A little bit of Country Living

I have recovered from my day in London at the Country Living Fair. I met up with the lovely Samantha from Plump Pudding and her equally lovely sister, her stand looked wonderfully inviting with a fab range of goodies to buy, of course I couldn't leave her stand without spending some cash! I am now the proud owner of a washing up bottle pinny and a very pretty pegbag, no more carrier bags for my pegs. If you're reading this Samantha I promise I will send you the bits I spoke to you about, just give me a week or so.

My next show buy was this pretty pendant by a great young designer Jennifer Collier Its a resin pendant strung on ribbon with a vintage button fastening. I was spoilt for choice at her stand, she had the most delicate paper shoes and framed paper baby dresses, not to mention her printed collage artwork. She is truly talented and will go far.

And for a close up, as you can see there is a torn piece of brown silk paper, a vintage stamp and a piece from a vintage brooch all set in resin. In the summer I had a go at making some resin trinket set pendants but they didn't turn out as nice as the ones Jennifer makes, they were more like paperweight, plus the carcinogenic aroma left me in a haze for the rest of the day.

A visit to Hope and Benson's stand ended up with this little lady by Chocolate Rain D.I.Y going home with me. She is already stuffed and came with squares of kimono and spotty fabrics (more of each would have been nice) buttons and trims to make your own outfit. Don't you just love her painted on stripey stockings.

Selvedge magazine had a stand and were giving away freebie button badges, these are made from vintage scarves and trimmed with diamante. Now I have been collecting vintage floral scarves for sometime now hoping that one day I will be able to save (unless some generous person wants to donate some cash) enough money for a professional button making machine so I can make button badges (minus the diamante though) none of my fabrics are as pretty as these ones.

I absolutely love Oat Cakes (partly because I have a bit of a problem if I have too much wheat in my diet) so when I saw the Nairns stand in the food hall I was in oat cake heaven. I will say the herb ones were not for me, far too herby for my taste buds, however the cheesy ones were dreamy and their new Mixed Berries and Stem Ginger biscuits are yummy! As you can see I didn't walk away empty handed and as part of the deal they threw in three packs of Oat Bakes, yeah! i know there are only two in the picture, I got hungry.

When it came to cereal I am normally a creature of habit and have porridge oats with honey and fresh fruit every morning, but when I tasted the Spelt and extra nutty muesli I knew my habit had come to an end, but I couldn't decide between the two, so I had them both and the four little boxes are FREE samples yay!