Nothing Compares 2 U

Ok first I must apologise for a very self-indulgent post, feel free to leave if you have no interest in Prince!. On Sunday, me and my other half had a rare child-free day out as we went to the Hop Farm Festival in Paddock Wood.  In my late teens I was a huge Prince fan and to this day I still think he is a musical genius.  I went to see him perform when I was about 16 and again in 2007 when he did 21 nights in a row at the O2 in London - live he is pretty incredible.

So it was a bit of a shock back in May when Prince was annouced as the headline act on the third day of the Hop Farm Festival - a fairly small festival only in it's 4th year. Prince hadn't played in the UK since 2007 and had never peformed at a Festival here. And now he was going to be playing in a field in the middle of Kent! It was so bizarre that well, we had to get tickets and my lovely husband spent a morning  ringing up and managed to get us a couple.

So with the children left at the Grandparents we headed off. I am so glad we did, we had a really amazing day with the other artists Alo Blacc, Eliza Doolittle, Imelda May, Larry Graham and Tinie Tempah on before Prince and who all helped build a great atmosphere.

We also had amazing weather, with gorgeous sunshine all day - not a muddy welly boot in sight!

We thoroughly enjoyed lazying in the sunshine and L especially liked these mobile beer men, who came and filled up your glass so you didn't even need to queue up at one of the bars!

 Finally, a little bit late,  Prince came on and peformed for a solid 2 and a 1/4 hour set. L has never 'got' him before, finding him too weird but Prince has certainly mellowed in his old (53) age.

It was discovering that he has a sense of humour that sold it to L though. After peforming a beautiful version of 'Nothing compares 2 U' Prince joked that is wasn't his song but Sinead O'Connors, to which the audience all booed and jeered. Prince smirked and said 'Hey I brought me a house with that song'! He is certainly a bit more normal - still not quite your average 53 year old though!

He can sing and dance like a 20 year old and my god the man can play a guitar!

 It was so brilliant to be up close and actually be able to see him peform in the flesh and not just on the screen. I am so glad for whatever reason he did decided to do this little Festival (it is totally independent and not sponsored which I think was part of the attraction sold by Vince Power the organiser) as it was such a different experience to seeing someone so famous somewhere like the O2, where you are so far away.

There was no pre-rehearsal so the critics have all said it was much more like one of his after show parties as he started with a soundcheck (a jam!) and was constantly yelling out instructions for lights and musicians so it all felt a bit less regimented.  It was a beautiful  night and one that I will remember forever.  I am so glad L got to experience seeing him live and loved it as much as me and I got to be there with him. See L, sometimes I really am right!

Ok, indulgent post over - I promise not to do it again!!!!!

Little stitches

Thanks so much for all the comments in the last post. It really meant a lot, so thank you.

Just a quick post after all your nice comments I thought I would update on F's cut.

So after the horrible accident and the horrific trip to hospital, he didn't complain once all week about the tape and stitches on his face and thankfully the cut didn't seem to hurt him at all - must be my pain threshold obviously, and not my husbands!

He had one nice day off of school letting the cut heal a bit and setting a train set up in the garden and settling himself down to watch it go round and round.

Then he was back to school and totally fine. The white butterfly stitches fell off on Sunday revealing the cut and other stitches underneath, which looked pretty scary to me. I was dreading the stitches coming out, which happened yesterday.

But my little boy amazed me again. Thanks to Nurse Viv, who was lovely and a true expert she managed to get them out without a whimper.

There was a bit of a scab half hanging off this morning, but the boy has far more patience than me as I would have been picking at it non-stop, but he has left it totally alone!

The Doctor did a lovely job sewing up (her hand sewing if far better than mine!) and I do think he will only have a small scar. 

Once it has healed a little more I was thinking of getting some Bio-oil for it - unless anyone out there has any other creams/ointments they can reccommend to fade facial scars?

Thanks again - hopefully my next post will be something a bit more cheery!

Ps Totaly unrelated but I couldn't resist putting it in, the picture below shows D dressed up for her space day at school - she decided she had to go as an Alien!

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!

M is for Make

Only a few more days until the Summer Market I am taking part in. I am very excited to be taking part, especially as my Mum is coming along to help out as well as well as the kids - although I think they might only last an hour or so!

 I've been making and making and making and think I am nearly there with my stock.

 I've managed to make four baby pram/cot quilts.....











A few more patchy purses in different colours.

Some seasidey bird cushions...

'Oh I do like to be beside the seaside' bunting... the perfect size to hang in a window, over a mirror or in a beach hut doorway...

A few mermaids - just waiting for bikini tops, bags and certificates!

Now I need to get on with printing out all the labels and getting everything priced!

If I get time I am hoping to make 'something' (not sure what yet!) with these gorgeous fabrics that I brought this week from M is for Make .

I just couldn't resist! It is such a gorgeous website with lots of patterns and fabrics - I only got these fat quarters but was highly tempted to buy more. I think the pink and green trees are my favourites!

Now, what to make?.....

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/

Summer Market makes

It suddenly hit me over the last week that the Horsebridge Summer Market I signed up to do a few months back is now in less than 4 weeks time!  Eek! I have got lots of ideas for things I want to make but I hadn't made that much stock.  As I did really well at the Christmas Horsebridge Fair, I knew this was mainly due to have a huge amount of stock on my stall - the more there is the more you are likely to sell seems to work for me anyway!

So I have finally started making some bits and pieces ready for my stall and thought I would give you a few sneaky looks at what I will have on offer on the Simply h stall....

Hmmm it's all looking a bit blue at the moment and can you tell what my 'theme' seems to be!