Return to the everyday

We've just spent a very enjoyable week in Majorca where it was just lovely to enjoy the freedom of eating outside in warm sunshine, walking without waterproofs and generally lazing around, catching up on reading and eating and drinking far too much.

The backdrop of the Serra de Tramuntana mountains followed us everywhere, towering above the fertile plains where olives and oranges thrive.

We were musing on how artificial the turquoise swimming pool looks and yet that was the exact shade of the shallow waters at the the edge of the sea here.

I love walking along the cliff edge staring out to sea..this is near the beautiful Deia..where we visited Robert Graves' home. I could quite see why he fell in love with Majorca and never settled  back in England when forced to return during the war. His description of his first wife as "a feminist and difficult woman" in the film we watched made me laugh out loud...pity not to hear her side of the story.

And so back home last Saturday to a decidedly chilly and very grey Nottingham. At least it wasn't so difficult to sit down at the sewing machine and the reappearance of a customer who I hadn't seen for several years was cheering.

I made this pair of cushions in a pretty French floral to replace the pair she bought

I've combined textures in this simple contemporary cushion with a simple linen braid trim

This is a sweet 1950s French print which is great for covering notebooks but decided to make a small shade which I think would be lovely for a kitchen

I'm often asked for pairs of shades but not always possible if I can't get matching frames so I've kept this pair simple. Great for either side of a bed or a console table.

This portrait in pastels intrigues me; wish I knew who she was/is. I think its 50s but not at all sure but framed I think she is quite striking. Have several others to frame before the V&H fair in Chipping Sodbury this Saturday 26th
I'm very much looking forward to the fair and seeing other stallholders and customers who I only see when I'm in this part of the world. Do hope you'll come along and say hello.

But today the sun is Majorcan here in England so I'm going to spend the rest of the day in the garden where a host of jobs await.

A fair weather gardener

I had a lovely time in Berkswell on Sunday. The sun shone (a fact worth noting these days), the hall looked lovely decked out with bunting and Tracey and her team had worked hard to make setting up a breeze and to get the all important customers in.

I met some great people both stall holders and customers and enjoyed admiring the talent on the other stalls.
I took along my usual mixture of textiles, my own designs and vintage finds and sales generally reflected this mix with the lampshades being the bestseller.

I'm fond of this little French wooden horse so wasn't too sorry he didn't sell.

This hatbox is so useful; hadn't really worked out where else to pack the jugs. The enormous crash as we packed up was me; on the positive side 3 less plates to wrap but I was touched by how much concern and sympathy I received.

My friend, Carole, had told me about the fair and her stall was predictably lovely. She sells kitchenalia and textiles; her French enamelware is my weakness. She always styles her stall in colour blocks and on Sunday the green section was my favourite.

Love these handmade cosies..such a lot of work for a tenner. If you live in the Leicester area you might like to visit Carole's shop in Hinckley. Its called Vintage Treasures and is open Mon, Fri and Sat
I had hoped the weather would hold to allow a day in the garden yesterday but we were back to rain. I think if I was a keen gardener I'd be suicidal. Endless wet weather keeping one from the garden but encouraging the growth of triffid like weeds, strong winds stripping the blossom from the trees and 6 inches of water in every potted plant would lead me to stick my head in a water butt.
Fair weather gardener that I am I've stayed in with the sewing machine but finally a clear sunny day took me down the garden today.
When we first moved here I tried to grow all my favourites..delphiniums, lupins,clematis..all clay hating, slug prone disaster areas.  Now, however I take a Trinny and Susannah approach, remember them as they told us to wear what suited our figure not what we were drawn too, so now I grow whatever will survive.

A haze of forget me nots are always welcome and look lovely in a vintage jar
Predictably 2 of the expensive herbaceous perennials I planted last year have not even made annual status so it was good to see this faithful pairing going strong.

Love this acid green euphorbia which romps around our garden teamed with "widow" geranium named for its colour rather than any man eating properties.

This pic of our pond will give an idea of the level of neglect that prevails..its the green thing in the middle..but a couple of weekends without a fair may allow some maintenance..unless it rains of course.

Lucian and Lucienne

Just enjoyed an inspiring weekend in London despite the appalling weather. In fact my little grandson postively enjoyed the results of the torrential rain as he found a waterlogged corner of the car park to splash in.

We had gone down to London for a long awaited trip to the Lucian Freud portraits exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.

It was predictably busy but thanks to a simple guidebook and the fact that all were portraits and therefore easy to understand it was possible to enjoy the paintings without too much frustration. I had enjoyed the BBC 4 documentary about Freud and that helped understand his methods and the development of his painting from the stylised early portraits of his first wife to the huge pieces painted in his 60s.

I would have happily taken one or two home to hang in my living room but had to be content with the exhibition catalogue which is a lovely book.
Next day I persuaded the family to accompany me to a much smaller exhibition I'd heard about.
Designing Women at the Fashion and Textile Museum showcased the work of post war textile artists including Lucienne Day, Jaqueline Groag and Marian Mahler.

Much of this work sprang from the creative period leading up to the Festival of Britain in 1951

This tiny Bermondsey gallery is the brainchild of Zandra Rhodes and is a lovely easy going space which holds workshops alongside the exhibtions; I was sorry not to be taking part in the print making session we glimpsed.

The enviably huge pieces of fabric hung from the walls or were seen made into dresses next to small cases with the original drawings. I particularly liked this Day fabric where the geometric blocks are overprinted with naturalistic sketches

Becca and I wished this tea towel was still in production as the colours are so current.
The weather precluded any strolling around the area which was a shame; I love exploring the different parts of London but this time it had to be from inside a car. Nevertheless I returned home feeling inspired by both exhibitions and ready to create. I'd love to say I was able to paint but its had to be at the sewing machine.

I've had these pieces of French ticking for a while and decided to make up cushions from it.

This large cushion celebrates the history of this piece; darned, patched, stained and faded to a lovely deep denim colour it will make a great contemporary piece. Also looks good covering this unusual folding sleeveboard

Fingers crossed that the coming bank holiday has better weather in store. I'm off to a new venue on Sunday for the first ever Vintage and Homemade fair in Berkswell (near Solihull) and looking forward to meeting lots of new people. Details to the left

Upfront but impersonal

The weekend fair in Whixley went extremely well thanks to Polly's hard work advertising and signposting. It's a convenient location just off the A59 between York and Harrogate so lots of customers called in out of interest having seen the sign. I was sorry not to see several loyal customers, though, and wondered whether it was this different venue or just other commitments which kept them away.

First sale of the day was this very pretty doll's highchair

Over the 2 days with return journeys home and to my daughter's house in Leeds I calculate I covered almost 500 miles and almost emptied a full tank of diesel, no small consideration these days.
In fact I was praying not to have to refuel as it was almost exactly a year ago following another successful Country Chic fair that I accidentally filled my lovely diesel Saab with petrol and ended up returning home in a tow truck!

Soft faded florals are favourites at this fair

In the earlier days of my business I relied on my husband to help with the weekend fairs; navigating, driving, unloading and reloading at the various venues. He filled the hours of the fair playing golf in any nearby course which would have him. The downside of course was that his rather large bag with clubs had to be accommodated alongside the stock, taking up valuable space.
And then I decided to bravely go.. alone. In fact I'm fairly sure it coincided with the purchase of a sat nav.
And so no more golf clubs and more to the point no more front seat passenger..a huge space to fill with stock particularly that of the more awkward size and dimensions. I recall a Lloyd Loom chair on one occasion although extracting it on arrival was somewhat tricky

More often though I've been accompanied by my mannequin. I make aprons and sometimes sell linen smocks or vintage dresses and these are much better displayed on a dummy than simply folded. We were recalling at the weekend how lone women drivers were advised to put a blow up doll in the front seat to discourage attackers after a motorway murder. I'm not sure how convincing my headless dummy is but you probably wouldn't want to tangle with a woman who travels with one would you?

At present though the most likely "passenger" is a standard lampshade or two. I couldn't believe how huge these could  be when I first started to make them and realised they took almost half of the space in the back. Wedged in the front seat, taking care not to obscure the wing mirror, they are much more manageable.
I've just covered 3 frames with different fabrics. This textured white linen is always a favourite and is equally lovely in a sitting room or bedroom.

I've just acquired a huge piece of this soft linen ticking, enough for a couple of large shades. Really like this shape with a large mother of pearl button trim

Classic mangle cloth stripe is a perennial favourite.

Lots more shades and bases so do email if you want images; the standard lamps and shades are typically £80 complete or £48 shade only. I've been hoarding some enormous boxes to courier these shades but of course they make the perfectly behaved passenger if you collect.

Calling North Yorkshire

This weekend sees the first Country Chic fair of 2012; these popular fairs have been running for many years now and I came on board in 2004. Polly uses pretty village halls in North Yorkshire villages as venues and advertises widely in the locality so fingers crossed we always have plenty of customers. They are small events with about 10 stalls but as these are homogeneous ,if you like one ,chances are you'll enjoy everyone's stock. I just have to hope my offerings are as attractive on the day as Michele's, Alex's Edwina's et al.

This time we're in Whixley, just 5 minutes from the Knaresborough turn off on the A1 so hopefully easy to access for most customers. Whixley is a very pretty village in lovely walking country; I'm always slightly frustrated not to see the surrounding countryside on these occasions but hopefully there will be equal attractions indoors and if the weather is grim you can spend most of the day at the fair. Many people do although the food and drink on offer are at least part of the reason.

I have a really good selection of cushions and lampshades this time as this is the first in a group of fairs over the next few weeks.

 I'm also pleased with the selection of jars and jugs I have at present; interesting rareties include a couple of lovely French wooden horses on wheels

Apologies that there are no images of these; with a great sense of timing my camera broke as my daughter opened her birthday gifts last Sunday. The last one gave up the ghost last year whilst in South Africa so I am feeling somewhat aggrieved although perhaps I'm just clumsy. Happily it was the only blot on a very happy weekend with the whole family here; next weekend will be all about that other love ..matters vintage.
Do hope you'll come along..details on the left or visit Polly's website.

The beautiful Roseland penisula

Just back from my short holiday in Cornwall and keen to tell you about the lovely Homespun fair.
Gertie and her team had worked hard to make a smooth running day which was busy from the start. The rain fell steadily all day although thankfully not as heavily as it did once we were packed up. Nevertheless, or perhaps because it was too wet for the beach, we had lots of customers and the hall was packed with talent and creativity. I bought lots of cards from Liz on the next stall, they put my designs to shame so I will be sending hers instead.

Just a glimpse of what I brought along but suffice to say that on the way home the car was much easier to pack and Ken remarked that it was lovely to be able to see out of the back window.

Gertie was complaining that her stall looked empty after the busy Country Living fair but of course it was as lovely as ever and with a great selection of sewing baskets and Suffolk puffs. The ladies from The Sea Garden had had a very successful stall at the CLF; read about it on their blog

I hankered after this beautiful horse but he was very expensive, perhaps his owner didn't really want to part with him.

Viv from Hen's Teeth had also made a holiday of it and brought her exquisite work to Cornwall.
The fair takes place in Portscatho, a beautiful coastal village on the Roseland penisula in southern Cornwall.

 The Roseland coastline is much softer than the north side and generally more tranquil.

Walking around the penisula is such a joy, the views across the sea, fabulous hedgerows full of flowers and tiny coves to climb down into make even a wet day enjoyable.

We had mixed weather but 2 lovely sunny days when we were able to take a long walk and eat crab sandwiches and Cornish pastys in the open.

Looking across to St Mawes from the tiny hamlet of Place; I was focusing on the single green house in rows of whitewashed buildings
 However our accommodation was so cosy it was no hardship to stay in and read. We stayed at Maggie and Mike's fabulous barn just outside Portscatho and received a warm welcome from them. It was lovely to pretend to be a local and make a 10 minute drive to the village hall on the day of the sale; just as well as I had forgotten to change the time on my phone and so the alarm went off an hour later than intended!

I sold a lovely green enamel jug filled with cow parsley I had spotted at the side of the road.

This acid green plant is much more common at this time of the year, a lady told me it is known as Alexander but no idea of its botanical name.

These relatives of the garden achillea were growing in the rocks on one of the Roseland beaches.

As usual I pondered the listings in the estate agents windows wondering if I could live in Cornwall; so much natural beauty on the doorstep, so many creative communities to network with but no cinema or theatre nearby and none of the friends I've made over the last 25 years in Nottingham. It remains a daydream although spending time with the Homespun stallholders made the dream more real but for now I just brought home the usual reminder..a pile of pebbles
The next fair is in North Yorkshire, another beautiful part of the world which will have me daydreaming all over again