Home sales....

Last year I attended this "Home Sale" in Taunton.

A good friend holds one of these every now and then, and they are always fun and there are certainly lots of tempting things to buy.

Bronia is holding a sale on the 10th and 11th of June. If you want to attend, just give Bronia a call on 07760 392518 for an invitation and directions.

Above is a tantalising view into her garage, which is set up as a shop!

Avington Brocante

Yesterday was The annual Avington Brocante. This really was a special event, helped of course by the weather.. the location.. and of course the amazing collection of stall holders gathered together by Chloe.

Below is our stand as we were setting up in the cool early morning mist.......

The row of outside stands taking shape.....

We were next to Ken and Jonathan, whose stand looked fabulous as always!

Much later in the day once the shoppers had trundled home with arms full of booty!

What I enjoyed about the fair was the diversity of unusual and truly beautiful stands..... I could have happily bought this funky bus.

Inside the house and orangery were more stands.....

Ali was there (above) and Jo. Their stands complimented each other beautifully don't you think?

The parklands shimmering in the sunshine with the sound of peacocks calling in the background......

This was a truly wonderful day, and well worth putting in your diary as a "not to miss event" next year.

..part 2......

After a blustery and damp couple of days at the amazing Decorative Fair at Eridge Park in Kent.. it was time to hop onto a night ferry to France....after just 5 hours slumber.. we were woken by opera music on the intercom and it was all feeling like a bad dream!

6 am in France and on the road again to see what we could find at the fairs in Brittany for starters.....

As always I like to snap interesting buildings on our travels. This immaculate school was built in 1959 - but with clean lines of an Art Deco building from the 1930s.

Soon after that the scruffy Doc Marten boots were alongside some textiles and costume crying out for a rummage!

.....then onwards to the Depo vente - a cavernous barn full of crazy finds and a fair amount of woodworm!

Another interesting structure to take a pic of. This was a duck house.. or a dolls house? Hard to tell, but would have loved to bring it home. Not sure the park keeper would have approved.

This building (below) was on a much bigger scale, a ruin of a 12th century abbey of breathtaking proportions. sadly it was closed that day, but we intend to return sometime over the summer to have a really good look at it.

So, after all those miles and all that rummaging (or truffling as Simply Chateau would call it) it was time to get back home and to settle down for a photo shoot of our finds...

 As you can see, the cats were very pleased to see us and wanted to join in the fun!

 A lot of these new French finds will be coming with us to the Avington Brocante on Thursday 24th May and then onwards to The Vintage and Handmade Fair in Chipping Sodbury on Saturday 26th of May.

As you may have noticed, there is a bit of a Patriotic theme of red, white and blue! It is funny how that can happen without consciously searching for a certain look.

The Decorative Living Fair.. France and beyond...

 Having just arrived home from France, I wanted to share my "adventures" from the past 10 days.

First.. a long wet drive to Kent for the Fabulous Decorative Living Fair at Eridge Park Needless to say we were a little apprehensive about the weather. Setting up was a struggle in the wind and the rain.......

However these stall holders were not to be put off by such minor details, and soon the stands were stocked and looking fantastic.

Theo & Bernice were opposite with their superb selection of Home & Garden goodies.

Apologies for not putting links or names to these photos, it was tricky taking any photos between the heavy rain showers.

Everywhere you looked, there were tempting treasures.

My stand (above) looking slightly less "colour-coordinated" than I had planned! As always I had far too much stock for the space.

Once the fair opened it was busy, busy, busy! Friendly wellie-booted customers were not put off by the weather and the atmosphere was great and continued to be like that right up until the end of the day...despite the fact that it was beginning to look a little like Glastonbury Festival by 4 o clock in the afternoon......

I will continue with my adventures tomorrow, in the meantime do put Thursday 24th May in your Vintage Diary as it is The Avington Brocante in Hampshire, and I will be there with my French finds next week.

Open the Box!

Apologies for the short and sweet post this week. Life has been a little busy and I am experiencing the usual problem of not having enough hours in the day...or days in the week for that matter! Following the Vintage Fashion Auction in April I was left a little despondent. The sale didn't go as well as I had hoped and as a consequence there is to be no Vintage Fashion Auction in October... HOWEVER... there is going to be a Collectors Auction featuring Textiles and Costume on Tuesday July 17th at the Dreweatts saleroom in Bristol which you really do need to know about. I have been rummaging in dusty attics and finding some fantastic textiles and other treasures for the sale.

Many of the items have been hidden away for decades in lovely old cardboard shop boxes and between layers of old newspaper - shown here from 1945. As before I will be sharing some of the lots with you on the blog over the next 2 months.

 Yesterday was the 2nd Annual Farnham Maltings Vintage Festival. Mr W and I had to set off before it was light to make sure we could set up in time.... on the dot of 10 am the customers started to arrive... and they kept on coming all day. I have not seen crowds like this at a Vintage fair in quite a while, it was incredible!

I took quite a few photos of the stands, but my camera has jammed and will not let me get to them this morning. Instead here are a couple of pix from my phone. I love the way this stall holder has teamed retro ceramics with French goodies and Vintage Costume! It really was a fantastic day, so do make sure you make a note in your Vintage Diary for the next one in 2013.