A Vintagey kind of week

Apart from wrecking my house in order to decorate (why does that happen? My whole house has exploded!) I have been buying more fabrics. On Monday I went to a dealer's sale at Lizzie's house in Somerset. It is always a joy to go to Lizzies. I love her house and there are always new and wonderful treasures to look at. I bought some lovely fabrics and trim from her and she finally agreed to sell me a fabric box I have had my eye on for ages. I met up with Sue there and bought some fabrics from her that she had emailed me about.









On the way home I popped into Wellington, a town that has some good charity shops. These proved to be a waste of time on this occasion but I found a new shop that had opened selling vintage clothing and textiles. I bought a great vintage hatbox and yet more fabrics. The lady was lovely and had just started out on her venture so if you are in the area do pop in and see her. Her shop is called 7B Vintage at 7b High Street.






Inspired by Lizzie's organisation I decided that I really needed to sort out my fabric room. I currently have bags and bags of fabrics piled high in my room. These bags are the huge laundry bags, pretty polka dot and strawberry ones and I cannot for the life of me remember what is in each one. I know I have certain fabric but couldn't tell you where to find them! This is no way to run my stock so despite my hatred of all things plastic I have bitten the bullet and bought 10 huge plastic boxes on wheels to store my fabrics. Each one will be in decade order and will be labelled clearly. The only problem is, I have filled 6 of them and have not even made a dent in my bag pile! I really don't think I need to buy any fabrics for a while do you?

By the way, just to clear up any ideas that some of you might have had that I got my drawers (see previous post) because Paul gave in to me. He was in no way involved either with the decision to have them or with paying for them. They were a business expense paid for by me, from the proceeds of my own hard work and he still rolls his eyes when he passes them! However, I adore them and my old ones have now gone on to their new home and will be making an appearance at a venue near you very soon. Pin It

New Drawers and an Award

I took delivery of a beautiful piece of furniture this week. I spotted a gorgeous 1930's oak haberdashery drawers whilst out trying to source a sideboard for the living room. I squealed when I saw it but Paul said 'you already have one' and promptly walked away, 'oh but it's so much nicer than my one', I wailed. I followed him but had to pop back for another quick look, and stroke! When I got home I remembered a friend had said that she wanted a glass fronted drawer unit like mine so I emailed her to tell her about it and said I would go back to the shop and find out details (measurements, trade price etc). Knowing how much I loved it she suggested that maybe I should buy the one in the shop and she should have mine. What a wonderful idea. I couldn't justify buying it before but if I was selling mine, well, there was no reason why not! So here it is, isn't she beautiful? I have to fill it up with all my fabrics from my old unit which is proving to be very time consuming as I am lining the drawers with Cath Kidston scented drawer liners then folding the fabric very carefully before putting them into colours. I am also weeding out fabrics to put into my scrap bags that I sell on my site.





My old cabinet is going to a very good home. I won't tell you where right now as I will let the new owner tell you all about it.



We have also started renovations on Alfie's bedroom. We bought him a high up bed from Ikea for Christmas but then realised that it wouldn't fit into his room wit the sink still in place. All our bedrooms have sinks in as this house was a B&B once upon a time. I hate them and they are not used so I was glad to see this one go (one down, six to go!). While we were at it we thought we might as well do up the whole room and because this is an old and crumbly house this is not as easy as just slapping some paint around, oh no! Electrics have been chased into the walls, all the floorboards have come up and soundproofing put underneath them as we have noticed that since our old lathe and plaster ceiling came down in the living room and plasterboard went up, we can hear so much more between the rooms. The skirting boards have been replaced and the lintel above the window has been fixed. It should be ready to paint this week. Jack, Jasmine's boyfriend, is doing this job for us. He is doing a carpentry apprenticeship but with the credit crunch work is thin on the ground for him.

Alfie wants a big boys theme for his room, he has outgrown Toy Story, which was his last theme. If he had complete control he would probably want Star Wars, Lord of the Rings or Pokemon but we have settled on a Rock and Roll bedroom with guitars and Union Jacks. Should last him a while. I shall post more photos when it is all finished.





I also took delivery of an award this week, my first ever in 5 years of blogging! So a big thank you to Woo for giving me the Marie Antoinette award, A real person, a real award.



I know I am supposed to follow a set of rules attached to this award but I am rubbish at rules. I would award this to all of the blogs on my blogroll as I only add those that I think are real and lovely anyway.

Right I must go back to fabric folding and filling up those drawers. Bye for now x Pin It

January Sale

Just popping in briefly to say Hi. I have been innudated with work as I have a January sale on, this has meant lots of orders, which is wonderful, but it leaves me little time for anything else. Add to that another bout of flu! I have had flu on and off now for the best part of 6 weeks. I feel rough for a few days, lose my voice, feel better for a few days and then it gets bad again. I'm so bored with it now. I know I am not alone in feeling this way, there are some nasty viruses around and they seem to take forever to recover from. I am currently croaking my way round the fabric room parcelling up goodies to be sent off around the world!

I also wanted to tell you about an exciting project that I was involved in last year. I worked with a designer for Kurt Geiger shoes sourcing vintage 1950's floral and abstract fabrics for a range of shoes they were making. Well, these shoes are now available in the Kurt Geiger shops and they are beautiful! A real must for any vintage fabric or fashion lover I think. Aren't they delicious?

I know I have said it before but I LOVE MY JOB!




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2009

It was all over so quickly wasn't it? I so enjoyed Christmas and New Year but I am sure that time speeds up over this special family holiday period. It felt like we had only just got up and then it was bedtime. I guess I was just having too good a time!

The living room was a great room to spend Christmas in, the new layout works so well. We still haven't decided on a sofa yet as we cannot agree on one we both like (nothing new there!) so for now we are still using the old ones.

Christmas day was a day full of presents, lovely food and drink, much laughter and board games as was Boxing Day. The kids, old and young, really enjoyed themselves and we had the fire going the whole time. Alfie stayed in his pyjamas for 2 days!! My mum came to stay for a few days which is just so lovely and then my sister announced that she had a webcam for Christmas. As she is in Colorado this was a great present because now we can hook up through Skype and chat whilst seeing each other. This is doubly wonderful because she has just had a baby and we can now see her grow and can talk to her so she gets to know our voices and faces.

We had a few lazy days in between Christmas and New Year where we visited other relatives and played with our new toys and went on a bracing walk to Peppercombe Beach to wake us up again.

New Year was fun. We went out into Bideford in fancy dress, which is traditional in these parts. I have lived in North Devon for 9 years and have never managed to go out, but this year I managed it. It was fun but, boy, was it cold!!!! Paul dressed as a German Officer (using one of the uniforms they use at the battlefield for games) while I went dressed in a black tutu and very little else (which is why I was so cold!). We got back just before midnight to see the New Year in with my mum who was babysitting and to connect on Sykpe with my sister so that we could toast the New Year with her. I was so glad to get home and sit by the fire. I think I got a little overexcited though because I ended up drinking too much chmapagne and had to go to bed. The next day I felt so dreadful. I had a hangover that lasted the entire day and seemed to get worse, not better, as time went on. I huddled under a quilt on the sofa with my little ones and watched Catweazle, Harry Potter and Mr Bean moving very little until 5pm when I just had to go to bed with 2 Neurofen to see if my headache would go away. My daughter cooked dinner and when they woke me up an hour later I felt much better. So silly! I don't drink that much and I certainly can't remember the last hangover I had. I don't think I want another for a very long time.

Anyway, I wish you a Happy New Year with all good things for each and every one of you. There are some of you out there (and you know who you are) who have been so good to me during these testing few years and I really appreciate your support. Good friends are priceless and I cherish you very much. Here's to 2009 x

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