Wednesday 24 February 2010

By a Whisker ...

Cat got your tongue? Well I think this little puddy tat has had my tongue for the last month or so...
I seemed to have mislaid my blogging voice of late..I am certainly not short of mental fodder to write about .. much on my mind... but have found it hard to form sentences.
With the days growing longer by degrees.. I feel as though I am emerging from a very long winter hibernation. Judging by the layers of winter fat that have accumulated around my middle and derriere, I certainly feel an affinity with my local badger and fox community.
The bird song has shifted a gear and the light seems to stretch just that bit longer each day... seemingly overnight. One day I was staggering to the post box in the dark at 5.00 p.m and the next day I was watching the sun sink behind the hills of Bath. So.. Spring is just around the corner and with it a whole lot of good intentions and happy ventures..and much goings on behind the scenes.
Now where shall I start...?
After weeks of staring out of the window and wringing my hands at the state of our garden, I finally set foot outside and confronted the aftermath of the wintry weather. With secateurs in hand and a brand new pair of gardening gloves.. I took no prisoners.. by cutting and pruning back the delinquent shrubs and shrivelled plants. Can't say it looks a huge improvement..tidy yes..attractive.. no. Very hard to believe that it will ever look green and lush again.. but in three months time.. I will be fighting my way through the vegetation again and cursing the weeds.
I will spare you the photographic evidence..You will just have to use your imagination ..Death Valley meets urban wasteland.. Get the picture? Here's one I took earlier.. on a good day!I am sure the blogging world is abuzz with the latest flurry of vintage style fairs (see side-bar for more details) that are springing up hither and dither.. Lizzie & Clare's, Jane & Christine's, Sue's, to name but a few..hats off to you girls for being enterprising and biting the bullet.
Jayne and I are busy making plans for our first Textile Fair to be held in Chipping Sodbury on Saturday July 3rd..It will be an opportunity for the many textile orientated artists and merchants to showcase their work...We are starting small but if it proves as successful as the Vintage & Handmade Fairs.. then who knows where it will be held next... Olympia? Ha ha!!!That was a joke folk!!
There is also a May fair to think about.. only weeks.. which equate to days... away.. gulp!!!Milly and I have a daily date with the brown paper and sellotape dept. and should soon be experts in the art of origami and how 'not to' wrap a parcel.. Why oh why does the end of the sellotape always make itself unavailable? and why do I turn around, after spending half an hour wrapping a particularly tricky item.. to find that the packing slip is sitting behind me. Grrrrr!
Despite these small gripes.. we are having such a good time sharing our enterprise which is now 6 months old and thriving.. thanks to some charming and most obliging customers! Mentions in Homes & Antiques glossy pages has certainly provided us with a wide range of visitors.. from Tasmania to Belgium.

If I had thought two and a half years ago.. what would I be doing now.. it certainly wouldn't have involved me being an event organiser or Emporium partner.. both ventures have brought me so much enjoyment and a multitude of new friends and acquaintances.. so.. 'expect the unexpected' and you never know.. it might just happen!!

I hope you are all tickety boo and surviving the wrath of this winter.. It sure feels like a long haul.. but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.. it's called Easter.. when the clocks forward.