Winter Weekend Wonders

I had a fun and successful weekend. On Saturday, the Festive Flea Market at the Folk House was excellent. Much to my surprise, I sold lots of badges and magnets, and I only have one pincushion left! I have to say that I was pretty pleased with my stall. You see, my natural inclination is to cram as much stuff as possible on the table, in the hope that there will be something to please everyone. Clutter is my style. Of course this does not work. It's overwhelming and it looks bad. A bit of space makes things look more special, and shows them to their best advantage.

It seems to have taken me an extraordinarily long time to realise this. I can only put it down to being a bit slow on the uptake, sometimes! Even at the Vintage & Handmade Fair, I overdid it despite myself, and put too much stuff out. But on Saturday, I think I managed to keep it just on the right side of junkyard!

On Sunday, we met a friend visiting from London, and went to Gloucester. I'm not sure why we thought about Gloucester, really. Mainly because it's somewhere we hadn't been before. And in all honesty, I may not go again. To be fair, we probably didn't see it at its best, on a wet Sunday afternoon.

I had checked online, and was quite excited about the promise of a "Winter Wonderland" in the city centre. A more accurate description would be a large tent surrounded by fake snow. (We did see a polar bear, but that's another story.) So we wandered round Gloucester Cathedral, where the choir sounded wonderful, but we weren't allowed to go and look. We tried the coffee shop for afternoon tea, but the lady behind the counter had clearly had a trying day, and although it was only ten to three, she told us very firmly that they were no longer serving. The cloisters are impressive, though, with some wonderful stained glass, including the rather charming elephants above. The cathedral has been used as a location for the Harry Potter films. Presumably you need those magical powers to get in there...
Like the cloisters, my advent calendar is a bit medieval, with interesting windows. (Whoa, smooth link, or what?) This photo is a bit old, and there are now more windows open than closed! This means it's time to get Christmassy. I don't have any more fairs before Christmas, and the online orders have dried up a bit, so I'm definitely starting to feel a bit holiday, a bit festive. Hopefully we'll get our tree up tomorrow....