Sunday, April 18, 2010

Bootsales, Bluebells and Barbecues!

Today was a lovely day, gloriously sunny and warm.

In the morning I went to the first bootsale of the year and got some great fabrics, a tailor's dummy and some other  bits.

In the afternoon, we went to Hartland Abbey for one of their Bluebell Sundays. The house and gardens are so pretty and we walked through the woods to the sea, via the gazebo and then home for the first barbecue of the season.

Happy days!

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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Dairy House

What a wonderful day we had at the Dairy House Textile Fair yesterday.  The weather, although chilly sometimes, was dry and a huge difference from the weekend before when we had freezing gales and rain.

It was so well attended with a steady stream of  eager treasure seekers all day. I took some photos early in the morning, before anyone turned up, and then it got busy and I forgot to take more, so sorry that I haven't managed to snap everyone's stalls but there are a few more photos on Niki's, Lizzie's, Sue's and Isabelle's blogs.



These were just the stalls outside. Inside the Dairy House were 3 floors of beautiful antiques and textiles (see Sue's post). A real delight for the vintage fan.

I love attending the fairs as it is such a lovely way to meet people and make new contacts with like minded individuals.  I met some wonderful new friends, came face to face with some lovely bloggers who I have shared comments with over the years, a lovely old school friend and one special lady made a 6 hour round trip just to see me.  It was a total surprise (Sue was in on the secret) and I was overcome to see her little face at my stall.



As well as selling, I bought well.  A big pile of fabrics came home with me, including a huge amount of 1940's cottons, some still with the cc41 utility label attached.



There also seemed to be a tree theme to some of the fabrics




I found some colourful fabrics including some varuna wool.


Some 1950's chintz and rayon dress fabrics



Some 1950's birds and abstracts


and last, but not least, these children's fabrics had to come home with me!


All in all a very lovely day.

Now it's all steam ahead for the next Vintage and Handmade fair at Chipping Sodbury on 1st May.  It's only a few weeks away. Hope to see you there! Pin It

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Easter (and stuff)


I hope you all had a wonderful Easter.  Easter was lovely in our household.  The excitement was palpable from the moment the children woke up in the morning. First thing in the morning they decorated their baskets ready for egg hunting.

They love the easter hunt, with clues, all round the garden and house.  Lizzy will need her own set of clues next year as Alfie tends to take over!



The chickens were also roped into the entertainment.  We each chose a chicken and,  with a bit of food for encouragement, they were let out of their run for the Great Annual Chicken Race!


 These photos were an experiment taken with my Hipstamatic camera on my iPhone and are supposed to look like 1960's photos. I rather like them!

We also painted eggs which were then rolled down the sloping driveway of our house to choose the winner.  This caused much hilarity as each egg seemed to have its' own method of rolling.



I have put down my crochet for the time being and have taken up knitting.  First I knitted a bunny (which is just a body, ears and a pom pom tail!


I then progressed  to knitting my first teddy bear.



This one is for Alfie and I have more wool to make a white one for Lizzy.  Don't look too close, I hope to improve as time goes on but, as per usual, I am teaching myself as I go, so it's rather a long process!


The past few days have been spent preparing for the Textile and Costume Fair at Dairy House this weekend. I have mocked up my stall so here is a sneak preview of the goodies I will be taking. The weather is getting better and we have a promise of sunshine, hoorah, I knew it would come!  I hope to see some of you there.

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