Category Archives: vintage

July 1, 2012 · 8:37 pm

Fairburn’s Fabulous Flower Festival

I am horizontal after an exhausting but wonderfully flowery weekend.   It’s been all hands on deck at St James’s church in Fairburn since Friday to fill our pretty little church with this……!!!

Our flower festival has been going on all weekend.   There was a lot of work and a lot of fun and at the end of it all a fantastic result….then the cakes came (loads of them …..) and the kettle went on and the visitors came and no matter what the weather threw at us or our bunting we carried on and had a great weekend.

Here’s the cake and the first two catering volunteers:

One of the highlights was the miniature garden competition.   You can see some of them bottom right of the main photo.   The children at Fairburn School had really put their hearts and souls into designing and creating lovely little gardens and our Judge had trouble coming up with winners, but rosettes were awarded and one of the little boys was first into the church on Saturday morning to see if he’d won.   His garden was 3rd so he took photos and was obviously delighted –  so much so he was back again today with his Dad and brother to show them too.

I’m always amazed to see some of the creations and fascinated by the ideas for designs.   This one, Farming Memories of our Parents comes from a farmer’ wife and  daughter.   All the elements were there, the wheat and the corn, wool  from the sheep, willow hurdles and sunflowers with photos of both their fathers reminding us of another time.  A beautiful composition and evocative of a golden age.

I couldn’t choose a favourite amongst the designs they were all so lovely, but I really liked the picnic created on a windowsill.   It really did remind me of an idyll

ic lazy summer’s afternoon in the sun, chatting and eating and drinking and laughing….if only we could truly have a few days like that this summer….

We had a lot of fun as well.   We worked pretty hard to make the church look this great and to get everything in place, but we chatted, we laughed and we enjoyed making it a success.   It was the first flower festival in a while at St James’s but hopefully it won’t be the last.

Thanks everyone who worked so hard to make it a success, and thanks everyone who came and supported us – see you again next year? I hope so.

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Filed under church, Flowers, Uncategorized, vintage

February 13, 2012 · 10:27 am

First fair under my belt

Yesterday the Vintage Valentine’s Fair finally came around –  the first fair I’d organised at Rivers Meet (www.riversmeetcraftcafe.co.uk).   I’d been looking forward to it since Christmas, although with a mixture of excitement and nervousness.  I know as a stallholder that the organiser has to do a good job – or else….. so I had a good go and learnt a few lessons, but basically I think it went well.   We certainly had lots of visitors.  At one point you couldn’t get in the door.

The stallholders really brought some fabulous stuff.   Lorelie’s recycled jewellery fascinated me.  It was made from old envelopes and takeway menus but it looked just like porcelain beads, and Twisted Vintage (www.twisted-vintage-design.co.uk) brought some lovely things as usual. My friend Sally from Lavender Attic bought some of this pretty bunting from them.  Lisa and Jane will be opening their new shop very soon in Whitwood, Castleford and I wish them all the luck.

We had great vintage clothing from Beau Boutique and Luna & Annies.  Really nice things – I just need to lose a few pounds!  Thanks for coming ladies and we’ll hope to see you again soon.

I did a roaring trade in daffodils.   I think everyone is looking forward to the spring and a bunch of daffs is a good way to cheer yourself up without breaking the bank.  And I had a brought a few fair trade products for Easter – the handpainted little eggs which were made in India went well and not surprisingly.  There’s so much detail in them and they really are good value as well as being beautiful little objects.

I’m sure our craft fair on Sunday 25th March will have much more of an Easter feel about it.  With just two weeks to Easter it’ll be a perfect time to pick up gifts.  

For more about yesterday take a look at www.lavenderattic.blogspot.com …. and for more about coming events please take a look at my events page or please contact me if you need any more details.

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Filed under Craft Fairs, vintage

January 23, 2012 · 1:35 pm

Be my Vintage Valentine

I’m excited….I’ve started a new project and so far it’s going well.   This year I’ve taken over the organisation of the fairs at Rivers Meet Craft Cafe in Methley.   I attended a couple at the end of last year when they first started and so when I got the opportunity to organise them as well I jumped at it.

It’s a lovely place.   On the main Leeds Road in Methley it was an empty old pub which was looking very sad.  Bravely Joanne took it over – revamped it with her partner Richard and threw open the doors to a warm and welcoming cafe where one of the rooms has now become a craft workshop.   There’s a programme of events for would be crafters of all ages and abilities as well as a function room and  a small shop trading in locally made goods at the back.   And I know she has big plans for it to develop.

Of course there’s good coffee and home made cake too…..what more could you need.

To back to the fairs.   We worked out a programme which you can see on my events page and the first one is very soon.  It’s Sunday 12th February and its a Vintage Valentine’s Fair.   The stallholders are all booked – and they do some fabulous things.

  • Real vintage lovers Luna and Annies are coming over from Manchester.   Their love of vintage has helped them put together an eclectic mix of beautiful and elegant pieces of clothing, shoes, accessories and books.
  • We have reworked fabric pieces from Rhi-Stitched – Rhiannon has been over before and I know her work was really appreciated by visitors to the fair.
  • Lorelie Jewellery make vintage style jewellery from recycled paper – things like old takeaway menus, leaflets and other stuff that gets thrown away.  The transformation is amazing.
  • From Phil we have true antiques to add to the mix with some costume jewellery and vinyl.
  • Mary paints plant pots and garden accessories in a vintage style – should be something there I’ll like I’m sure.
  • On the Button is a new venture using vintage buttons to create jewelery
  • Chicken Shed Gifts has a mix of rustic gifts and home accessories
  • Beau Boutique will be bringing clothes and accessories dating from the 40’s to the 70’s as well as jewelery, vanity items, homewares and photo frames
  • Twisted Vintage will have a range of giftwares and needlecraft all in vintage style
  • Virtue to Victory will have handmade gifts and clothes, some made using vintage patterns
  • Wildheart gives us her Victorian Gothic inspired jewellery and accessories

We open at 10 am and I’m almost itching to see what everyone’s bringing.   If you’re a fan of vintage I think it’ll be a real treat.

The cafe will be open too – Joanne’s menus are full of good local food.   One of her aims is to keep food miles down and to support local food producers.   Added to that all the cakes are baked daily on the premises.

Where is it?  Easy to find on a main road, the web address is http://www.riversmeetcraftcafe.co.uk and here’s the map:  http://g.co/maps/uazvk

See you there……

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October 26, 2011 · 9:14 pm

Relaxed country look wedding

Generally when I take a brief for a wedding the bride and maybe her mother or chief bridesmaid and I will go over pictures, flower varieties and the colour scheme for the day.  Sometimes they take away magazines or books for inspiration and we visit the venue, and then we get a list together.   Once I know what’s wanted and everything’s confirmed I file away all the details until much much nearer to the wedding.

A couple of weeks before the event   I always get out the list of flowers and send it off to the bride for her to double check.  In the months in between there might be another buttonhole or two, or maybe gift bouquets to add, but that’ll be about it, and then off we go.

This time when I looked at the order I was looking forward to putting together the soft colours to create the bouquet.  The bride was quite clear that she didn’t want anything that was too contrived.  

I really enjoyed choosing flowers that would create the feel and go together well and once I’d chosen the right flowers the handtied bouquet almost put itself together.   The  bridesmaids’ posies incorporated the same flower choices and toned beautifully with the teal dresses.

Inside the venue the fireplaces lent themselves to decoration.   Across the top of the mantlepiece an arrangement was fixed which tied in to the one in the fireplace itself  and on the tables informal vases were put together and the table numbers sat in the vases as well.  Neat little blackboards on sticks which the bride had found and which I loved.   Must ask her where she got them from…..

The couple really did love their flowers – and I loved putting them together.  So guys, many congratulations, and thanks for asking me to put them together….I enjoyed it enormously.

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Filed under Flowers, Uncategorized, vintage, wedding

October 1, 2011 · 12:08 pm

Sign of the times

The other day I mentioned our handpainted signs on Twitter and caused a bit of a flutter.   Clearly I hadn’t said enough about them

They are rather lovely when I posted this picture of a sign for the menus at  The Mustard Pot in Chapel Allerton I immediately had people asking about them.

It began with a few bits of wood and some pots of paint and me needing a sign for something.  That one turned out so well that we had a bash a making a few for sale and they looked really good.   So we went to craft markets with some for sale off the peg as well as offering signs made to order and off we went from there.

The wood is all reclaimed and the signs are individually handpainted.   The lettering is in waterproof enamel and so they can be used outside.

Here’s a whole pile of them ready to go.

Well then it turned out that they were really a great hit with brides to be.  A lasting memento of their wedding day and personal to them.  A nice sign read “Mr & Mrs …….  21st September 2010” which could be hung at the reception as people come in and then taken home and hung in the house.

They make great presents – especially if its hard to find something a little bit different for someone.   Let’s face it we all have people who are hard to buy things for which is probably why we’ve named so many sheds!  What are these chap’s getting up to in there? Can’t tell you how many we’ve done – Dave’s Den, Kev’s Shed, Mike’s Shed, etc, etc…..  But the ladies get a look in too, Bev’s Kitchen, Jenny’s house, Mum’s allotment, and I’m still waiting for one for my garden but maybe I should just nab this one which seems to be to be just right for me.

If you’d like one just get in touch – margaret@readyplanted.com or fill in my contact form and we can sort it out.   Prices are good I think when I look at others and start at about £12.50  plus postage.   Tell us what you’d like and we’ll be able to give you a price.

Meanwhile…….

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Filed under Craft Fairs, handpainted, signs, Uncategorized, vintage, wedding

July 18, 2011 · 1:10 pm

Wittering and Twittering

I think I am developing an unhealthy Twitter habit!  I’ve been taking part in Reach Further’s #12dot (12 Days of Twitter) and have learnt all sort of stuff, but now, whatever I do I need to tweet it…  Not sure I can write anything that’s any longer than 140 characters but let’s have a go.

Lovely wedding on Friday – very pretty bride, beaming groom and the flowers weren’t bad either.  Weather was brilliant too which is remarkable since it’s done nothing but rain since.    I know we all pray for good weather but it isn’t the best for the flowers, you get them from the market in tip top shape and then you try to keep them that way….

As usual the Mustard Pot made a lovely venue and the couple had filled the garden with fun things to do – hoopla, 10 pin bowls, and amongst other things limbo.  Didn’t hang around to see the bride do that in her frock!  And inside they’d collected dozens of pretty china cups and saucers for coffee after dinner which went perfectly with the simple jugs and jars of pretty country flowers

The theme was vintage/country, so lots of seasonal flowers, nothing too stuffy.   The pew ends were simple bunches tied with raffia which we lifted with the pedestal and moved down to the pub for the reception.   Makes sense to get double the use from your flowers where you can.

Of course there had to be roses, in the bouquet were Avalance and Akito roses with gyp, white lisianthus and freesia, and variegated pittisorpum and the bridesmaids’ posies were simple but with blues and violets to match their dresses.

And after all that loveliness I had to find a way to get 19 half barrels from Knottingley to Leeds.   Man with Van was great, but we still had to stuff 3 of them into my car, talk about the sublime to the ridiculous.  But they got there and they look good as well.  I took a photo when they arrived, oozing the smell of booze over the garden but I failed to take one when I’d done.  I suspect I’d seen too much of them by then.

Quite glad of the rain today really – at least I can’t dig anything or plant anything, hooray I get to stay inside.   A little light plant ordering is on the cards I think.  Oh careful the sun’s coming out….

and if you want to know where all the wittering and twittering is find me @MaggyAnne, see you there maybe?

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Filed under Flowers, Garden, Uncategorized, vintage, wedding