I am a huge fan of Kirstie Allsop. I love all the fabulous ideas on her programs and I love the gorgeous ideas in her crafty books so it was with great excitement, last Thursday evening, that I sat down with a lovely glass of wine to watch her latest offering, Kirstie's Vintage Home. I loved her Vintage Home Workshop. I wish my craft room was half as fabulous as that and in general, I really loved her ideas but I have to confess to I was slightly disappointed by the program. I felt slightly let down that the crafts were very similar to the crafts that have been featured in previous series. I also felt that while some of the up-cycling was nicely done, some of the spending was a little excessive, such as spending £50 on new knobs for the chest of drawers in the bedroom, not to mention how much the wallpaper in the bedroom must have cost!. Although ..... I guess it's their money and they can spend it how they wish and bedroom did look absolutely beautiful. I have to say though, I am really looking forward to the rest of the series and her latest book will most certainly be on my Christmas Wish List.
As I have said before, I'm a bit of a thrifty person, mostly out of necessity, and I prefer to find bargains for the things I need in my house, even if it means waiting a while for the right thing to come along. I love charity shops, junk shops and car boot sales and I love eBay both for buying and for selling things I no longer need. Earlier this year, I manage to find some fabulous ceramic knobs with Cath Kidson-esque flowers on them for the bargain price of £1.00 for 25 knobs from a local car boot sale (thats 4p per knob!!). I was utterly overjoyed because the cheapest I had found in my local DIY store were £3.99 per knob and as I have 21 doors and drawers in my kitchen, it would have cost me £83.79 to re-vamp my kitchen cupboards, an expense I couldn't possibly justify and certainly couldn't afford. And here they are, my mega-bargain door knobs ....... one of my best car boot sale finds I think.
