Anonymous Travelling Market

I will be exhibiting with

THE ANONYMOUS TRAVELLING MARKET

@ SHAFTESBURY CATTLE MARKET

Christy’s Lane, SP7 8PH

(on the A350 next to Tesco)

SATURDAY 26 June

10am-3pm

FREE PARKING

Local food, drink, arts, crafts & much more

(cash & cheques only)

LIVE MUSIC

Bell Street Jazz Band, Jim Driscoll

Maxwell’s Silver Hammers

www.theanonymoustravelling market.co.uk

Look forward to seeing you there :)

Summer is...

Collecting Potatoes we've grown in the garden, Arthur was so excited we had to cook them immediately.
Jumping waves. we went down to Poole on Monday afternoon for a picnic lunch by the sea, a really special afternoon :)
Watching Balloons pass by on a summer evening..

Setting up a carboot stall in the sun, Arthur did his while I set mine up with a lot of shop stuff I no longer wanted, we both did really well. There was not much vintage bits around I only bought a few buttons..which meant I just brought home some money for a change!
I hope you've all been enjoying the gorgeous sunshine too :)

My blog has got very colourful which I like, but would like the background to be more transparent (I have pressed the transparent button but it does not seem to work) If any one knows how to do this or put solid colour behind the links please let me know. Thanks x

Frome Artisan Market

It was a fab day at Frome Artisan Market, full of wonderful colour and lots of people dressed up for the occasion. I only had 5 minutes to pop up the hill while a friend watched my stall.

While sorting these pictures I realised I know the lady who was on the mirror stall, we had met a couple of weeks ago in my Gillingham shop, there was no time for me to stop and natter to anyone and it was quite packed by the time I got to the top.
This was my stall out on the entrance to the hill, which was great as I hadn't thought the plan through for being further up the hill on a slope, the two boxes I used to put all my bits on infront of the table have wheels great for getting to my pitch, not so great on a slope lol ;)
There was lots going on with Bands and punch and Judy happening on Cheap Street for a family day.
Tony and Arthur came over at 12, brought me lunch and went off to watch what was going on.


Arthur had great fun dancing to the steel band and really enjoyed Punch and Judy and the Puppet dancing.

















This group decided to perform right infront of my stall

not sure what it was about, they had cucumbers instead of battons and ballons instead of bells..
and really terrible outfits,


Not a good look!! I took quite a few photo's as they were performing this one in particular I regret taking do look away if your squeamish . Very bad look.
They were called the Saturday Afternoon Theatre group in case you'd like to book them ha ha ha! :)

phew we made it!

A little glimpse into the new Tamsyn G shop. Which at the start I was slightly worried we would get finished in time. Before it got to the state below I had to empty it out of all the prints and paintings that we stored in there when we moved house, these are now hidden in what will be my workroom in the house.. so another job for later. There will be a sign above the shop and the circles either side of the sign..will be painted to look like buttons :)
I had been planning and measuring for the past 4 weeks, and was amazed to find I was nearly right about where things wopuld go, luckily I have Tony . If I had got my measurements slightly out he would magically make the cupboards fit.

The cupboards above needed a fair bit of tweeking, like little wedges cut out and the bottom bit cut off as well as the middle shelf being cut in half, but made to look like its always been like that, so much so that when my friends came in they said 'wow Tamsyn your measurements were right those cupboards fit perfectly' which made me cry with laughter!
The above little corner makes me smile everytime I see it, I had been saving these little cupboards and printers tray for the new shop but had not really worked out how they would look, me and Kate said where they should go as Tony magically fixed them in place.
Perfect for all the vintage Haberdashery :)
The view out with the perfectly fitting shelves completely stacked up! That was the other strange thing, it looks like I have lots of new yummy stock but is virtually the same as before.
I love the layout of the shop, this is the backroom with all the yarns and making bits.
The jewellery cabinets did fit perfectly into there little space by the slope leading to the backroom.

We opened on Thursday and I am sure it will be a welcome addition to Wincanton, people will slowly find us..next week will be full of promotion and getting leaflets printed to spread the word.
We managed (just) to go for a picnic at Bullbarrow Hill which we can see from our house, it was very funny trying to work out the hills in the distance and look back towards Wincanton. I just sat still for half an hour resting my tired legs, but the guys had a great runaround.
and climbed a tree! including Tony. I tried not to tell them to be careful!

I hope you've all had a fab week, I hope to catch up with everyone's blog over the next few weeks and will have more time to do mine to. x

New Look, new start.

I am getting very excited about the move to our new shop. On the 29th of May we are closing the Gillingham shop and moving it to 59 High Street Wincanton. It will have a new look and new direction.  With the emphasis on Recycle, reuse and reinvent. I will be mixing vintage with Handmade (which I have been doing gradually in Gillingham over the last year or so), but there will not be the bought in products from India ,  I will be buying off  British crafts people, locally and across the country.

Kate from Magpie (often seen at the Anonymous Travelling Market) is going to put her gorgeous work in the shop and also help out on a Friday.  Kate makes beautiful things from vintage fabrics and reworks linen tablecloths etc into egg cosies and bags.  She also has a 'magpies' eye for china and little vintage finds.

Maria from 'Just Sew' will be supplying the shop with bunting and appliqued pictures.

There will also be the lovely pottery from Karen Harrison, often seen exhibiting across the country.
Mixed in with fabrics, vintage and new, vintage making books (if I can manage to part with 

them. ), ribbons, 


Vintage buttons as well as ceramic and modern (as you know I am a buttonholic.) Vintage haberdashery,
Little vintage luckydip packs,
and I am going to rework these fantastic vintage knitting patterns, for the shop and the website.
Don't you just love them :)...or is it just me???
There will also be a large amount of my handmade bits, made from recycling jumpers and buttons. As well as my paintings and photography.

The website will get a lot more of my attention and I will gradually get all of the stock on there.
Just a few of my handmade brooches and necklaces.


So quite a packed shop really!!!

We are only going to open 3 days a week, Wed, Thurs, and Friday.

When sitting down with Tony to discuss the new venture we realised we had not had a weekend together for 6 years!, and also George and Harry will be leaving school from July , George will be going to Falmouth Art college in September and Harry may be joining the army ( he has to have a medical in June and then we'l know more.) So it will be amazing for me to be at home more and around for all the boys through the summer. (I may spend a bit of time making in the sunshine..but I will be around!)

From September when Arthur starts school I am looking forward to going back to supplying Galleries and having the excuse to visit different towns (some of which may be by the sea lol)

It all sounds great doesn't it, I am very lucky that I have Tony to support and encourage me, We all are actually!  ( more than words can say) I am hoping that I can give the same back over the next few years as he embarks on putting all his ideas into action.

over the rainbow

Yesterday was full of storms, torrential rain caught me and Arthur out when we walked into town to get a paper..sunny when we started a down pour when we came out. We huddled under cover and waited for it to slow down so we could walk back up the hill. I turned to Arthur and said "I bet your Daddy will come out looking for us", turned around and there was Tony, bless. :)
Then when it cleared (after an hour!) this amazing rainbow appeared the first we had seen from this house, and how amazing to see the whole rainbow over the landscape. I could not fit it all in the picture.
Today was beautiful and sunny and we decided to make the most of it and go for a picnic.
In this meadow next to the river.
Arthur loved it, and spent the time running around and worshipping dandelions ;)
With a special dance..





One happy boy :) then he had lots of races first with me then Tony. (I don't know why the writing is coming out blue and underlined! must have pressed the wrong button somewhere?)


When we got back we spent some time in the garden, this is my new flower border , sweetpeas,borage,marigolds,nasterciums (can't spell),poppys and lots of other seeds I can't remember.
There are some gorgeous blossoms and lots of old cottage plants appearing now.





and my nettle crop at the bottom of the garden, we have had nettle soup which was dellicous and I'm tempted to try the nettle beer that Norfolk Kitchen has had a go at before Tony takes the strimmer to them.
All in all a fab weekend :) X