Happy New Year!!!!

Goodbye 2012, you've been great...

Thank you all so much for reading and commenting...I've enjoyed my first year of blogging so much, I'm looking forward to sharing 2013 with you all.  I hope the new year brings you all that your heart desires!

Rachel xxx

so very lucky...

Hello lovely friends!  I hope you've had a great Christmas...ours has been very nice...lots of relaxing at home in our PJs watching films and munching delicious treats.  I seem to have been living mainly on brie, mince pies and port!  I have taken a break from the computer and also apparently from my camera - realised earlier I've hardly taken any Christmas photos!  I'm a bad blogger...

But we still have festivities to come...my sister is visiting from London so we are gathering at my Mum's today for Christmas round 2, and are then heading east to Sussex for further fun and games at New Year with much-loved-not-seen-often-enough extended family.

As I have been neglecting my camera I don't have much to show you...but I would just like to share one gift with you which has made me very happy...

This is a detail of my new bedroom curtains!!  I haven't hung them yet because our bedroom needs some work...decluttering, some more shelves, a lick of paint...but when these are hanging at the window I will be beside myself with joy.  They are 60s, Swedish and stunning.  

There are many reasons why I am lucky - some deep and profound to do with love and family, some basic and fundamental to do with having a home and enough to eat...but today I feel lucky for the frivolous-but-important-to-me reason that I have beautiful new curtains.  I hope that you have also received gifts that make you feel lucky, if you share them on your blog let me know so I can pop over and have a peep!

Rachel x

creating christmas...

Hello and Happy Christmas!!!  The presents are wrapped, the fridge is stocked, the tree is twinkling and all is merry and bright round our way...

For a lot of people Christmas is a time of continuing family traditions.  But some people don't like it at all, or don't get on with their families.  When I was little we lived quite an unconventional life; my Mum actively rejected a lot of traditions - including Christmas.  It was acknowledged but not really celebrated, which was hard mainly because it was yet another way that we were 'different', and being too different can be difficult when you're small and trying to fit in.  I understand her reasons for not wanting to spend all day with people she didn't feel comfortable with, or make a martyr of herself in the kitchen by slaving over food she doesn't even like.  But I did wish we could find our own way of making Christmas a special time.  

And that's what we do now.  I suppose the advantage of growing up without traditions is that we can invent our own, without fear of offending or disappointing anyone by not doing things 'their way'.  So we have a tree, and decorations - and we go to F's parents on the day, who are the opposite of my Mum in many ways...so I get the best of both worlds...no pressure from my side of the family,  and a lavish Christmas spread that I don't have to cook! 

Christmas is not always an easy time for people, but at its best it's a time to reconnect with those close to us and bring some brightness into these short dark winter days.  So however you choose to spend the festive season, I hope you enjoy it.

Rachel xx

this moment...

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Via Soulemama.

Have a lovely weekend.

Rachel x

it's getting personal...

Please pop over to my guest post on Modflowers today...we've reached blue in our rainbow of vintage Heals fabric...and it's all about where my love of fabric began.

I hope you're having a lovely Saturday.

Rachel x

this moment...

 

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Via Soulemama.

Have a lovely weekend.

Rachel x

local loveliness...

Hello, how are you this week?  I'm slowing down, getting ready for Christmas and looking forward to time off from all the usual routines...the school run seems to get harder every morning!  It's been so cold here, though we've been lucky with bright sunny frosty mornings...but I'd still rather be tucked up under a duvet watching movies with my boys than hustling them out of the door...

I had a busy weekend, starting with the Christmas Fair at Max's school; I'd been staying up late to make stock for a few days beforehand, but as usual the buzz of the fair kicked in and I enjoyed setting up my stall...

 

 

I had great fun painting and decorating this little display house and styling it with little vintage goodies; though I'm not sure about my lovely assistant's novel method of 'helping'...

Luckily lots of M's friends were there so he frolicked off to wreak mayhem while I enjoyed some quiet moments before the crowds flooded in....well, not crowds exactly - but it was busy enough.  I sold enough to make it worthwhile being there, and got some commissions for the New Year, so all in all a fun and successful day! 

Later on M's school took part in the local annual Lantern Parade, which was a brilliant community event involving children from at least 3 different schools and many individuals from all over the area.  It was a cold evening, but the kids had an amazing time as the traffic stopped and we took over the streets as dusk descended...

M's class have been learning about ancient Egypt this term, so they designed a Zombie Mummy lantern...

it looked pretty spooky as the sky got darker!

the parade finished in a park, where as well as all the handmade lanterns we were treated to a glowing hot air balloon...amazing.

After all that we went to a friends house where the kids ran riot while the adults warmed up with cocktails...a busy but very lovely day! 

Sorry it's taken me till now to share it with you...as you probably know I am guest blogging over here this week...if you haven't popped over to see what I'm up to there, please do!

Hope your Christmas preparations are going smoothly, it can be a stressful time of year.  I'm feeling pretty calm so far, but there's still a lot to do!

Rachel x

this moment...

 

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Via Soulemama.

Have a lovely weekend.

Rachel x

late but bearing exciting news...

Aaargh where have the last 2 days gone?!  In my case they seem to have passed in a blur of tantrums and tears...I don't know what's got into my kids...but I'm not impressed!  I am exhausted though.  The energy it takes to stay calm and rational while being screamed at is quite phenomenal...I have a million things to do and no energy left to do any of it with...I give up.  

Tonight I'm getting an early night in the hopes that I will then have enough energy to spend the next 2 nights sewing till late.  In the meantime, later than planned but here at last, is another of the lovely pieces of fabric I got from the delightful Donna Flower last weekend...

 

 

I don't know if it's because I've got young children but I really love prints like this...bright and fun and similar in style to a lot of picture book illustrations from the 60s and 70s.  I'll be making Rufus a cushion cover with some of it, and the rest will join the childrens section of my stash cupboard! 

Before I go I would just like to tell you what I'm up to next week...you may already know...I am doing my first ever spot of guest blogging over on the lovely Modflowers blog!!  She's whisking off to a hot & sunny Christmas in Australia, and me and some of my favourite bloggers will be taking turns to keep her beautiful blog ticking over in her absence. 

I just hope my kids give the tantrums a rest otherwise I might be a bit bonkers by then...fingers crossed.

Hope you're having a lovely relaxing week with no kicking and screaming!

Rachel x

blooming lovely...

Ok I've made you all wait long enough! (Sorry, I really didn't intend this to be an evening post - but it seems like someone round here needs feeding every 5 minutes!).  

As I mentioned in yesterday's post,  on Sunday I was lucky enough to meet the lovely Donna Flower.  She is a huge inspiration to me.  I remember reading about her in a sewing magazine years ago and thinking how fabulous it must be to make a living collecting and selling gorgeous vintage fabric.  

Donna's stand looked stunning, she really knows how to style her wares to appeal to vintage lovers.  Unfortunately I was so overcome by fabric lust that I forgot to take any pictures - pop over to her blog for a peek at some of the goodies she was selling!  

Her array of vintage goodies was super popular so I had a look at the stack of gorgeous fabric, and when the throng around her died down I found a moment to speak to her...she is charming.  So friendly and a total fabric geek just like me...once I'd introduced myself she ran off to find a bag of fabrics that she'd brought SPECIALLY FOR ME... I was so flattered that I was almost lost for words...and when she showed me what she'd brought I was reduced to gasps! 

I'm sure I don't need to tell you that I didn't come away empty handed...but I did try to be restrained.  Before I went I gave myself a stern talking to and decided that what my stash really needs is a special barkcloth with some pink in it - a colour that is sorely under-represented in my cupboard of joy!  And just look what she'd packed for me...

It's barkcloth.  It's got pink in it.  And it's SPECIAL!!  Not to everyone's taste I'm sure, but definitely to mine.  It's got a couple of fade lines and imperfections, but to be honest that's a good thing.  If a bit of fabric is too perfect I struggle to use it - I can't bear to cut it up!! This will make some gorgeous cushion covers either on its' own or combined with other fabrics in a patchwork.

It's a curtain, and Donna has kept the other one for herself.  She is truly a fabric addict after my own heart! 

Sorry if this post is a bit word heavy - I had a story to tell.  Thanks for sticking with me if you got down to here;  I hope you had a fun weekend too! 

Rachel x

P.S. I might have bought a couple of other teensy little bits of fabric...I'll show you them
        tomorrow...x

an exciting day...

What a start to December! Yesterday I went to the Vintage and Handmade Fair in Chipping Sodbury, a little market town near Bristol.  There were lots of lovely stalls selling all kinds of gorgeous bits and pieces...

on the Country Cottage Chic stall there were vintage Christmas tree decorations...

lovely toys and books...

and I loved this elephant from a set of vintage wooden circus toys!

There was also a huge stall run by the lovely Lizzie Van Hasselt with all kinds of amazing vintage loveliness...

stunning french fabrics...

and buttons...

a very special pair of gold party shoes!...

and all so beautifully styled.

 
I also met the lovely Woo of The Devil Makes work, but do you know - we were so busy chatting I forgot to take any photos of her beautiful stall!  Sorry Woo!

Obviously I love vintage fairs wherever they are, but the main reason for going to this particular one was that I knew the lovely Donna Flower was selling some of her vintage goodies there, and I wanted to have a look at her fabrics in person, and of course meet the lady herself.  I follow Donna's blog and I had left a comment telling her I was planning to go...little did I know she would bring some really special fabrics just for me to look at!  But the sun is shining and we're off out for a walk, so you will have to wait until tomorrow to see if I bought anything....

Hope you have a lovely sunny Sunday!

Rachel x