Back down to earth from up north

I was invited to the lake district, but didn't want to leave the shop for too long. I had this bright idea of letting Mac drive up on his own and going up later by coach. We would drive back together. 11 hours into the coach journey Mac phones to say the car has died on the way to pick me up from the bus station. We hired a car and had the sad job of emptying stuff out of the old dead one into the tiny hire car. It is odd travelling in a modern car when you are used to vintage. You can't close electric windows when the key isn't in the ignition.

We bought some Cd's at a garage sale to listen to on the way home. The old car had a tape player.

I bought quite a few buttons on my trip up north. Not sure why, but I have a thing about packaging. I now have rather a lot of underwear buttons. I muttered my usual line 'I don't have to buy any more of those for a long time' The box is nothing special, but I liked it enough to buy all the buttons.

We stayed with lovely friends and were taken to a salvage yard and an antiques emporium. Reclamation yards are my idea of doing stuff out doors. Being hundreds of miles from home with a Ford Fiesta is a great way to stop yourself from buying large expensive items. The huge emporium had a wide range of vintage and antique items with a wide price range. I picked up a few items for my shop. The coach had stopped in Stoke-on-Trent and I wondered what sort of pottery items I would find if I jumped out and looked round. I was intrigued by some invalid feeder cups with spouts like teapots. Now I've noticed them I will probably see them everywhere.

NOW I'm back home I have just finished some bunting for a customers granddaughters. I've used the offcuts from curtains she made for their new bedrooms. Lovely Laura Ashley blue gingham and pink spot fabric. The display outside my shop was looking a bit too brown, so I cleaned some white chairs I got from auction and set them outside in the bright sunshine. Both the chairs and the bunting have now gone to new homes.

Tommorrow we take the hire car back to the local branch, and continue the hunt for a new car.

Junk shop joy

I've hit apon an idea to get rid of some of my stuff. I've open a shop! I'm on a scheme with the jobcentre. I get a mentor and 6 months trial.

Running a shop takes up a lot of time and that's my excuse for not updating my blog. Three months in to the scheme I can see the apeal of having a shop, but wish I could aford to have an assistant. It's great having happy customers, but I need to be out and about finding new stock.

I do get to spend time making things like the heart shaped lavender bags and crochet biscuits while waiting for customers.

Now of course I have an excuse for buying lovely vintage items or more fabric. The local auction is a great way to spend every other Saturday.

Snow Day!

All that's left of this snowman today is a plant pot sized mound of snow. The day the snow came was the day this village came alive. People were out in the streets, parks and gardens. The school was closed, the buses didn't run and most of the shops in Yeovil didn't open. The snow acted as a 'get out of school/college/work free card'. We made our snow man well and it is the only scrap of snow left in the area. It was the first real snow number-one-son has ever seen and been able to participate in. Since the snow we have had floods and now we have the promise of spring.

It wont be long before we will all be eating outside! I made some bunting from some vintage fabric I have been using to make grocery bags. Here it is hung it on the same hedge that Jerry the snowman was standing afront. What a difference exactly two weeks makes! Seems like a different season! I've taken a shine to this fabric having acquired similar patterns in blue, pink, purple and yellow colourways. I'm still looking for a green and a red version, so I can offer a whole spectrum of eco friendly reuseable shopping bags. Most of the fabric comes from recycling bedding and it seems that red and green prints are rare. I'm off search for some....

The big clear-out continues

It's a good thing there's more than one new years day and more than one calender. As this is my first post of the new year you can assume that I follow the Chinese calender! Lets see what the year of the ox brings. I'm supposed to be clearing out lots of clutter to appease my landlord, but this seams to involve um accumulating more stuff! I bought some lovely vintage suitcases to pack away my summer stuff. They are perched atop my new vintage wardrobe which I got from the furniture welfare people. It's fabulously Jeeves and Wooster with labelled shelves for my hats, shirts, pyjamas, underwear and sundries!

I think the cat is having trouble with the labelling system that looks like craft supplies not pyjamas! Progress is being made, however. I managed to part with a fat quarter of fabric. I eBayed some vintage Laura Ashley Strawberry Fields fabric this week. I have been making little heart shaped lavender sachets with it and wondered just how popular that Laura Ashley print is. I don't mind if no one else likes it, but it is nice to know. The eBay page got 108 hits in the week it was on, 11 people were watching it and it sold after getting 3 bids.

October's over

October's over and I didn't make a Christmas cake, plant forced hyacinths, make rose hip syrup, brew wine....I guess Christmas is cancelled! I've finally been persuaded to put the heating on and most of the computers in the house are next to radiators, so I might spend some time listing the mountain of vintage fabric I have to clear. I don't want to part with it, but I'm happier selling fabric on eBay than pottery that might break in the post. I took the plunge and gave away a large amount of accumulated packaging items to a nice lady on freecycle.

One thing I did get around to this year was growing pumpkins for Halloween. They actually grew themselves. This is a tradition in my garden. I throw the pumpkin guts from the jack-o-lanterns in the garden and by next Halloween I have another set of pumpkins.


My pumpkins are never ripe in time for Halloween. They would be if I started them off indoors and protected them from the slugs. I will next year, because it is best not to grow the same crop in the same place too many years in a row and I haven't worked out where they are going next year.

At this time of year number-one-son gets excited deciding what to dress up in and counting down the days till his birthday. Pages of designs for pumpkin carving are drawn up and the scrolling sign comes down from the attic. Trick or Treat scrolls in bright red lights like a beacon in his darkened bedroom. Mc kept quiet about the whole thing maybe he muttered things about a German Saint and pagan festivals, but he did go out and cut and bring in the pumpkins before having to go home to get something done.