Vintage Florals

Mr C has been framing some of my old classroom prints this week. Some will be sold but this one I am keeping as it is one of my favourites. They look great in old frames painted with chalky paints .

This is a gorgeous barbola fire screen I bought from Vicki of Ticklepenny Vintage at the Northampton Vintage Fair last Saturday.

I also treated myself to this pretty handmade cushion from 'Vicky Loves Vintage' also at the fair. The duvet cover was a surprise find in TK MAXX last week. They had quite a few Cath Kidston duvet covers and pillow cases at bargain prices.

The pretty floral Vernon Ward picture was another buy from Vicki of Ticklepenny Vintage. It has a lovely frame and Mr C gave it a quick coat of paint to smarten it up. It has now joined the other Vernon Ward pictures dotted around the stairs and landing.

The two small ones below are my favourites.

I have had a few lucky finds in charity shops in the last couple of weeks. I spotted the old dolls pram and assorted dolls including a Rosebud and Roddy doll being unloaded outside a charity shop as I went past. I popped in and the ladies were unpacking three bin bags full of old dolls which had been been owned by an old lady. The pram is very sweet but the hood is sadly disintegrating. I am not sure what I will do with it but it is good for displaying vintage dolls and teddies.

Finally the 'pot' below which was another charity shop find has been put to good use holding the pretty azalea some friends at work gave me for my birthday.

Northampton Vintage Fair

Yesterday was a great day, beautiful weather, lovely people both sellers and customers and lots of gorgeous vintage goodies all topped off with delicious home made cakes and lots of tea. Before I go any further I need to apologise as I have only captured a flavour of all the wonderful stalls in these photos. However I know lots of fellow bloggers will be posting more photos over the next few days so between us we should have pictures of all of the stalls to share. There were lots of gorgeous stalls as usual with some really great new sellers too so sorry if I haven't managed to include you here.

I made use of my Lloyd Loom shelves for display and vintage coronation beakers on the tea tables.

This was Debbie's lovely stall, lots of interesting little vintage pieces and homemade gift boxes and tags.

Lindsey from Elsie Sparrow brought her bike along again.

Karen from Tilly Rose had the most beautiful stall in gorgeous spring colours with lots of floral hand made goodies.

Tracey came along for the first time with her hand made fabric and wooden hearts.

Jo from Hesta Nesta had an amazing array of lovelies as usual, this was just one small shelf.

Sarah Jane had an array of vintage goodies and delicious hand made cup cakes.

There was lots of wonderful fabric on many of the stalls, sorry I am not sure which stall this great collection came from.

I had a lovely day and was lucky enough to have time to catch up with lots of fellow bloggers including Debbie from Lalabibaby, Dreaming Of the Simple Life who was next to me. She had made the most beautiful patchwork bedspreads. She has posted some great photos on her blog as has Sharon from Clover Cottage who was our official photographer for the day. I am sorry I haven't included photos of every stall but Mr C disappeared with my camera at some point in the day. Thank you to everyone who came along yesterday and made it such fun. Hopefully we will see you all at the next fair on 21st May.

See You At The Fair

Well it has finally arrived, the day before the fair. We had lots of good intentions about not leaving everything to the last minute but as usual this week has been one of frantic activity. Now the day has almost arrived there is a feeling of excitement mixed with the usual bit of anxiety about people not turning up or the weather being awful. Anyway I am sure if it is as much fun as the last three it will be a great day. It will be lovely to catch up with lots of bloggy friends a well as regular customers. I will be back in a few days with hopefully lots of lovely photos to share.

Birthday Weekend ( Part Two)

On Friday I had a day's holiday from work and Mr C and I drove down to Hertfordshire to explore. We headed for Berkhamsted, somewhere we hadn't visited before. First stop was this lovely shop, 'Home and Colonial'. Four floors of beautifully displayed antique and vintage items as well as lovely shabby chic home wares and gifts.

The 'Attic Cafe' on the top floor was wonderful. The setting was amazing, enormous floor to ceiling sash windows overlooking the street, high vaulted ceilings, vintage furniture and advertising pictures. Oh and the food was delicious too !

The top picture was an enormous and beautiful advertising poster, and the Zebo poster was also a large original displayed above the window.

Further down the street we found another little antique centre full of quirky pieces.A few of my purchases are propped up outside. I found a pretty basket, a dainty sugar pink clothes airer, and a yellow handled rolling pin amongst other things. We then headed off and explored Hemel Hemstead Old Town and found more antique shops before finally heading home with some lovely purchases.

This pretty vintage American rose postcard was amongst one of my finds last week I also purchased this pretty rose and heart hankerchief. It appears to be a vintage one from the fabric and has no label on it. However it is so Cath Kidston in style I am wondering if it is one of her designs, if you recognise it please tell me.

I have picked up a few old glass apothecary jars over time, one of which I decorated with vintage sailing yacht decals last year. These two have finally had the same treatment using vintage American rose decals too. They make great storage for lotions and potions in the bathroom.

Birthday Treats

Yesterday was my birthday and I was thoroughly spoiled. I had a lovely day with family, eating nice food, chatting and taking Josh out for a lovely long walk with my mum and her dog.

My lovely girl had some wonderful surprises for me. Another deliciously smelling Yankee Candle and a gorgeous Emma Bridgewater mug. Unbeknown to me she sneaked back to Hope and Greenwood when we were in london a few weeks ago whilst I was busy trying clothes on in another shop. She bought me the lovely tea towels in their new design and also the fab 'Life Is Sweet' book.

It is full of delicious recipes for old fashioned sweets as well as gorgeous photos using lots of vintage tins and other vintage items to show off the mouthwatering sweets and chocolates.

She also treated me to these gorgeous Cath Kidston tins I had admired the last time we were in the shop. As I said I have been well and truly spoiled.

My friend Debbie gave me this lovely 'Tramway Art' book. she knows I love old travel posters.

From Mr C I had this lovely Per Una linen coat I have had my eye on for a few weeks. The photo really doesn't do the colour justice.

He also bought me this gorgeous fabric covered hat box. I love hat boxes and when we were out on Friday I had spotted this and reluctantly walked away convincing myself that I didn't need it. He had sneaked back and bought it for me when I was in another shop and I am so pleased he did.

It came from a beautiful shop called 'Home and Colonial' in Berkhamsted but more about that in my next post.

The little dogs and the Robert Opie book were from my mum and dad. I am not sure of the maker of the dogs but wondered if they might be Sylvac. They have no name on the bottom just a number. If you have any idea please let me know.

Anyway back to house work and Vintage Fair preparations today.

They Are Like Buses !

As the saying goes, none come along and then suddenly there are two or three !

If you read my last post you will know about my lucky find a couple of weeks ago.I have wanted one of these dogs on wheels for ages and haven't managed to find one despite constantly looking. I was really happy when I finally found my terrier on wheels. Anyway, yesterday I was out with Mr C and we visited an antiques centre that we haven't been to for a long time and lo and behold I spotted another one ! He is a little the worse for wear with a missing wheel but I really don't care. Of course he had to come home with me and join his new friend and all for the princely sum of £10 !

Last night was World Book Night and I popped in to an event at my local Waterstones. I came away with these free books which was an added bonus particularly as I wanted to read Toast having loved the TV dramatisation over Christmas.

last weekend I was in London with my lovely girl for our half term treat. We stopped off here and treated ourselves to scrummy chocolates and admired the vintage tins and lovely displays.

We visited the National Gallery and took these photos outside over looking Trafalgar Square.

This amazing ship in a bottle was really high up on a plinth looking out towards Nelson's Column.

In the evening we managed to get tickets to see Legally Blonde the musical with Denise Van Outen. This was great fun and we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. This was the view as we walked back towards our hotel.

The prints below are part of two sets of four I bought at The london Transport Museum. I really like vintage travel posters and these copies of old Underground posters advertising Kew Gardens are lovely.

This week I found the Grindley Peach Petal tea pot in a charity shop. The old Enid Blytons were found for me by a lovely day who spotted them somewhere and thought I would like them.

Mr C found these two 1937 Coronation glasses in a local charity shop. Very apt considering how high profile 'The King's Speech' is at the moment.

I also found this complete Royal Albert tea set in a charity shop. The pink and grey is really pretty and typically 1950s. I have no idea of the pattern name so if anyone can tell me that would be great.

We are now on a countdown to the 4th Northampton Vintage Fair, it is less than two weeks away. I found some very battered old ladybird books in a charity shop last week and Mr C has been hard at work taking them apart and making strings of colourful bunting to decorate the hall for the fair. I have seen this idea on a few different blogs but I think I saw it first on the lovely Joshy and Belle blog at Christmas where some lovely christmasy bunting had been made from robin illustrations.

The three little pigs has to be one of my favourites, after Cinderella of course !