A Date for your Diary in 2010

I am happy to post news of a great new event for the Textile lovers diary. After several months of chat and planning, Sue and I have come up with a date for the

Vintage Textiles and Costume Day @ Dairy House

Sunday 11 April 2010 from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm

Of course it isn't all about textiles & vintage costume. The Dairy House has a fantastic assortment of beautiful antiques, pictures, glassware, ceramics and much more....... There really is something for everybody, so we do hope that you will be able to come along and make a day of it.

Home Sweet Home

The past week has been good as there is only one more fair on the horizon before Christmas.

This means there is time to catch up with a bit of sewing. Shown above is the "sewing chair" where I like to sit in natural daylight. The old wooden sewing box came from my grandmother and it lined with pretty 30's floral fabric, the Lloyd loom chair from a Car Boot sale & the cushion from The Fountain Antiques Centre in Honiton.

Next came some time to tidy, dust & clean the house......nice to see the kitchen worktops for a change!

Housework is not my favourite occupation, but it does mean that you can take time to look at my favourite bits & bobs in the home.

I bought this plaster head in Lewes in the 1980's so she is a real "old friend".

An eclectic selection of bits & bobs adorn the shelves.. and my family are always complaining "that I have too much stuff"....... Do I? Really?

Then came the opportunity to sort out my winter clothes, I am rather fond of blue/green jumpers as you can see!

This oil painting of a house & garden was a recent treat. It was destined for the Dairy House but somehow found its way onto my kitchen wall.

A little more dusting required..... my growing collection of lustre ware & cider mugs. I have spotted another one in a local Antiques shop that I might have to succumb to soon if somebody else doesn't buy it.

Sadly not a very good photo of my 1940's lady. I bought her at Shepton Mallet Antiques fair some years ago.

At this point you can see that my trusty camera is not taking the best piccies in the world. Despite help & advice from "technical support" (aka eldest son) it would appear it is beyond repair. This might be my last blog posting for a few weeks until I can buy another one.... grrrrr frustration!

Anyway, I struggled on & took a few more pics, including my Lloyd Loom sofa & screen. I bought the screen in Bath Antiques market about 18 yrs ago & still adore the chubby cherubs & over-blown roses. The sofa was a more recent find in an Antiques centre.

Some "Red Regatta" 1950's china, along with my french spotty butter dish....

We are expecting friends for supper, so a wonderful opportunity to get out the whole set.

and still going with the sailing theme, an interesting old 1930's black & white photo of Cowes regatta which came from an auction. You cannot see it, but there are some suitably dressed people on the boat, he is wearing a smart blazer & peaked hat, she is elegant in her print dress and sun visor.....

That's all folks! Back to the housework & a little more sorting.... I will have this house "ship shape" by Christmas!

PS; My computer is in "intensive care" yet again, so unable to reply to any messages at the moment. Hopefully we might have it back next week.......

December already!!!

A slightly overdue 1960's school room sign for this month. There is actually only one fair on our Vintage calendar & that is the Shepton Flea market on the 13th of December. I have decided to list the fairs on the side bar of the blog from January onwards so that they are more visible. If there is a website, you should be able to click on the image and it will take you to there so that you can see the opening hours & admission details. Well, lets give it a try anyway!

Bridport Christmas market

A few piccies from the lovely little Christmas market that took place in Bridport last Saturday.

The stalls were full of great treasures, and the atmosphere was so friendly & relaxed...

I am guessing there will be another event this time next year, so will keep you posted!

Thank you girlies for a wonderful day!

Bath Fair preview....

Another busy week at Washerwoman HQ!

This coming Sunday is the Ashley Hall Vintage Fair at the Assembly rooms in Bath, http://www.ashleyhallfairs.co.uk/

Here are a selection of a few items I have been washing & preparing to take along. This includes 40's Paisley wraparound dresses, vibrant coloured 50's ball gowns....

This beautiful vintage wedding dress.....

Wearable Horrockses 50's cotton print dresses.... and much much more......

Now, back to the ironing, see you there!

Love Vintage Fair, Wenvoe, Wales.

Yesterday I braved the wind and the rain to cross the bridge over to Wales for the first Love Vintage fair in Wenvoe (near Cardiff). The event took place in a charming village hall, that may have been the village school in a former life? I loved the wooden panelling in the main room which was painted a rather brave shade of blue! It made a great back drop to the stalls of eye-catching goods

Above is a rather jumbled view of my stall (as I wasn't quite set up!)

Samantha's stall with pretty linens and some very funky handmade rings, key rings etc

Above is Claire's stand, it doesn't do justice to her unique handmade jewellery & pretty display. She sells under the name of Random Vintage (www.randomvintage.co.uk)

These ladies knew how to set out their stall of fantastic kitchenware to full advantage, even the jelly was real!

Their attention to detail put my efforts to shame! They are "Nest", Shirley & Anna. Nestvintageliving@hotmail.co.uk

This basket of treasures was on Nadine's stall. As well as china, glassware, pictures & prints there were also several rails of Vintage clothing on sale at the fair. I will add the details of the stalls when I unpack the car & locate the rest of the business cards that I gathered.....

The tearoom area looked so pretty with vintage cloths & a fab selection of homemade cakes.

This is Maggie's stall at the start of the fair, there was hardly anything left by the end of the afternoon! Thank you both for organising a lovely fair & we await the date of the next one.......

Some Dairy House goodies.

I have been over at the Dairy House today, after tidying and restocking our stand I wandered around to see what other goodies were on sale.....

Above are a beautiful pair of Barbola bookends that were hard to resist.

Then there was this pretty child's patchwork quilt along with vintage buckets, spades & tambourines.

Here is a scrummy basket of colourful crochet blankets.

then on our stall I have placed more fabric covered boxes and a selection of French & English textiles suitable for all sorts of projects.

visit http://www.dairyhouseantiques.co.uk/ for further details.

Nice frock.........?

I have just watched the fascinating and enjoyable BBC production of the story of Enid Blyton (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00nxkm8/b00nxklj/Enid/) There were superb sets, excellent acting and all very evocative of the period.. BUT..... why oh why did they have to use a total of 3 Cath Kidston dresses? Some might say I am being hyper critical, but in this day and age when there are dozens of vintage fairs where costume designers can find plenty of original 40's dresses it does seem a great shame to resort to the High Street.

I have nothing against the pretty designs of CK, far from it as I own several of her dresses (including the one shown above!) I just feel that if you are putting on a "costume drama" of this type & quality it should be true to the era. It certainly cannot be a question of cost as these CK dresses retail at about £80- £90 each and you can still buy a good 40's dress at a vintage or Antique fair for anything between £45 and £75. One may also argue that sizing is tricky, there are ways around this as dresses can be made from vintage patterns using vintage fabric, both of which can be found on the Internet or specialist fairs. Helena Bonham Carter looks to be an average size, but it was she who was wearing the CK dresses, another character called Dorothy wore some great vintage dresses (but appeared to be the larger size of the two women).

Come on BBC costume department, stop being so lazy & get out there to see what is on offer!

Thank you for your comments on this one, I had no idea that there was no longer a "BBC costume dept". What a shame. However it still doesn't excuse the fact that whoever worked on this production took the easy way out.

Hoorah for the Vintage and Handmade Fair!

Three cheers for Michele & Jayne! The fair on Saturday was yet another resounding success & all thanks to the blogging gals!

I am afraid I have failed miserably as only took a few photos of my stall & Amanda (aka the shabby Chick).

I was sooooooo busy from the moment the doors opened until close of play at 4 pm (and even then there were still customers in the building).

So, a big thank you for all your hard work in making this event possible.

PS there are some great photos of the event on the website http://www.vintageandhandmade.co.uk/

do take a look!

The Vintage & Handmade fair preview.....

OK, spot the silly mistake...... Handmade & Vintage instead of Vintage & Handmade....

Anyway we all know that its only 5 days to go.... so thought I would try a "dress rehearsal" on the kitchen table this morning.

To give you a taster of what I am taking along to the fair on Saturday in Chipping Sodbury...

There will be vintage fabrics, puzzles, dolls, dolls house items, Vintage Xmas decorations, fabric covered boxes, jewellery, corsage, vintage pinnies, vintage children's hankies, colourful china & a lot, lot more.......

The "dress rehearsal" was rather overwhelming and it would appear that once again I have squirrelled away far too much stuff for the fair, but hopefully I should be able to cram it all onto the table with the help of the trusty shelves!

Festive fairies....
Snowmen, gnomes.. more fairies.... the list is endless! See you there! http://www.vintageandhandmade.co.uk/