The flesh is weak ....

I know Chocolat is at least a year away from needing any of this but there are times when you have to buy something because it may not appear again.  This stuff from Miniatura is a case in point.

The fantastic shelves were each under a fiver and they are unfinished Jiayi so are really nicely made.  If they don't get used in Chocolat they will go on to Starfish Cottage beautifully. 

Similarly with my only doubtful purchase of the day.  The wire corner shelf caught my eye as it was a bargain.  It is House Works and cost me about three pounds fifty.  Being a bargain is a bad reason to buy something.  I don't think I like the wire stuff when I get a chance to consider it.  Another show I went to ages ago I bought a bird cage and a coat stand in wire and ended up selling it on through EBay at a loss.  I hope this one doesn't go the same way.  Again it (maybe?) has a use in one of my future projects.

Everything else I just love.  The earthenware jug with a glazed inner neck was in a one pound jumble bag of six pieces from the charity stand.  They are always good for little treasures.  Sadly I couldn't get near it as it was one of the first I came to in the morning when I arrived and everywhere was pretty crowded.  By the time it had thinned out so had I and, I suspect, so had the little treasures, so I never went back. I was happy to have snared this and a couple of other things which are going in Bentleys.

The jars, trays, copper lidded cake boxes, cake stand and doilies were, again, all terrific bargains and without a doubt will be needed.  Truly too good to miss

The silicone mould at the front is for making those Belgian shell-shaped chocolates you can buy.  Hope I can crack on and make a load of chocolates as good as the ones on the silver tray.  How someone does the level of detail they do on these I can't imagine.  Even less am I able to imagine I am going to be able to do it.  Click on the photo to enlarge it so you can see.

The Easter chocolate basket is just what I want for the window display.  It is perfect and only six pounds.  The tray of fudge and the éclairs came from another favourite of mine - Delph.  Not someone you'd think of first for this sort of thing.

I nearly forgot to mention the little bird box, too good to leave behind for eighty pence.

What a great day I had. 

Printies

I bought these wonderful 'printies' from a Belgian lady at Miniatura yesterday.  She does masses of stuff ranging from single sheets to ones like these.  This was probably called Boulangerie (?)  It has four sheets of fantastic things - pictures, tiles, beautiful little boxes and even doilies - masses and masses of stuff.  I only hope I can do them justice when I come to use them.

I can't find an on-line shop of any sort for her but if you Google Trezoort Jes you will find links to her stuff.  I should have looked harder to see if there was something for the Chocolaterie part of my shop. I hope to see her at another show some time.