Book Hunts and Brie

Hello there all,
First of all, let me say the Chrismas bug has finally bitten me.....mostly because of the lovely day I had yesterday...that started with SNOW! Having finished my PGCE course/school placement for the year ( I start back on Jan 11th-whoopee!) I have decided to get on with the hundreds and thousands of things I want to make and do, starting with this amazing-looking 'antique' book-clock from Disney over at Ruffles and Stuff. ( I have spent HOURS looking through her wonderful Blog!) http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/2009/11/time-for-good-book.html

So, first task of the day was so nosey my way through the charity shops in town looking for some old-looking books to cut up...just one tiiiiny snag though...when I visited the book stall in the market, all the lovely-looking, battered, old books were ones I would rather read!!!

I bought all of the above for less than £10! The titles are: 'Costume' by James Laver (1963), 'Sweet Witch: A tale of smuggling in the time of Scarlet Capes & the Red Tricorne' by Richard Llewellyn (1955), 'The Wide Wide World' by Elizabeth Wetherell (No date), 'The hound of death and other stories' by Agatha Christie (1933), 'Parables from Nature' by Margaret Gatty (1921), 'The story of a red deer' by J.W.Fortescue (1898)- this one has some flowers pressed in the front of it and tissue sheets covering the illustrations (it's too lovely to cut up!), 'Among the forest people' by Clara D.Pierson (1898) and finally 'The Lady of the Lake' by Sir Walter Scott,(I'm not sure of the date in this one) I started reading this last night and got most of the way through 'the chase' and found it breathtaking!

I also found this one second-hand in OXFAM....apart from the tea-stain it is practically new and has some really interesting superstitions in it!

I had a lovely surprise in one of the charity shops I visited, there were these lovely Victoria Plum curtains which were only £2 -So I bought them to make up some bags and maybe line a cape with. They are from a very thick fabric so would be lovely and strong as a bag! As soon as I saw them I remembered that my Aunt used to have a doll of Victoria Plum and I used to be fascinated with it because she kept it mint in the box and I was never allowed to play with it... anyway...so cute!

After all my nifty-thrifty shopping I decided to try a sandwich from the new Delicatessen on King St. I have bought loads of their amazing cupcakes but never browsed the rest of the store. They had a chiller full of paninis and one that caught my eye was the salami, Brie and sun-kissed cherry tomatoes...so I decided to give it a go as I was starving by now!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOW! I swear that was the best toasted panini I have EVER had!!! They also had some lovely Spanish chocolate bars so I thought I'd try one of those too...OMNOMNOM, Christmas presents decided! *Reminds me I haven't watched 'Chocolat' for aaaaaaaages- must do today*

Oh, by the way, the Deli is called 'Blasus' (Welsh for 'Tasty') I must remember to get one of their calico shopping bags next time I go in too....

All-in-all, I had a very inspiring day and the lovely couple at 'Blasus' teamed with the beginnings of snow just broke the ice and let the Christmas feeling in- so if you saw a weird-looking girl, with more books than she could carry smiling in the street yesterday, that was me!

Love to all xxx