Waiting for Pay Day - Resourcing Items for the Home

I have a weakness and that is nice things for my home and I am still making and acquiring items for the home I do not yet have but they will all come in useful as I am convinced that one day I will have the home of my dreams.I just know it I can feel it I can sense it.  Timing just is not right yet!

When I was married I had my own home and we had that done out nicely not sparing on quality and refitting the whole house.  My home is my nest and I think that is why it is doing my head in at the moment with it being in such disarray.  But I will get there.  I spend a lot of time looking for things and resourcing them having a real good look around at everything before buying.  But yeterday I have been on a foray window shopping to all intents and purposes at dinner and decided to have a foray in TK Max.  I particularly like their homeware department as you never know quite what you are going to find and at very good prices.  Today for instance there were several items I was particularly interested in:

I need some new Pudding Basins you know the proper ones   I usually get Mason and Cash if I can as they last a lot of years.  Proper ceramic basins are hard to come by - especially as I object to paying full price.  Why Mason and Cash ceramic  for my Christmas Puddings of course. I have used them traditionally for years only throwing said bowls out once the glaze starts to go.  Perhaps it would be better with glass but if I can get them cheap enough I will stick with the ceramic.  The ones I saw today were £2.99 for the medium size and £3.99 for the larger size.  I hope they still have them come pay day.

Secondly I saw the two different sizes of Kilner jars for £5.99 and £6.99 for the medium and largest jars available in sets of three.  There were also some other different preserving jars available.  Yet again I am hoping come pay day they are still there.  It would save me a lot of money if they are.

I am also after some nice glass display ware for the table. I am particularly keen that the table should look attractive going for beautiful china - often second hand and building up collections bit by bit and as cheaply as I can.  A little while ago Marks and Spencers had some Bell Cloche covers at £25 each the sort of glass covers you can put on a plate that keeps the food protected.  I was fortunate enough to buy two for £10 each as I came on them purely by chance in the sale and as I had had my eye on them for sometime I quickly took advantage.  A little while ago I also managed to find some in TK Max and bought a high domed one that would certainly cover a two tier cake plate.  Today I have found small cloches, medium cloches, cake covers  and some beautifully decorated display plates to add to my collection.  For the best part I go for plain glassware as it is very forgiving and mixes and matches in easily with different pieces and can be dressed up or down as required. I buy a little here and a little there and build up collections from scratch.

I am also looking for different sized plain glass hurricane lamps the sort that you can put a large candle in and then illuminate the table adding a different ambience.  I am particularly fond of candlelight especially during the winter months. Yet again I have located them in TK Max.

So it looks as though come pay day I will be paying a visit to TK Max to see if they have any of the items I have my eye on left.  I do hope so.

I also intend to look in the local Charity shops to see what I can resource there as well as a lot of the beautiful things I have acquired are from Charity shops for next to nothing.  I like things to look lovely but I do not like paying through the nose for them.  I also keep my eye on ebay.

Update

Quite a lot of the stuff was not there when I got there on Friday but I intend to keep looking as you never quite know in a store like TK Maxx.  However I did get my two bell Cloche covers for £7 apiece.  I now have one very large round cloche, two medium bell cloches and two small ones.  They will be ideal as food covers or for displaying other Christmas Decorations.   I am particularly after the Mason Cash Pudding bowls and also the preserving jars.  The Mason Cash bowls on average last me approx 8 to 10 years so I get my mileage out of them and they are predominantly used for the Christmas puddings.  I only tend to replace them when the glaze has gone through constant use for the puddings which stains the basins brown.  The preserving jars I need because I am putting more and more stuff down on a yearly basis.The storm lanterns which are plain glass can be dressed up or down hence the reason for me wanting the plain glass.  I have a lot of plain glass standard pieces as they mix in so well with other decorative pieces and candle sconces.