Fun Stuff!

So amongst all the chaos of preparing for Christmas fairs and orders the half term holidays were suddenly upon us. We decided to have a few days away to have some family time with the kids. We rented a cottage in Angelsey fully intending to do fun stuff during the day and do some work in the evening when the children were in bed. We packed the laptops - the brochure blurb assured us there was wifi, and I packed up stock so I could carry on filling orders.
The cottage was lovely! It was in a stunning location. I took the photo below from the kitchen / living room window.
About the wifi - we found we couldn't pick it up from our cottage. A note in the manual said that we were welcome to use the computer in the office across the courtyard. I ended up doing this twice a day to keep up to date with orders but other than that we spent more time relaxing than planned - which turned out to be very nice!
Heres where I worked from for the week,
Angelsey is really beautiful. We spent the days walking on the beaches and visiting some lovely little towns and villages. The pic below was the carpark fence near the beach, I was really taken with this! All the way along were engravings of birds, insects and flowers.
I think my favourite place was Beamaris. The castle was amazing, we spent way more time there than I thought we had. The rapscallions loved exploring the grounds and corridors of the castle, littlest Sheps was a bit put out that he didn't see a dragon though. Beamaris is full of lovely little shops and galleries too so we were all very happy.

We made it home for the Haworth Village Halloween Parade which was great fun as always! This year was the busiest I've ever seen it and the people who live on Main Street had really got into the spirit (see what I did there) of things and put up lots of spooky decorations. I was really inpressed with this pumpkin carving!
The parade was led by a witch on stilts, how she managed to get up the cobbled hill I will never know!
The local riding school even took part in the parade with the horses and riders all dressed up - I didn't get a pic though because it was just too crowded.

So thats what we have been up to recently - how about you?

Fingers crossed

I've been a bit quiet on the blog front for a couple of weeks, it's been crazy busy but now I'm ready to prepare for a cosy family Christmas. Orders are still coming in from the shop, but the order date for commissions has past so now it's just a case of packaging up stock:)

So today we had a wander into the village, and with the over night snow fall we have our fingers crossed for a white Christmas! Our village association has gone all out this year and Haworth Main Street looks soooo pretty. The children are in love with the tree,


The trees and decorations adorn the whole of the cobbled street. The local shop owners and residents have been very busy.

But the snow has really completed the whole effect! A certain someone thought the whole thing utterly wonderful....
But for some of us it was all too much....
It is the Nativity weekend here in Haworth (19th & 20th), with lovely shopping, and great pubs and cafes :) Merry Christmas!

Time Travel in Haworth

Over the weekend our little village stepped back in time to the 1940s. Billed as the best kept secret in Yorkshire Haworth was full of vintage vehicles of all descriptions and people dressed in '40s clothes from all walks of life.
Strolling up Main Street we saw glamourous ladies, GIs, police officers, spivs, land girls, sailors, you name it! Even Churchill put in an appearance.

It was a fantastic weekend and we saw a huge number of visitors to the village. There were dances organised for both evenings - tickets sold out weeks ago. During the day there were stalls selling hot food, street singers, rides in vintage buses and on the steam trains, a fly over by vintage aircraft and lots of parades.

A great opportunity to learn about our past and great entertainment too!

Haworth 1940s weekend

Here in Haworth preparations are under way for the 1940s weekend. This year it will be held on the 16th and 17th of May. It really takes over the whole village! You can see lots of photos by clicking here There is so much to see, hundreds of people visit over the two days many wearing 1940s clothes. Vintage vehicles are all around the village, there will be a fly over, the home guard set up road blocks, and soldiers march the streets. There are dance events in the evenings which are selling out fast!
The shop owners wear 1940s dress and there will be lots of vintage clothing and memorabilia on sale.

This year I have been asked to make a series of 1940s Art-ccordion Picture Books.

Each book contains original 1940s imagery including advertisments, pictures, buttons, coins and music

Blue Birds

This pic shows a close up of the locket set in the cover of the book. The locket is half open and contains a photo of a young man.

40s Fashion

Set in the cover of this book are vintage buttons, pins and original hook and eye fastenings. The photo below, one of my favourites, shows a page from the book. It is from a film showing a man drawing a seam line on the woman's leg - stockings were hard to come by!

Glamour

All of the images in here are from 1940s magazine ads. You know how we complain about the nonsense that is touted to young women today? It seems it was no different then! Try 'SLIM on the famous BREAD AND BUTTER DIET with the National Slimming Campaign (?!) I had great fun putting this together!

Glamour (cover)

All of the books pictured here are for sale at Oh La La vintage boutique.

2009 Events Diary - A work in progress

All of the events listed require applications from makers to ensure the products or produce on sale are good quality and are handmade by the vendors. This makes for a good shopping experience all round!

Dates will be added as I book them. Some dates and times may be subject to change. I will amend this as neccessary these will be typed in red.

Mother's Day Craft Fair Sunday 22nd March 2009 Victoria Hall, Saltaire, Shipley, West yorkshire 11.00 - 4.00

Arts and Crafts Fair Sunday 29th March 2009 Otley Courthouse, Otley, West Yorkshire
9.00 - 1.30 arranged to coincide with the (fabulous) Farmer's Market.

Arts and Crafts Fair Sunday 26th April 2009 Otley Courthouse, Otley, West Yorkshire
9.00 - 1.30 as above

Arts and Crafts Fair Saturday 6th June 2009 Skipton Town Hall, Skipton, West Yorkshire
10.00 - 4.00

Craft Fair 11th July 2009 Wesley Chapel, Lower Hall, Harrogate, North Yorkshire 10.00 - 4.30

Makers' Fair Saturday 12th 10.00 - 6.00 and Sunday 13th September 10.00 - 4.00 2009 Victoria Hall, Saltaire - huge arts event! see here for more info

Ilkley Arts Market Saturday 10th October, 10.00 - 4.00, Riddings Hall, The Grove, Ilkley

Arts and Crafts Fair Saturday 17th October 2009 Skipton Town Hall, Skipton, West Yorkshire 10.00 - 4.00

Arts and Crafts Fair Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th Novenber 2009 Kelbrook and Sough Village Hall, Kelbrook, Lancashire 10.30 - 4.30

Glusburn Institute Arts and Crafts Fair, Sunday 15th November 2009, Glusburn, West Yorkshire 10.00 - 4.00

Peace & Crafts Fair, Saturday 21st November 2009, Victoria Hall, 10.00- 4.00 event organised by Yorkshire CND, crafts, campaign stalls, complementary therapies, music, cafe

Cristmas Crafts & Gifts Fair Sunday 22nd November 2009, The Old School Rooms, Haworth opposite the Bronte Parsonage 10.00 - 5.00

Christmas Crafts and Gifts Fair Saturday 28th November 2009, Waterfront Hotel, Brighouse 10.00 - 1.00

Grassington Dickensian Festival, Craft Fair, Saturday 5th December 2009 Grassington Town Hall, 10.00 - 4.00

Cristmas Crafts & Gifts Fair Sunday 6th December 2009, The Old School Rooms, Haworth opposite the Bronte Parsonage 10.00 - 5.00

Grassington Dickensian Festival, Craft Fair, Saturday 12th December 2009 Grassington Town Hall, 10.00 - 4.00

Cristmas Crafts & Gifts Fair Sunday 13th December 2009, The Old School Rooms, Haworth opposite the Bronte Parsonage 10.00 - 5.00

HAPPY NEW YEAR

One and all!!!

This is the view we woke up to yesterday. The windmill on the hill is known in our house as the fan. When we moved here my daughter who was 18 months thought it was wonderful and insisted on calling it a fan:)

I would have posted this yesterday but with my son getting a toilet seat stuck on his head (yes, really) and one thing and another the day got away from me a bit.

Anyway, heres wishing you and yours all the best for 2009!

I'm off to read up on the new skills I'm learning about, I'll tell you about that later.

Have a good day!

These are the days

...when I really appreciate working from home. This was the view from the window early this morning


The school was closed so we shelved everything for a few hours for this,



The kids had a great time. It was their first real experience of snow. It took a lot of persuading to get them to come back inside. However there was some trauma...


The poor love wouldn't move away from the window saying "I'm watching my lovely snowman so he doesn't melt". Life can be tough when you are 3.