wonderfully wonky and characterful. I love her colour pallet, and that each item she sells via her website it a one-off. It appears that when new items are listed they (unsurprisingly) sell out really quickly as I haven't managed to bring one of her pieces into my life yet, which also means sadly this wonderful mustard yellow cat planter is already sold. The next sale begins at 11am on Wednesday 17th August - it's in my diary and and hopefully I'll be lucky this time! Alternatively, some Atelier Stella ceramics pieces are available from various stockists, and she has also produced a range for West Elm too! 

Vintage Mischief: Salvage Hunting in Suffolk

I write a lot about how much I love living in Norfolk, but in truth we are only just across the Norfolk/Suffolk border, and Suffolk is pretty special too! 

Just down the road from us in Beccles is one of the best vintage shops around. Vintage Mischief is run by Simon and Danielle, and specialises in mid-century, retro and industrial pieces. It is filled with everything from watering cans to record players, and is wonderfully curated so you don't have to sift through hundreds of bits and bobs to find the gems - every item is completely take-homeable! They were recently featured on Salvage Hunters (and we all know if Drew says it good, it must be true!) and popping over is one of our favourite ways to spend an hour (and some pennies) on a Saturday morning.

The shop is set out over several rooms, and furniture spills out into the courtyard at the front, as well as into several smaller buildings surrounding this.  I discovered I'm being very drawn to yellow things - particularly light fittings - we loved some of these ones! We also loved this hilarious deckchair complete with it's own sunshade!

One of the most exciting parts of the shop is one of the upstairs rooms, full to bursting with kitchenalia, brightly coloured crockery, glassware and some fantastic patterned items. I adore those grey and yellow chairs and the way everything is organised by colour!

Can you spot the little mug with the crocodile? It's a character from the Timbuctoo books which Rodger Hargreaves wrote before he wrote the Mr. Men and I had quite a few of them when I was little - I very nearly took it home with me. 

We had been hoping to find a mirror for our bedroom when we made the short drive over to the old dairy barn this morning. We didn't buy a mirror, but there were several we liked, including this large round one.

We also both loved this chair, but again left it behind as we've made a decision not to buy anything if we don't know for sure where we're going to put it! Otherwise we run the risk of filling the house with random pieces of furniture but having no finished rooms!

Isn't this floor fun! Vintage Mischief is definitely the place to go for vintage children's books (which we're both rather fond of!) They also have a large collection of Ladybird books (you can see them on the left in the first image) which I find really hard to resist, I just think the illustrations are amazing! 

The only part of the shop more exciting than kitchenalia is one of the smaller rooms attached to the courtyard. It's full of haberdashery supplies, patterns, fabrics, jars full of buttons and piles of amazing vintage towels that make me feel like I'm three years old and at the beach with my Nanny. I could lose hours (and hundreds of pounds) browsing through all these. Did anyone else have those striped flannelette sheets growing up? 

The wall between this room and the one next door is made of just that, doors!

There were a few bits we couldn't leave behind though. We've been planning to have a very loose nautical feel in our bedroom once we get round to decorating it, and I've been looking for a sunburst style clock because I always think they look quite compass like. This one is the perfect size and I love the style of the numbers! It's not working, but it should be fairly easy to fix, and it's made by a company called 'Smiths' (you can just about make it out under the hour hand) so it was meant to be ours! 

I also bought some little terracotta pots for my growing collection of succulents! I paid a pound for all three, and there were literally hundreds of them in all different sizes so I'm sure I'll end up back for more. I particularly liked the bigger ones because they have no rim, and the little one was too cute to resist! 

I also bought a couple of bits in Trip Trapp, the vintage clothing shop within the grounds of the old barn - but I think I'll save those for another post! 

I've you're ever in Suffolk, I can't recommend this place enough!