Two vintage fairs in a row....

We had a brilliant day at the first Handmade and Vintage fair in Warwickshire organised by Amy with support from her Mum, Annie and others. I can't fault anything about the day, a great venue, great organisation and the weather was kind to us, look forward to the next one!  It was nice to catch up with other bloggers and hopefully we will be seeing a lot of them again this Saturday in Olney at the fair organised by Ann and Trevor.
Again this is a new venue, and will hopefully be busy.

I had an lovely start to the week, my nephew who lives in Los Angeles was in London for a short time, whilst he is touring Europe. He is only in his thirties and spent the past year battling cancer, he is now in remission, and enjoying a special trip with friends. I could not miss seeing him and requested the day off work, and set off to London with my youngest daughter. We meet up in Kensington, had a late breakfast together, chatted and laughed the whole time. It was sad saying goodbye, but hopefully we will all get to meet up again soon. We made the most of the time we had left in London, my daughter wanted to look in Harrods, she's been before, but was probably too young to remember it well, she was in awe at the prices of the handbags and perfume.

I'm more interested in the food halls,and the wonderful ceilings and ornate decoration.

There's a lot of beautiful tiling to be found in the store.

We also visited the V&A.....

Hope to see you at Olney, it's 12-4 and there's a vintage tea room! Linda xx

The weeks feel like they are whizzing past now. I always get this feeling as we approach the end of term, it's a real mixture of emotions. I'm obviously looking forward to the summer holidays, but I find myself already thinking about September and the new class I will be with and new teacher, I wish I didn't do that , why do I have to start thinking about things that are way off?  Last week we had a problem solving week at school, to be honest it was more challenging for the staff as is usually the case. I found myself canoeing up the River Nene with several small children, it was fine until the guide suggested the adults stand on the seat of their boats! I was last, but I did it! Really the hardest part of the week was having to race other staff on a giant inflatable, as I dived on it ,I realised ibuprofen  would be featuring at some point that evening.
Now it is time to start getting organised for the Vintage and Handmade fair organised by Amy of Blighty Boutique, really looking forward to it.

Bought some new bits and pieces at the weekend -

Some gorgeous vintage curtains,the lady selling had two pairs, why I didn't buy both pairs I don't know.

The biscuit barrel  I going to keep for the time being, I've got a couple of others and feel a collection coming on !

Its not in fabulous condition and the key is missing, but I still think it's a nifty little vanity case.When I cleaned it up I spied Revlon printed in the corner.

These Hornsea storage jars are in fantastic condition, the lady I bought them off said her mum had kept them on top of her freezer but never filled them up!

So if you can come along to the fair, there's going to be a vintage tearoom as well. This Sunday 3rd July, Hatton Park village hall, Hatton park, Warwick. Linda xx

I'm back now after another bloggy break. As I wrote last month I was just returning to work after being ill since Easter with a chest infection. I did go back to work but only managed three days,the infection had not cleared and I ended up having my fourth lot of different antibiotics for the next 10 days. So all in all I was ill for nearly two months and I must admit to feeling worried in that last week that I was going to end up in hospital. Thankfully I gradually got better, have to say it was really gradual, and was happy to return to work this week, it was good just to get back to a bit of normality. My Dr. has said it would be wise to have the flu jab this year, do any bloggers out there have this? I know everyone will respond differently, but any side effects?

So onwards and upwards we have two vintage fairs to get buying for next month, the first is in Warwick(flyer on my side bar) organised by Amy of Blighty Boutique, it is on the 3rd of July. The second is in Olney on the 9th of July organised by Ann and Trevor who organise great fairs in Northampton-Northampton vintage fair blogspot. We are looking forward to visiting these two new venues and are going to include some of our nearly sourced vintage.

The Huntley and Palmers tin and Jacobs tin are in wonderful condition...

I bought this Quality Street tin to add to my own collection and it was full of old marbles, something else I collect, so I will pick out the most unusual and sell the rest.

We always find that glasses sell well, vintage glass is so much more appealing than modern glasses, perhaps not as practical as its a lot thinner, but who cares about practical when you can have beautiful design.

This tea cosy I bought from a lady who told me her Mother had embroidered it, I don't know how she could part with it, but I am a sentimentalist.

The knife has the words cake knife etched on to it, so no trying to cut a pork pie or anything else then! It doesn't look like it's ever been used.

This dinky little cruet is only two and half inches high.

This christening dress is probably one of my favourite things I have bought this year, I bought it from the tea cosy lady, I just keep unfolding it and looking at the beautiful working on it.

Hopefully I will catch up with reading some blogs , have a good week, hope the sunshine comes back Linda xxx

Back to blogging and booting...

  I was so looking forward to my two week holiday from school, it started off ok and I thought I was just a bit tired, then I got a sore throat and started to feel very unwell. Anyway I ended up developing a chest infection, attempted to go back to work after the holidays only to be sent straight home and ended up having three more weeks off work and three lots of antibiotics! I'm back to work tomorrow and I am really looking forward to it, though ask me again about 2o'clock in the afternoon!
So all my plans for making and sorting were pretty much scuppered, though I've been trying to make up for it...

Unfortunately I didn't get anything made for the April Monthly Make, but have managed some cushions for this month, they might look a bit wrinkly, I haven't put the pads in yet.

I've used vintage fabric and a mixture of new and old trims.

Inbetween showers we have got to a couple of boot sales....

After selling off most of my huge tin collection last year it is slowly amassing again!

 Mr TabbyRoo found this pretty Meakin plate....

Yesterday Mr.TabbyRoo and I went along to the local cricket ground where they were filming for Dickinsons Real Deal. It was interesting to see how it's done and what a lengthy process it is. We queued up for a couple of hours , we didn't get chosen to be filmed, just as well really we had gone straight from a boot sale and looked as though we been dragged through several bushes! David Dickenson looked his usual dapper self and I have to say he didn't appear to be so orange. We had taken along our small Tiffiny studios tray to be valued, and was very pleased with the estimate of £80 to £120, considering Mr.TabbyRoo bought it some years ago for 50p, this doesn't happen to us very often, we work on the premise of buying things like we  and don't purposely look for valuables- no we will never be rich!

                                       Our next event is a Spring Fair organised by Handmade and Vintage-Saturday 21st May, 10-3 at York House, Stony Stratford. There will be three floors of Vintage and handmade goodies, an old fashioned tea room and Betty the vintage ice cream van.    

Have a good week 

Linda xx      

On Saturday we all went off to the 'Think Vintage-Vintage and Handmade Fair' in Wolverton near Milton Keynes. It was very busy and Laura who organises it had made the event an hour longer than the last one to try and spread out the crush a bit. I only had time for a quick look round before it started and did manage to buy some lovely lace and ribbon, which I hope to use on some more altered bottles as I sold the last one on Saturday.

I also bought this colourful Quality Street tin from Vicki of Ticklepenny Vintage, to add to my collection. I've decided now I have six of them ,Quality street tins are another one of my collections-it's not hoarding, it's collecting!

It was nice to catch up with stall holders and customers from the last fair and Ann and Trevor who were shopping , they also organise great vintage fairs.

It's beeen quite a while since both daughters came to a fair with us, and whilst it was lovely to have them with us and practical as we could all take turns on the stall, all they seemed to do was eat all day, I'm sure thay must have made a dent in the profits, where do teenagers put it all!?

I am lucky enough now to have two weeks off work so have done a bit of weekday charity shopping. I found these sweet little Meakin plates.

I found a few other bits which I have already packed away before even taking photos! Not being super organised just that the kitchen ceiling is going to be plastered in a couple of days so been busy wrapping and packing.

Enjoy the rest of the week Linda xx

Be sure to visit the 'Think Vintage and Handmade Fair' at the Madcap theatre Wolverton, this saturday 10-4.

TabbyRoo and lots of other lovely stalls will be there selling unique beautiful vintage finds. Ther will also be a vintage inspired tearoom.

Hope to see you there!
Linda xx

Just squeezing in my' March Monthly Make'consisting of two cushions.  I don't know how old this fabric is but I think it is a  pretty vintage style and the doillies are definitely vintage.  I'm glad of the lighter evenings now,  it makes sewing that much easier, I struggled sewing the buttons on and that was with my glasses on!

Car boot season is upon us- Hooray!! We did a car boot at the weekend , and had a really good clear out, still managed to bring some new bits home though....

Pretty plates and two pie funnels...

These glasses, I would think are from the 1950's are in fabulous condition.

An EMBEE dispenser for loose tea, it fixes on to the wall and away you go!

This Bluebird toffee tin depicts a picture of Mermaid st. Rye

I'll be keeping this Nestle chocolate box. I used  to love looking at all the 'picture ' boxes of chocolates displayed in the sweet shop when I was little.

I won a great giveaway from Amy of Blighty Boutique, its a book called...

Its full of great photos and tips showing just how resourceful people were ,with 'Make do and mend being the order of the day.

So thanks again Amy.

 Lets hope the sun keeps shining Linda xx