Come, peek in the studio.

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!

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!

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.

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

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.