Ice Cream Dreams

Is there anything more synonymous with summer than ice cream? Whether it be soft serve from an ice cream van with a flake, a bowl of jelly & ice cream or a scoop of Ben & Jerry's, it's a real treat whether we are a year old or 100!
Last month I was contacted by Homes & Antiques magazine as they were looking for ice cream related items for an article in their June issue about ice cream collectables.

As I generally have something related to everything (or lots of stuff!) I was able to lend them a selection of pretty coloured glass bowls, spoons & a vintage ice cream scoop, all of which appeared in the article. I received my copy of H&A yesterday so I thought I'd share the pictures here.


All of these items have just been listed in my shop this week (in The Old China Shop Glassware section & Kitchenalia) along with other lovely things, so if you're looking for a bit of summer on this rainy day why not pop in & have a look?

Click on the pictures to enlarge.....

Puppy Love

Bath Vintage Fair

Nelly The Elephant packed her bags & trundled off to the market.....

It's sorting, pricing & packing time yet again as I have been offered a stall at the vintage fair in Bath this Sunday. It is part of the Bath Fringe Festival & is being held in conjunction with The Big Dance Off's "Lindy Hop Bop" at Green Park Station from 12 noon to 6pm.

Michele from Cowboys & Custard, Tamzin from The Little Vintage Company & Clare from Daisy Darling will be there too (as well as Nelly The Elephant), so if you are around or fancy a good day out why not come along for some vintage fun?

You can find out more details here

New Blog On The Block

I'd like to introduce a new blog to you all - "The Little Vintage Company" is a new venture by my lovely daughter, Tamzin, or "Miss Cottage" as she is known in bloggy circles.
Those of you who have either been stallholders or visitors at the Vintage & Handmade Fairs will know her as the tea room stylist & dedicated server of teas & cakes.

She is also a talented artist & maker of lovely things who is currently studying Textile Art at university. The vintage blood runs through her veins too, so she has decided to launch her own little vintage company, mostly making lovely goodies from recycled vintage fabrics. Mr C will be creating a little website for her & she will join me in selling at vintage fairs but her first step has been to set up a blog so she can share her creations.

I hope you'll pop along & welcome her to our little world!

V&H in Selvedge

The Vintage & Handmade Fairs have made an appearance in Selvedge magazine this month in a feature about smaller (but perfectly formed) fairs to attend this year.

Both the Textile Fair (3rd July) & Christmas Fair (28th November) merit a listing, plus they used our photo (taken by Mr Cottage & featuring one of Viv's lovely purses) at the top of the page!

Selvedge magazine will be having a stall at our brand new Vintage & Handmade Textile Fair so that will be something to look forward to for visitors & stallholders alike.

If you click on the photo it should enlarge for easier reading!

Shop Update

With all the excitement of the V&H Fair my shop has been a bit neglected & the shelves were looking a little bare, so this week I have been busily restocking. I thought I'd post a few photos here to show you some of the latest offerings at Country Cottage Chic.

Vintage tins

China dogs in The Doghouse

Noddy egg cup in Kitchenalia

Victorian religious print in Pictures & Prints

Wooden doll in Second Childhood

And the Library shelves are starting to fill up too!

Finally, The Potting Shed has some useful gardening books.

Hope you'll pop in for a browse!

How much is that doggy?

This is what he was worried about!

Toby says: "Please watch this video - each view donates £1.00 to abandoned dogs"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFb3CIchBFw

I've got your back...

Toby & I at work listing new goodies in the shop.

Pussy Pads Never Scratch

Now admit what you were thinking when you read the title! ;-)

RIP Duck & Nettle

After having a super day on Saturday at the Vintage & Handmade Fair we had some sadness on Sunday & Monday as our two oldest chickens died within a day of each other (of old age).
Both of them were refugees from the neighbouring free range chicken farm & were about 7 years old - they had both lived a good 5 years longer than they would have if they'd stayed on the farm as they only keep them for two years.

Duck was our famous hen who survived a dunking in the pond & we decided she had an identity crisis so was named Duck (she even had a mention in our article in Homes & Antiques magazine!). Nettle was living under the hedge after the rest of the flock were sent away for slaughter so we rescued her too.

Duck was our particular favourite as she was very friendly & liked nothing more than to stand on your feet, eat out of your hand or be picked up for a cuddle.

People who don't know chickens don't realise what lovely pets they make & each one has their own personality & place in the pecking order of the flock. Our little flock is now reduced to four - our two original hens who are about 5 now & the two youngest which we bought last year. The chicken run looks a little empty.... yesterday I bought the rest of the girls (Tinkerbell, Hermione, Henrietta & Nutmeg) a bag of corn to cheer them up.

I'm glad though that the two old girls had full & happy chickeny lives, free to wander around, scratch up the soil & indulge in dust baths or lie in the sun with their wings spread out unlike millions of hens which are still kept in battery conditions - roll on the ban!

Fair Fun

I can't believe that the fair is over again! Months of preparation, organising & advertising culminated in yet another successful event.
All the stall holders rolled down Chipping Sodbury high street bright & early & after many "hellos" from regular sellers & introductions to new ones, we all set to work to set up so we could open to the public on time.
At 10am I opened the front doors to an eager crowd & our very first visitor started off the day on a bright note by squealing "Oooh! I'm SO excited!".
Then it was all hands on deck as the day began.

As you can see from the photo below, there was quite an enthusiastic crowd of shoppers!



As always Michele & I are so grateful for the level of enthusiasm of our stall holders & the support & fabulous comments from our visitors.

Our tea room threesome did a stirling job once again keeping everyone supplied with tea, coffee & homemade cakes.

I have posted a a few photos of my stall here but if you'd like a virtual visit to admire all the stalls, please pop over to our Flickr group here





Just for fun - the shoes of choice of the day! (Lizzie, Donna & me)



OK M, on to the next one..............