From now on I will only answer to the name of Uriah Cratchit
Firstly, check out my creative book storage solution! This corner in my bedroom used to just contain a stack of books, but then I was in Home Bargains the other day (if that means nothing to you, think Wilkinsons on speed, and if that means nothing to you, then you are missing out on one of the funnest shops in the UK, because Tupperware from only 39p is wonderful thing) and I saw these decorative crates in the garden section. At £3.99 each I stretched to 3, and have made this little display I’m quite pleased with. There’s something of second-hand book stalls and fruit and veg about it, or as my teenager unhelpfully put it in a smarty-pants rising tone ‘Are we, having a jumble sale?’
Secondly, my parents are in their sixties and have sold their impractical ancient house with it’s death-trap steep and windy stairs to move to a bungalow. This is a time known to grown-up children everywhere are the when parents will try and give half their junk on them. My mother has tried to give me more china and crockery (I could cook a casserole every night of the week in a different dish if she had her way) and pictures than my tiny house has walls for. However, for many years I have had my eye on this clerks’ desk tucked away in a lumber room. It is missing its legs, and weighs a ton so I’ll need to get some sturdy ones constructed. Also, someone has re-glazed the side panels so it’s not completely original, which is a shame as it could have been leaded stained glass originally. I spent last night looking at glass ink wells on eBay, obviously.
Inside the desk are some Charles Dickens prints my mum bought when we went to his birthplace museum ‘a few years ago’, she said. I was there, I was eight years old, so in thirty-two years she’s framed only one, but I couldn’t say no. As soon as I have space, I’ll do something with the rest of them, or, my daughter will when she’s packing me off to live somewhere smaller, and I’m too old to climb atop my clerks’ stool. That’s a point, where the hell am I going to get one of those really high stools?!
I’ve never seen a branch of Home Bargains, but Wilko’s on speed sounds amazing/terrifying 🙂
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It is both those things! One near me took over an old Homebase DIY, and the other is the same size as the Asda next to it, so they’re huge. I went in for a bucket and nearly came out with the crates, and very nearly a festival tent, too. I had no use for it, other than just sitting in it in the garden. I may have to go back for it…
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I am hyperventilating! You had me at the crates, but the clerks desk? Ohhhhhmaaaaagaaaaaaaaaawd – such beauty is burning my eyes! I can hear the scratch of quill on parchment punctuated by the regular pause for the nib to drink at the well, a clock ticks, mice scrabble in the skirting, the firelight flickers – man, you could open a Dickensian theme park in your own home! Total joy. 🙂
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I kid you not I bought a new clock to hang above it, the tick is everything! It’s only a cheap clock but it looks the part, with a more Victorian face. And come the winter the farm mice will very likely be shacking up in my skirting, so much writing motivation! I can’t wait to get it some legs, and then it can fulfil it’s purpose 😀
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Definitely a Dickens theme going on there with the crates, the desk, and I love the prints. I wonder what the great man would have thought of the likes of Wilkos? (I’ve yet to encounter the pleasures of home bargains, but sure it will be coming soon to a town near me) Can’t seem to get away from Dickens at the moment – we are studying ‘Hard Times’ on my course… I have to say, it’s hard going.
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I found Hard Times a tad hard, too. I hated Gradgrind and Bounderby, they were both Monty Python-esque. I’m sure Dickens would have loved Wilkos, his nearest one would have been Chatham, which last time I was there was rather, er, Jeremy Kyle, if you know what I mean. Dickens could have parked himself up in the shopping centre with a notebook, it would be a goldmine of material! 😉
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Love the Clerk’s Desk and the crates! However, I think you need to get a little closer to the books, so I don’t have to strain my eyes trying to read the titles. 🙂
I can make out We, the Drowned, which has reminded me that since I can’t find it anywhere around here, I will have to order it.
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I’m a terrible person, you’re right, I’ve done the very thing that annoys me the most! I hate it when people take ‘Shelfies’ and I can’t see the title properly, how can I have a nosy when I can’t see!? I will remember that for next time 😉
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🙂
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I think the crates look very chic!
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Merci! They do add a certain Parisian flair to the my book pile, although that flair maybe has more of an ‘allo ‘allo accent than ‘Les Enfants du Paradis’, but I like them 😀
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Yes! My mother’s enthusiasm when I bought my first house and she suddenly saw a way to offload all her excess furniture and crockery! The clerk’s desk is wonderful! I hope you will have a very small fire and some fingerless gloves to go along with it…
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There’s an idea, finger-less gloves are a must! I must get black, slightly moth-eaten ones. And yeah, mums! Mistaking their children for charity shops/house clearance services since time began. She has enough bedding for a small hospital. I left with about 12 odd pillowcases and single duvet covers, even though there’s not a single duvet in the house, and a vintage eiderdown bedspread thingy in case we have a cold snap, or I want to pretend it’s the fifties. If she read that she’d slap me, no one tell her how ungrateful I am!
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Thank you for sharing these pictures. They are so lovely. I hope your parents will like their new bungalow. 🙂
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Thank you, and thank you! I hope they like it, too, I can’t handle them moving again, it’s exhausting! 😉
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Aww I love what you have done with the crates lucy great job! I do think books can be really decorative and love the chabby chic look of crates and rattan baskets and stuff. I’m sure dickens would approve. KL ❤
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