Stars

I spotted this lone star the other night, keeping the moon company just as the sun was starting to set. It shone so bright and beautiful until it was finally got dark and was joined by lots of other stars. It was nice anyway and felt as if it was shining just for me!

I would love to be showing you all the lovely things I have been creating this January and February....but I seem to have become allergic to my sewing machine. The creative juices just aren't happening.  I did get as far as pulling some fabric out of the cupboard the other day, but I'm afraid all I did was look at it for five minutes, before then putting it away!

Sewing mojo, please come back!!

I have taken lots of photos the last few weeks. My Dad was down and looking for inspiration as he has really started oil painting again, so we went for a wander along the beach and took some atmospheric pictures, including the one of The Old Neptune. I bet it is one of the most photographed pubs in England as it sits proudly on the beach.

We have also been busy enjoying the snow today. A good 15 cm fell over Whitstable last night! We loved it today, but I am sure we will be moaning about it tomorrow!

Phew...another Christmas Market done and dusted!

Well I have just returned from another Christmas Market at the Horsebridge in Whitstable and I pleased to say that it was a really good one. Lots of people through the door from the word go and all wanting to buy, which is always a good thing! I did have a great spot, the first table on the left as you arrived in the hall, which meant people also got a second look on their way out!

I'd decided to sell off my Mermaid dollies really cheap as some of them had been hanging around for a while and I'm happy to say they have all gone to new homes now.

At the Christmas Fair last year, I sold lots and lots of cushions - I did sell a few - the embroidered bird cage cushions both went quickly, but what I sold more of this year were the smaller items - needlcases, coasters, bunting, felt envelopes, lavender hearts and houses. But all the pennies add up and I equaled last years money!

So there will be presents under the tree! As the main reason I do the Christmas Fair is for Christmas present money!!

I had a little helper on my stall for the last couple of hours who was very well behaved and spent her time colouring in a picture and helping bag peoples goods up.

There were lots of lovely stalls - I didn't get many pictures of the other ones, but there was a lovely atmosphere and all the other stalls seemed to be of a really good, high quality and quite a variety - despite there being other fabricy people like me, we all had quite different stock that seemed to complement each other

So I will leave you now, exhausted but happy!



Peg bags and handbags

What a difference a week makes hey!

This time last week, here in Whitstable, we were enjoying an amazing Indian summer, blues skys and temperatures of 25 degrees and now we are back in the depths of Autumn - from sleeveless tops to winter coats in 5 days!
Blimey, no wonder us Brits enjoy talking about the weather!!

At least it's not raining at the moment and hanging onto this, I have been trying to catch up on the washing whilst the weather was dry and decided that I was in dire need of a new peg bag.  I am sure I could have sat down, found a pattern and made my own but with pennies to burn in Paypal I decided to have a look on Folksy and support another seller!
I found this little beauty and fell in love! It had to be mine.

Isn't it gorgeous - look at the amazing work that went into the embroidery!

Thank you Nana Marje - I love it and please go and have a look at her little shop.

From peg bags to handbags - I have been meaning to make some bags for ages. I wanted a bag with a zip as I find things always fall out of bags without zips! I'd worked out a while ago, a design and finally got round to making them.

I've kept one for myself  (although forgot to take pictures - will add some soon) and really enjoyed playing with the fabrics for these two that are in my Folksy shop.

My fabulous fifties fabric creeping in again!

My ticking obsession doesn't seem to be improving does it!!

I also had the idea for some personalised fabric envelopes - perfect for weddings, christenings, 21st birthdays, Christmas or any occasion when you might be giving cash or gift vouchers, to help personalise and make the gift a bit more stylish! A couple of these are in my Folksy shop too, so fingers crossed the idea takes off!

Right, I'm off to use my new peg bag before it starts to rain! Have a lovely weekend x



Summery days

My kids were back to school today.
I have to confess, much as I was looking forward to a little bit of peace...I really missed the noisy little monkeys!! I managed to keep myself busy by giving the house a HUGE clean up - I only managed to do upstairs as well, which of course meant a sneaky clear out and tidy of their bedrooms. I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before they realise something they haven't played with or read for the last year is suddenly missing!

Tomorrow I tackle downstairs and I am hoping some time this week to put some sewing ideas into practice as I hardly seemed to have anytime to sew over the summer holiday. We did have lots of family fun together, which is what it is all about.

The photos in this post were all taken at Ramsgate (best ever fish & chips from Peter's Fish Factory - yum!) and Joss Bay where we went for the day in the last week of the holidays.

We finished the day off back home in Whitstable with another gorgeous sunset.

I'll hopefully dust of the old sewing machine this week and have some new bits and pieces for show and tell!

Seaside bunting

I've been a bit lazy with the poor old sewing machine lately, but I did make a few seaside buntings which I left on top of my sewing machine and forgot about!
I finally decided to photograph them and stick them into my folksy shop. They proved so hard to photograph though (which is why I think I had forgotten about them) as it appears we have no nice doorways, windows, wardrobes, sheds etc that would show up the bunting well enough when I tried to take a picture of them!

My 60s chairs came in nice and handy!

I'm still not sure with how they turned out  - they are listed on the chair and then hanging from our oyster picture so you can see them properly.

I normally just take pictures on a white background but I am thinking of opening an etsy shop and have been reading lots of helpful advice re setting up a shop. They suggest that seeing the product as it would be used (a dress on a person rather than model, a girl with a doll rather than on its own etc).

But white looks so clean and lovely!

Hmm still not sure....

By the way you have to look at this beautiful blog - its bloomin gorgeous!!

I want her shed, her jewellery all of the vintage clothes in her shop and hell I'd even go camping if I could do it in half as much style....

60s chairs

I went to a boot fair on Saturday morning and apart from a dvd of 'The Time Travellers Wife' for £2 it wasn't looking too exciting  - no fabric treasures waiting to be discovered.
Then on the very last aisle as me and my daughter were wandering along, a lady happened to get up from a chair  by her stall and as we were on the look out for some wooden fold up chairs and I noticed she had 2, I rushed back to check if they were for sale.
They were looking a little grubby, with a bluey coloured seat but when she said £1.50 each I snapped them up.

I'd gone to the boot fair with my Mother-in-Law as well and when me and D met up with her she informed me they were a genuine pair of 60s chairs, certainly worth more than £1.50! (she had also bagged a gorgeous original oil painting of Thames barges for £7!).

As soon as I got home I got out the Cif and gave them a good clean and was amazed at the gorgeous duck egg blue seat that was hiding underneath the grime!

I am pleased as punch with them and we have all been sitting on them over the weekend in our little sunny spot at the end of the garden!

Nothing feels quite so good as a boot fair bargain does it!
What bargains did you find at the boot fair or charity shop lately?

Whitstable Oyster Festival

I haven't blogged for ages, mainly with all the madness of plays, sports days and fairs that come with the end of the summer term at school. Plus we have had lots of family staying here in Whitstable -  Aunties, Grandparents and cousins who all came along for a little holiday during the Oyster Festival. So it has been an exciting start to the holidays.

The Whitstable Oyster Festival is a week long celebration where we have all sorts of weird and wonderful events, performances, workshops and traditions.

It all kicks off with the landing of the Oysters - which are brought ashore in an old boat and blessed by the local vicar.

The harbour had a fabulous food market - but it was too jam packed to even attempt to take a picture! We did manage to stroke these lovely Newfoundland dogs - although they were a tad smelly!

There was a parade through the town with crazy and very tall aliens (who took a shine to my son!) the local Samba band who are impossible not to dance to!

There has been pavement art...

Beach picnics with cousins....

and seaside walks in the sunshine.

It has been lovely.

I have been making a little a couple of orders for some cushions and bags - but of course, I forgot to photograph them! I still haven't attempted to start the chair from the last post, but thank you for the advice I was given. I think it is going to involve using the cover I have anyway!

I hope the sun is shining wherever you may be!

The good and the bad

The last few days have been a bit of a mixed bag really.
The Summer Market was good...but not as good as the Christmas one  so a little bad and the ugly? Well that was yesterday which was just an awful day, but more about that later!

Lets start with the good.















I had a great pitch at the Summer Market and lots of room to set up my stall. Of course I didn't take many pictures, I always forget!

The very best thing about the day was sharing it with my lovely Mum, who you can see above. I did enjoy spending the day with her and my little lady (no picture of her though - I am rubbish!). So that was all good. I  sold quite a few things so it wasn't a loss at all but there just didn't seem to be quite the same amount of people through the door as last time.

Someone who made an effort to come was the lovely Pomona. It was so nice to meet her and she was every bit as nice in person as she seems in her beautifully written blog. She also brought one of my patchy purses which was very kind of her!  So thank you so much for coming Pomona, it was a pleasure to meet you.

Another visitor was my lovely best friend Vicki - who came for a wander round with her little man. My little D was very excited to see them, in truth I think she was getting a tad bored as stall keeping was not quite as exciting as she imagined, so she was very glad to see them!

So the fair was the good and now onto the bad.

That all happened yesterday just before dinnertime when during a very stupid game in the garden involving tying a rope onto F's bike and attaching it to a toy car as a trailer and then riding round our very small back garden (nothing to do with me I might add!!!). F was in the car/trailer which toppled over and he fell out -  his face landing on something sharp (we are not totally sure what we think it may have been a sharp flint or broken plastic cup) which cut his lower cheek, just above his mouth and nearly went all the way through to his gum.

I will never forget the awful cry F made, my gut just dropped and as I knew something terrible was wrong. He literally had a 2 cm hole in his cheek which freaked me and my husband out. Nice to know neither of us are very calm in a crisis! We did the only thing we could think of - ran and got Vicki! Vicki I am pleased to say was very calm and whisked D away back to her house and we rushed F to the local minor injuries clinic, who freaked out at the thought of sewing up a cut so deep and sent us to Ashford Hospital.

An hour and a half wait later and we had the worst part to come when me, my husband and the ward sister had to hold F down whilst the Dr injected the local anesthetic into F's gaping hole, whilst he screamed his little heart out in agony and fear all the while staring straight at me wondering why the hell I was letting the Dr's do this to him. It was totally horrendous and I felt so helpless. Luckily once it was numb the stitches weren't too bad to do and two stictches and lots of white strips later we were on our way home. All emotionally, physically and mentally drained.

I am totally in awe of this little man.  He was so incredibly brave and strong and just totally amazing. He slept like a baby last night and we kept him off school today and thankfully he doesn't have any pain from it, but please don't let me go through that again EVER!

Now we just have the stitches coming out in 5 days time to look forward to...eeek!

Mini patchwork

I've been busy making and creating this week. Having a good rumage through my fabric stash, I realised I had lots of small fabric pieces crying out to be used. And so my patchy make-up purses were born.

They were a bit time consuming making all the mini crazy patchworks, but I was quite pleased with them - more owing to the lovely fabric scraps I had as most were left over from the scrappy pack I brought from Treefall!

I've also been sewing birdcages - I think they are becoming a new obsession!

I haven't spent the whole week sewing though! As it was half-term I had a really lovely week with the kids and we had a nice sunny day at the beach.

And my little lady was in heaven this week when she spotted this Flamenco dress in a 'new' second-hand shop in town. I had to get it for her and she has worn it non stop ever since! I do love how she calls it her 'flamingo' dancing dress!!

Taking the Plunge

I have mentioned quite a few times the little independent shop Taking the Plunge in Whitstable where I sell my wares and help out in. I realised I had never shown any pictures of this lovely shop and all the special bits and pieces you find inside, so last time I was in I went armed with my camera to share with you this lovely little gem of a shop!

Bracelets galore!

Cards made from vintage cigarette/playing cards (I forget which! they are lovely anyway)

If I had a £1 for every time someone asks if the fabulous crown is for sale! It's not but is one of the many vintage props dotted in amongst everything for sale. Another item not for sale is the vintage tin with the ice-skaters on!

Crumpet & Skirt mugs with saucy fifties bombshells at the bottom.

Behind the counter where there is a 'boy crying' picture, original 70s wallpaper and a lovely lamp.

An old hoover, another shop prop and yes, sadly I am old enough to remember these being used!

Little Bird purses and glasses cases - she is local lady and so talented, I just love her stuff! She doesn't seem to have a blog or anything though.

A couple of my cushions, not much of my stock in there at the moment as I have been making for the fair that I am doing in a few weeks. There are a few mermaid dolls but I forgot to photograph them.

Fly-off-the-shelves bracelets by Stephanie Thornley - made from Spode china pieces and vintage buttons - beautiful.



And finally the lovely old till (that still makes the nice 'kerching' noise when you open it).

Hope you enjoyed a little glimpse of a great shop and next time you are in Whitstable do pop in or you can always have a look online at their shiny new website http://www.takingtheplungewhitstable.com/