Update on Shop

We finally got our planning permission through last week and can open the shop,

we're jumping for joy!!!

There is still so much to think about, the shop area at the moment looks like a junk shop, with fittings everywhere and the mess on the floor from the plastering is soul destroying. I've started to clean it all up off the carpet, but it's like peeing in the wind! The electricians have been in, what a complication that was! They were really baffled, the wiring was bizarre and some of it quite dangerous, they weren't best pleased or very complimentary about the workmanship, Gav and I stayed quiet!!! So...now we have the most fantastic lighting throughout the shop.

The whole shop area was painted over the weekend with the help of Gav's parents, so now it's all a gorgeous bright white colour. There's still work to do regarding the door and disability access, (it has to be lowered to pavement level), but that's sceduled in for next week.

In the meantime, i'll be cleaning and wiping all the fittings down and planning where it will all go.

So, my next blog will be some nice progress photos.

Have a nice Day

Finished Fabric Bracelets/Cuffs

These are the finished Bracelets/Cuffs with all the embellishments, i'm so pleased with them, i thought they looked quite good for a first try and for someone who'd never used a sewing machine.

Beautiful and Sad

I found this amongst some of my art boxes that i was unpacking. I made it ages ago, it's tiny, an old ring box...about and inch and a half square. It decorated my dressing table for a while and i'd forgotten where i'd put it.

I love my new sewing machine

These are not finished yet, they're going to be bracelets or fabric cuffs. This green one is my favourite

I have this lovely vintage lace to further embellish them with

And i've picked out these stunning beads from my collection

...and this box of gorgeous things

(discarded bits of jewellery from friends and family),

i've forgotten whats in here, can't wait to have a look

So much fun...

Don't ask me why, but i had an inkling to make something using all the wallpaper samples i'd got from DIY stores. Have you seen all the beautiful wallpapers around these days? So much colour and texrture. One roll i found couldn't be torn off by hand as it was so thick, almost like textured linen so i took it to along to the service desk and was asked to bring the roll to the counter where the assistant would cut it for me (apparently health and safety doesn't allow me to have the scissors and cut it myself, not responsible enough, i could cut myself so i was told and then sue the shop because it would be their fault for thinking i could be trusted with such a dangerous implement, added to this apparently was the issue of my potential to injure someone else!!!!! I wouldn't have minded but the assistant who was telling me all this and who was allowed to have the scissors was only about twelve!!!!). Anyway, i'm not complaining because when she did cut the paper she gave me almost half the roll, and there's me trying to be discreet and take just a few inches. I told her to hang on and went back and got about ten different rolls, i ended up with enough paper to decorate a room! It was fab.

These were the results...christmas decorations. They're not finished yet i'm going to embellish them a bit more, but i think they look so nice.

Art Quilts

I thought i'd have a go at making some art quilts, i'd always fancied it, but not having a sewing machine had always made the basics very time consuming. Now i have one....well...

These are my first experiments. The one on the left is an embellished fabric table mat and has a vintage book page under some netting, bits of an old embroidered lace tablecloth sewn over that and various other embellishments, a crocheted flower and button, with beads and pieces wallpaper. This one below was the very first one i made and i love it. It's on some old shirt fabric, with lace, buttons, beads, ribbon, wallpaper, a key charm and a fabric padded heart.

The words read "Live your dream"

This one was done on some old curtain fabric i got from a charity shop. The map page is from a vintage map book depicting the area around Montgomery. The flowers are made from wallpaper and stitched on and a pearl charm and teardrop bead was added to give weight.

Gorgeous Vintage Finds

We found these gorgeous things at Tuffins on the weekend. There were so many stalls there, i've never seen it so busy, these were just a few of the things we bought, i also managed to find a load of vintage fabric, and one guy had about twenty pinneys (aprons), collected from a house clearance, they were definitely vintage, they're in the wash at the moment, but......ooohhh i can't wait to get my hands on them. First i'm going to take some patterns from them because they're all different shapes, then ....well...here's a world of possibilities!!!!

I think this is a clothes brush, it's so delicate, bakelite and the little dustpan is so cute!

a rose trinket box...so pretty

This tray is so 70's

Another larger silver jewellery box, it's gorgeous

Current Window Display

I've changed the window....again...!! I couldn't resist. I'm still amazed by how many lovely comments i get from the people of Montgomery and visitors to Montgomery.

Delightful Creating Days

Despite all the mess and upset throughout the house with preparing the shop/gallery, I have managed some creating. These paintings are on wood substrates and had been prepared a while ago, the wood had just been sitting in a box waiting for use. It was so lovely to pull them all out and see the gorgeous collage ephemera and colour washes i'd put on them, I must have been in a pink, green and blue mood on that day.

mmmmmm.....yummy, yummmy, yummy!!!

Oh my Goddess, have you ever seen such gorgeously scrummy cup cakes? Well, i haven't! These were at the Ludlow Vintage Fair and I just had to have a box of them (I would easily have had two...or three..actually, but Gav wouldn't let me. They were made by a company called the "House of the Rising Bun" which is a boutique bakery, they currently have loads of flavours: "Vanilla Vanilla, Coconut, Vanilla Choc, Sicillian Orange, Mochalicious, Carrot Cake, Double Chocolate, Earl Grey and Lemon, Simply the Zest, Strawberries and Cream, Triple Citrus and Rasberry, White Chocolate and Rhubarb".

They were to die for...honestly...

We're going to order some for the shop - I think they'll look stunning, i can just imagine them under domed cake stands.....

"S'ils n'ont plus de pain, Qu'ils mangent de la brioche"

- Marie Antoinette