A Birthday in pictures ......

Today is my birthday and I have had a lovely day out with my girls and the grands and had lots of family and friends visit this evening. 

We went over to Woburn Sands to Frosts Garden Centre and just as we arrived the sun came out and it was glorious wandering around looking at all the goodies and having a lovely lunch in their most amazing restaurant.  It took ages to decide what to eat as everything looked so yummy.  Frosts is not just about plants, they have a huge gift/fancy goods area, deli, aquatic centre and chooks out the back and the place was absolutely packed.  I came home with some goodies which I will have to photograph again tomorrow as the ones I took indoors this evening are rubbish.

There was lots of these

The transport was just perfect

Fancy one of these in your garden?????   I'll settle for the one on the left !

The restaurant is divided into three areas and one is the family room .... a great child friendly area with a huge toy corner to keep the littlies occupied

Some beautiful roses from my niece and nephew

While I was out yesterday browsing around an auction and the charity shops in Harpenden I came across these

It was a very good year and I couldn't resist could I ??

The Crow's Nest

First of all ladies an apology if I came over all school ma'amish on the last post .... all the shenanigans had really got to me and I would hate blogland to get tainted by nastiness .... I'm voting with my feet from now on and not following anyone who has a hissy fit ;-)

This enormous tree stands at the bottom of our neighbour's garden and for the past few days a pair of crows have been busily collecting material to build a nest.  As one flies in the other flies off in search of more and they keep it up all day ... I have been trying to get a shot of them too but they are too damn quick for me.

I am amazed at how everything seems to have blossomed this week .... on my travels this week I have seen lines of daffodils on the roadside verges and there are all shades of pink blossom on the trees.  The hawthorn is out and every tree seems to have a tight cluster of leaves just waiting to uncurl.  The garden toys have been powerwashed and it has been lovely to let the children out into the garden for the first time this year ... we have clay soil and it just gets waterlogged during the winter.

 I've been bargain hunting at the Flea Market this morning and picked up two lovely 19th century blue & white transferware jugs to add to my collection ..... a pink candlewick bedcover now freshly laundered and a little footstool to give a makeover to.

My basket of little hexis is starting to take shape .... this is my hand sewing project for the evening time ... I've yet to make a start on my blue & white quilt but think I have collected enough fabric now.

What have you planned for the weekend???

Some more pruning in the garden for me and finding a home for some herbs purchased at the Watermill yesterday

Have good one whatever you are doing x

Let's redress the balance ....

There seems to have been quite a bit of bitching and downright unfriendliness in blogland recently with a lot of dirty washing being aired in public and toys being chucked out of the pram.  Time to end this ladies and be grown up.

I am so pleased to offer a contrast to this appalling behaviour by telling you about the fantastic day that I had yesterday at the Northampton Vintage Fair.

This was my second time here as  a  seller .... the sun was shining, hundreds of visitors coming through the doors, homemade cakes and copious cups of coffee to keep me going and the friendliest bunch of bloggers you could ever wish to meet.  Sharon over at Clover Cottage was official photographer and she has loads of luscious pics over on her blog should you wish to drool .... we spent so much time nattering during the day every time that she stopped at my stall that she forgot to take photos so here are some I took myself.  Quality isn't good I am afraid as I was using the old mobile phone.

This time we made sure that we left home in plenty of time with a full tank of diesel and the correct directions .... you will remember that last time we arrived with about 20 minutes to spare before the doors opened and how on earth I managed to set up in that time still amazes me.  Yesterday we had and an hour & half and I was still fiddling around at the last minute!

So a big thank you to

Annie the Felt Fairy and her lovely daughter Amy at Blighty Boutique

Wend at Ticking Stripes

Karen at Tilly Rose

Linda at Tabbyroo

Sharon at Clover Cottage

Annie at Vintage At the Corner House

Debbie at Vintage Wants Not Needs

Vicky at Vicky Loves Vintage

Vicki at Ticklepenny Vintage

Ellieweb

and all the other bloggers, sellers, visitors that were there ...... apologies for not naming all personally .... would hate to start another blog war ;-)

Here's a date for your diary ...

be there or be square as they say !

 

To finish on a jolly note here is my GD Ellie dressed up for Red Nose Day .... she was cock-a-hoop to be in her school's Golden Award Book for the second week in a row.

 

 

 

 Don't forget we go into Summer Time next weekend .... Spring is here at last .... have a great week x

Slack Alice ;-)

I've certainly been one of these on the blogging front lately .... those of you of a certain magnificent age will remember dear old Larry Grayson ..... Slack Alice was one his characters along with Apricot Lil, Pop It in Pete (the postie) and of course his immortal catchphrase 'shut that door'.

My menobrain is in a tizz at the moment .... first craft fair this weekend and then the following Saturday it is the Northampton Vintage Fair.  I don't know why I am anxious because I have been organising myself with stock for both events but I find when I get into bed my brain is still planning how to set out the table!!  Is it just me or does everyone feel the same ????

I have finished the star quilt and it has sold already which is brilliant and it will be on its way to the lovely new owner this week.  Which means of course it's time to start planning the next project.  Inspired by some Kaffe Fassett books from the library I have decided that the next one is for me.  Regular readers will know my penchant for blue & white vintage china, so I have been stashing blue and white fabrics and the work on something like this will begin in next couple of weeks. 

I've also been busy on letter cushion orders

and I finally plucked up the courage to take some of my vintage and handmade goodies down to Country Matters in Hexton ..... fingers crossed that there will be some sales down there too.

I couldn't finish without slipping a photo of this little lady in .... she is 8 weeks old this week .... how did that happen!

May I introduce .......

Miss Molly and Miss Ruby

Meet my girls or the husband's bitches as they are more affectionately known ;-)

Miss Molly is our choc lab and she will be 4 years old in October .... I would dearly love to let her have a litter of puppies and there is already a list of people wanting one, I just have to convince the master to let his girl be sired!  She is the most placid and well behaved dog that we have ever had.  Brilliant with the children and is rarely naughty unlike her little cohort Ruby who is an 18mth old cocker spaniel.  She is a bouncy bundle of energy and is such a greedy guts she would eat both their dinners plus the cat's food too.

They are inseparable and hate it if one has to go out without the other as happened yesterday when Molly had to have her annual boosters .... Ruby sat and howled for the first ten minutes then sulked in her bed till she returned.  OH was apprehensive about getting another dog but it was the best thing we have ever done as they are great friends and company for each other.

See what I mean ... they shadow each other's every move ..... they even lay in the same positions when sleeping.  Think they must have been distracted by the chickens making a noise at this point.

and these are the boys ..... brothers Oliver and Binks .... Ollie is our hunter ginger cat and Binks is just a lazy black lump who spends most of his time sleeping and only moving occasionally to eat!

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That .......

I've been for a country drive this morning.  We needed some supplies for the animals so I headed off to Wheathampstead via the cross country route which I always find quicker and a much more pleasant drive.  I'm not a very confident driver and hate motorways but give me a country lane and I'm off!!   My family reckon I would make a good rally driver ! I had to stop at an old friend's on the way back and this is the view from his garden .... I could sit and stare at that all day long.

Last weekend we went off to Flitwick to a new vintage & craft fair .... I was on a reccie really with a view to booking a table at the next one because it is only a 20 minute drive away and I am so pleased that there is another local one to add to the calendar.  I had a lovely chat with Linda of TabbyRoo who I will be seeing again at the Northampton Fair on 19th March and there was lots of lovely handmade items on sale and vintage bits of course.

I've been buzzing away at the sewing machine for a couple of weeks now to build up stock for the forthcoming Northampton fair and another that I am doing on 12th March in Potten End in Hertfordshire.



Some peg bags using pre-loved fabrics & trims mixed with some contemporary ginghams

A patchwork lingerie bag

The starburst quilt is coming on nicely too ... I just have to decide what border and binding to use and it will be finished

I always have a little basket of something to fiddle with in front of the goggle box in the evenings and my hexi collection is coming on nicely and using up lots of remnants too.

On the way home on Saturday we stopped in Hexton at a little craft co-operative that is in the old Village Hall .... Country Matters is an Aladdin's Cave with a good mix of vintage and hand crafted items. I am going down there again in the morning to sign up so that I can place some of my work in there ... more on that later.    I spied this little bunny on the way out and with a price tag of just £3 he had to come home with me ....

Now I just have to keep myself away from the choc egg counter till a little closer to Easter ;-)

I bought this Amarylis in our local greengrocers a couple of weeks ago .... it now has four enormous blooms on the top and the little second sprout is now as tall as this one and about to burst open.

Another sign of Spring ..... the rhubarb is sprouting ..... better start planning this year's planting ..... why aren't there enough hours in a day ????