Buttercross vintage market

I attended the Buttercross Vintage Market on Saturday. Once again I had my usual spot on the stage. There were workshops advertised, so I made sure to take lots of vintage fabric fat quarters in case the work shoppers wanted to stock up on fabric to make more corsages or pincushions.

I'm so lucky to have such a great fair just a few miles from my home and shop! It was so busy that I hardly left my stall.

I have lots of rolls of vintage wallpaper and this month decided to open them up and cut off metre lengths to take to fairs and sell. Buttercross was my 4th fair this April, and although the wallpaper got lots of attention at the Hello Bygones Retro Bash in Yeovil on the 1st of the month, and I sold a piece at Bridport Vintage Fair last week, it was the Buttercross crowd who really took to it.

Those knee high letters spelling hope were nearly sold once, but I didn't take the customers offer. I was left wondering why I didn't want to let them go until I sold them to a nice lady. After she paid she told me where they were going and I felt glad that I didn't sell them earlier.

Cupboard love

 

That little cupboard has sold. I have always wanted to recreate a little cupboard with mesh in the doors. This is what it started out as:

I didn't get outside for the whole of the fair, so it's been nice looking at other peoples pictures on blogs and facebook. I managed to take one picture of Bubs Bears

 I have a van to unload and a shop to restock now. It is great to update my blog after such a long time. I was inspired to do so by Isabelle of Suzy's Vintage Attic who was taking  photos for her blog. She has a lovely blog post about the Buttercross vintage fair.

Buttercross Vintage Market is held twice a year at the parish rooms in Somerton Somerset England.

Sherbourne Vintage Textiles and Retro Fair

I could feel the flood water washing the underside of my well loaded van as I drove to Sherbourne for the Vintage Textiles and Retro Fair. The warning lights on the dashboard eventually faded as I arrived at the hall.

As usual I didn't have a preconceived layout for my stall, so I did lots of unpacking and rearranging. It all seem to work out ok, and I managed to cut fabric without proper sheers. I discovered that you can't rip rayon, and now have a bruise from using the only scissors in my toolbox.

 Oh I  didn't try those bent scissors! They might have been better than the ones I struggled with. Can someone please tell me why they are bent?


The fair was arranged in two rooms, with one stall outside. I had a bit of a wander and took some photo's in the second room.

There was a man with furniture.

..and a makeup artist and stylist working together to do makeovers. As well as the other stalls in the second room I think this was were the cups of tea that Mc kept supplying me with came from.

I'm booked in for next month, and will be in the same place - in front of the stage. That's 12th Feb 2011. I may hint at a Valentines day theme, because of the date.

Tea and doughnut packaging waiting to be made into tags

Cup of tea and a doughnut.
This is how I'm preparing for this weekend's fair at Sherbourne in Dorset. There's going to be a Vintage fabric, textiles and retro fair at Digby Hall from 10 until 4. It's £1 to get in. The new year is starting with this new fair, and it's going to be a regular monthly event.




After eating and drinking I can get started on making price tags out of the packaging. Pricing items beforehand has become essential to me, because I like to nip into town to snoop, while leaving my assistants in charge! It also helps to think prices out before hand, so I'm not put on the spot by enthusiastic customers.



I always favour Krispy Kremes boxes, because of the spots, but the Christmas packaging is extra nice. The red with white spots have much more impact than the regular white with green.



Tea boxes are just the right thickness for my hole punches. Anything thicker would kill them. When I have a pile of tags I find string to finish them off.

This is just one of the jobs to be done. I've got loads of fabric to select, measure and price. I'm still thinking out the layout of my stall. I like a bit of height, and usually use shelves and various stands.

It's been years since I've done a fair at Digby Church Hall in Sherbourne. I used to make and sell baby clothes at craft fairs there when the girls were tiny, so that's almost 20 years ago! I'm off to find it this morning to make sure I can remember where it is and haven't got the wrong Digby Hall! I think there's two.

I'll make sure I take my camera and report back after the event.

Long awaited update

Finally an update to this blog! About time! This is some of what I've been up to in no particular order...... Visited Falmouth to check out the university, and stumbled upon a monthly vintage fair. I bought socks from this lady. The green large flowered curtains behind her looked the same as others at the fair,because they belonged to the hall and were permanent fixtures. I wonder if they have been there since new in the 70's.

If I remember correctly this stall was run by Hannah and her friend.

I have been to Flamouth before. Last time I arrived by ferry. The first shop we visited this time was a wool shop and by the time we returned to the car it was empty of stock and closing for the winter. mmm what a good idea.

Rook Lane Retro Fair Frome.

I had the same spot as last time - just inside the door. I bought the same team with me as well. The customers were very well dressed in their fine vintage clothes, hair and makeup. Dressing in vintage and getting in free is a great idea. Even kids wear vintage to Rook Lane Retro.

Keep calm and talk about the weather.

When I first started blogging it snowed. It was something to remark on, because we didn't get a decent amount of snow every year. Now it seems to be a twice or thrice annual event, and hardly worth taking photo's of. We've had a lot of white weather recently. Fog, frost and snow vie to get our attention. Sometimes the fog hangs around all day. It's like an advent calendar. Every morning you open the front door in December you don't know what scene will greet you.

I wonder what next year will bring? This year isn't over yet, so we'll have to wait and see.