Mayfair Shopping

Actually, that should read "May Fair", rather than Mayfair. It's not as posh, but much more fun! On the May Day Bank Holiday, there is always a fair on Redland Green in Bristol. It's like a village fete in the middle of the city, and is one of my favourite events of the year. This year it was a bit cold and damp, but I managed to pick up lots of bargains, and, more importantly, lots of home-made cakes! Here are some more of my goodies -

I'm pleased with these shelves - they'll hold a lot of little knick-knacks. The little bunny mug is worth a close-up. It's so sweet!

I've also been finding odd bits and bobs at my local charity shop. I'm accumulating lots of lovely china at the moment. Some of it for a new craft project I've been toying with, and some to sell. I plan to bring lots with me to the Vintage and Handmade Fair on 30th May. Hope to see you there!

I haven't been able to blog for a while, as my mum and my sister are both in hospital at the moment! Although they live in the same house, they've been taken to two different hospitals, one in the city centre, and one in the outskirts. As you can imagine, hospital visiting is a bit of a logistical nightmare! I'm slowly getting a bit calmer about it now, as they both seem to be on the mend, thank goodness.

Betty the Pianist

Well, what happened was.... I got this great old clockwork musical doll from the seventies, called Betty the Pianist.. and I thought I should try to video her.. and I got a bit carried away... and then I saw the Pantene advert with Mylene Klass... and I just thought... well, why not?

Sorry I haven't been blogging or commenting much lately. I'm trying to get down to some work and not get too distracted.. Oh! Well, yes, apart from the doll video thing...

Easter Parade

I hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend! The sun was shining here for most of it, which put a spring in my step, and made me want to put on an Easter bonnet, trimmed with blooms and blossom!

We had our London Friend staying with us, who likes to see countryside and green space when she comes to stay with us. So on Sunday, we went for a walk up Solsbury Hill, just outside Bath (yes, the one Peter Gabriel sang about). It's an old iron age settlement, a hill with a flat top - and steep sides, as my legs can verify! It was very hazy, but the view from the top is lovely. I thought we had been there before, but neither London Friend, nor Mr Kitsch could ever remember having been there. This means it must be over 20 years since I'd been there, back in the days when I lived in Bath. That's scary!

Then we went for a walk round the park, and in particular, to the Botanic Gardens, full of spring flowers and blossoms. Then we dropped London Friend off at her parents, and came away with some of her mum's delicious home-made fruit cake and marmalade. Yum!

We were all set to just have a lazy day yesterday, but we somehow managed to summon up the energy to do some gardening. It was probably fuelled by guilt, really, as the poor blackbirds were getting lost in the long grass on the lawn. I did a lot of pruning and after a run-in with a particularly aggressive berberis, my arms are so scratched, I look as though I've been in a fight with a wildcat. But now the garden looks respectable again, and we were able to sit back and feel smug!
(I'd like to pretend the snakeshead fritillary in the photo above is my garden, but it was in the Botanic Gardens...)

Over-egg-cited

Happy Easter!!! This lovely cup and saucer set was a present from Mr Kitsch today. I love it!
I'll add it to my collection of cute nursery china. Here's one of my old favourites, with an Eastery theme.

I've also added them to my Easter display of crazy cuteness this morning, which is coming along nicely...

Mr K also gave me a cute selection of Hello Kitty goodies. Cute and chocolately!! Yay!

I made Mr Kitsch a 'space egg', as he's been reading lots of books about the Apollo space programme recently. He loves space! I was inspired by getting a really nice little vintage spaceman.

And finally, I got this rather wonderful craft book from Ebay this week. I've put some other photos of the 'egg-citing' projects on Flickr. One of them is described as "truly an adventure in eggery"!

Things that go bump in the night

We've been hearing funny noises lately. Out in the dark. Just outside the window, on the rough collection of stones we laughingly call a patio. Shuffles, bumps, that sort of thing. Then one evening there was a loud crash and we found the bird table had been knocked over. When Mr Kitsch opened the door he could hear rustling in the bushes. "It must be a cat," we said, not wanting to worry ourselves. "Or a fox.." There are a lot of urban foxes in Bristol.

Every now and then in the evenings, we'd hear something, but never saw anything. Mr Kitsch started to refer to it as "The Beast".

Then last night, I was reading in bed, while Mr Kitsch watched TV. He suddenly rushed upstairs to tell me The Beast was in the garden. It was a badger! I ran downstairs and looked out to see it happily rooting about on the lawn. Apparently, when Mr Kitsch first saw him he was energetically digging up one of my pots outside the patio door. Cheeky so-and-so! He wasn't the least disturbed by us or the light from the house, and wandered off in his own time.

So, another visitor to the garden. I'm thinking he might be called Bill - I can't think why...

Hit the North...

...and hit the shops! As promised, I'm going to share some of my shopping from my trip up North. Largest item first - a chest of drawers.

So is it just me that comes back from a holiday with furniture? I know, I probably could have bought the same drawers somewhere nearer, but I saw them and loved them. They're sort of embossed silver with black. I love the shape! (And I'm rather pleased with the way the photo makes the bedroom look deceptively serene!)

As if coming back with furniture wasn't enough, I also came back with more luggage! This fabulous, doll-patterned suitcase was from Primark. The branch in Manchester was huge, much larger than ours. I've never seen luggage in there before.

My excuse is that it's very practical - it has wheels and a handle, so I might use it for taking stuff to fairs.


Needless to say, I got a few tasteful little things from Blackpool, including this extraordinary 'Giddy Kipper', made of rock!






















I think I may have mentioned buying something magnificent from a vintage stall in Manchester. What could be more impressive than a giant, lustre-glazed ceramic squirrel ornament??

There was lots more - photos in my Flickr photostream!

Blackpool Rocks

As part of our short sojourn 'Up North', we went for a day to Blackpool, as I hadn't been there since I was a teenager, and Mr Kitsch had never been there. Strange really, as we both love tacky British Seasidey-ness.

My first impression was "Weston-super-Mare on steroids", but that was before we experienced Blackpool Tower. I love being in high places, so the tower itself was great. They even had the dramatically-named "Walk of Faith", which was about four feet square of glass floor! (The one in the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth is rather more impressive.)

There's lots to see in Blackpool Tower - "The Jurassic Walk", with some jerkily-moving dinosaurs, the Charlie Caroli Exhibition (remember all those Bank Holiday Circuses on TV when we were little?), and various other amusements. But my favourite place of all was the Tower Ballroom. We just walked through an unmarked door and found ourselves in the balcony of this stunning palace of dance.


There was a Sunday afternoon tea dance going on, with some very impressive dancers. There was no 'getting up and having a go'. This was a serious business, and everyone there was step perfect. The most amazing thing I saw was an elderly couple, in their seventies, I'd say, who got up to do the rumba. I know very little about ballroom dancing, and this was not the fast dance I was expecting, but quite slow and sensual, with lots of balanced poses. To see this couple entwine themselves so beautifully around each other, and hold graceful, elegant poses, was a surprisingly moving experience. I wish I knew how to dance like that - I'm working on Mr Kitsch, but he's very reluctant!

We had fish and chips, walked along the prom in a freezing gale, put 2p pieces in the cascade machines, failed to pick up a cuddly toy with a crane, and all those other seaside pleasures!! The other great highlight was seeing a demonstration of rock-making. (I've put photos on Flickr!) Brilliant!