Shepton Mallet - Giant Flea Market Sunday 28 February

This is going to be my last outing to the Giant Flea for the foreseeable future. I've been in the same spot for about 4 years now - can't believe it's been that long - but since taking over Dairy House Antiques I've found that getting stock ready for the Flea takes up my days off for at least a week prior to the event, and I always have to have the car loaded and ready on the Friday as I'm working at Dairy House on the Saturday. Most of the time it doesn't matter, but it has meant that if we need the car for personal living as opposed to work, there's an awful lot of loading and unloading going on, and to be honest I could do with a break from it.

I shall miss stalling out at the Giant Flea because, over the years, it has become an important part of my life - spending time with the lovely couple who have the stall next to me, chatting with the other regular stallholders, being very self-controlled and not walking across the aisle to the sweetie man opposite until the end of the day, selling or just chatting to all my lovely regular customers who have been so supportive and encouraging over the years, meeting new ones. At least my customers know they can find me at Dairy House if they are desperate for a fabric, lace or button fix!!

I shall miss the frantic scurrying around before the public are allowed in, when I have been able to restock my lace and fabrics from the outside pitches who are able to set up before we are allowed into the Showering Pavilion. I'm hoping that from time to time I'll still be able to get one of the other dealers to do at least the Sunday morning at Dairy House so I can shop before doing the afternoon stint. We shall see ...

I may find that I miss it all too much and will have to book another pitch. We'll see. If the weather is good through the summer months I may take a spur-of-the-moment outdoor pitch, just for the fun of it. Again, we'll see ...

In the meantime, thanks to everyone who has bought from me at the Flea in the past. This Sunday I shall be selling EVERYTHING at £1.00. I need to clear my sitting room, the back of the car, the studio and the garage ... nothing will be priced at over £1.00. This will be anything from fabric to lace to buttons to kitchenalia to pictures to knitting needles ... whatever I find on Friday when I fight my way into the studio (shed) which will fit in the car.

Hope to see you there. Apologies for the lack of photos but there will be piccies soon. This is post # 299, so I think there may well be a giveaway in the offing, and plenty of things to look at.

Thank you!

Sue

Bridport Rag Market - update

Bridport Rag Market

Saturday 20 February

 at St Mary's Church Hall

from 10 til 4.

Very busy day. Bustling with shopper all day. I think everyone went home happy. Thanks to Caroline and Linda for organising once again.

Bottling Plant ... and other Goodies ...

I was offered several boxes of bottles the other day, nearly all dug up from an old Victorian dump and collected by the seller since childhood. I haven't yet had a chance to look at them closely, but generally they appear be in good condition. Here are just a few. I've had a number of the old saltglazed inkpots over the years and these continue to sell well. They're not expensive items, and consequently building up a collection needn't be a costly exercise.

These modern Kilner jars are ideal for storing buttons at Dairy House. Customers are quite happy to rummage through them to pick out the best button right at the bottom!

It's time I searched for more vintage plastic knitting needles. These are the only remaining pairs.

Embroidery next ... this beautiful work is on an amazing, but now quite damaged, chasuble. I'm not sure whether I should sell the complete item (probably for reworking), or whether to cut into it and sell the different parts individually. Answers, please, on a postcard!

Finally, the bedding section ... not arranged particularly well, but I thought one photo would be better than none and we were so busy over the weekend that I had no further customer-free time. Not that I'm complaining, of course.

The quilts above are a mixed international bag - some handstitched, some machined, from England, Wales, France ...

I have a pair of eiderdowns with matching bedcovers. No time to take pics of them all together but this photo gives you the idea of the colouring and the gorgeous pattern. The eiderdowns are beautifully puffy and have a dark plum outer panel. I'll try and remember to take more photos on Wednesday.

Plenty more photos to put into a new post on the Dairy House blog but they may have to wait until tomorrow. A trip to Bath is imminent as Mum has an appointment with the dentist. Lucky lady!!

As soon as I've taken more photos of the lace (see last post) I'll blog them.

Have a good week!

Sue

Laced Up ...

I've just bought a lovely collection of handmade lace which needs some tlc, repair and tidying-up before the Dairy House event. In the meantime I thought I'd take a few photos to show you ... forgetting that the camera battery was in need of charging. This is all I managed before it gave up, so more will follow in due course!

I saw this in an antiques shop this morning, and took the photos so that I could look at it again just for the fun of it. But here we are several hours later, and it's in the back of my car waiting to travel down the A303 tomorrow where it will sit in residence at Dairy House for a while. I'll try to remember to take photos of its cleverness tomorrow! I'd quite like to keep it and make use of it at DH, but what's the betting it'll be snapped up by a 1950s home owner. It would look so at home with the English Rose kitchen cupboards for sale in the shop!

I'll hopefully take some photos of Dairy House stock tomorrow to add to the blog sometime in the next few days. There was some nice new stock when I was in on Thursday, so  it's only fair to share it!!

Wasn't it lovely (for some of us) to wake up to a bright sunny day today. Let's hope it's the same over the weekend.

Sue