the day the gazebo collapsed

I was tempted to title this post, "the day my house fell down" but it did sound unnecessarily melodramatic; that was however the feeling as we struggled to keep our gazebo from depositing the weight of an hour's heavy rain onto the stock beneath.
It had always felt rather mad to be leaving home at 4.30am (especially after a very enjoyable meal at friends the night before) to drive to Norfolk to set up an outside stall in the wettest summer on record; forgiveable if booked months before, not when I did it last week as it lashed it down outside.  We had needed the help of 2 lovely men from a nearby stall to erect said gazebo but we had simply not factored in the difference the sodden canvas would make to its stability. Poor Ken held on as well as he was able whilst I ran to beg to be allowed to set up stall inside the main marquee; yes, dear reader there were inside stalls which yours truly had eschewed in favour of a bigger pitch outside.  But here the story brightens even if the skies did not.  Many thanks to the staff of Nelson events who were kind and efficient and found a free stall for me to use and later when an adjacent stall was a no show allowed me to use this space free of charge.  We moved the stock, set up stall, dried out Ken, met loads of nice people, sold lots of stock, felt much more cheerful and vowed to return next year having booked an indoor stall.  The only casualties in the final analysis were the gazebo (which stayed behind) and my lovely hairdresser's "do" which returned to frizz in the damp.
I know many of you who have lovely partners who are equally keen on vintage but thats not Ken; its not his bag so I am particularly grateful for his support and physical help on these occasions especially when it involved missing the first men's singles final in our lifetime involving a Brit

And the rain continues...so its been no hardship to stay indoors and sew.
I remember as a child being saddened as my father ripped the pretty white flowers from the bottom of our garden. Now, as a gardener, I know bindweed is a pain and pull it out myself whilst loving the shape of the flower. I have seen it growing wild with a pretty pink/white striped flower but never blue so not sure if this is an artist's impression.

Makes a lovely combination with the soft blue striped linen.

Another section of the same fabric features these beautifully drawn roses teamed with a lovely cream vintage linen.

 I think it makes a pretty negative to this stronger floral also featuring roses. I plan to make the red fabric into cushions later today.

These simple linen striped cushions were popular on Sunday, I guess near the coast the blue is a great choice for holiday cottages. I've replaced the ones I sold with more
All these cushions are on the updated blog shop..click on link on right or http://www.shophellishdesigns.blogspot.com/
I want to send my good wishes to any of you who have summer events coming up, long planned no doubt and hoping for sunshine or at least not a deluge.  Two couples of my acquaintance are marrying later this month and I so hope they have decent days for their celebrations...my brush with the elements was trivial in comparison!