TOUR DATES!

Have some very exciting fairs coming up and thought I'd give you the full list!

So here goes....

4th October
SOUTHEND BOOK & ARTS FAIR
The Forum Library,
Southend-on-Sea

1st November
SO VINTAGE LONDON
Old Spitalfields Market
London

8th November
MONICA'S VINTAGE FAIR
St John's School
Gravesend

7th December
ALEXANDRA PALACE ANTIQUES FAIR
Alexandra Palace
London

Hope I'll see you at these fairs!!!

I'm featured on the Facebook page of the Southend Book & Arts Fair, check it out HERE

First up is the Southend Book & Arts Fair, can't wait!!

PICCIES!

Here are just a few piccies from our trip to the Midlands!
Despite the disappointment of the cancelled music festival Alt-Fest, we still managed to find things to do.

With a bit of vintiquing all the way of course!!

Stayed at a great hotel in Kettering, the Hawthorn Hotel. And enjoyed amazing English breakfasts each morning!

Visited the haunting and poignant Lyveden New Bield. An unfinished Elizabethan house in the middle of nowhere. And the beautiful Rockingham Castle, heavily involved in the Civil War and now a handsome house.

Wandered around some towns as well, including Kettering and Northampton, exploring places I'd never been to before.

Found great antiques and vintage stuff in Station 109 at Rushden. And on a brocante style day at Burton Latimer, where residents put things out on their driveways, creating a great community feel.

On the way home we thought about stopping in Cambridge, but thought better of it as it would've been full of tourists, so visited the smaller version just north of the city, Ely.
What a great decision, as it's a lovely little place, with an unusual and magnificent cathedral. It also has odd list of past inhabitants, Oliver Cromwell lived there and actor Guy Pearce and Sisters of Mercy frontman Andrew Eldritch were born there!

So a great weekend in the end and we discovered loads of great places...

Our lovely hotel room, which was in the Coach House to the Victorian Hawthorn Hotel.

Unfinished business at Lyveden New Bield.

The building creates the perfect opportunity for moody shots!

Mysterious 17th Century graffiti!

Another black and white of Lyveden.

Imposing entrance to Rockingham Castle.

Which then reveals a gorgeous and comfortable home.

A lovely rose found in the gardens.

Lovely old cottage found in the village of Houghton, near Huntingdon.

The magnificent and unusual architecture of Ely Cathedral.

More Gothic splendour at Ely.

Cloisters, a fantastic antique and art shop at Ely.

CAREFREE IN KETTERING!

I'm off for a little jaunt this weekend to Kettering...

The weekend hasn't quite worked out how we wanted. ArtPix and Arcane Publishing were supposed to be enjoying a staff outing to a rocking 3-day alternative music festival there. Which was then cancelled!!
Having booked a hotel, to rest our ears, ages ago, we thought we might as well still go and visit the delights of Kettering!!!!

So off we go to see what we can find....
Don't worry vintage fans, looks like there are plenty of groovy vintage places around the area!

I'll let you know how we got on!!

Also, I'm booking up a few exciting fairs for the coming months, so stay tuned for more news on those!

BATTERSEA POWER STATION

Hi folks!

Here is another one of my random pics of the day....

BATTERSEA POWER STATION!

Although here of course it has my usual vintage twist to it...
I've added a few of my favourite characters and some new ones too, all from her golden era of the 30s to the 50s!

I took the photo of the old power station a couple of years ago. We were in the area doing a spot of research into the Festival of Britain sites in nearby Battersea Park and to take a peep at the Barbara Hepworth sculpture. After wandering across the bridge I thought I should take a picture of the iconic building before the developers move in.

Yes, thats right, one of London's finest cultural icons will be dwarfed by terrible blocks of flats and the building itself will probably be unrecognisable very soon.

It was always going to happen of course, I'm just amazed that it's taken so long. The fabulous Art Deco icon was decommissioned in 1983, after a 50 year service. Since then many people have tried and failed to come up with a master plan for her, but I think anything would've been better than what's going to happen.

So here she is, London's grand old lady....

THE LAMPS ARE GOING OUT...

Tonight is a very unique and sobering moment...

The 100th anniversary of Britain's entry into the First World War.

At 11pm in 1914 the world was about to change forever. The utterly avoidable escalation of events that slid the European nations into utter horror.

At 10pm tonight there is a wonderfully simple and effective way to remember and reflect this poignant moment. All we have to do is switch off our lights and light a candle for one hour, until 11pm.

Britain's Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey's famous quote is tonight ringing around the country once more.

"The lamps are going out over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."

One last thing...
There is a bitter irony today for the commemorations going on in Westminster Abbey.
As laudable as the proceedings are, wasn't it the leaders, politicians and royalty that started the war in the first place?

Take them away and not one person would have died of shrapnel wounds, machine-gun fire, gas, gangrene, mortar shell, heavy artillery, sniper fire..................


I give you the Siegfried Sassoon poem Great Men...

Great Men

The great ones of the earth
Approve, with smiles and bland salutes, the rage
And monstrous tyranny they have brought to birth.
The great ones of the earth
Are much concerned about the wars they wage,
And quite aware of what those wars are worth.

You Marshals, gilt and red,
You Ministers and Princes, and Great Men,
Why can't you keep your mouthings for the dead?
Go round the simple cemeteries; and then
Talk of our noble sacrifice and losses
To the wooden crosses.

© Siegfried Sassoon, 17 August 1918