Stratford Upon Avon Decorative Fair

I hope everybody's had a lovely Easter! I had a lovely day on Saturday at the Decorative Fair in Stratford Upon Avon and met lots of lovely sellers. Stratford was full of tourists enjoying the sunshine and it was a good job I took a decent amount of extra stock to top up my stall. The vintage sunglasses I took along sold particularly well with the nice weather and I'm spending today making more vintage annual/map envelopes as I sold lots of those too.

The Town Hall venue was beautiful and Lucy did a fantastic job of hosting the fair.

My spare room is now looking a bit tidier after me spending most of yesterday re-organising my 'stock' shelves. I'll soon be sorting my mum's loft to see what things we've squirrelled away over the years and I'm trying to avoid charity shops and car boot sales until I've been through the loft as there's a ridiculous amount of things in there for me to put on my stalls. I'm also desperate to hunt out a large railway station perpetual calendar that I know my mum has up there somewhere. Stephen and Judy of All Things Vintage & Beautiful had a desk sized one of their stall at the fair and it reminded me how beautiful and useful they are.

Right I'm off to make some envelopes and catch up with some blogs. On that note I'm sorry if I haven't got around to reading everyones blogs yet. I love reading them but with the amount of lovely blogs  I follow and the time consuming word verification things on lots of blogs there is just not enough hours in the day. Does anyone else struggle to keep up with their favourite blogs or is it just me?  xxx

Happiness

The sun is shining, I've got a yummy M&S salmon and potato salalad to eat, my Vintage & Handmade Fair flyers are back from the printers, and I'm in Stratford for the Decorative Fair tomorrow; there's also going to be a St George's Day parade! What's not to be happy about x

I'm so excited about these that my neighbours will be receiving them 2 months early :)

Time for Tea

Today is the second day of attempting to get my vintage tea cups, saucers and sandwich plates into some semblance of order. I haven't cooked all week because I couldn't find my kitchen surfaces (seemed like a good idea to unpack my collection at the time).

This is one of my favourites

The reason for organising it all? The vintage tea room at my Vintage & Handmade Fair of course. Yes I know it's not until the 3rd July but I'm trying to get as much as possible done during my week off. All the china is to be organised, washed, polished and wrapped in nice clean boxes and nice clean tissue paper (that cost my mum a fortune for the amount I needed - thanks Mum!).

Yesterday one of my best friends, Faye, came over to help me. She was in charge of washing, me drying and polishing and we reverted to our days of house sharing at uni, ticking along like a well oiled machine. We of course had to wander off to the pub for food and taste test some cakes my mum brought over so we didn't exactly maximise our time, but fingers crossed I'll be finished late this evening. The tea cups, saucers and sandwich plates look so civilised and I'd quite like to sit down with a cupa and one of these delish cupcakes my friend's perfected over the last two weeks (she wasn't going to let runny butter icing beat her and she's spent every evening trying to get 'just the right consistency').

Only 70ish sandwich plates to wash, dry/polish & pack! Amy xxx

Exciting Vintage Fair Preparations

I haven’t blogged or had chance to read any blogs for a while, but now I’m nearing the end of a week off work I’ve finally caught up with the million and one things on my To Do List and can partake in a bit of blogger time.

I’m looking forward to catching up with everyone’s blogs and seeing what fab things you’ve rescued from car boots and charity shops and what pretty things have been made. In my spare time I’ve been busy car booting (buying and selling), ebaying, gardening, catching up with friends and family and of course basking in the the lovely sunshine we’ve had. I’ve also been busy doing a practise set up of my stall for The Decorative Fair in Stratford on Saturday the 23rd April.

I’m really excited to announce that I’ll be hosting my very first Vintage & Handmade Fair at Hatton Park Village Hall, Warwick on Sunday 3rd July. I’ve already had booking from lots of lovely bloggers and if you’re interested in having a stall of would like to come along on the day then please visit the Blighty Boutique Vintage & Handmade Fair blog for more info. The blog’s a work in progress at the moment as I’m not the most computer literate person in the entire world, but it’s all in hand, promise.

I’m also really excited to be fundraising for The West Midlands Neuromuscular Centre Appeal as part of the Fair! No Vintage & Handmade Fair is complete without a vintage style tea room and for this event our tea room will be manned (or womaned) by volunteers with all proceeds going to the NMC Appeal.

The appeal is one close to my heart as many members of my family experience FSH Muscular Dystrophy and there is little knowledge or specialist care available for neuromuscular conditions. The Appeal needs to raise £250, 000 to open the specialist neuromuscular centre, the building having already been kindly donated by the Patrick family. The centre will be similar to that of the NMC Cheshire and will provide physiotherapy, osteopathy, soft tissue massage, acupuncture and hydrotherapy. The centre will also be able to offer information, help and support, and create a small IT enterprise run by muscle disease patients themselves. The centre is also forging links with local colleges to enable training courses to be provided.

Right I'm off to peruse all your lovely blogs. Amy x

Back Soon

Back soon, miss you all! I'm in the process of sorting through a mountain of car boot finds from last week (to give you some idea of the mountain, I managed to spend £50 at the car boot), a load of stuff mum liberated from a skip (lots of utility plates, pressed glass, vintage books and enamel plates), catching up on some work at home, catching up with family and organising myself for the vintage fairs I'll be at. I also have a little project in the pipeline in organising my own vintage and handmade fair. I'll have lots to blog about once I've got that little lot out of the way! Have a fab weekend lovelies. Amy xxx

I'm a Very Lucky Girl.

I’ve had not one, not two, not even three, but four lovely presents in the last few weeks. Firstly the lovely Beverley of Miss Creativity sent me a lovely letter and little Easter parcel full of buttons, dolly pegs and cords. All the goodies are fab for creative projects, thanks again Beverley!

I also received this lovely giveaway parcel from Jenny at Winnibriggs House. It was really exciting as I’ve never won a giveaway before! The theme of sea birds was lovely and really original and there were some great crafting goodies, such as the appliqués and needle case. Thank you Jenny!

I’ve been super lucky these past few weeks and won another giveaway, this time from Alison at Gingercat. I hadn’t seen a picture of what was in the giveaway so it was super exciting ripping open all the paper. You can see Lily in the pics looming over my goodies wanting to have a good nose. I loved everything in the parcel, especially the note cards and Cath K notebook and buttons! I'm torn as to what to do with the buttons as they look so pretty on their card, but they'd also look fab on my black cardi. There were milk chocolate praline ducks in the parcel but they disappeared very quickly, as have the white chocolate ones now. Yum yum. Thank you Alison!

Last but certainly not least, my Mum treated me to these OPI top coat and base coat varnishes. I’ve had some before but ran out, and they’re super quality. Thanks Mum!

I spent yesterday working hard in the sunshine cleaning the car, mowing the lawn and potting and watering plants. Now I’m off to have a bath and pamper ready for a night out tonight; A meal out with the bestest, or we might go to a charity do at a local club. Choices choices. Tomorrow is set aside for carbooting and my weekly blog reading session. Lovely. Have a great weekend all,

Amy xxx

Bloggy Awards

I’m really flattered in having received two blog awards recently. Firstly the Stylish Blogger Award from Sugarplum Kawaii, and secondly the Liebster Blog award, which ‘recognises smaller blogs with under 300 followers’ from Victoria at Florence & Mary! Thank you so much ladies! I may have taken forever and a day to post about them but I really do appreciate them!

As part of the Stylish Blogger Award I need to tell you seven things about myself, and then pass this onto some fellow bloggers. However, I can't pick my favourite Stylish Blogs out of the many fab ones I read, and I also know that many of you have already received this award so I'm passing it onto everyone who would like to receive it. I’ve been trying to think of seven things about me and I have to admit it’s been a struggle, because I think I’ve probably already told you lots about me through my blog and other Stylish Blogger Awards (Best try not to get too big headed eh). Anyway, here goes;

1) I love cherry blossom trees and at the moment they’re in bloom all over the place sprinkling the roads with pretty confetti like leaves. I have a small cherry blossom tree in my garden that was a moving in present, but I don’t think it’s going to bloom this year as it’s still quite new.

2) I’m extremely British about queues and was taught by my Mum, Nan and Aunt to tell people off if they try to queue jump, even if they are older then me. It’s amazing how many people do try to queue jump…’the queue’s back there, you’re no different to the rest of us’ grrrr. I’m again very Britishly horrified when I go abroad and people don’t queue??? A queue makes perfect and reasonable sense to me. My friends and I, along with some other disgruntled Brits, once abandoned Burger King at a Spanish/Ibiza (can’t remember which) airport because not only did the staff not understand the concept of ‘fast food’ (they were all stood about talking when there were over 20 people top serve) but no one was queuing, it was a total free for all and nearly sent me into a panic attack!

3) I love sunshine but don’t particularly like heat…yes I know that’s a total contradiction in itself. It might be the fact that I come out in horrid prickly heat in hot weather, but I’m never sure whether to blame this on the sun, or the heat, or both. If I go away to a hot country I have to take antihistamines for three days before I go and then every day while I’m there. I should really just holiday in Iceland or something, but I remain determined to get a tan. The antihistamines make me really sleepy, even the non drowsy ones, so sleeping in the sun and doing not much else is my kinda holiday.

4) I’d love to be able to draw. I’d say I’m relatively creative, but I really struggle to put my ideas into action and honestly can’t draw anything but stick men. It’s a bit embarrassing looking back at my school tea towel printed with everyone’s drawing of themselves. All the girl’s drawings were generally really good, but mine was on par with the less skilled male drawers. My Mum and Nan still laugh at it. Apparently I can blame it on my dyspraxia though.

5) I wear lots of black, not just because it’s slimming, but because I just really like it. The little girls in my close asked ‘did you get a black dog because you wear lots of black?’. This probably should have been a wake up call to start wandering about in garish colours.

 

6) I used to collect elephants and had hundreds of them. Not real ones obviously, just anything decorative that was an elephant or had and elephant on it. I sodl them all at a carboot sale years ago and they’re obviously very popular to collect as people bought them by the box load. I have kept a few favourite ones and also some that although not my favourite, I kind of feel sorry for. Strange I know. It’s the same reason that my mum has a circle of Cabbage Patch dolls sitting in a spooky circle in her loft. When she sees one in a charity shop she thinks they look lonely and need to live with other Cabbage Patch Kids.

I found this pic on google images but have one exactly the same. It's a string dispenser.

7) I’m totally rubbish at saving and when I have money in my purse I just have to spend it. I kind of actively look for ways to get rid of it, and unfortunately this also seems to be the case with my credit card. If there’s a balance on there then it needs to be spent on something. I’m trying to mend my ways but it’s soooo hard when it doesn’t come naturally to you. One of my cousins is the same as me and spends money before she even has it, but her sister is super tight. Not with others thought strangely. She spends lots on others but won’t spend money on herself. I taught them to play Monopoly once when looking after them and Ellie had spent all of her cash within one trip around the board. Emma on the other hand, aged about 5 at the time, had the option of paying to get out of jail/buying Ellie’s get out of jail free card (depending on which rules you play buy) and decided that ‘it seemed a bit expensive and she’d rather stay in jail’ .

All of the image were found on google images as my camera battery's playig up at the moment. For this same reason I haven't been able to blog about the two gorgeous give away parcels I received this week! Fingers crossed the camera will be playing ball tomorrow after being charger for a hundred million hours. Have a good weekend everyone...more sunshine I hope xxx