Dancing in the Street!

This was the scene in a tiny hamlet in rural France last weekend. A musical evening of a varied selection from traditional French music to Rhythm and Blues..............

There was a great community atmosphere, young and old took to the stage to perform. The "stage" was parked literally in the street, so that is where the dancing took place!

Much earlier that day we had travelled many miles to this beautiful location for yes, you have guessed it a Vide Grenier (Car Boot Sale) of course!

You can just see the field where it took place (below) behind the Château..................

We visited many "Vide's" over the weekend, and here are a few of our finds. Some are destined for The Dairy House, and others for the various fairs coming up in the next few weeks........

Regular trips to France are always a "lucky dip" as to what you find. This time I was lucky enough to find a mannequin (a first!)

Along with these kitchen posters..... shutters.. garden bench..... cuddly toy!

Ticking.... pretty plates.....

Glittering glassware included funky 50's tumblers, Deco Sundae dishes, and a 50's glass jug suitable for Pimms (with 10 matching glasses)

Vintage champagne buckets seemed to be on every stall, so I bought 6 in total!

...and of course the usual selection of kitchenware, enamel jugs, cake plates, toys, baskets, mirrors, pictures, vintage dresses and textiles!

Hope you all had a fab weekend too?

Vintage cut out dolls.

 I do love these cut-out dolls. As a child I collected the ones from the back of the Bunty comics, and played for hours and hours with them. I wish I still had them as they were a great record of the fashions of the late 60's and early 70's. I gave them to a younger cousin when I was about 14.

I bought these recently in France, and look forward to when my niece comes to stay so that we can cut them out and have a play!

 Which is your favourite outfit?

This unusual set of cut out dolls came to me recently, but has since sold to a lovely regular customer at the Honiton Fair.

French Leave...........

Despite being very busy with the repairs and redecoration of the house, we managed to escape to France for a little retail therapy last week. Above is Flossie wearing one of several red & white scarves I purchased. I should think that Sarah might be tempted by one or two!

This is the view of the largest vide grenier that I have ever been to. The stalls stretched for almost as far as you can see....that was 2.5 kms along this road, meaning 5 kms of stalls in total to get round.......and a very long walk to where the van was parked!

However, we did grab the odd tranquil moment, and a delicious lunch with family in Brittany.

Then it was back to the cottage to sort out all our finds.....

I bought several of these empty clock cases, I think they will make interesting display cupboards....

This unusual carved frame was one of my favourite finds on this trip, it will be taken to the Dairy House this week. Now, back to the painting..... no time for slacking!

This week I have mostly been buying hats!

The title of this post reminds me of a character in the Fast Show from the 1990's, very silly but Jesse's diets made me laugh!

The collection of hats date mainly from before the 2nd World War.

Some of them even have their original shop tickets

Aren't they wonderful? My vintage mannequin is certainly enjoying trying them all on!

This coming weekend I am selling at the Exeter Flea market on Saturday, then at the Shepton Mallet Flea market at the Bath and West Showground on Sunday. I plan to bring a selection of these to both fairs. Hope to see some of you there?

And on the Washing Line this week......................

A selection of newly acquired textiles this week includes a David Whitehead pair of curtains, "Mosques" design, slightly damaged, but still plenty of fabric to work with.

Funky French Children's fabric called "Billy Boy", love the colours in this one! Still on a Children's theme are these 1970's Action Man curtains.

Lots of vibrant 1950's colours and some great graphics.

The piece below is towelling, the colours being as crisp as the day they were new, over 50 years ago.

Another towelling item, this time a pair of much loved (and slightly faded) Swan design bathroom curtains.

Rose design bedroom curtains, also dating from the 1950's.

Lastly a snippet of a large bolt of dress fabric. It is hard to put a date to this, but it is certainly very eye catching. Most of these items will be coming with me to the Vintage and Handmade fair in Chipping Sodbury on Saturday. Open from 10 am to 4 pm. Hope to see you there!

Sun.. shells and shutters

Today Flossie is sporting a 1940's blouse and the cutest shell necklace. Both destined for the Ashley Hall Fair in The Assembly Rooms in Bath this coming Sunday. Opens at 9 am and finishes at 4 pm.

I will also take along some of these pretty vintage children's pinafore dresses from France. I have several, so will also be taking some to the Dairy House  next week.

I will also be taking this "shell bunting" (if you can imagine such a thing!) Some very patient person has threaded shells with string making a very unusual decoration for your home, garden or beach hut! 

These beauties are also destined for the Dairy House. I would have loved to have kept them.. just to have them propped in a room or conservatory would be great feature, and a real talking point.

The mangle cloths are another great find this week, some of these will be coming to Bath, and the rest to the Dairy House next week.

As you can see I am making the most of the sun for the photo-shoot, so now back to the ironing! Have a great weekend.