Making Good Use

Could Anyone Make Use Of ....

.... the unused return portion of my rail ticket?  I'd bought a return ticket from Wickford to Bristol Temple Meads but P decided to drive down to Bristol and so I came back with him by road. 

 
The ticket is for off-peak travel (ie, not during rush-hours) and is valid until 25th June.  If anyone could make use of a single journey from Bristol to London Paddington (or, indeed, to Wickford in Essex) before the 25th - or if you know of anyone who'd like it, do leave a comment and I'll post it off to you.

Vintage and Handmade Textile Fair

As luck would have it, the date for the Vintage and Handmade Textile Fair this year fell very nicely with my visit to Bristol.  So yesterday Mum and I took ourselves off to Chipping Sodbury for a truly lovely day out.

 
The Fair was really busy in the morning and it was quite difficult to get near some of the stalls because of the crush of people.  Undeterred, both Mum and I managed to buy a few items nevertheless.  After a visit to the wonderful Hobbs House Bakery (where usually I buy an ultra-gooey slab of cake to take back to Essex - which, sadly, I can't eat any more - so this time I treated myself to a jar of Lavender Marmalade instead,) a rather tasty pub lunch (and the weather was so nice that we could sit outside in the beer garden to enjoy it,) we headed back into the Fair.  In the afternoon it was much quieter and we were able to have a really good perusal of everything.

 
I came away with four wooden Sylko reels to add to my stash, a Clothkits doorstop kit in a fantastic fuschia-pink cord fabric, some more of the fabulous wooden buttons from Michele at Cowboys and Custard, a pack of recycled-paper card blanks and envelopes from The Makery in Bath (I really want to check out their shop over there next time I'm visiting Mum,) and some rather fabbo bright-pink cotton lace.  (The piece of patchwork fabric came from another little fair that was being held in the Baptist Church Hall and which cost the enormous sum of 10p!)

 
 
And, five offcuts of vintage fabric from Donna Flower (I bought two of the floral Sanderson fabric) These were only £1.00 a piece and I was really delighted with them.  (Apologies the photo is the wrong way round, I can't seem to alter it!)

Mum had a sit down and I popped across the road to the amazing charity shop in the High Street.  It only sells women's clothes and they have a fabulous selection (there's another shop by the same charity futher up the High Street where they have the childrens' and mens' clothing, books, bric-a-brac etc.)  The shop is so neatly laid out and I found quite a few things to try on but none of them looked that good off the hanger and on me, so I contented myself with only buying a boxed bottle of Issey Miyake Le Feu body lotion for £1.00.  I don't know an awful lot about really upmarket toiletries but I think this will be a good bet for ebay. 

 
All in all, it was a really fantastic day out and both Mum and I had a wonderful time.

Cool Cat

 
It can't be much fun to be a long-haired cat on a really hot summer's day.  I mean, it's not as if Lily can take her fur coat off.  So the next best thing is to squeeze yourself on to a cool tiled windowsill and lie in front of the open window.  Oh, and look very cute while you're doing it.