The current favourite corner

Last weekend's open house seemed to lead to a mini spring clean as I tidied the leftover stock away and returned normality to the ground floor. I had sold my gorgeous blue skittles (know you'll love them just as well, Sarah) so the mantelpiece was in for rearrangement.

I did however find that I preferred one corner just as I'd set it up for the sale.

This fab cupboard came from Station Antiques in Chipping Norton just before Christmas and was intended for elsewhere in the house but was "dumped" in the living room until after the festive season only to find that this corner was the perfect location. Still looking for the perfect TV cupboard for the sitting room!

I love this French tin which contained sweets, think its that wonderful red. The lid is incredibly stiff so more ornament than storage

I like these lamps made from stone balustrades and they have a real presence....i.e. very heavy and tall!
I'm keeping this one with the white linen shade as it gives such a great light, clear yet soft

The daffodils are in zinc containers, small enough not to need huge numbers of plants but big enough for a garden planting. I'll be taking these to Peterborough this weekend so the corner will have to change then.

The log burner was a real hit over the weekend giving a welcome warmth and welcome to all visitors, many thanks to all of you who came and hope to see more of you at forthcoming sales
The blog shop is about to be updated and I'll be adding some furniture items

Spring Open House this weekend

I always enjoy getting the house ready for one of my open house sales but this time its involved rather more furniture shifting than usual. I've a few pieces of furniture to sell so making room for them has been a priority.

The large space we cleared in the sitting room to accommodate an extra sofa whilst the log burner was fitted has been usefully filled by a bed!
This sweet brass and iron bed has been stored for use by our grandchildren only to find that a blow up bed is a much more practical and indeed very popular alternative. Hopefully someone else will enjoy dressing it with a quilt and a pile of cushions; the art nouveau motif is particularly nice.

This weekend however it will be great to show off the quilts and the abundance of red and blue cushions I have at present

This oak dresser has really neat proportions so useful storage where space is tight. It has polished up nicely but could of course be given a painted finish

I placed this sweet hat and gloves as if their owner had just returned from her errands; think I had Mrs Dalloway in mind!

The paint finish on this bench is original and a lovely shade of green and cream. Great for halls and conservatories these benches can also be left outside although maybe not over a winter as long and chilly as this one is proving to be.

They are lovely left bare but I find ours tends to fill up with cushions or more often abandoned coats..please note discarded shoes husband dear!

I have a tiny cupboard for sale, very beautifully painted inside and out with a waxed finish; it sits nicely on a table and hides a stack of CDs for instance

I like this interesting box although the camera hasn't captured the lovely dark blue grey paint colour. It was used to carry round radio equipment in WW11 and I love the stencilled instruction to "handle like eggs" obviously more precious than china in the war

Finally a close up of the mantelpiece with a French road sign and a rather lovely portrait
Do hope I'll see some of you on Friday or Saturday; if you need directions just email or ring as its always lovely to welcome customers both old and new

return to the past

I first called myself hellish designs many years ago when making greetings cards to send to friends and family
So it seems ironic and a little sad that I've rather neglected this element of the business of late
It's probably down to commerce in that the cards are a relatively low earner and take up more space than can be justified at fairs but also lack of inspiration I'm afraid.
Its easy to make cushions and bags when presented with fabulous vintage fabrics, less easy to start designing a card from scratch.  However I was fortunate enough to buy some very old (1849) French legal documents at the Manchester fair on Sunday. This fair always delivers the unusual!
The beautiful copperplate handwriting is tiny, the perfect scale for a card and there are some interesting seals as well. I've used it as a background in a collage of family photos and fabric scraps

With my daughter's wedding in mind I've designed a wedding day card using my parent's wedding photo
They look so young! What a fabulous lace veil although not at all what Imogen has in mind for her wedding outfit

Had to even things up with a photo from my husband's past; his father with his 2 boys
Love the blue linen fabric which is actually a photo torn from a magazine, wish I had the real thing

My lovely grandma and her brother, Percy are, somewhat unbelievably given their clothes, sitting on Scarborough beach
I've now run out of documents, typical, just when I was really enjoying making the cards. Still hopefully it's got me started on card making again.

One occasion when I do sell a lot of cards is at my open house when I have plenty of room to display everything I make. Hope you'll come along next week..Friday and Saturday..do leave a comment if you need more information. I'm selling several larger pieces of furniture; photos to follow early next week.
The blogshop is now full of cushions, click on the link to the right to take a look.