Craft Fairs & Pop-Up Shops

Good evening

How has your weekend gone? 

Its been quite a busy one here, with me out for most of yesterday and MrVV out at Remembrance Parades for all of today. Sadly he got rather wet this afternoon - think it might take a large whisky later to help him warm up!!

The stall @ the Autumn Fair went very well - I sold quite a few things and most importantly my Christmas fund has received a big injection of funds :)

It was lovely to meet another blogger - Liz and her lovely family. One dolly went off happily with her new little owner :)

I still have some items left and in a bid to boost the festive funds, I thought I'd offer them for sale via my blog. Now I'm not good at the hard sell stuff so apart from this post and then popping things into the side-bar there won't be any pressure or arm twisting ;)

Payments can be made via paypal (Email me for details) and postage for all items is £1.50 - discounts available for multiple purchases ;)

Red knitted dolly - £6.00

Green knitted doll - £6.00

Green Rainbow Raggydoll - £7.50

Multi-coloured rainbow raggydoll - £7.50

Large Gingerbread Men - £2.50 each (2 available)

SOLD - Thank you

Knitted Gingerbread Cottages - £2.50 each (2 available)

SOLD - Thank you

 

Right off to put the finishing touches to dinner. I'm looking forward to seeing who will leave SCD tonight - surely it must be time to say Goodbye to Michelle?? Not sure how I'll manage without my dose of Downton Abbey - I guess we might be stuck with MrVV's choice of TV. Time to find some crafting to do instead!!

xxx Vicki xxx

Making & Remembering Thursday

Good evening

Wow what a day - gale force winds and torrential rain. The boys were very glad that MrVV works from home today as it saved them from getting soaked on the way to school & back.  My bicycle stayed in the garage - certainly wouldn't have been safe to ride it today. The road into town was apparently littered with branches and wheelie bins!!

Definitely the sort of day to stay indoors and keep warm by crafting - mainly finishing off lots of WIPs - some of which I want to take with me on Saturday!!

This Angel is off to be part of a Festival of Angels in a local church - hopefully she'll come back and grace my tree when it is over.

I've completed another of the knitted toys my Grandma asked me to finish.

One raggy doll for the sale at the weekend (left) and a raggy witch for a friend.

Lastly for today, I shall leave you with one of my favourite pictures from the last 12 months - perfect for Armistice Day;

xxx Vicki xxx



Somewhere over the rainbow

Good evening

How was your weekend?? Ours was mixed. We never made it to any bonfires or fireworks - blame the weather and a less than 100% little son. Instead we watched other peoples fireworks from an upstairs window. Of course we also managed to watch SCD on both nights - definitely the wrong result this week :( I said a sad goodbye to Downton Abbey last night - so many questions remain so I shall be looking out for series 2 next year. I cheered when William flattened Thomas - he had that coming.

We did manage to get out as a family yesterday - yep that's right - all 4 of us went somewhere together!! We opted for Southwold - a perfect mix of peeking into the gorgeous shops and dropping hints for next month and also a lovely long walk from the harbour to the Pier and back.

The weather was mixed - one minute sunshine and then showers - at least it meant there were several of these;

At one point the end of the rainbow was tantalizingly close - like big son commented - Where are leprechauns when you need one ;)

The sea was gorgeous and rough - coming over the seawall in places and leaving the beach covered in what looked like the remnants of a foam party;

We stopped for lunch at the cafe on the Prom - warming fish and chips all round - scrummy :) Of course we had to walk along the Pier - quite easy as it really was not busy yesterday at all. In fact we were able to watch the water clock without anyone in front of it;

However many times we watch that, I still think the boys will find the toilet humour amusing.

Today has been a blustery one here in Suffolk - my cherry tree is now almost bare. It was far too windy to cycle into town today instead I had to walk. It gave me a chance to spot lots of ivy's & berries which hopefully will be there next month when it comes to making a wreath for my front door.

Don't forget the Good Life with Sue Perkins on BBC2 later - am hoping its as good the reviews suggest.

See you soon

xxx Vicki xxx

Busy shopping, busy making....

Evening

Well so much for going to fireworks today - its far too soggy @ the moment :(. Think we'll try again with another display tomorrow. Thank goodness for Iplayer - it will mean I won't miss Ann & Anton doing the salsa - that has got to be seen ;)

This afternoon before it got too soggy, I went over to Snape Maltings with Dawn. We decided to make a little start on our christmas shopping both for families & bloggy swaps ;).

The first part we went into was the Antiques centre - lots of lovely things at some rather lovely prices. We both were happily taking pics - think we've managed different items. It was only as we were leaving we spotted the 'Don't take photos' sign - ooops. We exited quite quickly giggling like a pair of teenagers!!

This spinning wheel reminds me - there's a new series on BBC2 on Monday night with Sue Perkins & Giles Coren, they are living the Good Life to celebrate the programmes 35th birthday!!

Loved all this floral enamel - I know there are lots of other bloggers that love it too.

You can't beat a bit of blue & white cornishware - I have a small collection of this that I've built up over the years. Fortunately at prices far less than they wanted today.

Did I buy anything? Of course I did but not in the Antiques centre but in several of the other gorgeous shops that are there;

Sorry - can't show you the contents - some of its for my SS swaps and also for pressies for a couple of others that read my blog ;)  Think the boys will love this years candy canes for the tree  :)

Lastly I've been frantically cutting out and making as I've booked a table @ little sons schools autumn/christmas fair next weekend - I did quite well @ their summer one so thought if worth the little outlay. Still got quite alot to make but so far so good - I think I can easily fill the table;

Thank you for all the lovely comments on my last post :)

Have a lovely weekend - don't forget the final part of Downton Abbey on Sunday.

xxx Vicki xxx

The effects of blogging

Evening

I've been pondering about do this post for a while and today had got as far as taking a few pics with the view of doing a post sometime. However an email in my inbox prompted me to do it now.

The effects of blogging are far reaching - the never leaving home without a camera, the inability to open a parcel without taking photographs of every stage and of course the little voice in your head that says 'oh I must share that' when you make something new, try a new recipe or find the perfect piece of vintage clutter in a shop or market.

There are some really wonderful aspects too - taking part in many swaps & giveaways has result in blogging being part of my day every day - whether is having a cuppa from one of the mugs I've been sent;

Or sitting in my sewing room surround by pressies, cards and gifts from lots of lovely bloggers;

How does blogging affect your everyday life? and how much of your blog life do you share with other non-bloggy friends & family? As far as I know my family including MrVV have never read my blog!!

The email that triggered this evenings post was from the dotcomgiftshop - they've written an article called Vintage Blogs We Love and my little blog has been given a mention along with so many others that I enjoy reading on a regular basis - http://www.dotcomgiftshop.com/blog/vintage-blogs. A lovely surprise which I needed to share with someone so who better than you lot :)

No S&B tonight both MrVV & MrCountryGirl are busy so instead the 2 of us have arranged a meetup on Friday for nattering and light shopping :)

Oh one more thing before I go - Amy @ Blighty Boutique is having her very first giveaway - 2 gorgeous prizes.

Right off now - need to stalk my Secret Santa Swap person and see if I can gleam a few more ideas of  what to include in their parcel - is it you I wonder??

xxx Vicki xxx

Shades of autumn

Good evening

Can't believe its a week since I last blogged - I had such intentions last week of posting but time kept running away. It doesn't help that I'm not 100% at the moment so some days I'm sleeping rather alot - think the record was 15 out of 24 hours!! Hoping that I get some blood test results this week and an answer & solution can be found.

Anyhow where did I leave off last? Oh yes half-term. It passed fairly smoothly - the boys are happy to amuse themselves. Often only appearing for mealtimes!!  I left them at home with MrVV on Thursday and took the train 4 stops north to visit a friend in Beccles. We had a wander around the town stopping at lots of the shops - I managed to buy nothing at all! Was seriously tempted in the wool shop - but I ought to use some of the stash I've built up first.

Saturday morning dawned bright & sunny. When I went into little sons room I was taken aback at how gorgeous our cherry tree was looking;

We really are having the most gorgeous autumn - every time we are out and about I am loving all the gorgeous colours.

Little son & I joined MrVV on a trip into Woodbridge. He was playing with his brass band to launch this years local poppy appeal. Little son & I opted for a wander around the shops - apart from one small christmas pressie we again left empty handed!

Sunday was very much a stay at home day. I spent time sewing - can't show you as it is for one of the swaps I'm taking part in.  We also needed to prepare for 3 small visitors who had promised to pop by and scare us. Oh yes Halloween - very much a marmite event. As with most celebrations we tend to take a more traditional approach rather than the mass panic must buy consumerism approach that the high street stores would love us all to have. This year was ever less than usual - I forgot to buy a pumpkin and MrVV returned from the shops empty handed when he tried to buy one on Sunday :( Instead we filled the porch with lanterns and tealights in jars - trust me it looked very pretty.

Our little visitors came - not scary at all. A rather cute skeleton, a gorgeous witch and my oldest niece was Hermione from Harry Potter. All left happily with the bags of sweeties - have yet to hear from my sisters if my overuse of halloween confetti was appreciated!!

We spent the rest of the evening by candlelight enjoying 2 of the best things on TV at the moment - Downton Abbey and Strictly Come Dancing.

Who do you want to win Strictly?? For laughter it has to be Ann & Anton but of the serious dancers it must be Sccccccccccoooooooooooooooootttttttttttttttttttt ;)

Pictures from BBC Website

See you soon.

xxxx Vicki xxxx



Rainbows & thank you's

Good evening

Surviving half term so far. TBH apart from eating us out of house & home the boys are fairly easy to have around the place. Mrs Thirfty, I would love to offer you a piece of cake but its all gone. I think they've also made a dent in the pile of apple muffins I made earlier too!

We had visitors here yesterday, friends & their boys. Lovely day, good company and lots of catching up to do. We had hoped to go for a walk but the weather put paid to that. Too many heavy showers for our liking. It seemed to be like that lots this weekend - sunshine, showers & lots of rainbows - just didn't manage to capture one on camera.

Instead here's a lovely rainbow that arrived in the post on Saturday. I won a giveaway over at The Felt Fairy - a gift voucher to spend in her gorgeous ebay shop. So spoilt for choice - so many gorgeous colours of felt to choose from. In the end I settled on a colour that I'm finding hard to get this year - the perfect shade for gingerbread men. 6 large pieces of that and a wonderful selection of embroidery floss made up my parcel - very pretty. Thank you Annie :)

This morning when I logged into blogger, I found I'd been tagged by Heather @ Pink Milk here's my answers to her 7 questions;

1. Have you ever been in the newspaper? If so, why? Yes - when one of my little sisters was born, she was the first baby born in a new maternity unit so a family pic was taken & put in the local paper. I got most upset when one of the boys in my class painted over my face when a copy of the paper ended up on the painting table at school (I was about 6 at the time!!)


2. If you were given £1000 which you had to spend which would be the first shop/s you'd head to? Apple - for a Ipad for MrVV and then probably CK for pretty things and lastly TopMan so the boys could have a good spend.

3. Is there a skill you wish you had? Crochet - I keep trying and am slowly getting somewhere but I want to be able to make a blanket - one day.

4. What was your favourite sweet as a child? Toffos and Texan bars.

5. What is your favourite time of the year? Spring - the days length & slowly get warmer and also my birthday is then.

6. If you were marooned on a desert island with a celebrity, who would you like it to be? David Tennant - hopefully with his Tardis.

7. When did you last cry? Quite a while ago - July on what would have been my grandads 89th birthday.

Next part - 7 new questions;

1. If there was one item you could have regardless of cost in your stocking this Christmas - what would it be?

2. Who are your current favourite band or singer?

3. Which band/singer is your 'guilty pleasure'?

4. What is your favourite tipple?

5. Your house is burning down - apart from pets & family - what 3 things would you try & save?

6. If space travel became affordable - would you try it?

7. What one thing would you like to do / try before you die?

and finally - the 7 lucky 'victims' chosen at random are;

Claire @ Are We Nearly There Yet?
Tracey @ Deben Days
Florrie @ Florrie's Crafting Adventures
Alijane @ Gingercat
Serenata @ The Balancing Kiwi
Beki @ The Ramblings of an Everyday Mummy
Karen @ Tilly Rose

Phew that took a while to do - not if its my computer or blogger that's slow tonight.

Off to message all my victims!!

Speak soon

xxx Vicki xxx