Highlights

After spending a day at the Vintage at Goodwood festival, we then spent a week on the border of Devon/Dorset, and what a lovely week it was.  Fortunately the weather was kind to us for the most part!


From beaching to NT properties, to fossil hunting to steam trains, to shopping to River Cottage, to boat roads to lots and lots of walking is the summary of our week.  Not people to sit and veg for a weeks holiday, we certainly crammed a lot in.


It even took a lot to sit on the beach for a few hours!  I wish I had taken a photo, but we got to Lyme Regis beach early and it was lovely and quiet.  Got all our bits unpacked - the boys went off and did their thing.  Within 1 hour I was beginning to feel hemmed in, a further 1/2 an hour later we had people sitting 6" in front, behind and both sides.  I should have built a trench around us!  On that basis, we had to leave.   Too busy for my liking and not much fun when there's no sand left for the boys to build castles with.


Moaning over!  The highlight of the holiday for me had to be Greenway's - Agatha Christie's home on the River Dart near Dartmouth.  It only opened to the public last year and is a little troublesome to get to as there's only a car park for a dozen odd cars so you have to pre-book, otherwise you have to find 'greener' ways to get there.


The house and gardens themselves aren't the prettiest, but there was something quite magical about walking round the house Agatha Christie lived in.  The views were superb.  Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any internal shots but here's some external ones.

Here's a montage of the rest of the week.

Don't you just love holidays..............?

Hi Di Hi

Hello all,

I'm back from our little trip-et away.  Hope you're all enjoying the summer - I don't want it to end!


I won't overload you with too many photo's, so will split it in two - the first being the fantastic Vintage at Goodwood festival in West Sussex.  It was an extremely good event, although we only went for 1 day, due to our already booked holiday.  Not having been to a festival before, I wasn't too sure what to expect but it was great, although I'm sure it doesn't fall into traditional type festivals!


We were lucky enough to go on the only dry, sunny day (phew).  We took our two boys which I was initially a little worried about as I was concerned about their boredom levels!  I needn't have worried as there was a vast array of activities for children - most of which you could leave them (temporarily) whilst they busied themselves. In fact we ended up spending more time on their activities than enjoying ours!


The event was well organised and had some excellent activities, vintage caravans, vintage fairground, music, food, buses, a 'beach', vintage cars and bikes, stalls, shops and a whole lot more.   One of my favourite displays was a 1940's allotment (I don't think it differs from one today but it was lovely nevertheless).  It was wonderful to see so many people dressed in vintage clothing, hair and make-up done as it would have been in the 40's.


Here's a pictorial snapshot of a fantastic day. (You can probably click on the photo's to enlarge them).

Vintage buses laid on, transporting people from the local train station

In we go..........

Love the coloured cars

Oh, to drive round in one of these!

Sit a while and create......

Now, I wouldn't mind owning a caravan like this

Good old fashioned fun

Jack's (on the left) had fun!

Hopefully they'll be another festival next year!

Right, I'm off for a blog catch up.....

Splashes of colour

Morning all - my, how the weeks are flying by - half way through the summer holidays already.  Eek....


During the mad bustle of last week, a lovely little gift popped through the letterbox, and it certainly did a lot to cheer up the day!  I took part in Pay it Forward which Jane from Marigold Jam was doing.


What arrived was a set of pretty pouches which Jane had adorned with decorative touches.  Inside each pouch was a little treat - seeds, soap, and a lovely bookmark with one of her handmade Dorset buttons added to it. Thanks Jane!

I finally got round to uploading my photo's of the fabric I bought at Tikki in Kew a couple of weeks ago.  There was so much choice, it was a job selecting my favourite's.  I'm sure I'll find plenty to do with this lot!

At the till, I couldn't help but buy this ball of wall - no ordinary ball of wall as it's only diddy - standing at a mere 2.5" high.  More for looking at rather than using!

Having worked 24 out of 48 hours getting orders completed over Friday/Saturday, I felt I was due a break yesterday so set to making a cushion with individual Yo-Yo's sewn on.  I've also added vintage buttons to each one.  I wish I had done them slightly smaller, but I'm happy with the finished article.

Right, onwards with a variety of activities this week.  We're then off on a little jaunt, which includes a trip to The Vintage at Goodwood Festival, a trip which I'm very excited about! 


I'll say au revoir for now and will catch up with you all soon.


Toodle Pip.

Bristol Harbour Festival

The holidays are in full swing and as always, my ambitious plans (including blogging) seem to be going out of the window......and we're in August, how did that happen?  The big C word will be upon us before we know it.

Anyway, back to the present.  With thanks to our local news, we took a drive to the Bristol Harbour Festival on Saturday and what a fantastic event it was.  What made my ears prick was the word  'Free' - always good when you have children!  We parked at the SS Great Britain - £1.60 for all day, and wandered along the harbour taking in all the glory on the water.

I apologise for the variety of photo's - I forgot the camera and had to use hubby's super duper one on his phone, but then realised when we uploaded the photo's at home, some little person and put their finger over the lens so the photo's were blurred!

My favourite tent - Make do and Mend!

The activities for the children were great.  Our two got involved in a spot of rope making, circus tricks and vegetable face making.  Their favourite activity was puppet making.  They then had to create a scene for their puppets, think of a storyline and then the organisers filmed their 'show' - to appear on You Tube later this week no less!!!  They were highly impressed!

Another favourite was the humble bike - and using the power of peddle to generate electricity.  The first 2 bikes were to generate a scalextric  which required an awful amount of leg power!  The next bike was to make pretty swirly pictures  (almost like a potters wheel set-up but on the back of a bike).  One person peddles and the other squirts paint on the paper to make a picture.

The last bike was to generate enough power to make a cheese toastie - and yes, in 6 minutes of peddle power you get a toastie - brilliant!

There were lots of concerts, stalls, food sellers, dancing and a whole load more.  Great organisation and all free - thank you Bristol, we'll definitely be back again next year!