Jane and the happy crow

2011-12-22T08:31:00.000-08:00

It does not seem like a year since I was putting out decorations to celebrate last Christmas, what happened to this year it has flown by at breakneck speed!

Well here we are all ready for the big day, presents made, shopping done (thank goodness for Tesco online!) and house more or less ready for visitors.

I collected together some of my little toys and did the Christmas mantle in the sitting room and also this year did a Christmas cabinet to peep into like a little shop window.

These I found at a car boot in the summer, think they must be paint by numbers but they look very festive on the wall.

Well cheers everyone, have a lovely time.

Lots of love and best wishes for the New Year

Jane XX

Homespun Fair this Sunday

2011-11-24T08:47:00.000-08:00

This Sunday is our first Christmas Homespun and it looks like its going to be a good one! We are full to the rafters with lovely stalls selling lots of wonderful things from tea sets and textiles to candles and hand made soap a real mix of all things vintage. Our Tea Shop will have the addition of Gertie's husband who is having a stall selling delicious German home made stollen and cookies for you to buy to indulge in for Christmas, if you can keep them that long without tucking in!

I will be selling my usual eclectic mix of vintage bits and bobs and a few hand made decorations and cards like these tiny hand made Christmas envelopes and gift cards made from old Noddy and Little Grey Rabbit books.

Hope you will be able to come along and see us.

Looking forward to seeing all you lovely ladies old friends and new, just hope I can control myself, maybe I should leave my purse at home!

Prints for sale.

2011-11-06T13:19:00.000-08:00

I now have prints for sale over on my artwork blog here.

New Blog

2011-10-23T12:11:00.000-07:00

Here is the painting seen in my last post, finished at last and to find out some exciting news do go over to my new blog Jane Winton's Artwork and find out all about it!

uuurrrrmmmm!

2011-09-18T12:33:00.000-07:00

Dare I poke my head above the parapet and say hello?! Well the summer has flashed by and although I have poked about in your bloggy lives nothing has been posted with my Happy Crow for quite some time now. Is there anyone out there that still wants to listen I wonder?

The garden is looking decidedly autumnal, leaves are falling and everything is starting to get that scruffy edges look about it.

My path to work is crisp with leaves and trousers get wet brushing through ferns which grow in abundance down here and a good ground cover in such a large garden.

I have been busy all summer with fingers in a few pies. Mainly I have been painting for galleries but also working in the Sea Garden and having all the fun of hunting out nice things to sell in the shop and also at our annual summer Homespun Fair which I organised with Gertie and it was a great success as you have probably seen over on the Homespun blog. So much so and by popular demand we are going to have a Homespun Christmas Fair on the 27th of November. We still have stands available if you want to apply for one.

Well I went off to Shepton Mallet this weekend to find some more little bits of loveliness for the shop and I think because I had a bit of a small budget for such a wonderful big fair I did not actually buy that much but thought you might like to see some of it.

Tiny soft pink leather shoes small enough for a doll with sweet little buttons, a bit tatty but couldn't resist them.

Nice French hat and coat rack. Look great in that little cottage by the sea!

Two dolly beds in need of some bedding.

Love this dolls chair for its worn paint, sure it used to be a high chair but its so sweet.

This cabinet I want to keep, look at the original paper inside. I am going to paint it off white, its not a very nice wood finish in the flesh so I dont feel bad about doing it. Will Mr Crow let me keep it I wonder?

Beautifully feminine French mirror with a candle holder at the base, So pretty and in perfect condition.

Very pleased with this haul of Regatta china which always sells well in the Sea Garden.

Wanted to show you this that I found at a car boot over the summer for the bargain price of £10! An original oil painting by Raffay. The funny thing about it is that it looks remarkably like me as a child, I have hung it in the living room and everyone who sees it thinks its of me! So although I bought it to sell and looking it up on the internet its worth about £150 I don't really want to let it go.

And finally this is what I am doing at the moment, just started a little series of paintings with a circus theme. The dog troupe above is my work in progress, cant wait to get out there in the morning and get back into it.

P.S. I have joined Facebook, yipes!

Not the Royal Wedding!

2011-04-29T13:00:00.000-07:00

Today, being two of the few I am sure, that had no interest in staying in and watching The Wedding we took advantage of most of the population being indoors watching their TV's and went on a little road trip around the Constantine area near Falmouth.

Tiny creeks,

little paths through bluebell woods

and clear tinkling brooks abound

in this beautiful part of Cornwall where every turn seems to lead to another stunning part of this vast estuary.

Houses nestle in along the edge of the water,

from lovely Georgian homes

to tiny cosy cottages, I want to live in all of them.

boats waiting for the tide to return,

some of them never to take to the sea again, sad old wrecks alongside flashy youngsters. I wish I could get this home and make it into a summer house in the garden.

Along the road to Port Navas we walked, enjoying the views and the sunshine.

I hope that you enjoyed your day as much as we did, however you celebrated it. Heres to a lovely weekend too.

Easter Greetings!

2011-04-24T04:16:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter everyone. Hope you are out there enjoying this wonderful weather and not stuck indoors reading this blog! Well I hope you do read it at some point obviously but you know what I mean.

We are very busy here getting ready for the Homespun Fair tomorrow and Christine and I will be down setting up the hall later today in readiness to welcome our wonderful ladies early Monday morning. We have a lovely mix of treasures for you to come and peruse and have all been baking furiously so you can stop and enjoy a nice cupper and a bit of cake. I have made my famous chocolate cake and a three layer lemon cake which ended up about 10 inches high, scrum!

Have a wonderful weekend whatever you get up to!

Sweet as a lamb.A very Springy post.

2011-04-06T14:41:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I stayed at my brothers for a couple of days when I delivered new paintings to a gallery in Oxford. They have a farm and at the moments lots of lovely skipperty lambs. Although they did not loose any mothers some of the lambs need that little bit of extra TLC and get bottle fed three times a day.

This little chap was clearly keen to get at his bottle of warm milk.

There you go! And boy do they drink it quick!

"I want to tell you a secret! That new person has another bottle."

To scared to go out.

Number 35 is my favourite, such a sweet little face and the tiniest.

Ahhhhhh.

They have a few sheep that are sort of pets, this is one of them for some reason called Pirate!

Enjoying a patch of sun in the barn.

Here are a couple of new paintings, 'Waiting for father' and 'The quilters'. They are both quite big canvases, I loved doing the quilt with all the pattern on it.

Hope to see lots of you at the Vintage and Handmade Fair on Saturday.

About nothing in particular

2011-01-26T13:01:00.000-08:00

Not really got a theme to this post but thought it about time I posted something. So starting off with a photo of my boy, who having stolen my chair made himself comfy! Budge out the way Bobby I want to get on with my blog. But got to kiss that tummy first!

I am feeling very pleased that I have finished both our tax returns and today with a sigh of contentment I returned to my painting, which is a bit of a whopper at 90cm square, I have only drawn it out so far but longing to get some paint on the canvas in the morning. I will show you it when its on its way, it should be a nice one if it goes to plan, it has a seaside theme to it and is destined for a gallery in Falmouth.

Just finished this painting last week and took it straight to a gallery in Lynton, North Devon who are starting to sell my work. I love the old bit of fabric I used for her dress it had a transfer pattern on it and I filled it in with wonderful gold paint by Golden who do the most marvelous acrylic paints. I love toy animals on wheels so this girl has her horsey although she is wishing for a real one, just like I did as a child.

I bought this lovely german toy cow at Shepton this weekend and he has already made friends with the little horse I got there last time. Both made out of papier mache and only 5 inches high.

And well, I said this was a post not about anything in particular, here is my nature table tray that on the cupboard in the hall. Its where I pop all the beach treasure out of my pockets.

Have a good week everyone.

Into the New Year

2011-01-09T04:54:00.000-08:00

After a rubbish Christmas and New Year suffering from an awful chest infection it was lovely to see in the New Year with the long awaited article in Country Living. Long awaited as we did the photo shoot way back last spring and I can remember having to wear lots of layers and trying to look cold on one of the hottest spring days we had had! We are all so pleased with the article, its quite a cosy one isn't it? We had a lovely day with lots of laughter with good friends and the photographer was a real sweety. My studio looks great and I am hoping it will lure people in to come and try one of my courses, we shall see.

The photographer sent me some photos he took and I know he will not mind me showing you the ones he took of Midge in my arms and Boris looking at him through the window. Thank you Brent for letting me have them.

So now on into 2011 with lots to do, as usual I am sure that January and February will disappear in a jiffy, why is that? I am longing to get back painting now I am feeling better and have been sketching lots of new ideas, then there is also the Country Living Fair where Christine is having a stand and has very kindly offered to have some of my work so I have ideas for that too, lets hope there are enough hours in the day to get it all done!
A very Happy New Year to all of you my blogging friends. It is a strange world this blogland where we forge bonds and friendships and peep into the lives of others we are never likely to meet. Some I have been lucky enough to meet and are now firm friends. Heres to many more friendships for us all and thank you for your support over the last year.

In the spirit at last!

2010-12-23T12:02:00.001-08:00

I was beginning to get a bit worried that I was just going to mope around mumbling 'Bah Humbug' over Christmas as I have not had any festive spirit in me for weeks now. I dont know why as I love Christmas and the feeling you get on the run up to the day. Maybe its because I just feel as if I have been rushing from one task to the next with no time to enjoy all that festive joy thats been floating around or maybe I am just getting to become a grumpy old bag!

Well today I thought, come on put out some decorations (I had not even bothered to buy a tree!) and went up to the orchard and chopped off a few of the old apple tree branches that are covered in lichen, stuck them in a pot and got going in a very half hearted way. Then I thought why not put some fairy lights on them and delved into the tangled mess of wire and lights in my christmas bag. As I pulled them out of the bag and they clacked together the smell and noise of them brought on a rush of joyous spirit, yipee at last I feel like christmas, who would have thought something so simple would spark me off! So now I am madly decorating the house before its too late.

I had this little doll in a box and who would have thought she would look so cute on the back of a little old bear.

Latest painting, does look a bit christmassy.

Nearly finished the mantle in the sitting room, a few little gaps to fill still.

Put some of my collection of toy animals on the tiny shop I bought from Liz in the spare room.
A row of little dollies, now on sale in The Sea Garden.

And heres to wish you a very Merry Christmas with love and joy to you all. See you all next year!

All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey.

2010-11-25T13:35:00.000-08:00

I went for a walk on a winters day. Although the sea is a big draw for me, I still in my heart am a country girl and I love nothing more, especially in the winter, than to wander round the lanes around and about near our home. The sky was dark grey when I started out, the clouds reaching down to the land but as so often in Cornwall it all changed in a moment and the sun broke through shining through the last of the autumn leaves.

So here for you to enjoy are a few of the lanes of Cornwall, with a few little treats on the way.

Snapped Up

2010-11-23T12:18:00.000-08:00

As promised, probably a lot sooner than you expected, here are a few of the lovely things I snapped up at Shepton. I was amazed to find another little fox terrier on wheels the same or a little smaller than the one Niky bought from me for her darling handmade bears to ride on. I have done a little restoration on him and still need to find a bit of black wool to re- stitch his nose, his little friend the lamb is a bit loved but still cute.

I just love push along and pull along toys especially horses, isnt the little one a darling? Mrs Henny is a bit worse for wear and does not cluck when her wheels go round any more and her wings dont flap to good but she is such a decorative little thing.

I saw this dolls bed and although it is not all original and I suspect the headboard is the base of a mirror I could not resist it and have made a mattress and pillow for it and used a piece of an antique worn out quilt as a cover that looks just right.

A wonderful dolls wedding dress on its own little hanger, lovely shiny silk with tiny pearl buttons all hand stitched.

Another great find, sold as prints these are original fashion drawings and paintings by a lady called Phyllis Russell spanning from 1900 to 1930, a very good hand did these and just wonderful that they are one offs, it would be great if some of the dresses were actually made.

A bit scruffy but very nostalgic print in that wonderful schoolroom style.

This is a brilliant find. This quilt about the right size for a single bed is unfinished and I should think, just been kept folded up in a drawer till now. Its lovely just for its bright little patches but the best thing about it is on the back. The paper templates are in the main still all there and made up from what looks like very old kitchen accounts, each piece has snippets of lists for bread, milk, butter and so on. It is a real piece of social history and I am in a dilemma as to what to do with it......any suggestions?

I am hoping to have a little table at the V&H Fair on Sunday squeezed between Gertie and Christine, but now have far too much to sell so if you see me just ask for what's under the table!

Give away Winner

2010-11-22T13:15:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, sorry for the delay, I forgot that I would not be home on Sunday after staying away for the weekend at my brothers after going to the Shepton Mallet Antiques Fair, which was BRILL!

No pics on this post just the name of the winner of the give away. After writing all your names on bits of paper and screwing them up I put them in a bowl and set Boris on them to choose one. He was quite happy to play with the little balls of paper and the first he clawed out of the bowl was..............Becky of Sweet Cottage Dreams, a lovely lady from across the pond. Email me your address Becky and your little gift will be on its way to you. Sorry everyone else (especially that ****** woman from Bath!), I just wish I could send you all something.

Will post some pics of the lovely stuff I found at Shepton ASAP, I just wish I had unlimited funds when I go there as I could spend, spend, spend.

Still here with a Give Away!

2010-11-14T11:42:00.001-08:00

Here I come again, naughty me, I have spent too long blithely skipping over the hills, not a thought of blogging in my head and here we are a month since my last apologetic posting! The last few weeks have zipped by so quickly and we have gone from summer to winter with the nights drawing in and the woodburner now being regularly lit, much to the animals delight. And here again last week was Mr Crows birthday, this time his 50th!!!! Eeeek how did that happen we still feel about 20! His birthday dawned bright and cheery and we had a day out exploring a little corner of Cornwall we had never been to before.

Only about an hours drive, just down from Torpoint is the sweet little village of Kingsand and Cawsand which merge together. Its not very big but the tiny cobbled streets and funny little clock tower on the beach are really charming. This time of year its very quiet as most of the houses seem to be, like many picturesque places in Cornwall, holiday homes. So we wandered around and sat in the sun watching the navy ships coming and going out of Plymouth.
Just around the coast from Cawsand is this really tiny chapel right out on a little bit of land sticking out into the sea with amazing panoramic views all round. In the picture below you can see Whitesand Bay where the cliff is studded with wooden shacks which would nowadays be called holiday chalets. I dont know how long they have been there I assume it was from a time before planning, some you can see must be around the 20s era and a lot have been done up to be modern dez rezzes. We only drove by and did not stop but hope to revisit for a better nose about someday soon.

The camera battery ran out so I did not get to take photos of Downderry, Portwrinkle and Seaton all villages along this lovely bit of coastline. But maybe I will be able to show you them soon.

I have done a couple more paintings, 'Walking the Dog' and 'Picking Apples' and I now am pleased to say that a gallery has offered me an exhibition, the first of many I am hoping. It has been great fun messing around with some new techniques.

And now, a little bird tells me, I have a give away. I hope that you will find it acceptable, two hand made items by myself.

The first is this little collage in an old tart tin to hang on your wall.

The second a bracelet of Suffolk Puffs with mother of pearl buttons.

To have a chance of winning just leave a comment on this post. The winner will be announced next Sunday the 21st November. Good luck everyone!

Here I am!!

2010-10-10T05:03:00.000-07:00

Yes I'm back! After hiding in the cupboard under the stairs all this time I have decided to come on out and join the blogging party once again! Sorry I have been gone so long, I cannot believe that I have not been on here since July, I dont know why, no real excuses and I am ashamed to say that I have not really looked around blog land either so have not seen what all my lovely bloggy friends have been up to. But I spent yesterday catching up with all your doings and boy you have been busy and doing some exciting stuff!!!!

Well what have I been up to? I left off just before the Homespun Fair which was a great success, a lovely day with lots of customers but my favourite bit as usual was chatting to all my lovely fellow stall holders, it is always so nice to see you all and I am always sad that we do not have more time to just sit and natter!

You may have noticed that Gertie and I are organising a little Homespun between Christmas and New Year, it will be just for the afternoon and we are looking for stall holders so if you might be interested pop over to the Homespun blog to find out more.

Daisy spent most of her summer on the new bird table.

We had a busy summer but found time to get out and about. We decided that we would visit a garden each weekend who took part in the National Garden Scheme for charity and we went to some wonderful places that you would not normally be able to see and its a wonderful way of nosing round peoples gardens and houses and of course they always serve cake which is always a bonus! Here are just a few pics of some of the marvelous gardens we went to, I can recommend it as a summer past time.

Went to many car boot sales finding things for Christines shop, always an enjoyable past time.

A lady who came on one of my courses gave me these lovely price tickets, I just love the 'correct fashion' wonder what that was?

Recently I found these, a lovely old dolls pram and a sweet cot with a wonderful mattress, dont you just love the pics of the old toys?

But mainly this summer I have been trying to 'Focus' on my painting. I love to do so many things and it has been hard for me to really get on with anything of late as I keep side tracking myself into other projects. But we all know what happens when we spread ourselves to thin, nothing seems to get going so I have tried very hard to push all my other ideas aside and just paint and it has been wonderful! I am playing around with a few new techniques and researching American Folk Art and Naive painting which has been a bit of a passion for me for a number of years, trying to bring some of these qualities into my work. Its not everyones cup of tea I know and will maybe have a limited appeal but I feel like I need to follow my heart on this and not just do what I think people will buy. And I am glad to say that I have been selling a few pieces this summer in a gallery nearby and am hoping to be taken on by a few others soon, so wish me luck on that.

Here are a couple of paintings, the first is my more 'what sells' style, second one of my new pieces, quite large for me at 3 ft x 2 ft but I enjoyed every brush stroke! Its called "Reaching out" and its all about saying sorry and rekindling love and friendship. Much as I am hoping to rekindle my friendships with you all after being away so long, Sorry!

And there will be a give away on the next post, which wont be to long away this time!

Soon to be appearing....

2010-07-13T00:24:00.000-07:00

Homespun is creeping up on us quickly now and I have started to get together lots of goodies for my stall. This time I am going to be selling mainly small pieces of furniture if I can get enough together in time and do them up. Saying that there will be other little treats like this gorgeous vintage pin cushion mouse and some fabric bundles.

A lucky find were these Welso doll house kitchen appliances, the fridge still has its cool boxes and milk bottles.

Also this toy german tin toy tea set with its pretty transfer print.

This truck would be great for giving teddies a ride.

A few of the jigsaws that will be coming along, there will be more from my collection joining them. I love wooden jigsaws, the farm one in the box at the back is a beauty with lots of animals that stand up so you can play with them and its in really thick wood so feels very substantial.

A great old hat box.

Dinky little plate wrack.

Not sure weather to repaint the green cupboard or just replace the stained paper on the front, it has sweet little china handles. The dresser I have had for a while but thought it was time to let it go, I need to make some new doors for the base. Its quite big for a toy one and great as a display.

Two toy cots in need of some bedding, I love the older one at the back you can lift the side up and down like a real one and its such a lovely colour, all original.

A group of little bits, my favourite being the hand painted 1930s toy bed on the left it is so sweet and I have just the right bit of vintage fabric to make some quilts for it. The little 1930s tea set is a lovely yellow, shame it has a couple of cups missing but the teapot is so lovely.

Well thats a few of the bits you will find with me at Homespun hope you will be able to come along to what will be a great day. Visit the blog to see who and what else will be there.

Thank you for all the birthday wishes.

And finally do look out as I feel a giveaway coming on so come back next time and see what you could win!

Birthday weekend

2010-07-05T13:53:00.000-07:00

Phew! I have had a lovely whirlwind weekend. It was my birthday on Friday and I got some lovely cards and gifts in the post, so my day started well.

My lovely friend Sara, who we call Sparkly and if you met her you would agree, sent me these sweet little gifts. We do not see each other much and never talk on the phone we just write to each other and she is very dear to my heart.

Well I stayed in and baked a chocolate cheesecake for my party while Ian took Midge to the beach to tire her out. Then a quick lunch and we set off to Lanhydrock House for my birthday outing. We had been before but only walked around the grounds and not gone into the garden or the house. It was a real treat and if you are ever down here you really must go. I will let most of the pics speak for themselves........

Oooh the smell, wish computers had scratch and sniff!

Inside the house, well I could have posted lots more of the 146 photos I took but had to just select a few of my faves!

Kitchen, I should say kitchen's as there are many for all the different jobs, a bakery, a dairy, one for preparing veg, one for cheese storage, a butchers, a pantry, one that had ice for making ices etc all so interesting, I must say that I find the kitchens of big old houses the most fascinating, all those little domestic details.

The nursery, and just look at those little boots, I could have just reached over and picked them up, do you think they would have noticed!

This necklace was part of a costume worn by the lady of the house to a New Years party in 1900, and just how contemporary is that?!

In a little room upstairs dustpans at the ready.

I would love a little curiosity table like this.

This little thatched cottage is in the garden and is like a little fairies house,its been a summer house, a garden shed and a tea rooms since the last inhabitant died in the late 1800s, I wish it was in my garden.

A lovely afternoon and we did not leave till about six and it was quiet by then and we had the place almost to ourselves, I pretended in my head that it was all mine!

On Saturday I spent most of the day happily baking in the kitchen preparing for a little birthday tea it was just to be with my closest Cornish girlfriends (Yes I know there's a man but Ian did need some company!) . We had eaten and cleared away all the savouries by now and were just preparing to eat cake. The fat one in the middle with the light blue top is me.
Scrummy cake and more pressies to open! (My chocolate cake is becoming more well known than me!)

And while having my birthday tea Sue told us of a garden she had been to that day called Trevoole Farm who were doing the open garden scheme for charity, she could not get over how amazing it was, every thing was vintage, well we needed no persuading and on Sunday me, Ian and Christine drove to have a look. We were not disappointed!!!!!! Oh My God it was AMAZING (with a capital everything!) from the darling little cat who greeted us (would not fit in my bag!) to the vintage tea shop in a wooden, almost cricket pavilion, in the garden. Just feast your eyes on some of the yummyness and if you want more go over to Christine's blog, she has posted loads of photos which is good as it meant I didnt have to!

The potting shed

Cute old camper

Tables all over all with vintage fabric

A vase of flowers having an 'Amelie' moment while no-one was looking, except me!

Inside the potting shed.

That cat again, comfy on some no doubt precious seedlings.

You can rent a couple of the little cottages to stay in and they are decorated like you would not believe. Not sure if we were supposed to but we snuck in and nosed around.

I need a cupboard like this, NOW!

A girl can never have too much fabric.

In one of the many little gardens there is a shepherds hut done up as a little guest room. Smelt divine with all the lavender.

Even the chickens and ducks get a bit of vintage fabric.

Do go over to Christines blog, I have just realised a bunch of the photos I loaded have disappeared and the tea shop interior is missing and you must see that. And the vintage shop at the end of it all was the icing on the cake, of course I made a few purchases!

In all I have had a really brilliant birthday that seems to have lasted for three days, precious time with my darling husband, a great evening with some great friends, thank you all so much for making it special and the beautiful gifts and to top it all off a visit to vintage garden heaven!

We've been shot!

2010-06-29T11:12:00.000-07:00

Today was the day the photographer came to do the magazine shoot. Since last Monday I have been sanding, painting, scrubbing and dusting to make our home look as nice as I could. I should have taken some 'before' pics as the transformation has been quite considerable in the spare room. Before it was a drab old space full of books odd bits of carpet on a black floor with splodges of paint and plaster, with no character and probably quite depressing to stay in, now it looks like this.....

Four coats of floor paint after a lot of scraping and I am really pleased with it. I love painted floorboards. The curtains I bought from Liz (the washerwoman) and they are fab 50s ones and there was enough at the bottom to cut off and cover the lloyd loom stool/box.

I recovered the lampshades with some vintage fabric and the beds look good even if they dont match.

This bedside table was a car boot find, I just love the vintage fabric under the glass, the little green clock is an old friend and has a sweet little tick tock.

There's that car boot find mirror again, it looks so nice here that I don't think I can part with it now! See the bag under the towel rail, Gertie (treutmade) made it for me and there is a baby matching bag inside, thank you Gertie I really love it.

I have been buying the little china brooches to sell but have now started collecting them myself as they are so pretty. The old chocolate box was an ebay bargain.

A small old suitcase has become home for some childhood toys. Some have been passed down from older siblings and stayed with me. Poor old Ted at the back on the left is bald from my brothers playing barbers with him and has blue spots from an attack of ink measles from my sister!

Our sitting room mantle, I have started amassing small glass bottles for some reason!

Kitchen, same old same old!

The dinning room looking unusually tidy as its mostly used as a dumping ground for things I cannot find a home for.

Our bedroom.

A nice place to sit and relax out front but only when the sun has gone, otherwise too hot for me!

It was a fun day and the photographer's photos looked absolutely amazing, made our house look so much nicer than it really is, cant wait to see them in print.

And Midge, well after a hard day posing in nearly every shot she was tired out and enjoyed a snooze on her favourite chair.

House Sitting

2010-06-16T03:06:00.000-07:00

I have left our lovely corner of Cornwall this week to house sit for my brother and his wife in equally as lovely North Devon. They live in a gorgeous old farmhouse with lots of land around it where they have sheep, they used to have some cattle as well but lost them to T.B. I am here to look after the Red Setter in the picture, Boo, and the very spoilt cat Tom who adopted them some years ago and has them totally wrapped around his little claw! I also go and give the sheep some treats in the morning and am trying to outwit them so as not to get mugged as I come through the gate, some are very tame and nearly trample you as soon as they see the bucket. Chickens need feeding too but it doesnt take long to get round them all with Boo taking herself off for a run round the fields finishing every day with a dip in the water trough, then the day is my own and with only me to think about I am enjoying a relaxing time.

I can sit outside and enjoy the garden. Caroline is a true gardener and the garden round the house is a joy.
She has a little greenhouse in its own little vegetable plot with topiary cats guarding the gate all beautifully laid out.
Its a shame I dont eat lettuce as there are lots of lovely ones ready to eat, but I do enjoy the strawberries

.
There are even morning visitors, I think they are eyeing up the juicy specimens growing down near the fence.

But as you can imagine I have not been able to stop myself getting out and about seeing if there are any vintage treasures around! And of course there are! On Sunday I found a great boot sale near Barnstaple, on Monday I found a treasure trove on the way home from Liz's house (see below) and yesterday went to Bideford and found a lot more, all that is worrying me now is how its all going to fit in the car as it was full when I got here as I bought lots of projects to get on with.

As I said I went to see Liz The Washerwoman on Monday to see all her dolls houses and I had a wonderful day, thankyou so much Liz it was lovely to see you and all your treasures and have a good chat.

I would have loved to have taken this home with me.

In a smallish room off the lounge Liz has managed to cram a large number of wonderful dolls houses which are all furnished with period bits and bobs. I can see how it has taken her around twenty years to amass all this stuff, true dedication! But it is all, oh so wonderful, I was in miniature heaven! I took loads of photos but am having the devil of a job uploading today so this is a much shorter post than I intended.

Just look at the little girl in this bedroom, such a sweet little outfit and the little lamb on wheels....

And (sigh) this little chap nearly made it into my pocket, but not quite!

I will show you some of my vintage finds next time as no more photos will load on this post.

Hall makeover

2010-06-01T13:14:00.000-07:00

This weekend I spent most of the time giving the hallway a much needed makeover. With the magazine photo shoot looming at the end of the month we need to crack on and redecorate most of the house! Its not until you start painting that you realise just how scruffy and grubby everything has become! I still have to paint the woodwork but I am happy with the way its turned out. The blue paint was given to me by my brother who had it for their bedroom but decided it was not right so I got a free large tin of paint, I love the colour and will probably use it in the bathroom too. Thanks Neil!

We went for a seaside theme, one because we live near the sea and two because we have a lot of seasidey stuff! I love my stuffed seagull.

Little shelf for seaside finds and one of our boats, lovely little basket a present from Christine and some Lawrence Henry fish.

Beautiful old school posters finish it off nicely.

The light outside this afternoon was amazing! After a very rainy morning the clouds whisked away and the sun came out with a golden glow over everything. I just had to take some photos out of the sitting room window.

Bought some flowers for the garden this morning.

And picked a few out of the garden for the house.

New arrangement in the kitchen corner.

Here are the gorgeous paper chest and old peg doll I got at Shepton, will probably sell the chest in a bit, but enjoying it for a while.

She sits so comfortably in the old toy chair.

Friday afternoon

2010-05-21T15:01:00.000-07:00

We are still managing to have our Friday afternoon outings and this week we popped up to the north coast and parked up above Porthtowan for a few hours. It was a glorious afternoon and so bright Im afraid all my photos are a bit over exposed.

We did go for a little walk but it was so hot with no real breeze that it was quite unpleasant wandering along (I am not a sunshine person!) but the flowers were wonderful.
Thrift, in great swathes along the path and hanging on in great clumps to the crumbling edges of the cliffs......

.......along the banks of the footpath.......

........scrabbling over the walls.......

.....deep yellow gorse smelling of hot coconut or what I think baked peaches......bees emerging, pollen coated, satisfied.

We wandered back to the car enjoying every step even though we were baking slowly in the sun. A picnic lunch on the grass of the cliff edge (not to0 near the edge) then sat back and read our books, well in my case my wonderful new edition of Where Women Create a stunning magazine from America.

Oh dear, we are turning into 'Old Gits' who sit in their cars by the sea reading and falling asleep! Never mind it was a lovely afternoon.

Come, peek in the studio.

2010-05-13T13:41:00.000-07:00

What a week this has been. A lovely day last Friday at the Shepton Mallet Antiques Fair where I found some lovely things. It paid to be more controlled this time as I am usually swept away by all the delightful things to buy and spend most of my budget by stall three!! I should have taken some photos of my purchases to show you but will do that next time. I am sure you will love my old wooden doll and early 19th century paper covered chest. Saturday we had a wonderful evening at The Windswept Cafe in Newquay (sorry to say this, but its the only thing worth going there for except the zoo). Sunday we went to an open garden along the river from us I took my camera thinking it would make a nice post but had forgotten to charge it so only took three photos! Monday woke with a bit of a sore throat. Tuesday an even worse sore throat and another horrible trip to the dentist. Wednesday full blown flu in a day bug! Managed to get a walk on the beach in the morning but almost didnt make the drive home I felt so awful and spent the rest of the day in bed. I must say that there is nothing like a big fluffy cat in your bed with you when you feel poorly, he purred and snuggled up and was better than any hot water bottle and stayed as long as I needed him. Still a bit grim today but my head is a bit clearer and my joints have stopped aching, hope I will be OK by Sunday as I am at the Lostwithiel Festival with Christine and Gertie, we all have stands next to each other, at the Community Center if you can come along.

I took these photos of my new studio to show you, just a little snoop round. Its still a bit untidy not everything has found a home yet but I cant believe that all of this went into my room in the house!

Outside we had a deck area built as the ground gets very wet here whenever it rains. Its a nice place to take a break and listen to the birds.
My journey to work is down this path from the house. Mr Crow spent many a long weekend making this path. I hope soon to have a little chicken run on the grass here and some bantams to listen to while I am working. We used to have chickens here but when we got the ex battery girls they destroyed the grass so we moved them up to the orchard where I hardly ever see them, so it will be nice to have some more.

A couple of little projects here, got these at Shepton. The pram needs a bit of a clean up and is destined for sale, so too the old Star sailing boats which mainly need re-stringing on the sails.

Hope you enjoyed the little tour, I still have not got down to any serious work in the studio yet and cant wait to get my paints out and finish that painting and get on with others I have in mind.

Its not (V&H) Fair!

2010-05-04T11:32:00.000-07:00

No, unfortunately its not all about the Vintage and Handmade Fair as I forgot my camera! A great day was had by all with masses of vintage treasures to tempt the customers. When I looked up after rushing to complete my stand (as usual the last bit was placed as Jayne announced the doors were about to open) I thought this looks like a vintage girls idea of heaven! I did manage to get a bit of a look round and wished I had loads of money as I was tempted by so many things. It was a lovely day and so nice to see blogging friends again, there is always such a warm friendly feeling to the V&H fair, I think we have all settled down cosily with one another and I am sure we are already looking forward to November!

Well as I have no photos of the fair I thought I would share some car boot finds with you. I was disappointed to have missed my regular Sunday boot and was therefore delighted to find that there was an extra one in Truro on Bank Holiday Monday. I got there early so as to be first in the que. Most of the boots here are run so that you are not allowed in till half an hour after the cars start to set up so that all is ready and everyone has a fair chance, its much more civilised than crowds descending on poor booters as they try and unload. But it pays to be early and get in first! Well here are a few of my finds....

This little 1930s plaster girl and her doggie in front of a mirror is so sweet, the colours lovely and faded.

I am delighted with this stash of hundreds of mother of pearl and glass buttons. I have plans for these!

Some pretty costume jewellery.

I had one of these as a child, the hairdryer still works, only blows cold air though!

I found a big tin of old cigarette cards of which these beautiful dogs are a few.

But I think the best find of the day is this wonderful 1940s mirror. It belonged to the mother of the lady I bought it from, I could tell she was a bit sad to see it go and said "You will look after it wont you?" It still smells of her mothers perfume which some might think a bit odd but I find enchanting! After promising to look after it I am not sure now wether I want to sell it or not and it does look nice with some old glass bottles and things in front of it in our sitting room!

What time do you go to the dentist? Tooth-hurty!

2010-04-29T14:05:00.000-07:00

I have felt like this little fellow this week. On Saturday night while brushing my teeth before bed, a great lump of one of my wisdom teeth fell out! A bit of a shock as you can imagine. So after an uncomfortable Sunday I went with dread to see a dentist on Monday morning, he was surprised I was not in agony as the tooth was very decayed inside and said it had to come out. Now I am not the bravest person at the dentist in fact I have not been for 15 years so this was my worst nightmare come true. I made an appointment for the following morning but the dentist called later to say he had a cancellation would I like to come in at 2.30 (!) he thought I would rather get it over with and not have a sleepless night (he is a very nice man). After reassuring me it would not take long, "Just a flick of the wrist" I spent a horrific hour in the chair while he attempted every means possible to extract the reluctant tooth from my jaw bone! He said he only had two or three like mine in a year where the tooth is SO attached to the bone, just my blooming luck! All sorts of different instruments were tried by the end I would not have cared if he had whacked it out with a shovel, I just wanted it out. With one last horrible crunch the nurse assured me it was out and started to mop the blood off my face, on leaving the two people in the waiting room looked a bit glum, possibly my squeals and groans had got to them. I felt pretty dreadful the rest of the day and cannot chew very well yet still, but at least it should be OK for the V&H fair, I was dreading having a swollen face and not able to talk very well. I have to go back next week for an old filling to be replaced and a couple of tiny ones but other wise I got off lightly, I dont think I will leave it 15 years again!

On to nicer things, this sweet little pram is coming with me to the fair. I could not resist taking a photo of Midgie trying it out for me. I wheeled her about the kitchen in it but I dont think she liked it very much, its just right for a teddy or a dolly. The lady I bought it off had it when she was a little girl in the 50s. I have lots of other vintage treasures and some little bits I have made to tempt you so do come and say Hi and have a look. See lots of you on Saturday, have safe journeys. XX

Memories are made of this.

2010-04-20T13:52:00.000-07:00

Last week the boot sale season down here got into full swing and I was out scouring the tables for possible hidden treasures. So far the pickings have been kind of slim, if I had a small child though it would not be short of clothes and toys! But in a field full of disappointments I did come across these two little boxes of someone's treasured memories. The lady I bought it off did not know who they belonged to which makes them all the more poignant.
The first box was packed tight with little wedding cards, sent out to friends and guests with the piece of cake. The earliest one is dated 1919 and they span the years to the 1950s. All have the names of the bride and groom and where they were married and the date. I can only assume the collector either went to a LOT of weddings or was given them by friends, but they kept them all those years. They are beautiful little things, all celebrating love and the start of I hope of many happy lives together.
I did not even bother to look through the other box, leaving it till I got home. When I opened it I found little wax flowers on top of other small decorations from different wedding cakes and at the bottom of the box even a tiny amount of confetti all I am sure memories of happy days and dear friends and relatives, I can imagine her (I can only think its a woman who collected these) stooping down as the happy couple passed by and scooping up a few bits of coloured paper, slipping them into her purse and storing them away later, capturing that little moment to be looked back on with joy from time to time.

But the best and most charming items in the box are these gorgeous little silver paper shoes, they are only around a couple of inches long and oh so delicate. I wonder how long it has been since the boxes where opened and looked through, maybe I am the first since the owner tucked them away for them to then end up in a big box full of anonymous stuff at an auction years later. I am so pleased I paid that couple of pounds on the off chance, it would have been so sad for these to end up in the bin, which is what the lady selling them was going to do with them if she didnt get rid of them. All I can say is Lucky Me!

Country Living Photo Shoot

2010-04-10T13:42:00.000-07:00

I have had a very exciting time since I last blogged. We had the Homespun Fair on Monday, we all had a great day and it was so nice to see everyone again. This time I did manage to get around and have a bit of a chat with most of you and I also had the lovely surprise of Michele from Cowboys and Custard turning up to support the fair even though she could not take part, very much appreciated Michele and Claire from Daisy Darling came by too. You can have a look at the goings on over on the Homespun Blog.

Well I did not even have time to recover from the fair before on Wednesday we had a photographer from Country Living come and take the photos for a forthcoming article in the magazine. It is to be about Me, Christine, Gertie and Angela and how we make things out of vintage fabrics and stuff and meet and have tea so we can chat about work and swap some bits with each other. It was all good fun and Brent, the photographer was lovely and made it all so relaxed and natural we sort of forgot he was there a lot of the time.

Here we are having tea in our kitchen, we always have plenty of cake to choose from.

We were not allowed to eat straight away and had to wait while Brent set up some shots, the smell of chocolate cake wafting around the room was tantalising to say the least! Once replete, no I should say stuffed, with tea and cake Brent set up outside for some shots of us lot together.

Lovely Brent setting up on the front lawn.

While we took a break in the sun.

All together tying to look like it was a cold winter day when it was really warm and we were all glowing in our coats! Boris and Midge make an appearance.

Then back into my new studio for some close up shots of our work. A week ago this was an empty room, I have been backwards and forwards from the house moving stuff over there. I must have walked miles with boxes and baskets and there is still stuff to move. I am very happy with how it is shaping up its a lovely big space and very tranquil and calm. I cannot wait to get on with some work out there. I have only gone and sat out there gloating so far, I hope to finish off a painting next week.
We all had loads of stuff on the table which made a colourful display, loads of textiles, lovely bags of Gerties, hand stitched quilts by Angela, fabrics and handmade jewellery by Christine and some textiles by me. We sat around working, chatting and laughing mainly about men, Brent snapped away and has promised not to publish any of our conversation! It was a great day full of vintagy things, laughter and above all warm friendships which we hope will come across in the article. Look out for it in January or February edition 2011.

New Banner

2010-03-26T12:10:00.001-07:00

Hello all, had a little play yesterday and made a little framed box to use as my new banner. Thought I would 'Spring Clean' my blog and give it a fresh look. Hope you like it!

P.S. Just thought I would let you know that I have listed some dates and details for the courses I will be running this Spring and early Summer over on my Courses Blog.

Flower Tots

2010-03-16T13:59:00.000-07:00

This last couple of weeks I have been quietly sitting in my workroom waiting for some little friends to come visiting, I call them my 'Flower Tots'. They were a little bit shy at first but I managed to get some photos of them as they came to rest of some old cotton reels I have and they gave me an idea for new things to make to sell at the Fair.

This is Little Boy Blue, he is a friendly little scamp, always up to mischief. Settling himself down he posed rather nicely for me.

This trio of little Tots delighted me with their offerings of flowers.
And this cheeky little cutie sat and played for me a while.

Vintage tins and old metal tart cases are some of the other things I am using to house my little Flower Tots and I am making cards too. It has been such fun making them I just hope they will sell otherwise I will have a house full of them!

Blatantly advertising my courses!

2010-02-25T13:32:00.000-08:00

I Hope none of you will be offended by my blatant using of my blog to advertise a couple of the courses I want to run this year.
Although they are all collage courses they are all quite different. Above is a collage on canvas made up of lots of different images all with the same theme, here it is dogs but you could choose anything that takes your fancy. You will paint the canvas to give an interesting background texture then apply images and then embellish with buttons, jewels, glitter etc etc then paint again to give more texture and distress/aging effects. A fun way to bring images together.
This lovely folding padded collage uses layering of textiles some transfer work and copying images onto cotton and organza, each panel tells a little story. Some machine and hand stitching.
This was truly a joy to create, lots of hand stitching, buttons, ribbon, photos, paper, lace well you can bung on anything that takes your fancy!

All the courses will come with a basic 'kit' for you to build on and I have plenty of images you can copy but I would encourage you to look around for your own 'themes'. The sky is the limit really.

If there is anyone out there that may be interested please leave a comment as I would love some feed back, am I on the right track?

I Spy. What did she Buy?

2010-01-31T05:13:00.001-08:00

I Spy, what did she buy? She was off again last weekend, she is always going away and coming back with more than she left with! After lots of hugs and kisses on my nose (which I love!) and a peck on a cheek for Daddy, as it should be, she zoomed off to the Shepton Mallet Fair, which she tells me was great if not a bit wet around the edges. After two days of staring out of the window she at last reappeared staggering up the path with lots of packages I had not seen before.

One of them was this table which she bought to sell but I said it would look nice in the sitting room so she gave it a try and agreed with me.

She also got this dinky little set of drawers, which she spent far to long cooing over instead of making a fuss of me!

Other little things that I totally ignored to her disgust to sell in Christines shop, she just keeps saying sweeeeeet.

She has been busy this week, having been inspired at last to get on with some work she came up with this painting, I think it should have been My heart is like a barking Dog but hey I suppose bird sounds better.

They are taking me here this afternoon so I can run, run, run to my hearts content, she loves me so much!

But till we go I think I will just cary on snoozing. As soon as I hear that word 'Beach' I'll be in the car nose to the window.

Do I like snow?

2010-01-07T13:31:00.000-08:00

Well hello and a Happy New Year to you all. Yes, I know I am a week late but give a girl a chance I am only just emerging from the chocolate, sugar high of over indulgence, late nights and another couple of inches on the waistline that is Christmas! Well surprisingly enough it was snowing this morning and the cats, who have been a bit reluctant to venture out decided that yes, they did want to see what all this white stuff was about, but would mum come out with them as it was all a bit scary!

Hmmmm, not sure about this.

Oh Boris, its alright, have a good sniff you might like it.

Yes mum, I do, this is fun!

It feels funny! Rub my tummy.

Better run after Daisy. What's she doing?

I'm looking at that.....what?.....that bit of snow.....better get it..

Got it......oooh no.....havn't got it......

got it.... got it....I ain't got it.....

Where'd it go? Don't want it anyway!

Here I come mum!

Can we go back in now its all been tooo much.

Cats back in I went for a little wander as it was all so lovely. The river Fal runs near the house and looked very pretty and the light on the trees was almost pink. I did not stay out long as it was very cold even in the sunshine. We are stuck down in our valley as the lane outside is frozen and this new lot of snow will no doubt freeze on top of that so even with a 4x4 we may not make it to the top of the hill, we might attempt an escape tomorrow for more supplies as heavy snow is forecast for the weekend. Its quite exciting to be marooned in the quiet of the snow, we know when we are cut off when the postman doesn't make it! No post for two days although the last time he came he was wearing shorts, thats Cornwall for you!

After cleaning and tidying the whole house in a bid to put it off, I am going to have to turn my mind to getting on with some work! Don't know why I have been delaying like mad as I am excited about the projects I have planned, a new start to a New Year.

I wish you all good luck with your New Year resolutions and any new projects you may be starting and look forward to seeing what you all get up to in the months ahead and hopefully making some new friends along the way.

Keep warm all. XXX

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

2009-12-23T12:30:00.000-08:00

I wish you a merry christmas, I wish you a merry christmas, I wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year!

I hope you all have a lovely cosy time with the ones you love. Stop, relax, collapse on the sofa with full tummies after dinner and dont forget that all chocolate is low calorie at Christmas, he, he! We wish!!!!

I hope you enjoy a little look at Christmas in the Happy Crow house.

Boris and Midge send christmas woofs and meaows to all your pets!

Lots of love. Jane XXXXX

This takes the basket!

2009-12-11T09:56:00.000-08:00

Last night me Mr Crow and a few friends went to Lostwithiel to the Christmas Dickens evening where all the shops stay open for the evening and the shopkeepers dress up in Victorian clothes and ply you with mulled wine, cake and mince pies. Have no photos I am afraid but I bought this little basket from one of the antique market stands, I think its a Cath Kidston one and it only cost £5 and is just right for little Midge who had a lovely snooze in it this afternoon after a gorgeous long walk round St Anthony's head this morning. She is modeling a little jumpie that she wears around the house as she feels the cold and she is spoilt!

I am gradually introducing Christmas into the house now, I dont like to go too mad till about a week before but thought its time to start swapping cushions and things for more festive colours. Boris likes this hand stitched Hungarian cushion, I just have to watch he doesnt claw it!

I bought some old American school books on etsy last week, only took about three days to get here from the U.S. I am cutting them up for collage's as they are a bit tatty and have used some of the winter pages to make Christmas hangings to cheer up door knobs and things. Only wish we would have some snow this Christmas.

I am off this weekend to the Giant Flea at Shepton Mallet, really looking forward to it, hope to find some pressies and some vintage christmas stuff to dec the halls with. Have a good weekend everyone.

Cosy!

2009-11-23T05:33:00.000-08:00

The nights are drawing in and Christmas is peeping round the corner, my favourite time of year has arrived! I love the winter and on Saturday we lit the woodburner in the kitchen for the first time, it was horrible weather, the wind was blowing and rain lashing down most of the day but I was all cosy sat by the fire with dog and cats having a lazy day reading magazines. It felt a bit strange not to be doing anything with all the frenzy of work lately and I felt a bit guilty with Mr Crow having to be working away all weekend.
It looked so homey and warm through the kitchen window I wish I had got a shot of Midge watching me but she jumped down before I could snap her. I could not sit still all day though and started to rearrange the furniture, like you do! Whenever I do this I always think why didnt I always have it like this, its so much better. Till the next time that is! I have a little dresser and thought it would look nice on the side table so I started to get together some little bits and pieces to go on it and ended up with a mostly red, white and blue theme somehow. I think it looks sweet and if I can stop the cats jumping up and knocking it over it will stay there.

For the V&H Fair I made this little kitsch Christmas Cabinet full of vintage bits, nobody bought it but I dont mind as I love it and will have it out myself this year, unless anyone out there is interested?

I also made this assemblage and the flag below is one of quite a few made from vintage fabrics and hand done embroidery to give it that war time feel. I am really going to try and get stuff onto my etsy shop soon.

Just thought you might like this little bird on a little chair, sweet.

Have a good week, hope you all keep warm and dry!

There's no place like Home

2009-11-16T13:07:00.000-08:00

There's no place like home....is certainly true. It was lovely to get home even after such an exciting event as the Christmas Vintage and Handmade Fair.

The day did not start well for me as I fell face down in a puddle outside my brothers house when leaving in the stormy pitch darkness of Saturday morning to then be led astray by my sat nav and end up on my way to Gloucester! But from the moment of arrival things improved and the day slid by with remarkable speed. It was lovely to see old friends and make some new ones and its always great to have nice comments about my work, thankyou all of you who came and said hello it was nice to put faces to blogging names. Jayne and Michele as usual worked very hard to make the event such a brilliant success, we are all looking forward to next spring and the next one.

Having used this photo I must just tell you all that my only claim to fame is that I am related to Glenda, the good witch of the North! Billie Burke was my grandmothers cousin and when I look at this picture I can see my gran in her, well a bit anyway.

Sorry its such a quick blog, will be back soon. Have a good week everyone.

What have I been up to?!

2009-11-08T11:47:00.000-08:00

After going on about being a bad blogger in my last post here we are five weeks later and here I am very ashamedly writing this after promising myself to do better and post more often! I do not know quite where the time has gone, is it just me or is time moving faster nowadays? Since I last blogged I have ...........

Had tea with friends, Christine, Gertie and Angela........

Started to try and tidy up the studio....... not getting very far there! ...........

Had a rainy afternoon in St Ives ....... with delicious local crab sandwiches ..............

Had halloween tea with Jacko Lanterns and devils chocolate cake ........

Found funny photos on the internet...set on auto timer looked who popped up in the picture ........

Made necklaces for the Vintage and Handmade Fair ...... made out of vintage oculists lenses with collages stuck behind and vintage beads and charms etc........

Little cones for sweeties of little gifts........

Boxes made from old postcards that are then stamped on........

Some assemblages with birds in.........in an old clock.......

And this afternoon we paid our weekly visit to Constantine Bay on the north coast, a bit cold but lovely and moody. We have decided to go here every Sunday for the winter and this was our fifth week and it has been different every time, what is nice now is there are not many people mostly fellow dog walkers with happy dogs playing ball. Midgie loves it and is worn out when we get home.

Also since I posted last time I had the really great pleasure of meeting my first blogging friend Helen from Cocoa and Blankets. They came down to Cornwall in a camper van all the way from Yorkshire and we spent a day and a half together. There was no awkwardness or shyness it was just like meeting an old friend you saw the other day. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with them, Mr and Miss were both a delight too.

And now like many others I am going to say ONLY A WEEK TILL THE VINTAGE AND HANDMADE FAIR IN CHIPPING SODBURY!!!!! Eeek... More stuff to make and loads of stuff to sort out and price. Along with the bits I have made I have collected together quite a lot of vintage 'stuff' including some lovely 50s handbags and china, 40s utility children's clothing, straw filled doggie nightie cases, various nursery china, old childrens books, hampers, suitcases and baskets and lots of other interesting things. Also the schoolroom posters some of which I have framed like the one at the top of this post.

I hope that a lot of you will be coming along, come and say hello it is going to be a great day! See you there.

I've been on a little adventure.

2009-10-07T14:22:00.000-07:00

This last month I have been absolute rubbish at getting my act together and coming up with a nice blogging post. Since my last posting I have been to the Shepton Mallet Antiques Fair, which was brilliant and stayed a week at my brothers in Devon. Both of these events of which I have no photographs to show you. Mr Crow needed the camera for work at home so I had no way of recording anything. Also I must say that I did not feel like taking any photos anyway as for the last three weeks I have had the most horrendous cold which was mainly an awful cough that went on and on and on.......! Having looked forward to the fair for months I spent the whole time feeling pretty grim, but still managed to spend lots of money although I did not put in the time sorting through all the lovely stuff on some stands as I just couldnt be bothered, how awful is that! Then while my brother and his wife were away and me left in charge of the animals I spent most of the time lying on their sofa coughing and sputtering without even Mr Crows 'not looking after you when your poorly skills' to cheer me up!

Well back home and still coughing I thought I was going to miss another treat (coming up) but the cough took a turn for the better at the weekend and I was able to pack my bag again and go off on a little adventure.

About a month ago a lady called Susan emailed me out of the blue asking if I would like to go on a trial run of an interior design course being held in Somerset at Brympton house in Brympton D'evercy, they wanted to try out their ideas on a few people and get some feed back off them and it was free! Well of course I jumped at the chance especially after looking at the website for the weddings they run there and seeing what an amazing place it is. So yesterday morning I was on my way through the awful gloomy fog looking forward to what was to be a lovely time. Good old sat nav got me there and I was not disappointed when I arrived here at about 10.30.

My first view of Brympton House. What a stunning little gem this is, and you may recognise some of it as it was used in the film Chocolat, one of my fave films.

I know this might sound a little sad but it was quite a thrill to drive up to the front of the house and park outside, usually houses like this have customer car parks, I really felt like an old time quest, just wish I had been in a horse drawn carriage.

I let myself in through the front door as there was nobody about (I know there are people in this pic but I took this one later on) and entered the main hall where there was a lovely log fire that smelt delicious and just made it so welcoming. You could practically fit our whole house in this hallway!

I will follow on here with a little guided tour and tell you about the course in a bit.

Out of the grand hall into another amazing hall and the stairs. The stairs have the longest straight run of any staircase in England. We were told when the family moved in the children got mattresses and slid down the stairs on them, great fun, I was tempted myself! I pity the poor maid that had the job of cleaning them.

Two more flight of stairs later I was shown to my room in the attics. Very cosy and comfy and the view from the window over the lake was lovely.

Out of an prettily overgrown window.

I met the other two lovely ladies, Alex and Joe who were to take part in the course and we sat in the ballroom drinking in the view from the window. The course will be run by Sue and her friend Lindy and is all about the history of interior design which was very interesting. They have both become involved with bringing Brympton House back to life and work on all the windows etc, making sumptuous period curtains on other soft furnishings.

They took us for a tour of the outside and into some of the other buildings.

Filming has just been completed at the house for one of the BBC's major Christmas Dramas to be shown on Boxing Day, 'The turn of the screw' one of my favourite creepy ghost stories. The house is not creepy at all but I can imagine that it could be made to feel so. Cant wait to see it.

We were shown round the lovely little church attached to the house and then the Dower House.

I loved this window, very romantic. the old door was luckily stopped from being chucked out and burnt!

These are some of the room bells left near the butlers pantry.

An amazing painting on one of the walls must be at least 25ft long.

Well after a lovely day learning and being able to poke around this beautiful old house we were left to relax till we went down for pre dinner drinks in the salon, another roaring fire greeted us, they must burn at least a tree a day in this house!

Then dinner was served!

There is no electric light in the dinning room so we ate by the light of many candles, it was just lovely, the walls are lined with red silk and you just felt history oozing from room it must have looked the same to people dining a couple of hundred years ago. The family could not have made us feel more welcome, such lovely people, no airs and graces and their love of the house and its history is so obvious, they are really keen for others to enjoy the place and want to reinvolve the local community like it used to be when the house was so much connected to the people who lived around it.

It was really hard to leave the house today, it had weaved its magic over me and I hope that I shall return there again soon.

2009-09-10T10:29:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, I hope you are all managing to enjoy this wonderful weather? Well it is lovely here, the sun has been shining all day and I had a wonderful walk around St Antony's Head this afternoon (for pics of this stunning location have a look at 'let me take you on a favourite walk', March) the sea was turquoise blue with yachts at anchor by the little beach, a gentle breeze kept me cool and the air was salty and sweet, wonderful!

Thank you all for your best wishes on our Anniversary, we did not manage to get out and celebrate, as it was bank holiday weekend it was just so busy everywhere but we are planning to soon. E is off on the Scilly Isles again for a few days, looks like he is going to have good weather. He deserves a good rest, he works so hard at a job he hates and is heading for a really busy time next month so this will do him good. When he comes back I am off to my brothers in Devon to look after his animals while they go away. I am looking forward to it, they have a dog, a cat, 75 sheep and some chickens so I will be skipping round the fields feeding the pretty lambs, some are pet ones, walking the dog and cuddling the cat! Before they go away we are all going to the Shepton Mallet antiques fair which should be great. I have saved the money I made at Christines last month and hope to have a really good spend on useless pretty things!!

Thought I would show you a couple of things I have found at car boots the last couple of weeks. I went to one last Thursday and was there were hardly any sellers there but I was delighted to find two cases of old school posters. One is geography with interesting pics of industry and farming and ships the other is this lovely Enid Blyton Nature Plates that are illustrated by Eileen Soper who drew the pictures for a lot of Enid Blyton books. A lot of them have children or fairies in others are full of birds or animals, the colours are lovely and they are in good condition and only about four are missing. I will be taking these along to the V&H fair to sell and might get a few framed up.

Isn't this sweet?

Love this one, there is a farmer near Portscatho who still stooks his corn like this and cuts it using horses.

I can remember doing this on holiday as a child. I like the insert at the top of this one.

I found these old enormous cake candle holders they will hold quite a big candle, shame there were only six of them.

Thought you might like to see how the collection is coming on, these dolls have become a bit of a passion with me lately. The little red one three in from the left has such a lovely dress its all stiff and rustles. I will have to start giving them names.

A little while ago I was lucky enough to find some old school stamps and have been using them to make cards and things, I sell lots of these little tags and have just made up a box full of stamped note paper, these will be at the V&H fair too along with other stamped goodies.

I hope you dont all get to fed up with me showing you car boot finds you must think I spend all my time at them! Well I do go to quite a few, but like all of you out there, its just wonderful what you find!

Anniversary.

2009-08-28T04:39:00.000-07:00

Twenty-three years ago today in a little church in Shropshire I said yes to the love of my life.

We met at Barnet College where we were both doing a foundation course in Art in 1980. After being set up on a sort of blind date ie no-one else turned up (on purpose) we became inseparable and were very quickly in love, aaahhh. Since then he has been my best friend and the center of my life. Happy Anniversary my darling, love you loads. xxxxxx

Wish we were here!

Booty buys and an award to pass on.

2009-08-09T12:38:00.000-07:00

Hello all, long time no blog! I dont know where the days are going, cant believe its three weeks since I did a post. Obviously the Home spun fair was taking up all my time till last weekend when we had a wonderful day see the blog to see how it went. Thankyou all you ladies who made it such a success and all of you who visited we hope you will come to the next one.

This week has just flown catching up with house work, rather half heartedly, and working in The Sea Garden and going to boot fairs.

Here are some of the things I got at booties to sell and the bits I bought at the Fair. For some reason they ended up the wrong way round and I cant be bothered to reload them all.

As soon as I put this basket on the table to photograph it little Daisy thought Mmmm...must get in that! She didnt fit and could not even get her tail in but hey, she tried. Nice basket 50s I think?

A comfy cat! Small chair? No, big cat. My Boris boy, such a softy.

A sweet little 50s basket handbag, nearly black when I bought it, scrubbed up nice and a lovely tin colours are beautifully faded.

Such a cute little jug and bowl the jug is only about 4 inches tall, it has been damaged on the handle but still very decorative.

I really love the little bowl with the cat on, the poem 'pussycat, pussycat' is on the back, I bought this to sell but not sure if I will be able to part with it. Sooty mug, has a little chip. Cant stop myself buying china dogs! This one is a perfume bottle the head unscrews.

Another china dog, the head comes off so you can move it around, a bit kitsch.

I was going to sell these two girls at the fair along with some others but could not bear to part with them. They look so sweet on my sewing table.

On the right is Cyril a cheeky chappie I bought from Michele, here he is being introduced to a the terrier Bertie I got form Michele at the last V&H fair. Bertie was a bit miffed at first you can see he looks a bit put out! But Cyril soon won him round and they now live together on the shelf quite happily.

These were all the purchases I made at the fair, luckily I did not get much chance to spend! The cabinet now homes a collection of little toys. lovely old ribbon, ric rac and lace trim and some pretty pink floral fabric, cant wait to use these in something.

I was lucky this week to be awarded a Lovely Blog award from the brilliant and hilarious Mad Aunt Bernard thank you aunty!

The rules of acceptance are:

On the post of accepting the award make sure you link back to the person who gave it to you.

Choose five brill blogs to pass it on to.

When you list the five blogs make sure you link to them.

List five current obsessions.

Make sure you tell the people you have made the award to.

My five current obsessions are

1. Those little Polish wooden dolls, I had some as a child and had forgotten all about them till I came across a couple, now I want them!

2. Trying to think up some new stories to illustrate.

3. Collecting china dogs.

4. Making collage pictures with torn bits of vintage fabric.

5. The sea.

Sorry if my current obsessions are a bit sad and boring.

I would like to pass this award on to

Hens Teeth a delightful blog showing Vivs stunning work and her daily life.

Cocoa and Blankets my dear first blogging friend sharing her day to day life little adventures and her knitting!

Country Cottage Chic Jaynes wonderful finds, her animals, her shop etc.

Happy loves Rosie who could not love this blog!

The Vintage Magpie Nikis creations are just divine.

Your award is the one in my side bar from Mad Aunt Bernard so click and drag girls!

Do go visit these blogs if you dont already you will be glad you did.

Have a good week. X

Mixed Bag!

2009-07-17T13:05:00.000-07:00

I could not decide what to do a blog on this week so thought I would just waffle on about nothing in particular for a bit in the hope you might be interested enough to read on! Where are the weeks going? Here we are half way through July already, not long to Christmas now! I have been getting bits and pieces of work done for the Home spun Fair, I think my stand will be small but interesting!!!!

We went here last week, Golitha falls on Bodmin Moor, it was raining (when hasnt it been the last couple of weeks!) and it was very gloomy and green and romantically creepy. We got soaked but it was worth it, such a beautiful place.

This was the first time that we have been up onto the Moor, we will definitely go back but not till the autumn when there are not so many tourists around. Now the summer holidays have started there are places that are no-go areas till September, it is like there are two Cornwalls, our Cornwall in the winter with wild empty beaches and then summer Cornwall when villages are full and beaches packed. Not that I am complaining as I know how much we all rely on tourist trade for our livings but of the two I much prefer the quiet times.

I have just been mad on sewing this week with my new/old machine zig-zagging away happily. This piece based around this lovely photo is called 'What are little girls made of?' I used bits of a torn quilt that Christine gave me, the colours in it are beautiful it must have been gorgeous when new and its faded to lovely subtle tones. I love all the torn edges and the bit in the bottom left hand corner was worn and torn and worked as a little pocket to put some vintage millinery flowers in, sweet.

This is my sewing table, a bit untidy after finishing 'Sail Away' which is all red, white and blue. I keep all my favourite old photos, scraps of lace, ribbon, buttons and fabric on here and try and only use it for planing and layering up new pieces. I only recently made this area for sewing stuff and its nice to be able to leave it all out like this.

Thought I would bung in a pic of some little things in a little old cigar box that has sweet little flowers on, I love old cigar boxes.

The sun came out this afternoon!!!! So this is where we were at 3 o'clock, where were you, and was the sun shining? Hope the sun shines on you this weekend, have a good one.

birthday outing.

2009-07-05T07:32:00.001-07:00

It was my birthday on Thursday and I had wanted to do this post that evening, but after the thunderstorms of Wednesday night we were left without our phone until Saturday and then I had my birthday dinner to organise so I have not got round to it till today!

It was not a good start to the day weather wise with torrential rain and thunder rumbling round the hills but being ever the optimists we set out to our first destination of the day Trevarno Gardens near Helston. With virtual rivers of rain water swooshing down the roads we gloomily drove on in the hope of it getting better and luck was on our side as by the time we arrived it had stopped and the sun was trying, not too successfully to emerge. You can take dogs into Trevarno so Midge was with us so we set out first to wander round the lovely grounds.

First stop at the lookout deck with a lovely view over part of the garden and the potting shed, wouldnt you just love to have that as a studio!

I just love this little garden that runs along the back of the walled garden, it is such a romantic fairy tale little space and the peacocks make it more so, there are loads of them wandering around.

Another romantic view of the lake and the boathouse, nice and moody with the slightly mistiness. On the bank there was a family of ducks mummy and babies and I managed to get really close to the little darlings, sweet!

This waterfall feeds down to the lake.

It is a beautiful garden to wander around with over a mile of paths through woods and other little formal gardens, I love this place as its not too tidy and has a slight wildness to it and one minute your in the woods then you find a gate and you are in a little rose garden.

Then when you have had a good old ramble round you can go and look round the three museums.

This is the gardening museum, with all sorts of tools and things garden related beautifully displayed. No thats not Midge digging in the display!

Lovely watering cans.

Love those wire pot holders.

There are lots of gardening toys too. Look at the sweet little wheelbarrow.

The embroidered bag is divine.

I would give anything to have these two seed display cases on my walls!

After drinking in all the delights in here, next door more to gloat over in the little toy museum.

Isn't that little drapers shop a treat?

There is also a small soap museum that I forgot to put the pictures of on here and you know how hard it is to stick pictures in where you want them so I will show you them another time. It is another little gem and in all if you are ever in Cornwall do visit this garden, not only beautiful gardens but you can get a Vintage fix at the same time!

Next wizz back home to drop Midge off and then on to The Headland Garden at Polruan near Fowey. Ian has wanted to go there since he saw it in a book years ago but its a private garden thats not open a lot and we were lucky it was open on Thursday. Its right on the cliffs with lots of little paths and stunning views, unfortunately I was wearing the wrong shoes (not good grip) to explore many of the slippery little steep paths but enjoyed the views and the sub tropical plants.

They have there own little beach too!

In all a lovely, even though it was a bit damp, birthday outing.

Then when we got home I finished off this new bit of work that I have been really enjoying doing, based on the poem 'Sweet stay at home'. My birthday present was a sewing machine, my last one died on me, it was really old and had been given to me years ago and never that brilliant. Now I have a second hand singer that goes a treat and even does zig- zag stitch! I know thats probably not exciting to you all but I have never had a machine new enough to do that before so now I am mad on zig-zagging!!

THE WINNER IS.......

2009-06-29T13:03:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-06-21T12:38:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-06-14T14:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-10T13:41:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-06-07T02:06:00.000-07:00

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!