Sorry folks, I've started......

Flo & I went out early this morning, it was cold and we had to defrost the car windows, I wished that I had taken some mittens with me, but I was wearing my lovely knitted beret that I bought from Lizzie, http://www.thewasherwoman.blogspot.com/.

I didn't find much, and Jayne http://www.countrycottagechic2.blogspot.com/, will find it funny that I bought a doll after our conversation yesterday! I think that dolls are scary and can not understand how people can collect them (likewise people probably can't understand why I buy and hang rusty old metal on my walls), however, this little lady is French and shabby, in fact I think shes really quite pretty & not scary at all!

The little figures are 2 wooden angels & a Mabel Lucie Atwell type angel.

The usual "pushers & shovers" were going round, but they all over looked this beautiful piece of embroidery, it was brought from India by a lady who had lived there, the work is lovely it is all done in metallic thresd and the colours are mellow, it has an edging of pale silk tassles.

I found a set of these childrens adventure books, by Laura Lee Hope, all 1950's with paper covers, I haven't seen them before, but they "depict the life of a happy, rollicking family".

And finally my apologies, I have at last jumped onto the bandwagon, I spotted this lovely shoe box this morning & had to buy it with the contents, the ones on top will go into my collection, the others I have popped into egg boxes and will like all of the other things, shortly be for sale at the November Fairs, the original Vintage & Handmade, Bridport rag, & Vintage at the Village (all details on sidebar).

I am now waiting for the van, so that I can load it for Malvern tomorrow & if the weather holds, Newbury on Monday.

T

Happy birthday Sheila

Happy birthday to Sheila, Michael's Mum, 82 yesterday.

She did manage a "small" port & lemon as it was past 12 o'clock.

An evening in .........Torquay

When we stay in Torbay, it is nearly always Brixham, we love the realness of the little fishing town, and we nearly always eat an evening meal in the Blue Anchor where we can take Flo,who sits patiently under the table, however due to the fact that we stayed in the TL, Torquay was the destination for dinner.

I was not very inspired, The Michlin starred "Elephant's" menu looked nothing out of the ordinary, and it didn't open until 7pm, and we were on a business trip so were supposed to be being economical.

I know that Torquay has a lot of chains however we fancied a nice little Italian, ha,ha. As we walked from the harbour to the town Michael looked up an alley way and tucked up in the corner we saw.......

Impressed by the list of local ales, we ventured inside, having read the bar & a' la carte, we decided on the latter.

camembert with a lovely crunchy, seedy coating & apple and caramalised onion chutney

I had a beautiful dish of beef medallions with pate in a cream & black peppercorn sauce, Michael went for lamb two ways, loads of veg. Both dishes were delicious.

No pudding!!!!

We then walked along the front and I showed M some of the locations from the fantastic British film "Blackball", if I am ever feeling down it is one of the things that cheers me up, if you have never seen it, do watch it.

....and then to catch the number 12 back to the TL, the sharp eyed ones of you will notice that we are on the wrong side of the road, we did find that out when we jumped on! Living where we live, using a bus is a novelty!

T X

Up above streets and houses.....

Last week we had a day before the Nostalgic Mix fair in Totnes, so as Michael had a bad sausage in his breakfast the last time that we stopped at Topsham, this time we went to.......

The Moorish cafe, where he re-charged on a fantastic locally sourced F.E.B. The lunch and evening menu was very scrummy looking, I urge you to go, we have never been there at the right time but if you like, vegetable & bean tagine, pork & beef patties with spiced yoghurt, Moorish cake figs, walnuts, corriander seeds & lemon or Tunisian orange & almond cake then this is the place.

We then headed off up North Street destined for a lovely shop full fo vintage homewares, textiles,linens etc, that we had visited before, HOWEVER, it is now not a very nice shop that stinks of incense! OMG! After a little detour to buy some local beers in a lovely "offie", panic over, the lovely Sara has moved premises.

The Vintage Emporium (nee Sara's Lavender Box) is now housed in the most fantastic building, covering two floors.

I took up a lot of Sara's time chatting about her lovely stock and that she is a stockist for Sanderson, one wall is papered in a beautiful eau de nil & bird print which is very restful.
Sara and her Mum have made a fabulous new shop, it is stunning.

Michael eventually found me behind the staircase and dragged me away. Across the road in "The Snug" is the lovely Ros's shop, always full of textiles & vintage fashions

I know that Sal's Snippets regularly blogs about this town, but I think that it seriously deserves a mention. I have tried to layout this lot of pictures in a different way to usual, but I haven't quite got the layout as I would like, but I think that you will enjoy the pics.

Lastly, other shop windows of individual shops.

yes that is Michael's reflection in the window!

Oh yes, it's Ashburton.

of mice and new shoes....

I found this lovely old cardboard soap box at Shepton, what could be inside?

a wedding

a beautiful bride
groom & vicar
I couldn't resist the felt mice wedding & lovely box, they will be coming to a vintage fair soon.

At the weekend we had time for a quick spin around the new M&S in Torquay, and I found these GORGEOUS & COMFY navy blue suede heels.
Tomorrow I have lots of beautiful pictures of somewhere else.........

Vintage Mix - what a day!

Saturday morning was an early start for us as we had stayed in the Travelodge in Torquay, a night of revellers, sirens, closed windows, overheated room, and anticipation of the fair made for a very poor nights sleep, however we arrived in the dark outside the hall and unloaded and waited, no one arrived (yes we were early), we waited and eventually Lizzie, Phillipa, Amanda and others joined us eagerly waiting for the doors to open.

After setting up I managed to snap a few pictures before the doors were officially opened.

Unmistakably Donna, who really does look like a model, she bought a tweed riding jacket from me and some fantastic Dame Edna style sunnies, she looked great.
Phillipa had a beautiful stall of enamel & garden items, she does have a knack of finding lots of lovely useful things.

The next few photos were of Hesta & the Pugs stall, Jo and her mum, Carol were lovely I had been looking forward to meeting them both, Jo and I have much in common & Carol lives by the sea, talk? we could have talked for hours.........hopefully we will keep in touch (Carol is actually going to be my Kirsty as she is looking out for seaside property for us)

Oh you must recognise this rainbow of colours

Amanda, Shabby Chick, had a lovely stall tucked away in the corner, as I do not like to use flash, the light was not quite good enough, but I did want you to see this fantastic screen that she had.

Finally a few pics of our stall, we were in the foyer and happy to be there as we had fresh air and could watch the world coming & going.

I did not manage to take pictures of all of the stalls, but there will be many other blogs that will have so keep looking.

Lesley and her team made it a very well attended, efficiently run & very enjoyable day - thank you.

Here's to the next one, I hope that my name is at the top of the list?!

T X