ABBA Happy New Year

I can hardly believe this Abba song was released 27 years ago. Listen to it for some nostalgia!

Happy New Year

Well here we are on the last day of 2007 going forward to another year and wondering what 2008 will bring. On a personal level I hope we get to move house, that the chain at the bottom starts to move and the house we put in an offer on months ago is still ours for the wanting. I hope that my daughter's dream job isn't, after all, part of the redundancies package which has been announced where she works and I hope that all us vintage enthusiasts are inundated with orders as others decide, too, that the vintage look is for them!

I recently posted about old and new friends and no sooner had I done so I made a new blog friend. Michele from Cowboys & Custard telephoned me in response to a comment I left on her blog about living in Coverack in Cornwall.

It seems we had both lived there in the 60s and despite not remembering each other we had a long conversation finding that we had known so many of the same people , reminding each other of some we had forgotten. Thankyou so much for contacting me Michele and that 'journey' down memory lane.

I wish you all a very Happy New Year and a prosperous 2008. Thankyou all for your comments and friendship throughout 2007.

(Hope you enjoy the YouTube Happy New Year above.)

I'm dreaming of .........

I was sent this ecard and just LOVE it. Click on the link to listen to Santa and the reindeers singing. You will have to turn off my music player and may have to turn up the volume.

http://gpsinformation.info/main/merryxmas.swf

Friends Old & New

Last weekend my friend Janice from Cornwall (on the right) came to stay. We have been best friends for 44 years! This picture was taken when we were 14 years old. We've been friends through all stages of our lives - as teenagers, our weddings, our first homes, our babies, toddlers and then having teenagers ourselves. Now we are middle aged ladies (though we hate to admit it) with grown up children and our conversations are no longer about boys and the Beatles and now are more likely to be about hot flushes and how we don't want to be grannies........yet!

Last night I had a dinner party for more of my close friends, the newest being Jane (co website owner) of 2 years and the longest one of 17 years. We toasted 'Friendship' and I also thank all you new friends I have made through blogging for visiting my blog and leaving comments. I wish you all a very Happy and Peaceful Christmas.

Christmas Lights

I leave these Ikea lights out all year round as I like them so much. The heart shaped one is hard to find as they sell out really quickly. I thought I would look on ebay for a friend who wanted one and shock, horror, the last three sold for £36, £45 and £102!! Considering they cost approx £16 this is amazing!!

Last week I went to London with a friend. Harrods had fake snow blowing off from the top of the building.

It was really busy (of course). This is the food hall.

We had reserved a table for lunch in Harvey Nicholls as it was more of a day out than a shopping trip for us. The meal was delicious - we had Pate, then Butternut Squash Risotto and one of the best Pinot Grigios I have ever tasted. The whole experience was wonderful and I shall definitely go again.

The day after I went to visit my friend Lianne who has recently opened a unit at a craft centre near Andover in Hampshire. She owns a company called Fabricraft and she is able to run her business and sell her lovely items in this shop. I bought some pretty materials from her.

This weekend I have been busy lining wicker baskets. Here is one I lined with Laura Ashley material.

Linens & Soaps

The postman brought some lovely things in the post this morning. I used to subscribe to 'English Home' magazine and was persuaded to renew my subscription with the promise of these Cath Kidston soaps which I just love. They are £12 to buy in her shops.

Regular readers of my blog will know that my 82 year old mother enjoys being a 'runner' for my website! She attends lots of sales and car boots looking for things for me to sell and I often pop down to Cornwall to collect more stock. Sometimes she posts them, particularly linens and this morning I received a package of the most beautiful things.

This Irish lawn single bedspread is exquisite and I think it would look lovely as a curtain which I've quickly tried to photograph. Does anyone know what this type of 'embroidery' is please?

There is also a large case measuring about 4 ft by 3 ft so too large for a continental pillowcase, I wonder if it was intended to be used on a child's bed as it is embroidered with the name 'Margit'. It also has the most intricately sewn handmade buttons along the bottom edge and pretty lace edging.

Apparently all this large tablecloth was embroidered by a man (the seller's grandfather).

There was even more but I won't photograph all of it.

The Bear Nobody Wanted

The Bear Nobody Wanted
Many years ago I came upon a jumble sale. Unfortunately it had more or less finished and already someone had come in to collect all that was left for rags for his business. I happened to spy this bear that nobody had bought and I rescued him for 5p. How could he have got left with nobody wanting to buy him? He has obviously been well loved and cuddled and so I brought him to a new home where he has now lived for about 20 years.

Christmas Boxes

I have already received two Christmas cards but I refuse to put them up! It's still 5 weeks away! We went Christmas shopping on Saturday and already the shops are manic, queuing for the car park, queuing at the tills and more queuing just to get something to eat. We don't buy a lot of presents as we both come from very small families and a couple of years ago my mother and I decided to give to charity rather than each other.

Our particular favourite is Shelterbox who provide emergency aid for victims of natural and other disasters anywhere in the world. As soon as it is needed they provide shelterboxes – a tough, green plastic box containing a 10-person tent and ancillary equipment designed to enable a family of up to 10 people survive for at least six months. Following the cyclone in Bangladesh on Friday they aimed to despatch 230 boxes within 24 hours. If you are interested in helping this charity a box costs £490 but whatever you donate helps (£15 provides an axe, shovel and hoe).

Nepal 2007

Pakistan 2005

Kenya 2007

Weekend in Kent

Last weekend we stayed with a couple of friends in an old coach house in Kent. This was the 4th property we have stayed in managed by Rural Retreats as we know they will be of consistently high quality with beautiful decor. This one was like stepping into a magazine!

This was the garden looking out from this kitchen. I want this kitchen!!!

Here is hubby relaxing in the sitting room ....

and one of our bedrooms.

We spent the Saturday in Royal Tunbridge Wells. There was an antiques fair on so I had a good look around that but didn't find anything I wanted to buy. There was also this wonderful second hand bookshop where I spent all of 20p on two books!

The weather was absolutely beautiful and it looks as though it will be the same this weekend.

Having decided to concentrate more on linens and kitchenalia we are having a SALE on our website where many of the items are half price. Do pop along and have a look.

Chair Makeover

We've been away for the weekend so just a quick post here and I'll blog about where we went later in the week. I bought a couple of director's chairs a few weeks ago and decided to give one of them a makeover. Here is the 'before'.......

...........and here is the 'after'.

I think it would look really pretty in a bedroom or bathroom and is far too nice to use outside! I had intended putting it on the website but now want to keep it myself having put so much effort into its transformation. If I do the other one exactly the same then I can at least sell one of them. Hope you like the finished product too.

Magical Mystery Tour

My daughter announced last week that she was taking me on a mystery tour yesterday. I didn't know where we were going but it was her treat and it involved a train. We went to Brighton! We had a lovely day together. It's about a 90 minute journey (so great not to be driving for a change). First we went to the palace

then down to the sea and saw both piers. The west pier was built in 1866 but, sadly, caught fire and was almost destroyed in 2003.

The other pier is still open and houses a funfair etc. We went here many years ago when Rosie was much younger but we had more important things on ours minds like SHOPPING! We visited the new Cath Kidston shop,

and a huge emporium of bric-a -brac and antiques (I could have spent all day in here

and I could have spent lots of money in this salvage centre)

We we had a lovely lunch in 'Ask' - delicious pasta and a big glass of wine, then down to some serious clothes shopping. considering it was my treat I wonder how Rosie managed to buy lots more than I did!!

We were both feeling exhausted on the train coming home and Rosie wasn't sure whether she should have bought this red beret. I thought I would try to link the music on my blog to the content of the post, hence the titles of the Beatles and Prince's tracks.

I look forward to many more days out together. Thankyou so much Rosie.

Birthday Prezzies

Two belated birthday presents from Rosie (daughter) this afternoon meant all good intentions of doing some painting were postponed in preference for a lazy afternoon spent using my new mug and looking at all the lovely things in this Cath Kidston book. She always buys me such thoughtful presents that I really love - Thomas Hardy is my favourite author, especially his 'Tess of the d'Urbevilles' and I can't get enough books on vintage style! Tonight we are also going to have a belated 'girly' birthday meal out together.

Last weekend we had a lovely day out in Boscastle. I haven't been since 1984 and it was interesting to see how much of the flood damage is still in evidence. For those of you who are non-UK bloggers I am attaching a video of the fateful day in August 2004. Miraculously there were no fatalities.

The Sky at Night

I just had to take a photograph of the sky this evening ablaze with colour, it almost looked on fire. This would most definitely be a 'Shepherd's Delight' promising a lovely day again tomorrow.

Autumn Wreath

As you may have gathered from my website I love gardenalia and thought this old garden sieve/riddle might look good decorated and hung on the wall. I was in the middle of doing this when a friend called, saw it and bought it! I quickly photographed it before she took it away as I have another for sale. I think I possibly would have tweaked it a bit more but this only took about 5 minutes as it was easy to attach the greenery with florist's wire.

For Sale

How I wish this sign would be changed for 'SOLD'. This week we have had an offer which we have accepted as our buyers have also sold their house. Below them in the chain someone has to sell two houses so weren't not counting our chickens just yet though this is the nearest we have been so far. Luckily the house we wanted is still for sale (houses just aren't selling in this area) and we went to view it again on Monday. The last time we saw it was on a lovely warm June day and it looked a totally different house altogether now on an autumn evening with the lamps and heating on and the smell of a casserole in the oven. I love it even more and am trying very hard not to get excited and plan how I want to change this and that but it's hard when looking at all the magazines that I like to read not to imagine something in my new house!

We are off to Cornwall for the weekend again as my mum has been buying lots of things for the website. It's also my birthday on Sunday (how can another one have come round so quickly) and we plan to go to Boscastle for the day. Must remember my camera!

No birthday cake for me, though. Having lost 19 lbs at Slimming World and reached my target I hadn't been since our French holiday. I went yesterday and SHOCK, HORROR I have gained 5.5 lbs!

Laundry

I bought this piece of fabric on ebay this week. It appealed to me because I seem to do so much washing and ironing. I don't like hanging out or bringing in the washing but I do enjoy ironing. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean hubby's shirts but I love ironing all the beautiful linens I buy, wash, starch and iron for the website. I enjoy seeing a lump of creased, grey material bought at a car boot sale transformed into beautiful white linen on the ironing board! I haven't decided what to do with it yet, I suppose the most obvious thing is to make a peg bag.

Style

I bought these stylish dusters and dishcloths today at Asda, I couldn't resist them. I think I may just have to change the whole decor of my kitchen to match them,though, as they don't quite go with my colour scheme!

Talking of stylish things do you like my shoes I bought in France? The French women are so elegant and their shoes are just so different. I couldn't decide between the two so had them both!

We have yet more people coming to view the house tomorrow (I do wish someone would buy it) so I shall be using these cloths but I hope your weekend is more of a shoe-shopping than dusting sort of weekend.

France

The recent holiday in France was wonderful. Initially we stayed with friends who moved to the Tarn region last year and are renovating a cottage. How I envy their lifestyle! Absolutely stress-free. The renovation is a mammoth task but I can see it will be absolutely stunning when it is finished. We then stayed in the Dordogne area for a week. The area was just beautiful but, alas, not the accommodation - I have never seen so much bad taste in one place. Plenty of the French shabby but not a chic in sight! This chateau/castle was just down the road from us and the views over the river were amazing.

We did plenty of shopping,

eating and drinking,

and sightseeing.

I took so many photos of all the wonderful buildings, it's hard to choose which to publish here.

The houses built into the cliffs are so unusual.

Of course I was hoping to buy lots of French antiques for my website but didn't find as many as I had hoped. Brocantes seemed to be thin on the ground in this area.

I did manage to find some lovely linen, though, and it has definitely whetted my appetite to go back and search for more.