Harvest produce auction

Wonderful arrangement of dried Hydrangea in the church (another of my favourite flowers).

I promised "rural ramblings" when I started this blog, and so far it seems to be all work & no play. However last night was the annual auction of Harvest Festival goodies at the village church in aid of Water Aid. This longstanding tradition always provides great entertainment as the women of the village squabble and bid hard for the jars of infamous delicious runner bean chutney or the gooiest chocolate cake! This year the proceedings were livened further by complimentary glasses of wine which certainly got everyone bidding & providing some very funny banter from the auctioneer (don't even ask what one does with certain vegetables!)

The produce is all donated by the local school, and in days gone by when my boys were little the fare usually was all homemade or homegrown, or the most basic groceries (tins of baked beans, pineapple rings or tinned peaches). As the years went by and the larger more affluent cars crunched their way along the lane to the village school, the produce changed to more sophisticated items ( chesnut puree from Harrods, exotic tinned fruits & jars of ginger) now I am pleased to report that we seem to be back to basics once again, and the produce was mostly homegrown, organic and a lot of thought was put into the beautiful little shoeboxes lined with straw & decorated with childrens pictures.

As the evening progressed, we filled our bags & baskets with produce, the laughter got louder and there was a gasp from the crowd as a jar of local honey went for £5. The last lot of the day was grasped by my friend Wendy.... only to discover it was a jar of Italian sauce past its sell-by date!

A few more of my favourite things.....

Thought I would add a few more of my favourite things to cheer up the day! First up is a fabulous green painted Dolls house bedroom set which I bought many years ago in an auction. It came with the original bedcover & cushions.... if only it were fullsize, It would look great in my bedroom! Next is my collection of flowery china, the plates are very special as they belonged to my Grandmother.

Now I really do have a "thing" about 1930's and 1940's mannequin heads. This one is awaiting some small cosmetic repairs to her nose. I will get around to it sometime!

Another thing I enjoy are red geraniums, they remind me of France where every window ledge & garden wall are covered in them. At the end of the summer I cannot throw them away, so they all come inside & crowd onto the bathroom window ledge until the spring....

Rain & more rain!

Hi everybody, thank you so much for your interest and comments. After a busy Flea market on Sunday it was time to repack the car for a 2-day antiques fair in Ardingly, East Sussex.

We set off at 4 am on Tuesday morning in driving rain, and boy did it rain! It took us 4 hours to get to the showground where the fair is held. Our stall is in one of the large marquee tents so sheltered from the rain (sort of).. of course being a tent structure the rain drives in at any opening, and the sides need to be open to unload!

It was quite a struggle to get everything from the car, luckily only one piece of 30's fabric fell into the mud (the grass was quickly turning into a muddy mess.. which was being walked into the marquee on each journey.)

Here is a picture of Maud who has a pitch next to mine, she is endeavouring to get her lovely linen out of her van.....

Eventually we got everything unloaded and were able to set up the stand. Despite the dreadful torrential downpours there were plenty of brave customers and we had a pretty successful day!

One lovely lady I met was Miranda (aka Tatty Brown @ www.tattybrown.com) Hope you got home OK and dried out eventually!

At last we have the technology! With the assistance of my son Tim I have finally set up the long awaited (and much discussed) blog. The washerwoman idea started with a set of fun photographs taken by my great mate Mary (of http://web.mac.com/leadesign1). As I buy and sell vintage clothing and textiles, a lot of my time is spent washing, ironing & mending old clothes.I am potty about the designs from the 1930's and 40's, and probably just as enthusiastic about the 1950's, 60's & 70's.... sorry Emma, I still cannot get excited about the 80's yet...

I sell vintage clothing regularly at the wonderful fairs organised by Edwin of www.blindlemonvintage.co.uk/ but before the Autumn run begins I have the exciting Bath Vintage Fashion and Textiles fair on September 14th to prepare for. See http://www.ashleyhallfairs.co.uk/ for further details.

As well as buying & selling vintage clothes I also can be found selling at Antiques fairs where my stall can only be described as eclectic. Niki (of http://www.nostalgia-stonehouse.co.uk/) has said many a kind word about my displays & efforts!

As you can see, my enthusiasm expands to handknit items, vintage toys, bags, buckles, shoes, hats and a bit of old French enamelware for good measure!

At the moment I am keeping busy planning for the run of forthcoming fairs in the Autumn, the most exciting and original of course being the Handmade and Vintage fair on November 22nd being organised by Jayne and Michele http://www.vintageandhandmade.co.uk/

This looks to be a fantastic event, and it will be great fun meeting up with other bloggers and of course eating cake! Thank you to Jayne and Michele for inviting me to join in the fun!