MOST MARVELOUS IN TOWCESTER

I am sure that there are a lot of you who know that Most Marvelous is a great place to shop in Northampton and that their store along the Kettering Road is always buzzing but did you know that they opened one in Towcester at Bell Plantation in the early part of the summer and that has been going great guns too.

I had decided that, due to a miriad of reasons, I was going to close my booth at Brackley and just go with fairs and selling on Etsy - make life a little easier - yeh right -  when I was offered a spot in Towcester.  After lots of hand wringing  and "do I or don't I ?" kind of deliberation I decided to give it a go.  I have to say I have not been sorry that I made the decision as it has been a really great summer with lots of people finding us there and enjoying what they see.

I have started selling clothes - and although these are not necessarily vintage I make every effort to offer good quality labels such as Laura Ashley, Minuet, Monsoon to name but a few and these are proving to be very popular.  I made a decision this year that I would only wear recycled/secondhand clothes and so far I am wearing better clothing than I have ever done if I say so myself - maybe others are of the same mind. 

My Webbs Seed display comes in very useful for displaying pictures

 Two display cabinets full of lovely goodies such as jewellery, bags and little trinkets.

 I always try and offer a selection of homewares as I love these myself

 

The outside of the shop at Towcester

Inside the shop are lots of great booths offering furniture, homewares, clothing and a myriad of super items.

This is one of my favourite sellers - she makes and sells the most wonderful wedding dresses just beautiful. 

 

Jo and Gilly are great organisers and they hold regular monthly  craft and vintage fairs in the grounds of the garden centre.  In fact there is one there this Sunday.

Please come along and check us out I don't think you will be disapointed, it is not as big as the Northampton store but you know what they say about small being beautiful............

COWBOY JOE CHAIR

When my sister was a child she just loved westerns and cowboys and now as I get older  I find myself looking back at the more innocent times with nostalgia and remember playing at Cowboys and Indians in the fields with friends down by the river in Oxford where I lived for a short time.

I picked this child's chair up from a skip some time ago and it has been stuck in my shed taking up room ever since.  The other day I needed to find my sun lounger in the said shed and after removing half the clutter to get to it I came across the little chair.  As the weather was so good I decided to have a go at doing something with it.


I had picked up a piece of vintage cowboys theme material at the Vintage Jumble in Northampton on Saturday and knew straight away that I would do something with a cowboy theme in honour of my sister and her love of all things cowboy.


I roughly painted up the chair, I wanted to give it a worn home on the range look,  and the started cutting into my vintage western comics to decoupage the back.  I made up a cushion out of the material and then used some vintage alphabet letters to pick out the word COWBOY.

Unfortunately the pictures are not the best as I took them in bright sunshine but I think you get the idea.  I will probably take this along to the Olney Fair on the 4th August as I like to sell my handmade alongside vintage at the fairs.

EMPTY NEST AGAIN

Once again our youngest has flown the nest and we spent last Saturday helping her and her partner move into their first place together.

They have moved into a delightful little thatched cottage in the beautiful village of Bloxham which is just outside Banbury.  They are about 40 minutes away from us, near to Oxford and not too far from the Cotswolds so I can see that we will be visiting them with some regularity.

As soon as she told me the name of the cottage they were going to view "Unicorn Cottage” in Unicorn Street I just knew that she would move into it.  Mind you after seeing it I can see why they would fall in love with it.

 The little window in the lounge that looks into the kitchen.

The teeny tiny kitchen set to the side of the lounge.

The main bedroom under the beamed roof.

The tiny little courtyard garden.

Such a little sweetheart of a cottage.

Check out the tiny little window under the thatch.

I had a little wander across the road and came across this little lane

Sadly it was just to wet to do much exploring and I was not dressed in my exploration outfit but will take a good look down there next time we visit.

Fianlly after  unpacking the cars with all her worldly goods, - well not quite all her worldly goods as she will be coming back to pick up the clothes that needed washing (thank you mum) , CD’s, DVD’s and various items that she missed with her first swoop over the next few weeks, we set off dinner at one of the local pubs and they treated us to a lovely three course meal.  Thank you.

Anyway now it is just hubby and I again the plan is to move the office into her room as it is much lighter and will be better for me to create in, move the spare bedroom into the office and then start the decorating.... no rest for the wicked. Hubby can’t wait as I hand him his brushes and set the pasting table up.

A FINE DAY AT FOXTON LOCKS

A FINE DAY FOR FOXTON LOCKS

With the weather we have had this year we have decided not to let it stop us doing the things we like and with that in mind, and the fact that I did not want to face any housework we set off for Foxton Locks in Leicestershire.

For those of you who have never been it is a great place to spend a few hours just wandering along the canal side and marveling at the steps of locks that go up (or down depending on where you park your car).

 It is a marvelous feat of Victorian engineering and at one time there was a lift to the side of the locks themselves which lifted the boats from the top to the bottom.  Sadly this has long gone but the building that was the old boiler house for it is now used as a museum.

To either side of the locks are scenes of rolling fields which to me epitomize the English countryside with a village nestled in the hills and cows grazing in the distance.

The lock itself is very narrow and there is only just enough room to get a narrowboat down it.

We parked int he top car park and walked down and had a cup of coffee sitting watching the boats but more so a pair of swans with their cygnets who were busy seeing off any dog that came in their vicinity.

I just love the sign for the boat rip - now that was really vintage....


After walking further along the canal we decided to turn around and return to the car so we walked back uphill.

and what did we espy........

yes - the fudge boat - and did we buy any - well what do you think........

A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR

I treated myself to a great new book a couple of weeks ago Rediscovered Treasures and decided to put to use one of their good ideas with some of the pretty doilies I have collected over the years but never found a great use for.

They are called sugar baskets and the ideas is that you add 2 parts sugar to 1 part water, boil it up, then soak the doilies in the sugar water and drape the material over a bowl or dish to form the shape.


Once they dry and set you can peel them off the bowl and hey presto you are left with a new bowl.

As they say "here are some I made earlier".

I gave them further embellishments with ribbons threaded through them and then finished off with vintage china floral brooches.


When I showed them to hubby he got really excited as he heard the word sugar and  he thought they were edible.... 


I shall be having a stall at the 1st Vintage Fair in Buckingham on Sunday so will see you all there.

IT'S SPRING - TIME TO COME OUT OF HIBERNATION

OK Winter is officially over and I am declaring Spring.  I have been absent from blogging for some time and after chatting to Zoe (Pennyblossom) who told me it was time I got back into letting her know what I was up to I decided that I would set too and start blogging again.  So Zoe this post is for you.


My neighbor has a small pond in his garden, it cannot be more than 4ft across by 7 foot long and yesterday I could not believe my eyes there sitting on top of the water paddling away were two ducks, Mr & Mrs..... 

 This morning at 7am they were there again.  Goodness knows where they have come from but it is so funny to see them rootling around in the pond.  Mind you I don't think my neighbor is quite as happy as I am to see them as they are making an awful mess of his garden.

I have to say it is so funny to see her waddling along with him following behind her and to cap it all  this evening I saw them walking along the main road and she had  another drake in tow.  Yes it is definitely Spring.