Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!......

WOW! Its been another hottie today! Just wish I had more time to sit here...............

Wish you could join me too....
the Wisteria is blooming now and smells delicious.....

And the Iris are relishing the sunshine.

The white Lilac is at the 'just perfect' stage.

And as my chickens can't get into the front garden to trample it daily (something they insist on doing in the back garden!), it is doing very well. The rambling roses are at the bud stage - I can't wait for those to burst, along with a deep purple clematis.

I hope you have been enjoying some early summer sunshine too.

****For the first time in a long while it didn't rain at the Shepton Mallet Antiques Fair on Saturday. When I used to have an outside arcade stand at this fair, I regularly had textile stock ruined by rain - it was one of the reasons that I decided to stop trading there.....

The inside stands missed out on the lovely warm weather this time though.....

Sue's was one of them and very pretty it was too.

Liz also had some wonderful treasures for sale. The next Shepton fair isn't until September....I wonder what the weather will be like then?....

Some of my purchases included this amazing light fitting, which I bought from Amanda ('Shabby Chick'), who you may have read about on Jane's 'Posy' blog many times. It is going to hang over the new staircase into our basement, when hubby has time.

I love this original Florence Upton print dated 1896 - its the first one that I have seen for a while that doesn't have a sad or scary image. (OK, I'm easily scared! - but if you've seen some of these, you'll know what I mean!) I have wanted one for a while and am going to display it with my original wooden peggy dolls like the ones in the illustration.

This sweet little frame would have been made in the C19th and is gorgeous; as are these precious wedding photos from Paris.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend,

Niki x

Thank you Happy!
Update: I am overjoyed to have been given the 'Excellent' award by 'Happy Loves Rosie', which is such an amazingly excellent blog and one which I would send the award straight back to! Thank you so very much, I am chuffed to bits. As for the other four blogs that I should also bestow the award upon....well I'll have to think about that as you are all so excellent.....have a great day! Niki x

Good Times.....

I hope that you all enjoyed the weekend, with the added bonus for us in the UK, who had a Bank Holiday on the Monday.

On Saturday hubby and I made our annual trip to the local woods where the Bluebells are in full bloom at the moment.

It was so peaceful - we never see anyone else walking here, so we are convinced that no one else knows the Bluebells are here......

....except for the butterflies....

and the bumble bees. I love these sweet violets growing in the shadows of the trees too.

Heaven on earth.

The afternoon was a slightly different story, as we had errands to run in Bath, which was rather busy with it being such a fine day.

Sunday was flea market fun at Shepton Mallet. (I would like to include this as my post for the 'Show and Tell Sunday' if I'm not too late - it is one of my favourite places to shop for vintage goodies)

It rained a little, but there was still plenty to see (and buy!) outside.....

....and inside, Liz's stand looked as lovely as ever.......

Where I found this pretty tray with its embroidered and appliqued lady under glass.

My other finds include these tiny Victorian scraps to add to my furniture......

A fabulously shabby chic wall shelf, which I shall use in my new workroom to store cards of vintage lace.

A French millinery flower and Deco tin.....

A teeny bottle of Violet perfume and a French powder box....

A French fabric covered sewing box and some pretty greetings cards......

and some amazing early 1900's French magazines.....

I love the advertisements for corsets - I would like to use them in some collage work, if I can find the time......

and I think it would be nice to create some labels for bottles with these.

Monday was my Birthday. Hubby wanted to take me out for the day, so we decided to go to Ludlow. Sadly, because it was a Bank Holiday, all of my favourite shops were closed!! It takes around two hours to get to the town centre from our home, so I was a bit gutted to say the least!! (But then I guess the shop workers deserve a break too!)

There were a lot of American tourists who didn't look very pleased either!

So we headed off to Burford House, which has a lovely garden centre, where we sat in the gardens and had a yummy lunch. Afterwards we carried on to Leominster, but unfortunately it was the same story there and everywhere was closed.

I was spoilt in other ways though and received some beautiful presents from friends and relatives. Thank you to Maggie, Liz, Helen, Debbie, and Josie. Hubby bought the silver watch for me. x

Today was an amazingly warm day, so I decided to repaint my very shabby (not chic!) French garden table and chairs.

A quick coat of metal paint.......

Ahhhhhh....that's better. The humongous geranium is one that I have saved from last year, growing it on my kitchen windowsill. It seems happy to be outside again. ******************************

I received a few comments/questions to my last post, which I shall briefly answer here:

The pink mirror is a vintage Murano glass one, which I found at a flea market. (The floral painted one was taken out of an old wooden firescreen. The miniature one is a Barbola mirror with a rose garland on the top - both from flea markets.)

The banisters to my new workroom have plain spindles - unfortunately I am unable to say where they can be found, as they were supplied by our builder.

******************************

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend too and have a great week,

Niki x

Update 07/05/08 Good Morning!
I have completed a small update to my on-line catalogue this morning.
I would hope to add more handmade items once my new workroom is complete.
In the meantime, I hope you will enjoy taking a look at some of the vintage treasures that I have been able to add.
With many thanks to all of you who have made a purchase from my last update and for all of your kind and friendly emails.
Have a lovely day,
Niki.