Royal Candles (of a fashion…)

Apologies for not blogging since the end of Feb (!!!!) but it’s been a little hectic here at Peagreen HQ. Into my fourth year and used to having Jan & Feb as a quiet time to catch up and get sorted, I had no such luck this year and was straight into orders & busy fairs!IMAG1683

Saw this gorgeous Morris Van in Exeter the other day whilst out bargain hunting and had to post a pic! My busiest fair this year was The Vintage Bazaar in Devizes, a new venue for Lizzie & Clare and to be honest a bit of a treck for us (3 hours) but it was worth it. Thank heavens I took my trusty helper Helene with me ‘cos we were flat out all day. We met some lovely folk and did lots of shopping – perfick!

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My friend Kat was 30 in March and we secretly met up at a huge holiday cottage in North Devon, which we frantically decorated and piled the  kitchen high with supplies (mostly of the alcoholic variety!) A great weekend was had by all – and yes, we did even make it out for a walk!

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Love this picture of Kat and Amy (and Amy’s hat!) On March 12th Helene and I went to a brilliant lampshade making workshop run by The Craft Hub – always good to learn a new skill me thinks! (Especially when one is slightly obsessed with collecting vintage fabric!) An old 1960’s sheet makes a great lampshade don’t you know?

On March 16th I did “All things vintage and lovely” at The Palace Hotel in Torquay. Great venue and a busy day slightly marred by someone on the stall opposite who has decided (yawn) it’s a great idea to make candles in jelly moulds! Why can’t people be a bit more creative?????????? I’ve been making them since 2010 so it’s NOT a new idea…..think of something else!

On March 18th I had my little meeting with Paul Burrell – we had decided to rendezvous at Pip’s (The Craft Hub) as I haven’t seen her properly for ages and he was staying in a village nearby. Of course I was late (we were meeting outside) and by the time I turned up he was parked up and inside having a nice cuppa and a chat with Pip! He told us lots of juicy goss. and we both thought he was a very nice chap (and my candles are now available in his shop in Cheshire!) La-de-da!

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I have also squeezed in a cold visit to Agatha’s “holiday home”  (alright for some…………….?)

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The Boat House at Greenway – all good homes should have one! And I even managed a girlie trip to Cornwall where the four of us, child-free and full of energy, consumed our weight in food and wine, danced around the house and LAUGHED…a lot

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This was our house for the weekend (oh the joy of having a rich relative!) The sun even shone for a few hours on Saturday morning so we all rushed out in our pj’s armed with fresh coffee to make the most of it….

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Even when it slipped behind the clouds we had a glorious view (below) and didn’t dare complain…we popped into Looe instead for coffee, cake and shopping!

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Portscatho Homespun Fair was on April 1st and although it was rather chilly, it was great to catch up with everyone – next fair is The Vintage Bazaar in Frome on April 20th 9am – 3pm which I have never done before and am really exited about (apart from the 5am start!) x

The Biotic Woman….

…..had to steal that from my friend Ben who called me it when I told him that I was on my 3rd course of anti-biotics! Haha!

Feeling so much better than I have done since the beginning of October, my little cold turned into a chest infection, which turned into sinusitis, which basically ended up as chronic sinusitis as the anti-biotics failed to work. My 3rd course were a load of huge white tablets, three times a day, plus decongestant, ibuprofen and steroid nasal spray! Nice! Last tablet tomorrow morning so fingers crossed for me as Christmas quickly approaches…..

Through my snotty haze I have managed to see Mumford & Sons (in Torquay of all places) Florence and the Machine (at Westpoint in Exeter) all down to my lovely friend Lucy who sent me free tickets to both. I took my girls to see Florence (& a few friends) it was great to see them bopping around, singing along – it’s just a shame it took us an hour to get out of the car park (well – field) at the end….worth it though!

I’ve managed (with a lot of coughing) to do all my fairs this Christmas (4 in Nov & 7 in Dec) the Craft Hub fair at The Castle in Exeter was brilliant. It was the busiest day I have had – ever! I nearly sold out of candles! Fortunately I had taken my trusty assistant (& great pal) Helene, who held the fort – especially as I had a surprise visit from a London friend who was down in Devon for the weekend and managed to drop by (lovely to see you both Val & Deb’s)

I had a stall next to the talented Kirsty Elson (been next to her before in Portscatho so we know each other) I had to buy this Christmas card holder, isn’t it fab?? You can’t really see  but there is a long string hanging down from the centre with a large red bell attached to the end so you can clip all your cards on, I love it!

I also ordered some gorgeous blocks from Fee at Chipper Nelly. I sent her an old book from a collection I have and she created these so I can use them as a decoration year after year. She must have tiny little fingers as she manages to work so intricately. We were messaging away on facebook like we were old friends, she’s a real sweetie – check out her blog….

Getting ready for Christmas in our house always involves a hug slab of Rocky Road so you can see that the prep for the big day is underway! I stupidly decided to start moving the house around as I wanted the tree to go in the bay window in the lounge…why oh why did I do this? So the rest of my week now includes painting a cupboard, putting up shelves and emptying boxes to add to everything else!

The tree is still on top of the car (been there since the school run yesterday!) and I am still in my PJ’s (it is only 9am) so I had better go and start crossing things from my list (a blog post was one of them so I’m not doing too badly am I…?) I might do another when I get the tree up. Thank you all for your support with my little business, I had the busiest Christmas yet with loads of regulars returning for candles & full of “peagreen” praise, it was heart warming, not to mention inspiring. I love what I do and have let it grow slowly and naturally over the past 3 years. I’m thrilled that it is pretty much a full-time job now and is encouraging people to reuse old things in a way that maybe they wouldn’t have considered in the past……

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone

Sam x