Busy Week

Last week was such a busy week. I went to London for 3 days with my friend Amanda, taking my daughter Jazz and her boyfriend Jack. We stayed in Hoxton in a fabulous ubercool hotel called The Hoxton Lodge. I can highly recommend it, great place run by the same group that brought us Pret a Manger. It was such a tonic, I had a fantastic time. We did so much in those 3 days. We went shopping lots (of course), had several makeovers, met up with Lettuce for a drink in the hotel bar (she was lovely), went to see the Couture Exhibition at the V&A, had afternoon tea at Harvey Nicks, went to the Country Living Christmas Fair, ate lots of lovely food, drank like a couple of fish, laughed and laughed and laughed and talked loads. It was so nice to wake up next to someone who liked me. I didn't realise how sapping it can be to spend time with someone who no longer loves you and makes it quite obvious that he doesn't actually like you much either!

It was so lovely to spend 3 whole days with one of my oldest (actually youngest), friends. We never get to spend enough time having 6 children between us and living so far apart. Jazz and Jack did their own thing meeting up with us for meals. They loved exploring London on their own.

Liberty makeover (taken by charming gentleman passer by who said we didn't need makeovers!)

Amanda in opulent dining room at the V&A

Beautiful bauble-like lights in V&A dining hall

Harvey Nicks for afternoon tea. Me with 'Emo' style eye makeup courtesy of Mac!

Jazz and Jack with afternoon tea (very yummy)

Going out for dinner

Country Living Christmas Fair

It was hard to come home again after all that fun, but I missed my little ones so much that I was looking forward to seeing them. I got home around midnight and after a quick cuddle before packing them off to school the next morning, I packed up my car with the stock for my craft fair stall at the Cowslip in Launceston. I spent 4 hours setting it up ready for the next 3 days. Here it is just before I left to drive home.














It was a great fair, very well attended and lots of the right sort of people who really like vintage stuff. I arrived the next morning at 10.30am ready for the opening at 11am to find a whole load of early birds standing in my stall clutching items to their chests waiting for me to arrive!!!! It was mad and busy for the first few hours and then settled into a comfortable, steady stream for the next few days. I met some great people, both customers and other stall holders. I was kept entertained and fed with pieces of home made cake by the couple opposite me, William and Joanna Agur. They sell gorgeous vintage gardening items and country home furniture at very reasonable prices. They were just the loveliest couple.



Next to me stood Alan who was a brilliant upholsterer. His workmanship was flawless. He used to be a farmer before taking up upholstery and now lives on one of the cottages on his family's old farm with a barn converted for a workshop. He was so sweet when I was packing up and took all my bags and loaded up my car. 4 hours to put the stall up and only 30 minutes to take it all down!






I had some nice visitors to my stall too. Friends I had met on courses I had done at the Cowslip, people I had met at other textile fairs who had travelled down just to see me and people who found me for the first time. Amanda (shabby chick) from Totnes came and I managed to remember to whip out the camera to persuade her to have a photo with me seeing as she is often mentioned on my blog. she is camera shy and hates having her photo taken but when you're as gorgeous as she is I can't understand why can you?



I sold so much that the car was a little lighter on the way home. If there is anything that catches your eye that you like the look of do drop me an email as I might still have it and not everything will be making its way onto the website.

So, now I am back home, getting on with life as normal (whatever that is), updating the website, adding new items for sale and getting ready for Christmas. My decorations may be up earlier this year. I'll tell you why next week! Talking of decorations take a look at these beautiful Christmas baubles made by two very clever customers of mine. They are called Gorgeous and sell their things on Not on the High Street. They have made these delicious baubles using 1940's and 50's fabrics that they bought from me. Aren't they clever? I am now the proud owner of 3 of them and they are even prettier in real life than in the photo let me tell you!



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Crafty

I have been preparing for a 3 day craft fair to be held in Launceston at the Cowslip Workshops next weekend. I am mostly selling fabrics, buttons, quilts, ribbons etc., this year. Since my partner and I decided to separate after 19 years together my creative urge has all but dried up. This really upsets me, I regularly get the sewing machine and fabrics out, look at them blankly before sadly putting them all away again. It just isn't happening for me right now. I decided to give myself a break, it will come back once we sell this house and I am able to move on with my life. In the meantime I am just holding myself together and pouring my creative energies into my children, work and home. Luckily for me there are some cool crafty chicks out there who have made some wonderful things for me to sell on my stall alongside the fabrics. Firstly Allison, of Lark fame, who made me some beautiful bits using vintage fabrics that I sent to her as well as a few she has. How gorgeous are these?









Then Alison from So Tread Softly who made me a whole batch of corsages made of vintage Suffolk Puffs (yo-yo's). I had admired the ones on Tanya's website and asked Alison if she would like to make some for me. They have been expertly made and arrived so quickly from New Zealand. She also included a gift of a felt corsage (see bottom right of photo) that she made especially for me. It's stunning and makes me smile every time I wear it.



My friend Gail has also been making some little smocks and cushions for me but these haven't arrived yet due to her being ill all last week. Thank you girls, my stall will look lovely thanks to you.

I am off to London for 3 days on Monday to visit the Country Living Xmas Fair amongst other jolly things. The day after I get back I will be travelling down to the Cowslip Workshops to set up my stall so I will post lots of lovely pictures when I get back. If any of you can come, please do, it's a gorgeous little fair in a beautiful venue, and it will be so lovely to see you. Pin It

Gathering

It has a busy time for me lately and continues to be so. Lots of textile fairs to attend, website to update, a 3 day craft fair to prepare for, a trip to London to plan etc etc. Throw into that mix a horrid tummy bug for a 2 year old and you can see why I haven't had time to post recently. So let me update you, firstly I went to the textile fair in Ilminster where I met up with 'those girls', (Bronia had gone home so missed her photo opportunity this time!), Sue and a whole bunch of other Textileaholics! I went with my friend Sally and my little Lizzy who, if you enlarge the photo below, you can see behind Lizzie, to the left, half way up the stairs! Little pickle!







I bought lots of beautiful fabrics including a whole bunch of American feedsacks from this lady who always has beautiful textiles and haberdashery bits.


Next was the textile fair in Cullompton. It was held in The Walronds, a beautiful house that is usually closed to the public, so it was a great opportunity to see the inside of this building.





More lovely fabrics and a chance to meet up with like-minded, vintage-loving, girls and boys. Bronia managed to get her photo this time, here's her scrummy stall.







A few miles down the road my friend Hesta was having a sale at her house so I set off, stopping en-route at Fagins, a wonderful antiques emporium in the middle of the Devon countryside. It is a treasure trove of all things old and wonderful. I was in my element as I rummaged around the fabrics and suitcases full of old tins.







Then on to Hesta's 'Green Glamour' sale. She lives in a lovely little thatched cottage in the heart of Devon. She and her friend Fiona had done up her little garage like the prettiest, girlie, vintage shop. Such fun! Hesta and Fiona are very clever, creative people so I got some gorgeous bits and had a great time hanging out with them both, my kinda girls!


Finally I popped into the recycling centre on my way home and found some vintage kids fabrics. A fab, fabricky kind of day. Pin It

Shelved

My cleaner has another string to her bow, she has a small antique/junk shop that she runs with her boyfriend, and she often finds me lovely bits and pieces. These beautiful elm wood shelves were in their shop and I thought they would be perfect for housing all the fabric that is currently for sale on my website. This way I can see at a glance what is and isn't in stock. I put them in my study, polished them with a lovely wax polish and put all my fabrics, sorted into date order, on them. I love them as they make me feel very organised. I also enjoy seeing them as I look across and see the pretty piles of mouthwatering textiles just inches away from where I sit on my computer.



Someone else loves them just as much as I do. My aging tortoiseshell cat, Bella, has found a perfect little nest in amongst the vintage children's section! She has now been turfed out much to her dismay.




This Sunday there was little mention of the website in the Sunday Telegraph's Stella magazine under their 'Stella Loves' section. The phone has not stopped ringing all day today. The readership of the Telegraph are a bit older I fancy as every caller has been elderly and each one has asked me for a brochure or catalogue. I do not have either as my website is my online catalogue, stock changes constantly. It also seems that the majority of the readers do not have a computer, whoops! Oh well the piece looked nice.


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Today was a busy day. As many of you know we are trying to sell the house. We have had very few viewers as the top end of the market is slow (so the Estate Agents say). Today we had a family looking for a second home in the country and we were told (by the Estate Agents) that they were travelling from London to view our house and only our house. It all sounded very hopeful. They were to arrive at 2pm, plenty of time for me to try and knock our house into shape seeing as the kids had trashed it during the half term! Mum came over to lend a much needed hand and like the trouper that she is she set to work immediately and with the two of us working flat out and the children, completely hyper for some reason, trying to undo any work we had just done we were just about ready for them by 2pm. Mum and I had just got the kids ready for a walk to the park to get them out of the way. 2.09pm the phone rings and it's the Estate Agents saying that the family were unable to get to us by 2pm could they now make it 4pm. Change of plan, mum takes the kids to her house for a play and in the next 2 hours I clean more, answer emails and the constant phone calls that punctuate the day about fabric. 4.10pm the family arrive all apologetic and I dutifully show them around. It was patently obvious to me that they were not interested in the house at all when a) the mother looked aghast at the aga and stated that she didn't know how to cook and didn't know how to use 'one of those' b) the teenage daughter said she was a London girl and hated the countryside c) the Mother laughingly said to the Father 'do you fancy some gardening dear' when I was showing them around the 2 acres we have to maintain. What a waste of flipping time!!!!!! Why on earth did they bother to come? Grrrrrrrrr!!! It's soooooooo annoying having to give up so much time, organise everyones life with military precision to fit around 'the appointment' to find out that they don't want a country house with a big garden or an aga. I hate this selling my house malarky I really do.

Anyway, Friday was a much better day. I had a child-free few hours in Exeter with mum to have my hair cut and coloured, which was desperately needed after 6 months of not having my roots done. When I saw myself on television all I could think was 'must get my hair done. Just look at those roots.' I have gone for a brighter lighter blonde (well why not) and a softer, less structured hair style. I have gone off the bob since Victoria Beckham WAG'ed it up! I have a wider fringe and my hairdresser put a few waves into my hair at the end. What do you think?


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TV

Crikey! This morning I have been filming for BBC Spotlight, the local news channel. The young journalist had spotted the article about me in The Times last June. She phoned me this morning and asked if she could do an interview about how the postal strike has affected my mail order company. The house was a bomb site so after a 30 minute frantic rush round to get it looking half presentable I was ready for my close up (not!). I had a nervous sniffle and it all felt quite surreal. It's on at 6.30pm this evening, eeeeeeeeeeeeek!


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Retro Recycling

On Saturday I went to Bronia's house in Somerset for her 'End of Summer' open house sale. You may remember me telling you about her house before. She has recently moved into here house and it is decorated in a mostly 1950's style with the bedrooms being a more shabby chic boudoir style. All absolutely delicious. She has a fabulous collection of things and I knew it would be somewhere that my mum would love to visit as their tastes and style of decor are so similar. I took mum and, as I knew, she loved it. She and Bronia have so many of the same touches around their homes that they could be living parallel lives! Bronia has her emporium outside the house in a very large garage and workshop which houses her huge collection of textiles, ceramics and vintage fashion items. I took my camera with me this time so that I could show you.








Here are the textiles all piled up. I bought lots of beautiful fabrics an eiderdown and some stunning hand painted French buttons.




We had a lovely time. I do so enjoy spending time with like-minded friends.

On Bronia's recommendation I also bought the Rose Maroc gazebo from Cath Kidston, reduced in their sale. I can't wait to see, and use, it!



Today I introduced mum to the delights of the local recycling centre. Our recycling centre has an area where items that have been dumped can be bought (for very little). Some of these things are really brilliant e.g wooden doors, furniture, bathroom fittings, mirrors, records, books, bric a brac and textiles of course!! Today I found 2 eiderdowns, which sadly need a bit of tlc, a lot of retro towelling, an old shabby chic religious painting and a cut glass scent bottle. It is amazing what people throw away and so wonderful that they can be truly recycled like this.

We visited a recycling centre in Somerset on our way home yesterday. I pulled up and immediately spotted a gorgeous wooden trunk, mum spotted an old wooden step ladder and there was a huge shipping container full of textiles. I approached the man who was in charge of the place who informed me that they were not allowed to sell the items as a bric a brac man had the contract to clear all items nor was he allowed to give it away. He agreed with me that this was very sad but none of the recycling centres in Somerset resell their items. I think a lot of these things will not be appreciated by the bric a brac man and will end up being shredded, pulped or burnt. Our charity shops are turning away old textiles, buttons, furniture and want only clothes with 'labels' like Next!!! They organise their fashions into colour blocks and they now have such a sterile feeling that I rarely find anything of interest there. They do not sell buttons because of the risk of choking! So thank goodness for the recycling centres of Devon, my new favourite place. Pin It