Life is all good on auction days ...

Auctions = a place that make you happy :)

I have been well and truly bitten by the auction bug ever since a lovely friend Judy and her partner took me to my very first one back in November. 

As a complete newbie to auctions I was like a big kid come auction day and enthusiastically asked question upon question during the journey there.  I’d packed a bag in anticipation of my new adventure which contained a calculator (to work out commission), a brightly coloured pen, magazines in case I got bored (man, how clueless I was about the excitement of such a place), spare paper for making notes, money and a ‘Millers antique price guide’!

As I had the ‘rabbit caught in headlights’ look when the auction started Judy offered to bid for me and explained how I got my ‘number’ as I called it (now I’m a regular it’s more commonly known as a paddle).

I remember my first ever auction purchase was a box of assorted glass and china for £5.00.  The excitement I had whizzing around in my tummy on that first day wasn’t just because of my lovely purchases at bargain prices but more about the day as a whole.  It was like being on the set of the most exciting TV programme ever whilst shopping for total and utter bargains ~ Heaven!  I was agog from the time we arrived until the time we packed our purchases in my friend’s car and trundled home as happy as Larry’s.

Since my first visit I have attended the same auction as regular as clockwork with my other lovely friend Wendy and the two of us are basically a very bad influence on each other. Between us we have purchased a ‘used’ sheepskin rug (ewww), a lamp with no electrical fittings at all,  two clocks that don’t work, a broken stained glass window and a whole list of other things as well as and my total fav bonkers purchase … a broken banjo for £55.00.

We don’t care though, we are in our element arriving and finding the best seats to sit on for the day, with lot numbers attached to them and us having to move when potential buyers want to try them for comfort. It’s a bonus if we can find seats with a table in front for us to use!  We eagerly mark our catalogues with things that we like (that’s about the format for selecting potential purchases, not if it’s any good or if we need it ~ nope it’s all about the ‘like’ factor). We make ourselves comfortable, bacon butty in one hand and a large cuppa in the other, mark which way is up on the back of the paddle (nothing more embarrassing than bidding for something like you’re a force to be reckoned with and in a determined manor and your paddle is upside down) and brace ourselves for a day of enthralling, captivating highs and lows.

There is nothing that can give us that ‘eeeek, I’m so happy’ feeling than driving home with a boot full of glorious bootie and a belly full of bacon butties, tea, biscuits and homemade Eccles cakes. Life is all good on auction days (even if the table we’ve just bought and rattling around in the boot is full of woodworm and we have no idea).

Below are a few pictures of my auction bootie.

 My totally random, bonkers buys that made me oh so very happy X.

These were amongst goodies in a box of assorted 
china & glass for £5.00

Two original Victorian oil paintings. I prefer the paintings without the ornate frames so have taken them out. These were bought at an auction were the TV show Flog It were filming, bad news if your husband thinks your at work and you crop up on the TV bidding on two pictures we've 'had for ages' !!! ;)

One of my favourites, an original Victorian watercolour. It's still in the original frame and the glass is old and uneven which looks lovely in the light.

A lamp that I did think was a mistake buy. I painted the shades and covered the 'sticky up bits' in black and still wasn't happy with the over all look until ... I saw my very own real purchase featured in a magazine. I can't blog about how I know but I can defo confirm my lamp once belonged to a famous interior designer - ekkk.

Wendy and I are off to pastures new tomorrow, an auction we've never been to before - oh fingers crossed our boot will be loaded with bootie and our tummies full of tea, bacon and biscuits this time tomorrow :)

Watch this space ...