Mis-matched China

With just 5 days to go until the Vintage Jumble Sale, Tamzin & I have been sorting out china for her mis-matched china stall. You will be able to select your own choice of cups, saucers, plates, jugs & sugar bowls to make up your own sets.


Whether you want a single cup & saucer or a set, or saucers for coasters or soap dishes, cups for candles, or plates for cakes, here is your chance to buy some at bargain prices.

Vintage Jumble Sale

I do hope that lots of you will be able to join us at our second Vintage Jumble Sale next Saturday 13th August from 10.30am - 2.00pm.

Many of the V&H dealers will be having a sort out & offering vintage goods at giveaway prices - most items will be under £10!

Toys, books, games, china, glass, haberdashery, ephemera, clothing, textiles & much, much more will be available for your shopping pleasure.

Entrance is free & there will be tea, coffee & delicious homemade cakes served by the Rangeworthy WI in aid of charity.

Find us at Rangeworthy Village Hall, Wotton Rd, Rangeworthy, BS37 7LZ

Don't miss a fun day out!

Acton Court

Dear Readers,

I fear I have been neglecting you of late. Life has been so busy but I thought it was about time to let you know that I am still here & what I have been up to!

Do many of you find that there is something rather lovely to see or visit on your doorstep but you never get around do doing it? Well, almost a stone's throw from my house is a Tudor treasure, Acton Court - I drive past it on a regular basis & if it wasn't for the trees I could see it from my bedroom window, yet I have never been before.

Last week the local WI organised a visit & guided tour so I went along & I was so glad I did!
It is a fascinating building that was built especially for a visit from Henry VIII & Anne Bolyn in 1535 - it was originally a wing of a much larger building but over the years the stone was used to build barns etc as it was eventually used as a farmhouse, so only this specially built wing is still standing (including Henry's personal indoor privy!). The farmers used Henry's dining hall to store cheese!



The gardens are no longer formal but are very prettily filled with wild flowers.


A nice seating area under the trees where you can have tea & cake.



Photography is not allowed inside the building so I can only show you the outside.


This window was recycled from an Abbey destroyed by Henry VIII.

There is also a lovely vegetable garden.

You can just see our very informative & enthusiastic guide who really brought the building's story to life.

Piggy sculptures in the garden.

There is even a resident friendly dog!

I would definitely recommend a visit if you are in the area but do check dates as they aren't open all year round. They do have a website here: www.actoncourt.com

Gloucester Antiques Centre

I popped into the centre on Monday to take in some new stock - I haven't been for a couple of weeks as I haven't had much time to spare, so it was looking a little empty. Happily, it is filled up again & the table has a yellow theme this week. I was pleased to find the yellow roses items, all at different places, but they go together so well.

Chair Revamp

Last year I bought two of these vintage chairs with the intention of giving them a makeover. As is usual with these things they have languished in the garage ever since. A couple of weeks ago, on a nice sunny day, I decided it was time to do something with them so I removed the seats & gave them a light sanding.



Instead of using traditional paint & paintbrush I thought I'd give spray painting a go - it's much quicker, particularly on chairs as there are so many different sides to paint, it also gives a much smoother, run-free finish & dries quickly, but it is pretty expensive as one can doesn't go far. I used plasti-kote products. First of all I gave them one coat of primer (also spray paint) & let that dry, then applied two coats of Antique White. As it dries so quickly you only need to leave about an hour between coats so the chairs were finished quite quickly. I did this job on the paving behind the garage as it's inevitable that you'll get some paint wafting around & I don't like to stand things on newspaper as it tends to stick.



I then sanded the edges lightly to give a slightly distressed finished, reupholstered the seats with a lovely blue linen fabric & here we have the completed product....what do you think?



I have a tired wicker ottoman which is next on my hit list....

Big Ben

It looks as if poor Dylan is going to be out of action for the next few months with his ligament problem but will hopefully be able to start doing a little bit of exercise after another month of box rest but nothing strenuous.
In the meantime Tamzin has been fortunate enough to be asked to have a horse on loan for the summer - his owner has had a back operation so won't be able to ride for about 3 months or so as she recovers.

Introducing Ben, or Big Ben as we call him - he is 16.2hh & looks huge - he makes Dylan look like a Shetland pony! I was a bit worried that he would be too big for Tamzin but she does look fine on him & he is such a gentle giant - everybody loves him already. He is so easy, calm & quiet, affectionate & comes when you call him. He has settled down amazingly quickly too.


The only one who doesn't love him is Dylan as his nose is out of joint as he stands in his stable watching Tamzin with Ben....but he is still getting lots of attention, stable toys & extra carrots!

Funky Chicken

Saturday morning saw 8 eager ladies gathered at the village hall to learn a new craft. As you can probably guess from the first photo, it was a stained glass workshop. It was organised by one of the village ladies & run by the charming Caroline.

After giving us instruction on how to cut glass, sand it, copper foil & lead it we set to with our pencils & paper designing our creations. Cutting out the pieces was surprisingly easy once you know how.


It was great fun choosing from jewel coloured sheets of glass & using the soldering irons to join it all together with solder ....it was like alchemy!


Here are some examples that Caroline brought along to inspire us.....


And here is my final product - a Funky Chicken who is now hanging in the kitchen. It's always great fun to try out something new.....I can see that a soldering iron might be on my shopping list soon!