Captain Pugwash!!

Dirty, smelly Pugs!!

A very dirty Lily

A clean Fonz

Clean Pugs doing 'Pug Runs' round the kitchen.  Yes, we have bathed the Pugs this afternoon and now we are exhausted!!

Jo xx

Yet More Ballet Tutu's

Yes, I have been at it again, with Christmas pressies bought I thought I would treat myself to some naughties.  I'll start at the beginning...it all started with winning some lovely items from Renata in Austria off Ebay, I also follow her Blog Style Revisited.  She mailed me to say she had posted them, one of them being a vintage ballet head dress and I responded saying that I collect antique costumes and love ballet ephemera especially.  She then sent me the details of the most wonderful web site in Holland run by the lovely Merel, please take a look, it is gorgeous, www.demerelbrocante.nl.  

On her site was the most wonderful collection of ballet tutu's dating from the 1920's.  This beautiful pink satin one is now in place on one of my mannequins.  The little tulle tutu is absolutely tiny.

This one also has a dinky little satin leotard with a full tulle skirt and a sweet little matching head dress also trimmed with sequins.

My absolute favourite has to be this beautiful 20's lavender ballet dress with a gorgeous pearl appliqué stitched carefully to the front.  It has layers and layers of frothy tulle.

......It even has frilly pants!  They all have labels in them saying 'Patsy Richter Ballet' but sadly we cannot find out anymore.  perhaps they were travelling players?  The pieces are handmade but not couture pieces so I would imagine they came from a small ballet/theatre company and not one of the larger company's.

The downstairs now resembles a theatrical costumiers in a winter wonderland but I love it.  I love the eccentricity of it all and being surrounded by all these wonderful old costumes that were once on stage, the only problem is I'm running out of room!  I will show you the items from Austria when they arrive.  I'd better get back to the housework as Mum and John will be here on Friday and I'm on a go slow as I've hurt my back (again)!!  Have a great week.

Jo xx

Last Fair of the Year & Christmas Shopping.

The Vintage and Handmade fair on Saturday was my last fair for the year and was certainly one of my best.  The doors opened at 10 am to crowds of eager Christmas shoppers.  The stands looked amazing and I was only sorry I didn't really get the time to go around and have a proper look.  Hubby has taken some pictures on his Iphone  and I will get him to upload them to my Flickr account as I haven't got a clue how to do it!  Hen and Niki both have written wonderful Blog posts about the day and have taken some lovely pictures so if you pop over to their Blogs you will see how fab the day was.  once again Michele and Jayne worked very hard to make the day so special, so a big thank you to both of them.

I was unusually restrained when it came to buying but I did buy Mum's Christmas pressie which I can't show as I know she reads my Blog!  I couldn't resist these beautiful silks and spools of metallic thread from Sallie Ead, she told me they came from Paris and date to about 1900.

They are all the most vibrant and stunning colours.  

Yesterday, Louis surprised me by taking a day off college to come Christmas shopping with his old Mum, pretty good for an almost eighteen year old don't you think?  We ended up in Matlock and horror of all horrors it was blizzard conditions and absolutely freezing!  Thankfully the snow wasn't settling as the ground was wet but we could see it up on the higher ground in the distance.

These two pretty little EPNS dishes had to come home as did the mini antique corsage.

The Victorian glass dome was a great find which I have housed my cherub bust under for the moment but I will probably sell it at a fair next year.

A sweet little French trinket box, French pin cushion and some vintage knitting and crochet hooks in their original case dating from about 1836!  We did also buy hubbys Christmas pressies which I can't show you as he reads my Blog!!

After a lovely day out with Louis I had another surprise, Hubby produced some flowers for me when he arrived home from work.....so all in all a fabulous weekend and great start to the week.  Hope you are all having a great week also.

Jo xx

PS.  Just walked into the kitchen to make coffee and saw this.....

Lily Pug piled on the others!

A Little Festive Floristry

Hope you are all having a great week so far.  I am in the midst of getting ready for the Christmas V&H fair this coming Saturday.  I have loads of new goodies to sell as I have been busy buying and saving things ready for the fair.

I have been turning my hand to a little creative festive floristry in readiness for the fair.  I have had these two beautiful cast iron urns for ages and have decided to part with them.  They are planted up with Hyacinth bulbs and Moss, then finished with some vintage French initial tape.  The pot in the centre is just simply planted with a Hyacinth and moss and finished with a large red wooden heart in an antique Sankey pot.  The smaller two at the front are planted with moss with a fir cone wired and placed in to the moss then just finished simply with tape and small wooden hearts....very easy to do and looks quite effective.  The pots and hearts can then be used for other projects when the Hyacinths have gone over.

When we arrived home last Saturday a lovely large parcel was waiting for me.  Julie at The Cloth Shed had sent me these gorgeous presents for my forthcoming birthday...yes, it's that time of year again!  

She has sent me a beautiful shabby chic faded floral drawstring bag, a framed fragment of antique quilt, two stunning hand made lampshades and a heart made from a vintage quilt, and my name in little wooden print blocks.  The lampshades I am going to use in our bedroom when I have found two matching wooden lamp bases for the bedside tables.  Thank you Julie, it was such a wonderful surprise, and I love them all.  

Have a great week and hope to see you at the Christmas V&H fair on Saturday.

Jo xx

New Treasures

I have returned to Blog land after a bit of an absence.  To be honest nothing much has really happened in my world apart from turning painter and decorator to spruce up the kitchen which I will do a post about at a later date.  Yesterday we loaded the van and set out for Market Harborough in Leicestershire, a lovely market town.  Ann and Trevor had organised the second of their vintage fairs in the town centre.   As usual there was a wonderful mix of lovely stands with lots of temptation on offer.

This was the first lovely find of the day, a stunning Victorian Celery vase (even though I detest celery) it had to come home.  It has the word Celery etched on the front with decorative ferns around it.  The vase came from the lovely Wendy (Ticking Stripes) and would look stunning with a nightlight in for Christmas or even for it's intended purpose.  Inside are a selection of antique chandelier crystal droplets.

The silver candlestick would look stunning on a Christmas table.  I also purchased the long antique chandelier drops from Bryony who has the most stunning items for sale.

Two sweet little Victorian bisque dolls house dolls, and a miniature pin cushion from Chris.

The terrible twins, two tiny bisque dolls house dolls.  Debbie (Home thoughts from Vintage wants) who collects dolls told me that they date from the early 1900's. 

Beautiful vintage wedding shoes in their original box from Heather at Hellish Designs.

A sweet little box from Debbies sister and hubby.

Little vintage wedding cake decorations in their original box from Bryony.

Possibly my favourite purchase of the day, an antique silvered glass witches ball from Chris.  I have got the age old dilemma of 'do I sell, or do I keep?'  I must be the most rubbish antique dealer on the planet as I always do this...I want to keep everything!

Thank you to everyone who made a purchase from me yesterday and it was lovely to meet up with fellow bloggers.  Thank you to Ann and Trevor for all their hard work that went into making the fair such a lovely day for everyone.  Have a great week.

Jo xx

Hats & Carpet Bags

As you all know I have a penchant for vintage carpet bags.  They seem to be like buses, you don't see any for months then they all come along at once.  A recent trip to Newark unearthed this beauty....

A rather unusual bag with the traditional tapestry carpet top and a leather covered wooden box underneath which has it's own key.  Both keys came with it and the locks still work perfectly.

My latest find, a large vintage carpet bag in good condition.

Hubby treated me to this beautiful cloche hat for my coming B'day.  My feeling is that this hat pre dates the 1920's and is more circa 1918 so more Downton Abbey than roaring 20's.

It is made from black velvet and decorated with the most beautiful leaves and flowers.

Clarissa is modelling it for me as I don't really 'do' hats...I'm not quite elegant enough!

Have a great week everyone.

Jo xx

Happy Halloween

We had a fab time last night with our Halloween celebrations, I'll leave you to enjoy the pictures.

Scary Pumpkins.

Scary hanging heads!

Bodies in the garden!

Party pooper...some people can't take the pace!

The Angel of Death

Devil Pugs!

Enter if you dare.

Scariest of all, alcoholic nuns with horns!

Hope you all had a great time, we did as you can see from the pictures.  Have a wonderful week.
Jo xx