I won an award.....

So excited...my first award. Thanks to my lovely new friend Jo (Twiglet5.blogspot.com). Thank you so much, and it was so lovely to meet you too. I've never won an award before so not entirely sure what i need to do. Gavin collected it and put it on here...he's such a darling.

Thank you all for your lovely comments on my last post with regards to the shop. I've been in the clouds this last week. We've had so many visitors and have sold lots of things, but the most overwhelming has been people's responses to the shop in general, given that i was so worried about actually making it look like a shop. When the time came to setting out the stock my heart was only half in it after losing my gorgeous little dog, Amber....i'm heartbroken and spent most of the time in tears (still do), i miss her so much....but nearly everyone commented on how beautiful the shop looked, one lady referred to it as a work of art in itself!!!

I sold one of my textile wall hangings i made with my new sewing machine, to a lovely Montgomery lady who was moving away, she loved it and i've sold a few of my flower brooches too. I love selling my own artwork.

Ok, i'm off to bed now, goodnight everyone. xx

Indigo Moon

Well, we finally got here. After a long hard slog this is it

"Indigo Moon"

We've had such a brilliant time, the opening launch was a brilliant success on Thursday night. The people of Montgomery are amazingly supportive. We're now on our second full day of opening and we've had a steady stream of customers and have done quite well. Enjoy the photos and please come and visit if you're in the area.

"To open a shop is easy, to keep it open is an art"

Chinese Proverb

and the Winner is.....

Da da

....... NOODLEBUBBLE.......

for "Thomas Bertram"

Congratulations and Well done

Please could you email me your address at tina.gilmore@live.co.uk, sorry but i couldn't leave a message on your blog it wouldn't let me.

So sad....

Yesterday we lost our dog, our beautiful gorgeous girl, Amber.

She became poorly a few weeks ago after developing a limp, but as she had hip dysplasia we thought she'd just overdone it. When she didn't get better we took her to the vet who gave her some painkillers and arranged an x-ray.

The x-ray took place yesterday at 3pm when they discovered cancer in both her back legs, she was in a lot of pain and they suspected the cancer had travelled throughout her little body. We had less than an hour to make a decision on whether to bring her round or let her go.

We're all absolutely devastated.

I'm sorry I can't find the motivation to post much at the moment, please bear with me.

"My Little Dog...a heartbeat at my feet"

~Edith Wharton

the shop is going well, we're currently putting out the stock.

We're having a launch party next Thursday 27th May between 4pm and 8pm, you're welcome if you live near enough to attend.

Give Away....

Ok, before i post some progress photos of the shop, i thought i'd do my first blog giveaway, this is in honour of my shop opening. We're just one week away now, the launch preview is this time next week (between 4 and 8pm).

This is a little mixed media collage on a piece of recycled offcut wood, it measures approximately 3 x 3 inches, is signed by me and comes with a saw tooth hanger on the back....and it's so cute.

All you need to do is come up with a name for this cheeky fellow and post it on here.

I'll put all the names in a box and get someone at the launch to pull out the winner. And...if i double my followers on here i'll do another one!

Please make sure you leave a link as well so i can contact you if you win.

GOOD LUCK

New shop door...

This is our new door for the shop entrance, painted in indigo. The builder has been fantastic and should be finishing off today.

This is what it looked like yesterday morning, as you can see the builder has to put in some more wood around the frame, fit some skirting board and fill the gap between the bottom of the door and the ramp with concrete.

This is the floor and rails painted with a first coat of paint. The floor wasn't good but a lick of paint has transformed it. It looks different again as i'm posting as Alan has now completed the frame, put the skirting boards in and is currenty mixing the concrete...i'll post more photos later.

This is the door from the outside, the bottom lip of the door will be painted in Indigo too, it's just undercoat on it at the moment. We're thinking of having the shop name in small letters just over the door...and we have a lovely hanging sign for just above it too.

The brick building next door is the Post office, so as you can see the shop is a little off the square.

But not far, just around the corner...

This is the other view down Kerry Street and it's also a route to the castle.
We just have to make sure people know we're here

So....I thought, why stop there

Well, i've gone dotty peg mad. I ran out of dolly pegs, so i thought i'd try some of these! And don't worry Viv, i did these in the day time!! I think i would have got around to painting and dottying Gav if i hadn't run out of white pen!!

I've done some orange, brown, red and cream ones too...just waiting for my pens to arrive!

Pretty Dotty Dolly's

I've not been sleeping well lately, and during one of my nightly excursions into my workroom in the dark hours recently I came across these bundles of dolly pegs. I'd bought them a while back with the idea of using them in an art project but had never got around to doing anything with them. So, wide awake and wanting something gentle to do until sleep returned I armed myself with acrylic and metallic paints and sat about changing them. I was really pleased with the results I'm thinking i'll add some inspirational quotes to them and bundle them up with a pretty ribbon and tag, set them on a nice vintage dish and sell them in the shop!!!!

Dotties

...and metallics

All the colours

"All words are pegs to hang ideas on"

- Henry Ward Beecher

I won.....Yaaaaay

This is the gorgeous viking weave bracelet i won from Jo at Jolicious

http://www.joliciousjewellery.blogspot.com/.

Thanks to Jo.

Cupboard and Counter projects

I needed to do something with this cupboard, we bought it for the shop and is very nice, but didn't wash down very well. It's quite old so we didn't really want to paint it (although i thought it would look stunning in eggshell white)...i found some of this interesting wallpaper amongst my collage/mixed media supplies and fitted it to the back. the cupboard before the paper was put in, looks pretty scrubby doesn't it?
This is the "counter" for the shop...or part of it anyway, i painted it in Indigo...we think it looks great, the picture doesn't do it justice

Close up...see the parrot design and the legs are interesting too...very Alice in Wonderland(ish)
This little cupboard will go at the side of the counter in an L-shape, the drawer is missing, but Gav's going to put a shelf in there to store bags etc
Sneaky Preview...
Some stock for the shop.
These arrived the other day, the house smells delicious
and these...as well as lots of other goodies
These are just a few of the vintage items we have for sale, they currently reside on top of our kitchen cupboards, they look so pretty i won't want to part with them!!!

This is one of the reproduction signs we ordered...it also looks lovely on my wall!!

Hanging baskets and window boxes my mum did for us recently to put at the front of the shop, they'll look lovely when they've grown a bit, getting lots of sunshine and rain at the moment....and this is my beautiful Amber...(well Nicci's Amber, i'm looking after her)...who's a poorly girl at the moment. She has a hip problem and has been limping quite badly...i don't think the stairs here have done her much good..i took her to the vets this morning and she's been given some pain killers...bless her. She seems a little bit better after she'd taken one, i have to see how she goes over the next few days and she may have to have an x-ray if she doesn't get better. She's enjoying being sat in the sunshine here...she does look a bit miserable , she has awful trouble getting up and down.