Lots to tell and show

I might bore you to tears of course with this long post, but because I haven't posted every day, things have kinda piled up.

Well, Saturday was probably my last Fair, and it didn't go very well. The weather was absolutely awful, at one point we could see horizontal rain! I can't really blame people for not wanting to come out in such horrid condition. However, it turned out to be a really fab day anyway, because one very special person braved the horrendous conditions and paid me a surprise visit! I first "met" Charlie on the Fresholi soap forum a couple of years ago ( she is a fantastic soapmaker ), and I also read her great blog, all about her life in Italy. She comes over to the UK occasionally to visit her dad, and she suggested that we meet up. I had told her I was doing a Fair in TW, but I never expected her to turn up there out of the blue ( well, out of the very grey and black really, lol ). But turn up she did and I had such a fun time chatting with her. It seemed as if I had known her forever. Here we are, Charlie is the gorgeous, tall, willowy one on the right, I am the short little dumpling on the left, lol
Just as well there weren't very many customers about, we didn't really want to be interrupted by people wanting to buy stuff!

And as if that wasn't enough to make the day a happy one, the very lovely Debbie, who organises the Fairs in the area, and who makes the most fabulous jewellery, gave me this beautiful necklace for Christmas -


The stall next to me was like a magnet for my DS Nick. Beautifully turned bowls, vases, candlesticks, and a very knowledgable gentleman, who didn't mind at all chatting with Nick and giving him lots of advice on which tools to use for his woodturning, where to get exotic woods etc. This fascinating little vase was turned from a Banksia Nut, and I just had to have it, parts of the vase are almost velvety, very very tactile indeed -

The journey home was almost scary, I mean, a Volvo Estate is a pretty heavy car, right? And ours was full of stuff, but we were still being chucked about in the galeforce winds. BUT, when I got home, I got to unpack a package which had arrived for me, all the way from New Zealand!!! I was sooooooooooo excited because I knew it had been sent by Sarah, from Red Gingham, who has become a wonderful friend over the last few months of blogging.

Just look what the gorgeous girl has made with her own fair hands for meeeeeeeee. I went from putting my needles in this stupid thing

to using this! Bit of an improvement, don't you think?

And another "before and after". This is how I used to store my crochet hooks, not surprising really that they used to get lost in the depth of the wool bag -

And this is where they live now, in this beautifully made crochet hook roll-

This pretty little heart is coming to France with me on Friday, and I know exactly where it is going to live ( not telling yet, I'll take pics though )-

And look at this bookmark, isn't it just the sweetest thing? Its already in use now -

This little birdie is going to join some other birdies on our Christmas Tree. Again, it is so beautifully made, Sarah really is a fabulous needlewoman -

And last, but definitely not least, I got this brilliant card, designed by no other than Molly, one of Sarah's daughters, and obviously just as talented as her mum-


The world is indeed a happy place when you have friends like Sarah. A huge THANK YOU to you, and a big big hug.


On to today then. Of course it was raining when we got up (6am-ish, the doggies let us have an extra hour today, woohoo ), so we snuggled down and watched "Twilight". Neat movie. By the time that had finished, it had stopped raining, so we went and checked whether the local bootfair might be on. Hmm, there were a few stalls, perhaps a dozen in all, all professional booters, sigh. Why don't professional booters ever want to haggle? Geez, haggling is half the fun of going to a bootfair after all, but most of them are such miserable gits, grrrr. A little smile wouldn't hurt once in a while, humph. Anyway, this is what I found -

A vintage Chen Yu Cloud Silk face powder, still completely sealed. I love the packaging -

At the same stall I found these three little brooches -

This little squirrel is so sweet! It is French, and I think it is made from Bakelite-

Next stall and some buttons !!! Some newish ones, some very old ones, and all of them pretty darned gorgeous

They were in this little inlaid box. It is such a shame that it is damaged, but I love it anyway, and it still has the little key, which is a bonus-

I expect you want to see close ups of the buttons, don't you?

Those large buttons with the kind of Greek or Roman looking woman are pretty impressive. The set of buttons also has a matching brooch. There are also two sequined and beaded large buttons and those very shiny shimmery little glass ones -

Fabulous faceted jet black glass buttons -

Ribbed glass toggles!

Some odd pretties -

Some more modern ones

And some of the most amazing mother of pearl buttons I have come across -

Look at these two beauties, huge, delicately carved and the most fabulous colours-

Some pretty ordinary brown ones, but then, I do love browns and beiges -

And right at the bottom of the box was this Victorian button card. The card is very badly damaged, and there are only 10 buttons left, but they are wonderful! Quite tiny, with the prettiest design inset in the middle -

I cleaned one of the buttons, you can probably tell which one without me pointing it out, lol
Such a pity that the beautiful design of the card has been ruined-

At another stall, I got a whole village with people n all for granddaughter Paige,

and this lovely stallholder was smiley and friendly and prepared to haggle, he threw in this dinky little pin cushion

I love the quizzical expression on its face-

We did go to another bootfair, an indoor one, but I'll leave that one til tomorrow, I am all blogged out now.
xx

Time flies

My goodness, I can't believe its been nearly a week since I last posted, where on earth did the days disappear to? I know I spent a lot of hours last week making up gift sets etc for the two day Christmas Fair on Friday and Saturday. I didn't finish pricing up etc until midnight on Thursday, up again at 5.30am on Friday morning, loading the car etc and setting up at the venue at 7.30am. Worn out before it even started, lolol. I took a few pictures as we were all setting up -



It was most definitely worth all the effort and taking tons of gift sets, and it was such a pleasure to see them flying off the table ( so to speak ). Both days were busy busy busy with a pretty steady stream of customers coming through. I didn't have a lot of space and I tried to cram as much as possible into the available space, I even managed to get a few vintage bits and pieces into one corner! Just as well, because I met a lovely couple that way. The gentleman was very interested in the cravats ( ascots ) I had on the stall, kept coming back to them and finally bought one, which he put on immediately and proudly showed off to everybody. He came back again after ten minutes and bought another one, a nice snazzy one, and went off happily with his wife to have lunch. After lunch, guess what? His wife came rushing to my stall asking me to show her the paisley scarves he had also been looking at. We had such a giggle picking one without him noticing and squirrelling it away for a Christmas prezzie. Bless them, they were just wonderful.

The stall holders were great, we were giggling and laughing together whenever we didn't have a customer, and the atmosphere was really lovely, so friendly and relaxed. I wish I could have spent a bit more money than I did, buying little gifts from all of them. There are so many talented people about. It was really nice seeing some familiar faces as well, stall holders I had met before. Of course one had to have a good natter about what fairs one had done etc etc.

Sunday is kinda lost in the mists of time, lol. I got up with the best intentions, looking forward to going to the one bootfair which goes right through the winter, but of course, it was p..ing down, so that was a washout. Had a nice long relaxing bath, read a book, did a bit of this and a bit of that, put the heater on for the doggies to dry out after their very wet walk, and promptly dozed off for the rest of the day. I have no idea where the afternoon went, I vaguely remember snatches of conversation with my DH and my sons, but apart from that the whole afternoon is a blank. Do you ever get Sundays like that?

So, all the things I had planned to do on Sunday, I had to do today. That included making more of the healing balm, clearing up the frightful mess I had made last week whilst making up the gift sets, booking our trip to France, laundry etc etc etc. And finally, this evening, I got the chance to read the blogs I follow. How on earth can there be soooooooooooo many posts to read after just a few days??? It took me ages, absolute ages, and I didn't even get the time to leave comments. So apologies to all you wonderful bloggers, whose blogs I follow and love to read. I'll do better this week, promise!

I was so happy to hear that the postal dispute has finally been resolved and we are back to normal again. It means I can now post the 100th post giveaway parcel, woohoo! Oh, and a couple of other parcels, which may or may not be winging their way to far away places. Oh oh, oh, and it also meant that I have received parcels! Mostly quite boring stuff, supplies like oils and butters, and lip balm tubes, that sort of thing. But one other parcel also managed to reach me last week......... a christmas prezzie which my DH has bought me. Well, he doesn't know yet that he has bought it for me, but I'll tell him in due course. I'll take pics tomorrow. Darn, I am drooling just thinking about that little parcel now, I might just have to go and do some fondling, lolol. And before you start thinking I have gone completely nuts, I had better tell you what it is ................
sigh, a little box full of the most delicious, scrumptious, wonderfully tactile and immensely strokable and fondlebable velvet ribbons! See? Not nuts at all, I am sure you all agree, velvet ribbons are totally fondlebable. They have to be touched and oohed and aaahed over.

Thats all for now, there are bound to be a few more new posts I want to read before I go to bed. So night night all, xx

Fab time at the two-day market and SWAP UPDATE!

I know, I know, I should have posted about this last week, but somehow I only seemed to have had a few mins here and there to quickly check some of my favourite blogs and leave a comment. I really had the best intentions, but......... usual story, lol. And because I am somewhat pressed for time, I am going to copy the post from my soap blog. I don't think it matters much, as most of you lovely readers are not soapers and don't know about that blog anyway.

I really didn't know what to expect of this two-day market. I hadn't done a market before, and I hadn't even known about this one until this year. Boy, did I get a pleasant surprise! The market stalls were all set up for the traders, proper traders licences were handed out first thing Saturday morning and displayed prominently, and then we could arrange our goods. I had enough space at the sides of the market stall to put tables up, and I had brought some of my antique French linens and other vintage bits and pieces with me on the off chance. So, on one side of the stall I hung some really pretty French 19th C tops, nighties and..... yep, bloomers, along with a display of vintage French and German linen towels, some laces and buttons, and on the other side of the stall I had a quirky mix off all sorts of vintage stuff.

It worked out brilliantly. The market was so well attended, there was a constant flow of customers. I got to chat with lots of ladies about the wonderful linens I had with me ( I get very enthusiastic about these things ) while my son was doing his bit selling the soaps ( and getting very good at explaining about them as well ). And quite amazingly, I had people queuing up quite frequently when my DS toddled off and I was on my own. It was by far the best event I have had so far, and despite a very wet start on Sunday morning, it turned out as good as Saturday. Everything sold really well, sold out of quite a few soaps and skincare products again, Lavender soap being the first to go of course. French antique nighties, buttons and tins, as well as vintage bits and pieces from 1950s cocktail fork sets to 1960s art glass soap dishes and snakeskin wallets, all sold so well.

Not much in the way of photos, we didn't get the chance really. But here are a few -


Almost forgot, these were the new soapies I took with me for the first time, they were very well received -


I have a couple of very busy weeks ahead of me, making more stock and getting gift packs ready for the upcoming Xmas fairs, but I am quite looking forward to it all.

Right, now to the all important Rainbow Swap. I have heard from a few people that they have almost completed their swapsicles, hurrah. So it won't be too long before some packages will be winging their way to the recipients. I have had soooo much fun finding things for my swap partner, and I know from other people as well that they had a great time, despite sometimes agonising over choices. I trust that you have all been in touch with your swap partners by now. If anybody has not yet made contact, please get in touch with me, and I will try and sort something out.

Liz xxx

More pics from the weekend

We did get a bit carried away with the camera on the weekend, but there was just sooooo much to see! The old fashioned fun fair was so very colourful, and brought back so many memories of all the excitement when I was a little girl, going to the fair with my brothers.






I didn't have much time to take photos, which is probably just as well, lol, you'd get sick of wading through hundreds of them.

Just a few then of the Red Indian Village -


Thats enough for today I reckon, tomorrow, if you are very very good girls, I might show you a couple of the most beautiful, most romantic, gorgeous 19th Century plates (from an old book), which I bought from my sort of next door neighbours at the fair ( it wasn't quite next door, lol, more like next door round the corner at the back, sort of ). I really adore them, and I think I will frame the whole lot ( 11) and hang them in one of the bedrooms in the cottage in France. That was on the Saturday.

Now I really do love ephemera and I couldn't help myself, I had to nip next door a couple of times on Sunday as well. They had tons of lovely old newspapers, magazines, letters, legal documents, tickets, you name it, they had it. And of course there were some really gorgeous flower plates from the 1930s, which cried out " buy me, buy me " all the time I was looking at them. Sigh. They might just be destined for the cottage, too. Just as well I can't stand blank walls, lol.

On the second day of the fair, on my mad dash through the charity tent, I got just a couple of really nice things as well. I'll photograph them today and post pics of those tomorrow as well.

Right, thats definitely it now, toodlepip xx