Vintage At Hampton Court Flower Show

Yesterday on what must have been the hottest day of the year so far we headed off to the Hampton Court Flower show. After a long, hot drive we reached the magnificent Hampton Court with it's stunning gardens.

I love the regal avenue of yew trees, they are such a beautiful dark green and wonderful shapes.

Inside the flower tents were beautiful displays of some of my favourite flowers.

The ferns looked wonderfully cool and shady on such hot day. They were displayed by Fernatix who have appeared at Chelsea and on Gardener's World.

I love sweet peas and bought seed for the lovely dark pinky red ones in the top right hand corner. They are called 'Fields Of Fire'.

A table set for tea in a country garden

I thought these looked spectacular together

This year there was a vintage theme at the show. I wasn't expecting this so along with the Country Living marquee and the Vintage marquee I was very happy.

There was a theme of vintage village fete and tea on the lawn and the marquee was beautifully decorated with bunting.

The chair was completely made from plants as was the tea pot and cup cakes.

The blue cushion on the Lloyd Loom chair was made out of delicate flower heads.

These were some beautiful posies on Jane Packer's stand.

The show gardens were interesting but struggling in the heat.

This one wasn't my usual sort of style but it looked so cool and inviting.

In the rose tent there was a theme of A Midsummer Nights Dream. The David Austin roses were beautiful as always.

We left at the end of the day as the sun was starting to go down and we watched the green parakeets flying wild over the lovely gardens.

A Coat Of Paint And A New lease Of Life

You may remember this pretty table as one of my car boot finds a few weeks back. It is quite Arts and Crafts in style and has a little heart detail. It was heavily varnished dark wood but I decided to give it a coat of Farrow and Balls 'Off White'. It took a bit of work in the garden over the weekend needing a couple of coats of primer first to cover the varnish. I like the result and the off white stands out and gives a bit of contrast against the other Farrow and Ball white in the background.

I found the pink and green doilies at a boot sale on sunday and immediately put them to use.

You may also remember the fire screen that I bought at an auction a few weeks ago. It also was a dark wood so I gave it the same treatment as the table and I think it looks a lot fresher and shows the faded colours of the tapestry off better.

Sunday morning was pretty fruitful at the boot sale and I came home with quite a collection of goodies. You will be able to spot coloured knitting needles, pieces of Carlton Ware,a few tins, the usual bits and bobs of crockery and glass ware, another jelly mould and another glass sugar pourer decorated with flowers similar to one I showed in a previous post. I will be listing some of these bits in my Etsy shop later.

This vintage paper parasol was a real find as were the fabric covered coat hangers and the quilt.

This little quilt I think was made for a child's bed. The man I bought it from found it when he was clearing the outbuildings and attic at a large old hall near Uppingham. He dated it to around 1920 or a little earlier. It is really pretty cotton fabric with a thin wadding in the middle and then silk hand stitched on the back. Although I love vintage textiles I know very little about them and would love any advice or information you could give me about this little quilt.

The coat hangers came from the same place and I think the fabrics are possibly 1930s.

After the early start of the boot sale we headed to the Fish Market for the first Vintage and Collectables Fair organised by the Northampton Antiques Centre. It was lovely to browse and enjoy a coffee and catch up with a few friends and fellow sellers. Hopefully these Sunday fairs will become a regular monthly event.

Enjoy the rest of your week, hopefully the sunshine will return in time for the weekend.

A Day In The Cotswolds

Friday started off slightly grey and wet but as Mr C and I had the day off and my lovely girl was in London all day with her friends, we decided to have a trip out. We both love the Cotswolds and parts are within easy reach of home. We headed off and the weather immediately started to improve. First stop en route for some lunch was the pretty village of Deddington. I had a delicious lunch of homemade pate and crusty bread. I then popped next door to the quaint Deddington Antiques Centre . My best purchase of the day was a Lloyd Loom style set of shelves with faded sea green paint. They were being used to display old linens but of course I had to ask if they were sale and the lady quickly unpacked them and agreed to let me have them. I have wanted some of these for a long time but have never seen any for sale.

I knew straight away what I would use them for, a little spot on the landing between the bathroom and loo.

They look a bit empty still but I will gradually fill them with more of my seaside themed bits and pieces.I positioned them underneath my two Vernon Ward seaside pictures. The two colourful pictures at the top are covers of the 'Girls Own' from the 1930s. I bought them last year because I just loved the cover illustrations.

The Deddington Antiques Centre is well worth a visit. It has around four floors full of little rooms crammed with linens, blue and white china, vintage clothing and jewellery.

Next stop was Chipping Norton and I found a couple of old glass sweet jars in the local charity shop. Of course I had to pop in to this little shop and came away with a sweet little nursery ware plate for a few pounds.

We carried on to pretty Chipping Campden and had a delicious cream tea. I thought these worn stone steps were really pretty.

Hollyhocks are one of my favourite summer flowers and they looked amazing growing at the front of these gorgeous stone houses.

On the way home we stopped off at Moreton-In -Marsh and a beautiful village called Blockley where we spent a wonderful holiday when my lovely girl was very little.

My lovely girl had been in London for the day with her friends. They had gone to see Les Miserables , mainly because Nic Jonas (one of the Jonas Brothers, American band much loved by teenage girls) had a starring role. She returned home with some lovely Cath Kidston goodies, some tea towels for me from the sale and this gorgeous Stanley dog for us both to share. He is pink on one side and blue on the other and apparently part of the new Kids range.I thought for a minute that she was finally starting to see the light on the vintage loveliness front but that was shattered a few minutes later when she shouted ' what's this disgusting thing on the landing ?!' obviously referring to my lovely new shelves. Oh well I think she has made some progress.

Giveaway Results

Today was the grand draw of my first ever giveaway. Thank you to everyone who entered and thanks to those who linked from their blog, I gave you all an extra entry in the giveaway. Mr C was given the task of drawing the names out of his new Father's day hat.

First of all the Vintage giveaway.........

and the name out of the hat was Lissy lou

Congratulations I hope you like the vintage goodies that will be on their way to you.

Next was the Crafty giveaway......

and the name out of the hat was the Mad House

well done , I hope you enjoy the Kaffe Fasset book. Please can you both email me your addresses, my email is on my profile.

I thought I would show you a few of this week's charity shop finds after a good wash in hot soapy water.

I love these delicate yellow cups and saucers with matching tea plates

The flowery glass was the grand price of 10p and the pretty glasses etched with ferns were a purchase from Carol at Northampton Antiques Centre.

The pink alarm clock is in full working order but does have a loud tick ! The water colour was in a dirty, ugly frame, I actually quite like it unframed and propped on a shelf.

Enjoy the rest of your week. I am having Friday off work to have a day out with Mr C so will probably be back to share a few pictures of my day out and hopefully a few more vintage finds.