Sunday

Oh dear, its all over.  All those weeks, even months of thinking up stuff  for the vintage fair and then getting on and making it and it was all over in the blinking of an eye!  I would like to add my voice to the throng of bloggers at this moment blogging away about the success of The Vintage and Handmade Fair on Saturday.  

As usual for me I left too much to the last minute and I had some late nights and early  mornings last week but by 2 o'clock on Friday I was all done and ready to pack up my wares and travel up to Bristol.  I was lucky enough to share Christine, from The Sea Garden's van and we trundled up the motorway to stay at her brothers for the night.  Early start Saturday morning on the road by seven and arrived at the venue at 8 o'clock. Already there were fellow bloggers unloading and from then on it was a whirl of activity till about three in the afternoon!  Of all the shows I have ever done this was the first where there was not a lull in the proceedings all day!  It was terrific and I enjoyed every minute even though I was finding it hard to keep my eyes open from about 2.30,  not having eaten all day or drunk much I was beginning to flag!  Then I had a bit of Spiced Apple cake, whoever bought that one thankyou!!!  Wow what a cake it just about saved my life!  

It was so good to meet all you people who follow my blog and very touching, if a bit weird, to have complete strangers coming up and asking how my dog Midge was!  

Im afraid I did not take a camera with me, not that I would have had time to use it, so I have no pictures of my stand.  So I hope you will enjoy some photos I took today in the garden, it was good to be home again.

Out of the front door, look left.....

Sitting under a tree, I love this bit of the garden.

Look right out of the front door...

From under the apple tree.

Ian made this chair, its about 9ft tall!  All made from reclaimed timbre and bits we found.  It looks great here outside the barn he uses as a workshop and it will have to stay there as it weighs a ton!!

And well...you all know who this is, and boy was she happy to see my I wont need a wash for a while!  I sat and played ball with her all afternoon, it was so lovely outside.

This morning I managed to drag myself out of bed to go to the car boot sale.  Glad I did as I got some nice bits for the shop including these books and Britains metal animals, I love the little road sign best.

And this basket is in lovely condition and we all love baskets dont we?

I also found, a lovely mirror that needs a lick of paint, some silver (not real) boxes, a silver plated roll top butter dish, some little china bits, a desk calendar and another basket. Quite a good haul.

It was a lovely lazy day and nice not to have to do anything in particular rounded off with the treat of a Chinese Takeaway that E drove the 18 mile round trip the get!  So now I am sitting with a very full tummy writing this to say THANKYOU all you folks who liked my stuff enough to buy it and for all the lovely comments made about my stand.  I am hoping to get the time this week to list a load of new stuff onto my etsy shop so if you saw something you liked and didnt buy maybe I can tempt you again some time soon!

 Hope you all had a great weekend doing whatever makes you happy,  Lot of love.

Best mail of the week.

After a week of just getting horrible bills in the post, this morning I got two lovely surprises.  A lovely long letter from a dear friend I have not heard from in a while and a delightful little package from my blogging friend Helen of Cocoa and blankets!  Thank you so much Helen and Polly, it really was a thrill to get your beautiful gift and sweet card.  Helen makes these hearts, arent they lovely?   

I had just the place to hang the heart on the dresser in the kitchen, its just right.

Boris looked on in a dissaproving manor as instead of talking to him I was trying the heart out in different places and now he is hassling me cos I have the computer on my lap instead of him!

This little fellow has been driving us mad the last couple of weeks.  Last year we had a blue tit nest in a hole in the wall above our kitchen window and Im sure this is the same bird that cant remember where his nest was so he has been going round banging on all the windows trying to find where his nest was!  Its been like having constant morse code messages tapping out all day from just before 5 in the morning till dusk.  You'd think he'd have a headache by now!  We had to put a chicken wire 'shelf' under the hole last year as the babies kept jumping out, not a good idea with two cats sitting with their mouths open underneath.  This is one of the babies, look how tiny it was on my finger it was like holding a little fairy thing.

Have a lovely weekend.

Midge says thank you

Midgie would just like to say thank you for all your good wishes.  As you can see she is still stuck in her lampshade but the hideous big scab is just about to fall off (that might be too much information for some of you!) so hopefully she will not have to wear it much longer.

She has recovered very well and we have been fortunate to meet a couple of very friendly dogs while out walking and I think that did her the world of good as she was very wary and a bit snappy to start with.  I think it has affected me more than her, I still cant put her down when I first go out into the lane to walk up the hill and I always have a big stick with me.

We had the blood tests back and it seems that she is on too much medication for the Cushings and we have stopped giving her anything at all till next week to see how she goes and then reintroduce it at a lower level.  Too much can also make them feel poorly as it ups their steroid level. So hopefully this is a good sign and we are hoping her bounce will return soon.

So thank you all again and I will keep you posted.

A little bit vintage and poor doggie

I meant to blog this last Sunday but something horrible happened on Sunday evening that stopped me.  My poor little doggie was attacked by the Alsatian down the lane from us.  As you can imagine a jack russell is not much competition up against an Alsatian.  It could have been a lot worse and she only managed to get one bite in before I yanked Midge off the ground but she got hold of Midgies tail and a tug of war ensued with Midge in the middle and me screaming at the dog to let go.  Midge has a hole in her side which thankfully is healing well but she is quite traumatized by it all.  We have not slept much this week as she has been in a lot of pain and crying quite a lot for attention.  Poor little mite, I only took her out to try and pep her up a bit,  she has cushings disease and has not been to well the last few weeks, she started to have seizures which are a bit alarming and we dont know if its part of the disease or something else.  She has had blood tests this week to try and find the answer. We love this little dog to pieces and it breaks my heart to see her poorly.  

I had had a lovely week up till then, my big sister Lynn had been to stay, the weather was great we had gone to a few car boots and had a generally good time lots of nice chats, walks etc.  I had been busy making these bits for the V & H fair. Lots of lovely vintage scraps of fabric and lace and old photos.  I love finding odd bits and putting them together to tell a little story.  

This is one of my favourites, such devoted sisters.

This one, in a little old frame I painted white reminds me of a photo of my gran, it must have been a favourite pose of photographers in the thirties.  I should have just used the photo of my gran but this one was in lovely colour.

Some of E's relatives having a grand day out! I love the grungyness of this one.

I thought it might be nice to print these as cards?  

I have not got much work done at this week, having to go to the vet every day and just nursing the poor dog has been a big distraction but I did manage to get some more dolls made up ready to paint and some cushion covers started so lots to do. 

Also the day arrived last week when my Christmas present from E, that was started for Christmas 2007, was presented to me at about 11 o'clock at night.  It is FAB and made me cry so I MUST show you that.  I always cry at the presents E makes for me, not because they are bad I hasten to add but because he puts so much into them, some have little messages of love hidden in them, he is a big softie really!!