Vintage and Handmade Textile Fair - Preview

I was quite relieved to see the rain today because I had earmarked this day to do a mock up of my stall for this weekend.  I am finding it very hard to be indoors in this wonderful weather so the drizzle was perfect (although the sun was out again in the afternoon).

The venue is a new one for all of us and the space I have is different, being 2 tables in an L shape so I thought it best to practise how  to set it up.  I find it a good idea to have a dummy run a few days beforehand rather than try and make it work at 7.30am on the day!!!

It also helps me to see if there are any 'holes' in my stock and what, if anything, I need to add to make the stall look nice.

So, for your eyes only, a little preview.

As well as my usual fabrics and haberdashery I shall be taking a rail of vintage clothes along too.

The weather forecast is for sunny weather so there will be teas out in the courtyard with more stalls.  Pop on a summer frock and come along. Pin It

Ribbons from The Big Apple

These beautiful ribbons have arrived  from New York.  12 feet, nearly 4 metres, on each spool, they look good enough just displayed.  Would you dare to use  them?

Pretty polka dots or sumptuous velvets in every colour imaginable!  I shall be adding these delights to the website next week.  They are £5 per spool and I only have a limited number of them.

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New Stock

Another busy week, where does the time go?  Lots of lovely new stock came in this week. More beautiful ribbons, new colours and designs for Spring/Summer.

These are just a few of them.  They will be going into the shop next week.

Also being added will be these sweet haberdashery items. Great idea for gifts or for a young person just about to start sewing.  Such pretty colours!

And of course the week would not be complete unless I had some new fabrics now would it?  This week I am adding lots of new silks, crepes, cottons and rayons suitable  for dressmaking. I can just see this lot as pretty summer dresses can't you?

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Home Improvements

My bathroom is one of my favourite rooms. I recently added a small bookshelf, (as certain members like to relax with a book whilst on the throne!), which I bought for £5 at a bootsale and painted with Cath Kidston's furniture paint in the shade 'Bunny's Ear'. I adore this shade, it's a soft bluey grey. Once I put it in the room I sat and looked at the other pine furniture in the room and thought how lovely they would look in Bunny's Ear. So yesterday I spent the day painting.

This is the result...






Fresher and more coastal I think.

A quick request, I am thinking of putting a panel of Cath Kidston's Boats wallpaper on the door of the toiletries cupboard but do not want to buy a whole roll. Has anyone got any spare that they could sell me a metre of?

Whilst we are in my bathroom let me show you my Janet Bolton picture and my two Janet Bolton-inspired pictures in situ.




.......and this lovely picture, which was actually 3 cards, made by this clever lady that I bought in Port Isaac on holiday and had framed.


Whilst all that was going on I was waiting for the arrival of my new drawers, yes more! In fact it was because of the imminent arrival of my haberdashery drawers that the painted started as I had to make room for this huge piece of furniture. This meant shifting things around and the whole house exploded into chaos!

Anyway, back to the drawers, they arrived this morning, very dusty, cobwebby and with remnants of old sellotape on the glass fronted drawers.

I was contacted by the seller of these drawers through my website asking if I would be interested in buying them. They had been in storage for many years. Well you can imagine my answer!





I set to work cleaning them up. Polishing and cleaning all 32 of the glass fronts. It has taken me the best part of today and I am only half way through.




I have lined each drawer with vintage wallpaper before filling them with fabric. A time consuming but very satisfying job!

Here they are part way through. I have put all the fabric boxes and drawers on top ready for my Open House in October.



and moved the Sylko cotton reel drawers to the top of the other bank of drawers.



I'm getting there, slowly but surely, but having just bought 4 more pots of Bunny's Ear paint I fear that it is not the end of my furniture painting! 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