Thankyou

I have been very lucky over the last few days, receiving a number of lovely unexpected surprises. January can be such a miserable month, it has really cheered me up receiving these kind gifts.

First of all I was lucky enough to win the giveaway on Maria's great blog, 'country style living'. I won this fab book that I had been reading about in the latest edition of Homes and Antiques magazine. It is full of great ideas and lovely pictures. I was really excited to win this as I never win anything and have never won anything in a giveaway before, so thank you Maria very much.

Today I received a surprise parcel from my sister in Scotland. She has recently started sewing and crafting and I had sent her my much loved Cath Kidston cardigan that Mr C had unfortunately put through a hot wash. I thought she might find some use for it at her craft group. She has turned it in to this lovely cuddly cushion for me and I love it. The photo really doesn't do it justice and the colour is actually much brighter.

On Saturday my mum left me a bag of bits and pieces that had come from my grandma's house. Amongst the things were lots of pieces of ephemera including the brochure for her old Rolls Rapide twin tub and her copy of ' The Big book Of Needlecraft' which I thought had been lost.

This original Lloyd Loom 'Lusty' linen basket , upholstered in pretty vintage fabric was a present from Mr C after he saw me admiring it at a vintage fair before Christmas.I fell in love with the faded fabric and original worn paint.

Saturday was The vintage Jumble organised by Mr C. It was a great success and amazingly busy considering it is January. It was good fun and really nice to catch up with so many people.

There was an amazing array of goodies on offer but I was incredibly restrained. I did treat myself to this cute egg cup from Jo of Hesta Nesta.

I bought this pretty bolt of fabric from another Jo although I have no idea what I will use it for.

I also found this old wooden scoring board that for some reason appealed to me.

On a sadder note I lost one of my lovely chickens just over a week ago when she suddenly became unwell and died. I had only had her a few months but I had already become quite fond of her. Happily my other two are still as lively and inquisitive as ever and laying lots of lovely eggs.

Christmas At The Corner House 2011

This Christmas has been lovely and quiet following a rather hectic lead up to the big day. The last couple of days have been spent relaxing in front of the tv, sleeping, eating and drinking.

Mr C painted his 'Christmas Twig' as decoration for the Vintage Fair just before Christmas. It came home with us and somehow stayed. Mr C used all of my most brightly coloured vintage glass baubles to decorate it and I think it looks lovely and cheerful.

My favourite vintage 1940s Disney decorations were brought out along with the vintage American Santa match box and vintage Steiff robin which was a charity shop find last year.

Vintage festive classroom prints were hung

and pretty vintage baubles displayed in old glass bowls.

I like my kitsch Cath Kidston reindeer decoration although Mr C is not so sure.

I love this gorgeous tin bought from Gail and her sister at our last fair. I really can't resist tins and seem to have them all over the house.

This is the fab vintage pop up book I bought last year.

The dogs joined in the festive fun.

I love the colours of this poinsettia Mr C bought me.

Yet another tin !

Little felt Cath Kidston dogs as well as the pretty candle my lovely girl bought me last year.

This year I stuck to pale colours on the tree and used all my crystal and vintage silvery and pale pink and blue vintage glass baubles.

The brighter colours looked great against the white branches of the 'twig'.

The lovely stocking I bought from Jo of Hesta Nesta last year was hung on the fireplace.

Mr C surprised me with this beautiful vintage book of dog drawings by an American artist. The quality of the paper and printing makes them look almost like the originals. The book was sold with the idea the prints could be removed for framing.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a relaxing break. I am off now for another slice of our home made christmas cake and another cup of coffee x

Dogs and Chickens

Another dog on wheels has recently joined my collection, this little chap was found at Brackley Antiques Cellar and I couldn't resist him.

This is my lovely Josh proudly modeling his red rosette he won in the summer. We entered him in his first ever dog show which was held in the local park for charity. We were so happy when he won first prize in his category. My dog on wheels now wears it and looks very smart.

This week my lovely girl and I had our traditional half term trip to london. This was the view outside St Pauls along with lots of TV cameras.

We popped in to VV Rouleaux and bought some ribbon. This is to hang some pretty glass chandelier droplets I have been saving for Christmas and also to hang some lovely old rusted French keys.

Of course we had to visit Cath Kidston and I stocked up on some of the christmas goodies.I really like the bird design featured on the wrapping paper and cards.

Some of you know that in the early summer this pretty pair moved in. It wasn't long before it became obvious that Eliza on the left was not a she but a he. Thankfully after a stressful few weeks of wondering when the neighbours would start complaining we managed to re-home him to a friend of a friend in the countryside. We were sad to see him go but really had no choice and hopefully he will enjoy his new home where he can make as much noise as he likes.

Last week we decided the time had come to find some friends for Sasha and these two lovely girls have now started to settle in with us. There has been a bit of bickering but they are starting to accept each other. We finally have our first eggs which is exciting. Sasha still isn't laying which is a bit strange as she is definitely old enough but we will just have to be patient.

Neither have names yet but this one is a Columbian Blacktail made famous by Waitrose as their egg laying breed.

The black and gold one is a Rhode Rock.

Finally I am not too sure what Sasha is but I have been told that when she does start laying they will be blue eggs.

This morning we made pumpkin soup adapted from the BBC Good Food Guide recipe and it was rather scrummy. We had bought a couple of pumpkins to make Halloween lanterns and really didn't want to waste the flesh.I tried to tempt the chickens with the seeds but they were unimpressed.

Happy Halloween for tomorrow.

My Special Stanley Calendar

I am afraid I have been rather absent from blogland recently but the weeks seem to fly by and I don't spend so much time at my computer in the summer months. I guess now the days are getting shorter I will be spending more cosy evenings indoors catching up with my favourite blogs.

When I was Edinburgh a few weeks ago I popped in to the gorgeous Cath Kidston shop. To my amazement I spotted this sweet dog treats tin and packs of playing cards with this lovely image of 'Stanley' on the front. Nothing unusual in that I guess you are thinking. However a couple of years ago I acquired some gorgeous 1940s ex-shop stock calendars with this lovely terrier picture on them. I sold a few through my Etsy shop and at my unit at the Brackley Antique Cellar. Of course I kept one or two aside for myself and have had one on display since I bought them. Around 18 months ago I sold one from my Etsy shop to Cath Kidston headquarters in london. I thought that one day it might pop up in a picture of a room setting in the magazine or as a display piece in a shop. Anyway I had totally forgotten about it until I walked in to the shop in Edinburgh and there it was on the shelf. It is currently on the website as one of 'Cath's Favourites'.I have to say the original image on the calendar is far lovelier than the reproduction but I couldn't resist bringing the tin home with me.

A few weeks back was the Northampton Vintage Fair which was great fun and very well attended. I treated myself to these little dogs from one of our lovely new sellers , Bryony. She will be joining us again on Saturday at Olney and at Market Harborough in November.

I couldn't resist this lovely cushion from Vicky of 'Vicky Loves Vintage' another of our regular sellers.

This pretty rose print was another recent purchase from Suzette who has a beautiful stall selling mainly her hand made items under the name of 'Hearts n Kisses'.

I have had a few lucky boot sale finds although nothing like the amount in previous years.I was really pleased with this enormous pile of vintage fabrics and curtains I found at a recent boot sale. It includes bark cloth, Sanderson linens, and lots of floral fabrics.

This is a large piece of screen printed Sanderson fabric which is beautiful and very unusual.

I love this sunflower bark cloth and pretty 50s apron.

There are three different vintage Sanderson floral linens, my favourite is the gold coloured one on the top.

These 'atomic' 50s curtains are not really my taste but still pretty amazing. I am no expert but they remind me of a lot of the Eames era designs.

And last but not least this enormous vintage Girl Guide/Scout camp blanket. The actual wool blanket has a label dating it to the 1940s. The badges sewn on to the blanket date it from the 1960s onwards. It has a hole in the middle which has been bound to create a poncho to wear whilst sitting around the camp fire. Definitely another Cath Kidston original I would say.

Saturday is the second Vintage Fair to be held in Olney and there are going to be some wonderful sellers attending. Unfortunately I will have to miss this one as I am in Leeds with my lovely girl at another Uni open day. Mr C will be there as usual, hopefully keeping everything under control without me flapping around panicking about something going wrong.

I will be back next week with news of a very special giveaway.