Pretty things

I found some lovely things for the website in the last couple of weeks, and have managed to upload a few things in the last few days. Here is a sneeky peek.



I think this embroidered pyjama case is so cute, I almost didn't part with it, but I can't keep everything I buy, Danny would soon put a stop to that.


I have found a few bits of violet china recently, including this espresso cup & saucer which is one of a pair, a matching sugar bowl, and this pretty milk jug below, I just love the gilded pattern printed over the top.


There is a few rose tea sets one for two, one for four, and one for six people, so the choice is yours.


and one of my particular favourites at the moment is this gorgeous embroidered petite point floral hand bag, with a gold tone frame, set with what looks like a jade finial and tiny enamel flowers and lined with oyster coloured silk satin.


All of these are on the website now, along with a few more new things, so pop over and have a look, the link is in my sidebar.

Oh what a beautiful day...

Frilly tulips...


Pretty forget-me-nots


This striking little fellow


does anyone know what it's called?


one of my car boot treasures, 20p unfortunately it has a hairline crack, and no saucer, but it is so beautifully delicate and hand-painted too, if you look carefully you can see the tiny brushstrokes.


The perfect lunch on a warm sunny day


I made this simple pasta sauce from a tin of sainsburys taste the difference cherry tomatoes (49p a tin) that I discovered the over day, a little bit more expensive than your bog standard tinned tomatoes, but definately worth the extra.
I made it with what I had left over in the fridge and what I had in the garden so very cheap and low effort.

1. simmer the tin of tomatoes on the hob with a few sprigs of thyme (or basil, parsley, oregano what ever you have in the garden) and a 1 or 2 crushed garlic cloves for about 10 mins, stirring occasionally, and squashing some the tomatoes with the back of the spoon if you want.

2. stir in about a tablespoon of low fat creme fraiche (if you have it) to thicken the sauce a little (although the sauce in the tin is quite thick already) season to taste, and heat through for a further 5 mins.

3. tip the sauce into the pan of cooked and drained pasta and stir through coating the pasta, letting it sit for a minute or two allowing it to soak up some of the sauce.

4. serve in a bowl crumbling over some feta or goats cheese (or grated Parmesan, what ever you have in the fridge really) sprinkle with a few fresh thyme leaves (or other fresh herb), bit of black pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil if your feeling a bit like Jamie.

5. Crack open a bottle of chilled white wine!

I would say this would do two generous bowls of pasta, but for more, just double the quantity.

Craft Fair Fun

As promised here are some pictures of my stall at the craft fair, we where so lucky with the weather, I even got burnt!
I didn't make an absolute fortune, but I did make enough to make it worth my while, and it was such a lovely afternoon.

Mum came and provide transport there in the form of her old volvo estate (which is as old as my soon to be 21 year old sister, but it's still going!) and she kept Ella amused all day, there was also another little girl there, and they spent most of the day playing together, pestering the shop cat, and eating the cupcakes provide for customers! I must say, I was very proud, as lots of people came up to me and said how well behaved she was (shame she's not like that at home!)



As I said it was a beautiful day, and there was steady stream of customers, so It had been well advertised, although buying was a bit slow, and some people hadn't brought any cash.
I'm not sure what it would be like if it's raining on the day as it outdoor and there is no cover provided, I'm booked for the next one on Saturday May 31st, so fingers crossed it doesn't rain next time either.
Even though buying was slow, I still managed to take home £76, also I had invited a few family and friends who turned up through out the day to break things up a bit, and one customer even asked to take a picture of my stall, which was very complimentary



It was lovely to meet some other bloggers and etsy sellers there too, Piccolo, Lottie Frank, and Cheeky Leopard



I had asked Sophie at Sophie Stansfield Designs if I could take some of her super cute jars filled with felt 'sugar cookies' as I thought they would look lovely on the stall. They were very well received and I managed to sell a couple of jars, and lots of people took her moo cards home with them, so I hope she might get a few orders in the next few weeks.




I love this picture of Ella, even though she is scoffing her face with yet more junk!

Catching up

I can't believe it's been over 3 weeks since I last posted, It's not has if I have had nothing to talk about. In the last few weeks I went to Ardingly Antiques Fair, been to several birthday parties, had my twenty-fifth birthday (and got some lovely presents!) and done my first craft fair, so I have lots of lovely things to show you.

Here are my purchases from Ardingly....


Some very useful folding steps for £15, I'm debating whether to give them a padded oilcloth seat so I can use it as a stool as well, what do you think? to cover or not to cover?

This lovely floral enamel bucket I got for £6 after a little haggling

A biscuit tin for a £1, you can't beat a pretty tin


and finally this pair beautiful french marble-topped pot cupboards for either side of my bed, bought as a birthday present for me from my wonderful and very generous parents, thank you mum and dad xxx

I had been looking for a pair of bargain bedside tables for a while now, something elegant, not too chunky, but not too flouncy either, but to no avail, even the re-pros are expensive, and the cheaper ones, the ones with the fretwork design are a little too small, and not very sturdy.

So when mum and dad took me to Ardingly for a birthday outing I was determined to find a couple of nice ones, not necessarily matching, but similar in size.
3 1/2 hours later I was beginning to give up hope as I still hadn't found anything quite right, and at 2pm all the stall holders seemed to have decided to go home early and where slowly packing up. Feeling a slight panic rising in me that I had come all the way down to Surrey for this huge fair and I was only going to be going home with a bucket and a biscuit tin, I stepped up the pace, and I discovered the lovely steps from a very nice lady who knocked a fiver off the price, oh well I thought, maybe it wasn't meant to be, I turned around to look for mum and dad, only to discover these pair of perfect tables. Bracing myself for disappointment, I asked the man how much they where, £250 for the pair - he said, I said - I only have £180 left, he made a call to his man in charge, and eventually said I could take them for £180. Now I had to think - this was much more than I wanted to pay for my bedside tables, but on the other hand they where 1920's, french (with makers label still in the drawer), marble-topped in pale grey, one still had the original enamel pot liner in the cupboard, and they where matching. I decided it was much better to spend £180 on a pair of well-made original tables, than spending £100-£120 on a pair of poorer quality re-pros that might not stand the test of time. I think I made the right decision.


The only thing I wasn't keen on was the buttermilk cream colour they had been painted in, it just didn't go with the pale grey marble, so I went out the next day and bought a pot of pale grey paint, I given them one coat and they look much better, so I will show you an after photo when I get the next coat on.

Well that went on a bit, I shall post some photos of the craft fair, and my birthday presents in the next couple of days to break things up a bit.

Sometimes it snows in april

But it's nice to be cosy indoors with a cup of tea....



This week I'll be busy uploading this lot onto the website....



lots of pretty floral china, waiting patiently to grace someones dresser



I also wanted to show you some books.....



the one on the right I bought from Ella's nursery, because last year my mother gave me the one on the left. It was my great grandmothers, and she owned it in 1916



The new version is very funny, and makes me giggle out loud when I read it, so if you come across it (I got it from The Book People for £4) I would definitely recommend it.
I just wanted to show the the preface from the book on the left, published in 1914.....

"If this book had been written many years ago it would have contained more pages about needlework and fewer about out-of-door exercises. Each year, however, shows how fallacious are those no more conventional notions concerning the limitations of women, for men are being eclipsed from time to time, not only in the examination room, but even in the field, upon what they had considered hitherto to be their own ground.

How gracefully and well does a woman ride a bicycle usually; how hump-backed and ungainly do most men appear upon the same machine! Moreover, girls do not throw away the good they have won on the hockey field, and in the swimming bath, by imbibing whiskey and other absurd concoctions, crowding into hot billiard rooms and bar parlours. Thus it is easy to see even now as we walk along the streets how girls and women are surpassing boys and men in carriage, health and intellect.

It has not been possible in this book to exhaust all the subjects that have beeen mentioned, but intelligent girls, having selected their hobbies, will find means to purse them beyond the limit which space has imposed upon us in these pages."

I don't know about you, but I was surprised how forward thinking it was!



I have recently received a couple of lovely packages that I wanted to show off.
I won this gorgeous little needlecase in a giveaway over at Florence Hope, thank you very much Ladies!



and this morning postie brought me this lovely package from Beata at Rosehip, I'm so chuffed I managed to get this one from her Etsy shop, as they where selling like hot cakes, and each one was bought up as soon as she listed them! I was determined to get one made with this pretty floral fabric - just by chance, does anyone know where I can buy this fabric from, or what it's name is?

Finally I thought I'd let you know that I am going to be at the East London Craft Guerrilla Craft Fair in Walthamstow Village on 26th April so if your about, come on down.

A little bit of feel good.......

Ok....I know I've been a little bit lazy on the blogging front lately, with my own, and everybody elses.

I blame it on bloglines, I haven't worked out how to comment on the new posts unless I click through to the actual blog.
I tend to think, just a quick read, then I'll pop back later and leave a comment (like taking a sneaky spoonful of the dinner, before it's actually served) but mostly that never happens.
I'm a bit crap at text messages and emails too, I do the same thing, read it, and then think, I answer back in a minute, but that minute passes, and turns into and an hour, day, or even week....
Is anyone else afflicted by this disorder, or is it just me?

So sorry everyone, for being a crap blogger.... I promise I will be posting something with lots of photos, some news maybe, and just a bit of general waffle if you can bear anymore!

But in the meantime just one more lazy post please...!!!!!!

I am currently grooving to this by Jamie Lidell, who my sister introduced me to on youtube last weekend. Who'd of thought that this voice could come out of this man?

Happy Easter!

cheek to cheek

On my kitchen window sill I have some very cute miniature 'tete a tete' narcissus, so called because they have two or three flowers per stem that like this...





and so whenever I'm washing up at the sink and gazing out of the window, watching them bobbing about in the breeze (or gale force wind this week!) I can't help humming this song to myself.....

and the winner is........

Picked by random number generator.......


:::::::::::::Miss Sew n Sew:::::::::::::::


Congratulations! please email me your address via the link on my blogger profile, and I will send you out your little jug with a few little extra surprises.

Nice Jugs!

I don't know about you, but I can't resist a nice jug. As Dorcas says in Larkrise to Candleford, "they are my one weakness".
After finding a lovely glass jug (perfect for Pimms!) for £2 in the charity shop the other day, I decided to gather up my ever increasing collection to see how much I already had. (they are deceptively dotted around the house in various locations in the hope that Danny won't notice any new additions, and instigate a jug ban!)



As you can see, there seems to be a blue theme.

Then the next day, at my first car boot sale of the year, this beauty caught my eye. I clocked it as soon as I arrived, but since I had recently discoverd how many jugs I actually had, I managed to refrain myself. Only when we had finished going round, and mum and I where making our way back to the car did I give in, and for the grand total of £1, I'm so glad I bought it love it more each day, it's lovely colour and the bow is so pretty!




So in the spirit of 'Jug Love' I'm having a giveaway, in which you can win this pretty little miniature one (below), along with a few other little surprises I can lay my hands on. All you need to do is leave a comment by next sunday (9th) and the winner will picked at random and announced on the monday.



P.S. I hope you all had a lovely Mother's day! I did, I got a homemade card from Ella, and we went to Mum and Dad's for sunday lunch where we had Jamie's slow cooked lamb, and a Victoria sponge sandwiched with rasberry jam, fresh rasberries, and double cream made by me and inspired by the one Kelly made for her hubby's birthday.