Life Begins...

Today!

My girls very kindly bought me this:

Inside I found a very appropriate quote:  Birthdays are nature's way of getting you to eat more cake.

I took this to heart.

One of these for breakfast (always birthday breakfast food in this house!)

Then we went to the lovely local town of Woodhall Spa; home of the Dam Busters squadron - and a fantastic patisserie:

Sadly; about 5 minutes after buying some very pretty cupcakes, my now 40-year old brain decided it would be a good idea to buy a bag of wild bird seed and put it in the bag on top of the cupcakes.  Oh dear:

But they tasted good anyway!

Then, of course, we had to have some more cake with dinner:

Now a diet is called for!

New Year, same old me!!

I don't know what happened to January.  Oh wait, yes I do - hubby's tax and VAT returns, that is what happened!  Note to self - when moving house; try and pack all business related paperwork together.  I think I spent days trying to track down odd bits of paper, invoices and receipts.

Never mind, all done now; so in the spirit of keeping at least one of my resolutions this year; I am trying to be a better blogger; from now on!  Sadly, photography no better yet.

A few days ago, it was lovely and spring-like in this part of the world:

This was the scene a few days ago on our dog walk around the village.

It was evem sunny enough to take a few pictures of some of my latest purchases:

Utility china again

Pretty white and gold cups and saucers

Then the snow came:

Our front garden

Trees and Eeyore's house at the local woods

It's melting now, but more is forecast.  Hopefully it won't prevent me from getting out to hunt for more vintage treasures, as I have a few fairs coming up.

Recent vintage buys and some things you can't buy..

I haven't bought too much lately; although not through lack of choice as we now live near the fantastic antiques town of Horncastle (well worth a visit if you are in the area).  A couple of things I did pick up:

Some lovely silvery vintage baubles - I love it when they are a bit peely!

Improving children's book, inscribed 1885

Lovely green utility jug (what is it with me and jugs??)

2 small glass cups; I think they would be great for a drop of mulled wine this Christmas.

And here are a couple of things I couldn't buy:

Winter sunrise this morning:

And some fellow Lincolnshire residents.  These are grey seal pups born on the beach at Donna Nook at this time of year.  They are absolutely gorgeous.

A couple of quick photos

I haven't taken many photos of our new home yet; but here are a couple of views out from the windows I took when we moved in:

View from my kitchen window

Front garden - complete with greenhouse!

Another part of the front garden

And ths was sunrise a couple of mornings ago:

Long time no post!

I am sorry to have been such a bad blogger lately; but my excuse is that we have finally moved house from suburban London to a little village in rural Lincolnshire. The Internet connection is not marvellous, and then our pc's all decided they needed repair work at the same time! Hopefully, I will have a functioning laptop later today and I am resolved to be a better blogger from now on; so I will update with some new photos very soon.

Vicki

A vintage mini-break

Just returned from the best kind of weekend - a couple of nights in our most favourite hotel in Evesham, Worcestershire http://www.eveshamhotel.com/

It's a great family and dog-friendly hotel, in beautiful grounds, with an indoor swimming pool and fantastic meals!   We've been going there since our eldest daughter was a tiny baby and will find any excuse to go back.  Luckily for me; this time the excuse was the wonderful Costwolds Vintage Fair http://thecotswoldsvintagefair.blogspot.com/  

It was held in a beautiful venue, Toddington Village Hall and was amazingly well attended.  As usual, I only managed to get a few blurry pictures of my stall and no-one elses; but if you look on the the fairs website, I'm sure other stall holders did a much better job at photographing all the lovely items and the gorgeous stalls:

In this one you can just see the queue of people in the doorway, just before opening time!  I think every stallholder was busy all day, and there were a lot of very happy customers.

All in all it was a lovely way to spend a weekend, and I hope to repeat the experience again.

This meant that I had to do a little more stock buying:

A silver-plated coffee set

And I couldn't resist these sweet chalk or plaster doggies!

Off for a family do now, so fingers crossed for less rain than we have had over the last few days.

PS - I have not be paid to plug the hotel; we just love it!

Shabby

I love shabby things.  I think scratches, dents, tears, rust and holes can add to an item, rather than detract from it.  Whether it is lovely painted shabby chic:

Magazine rack

Spice shelf

Display shelf for miniture treasures

Jewellery box

(All courtesy of my clever sister-in-law again, thank you!)

Or, tatty, shabby,printed things:

These are various bits of sewing ephemera.  I particularly like the Wool and Nylon mending thread in Clerical grey!  I have visions of an aged priest darning his socks.  (Wasn't that Father Mackenzie in "Eleanor Rigby"; maybe clerical grey thread was Lennon and McCartney's inspiration!)

Some of the printing would not have even been seen until most of the product had been used; like this symbol for Northern Ireland where this carpet thread was made.

As for old adverts; well they are a whole lot better than today's offerings I think.

Anyway, off now to carry on sorting out my stock for the Cotswolds Vintage Fair on 27th.  Can't wait!