Aprons on the line

 For a wee while today it was dry enough to put these aprons out to photograph, but not dry enough to dry a washing.

 This is a small apron or lapbag with a big embroidered pocket to hold knitting or crochet wool clean and keep pins etc handy while working on project.

 These aprons are nylon and blew nicely in the breeze

 I think they would have been for impressing the kind of guest who might be impressed by the frillieness of an apron!

 The camera doesn't quite do justice to this one, the dots are white, lime, jade and mustard.

 The yoke and frill are cotton with a kind of transparent voile frill in between.

 The blue and white striped one is best described as 'pretty but practical'

I hope you find one you like, Laurie Lee.

Overflowing with cups

This is a cute little set, no plates, but pretty; 

flowers on the back, front and inside of the cup and at two places on the saucer.

This set is beautiful, look at the lines of the jug, the simplicity of the pattern, 

absolutely beautiful;

the cups are smaller than most, 

but they are beautiful

This bone china set has a muted palette too,

but look at the quality of the gilding

A pastel coloured harlequin set

with a swag of gold flowers.

A bit more bling!

Fire King oven ware, in a peach lustre

A traditional, vintage pattern with all the favourite elements

- soft, pale green, pink and white apple blossom and fruit,

and just enough gilding . . . to glow.

Funk Fair - Dundee

A lovely venue 

and lots of lovely stalls.

There was some interest in books 

 . . . and music,

 but what the Dundee girls like is to get their hands on clothes they haven't seen before!

And if their mums and grannies wore them before them, so much the better!

After a long day, it's time for a cuppa

Anyone for tea?

I hope you like the gilt harlequin tea set - and the cakes.

Following Funk Fair

A quick hello to people I met yesterday at the Funk Fair in Dundee. No time to look at pix yet, but here is a pic for Vera from Finland who admires the Scottish scenery.

Just a fraction to the left of the middle of this pic, (you might have to blow the pic up), above the dark wood, is a tiny white dot. It is a house I used to live in and to the left of that is the roof of one I lived in after that. Now, I sometimes stay in a space in between both these houses.

I will put up photos of teapots for Carol ASA I have time.

I'd like to put his address on the sidebar, but I'm not sure how to do it. Any suggestions?
http://www.facebook.com/RuralReadsThReads

Cups, saucers and plates

Here are some new things for anyone who is fed up of seeing the cushions and green teacups. These saucers have little silhouettes of Mickey Mouse round the saucers. There are four cups and saucers, but no plates. The cups are plain, glossy black inside and outside; so glossy that they reflect the pattern off the saucers. 

This is a beautiful set I might call creamware - they are cream, with a moulded band of fruit or flowers, but the band is tinted a darker shade, beige maybe, The flowers in relief are not coloured, but because they stand slightly proud of the beige, they throw the colour off and look paler. The pictures genuinely don't do justice to the set, which is really lovely. I'll try to take a close up later. 

 These are some other things that  are cute more than anything else, cute but functional, of course. The glass dish has a 'flower' embedded in the clear perspex handle of the chrome lid.

The silver plated cake knife was still in the box - until I took it out. the cake plate is typical of its style. Bright white bone china with a simple pattern in clean, clear colours and black.

  The 'Retirement' cup and saucer has a pretty cottage print on it, as does the separate tea plate, but the cup is bone china while the plate is thicker - I don't know if ironstone is the right word for it. The plate is very colourful, with the orangey red, blue and chrome yellow combination that is so well suited to painting flowers.

 A sweet to finish with - a honey jar? but the honey spoon doesn't fit the lid. Maybe it's a jam or mustard dish and the honey spoon just felt attracted to it.

Busy weekend

On Friday morning I was behind the counter of the plant stall at the MacMillan Breast Cancer Coffee Morning in ENKCA village hall at Balkeerie. The plant stall raised £106 and the event brought in £800 overall including contributions at the door and sales from the cake and candy table. 

After that I packed the car and headed to Aberdeen for the March Hare Market. It was excellent!

Well organised and publicised, in an excellent venue at the BB HQ in Crimond Place, just a few blocks off Union Street, near the flats of Rosemount which must house lots of young people, some of whom are apparently lovers of vintage!

Older people were also keen to buy pieces of china, handmade jewellery, soaps and homewares. The premises supplied cups of tea to stall holders and the hall keeper was generally very helpful. Congratulations to Kate Higgs and her team of helpers who made every thing run smoothly. Sorry I was too busy to take pix.

The day proved successful in many ways. I met lovely customers, who appreciated the vintage china, music and clothing I had taken with me. Interestingly, I met business people who are keen to buy lovely old china, such as I have accumulated. Some wanted to hire it out, one to sell it on at profit to the right clientele and Craig, the lovely Blue Mogganer, (Peterheid native) - whose Facebook posts had me in stitches this morning  - wanted to drill holes in the plates, saucers and cups . . . and turn them into cakestands! I also met a former class mate who might be able to help me on the stall at the next March Hare Market on October 27th   All in all a very good day, full of North Eastern promise.

I was too tired to move on Saturday night so I stayed the night and on Sunday morning I headed back down the road to the Carnaby Market at the Vu nightclub in Dundee.

A very different setting that created a good atmosphere for the event, but proved a bit too dark to see stock.

The venue was in the city centre and again there was a mixture of young and old, including a very nice Dundee grandma with a very open and generous spirit, shopping with her young granddaughter. 

There was some interest in my fabric stash, but sheet music proved a better seller!

Doreen from Gladrags, Queen of very vintage fashions, has her eye on a suit I wore to a wedding long long ago. I didn't realise she had tried it on until I spied her in the viewfinder, but I wasn't quick enough to get a good picture.

The layout of the club had the potential to be a great shopping place, because people walked round in circles and went over their tracks, revisiting stalls and seeing things that had caught their eye earlier. Shelves for drinks proved handy for display and different floor heights prevented the usual 'been round the floor once and seen it all' view.

Next week the Funk Fair is in the Queens Hotel, Dundee on Sunday. I'm looking forward already and  threading up the sewing machine in preparation. See you there!