Country girl Corner was another lovely stand, where everything being sold was all handmade....
*All images shown here from CL fair were by kind permission of stand exhibitors
So it was off to the Country Living fair yesterday....
And a fab time was had by all.....
Starting with the goodies people, make & bake on our coach journey to the fair, but the award must go to the lovely Jennifer, for making not only very delicious short bread biscuits, (yes seriously Jen, they were delicious), but each & everyone had been hand stamped with 'CL fair 09' on them too....
The Fair it's self, was packed to the gills.... much, much busier than usual.., & 'it's sooo hot in here....!!' was the word I heard just about everywhere...!!
But, just when you think you've seen it all............, ie; through magazines, Internet, craft fairs, trade shows etc..you go along to the Country Living Fair....
For me personally, it's never about the big stands, it's about the smaller & handmade stands, the stands where there is perhaps the artisan their selves, standing there, wrapping things, taking money, unpacking the boxes, labeling & setting everything up.... etc, it's at this time when it's very hard not to be intimidated by the bigger stands, where everything is bought in....
For anyone who's ever done a craft fair, will know exactly what I'm talking about, (fight or flight springs to mind.....!!) For me these clever people who come up with new ideas, & ways of making ordinary items look so less ordinary....., the time it must take to make the amount for these fairs, one can only imagine it must take hours & hours & hours....
& lastly a BIG THANK YOU to Jaini, who arranges these CL fair trips each time many thanks & here's to the next one.......
Talking of which, I'm off to Islington, on Wednesday to visit the Country Living Christmas Fair, if you haven't been before & are thinking about going you're, in for a real great day out....
In this world of hairdressing that I work in, there are certain perks to the job this is one of them.... Homemade cakes bought in by a very lovely lovely client of mine.....
Is it too soon to mention Christmas....!? Well....., there I've said it...
I've always loved the Natural elements of Christmas, Pine cones, Berries, Dried fruits, Twisted Willow etc... I am lucky enough to live amongst fields, & can gather, these bits & bobs on my daily walks, with Mr Alfie, it's always nice to bring the outside into the inside of our home....
I wanted to get a bit of a head start, with making things, this year, & have committed myself to two craft fairs, around Christmas time, so, with this in mind, I've been making Pine Cone garlands, Scented Cinnamon Sticks, Bags of homemade potpourri, & one of my favorites Wax scented pine cones, which when tossed onto an open fire, fill the room with a seasonal warmth....
With the current amount of talent & celebrity competitive, television, programmes we seem be bombarded with lately,
should we be asking ourselves what are we really judging.....?
1st impressions..?
Style..?
Individuality...?
Talent..?
Appearance...?
It is said that we judge people on the first three seconds of meeting them...
Take a moment to listen to this, then ask yourself, should we be so quick to judge?
My Catalogue from whitestuff came in the post today...
Printed on lovely Matt paper, with flavours of the 1940's, & images of old bicycles with wicker baskets on the front, brown paper packages, tweed caps, & knotted head scarfs.....
In lovely colours of, moss green, rose pink, smokey grey & rusty reds....