The fascinator makes it's debut...

 along with Mr B's new tie!  These are few pic from our friends wedding this weekend.  It was a lovely day and Jeff and I both enjoyed just being guests with no wedding party duties!  This photo was kindly taken by one of our friends on table 7 (the best table by far!)  The bride looked fabulous, as did all of the guests, nearly every female had some kind of head adornment;  there were flowers, feathers, combs, bands and lots of colour!

 As predicted the finishing touches were beautiful (fantastic use of buttons!)

So Congratulations to Sally and Mark xxx

I'm fascinated!

Finally finished, this is my handmade fascinator for my friend's wedding.  I originally wanted to do it all in the pale (Tattered Rose) pink but thought it wouldn't show up in my ever lightening hair!  My dress is black with a huge fuchsia and pale pink floral burst design, I did get bright pink ribbon to use as well but didn't want to go too matchy matchy!

Oops!

An unexpected de-tour on the way home from the hairdressers = these lovely papers!  I couldn't resist them, they're the most gorgeous shades of cocoa and duck egg in vintage style patterns.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with them.........yet!

Other gorgeous jewellery...

Mother and I fell in love with these earrings by Nina Carolyn at the Summer Fete. I chose these oxidised ones while Mum went for the shiny silver (we took it in turns to keep going and having a look at her stall!) As some of you may know I do like to wear long dangly earrings, however, these studs are perfect for when my ears get a little tired! I've had lots of lovely comments on them every time I've worn them. Nina's jewellery is gorgeous, it's so simple but so effective. I love her chunky bracelets that use a mixture of sterling silver and resin, something I've never seen before.

Sunny Sunday.

After a whistle stop tour of Derby to find a tie for Mr B (done in record time!) we headed off to the Derbyshire Food and Drink Fair at Kedleston Hall.  I think the gorgeous weather had brought everyone out which was fab.  We tried some local white wine (very nice) a venison burger (very, very nice) and some locally made ice cream (very, very, very nice!)  We brought home some lovely produce, most of which has now been bbq'd and eaten!  The craft tent was fabulous, with a real mixture of stands from jewellery, glass and art to amazing knitted items.

Also there were Cameo Cupcakes with their amazing pink vanilla cupcakes (they look like roses!)

All the best things...

Here's my packaging, it made it's debut at the summer fete last week.  It worked really well, at least I think it did, Mum was on wrapping duty most of the time (and did a very good job!)

We're making the most of the glorious weather tommorow by visiting the Derbyshire Food and Drink Fair at Kedleston Hall. Hope you're enjoying the sunshine!

Vintage & Cake

As promised here are some things I particularly fell in love with at the Summer Fete...

Vintage & Cake hire out the most gorgeous vintage china, in the shape of amazing cake stands and tea sets. They also make delicious cakes and cupcakes, check out the celebration cake shaped like a tea pot (it's 3D too!) The victoria sandwich above was lovely, clearly everyone else agreed as it didn't last very long!

Just gorgeous...

 I very much wanted to take this home! I love the idea of this gorgeous chandelier against the painted brick background.

Is it possible to live in a bandstand? if so, I'd like to live in this one please.  These were bits that I snapped while at Shottle Hall yesterday, the weather made it super special!

Also well done to Mr B on his very energetic weekend of climbing several mountains for a very good cause.

Hooray for a FABULOUS day!

Well thanks to the gorgeous weather, fabulous people and general lovelyness the Summer Fete was a huge success!

It was great to see so many great businesses in Derbyshire all in one place. There was local produce in the farmer's market, handmade cakes, gifts, jewellery and more. It was very difficult to refrain from indulging! (in fact it was impossible, I'll show to what tempted me in the next few days!)
I met some lovely like-minded people who's work was really impressive. I plan to highlight them in their own personal posts!

So I'm off to repenish stocks now. I would like to say a huge thank you to all of my family and friends that came to visit me, it was great to see you all. Special thanks to Jeff for the cake delivery and to my Uncle Tony for the amazing wooden display stands, admired by many throughout the day!

And last but by no means least, to my Mum. From the most beautiful Tattered Rose bunting to the coffee stand trips to the snack packs and just for being there (all day!) I couldn't have done it without you, you're an angel x

Thanks Nan!

More pieces ready for Sunday.  I love doing these memory boxes, they started when I aquired some of my Nana's bits and bobs.  I used to love looking through all of her sewing boxes and tins.  It was fun finding out what everything was and where it came from, everything had a little story to go with it!  I wanted to do something with these bits instead of hiding them away, enter the box frame, perfect.  The original ones I made with Nan's treasure have pride of place at home on my stairs. The pieces above have bits I've picked up from markets and antique shops, they're often the bits that get forgotten or even thrown away.  I think these every day objects say more about ordinary people's lives than someones best tea set that probably never got used.

Stamped studs

These little cuties will be making their debut at the Summer Fete.  They're mini Stampbord squares (without the hole) on Sterling Silver earring pads with scroll backs.  It's such a simple idea I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner!

Also...

Check out my new stamp, courtesy of the fab people at Stamp to Your Arts Content.  Fabulous fast and friendly service for a quality stamp.  Thanks guys!  I'm still at that stage of wanting to stamp everything in sight though!  This is particularly relevant today as I've spent a large part of the afternoon trying to print some labels- not easy!  the label programme didn't seem to like or understand the measurements so when they came out of the printer they did't fit, however, my beautiful new stamp is a perfect fit - here here for manual labour!

Pretty pictures...

 After yesterday's blip, it's full steam ahead for the Summer Fete this Sunday.  These are some mini wall art pieces I've done in box frames (about 11cm square)  A simple arrangement of vintage buttons on patterened backgrounds from my stash.  I find it very hard to part with buttons from my collection, every time I get my crate (yes, crate) of buttons out I find gorgeous ones that I've never spotted before, I look at each one and want to keep them all!

Tattered Rose's tatty roses...

I've seen this technique on various crafty blogs recently and I've been wanting to try it out for ages.  I finally had chance to play and I really like them.  I had to be patient though (not one of my strong points!) as it involves soaking the paper and waiting for it to dry naturally - which takes a long time!

I think they make really good rosettes for gifts...

Can't wait to try some more in different colours and maybe see how patterened paper works.

Summer is on it's way..

How do i know this? because I'm doing a summer fete! Organised by fabulousplaces.co.uk, it's at Shottle Hall in Derbyshire on 16th May. I'm very excited and I'll be taking along jewellery including original stamp art pieces, cards and accessories.

Hope to see you there!

She's back

I had someone to keep me company on my day off today, bless her!

Buns, buttons and other beautiful things...

I spent the afternoon at Denby Pottery visiting their Food and Gift fayre. There were lots of lovely handmade items to see. Outside in the typical bank holiday weather were some very brave ladies from Bedazzled Cupcakes selling these gorgeous cakes (Jeff calls them buns, it must be a northern thing!)

These amazing recycled glass buttons were once part of a Victorian window. They were made by a lady called Barbara Coulam from Clerestory Glass. She also makes the most amazing cake stands from old jam jars, gin and wine bottles!

Carrying on with the button theme, these were from a local woodturner called Ken Wilson. He and his wife stopped to chat and he had some very good advice on doing craft and gift events. Thanks Ken!

Busy bank holiday...

From this..., with some elbow grease, muscle and lots of concentration.....to this....

Aren't they tweet?! (sorry) they're just waiting in line for the next glueing session, then they'll be beautiful brooches in sweet summer shades!