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

Fab Time at The Vintage Bazaar

Saturday was an early start for us to travel down to Frome for The Vintage Bazaar.  It was really strange travelling all the way there in the dark, like driving in a tunnel.  I do have some pics of the day but they are on hubby's Iphone so I will upload them to my Flickr account later.

It was lovely to catch up with some old faces and meet some new ones.

True to form I raided Ali's stand as I was next to her which was fatal.  We always buy something from one another.  This gorgeous hand embroidered panel must have been made for a wedding dress, it is exquisitely done, but I will be good and sell it on at some point.

This rather gorgeous round wooden box covered in faded floral fabric just had to come home with me, I purchased it from Tracey of The Vintage Bothy.  It was lovely to catch up with her and M as we haven't seen each other for yonks.

Two lovely beaded garters.

Yet more gorgeous 1920's beaded fringing...as if I need any more.

This lovely old chap just had to come home sporting his rather fetching Edwardian Child's Mohair coat and Vintage hat.  There is a rather lovely picture of him with my hubby over on Sophie's Blog, Fading Grace, she also has some lovely photographs of the day.

Two yummy pink paisley eidy's I couldn't resist from the lovely Cecile and her hubby at Elegance Maison.
A big thank you to Lizzie and Clare for all their hard work and attention to detail that made the day such a huge success for everyone.

The downstairs is now looking more like a theatrical costumiers thanks to all my costumes and textiles but as you know I do have a penchant for the ostentatious!  Have a great week whatever you are doing and a Happy Halloween.

Jo xx

Cottage Industry

The kitchen has been turned into a veritable production line by hubby.  He is in the midst of making dried fruit slices to sell at the Christmas fairs that are coming up.

The AGA drying rack is coming in very handy.

Once the slices are fully dried they are decanted into Kilner jars.

The end result, all packed neatly into cellophane bags and labelled ready to sell.  I have also made up some Christmas Pot Pourri scented with Frankincense and Myrrh.  We decided to make our own dried fruit slices as finding them in the shops was quite difficult, and they can be expensive in a certain craft shop!  They look fab wired onto wreaths or hanging decorations or you can make up your own pot pourri.  

They are all packed and ready for the Vintage Bazaar tomorrow...please come along if you are able to.  Have a great weekend whatever you are doing.

Jo xx

I Could Have Danced all Night........

After the trauma of the last few weeks and recovering slowly from 'Man Flu' I have at last got something lovely to Blog about.  This arrived from the lovely Shirley at Simply Chateau...... 

A gorgeous turquoise silk corseted Tutu dating to the 1920's.  It is absolutely tiny, I reckon a UK size 4 or 6!

I am absolutely thrilled as I never usually win auctions and believe me this one was a close call!

On closer inspection I could just about make out a name written on the original Paris Couture label inside the Tutu....G. Chernova.  We put the name into Google and found nothing but then put the word ballet in also and this is what came up.....

This lovely Ballerina was called Galina Chernova and the photograph looks to date from the 1920's so a similar age to the Tutu.  Unfortunately the website the photograph came from (Russians of Latvia) states that the text is not translated.  We are continuing to try and research more about this ballerina and whether this costume could have once been worn by her at the Paris Opera Ballet.  I will keep on digging and let you know the outcome, exciting isn't it?  Have a lovely week and thank you for all your support over the last few weeks it has meant so much to me and my family.  See you at the Vintage Bazaar on Saturday, now I've got to get a wriggle on and get organised.  Have a great week.

Jo xx