A Day at the Country Living Fair

What a lovely day I've had !

After having to stand on the train all the way in to London this morning (honestly, cattle are treated better than train passengers !), my lovely Mum and I hot-footed it over to VV Rouleaux in Marylebone. What a LOVELY shop - tons of gorgeous trimmings and ribbons, but I was a bit disappointed that they didn't sell buttons though. I had set myself a £20 budget to spend in this shop because I wanted to save the rest of my money for the Country Living Fair, and I thought I did pretty well - £21.70 later and this is what I bought

Not an awful lot to show for £21 I know BUT the trimming is beautiful and the little flowers - there are actually 30 there and I plan to use these in some new pictures I'm designing. The trimming - well, you'll just have to wait and see what I do with that !! I've got an idea in mind, and just need to buy a couple of other bits to go with it. Watch this space :-)

After spending the best part of half an hour in VV Rouleaux, Mum and I jumped on a bus to the Design Centre in Islington and got to the Country Living Fair just before lunchtime.

My heart started beating ten to the dozen as soon as I stepped into the Fair and I was like a child in a sweet shop - all those lovely stands with gorgeous goodies on them shouting out "Buy Me, Buy Me" !! So, off we went and buy we did !!!

First up - these beautiful little personalised angels for all of my NCT friends' daughters. We're having an Easter Egg Hunt at our house over the Easter weekend (of course!) and rather than stuff them full of chocolate (actually, I'm not that mean, they will get some choccies), I thought it might be nice to give them one of these each to take home in their goodie bags. Sadly they didn't have anything suitable for the boys, so any suggestions you might have would be greatly received.

Next (we did actually look at other stalls in between buying all these bits and pieces), this gorgeous mohair wool which I shall use for felting - sadly the light was fading when I took this photo, so it doesn't show the colour of the wool particularly well, but they are the most gorgeous grey blue and grey green

Then, after stopping to chat to numerous stall holders, including Samantha from Plump Pudding, who has been working like a trojan the last few months preparing for the Fair, and I have to say her stand was gorgeous and she's such a lovely lady. I really hope she does well at the Fair, she certainly deserves it. I then came across a stand selling some lovely ribbon, which I just couldn't resist especially as I will be making a couple of Mother's Day cards this week and can use the ribbon on them (sorry about the not particularly bright photo) - there is some lovely pale pink polka dot gosgrain ribbon (on the reel), a lovely brown and cream polka dot ribbon, a cream and grey heart stamped ribbon and a lovely gosgrain ribbon with some little hearts and the words "Special Mum" printed on it

Of course, there were so many stands at the Fair that I couldn't possibly have bought something from every single one (even though I wanted to!) and there are far too many to mention in this post - but I will list a few of my favourites in my next couple of posts, just so that you can see what you were missing if you didn't make it to the Fair.

I also bought a giant lump of handmade vanilla and belgium chocolate fudge ... mmmmmmm LOVELY

Sorry - it's half eaten !!

A lovely Bill Brown bag for my Mum for Mother's Day, some tasty organic sausages, a hot chilli sauce for my hubby, some beautiful hand painted wardrobe knobs for Grace's bedroom (pic to follow next time because they're in my Mum's bag !), a nice new pale blue leather purse for me and these lovely lavender filled hearts for my Mother-in Law (hope she's not reading this otherwise I've spoiled the surprise for Mother's Day !). Unfortunately I couldn't find anything for Sam ... well, that's not true actually, I did see the most amazing recycled rubber tyre horse swing to hang from the tree in our garden, but I needed to check it out with Paul first, so will hopefully be buying it online

My final purchase was something to keep all of my material and bits and bobs in, and I have to say I am extremely pleased with these, not just because they are lovely, but because I can also use them to hold lots of my goodies that I will be selling at the craft fairs

So, I am now absolutely knackered and broke, but was truly inspired by the most amazing craftspeople and their gorgeous items and of course, like I said before, had a really lovely day. Thank you to everyone at the CL Fair xx