Ooh Mr Postman look and see - any more parcels for me!

Yes he's coming down my path, YES the Postman has delivered!!

I have been shopping on some fab sites lately, yes and the wonder of it all is that they are right here on the blog, many of you probably know of them already.

Firstly I have been searching for a pink frothy prom dress for ages now and who should have the very thing on her gorgeous website but sweet Heather . We were swap partners for the tiara swap and here is the gorgeous tiara she made for me along side this pretty prom dress. It was meant to be.

Next some lovely chunky parcels.

Oh wow, pink tissue and ribbons.

Clare has a great site
http://vintage-home.co.uk/


Next is Rhea - she makes the most gorgeous bird houses, and embellishes them with vintage twinkle - take a look at her site as her photo's are MUCH better than mine. I can't get good light in my dining room so this is the best I can achieve. They look 100 % better in the flesh believe me!
http://sweetnshabbyroses.blogspot.com/

and Rhea included this beautiful set of cards that included a hand painted tag and the most sweetest little vintage baby cards - how did she know that I collect these cute cards.

Well next to arrive was this parcel - hand painted no less - it must be Laurie of
http://lauriescharmingdesigns.blogspot.com/

Yes here they are, lovely little birdy pin cushions sitting in pretty teacups.

They all live very happily with my bird houses and you can also see in this picture top right is my tiara from Heather.

Talking Tiara's - this arrived today, a book from Amazon called Crowns & Tiaras: Add a Little Sparkle, Glitter & Glamour to Every Day by Kerri Judd (Author), Danyel Montecinos (Author).

Talk about eye candy!! here are a couple of my favourites.

This first crown from the book is my favourite and I have to say it has the MOST GORGEOUS TWINKLE ..... I love this crown - when I think of Twinkle Pink this is what I envisage. The palest pink and vintage rhinestone jewellery.

My second favorite in the book is this one, the palest blues, because I am a twinkle blue too, in fact I am very fickle I like lots of colours.

Another lovely package arrived for me while I was on holiday. I was so thrilled to open it that as I had it open as I flew in the door with the luggage. It came from June in Italy for the Matchbox swap that Natasha hosted.

You can see these pics along with all the other matchbox swappers in the matchbox flickr group on my side bar.
June sent me some gorgeous things including jewellery beads lace old Italian paper and crepe I loved it all - thank you http://serendipity-werx.blogspot.com

What have I been up to lately - well I am currently putting together a journal inspired by Marie Antoinette, and will be taking part in a Round Robin that will span 3 continents.

Holly,http://hollydoodledesigns.com/ (USA)

Heather, http://prettypetalsboutique.blogspot.com/ (USA)

and Natasha http://natashaburns.com/ (AUSTRALIA)

and me (UNITED KINGDOM) are all taking on this project and I am so honoured to have been asked. I love all their creations with a passion so I feel I am in safe hands.

Heather has already given us a taster of what she wants to work with so I think we will all be giving some sneek peeks on our blogs from time to time. The final look see will be after Christmas and I can't wait to see what everyone has created.

I have gathered a huge amount of fabrics, papers, notions and twinkle. Even found some great ribbons on the blog from a website called One hundred Wishes (what a great name)http://onehundredwishes.com/

I love this shade of blue.

These papers are the body of my journal and have been given a light wash of icecreamy colours.

I've also been playing around with some fabrics, to create cupcakes and gateaux.

The creamy looking part is made from hand dyed degummed silk cocoons, with the rest made from velvets and sheers. I love dyeing velvets and working with them. You can see more of this kind of stuff on my other blog - Textile Art Post.

In the mean time more inspirational ice creamy colours for my Marie Antoinette project

Didn't we have a lovely time the day we went to Brighton!

Brighton famed for its Pier,rock the Pavilion, great architecture and the lanes.

Chocolate, Roses , Cake .......... yes.......YES........... !

Off I went to Brighton yesterday with all my girls. We decided to go by train to save the hassle of parking. Well I haven't been on a train for years and now its all new. No slam doors, (my problem there is what if the system has a glich and the doors don't open at your station - yeesss, I go on to the next station der....). The seats are different too, individual seats now, (I preferred the triple seats ..... y' know .... like the Harry Potter train), and they give you 3 tickets now instead of one - a receipt, a single up and a return back. Seems like a bit of a waste of trees to me??? I prefer the good ole fashioned one ticket.

Added to that I didn't realise until I put my single ticket in the machine and proceeded to hold everyone up at the turn bar waiting for my ticket......that it wasn't coming back.

Next we all went off to the loo at the station, the machines have replaced the old lady that sits with her little dish collecting your small change.

IS NOTHING SACRED!!!!

Oh well having been bought swiftly up to date into the 21st century we set off. Luckily it is down hill to the town. We headed off to the lanes and the first place we came across was this gorgeous cake shop. Out of this world and to add to that inside the shop was a huge plate of chocolate cake for you to sample. Way over the top cakes for all. Absolutely Fabulous Darling!!!

The place is called Choccywoccydoodah ....oooo yess Whooorar :)) I LOVE IT!!

They have one shop in London and 2 in Brighton ...... lucky Brighton.

We went off in the direction of the North Lanes but took a slight detour to show the girls this beautiful Brighton Pavilion in all its glory.

The Royal Pavilion was originally built in the 1780s when the Prince Regent (who became King George IV) built a villa for his mistress Mrs Fitzherbert. This original villa was simple in style, designed by architect Henry Holland. But as the Prince's flamboyant taste grew, he then commissioned John Nash to rebuild it in a more extravagant style - and the Royal Pavilion is the result. A bizarre mix of influences, most notably Chinese and Indian, the Pavilion is a unique piece of architecture and well worth a visit if your ever visit Brighton.

Once I found myself back in the lanes we found some gorgeous little shops including this place (picture from their website) The Lavender Room.

Firstly it smells divine as you walk around and they play some great music too, it sets the scene for some tranquil shopping and I just had to bring the smell home with me.

NO SMELLY VISION ....... SORRY ...... BUT TAKE MY WORD FOR IT. ......

What makes this shop so special is that they have selection of vintage goods mixed in with new, beautiful boudoir night gowns from the 40's mixed in with new, vintage rhinestone brooches, some furniture too, lots of little gifts. It is so lovely and the girl that served us was very sweet wrapped up my goodies beautifully and recommended a great place for Lunch called Bills.

Bills looks like it was as old warehouse and Wow, from the road it looks like a big fruit and veg stall. If you walk behind the stall you will find a huge busy place, decorated like an old refectory with an open kitchen. They create the most artistic salads I have ever seen and have a great selection of pies, tarts and cakes, oh and even the smoothies were beautifully made and presented. We sat up on the balcony, high above the hustle and bustle, so had a great view of the food counter:)))

If you carry on down the lanes there are various individual shops, one quite arty textile shop - selling some great Jan Constantine cushions. I love the tactile cushions from her latest range which is called Pop Art - see her work at http://janconstantine.com/popart/index.htm . The shop had a lovely collection of textile artists with wall art and felted jewellery - but don't stick your great big boot in and say in a completely innocent way Oh it's all gorgeous but I could make that at home ..... OH BIG NO NO - I should have known better - I hate people saying that to me ..... I could just feel the eyes of fire piercing into me .... I tried to claw my way out of the rubble with some conversation and am glad to say I live to tell this tale.

I found a great old fashioned friendly Indian fabric shop - their window was crammed with ribbons, feathers, millinery and fabrics. I could have spent a fortune in there. I would show you it all but am saving it for a project that I am working on .... soon:)

Well the girls wanted to get back to the high street shops and off we went ugggg .......... I hate high street shops but I did lovvvve the Disney shop. After all that we picked up some cold icy drinks and walked back to the station . I came home to find hubby had made us all a great dinner.

Then ending the day as one should ........... with a big bubbly.

Cognac Country

Fields of gold and Cognac vines, pretty villages, romantic architecture, the most friendliest people, even the Tour de France (making a return to the region after 20 years ) and of course BROCANTE .... 

The region is renowned for its Cognac and there are cognac vines as far as the eye can see not to mention beautiful sunflower fields too. The sunflower heads always straining to turn for the sun, there is always a little one facing the wrong way ..... aaahh bless.

Shall I take you on a little Tour?

I was really surprised to read that Angelina Jolie had visited this little village just before us. No doubt recommended as it was for us.It has a castle and a glorious chateau and the church has the most romantic architecture.Plus they have brocante markets there too! I will return!!

Here's the house we stayed in, it's style is called Maison Bourgeois.

 

This house used to produce cognac and the huge barn still houses the cognac vats.
 

Do you want to take a peak inside ....?

The front hall and the pool beyond, the kitchen, and salon were tres elegant.

The Master room was huge!

 
Great furniture, loved the armoires and outside was just as good,

































 great pool (note the budding syncro swimmer:))

A beautiful BBQ area and a wowey log pile ......practically an art piece.
Verdict ....... I LIKE!!!
We caught up with the Tour de France while we were here.
If you know much about it you will know that it started from London this year and travels through France, up mountains and all the way down to the the south of France back up to Paris. The cyclists can be on their bottoms for 8 hours without stopping.

Well we had to stand around in the hot sun for a couple of hours (which pales into insignificance really compared with what the cyclists have to endure).

Ya know how we all moan when the adverts come on TV for a few minutes well the start of the caravan ( the sponsors) presiding the tour is really like 2 hours of adverts going past at speed.
.... a bit like a parade or carnival at a very fast pace, only you have alsorts thrown at you, hats, bags, shower gel, key rings, paper ......... yes you scrabble for everything ...... the most reserved housewife will find her self scrabbling along the floor after every bit , yes even paper pleading for more ....... so unrefined :)))))) but fun!
Some of the sponsors.






















Oooo I could do with a nice cold drink!























 Take a LOOK Natasha The Australians are coming - they had kangaroos on top of their cars!!
Then finally what we had all been waiting for. The leaders of the pack - 15 mins ahead of the peleton. The white jersey in the middle won that day.















































Well that's all folks ;0) .........Did I forget something ........ OH YES.... !

BROCANTE!This is all the stuff I could manage, as you can see some great little lamps and a large frou frou one with sheer fabric -

And on closer inspection -Lots of scrap books with magazine scraps and art nouveau papers, even found a big roll of pink crepe paper.
























A large file of music and even handwritten musicFrench linen - 'Je t adore'






















I was after some old suspenders for my mixed media art and discovered loads in this box - well it all came together so I have 3 lovely pink corsets with their old pink suspenders, cotton stockings still in the packaging and loads of suspender spares still in the packaging.


































 

I love this old pin cushion doll from Limoge - but she needs some TLC.
 Loads of this lovely cherub fabric.



























 And last but not least my most favorite find. This chandelier with the palest pink drops in opaline glass.

Well I hope you enjoyed the trip as much as we did.