Fab time at the two-day market and SWAP UPDATE!

I know, I know, I should have posted about this last week, but somehow I only seemed to have had a few mins here and there to quickly check some of my favourite blogs and leave a comment. I really had the best intentions, but......... usual story, lol. And because I am somewhat pressed for time, I am going to copy the post from my soap blog. I don't think it matters much, as most of you lovely readers are not soapers and don't know about that blog anyway.

I really didn't know what to expect of this two-day market. I hadn't done a market before, and I hadn't even known about this one until this year. Boy, did I get a pleasant surprise! The market stalls were all set up for the traders, proper traders licences were handed out first thing Saturday morning and displayed prominently, and then we could arrange our goods. I had enough space at the sides of the market stall to put tables up, and I had brought some of my antique French linens and other vintage bits and pieces with me on the off chance. So, on one side of the stall I hung some really pretty French 19th C tops, nighties and..... yep, bloomers, along with a display of vintage French and German linen towels, some laces and buttons, and on the other side of the stall I had a quirky mix off all sorts of vintage stuff.

It worked out brilliantly. The market was so well attended, there was a constant flow of customers. I got to chat with lots of ladies about the wonderful linens I had with me ( I get very enthusiastic about these things ) while my son was doing his bit selling the soaps ( and getting very good at explaining about them as well ). And quite amazingly, I had people queuing up quite frequently when my DS toddled off and I was on my own. It was by far the best event I have had so far, and despite a very wet start on Sunday morning, it turned out as good as Saturday. Everything sold really well, sold out of quite a few soaps and skincare products again, Lavender soap being the first to go of course. French antique nighties, buttons and tins, as well as vintage bits and pieces from 1950s cocktail fork sets to 1960s art glass soap dishes and snakeskin wallets, all sold so well.

Not much in the way of photos, we didn't get the chance really. But here are a few -


Almost forgot, these were the new soapies I took with me for the first time, they were very well received -


I have a couple of very busy weeks ahead of me, making more stock and getting gift packs ready for the upcoming Xmas fairs, but I am quite looking forward to it all.

Right, now to the all important Rainbow Swap. I have heard from a few people that they have almost completed their swapsicles, hurrah. So it won't be too long before some packages will be winging their way to the recipients. I have had soooo much fun finding things for my swap partner, and I know from other people as well that they had a great time, despite sometimes agonising over choices. I trust that you have all been in touch with your swap partners by now. If anybody has not yet made contact, please get in touch with me, and I will try and sort something out.

Liz xxx

JJ - I've entered another realm of Lalaland

Are you sitting comfortably? I wish I was - I can't move. In the past few days I've done an awful lot of clearing out & cleaning as well as repairing & painting outside walls before the winter. Today my Dad came round to help me cut down the dreaded evil ivy that was climbing up the wall past the upstairs window. So, after a thrilling morning on top of the shed breathing in ivy dust and itching for England and a trip to the dump to recycle all the garden waste, I wasn't concentrating very well. I unwittingly ventured further into Lalaland and I'm now exhausted.

What did I do? Well, my ancient VW Scirocco is battered and neglected as I LOATHE, DETEST, and ABHOR cleaning the car. My 10-year-old niece calls it "the bin" and gets very embarrassed when she has to go in it. What happened today then? Definite lack of concentration - not only did I wash it, yes wash it (goodbye 3000 spiders) but I went mad and cleaned the inside of it. I am in shock, but it's quite nice here in deepest Lalaland. I've had a nice soak in the bath and am now working out how to get from the settee to the kitchen to microwave some leftovers for my dinner.

What else? Oh yes. I have been summoned to deepest, darkest Hastings tomorrow to visit Her Ladyship Lizzie. OMG, that means I have to move again and pack up a holdall of stuff to cart over for inspection. Bugger, thought I was in for an evening of being completely splatted on the settee, with the distinct possibility I may sleep here as my bed is looking a VERY long way up those stairs just now.

Oh, and before I forget, on top of all that, I've been busy making things for the swap and at long last have made 2 lots of croap. No, there are no pics because my camera is dead. I'll be in trouble with Her Ladyship but I'm too tired to care LOL. I will post pics on my blog when the camera wakes up again......

Right, I'm off to hobble into the kitchen and see if I can work the microwave. TTFN

Just a quickie

My goodness, I don't know where the days have gone, I seem to have been somewhat busy, lol. Saturday and Sunday I had the bestest ever two day event, I sold out of quite a few soaps and skincare products, sold wonderful French antique linens and bits and pieces, and generally had a fabulous time.
Monday saw the start of the swap and I was busy busy busy emailing everybody and getting swap partners together.
Tuesday, I had to start squirreling away blue bits for my lovely swap partner. I had to do a town walk with a bunch of German school kids first thing in the morning, and thats no mean feat, up and down them there hills here in Hastings, lol, but on the way back to my car, I just happened to pass a few charity shops, which may or may not have had a few blue things in them. Wednesday, my poor darling husband was home sick ( still is ), so I spent most of my time looking after him. Apart from when I went into a different part of the town to do some blue spotting, lol.
Ah, and today is my baby's birthday, he is 22, yikes! We are spending the day looking for a cheap little runabout for him. He desperately needs one so that he can get around for his job ( qualified tree surgeon ). Not that easy, sigh, when his finances are very limited indeed. And this evening, we are celebrating with his favourite chinese takeway ( that hot and sour soup is so goooooooooooooood ). I can see the menu now, lolol, a long list of all sorts of yummies.

So I think I have to wait til tomorrow to upload some photos from the weekend, show some bits and pieces which I managed to find in the CSs, and go into some more details about the week.

Right, off we go again, another car to look at, sigh.....

xxx

Oooh, Monday, swap draw day, yippeee!

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Wow, I am so thrilled that so many of you have joined this swap. We have a total of 22, yep, TWENTY TWO participants! Thank you so much, everybody. I have had such lovely comments and emails from you gals, it seems some of us a just a wee bit excited, teeheee, so excited in fact that you want to have two swap partners! Apologies to the two people whom I couldn't contact due to the lack of email details on their blogs. I did leave messages on the swap post, but didn't hear back from them, so couldn't include them in the swap.

Soooooooooooo, without further ado, lets get on with the partners draw, yes? Or is there anything else we should discuss first? Errrmmm, perhaps Monday is not such a good day for a partners draw? I could wait another day or two, if you wish………….

Ouch, ouch, ok, no more throwing things at me, I get the message loud and clear, I am doing it, honestly, right as we speak ( so to speak, lol ). Look, see? I have written out the names and favourite colours of all you gals,

painstakingly folded them all up nice and neat and put them into this very pretty little heart shaped rosy box,

and now I can start drawing out names, woohoo!

And the first pair out is – RUBY (orange) and LISSYLOU (white), hurrah!

So LissyLou will collect together some lovely little orange bits for Ruby and Ruby will have the pleasure of finding something white for LissyLou. Well, you all know by now how this is supposed to work, so I don’t have to spell it out again and again.

On to the next pairs –

KELLY (pink) and VICKI (grey )

JUANITATORTILLA (white) and JACKIE (green)

KATE (yellow) and FLOSS (blue)

CROAPQUEEN (teal/turquoise) and SARAH (red)

VICTORIA (orange) and MICHELA (violet)

JOY (peach) and JUANITATORTILLA (violet)

CAT (indigo) and STEPH (grey)

POMONA (red) and BEKIMARIE (pink)

ELIZABETHD (blue) and LULULIZ (beige)

MICHELA (black) and JENNYFLOWER (green)

I sincerely hope you are all happy with your swap partners and just as excited as I am about it. I really want this to be a successful swap for everybody, but I realise that some of you don’t know each other at all yet. I think it will be very helpful if we knew a little bit more about each other’s likes and dislikes, so I have prepared just a teeny weeny little questionnaire. Perhaps you could fill it in and email it to your swap partner ( can you make sure please that our email addy is available on your profile ).

QUESTIONAIRE

Of course we all know your favourite colour already, but there are so many variations, some people like their colours very bright, others like them muted, some are just not you.

COLOUR SHADE

Like –

Dislike –

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When I look at all your wonderful blogs, I realise how different our homes all are, we all have such different styles. So please let us know, are you a fifties fanatic, a hippy at heart, an English country girl, a French Chateau style lover, do you love the crazy Seventies, or are you a minimalist, etc etc

HOME STYLE

Like –

Dislike –

PERSONAL STYLE

Like –

Dislike –

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Most of us do like a little bit of bling, not necessarily the diamond kind, lol, but some kind of jewellery. Perhaps chunky and showy, or dainty and elegant, intricate or funky fun, what takes your fancy?

JEWELLERY

Like –

Dislike –

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Ahhh, our beloved handbags, scarves, little woolly hats to keep us warm in the winter, danglies to help us find our keys easier in our handbags, etc etc., don’t we just love our accessories?

ACCESSORIES

Like –

Dislike –

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How do you spend your free time? Do you have any hobbies which keep you busy busy busy?

HOBBIES

Like-

Dislike-

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And to probably the most important bit, our treasured collections! What do you collect? Old tins perhaps? Or lace? Vintage brooches or old ephemera? Vintage or modern fabrics? Anything from a specific decade? I could list hundreds of things here, of course, don’t have the time though, so just tell us what your favourite collections are

COLLECTIONS

Like –

-

-

-

-

Dislike –

Teeheee, you may have noticed that I left a lot of room under “Like”, if you are anything like me, you’ll definitely be into more than just one thing.

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Ok, is there anything else you would like your swap partner to know about you? Tell her here

OTHER

Like –

Dislike -

Just one last thing, if you have any allergies, please let your swap partner know.

Alright, that’s about it re our likes and dislikes. Please get in touch with your partners as soon as possible, I would like to set the deadline for posting your swap parcel for the 19^th October, that should give everybody plenty of time to get hunting around, thrifting, making etc.

I WAS GOING TO MAKE LIFE EASIER FOR US ALL AND EMAIL EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU WITH THE NAME OF YOUR SWAP PARTNER AND THE QUESTIONAIRE. HOWEVER, I HAVE NOTICED THAT QUITE A FEW OF YOU DON'T SHOW YOUR EMAIL DETAILS ON YOUR BLOG PROFILE. I AM MISSING THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE -

VICKI

LISSYLOU

JENNYFLOWER

STEPH

KATE

JACKIE

CAN YOU PLEASE EMAIL ME WITH YOUR EMAIL ADDY SO THAT I CAN PASS IT ON TO YOUR SWAP PARTNER.

Alright, I am off to email my swap partner, woohooooo.

Toodlepip xxx

Needle felting and glorious tins

ARE YOU GETTING USED TO THESE MESSAGES YET? I AM GOBSMACKED, SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE JOINED THE "ALL THE COLOURS OF THE RAINBOW" SWAP ALREADY, THANK YOU SO MUCH, GIRLS. THERE ARE STILL A FEW COLOURS LEFT, SO IF YOU HAVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT IT........... JUST DO IT, PUT YOUR NAME DOWN FOR A COLOUR! PARTNERS WILL BE DRAWN ON MONDAY, YIPPEE!

Remember those felt beads I made whilst we were in France? Well, I had a lot of those wool tops left over, and I had been fascinated by needle felting for a long time, so I decided to give that a go. Now what needle would one use? Nice thick darning needle, a very thin beading needle, normal sewing needle? Errrmm, apparently none of those, lol. When I read up on needle felting, it appeared that there are very special felting needles, deadly little whatsits actually, with barbs! They sounded really cruel, lol, and I wasn't at all sure that I would be able to find one locally. But, as on many occasions before, our lovely little local shop Thimbelina proved to be a little goldmine, they did stock felting needles and even a few wool tops for felting.

Wool tops

Dang, those little darlings are lethal! I have a number of puncture marks on my fingers to prove it. Let me see whether I can get a close up of those wicked little barbs, hmm..... nah, they won't show up, they are tiny, just take my word for it, they might be tiny but they are horrid.

I love all sorts of different corsages, I pin different ones to different jumpers all the time, so naturally I had to try needle felting flowers. It really is very therapeutic, making felt from wool tops, just using a needle and a foam pad. The repetative needle movement is quite soothing, but...... its also great when you are feeling somewhat peed off with somebody or something, stabbing madly at the wool does wonders for getting rid of aggression, lol.

Here are my first three attempts at making corsages using the needle felting technique. They are as light as a feather, so delicate-

First one, embellished with freshwater pearls

Second one, embellished with a gorgeous vintage glass button

Third one, decorated with three vintage orange buttons and a freshwater pearl, quite autumnal

And whilst we are talking of making stuff, I finally got around to taking a few pics of that decoupage box I had been talking about in an earlier post. I had bought some very old embroidery magazines ( 50cents ), which were literally falling to pieces, which was fine with me, because I wanted to decorate a shoe box with them. I could never bring myself to cut up old magazines which were in good order, lol. So I spent a few hours cutting out lots of different patterns, very carefully, mind, because the paper was quite fragile, and then spent a lovely morning in the garden arranging them on the shoe box. Its not finished yet, I need to apply a couple more coats of varnish. The really old magazine has discoloured much more, it is looking quite brown, whereas the other bits have kept their lighter colour-


Ooh oooh, and taking that box out reminded me of the lovely old tins I had found at the vide greniers and in Emmaus. Wanna see them today, or shall I post them later? Oh, alright then, today. Just as well, because I have a two day fair coming up this weekend and might not be blogging for a few days.

Here goes, lots of loooooooooovely old tins, oh, and one box, this one, a lovely fabric covered box-


Lovely set of three toile de jouy print tins
Just look at that gorgeous, intense deep blue




Gorgeous little money box tin, just look at that fab aqua colour on the shields
I love this tin, the bamboo background and the sweet flowers

In the clouds

ONCE AGAIN, BEFORE THE POST PROPER, SOMETHING ELSE (I know, you all hope this is not going to become a habit, lol, me too ). A HUGE THANK YOU TO ALL YOU LOVELY GIRLS WHO HAVE JOINED THE "ALL THE COLOURS OF THE RAINBOW" SWAP. YOU ROCK! I'LL LEAVE IT OPEN UNTIL THE WEEKEND AS WE CAN STILL FIT A FEW MORE PEOPLE IN, AND WILL ANNOUNCE THE PARTNERS ON MONDAY. I AM SO EXCITED!!!

It is yet another gray, miserable looking day here in Sussex. Its funny how different I feel in France when the weather is grey and misty. There I don't mind it at all, because the scenery is so beautiful in any weather. Here, in town, it just puts me off doing anything. Humph. Going out? Nah, can't be bothered, its horrid out there. Do stuff in the house? Well, should do really, but I'd rather be reading blogs. Preparing for the two day fair at the weekend? Yes, I must, and I promise myself I will do it as soon as I have finished with this post. Hmmm. I could make this a very long post, of course, teeheee. But then, you would get terribly bored and go off in a huff never to return. Definitely don't want that. So, I'll be making face masks trios, facial serums, balms this afternoon. Sigh. Oh, and labels, oh joy, working out allergens.

Back to the weather, and France. You see, our cottage in France is right at the top of a hill, overlooking the village in the valley below. Very often in the mornings, the valley is covered with bright white thick mist or even very low clouds, which makes it look like a valley filled with snow, or a glistening lake, whilst we are in bright warm sunshine. Sometimes, we are right in the clouds as well, which is great fun, and makes for quite a mysterious atmosphere. I love watching the clouds getting thinner, the sun slowly poking through, and patches of blue sky appearing above us.
The following photos were taken a couple of weeks ago, when we woke to a world filled with glowing mist. It was really strange, one minute the clouds would thin so that we could see further than the end of our garden, and the next minute it was so thick that the world seemed to have disappeared. We went for a lovely womble with the doggies through this strangely quiet, half seen world.

The sunrise, always worth getting up for, but particularly spectacular that day-

A womble down the GR13, famous walking route, which goes past our cottage


One moment the clouds were thinning-

Only to close up around us again a few minutes later-


The doggies didn't mind at all

Horrid weather

BEFORE I START THE POST PROPER, JUST A REMINDER THAT THE "ALL THE COLOURS OF THE RAINBOW" SWAP IS NOW UP AND RUNNING. I WOULD LOVE IT IF LOTS OF YOU WOULD JOIN AND MAKE THIS A REAL FUN SWAP. CLICK ON THE BUTTON IN THE SIDEBAR TO FIND OUT ALL ABOUT IT.

Its absolutely chucking it down today here in Sussex and I am sighing a lot, remembering that only a couple of weeks ago, we were in France and the temps were in the high 30s. So I looked at my photos again, lol, any excuse will do really. And because the weather here is too horrid to photograph the rest of the vide greniers finds from France, I am just going to post some pics of the cottage and the doggies.

Hector, I love his cheeky grin -

One of my little craft corners in the garden ( mostly mornings, before the sun gets too hot ). I love sitting at that little table. Ooh, thats where I made those felt beads, btw-

Early morning doorbell-

My darling pyromaniac's favourite toy. We were given this lovely old oil drum with those fancy cutouts last year. It came from our most favouritest chef ever, the wonderful person who created the most stunning meals in the "La Petite Auberge" restaurant. Sigh, I am still so upset that he is not there any longer-

My DH built this shutter completely from scratch, using an old door which our dear friend Franck had given us. The old shutter was in a dreadful state, falling to bits really-

Staying with red, I love the intense colour of these berries ( hawthorn, I think )-

And a bit more colour, one of the very few roses I have in the garden in France, isn't it a beauty? It also has the most delicious scent-

I have a few of these hanging between the trees where we usually eat outside-

The littlest window, lol, its so dinky-

And under that little window is this, teeheee-

When the cottage was built in the 1850s, the washing up was done inside under that window in a huge, carved out granite block, and the water would just drain out of that through the extremely thick wall and down over this, errrmmm, beautiful butt, lolol. I think it is absolutely adorable. Oh, btw, the granite sink is still under the window inside.

These gorgeous old tin baths are supposed to be filled with flowers, but as I didn't get to spend the summer at the cottage, they are bare, so bare, sigh-

My beautiful Poppy girl-

YUMMY, my favourite dessert during the summer, fromage blanc with lashings of cream, sugar and freshly picked blackberries, my mouth is watering just looking at the pic-

This ancient beam is above the little door you can see in my craft corner pic above, I love it and can spend ages just studying all the patterns in the old old wood-

Cool dude Hector-