I thought it would be quiet once Niobe went to uni but hadn't realised quite how many things I had committed to to prevent empty nest syndrome!



One of these is a cabinet at Hopkinsons, a former hardware shop in Nottingham now converted to gallery, studios, antiques, vintage and of course a tea shop. It's early days for the space and it needs to get a greater footfall but I like what they are trying to do - to help young designers, artists and business people who can hire space, a studio or a cabinet. The venture is non profit making with any proceeds being ploughed back into the community...



One floor is taken by the Shop of Originality who have a number of designers doing their thing - some including stamps...



including Amy Winehouse as you never saw her before.



One of the designers, Sarah Davenport designed the world's first rocking piano which she rocks as she plays. Yes, it does need regular tuning but its great fun and she's hoping that someond like Elton John or Jools Holland might be interested. Jamie Cullum apparently couldn't fit it in his house. There's a clip of her on Youtube if your'e so inclined...



All I have to do is keep the cabinet filled with delightful and irresistible items. That's got me looking at my collections to see what I can include. I got some of my glass together in the sunlight and started to appreciate it again.


I researched some pieces eg. the lady carrying the basket was found at the bottom of a job lot years ago and although I quite liked her I didn't think she was anything special. She's hung about in various spots being largely ignored. I might put her somewhere more prominent now I find she's an art deco figure, Lucretia made from frosted uranium glass by the German company Walther and Sohne in 1936.



Not sure I can let her go now. A quick check of e-bay suggests she's quite desirable. Might have to keep her then. I'm going to struggle to fill my cabinet at this rate!

Have a good week!

Love Wend

Health warning - seriously self indulgent post

Feel free to ignore this post folks but I need to get something off my chest.

I've been in a corner licking my wounds this week.

I have to apply for a job at the grade below that which I have been doing for the last 18 months. I feel degraded and de-graded and utterly dispensible.

I'm lucky to have a job

I'm lucky to have a job

I'm lucky to have a job

I keep telling myself this. I also keep telling myself that they are lucky to have me.

I've told them I will do the higher grade job for the lower pay - just to hang on to my sanity. And they would like me to do that - but I "still have to apply".

But today I must complete an application form to compete against others on the same team (of 6) as 2 of us will be out of a job.

And why am I doing this on a Sunday? - so that the application doesn't impact on "business as usual".

I wrote that this morning before I thought "No, I must go to an indoor car boot". I hadn't indoor booted before (I'm a March to November outdoor booter!)

And I probably won't do it again. I felt as if I needed scrubbing down with a yard brush afterwards. This was not a nice car boot.

Displacement obviously.

I counted my blankets (Ebay free listing day called) - stopped counting at 25 due to guilt. How many blankets do I need I asked Gorgeous Girl. 6! came the answer - 2 for each bed and 2 to snuggle under. Hmm - double it I thought... And I took pictures ready for listing and comforted myself with images of my eiderdowns.



But the form waited.

What did I buy at the boot? 3 large bags of interesting looking stamps. Those who read this blog know my affinity with stamps.

Came home - ripped bags open.

Only to find I'd been duped into buying bags of first and second class everyday queens head definitive stamps. Marvellous.

Tried to work on form. Failed miserably.

Tried to make a nice meal but it fell off the dish into the back of the oven. Not good.

And still the form waits...

Off to hurl myself on that rather inviting pile of eiderdowns and beat the hell out of them.

Sorry guys - normally don't do the self indulgent thing on my blog but today I needed to. Feel free to give me a cyber kick up the backside.

Hope you had a good weekend

Love Wend

Uoldbag!

Yesterday I worked at Somerset House in London so took the opportunity to visit ORIGIN The London Craft Fair which is being held in the courtyard this week and next. It consists of 300 makers showing their work over two weeks - one set of designers this week and another set next week. After picking myself up off the floor at the £10 entry - I know I'm mean - I handed over my money and browsed for a couple of hours. I know we all have our favourites when it comes to crafts and most of mine centre around textiles and anything vintagey so I thought I'd share a couple of designers that were new to me along with an old favourites. (With apologies to the ceramics and jewellery lovers but there is plenty for them too at the fair!)

UOLDBAG.com - Love the name, love the product, lovely lady!



Lisa Tilley makes "vintage bespoke accessories using reclaimed materials". I loved all these old bags combined with bits of maps, pictures and old patterns. The picture above was taken at the fair but the ones below are her pictures taken from the internet (as agreed with her)



Aren't they fabulous - she has actually embroidered the cross stitch design on this one.



Too gorgeous to use but then I just love the idea of standing at a carousel just to be able to shout - that one's mine!!



Then "Smith and Coates"



This lady makes the most gorgeous childrens clothes from recycled woolen jumpers and her own details - liberty fabric trims and beautiful crochet edging. The first picture is from the website but the other two were taken at the fair and haven't turned out as well as I'd have liked.



The colours are beautifully muted and soft - it made me wish my gorgeous girl was 10 years younger!



And in case you haven't come across her before I must introduce you to Jennifer Collier who makes dresses and corsages and 50s bathing hats and shoes and brooches and more from found bits and pieces... (These are picures from her site - again agreed with Jennifer yesterday)



For the woman lacking a sense of direction or for someone who knows exactly where she's going - a pair of stilettoes made from an old map.



A paper hat or hair pin (waterproofed just in case its brolly weather)



And finally a dress made from postage stamps... Those of you who have visited before will know I have a whole stash of stamps waiting to be used...No I don't think I'll be attempting anything quite like this - I know my limitations. I'll stick to covering the odd wastepaper bin. I've followed Jennifer's work for a couple of years now and have a couple of her brooches. I'd love to have one of the dresses in a box frame.

Hope you're finding things to brighten your week! Do you have any favourite designers to share?

Love Wend

Just lovely stuff!

There's a lot to be said for snail mail. While modern technology provides instant access you can't beat getting home and finding some great mail! On Friday I arrived home to find a package containing all these stamps from the lovely Carolyn at Love Stitching Red. - Thank you so much Carolyn - I look forward to using them!

Also in the same post was a French stamp from Floss at Troc Broc and Recup - thanks Floss! Unfortunately I couldn't get a good photo of it but it was the shape of a piece of chocolate , the colour of a piece of chocolate and amazingly if you ran your finger over it - it smelt of chocolate! Both Floss and Carolyn had offered these stamps following my earlier posts about "things I do with stamps". Links to both of them are in my sidebar - they have great blogs!



In the same post I also received my Moo cards. I'm thrilled with these little cards. Where else can you get 100 cards with a different picture on each for little more than 10p per card? Brilliant.



This picture shows them at just about actual size. I hope I haven't breached any copyright with the Famous Five picture - that was a photo of a picture I have framed - it was the front and back end papers from a book which had seen better days so I rescued what I could and kept the end papers! (I love the end papers in lots of old books but that could be a separate post in its own right!)



The evening meal was delayed that night as I had to set out all the cards and have a good look at them. I'm really pleased with them.



As if that wasn't enough my 94 year old uncle had dropped off a package for me from his sister which contained a bundle of family letters from the 40s to the 80s including one she had written to my father 2 days before his wedding, reassuring him that he was only suffering from "wedding strain" and that everything would be absolutely fine after the ceremony! This was fantastic as I've been working on my family history for a few years now and anything which puts some flesh on the bones of the facts is great.



Yesterday there was a new craft market locally and I was pleased to see some good quality crafts. The weather was great and the market was buzzing. The craft market ran alongside the normal food and clothing market so the stallholders were assured of a good footfall.



I loved the vintage fabrics used on these bags and cushions and



the colours on the fairtrade stall



One lady had a distinct cat obsession...



Loving the cushions with the strips of Liberty fabrics...



Lovely stuff.



And last but not least - the lady who puts animal and bird heads onto people's bodies - strange but true and somehow weirdly attractive!

Hope you've had a good weekend!

Love Wend