Crazy for Kempton

I've been trying to get to Kempton antiques market for years. There's always been something stopping me until yesterday when I finally went for the first time. I cannot believe that I've been missing out on this for so long. Hundreds of stalls - 700 to be precise- of people selling antiques, furniture, jewels, taxidermy, old glass. Anything and everything. I could have filled the whole house from top to bottom. If i'd been wearing my clever hat I'd have taken a massive van with me and stocked up on bargain furniture. Instead I went in my tiny car already full with baby car seats, suitcases, creme eggs... No room in the inn.

Anyway Ned and I did very well nonetheless. Antique mirrors and huge glass jars filled with cotton spools being the order of the day. I'd be so happy just to go and potter even if I wasn't hunting for any specific. I love the atmosphere of huge markets like that. The early early start - we were there at 6.30am, the eccentric sellers, the sausage and bacon baps.... It feels a bit like being on holiday.

I'm making it my mission to go at least once a month from now on. At least until I'm too fat to get behind the wheel. But then I guess I'll be in a van so there'll be more than enough space for me too.

www.kemptonantiques.com

French Marketing

My fabric supplies have been looking a bit lack lustre recently so I was desperate to get back out to France to do a bit of re-stocking. I used to trail around the local towns hoping that I might find a little scrap of something visionary that would make all the effort feel worth while. The shop keepers have now cottoned onto the fact that tourists are willing to pay way over the odds for a bit of old French linen so it's a bit of a waste of time now. Way too pricey.

So, I didn't faff around this time and yesterday morning went straight to my old fave, Jas des Roberts. There was a full on mistral blowing which had put off a few shoppers meaning there was far more for me to take my pick from. Even by my own standards I did pretty well. A lot of new torchons (french tea towels), grainsacks to turn into window seats in the new house and a huge ten metre roll of antique striped linen. Probably destined to be the covers of my new notebook collection.

New fabric finds

People were going crazy for these wierd dolls

Old apothecary bottles

I can never resist adding another reel of lace to my collection

Or a feather

Heavenly Frech ticking

Proper grain sacks

I love the idea of making a chest of drawers with these old crates

www.jasdesroberts.com