Cream tea and handbags

The Bank Holiday weekend has been and gone and we are now a little frantic as Hugglets is less than two weeks away!Between working on bears and juggling other things we found time to attend the cream tea afternoon held in the nearby village of Fenstanton. Delicious cream scones with raspberry jam and tea served in the garden of the most beautiful old house called most appropriately 'the Manor House'. The tea was organised by the local WI as a fund raising event and included a sale of handbags and hats. Found a very nice vintage handbag in prime condition for the princely sum of £2. I had hoped to find vintage hats trimmed with velvet flowers but alas nothing of that sort but there was an amazing selection of pretty and some strange hats on sale. One little confection of mink tails with veiling reminded me of hairy spider legs, just not my cup of tea at all! So no hats added to my wardrobe. I forgot my camera at home and had to recruit Bronwen as photographer, took several pics of the house and knot garden which I will add to my next blog.

Yesterday we went to the last boot market of the year in Fenstanton(autumn has arrived). Bought a wonderful book on needle lace in excellent condition at a bargain price. I attended a workshop on needle lace whilst still in South Africa and my creation has joined the 'ufo' box. However, the book was very tempting and perhaps I will one day have time to make some of amazing dimensional needlework. Discovered some unusual brass alphabet plates, not sure what they were originally used for but they would be great for jewellery making or scrap booking. Megan added some vintage wooden cotton reels to her growing collection as well as an assortment of tiny vintage keys.

My latest e-bay listing is Clover a little green bear and her pink friend Sweet Pea.

To end the following quotation from 'The Lord of the Rings' seems quite appropriate. Boot markets are a source of all sorts of interesting things and although I sometimes am amazed at what people try and sell, always seem to find something that I just have to add to my hoard.

“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.” JRR Tolkein