Rook Lane Retro 27th March 2010

I had a lovely time in Bridport at the Rag Market. I said good bye to lots of lovely fabric. The venue and facilities were wonderful, with tea, biscuits and cakes readily available for the stall holders. I didn't take my camera, sadly, so I have no pictures to show you.

Apart from the flea at the Bath & West weather permitting, the next fair I'm doing will be the fabulous Rook Lane Retro in Frome. These photo's are of my last visit there which was as long ago as September 2008!

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Black and White

We are well into a new year and I haven't done an update!

Christmas went well. I've come up with a brill plan which I aim to follow every Christmas from now on ... KEEP IT SIMPLE! Feeding 3 generations, 3 different religions, vegetarians, nut allergy victims, and type 1 diabetics is easy. The easiest part was being allowed to use the same oven. Even though there was no bacon on the turkey and for the vegies no turkey in the 'turkey' (no nuts in the nut roast) and no goose fat in the roast spuds and no chestnuts with the sprouts. It was all quite easy, because I didn't do sprouts with chestnuts (straight forward sprouts are easy), no glazed carrots (straight forward carrots are easy and have no added sugar) pigs in blankets/kilted sausages in their own tray (easier to keep an eye on) The only thing I made was the gravey (vegetarian).

We had snow again in the new year. I only took one photo this time .......

My cats foot print in the snow.

After taking down the christmas display in the shop window I decided to go for a black and white theme.

That got changed for Valentine's day, and now it's back to natural wood. Before long I will be looking to add a splash of colour, but I'm too busy sorting stock for the rag market in Bridport this weekend. I've been before as a customer, but never sold there. I love Bridport and I'm looking forward to a lovely day.

New haberdashery cabinet has arrived.

It's here!!! and it's so cute!! with its little drawers and custom built side console.

It looked so old and fragile with all the little drawers taken out, leaving just a glass shell and wooden skeleton. Then it didn't quite fit into my van, so Mc drove the 6 miles from Glastonbury to Ilchester, because he has far more nerve than me. We were told to bring more help than we thought we would need, but managed with three of us: Mc, me and Yusuf. Plus a helpful shove from a lady who saw it being removed and thought were moving in to the shop we were taking it from (I would always ask if I saw someone removing a haberdashery cabinet just incase they were dumping it!)

Moving an aged glass cabinet is nerve wracking stuff. Once it was in situ I had to rush off to meet the school bus and arrived back to find Mc had moved it into position and put the drawers back in. The rearranging to make space for it to fit through the door and to the back of the shop had taken all week. Next I can work out a new layout. It looks more like a shop now I have a counter.

Some of the drawers went missing during the many years and I have 20 of the 24 left.

The cabinet and console aren't the only items I bought.

I used to admire the copper display poles that the Hardware shop in Glastonbuy had in their window and now I have one of them in my shop. Millers the hardware shop closed in the last few years and the premises is now called Hunab Ku. I've supplied Hunab Ku with my glittery badges.

This copper piller is very very heavy, and the glass sheets stay in place as if by magic. It will be very usefull in the odd shaped window area at the front of the shop. I wonder where the other pillers have ended up.

Make way for the new

I'm excited about securing a new (1950's) counter which should arrive at the end of next week. It should compliment the set of drawers I already have. Some rearranging will have to be done to make room for it. The shop is going to look a little different.

Some of these settings will stay and some will go. They have already changed as things got sold and replaced with more treasures.

The dark afternoons have made an impact on the shopping habits of my customers. None of the rush hour commuters seem stop to visit me anymore. I was closing at 6, but I close at a more sociable 5 now. The year is marching on. I didn't grow any pumpkins this year, so I had to buy them in! The shop was open for Trick or treaters and facepainting on halloween and I remember thinking it wasn't getting dark quickly enough to make our pumpkin lanterns look their best.

I remembered to plant some forced bulbs and made a note to myself in chalk on the stairs that they in in the cupboard below. The paper whites are nearly over now. I love their scent and took one pot to the shop and kept one at home. The hyacinths under the stairs will need to come out into the light soon and should be ready for christmas to give as gifts or keep. They are great as last minute gifts to unexpected visitors. I've put some in water in hyacinth jars. I found some vintage jars at a boot sale and they have coloured frosted bottom halves so the roots shouldn't look too freeky. Actually I think I'll go and check on them now........

1950's Vintage Bowling

Number one son's favourite activity away from the computer, games console or TV is BOWLING. I was very excited to find that Gimme Shelter Vintage Boutique was holding a vintage and retro fair in a 50's bowling alley. I wasn't quick enough to book a stall, so went shopping and bowling instead. There was lots to see and do. I brushed up on my hula hooping technique and wondered why I hadn't got Mac booked for the busking. I'll ask Jamie next time. Everyone looked great and the stalls were bursting with stuff. We snuck out to have a wonder round Bristol and now we know to shop around for parking. We only found the 'park all day Sunday for £2.50 car park on the way home!!! We parked in the pay £7 for a few hours one :( good job I didn't take the van it's too tall for the NCP

Gimme Shelter Vintage Boutique is a permanent fixture in the Lanes bowling alley in Broardmead.

The bowling was great. Warning they have no side rails!!!! We usually have the rails up at Bowlpox it just make it less upsetting. We had to raise our games. It wasn't a problem for the couple in the next lane. I copied the man's method and got a spare!!

I bought fabric from this stall.

There were loads of clothes to look at and buy.

It was a tiring day (Sundays start early due to car booting) but a happy one.

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.