THE WINNER IS.......

I was really thrilled with all the comments left on my last post!  Reading all your memories bought back so many more of my own, I was surprised how many of you had similar times to us and in Cornwall, I wonder if I met any of you on a beach back in the 60's!  It has been really, really hard to choose a winner and in the end I narrowed it down to my favoutite seven and then got Mr Crow to do a lucky dip with his eyes shut as I could not decide.  Some of my faves were the buying of 'adventure supplies', waiters using pool water to put out a fire, coconut ice and fudge for breakfast and of course 'Sandy Balls'! Do have a read of them all.  But out of them all the one I related to totally was a little girl who was squashed into the car with only a little bit of window to see out of the whole journey and that little girl is LYN.  So Lyn all the goodies will be on their way to you soon.  Email me from my profile page and let me know your address.  I know what its like to be squashed in a car for long journeys I always had to sit on my sisters lap but spent the whole time stood up behind my dads seat with my nose to the little bit of window I was allowed to have open feeling car sick and sometimes being sick down my dads neck!! 

Hope you enjoy your prize Lyn.

MORE NEWS ON HOME SPUN FAIR..........You can now look on the blog for the fair by clicking on the link in my side bar.  Stall holders are being listed and more info and pics of the location will be on there in a bit as I am popping over to do a post now.  Come and have a look!

TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE AND A GIVEAWAY!

I have not been able to do a blog all week as Mr Crow has been on a little holiday on his own and took the camera.  This is my 50th post so I thought I would have a bit of a giveaway.  Routing round my studio I have put together a little collection of bits of my work, scroll on down to find out more. 

I have been taking a trip down memory lane, as a child my whole being revolved around holidays.  We lived in Finchley, North London and I can never remember a time I did not hate living in the city.  My dad was in the police force and worked damned hard for his family, having seven children was not easy and he moonlighted as a decorator too!  Working lots of late turns dad always managed to get a good number of weeks off in the year and we would pack up our caravan, stick a couple of canoes on the roofrack squeeze us all into the car and off we would go to some wild place in the countryside. We used to go to certificate location caravan sites that only took five caravans usually on a farm and always by water, be it sea, lake or river. It must have seemed to the other campers that the circus had arrived when we pitched up!  Within half an hour there would be caravan with awning, tent up and ready and us lot running about probably squealing with delight and of course mum cooking Caravan Stew, a delightful concoction of tinned mince and tinned potatoes and sometimes baked beans, a recipe that would never have reached the table at home!  I can hardly ever remember it raining, they are always golden days in my memory and the delight of having dad on tap so to speak was always grand!    

This was in Cornwall in about 1966 thats me in the red cardigan with my twin brothers and elder sister, my eldest brother is lying on the camp bed behind us reading, thats all I remember him doing!  My sister thought she was so cool in those sunglasses. How did we all fit in that caravan for dinners?!

I never liked having my photo taken!  Me with my little sister Lesley looking so cute in that hat, sitting in one of our 'boats'  traveling who knows where, we did have some amazing journeys in them.

On a rock at Loch Tummel in Scotland, another favourite holiday destination.

Back to Cornwall (the pics got muddled up).  I loved my Jakaree!  Is that how you spelt it?

We were never happier than when we were jumping in and out of a hole!  And that blue jumper, I loved it so much it got all baggy and saggy with holes in but it was oh so comfy.  This was on Bedruthan Steps,  when we went there there were no steps or national trust cafe or anything.  We stayed at the farm and walked along the cliffs to the beach, the farmhouse is now a national trust holiday house, well I suppose it was 40 years ago, yipes!

Well this brings me onto my giveaway, if you would like to win it leave me a comment with a little holiday memory and I will choose my favourite one to win!

Here is my giveaway,  two paintings, three blank cards of my paintings for you to use and also two mugs with my paintings on.  Well as you can see you will have to like my work to bother  leaving a comment, hope you will.  I will choose the winer next Monday 29th. 

My next post will be the list of exhibitors taking part at the Home Spun Fair.  All the spaces are taken now and we have a great line up so I hope you will come if you can it will be A Grand Day Out!

Car boot loot!

This afternoon I spent wandering round in the sun in a huge field near Falmouth having a great time buying stuff at a car boot.  And it was a very good one for me today.  Look at all the lovely stuff I got!

I absolutely love  the old photo of the young 1930s girl her dress is so pretty.  The old print of the victorian ladies is French the mount is a bit marked but hopefully will clean up a bit.  Little tins, always a fave of mine.

I dont know if this basket is supposed to be for a picnic or just storage as it has no handles and no sign there ever was any?  But its lovely with all its different colours of plastic woven in.

My best haul today was old childrens books. I love em and only usually find one or two but today was brill and these are just a few of them!  The illustrations inside are great.

This little collection of old cards was another gem.

Home spun News...... Preparations are in full swing now and we only have a few spaces left so if you are at all interested get in touch ASAP. I will be putting up the list of stall holders as soon as the last places are taken and giving final details to you all.  Christine is on her yearly holiday on the Scillies this week so we will not get the posters and postcards printed for a week or so, but in the meantime if all you who are coming and any one who wants to could paste the poster from my side panel onto their blogs please do.  Also if you can distribute postcards and put up posters let me know so we have an idea of how many to get printed.  

We are getting a lot of positive feedback about the fair and it will we hope be a great day.

Have a good week everyone.

HOME SPUN

Hello everybody, thankyou for all the great response to the fair.  We still have a few stands available so if you would like to join in let me know as soon as you can. Few more details for you...........

As you can see on our poster it runs from 10.30 - 4.30 on Sunday 2nd August.  Set up is from 8 o'clock so plenty of time to arrange your goodies.  There will be tea and cake available free to stall holders and we were wondering wether having a sandwich provided would help?  Proceeds from the tea and cake will go to charity, we have not decided which one yet.  If you need B&B we can recommend some to you.  The tables available are three 6ft tables (one of these is in a corner by some stairs, which will not be in use, so there is a banister rail which could be used to hang stuff on), four 12ft tables which are to be shared by two people each, two 8ft tables and one 12ft table.  There is also space for a couple of small stalls but you may have to provide your own table.  In all we have room for eighteen stalls. Although we have not finalised to stall cost yet it will not be more than £25 per 6/8ft table.

If you want any more information do just get in touch, you can email me from my profile page. Look forward to hearing from you.

NEWS...NEW FAIR COMING SOON!

Calling all bloggers!!!   

On the way home from the amazing Vintage and Handmade Fair last weekend Christine and I were talking about how great it would be to have a fair down here in Cornwall.  Christine had the idea that we should see if we could hold one in Portscatho at the Memorial Hall, a lovely venue with views of the sea, maybe next year.  Well, Christine's brain went into overdrive and before we knew where we were she had booked the hall for Sunday 2nd August THIS SUMMER!  We have not been into the hall yet to measure up to see how many tables we could squeeze in, hope to do that tomorrow, but we are asking all you vintage and handmakers out there if any of you would be interested?  Put the word out and let me know as soon as possible as we obviously do not have a lot of time to organise it.  It really is a lovely location and holding it on a Sunday we hope to make the most of all the holiday makers (Saturday is change over day and usually quiet) as well as the locals.  We will also be able to offer the tea and cakes that make the fairs such a success, so we also will be asking participants to bring a cake with them.  So come on ladies you know you have loads of stuff you want to sell and you could have a little paddle in the sea as well.

I thought I would put some pics of 'The Sea Garden' to tempt you down to the Roseland.  As ever the shop looks absolutely beautiful.  I am really delighted that Christine lets me add my work and some 'finds' to her stock, she lets me put it all out but looks on and tweeks at my poor attempts to come up to her standard of  arranging!  One of the reasons for the success of her shop I am sure is how stunning it all looks.

Here is my little corner in the window.

One of my boats on a lovely little table.

Mostly my stuff in this window, the little boats look sweet.

All in this window is white and duck egg blue.

Every surface is a feast for the eyes.

Have a great Sunday and do get in touch soon!