Hello Blogland

I haven’t been on blogger for ages and seem to have got out of the habit. Well I best get into it as I’m missing my bloggy friends. I hope everyone’s well and I’m looking forward to catching up with everyone’s latest goings on over the next few weeks (I think it’ll take me that long to get back into the swing of things).


I’m super excited for my very first Blighty Boutique Vintage & Handmade Fair this Sunday. I even attempted my very first cake last night as we’re running a cake stall for the NMC Appeal as well as the tea room and I am determined to be able to point a cake out as one I’ve made. In hindsight 10.45pm wasn’t the best time to start it, especially without all of the ingredients (I’d forgotten the cream and caster sugar, made do with granulated), but it turned out ok and fingers crossed the next one will be even better.

Obviously we had to taste test it. I have to credit a pot of Betty Crocker's for the icing

I’m on paper bunting duty today so I’m sat in my jim jams surrounded by vintage annuals and string. I can now at least find all of my crafty bits and bobs after buying three IKEA bookcases for the spare room/stock room. My other IKEA storage unit just wasn’t big enough to house my stock etc anymore and it has now gone off to a new home via eBay. I suppose I should probably mention that since my cousin and I are DIY novices not one of the three book cases we built turned out right. Oh well, they do the job and they are only for stock.

My cousin’s also painted my fence a lovely green colour and is moving onto the decking next week. He’sjust graduated from uni and is easily bribed with cash at the moment to fund travelling and festivals. He inconveniently went off to Glastonbury when I needed my lawn mowing...just can’t get the staff these days.

Right, I best get on with this bunting as I’m off to take that at 3pm. Woohoo. Have a good week and I hope to see some of you at the vintage fair xxx

Great Grandad's 85th Party

The whole family spent yesterday in Liverpool for my Great Grandad George's 85th Birthday Party. He moved into a residential home a few months ago and he's looking much healthier than he did when he was at home. The staff are all lovely and bring him his tea in his favourite Everton mug.

Yesterday he had a party at the residential home, complete with entertainer and lots and lots of buffet food. He enjoyed opening his cards and presents and enjoyed having everyone there, even if he wasn't too sure who everyone was (he's got mild dementia).  The other residents really enjoyed the part too and one lady didn't stop dancing from her wheelchair and doing a hand jive with my Nan.


My cousin, Katie, and I.

This week my mum contacted UK Handmade and they were really lovely, putting a good sized advert for our Blighty Boutique Vintage & Handmade Fair in their Events section. Our lovely volunteer waitresses have also taken it upon themselves to buy matching uniforms for the vintage style tea room and they'll be wearing black 40s style tea dresses with a white lace edged pinnie. It's great of them to have bought the dresses as I really wanted them all to have matching outfits but didn't mention it as I couldn't afford to buy them, with the tea room being for charity.

The dresses don't look that vintagey in this pic but they look very vintagey on. They're Biba's Barbara Hulanicki for Asda and the dress I have on in the above pic is the same dress but in a pink/grey pattern.

I took a little trip to the tip this week and came back with these two vintage biscuit barrels. The ceramic floral one is apparently from 1917 and is so pretty. It's missing its lid but is in great condition considering it's age and now sits on my bedroom windowsill. The wooden one is complete with it's heavy ceramic inner, and will be coming along with me to Saturday's Northampton Vintage Fair. I'm also having a stall at the Discover Vintage Fair at the Pump Rooms in Leamington Spa on Sunday....a busy weekend ahead. I've also got four little helpers to assist with choosing and packing my wares for the two fairs. Lily (my Scottie) and Alfie, Jack & Betty (Mum's Westie, Scottie & Chihuahua) are all at mine this week while my mum's away for a few days, so I'm off work most of the week to try and limit how much naughtiness they get up to!

Have a good week everyone xxx

A Lovely Gift & a Lazy Day

Beverley of Elizabeth's Attic sent me a beautiful gift a few weeks ago; a tile with this great text on. Beverley does these in lost of designs and they're fab. You can find them on her Etsy page.

As you probably know from my last blog I'm having this week of because of a bad patch with my chronic fatigue. I spent yesterday at my mums helping her sort her spare room and it took us from 10am to 8.30! Probably wasn't the best idea since I wasn't feeling great anyway but sometimes a good sort out, even in helping someone else, clears your head. I'd quite like to spend this evening lying on the sofa eating my body weight in chocolate or Ben & Jerry's but it's one of those where I could so with it delivering to me. Think it'd look a bit odd if I asked for an emergency Tesco delivery of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia & a large dairy milk bar, hmmm  xxx

Family Fun and Vintage Finds

It's a bit late for me to do a Royal Wedding post so instead I'll just post a few pics from the family party we had at my uncles'.


Grandad in his red, white & blue

 We all waved our flags and cheered as the guest arrived at the Church and of course cheered even louder when the Queen came into view. My family and I love the Royals and we all really enjoyed the day. My uncle had put on a great do with bunting, flags, banners, party bags and a ridicilous amount of food. Pork and stuffing baps, yum yum.

Nan waving her flags. My aunt's sat behind her

Mum in her red, white & blue

Here are a few vintage bits and bobs I've picked up over the last week.

Vintage travelling wardrobe. I think it's 50s



I love the print. 50p from the tip shop

I've got this week off as my Chronic Fatigues bad at the moment. Fingers crossed I'll be feeling better next week if I rest for most of this one. I hate resting but there's not a lot else I can do at the moment. I think I'll make some of my vintage envelopes while I rest so that I at least feel slightly productive.

Utility china & a Royal beaker

Have a good week everyone xxx

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