Vintage Fair Finds

Yesterday's Vintage Fair in Market Harborough was great, it was even busier than the last one in Market Harborough even though we had sub zero temperatures. On our drive over in the morning the temperature dropped to -15 degrees but the countryside looked stunning with the trees covered in thick frost.

Of course I had to treat myself to a couple of things including this lovely jar with it's bright red lid from Helen Storey. I am not sure what I am going to use it for yet but it will definitely live in the kitchen with my other red bits of kitchenalia.

Other things I found were the blue rose curtains from Wend of Ticking Stripes, two sweet little 1930s glazed cards for a wedding and a birthday from Vicky of Vicky Loves Vintage and a pretty jug and picture from Jo of Lost Property Vintage.

I found the lovely roses tin on Wend's stall. The daffodils are the ones we had on the tea tables in the tea room, they were displayed in vintage coronation mugs. I love using this vintage Kilner jar as a vase for spring flowers.I bought it from Acorn and Will at lat year's Country Living Fair.

I found this little wooden doll with a pink dress on Adrian's stall. She has found a home with my other two with their yellow and blue dresses.

This wonderful assortment of 1930s reading comprehension cards were from Vicky Loves Vintage.

I found this gorgeous piece of fabric on Wend's stall and will definitely turn it in to some pretty cushion covers.

This lovely barbola plaque was another purchase from Vicky loves Vintage.

It has survived in wonderful condition and is beautifully hand painted.

I have been avoiding helping Mr C with the unpacking of bags and boxes today and instead have been faffing with pictures. I have finally replaced my christmas classroom print in the hall with this one of ducks which is one of my favourites.

The chickens have cheered up today as the snow has started to melt. The poor things were totally bamboozled by their first experience of snow, they refused to budge from these plant pots until Mr C had cleared them a path.

Thanks to everyone who came along yesterday and supported the fair, I had a really enjoyable day talking to lots of lovely people. There are photos of the day over on the fair blog.

Market Harborough Vintage Fair

It would be lovely to see you here tomorrow,there will be over 30 fabulous vintage and handmade sellers as well as lovely tea and cakes to keep your energy levels up. I really hope the rather chilly temperatures don't put people off venturing out although I get the feeling most of our vintage loving customers are a hardy lot.

Market Harborough Vintage Fair

Just a reminder that this Saturday is the 2nd Market Harborough Vintage Fair. It would be lovely to see some of you there. This time there are more stalls than ever with a second room of stalls and lots of new sellers joining us for the first time. As usual tea and cakes are available provided by the hotel. There will be lots of lovely ideas for Christmas presents as well as the usual vintage goodies to treat yourself.

Lull Before The Storm

Things are fairly quiet here at the moment but I can sense the hectic build up to Christmas will very soon be upon us. The house has started to feel quite cosy, we have had a few log fires and I have started trying out some of the festive scented Yankee candles that have just appeared in the shops.

The garden is looking horrendous especially now the chickens have made it their own. However there are still a few flowers brightening things up and I always bring a few indoors to enjoy.

Mr C has been busy preparing for the fairs and renovating various pictures and pieces of furniture. These frames were a boot sale find some time ago. They were dark brown wood and falling apart. I wouldn't have looked twice at them but Mr C knew they could be repaired and that some light paint would show off their pretty detailing.

They still had their original old mounts and just needed the right pictures to set them off.

I remembered that I had these two original Victorian chromolithographs waiting for the right frames and they fitted perfectly. These will come along to a fair with us or find their way to our stand at Brackley Antiques Cellar.

The Christmas build up starts in just over a week's time on Saturday 19th with our second vintage fair in Market Harborough. We are both really looking forward to this as the venue is great and we had a lovely day last time.

The next day we are having a stall at the Winslow Festive Fair which will be good fun but means I will be pretty exhausted by the time I have to go back to work on the Monday morning.

The following Saturday Mr C is having a stall at another fair very local to us. There will be a range of antiques and vintage goodies on offer including some furniture and clothes.

Before we know it we will be in to December and we will be preparing for our Christmas vintage fair in Northampton. This will be our 7th fair at St Matthews in Northampton and we are supporting a local charity by donating raffle prizes for their own fundraising event the following day.

If you are free next Saturday the 19th please pop along to The Three Swans in Market Harborough and say hello, you will be made very welcome.

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.