Its tough for Vintage at Christmas!

So I thought I would share my thoughts and that of a lot of other vintage stall holders during the lean times of the Christmas season.

Its very difficult to cope with the fact that during this time and especially with the current economic climate that stall holders are suffering a good deal financial loss due to poor sales.

Its a sad fact that many of us are working hard sourcing stock and preparing for sales for many weeks before the actual event and it takes a lot of hard work  behind the scenes, only to find that come the big day we are truly disappointed and frustrated that all our hard work seems to add up to very little financial reward.

All very doom and gloom I hear you saying, well be heartened that its not just us Vintager’s

everyone is struggling to keep their heads above water at this time but Christmas just seems to polarize matters as people shop for more commercial items associated with this time of year.

Still spring always follows winter and we should all hold tight and keep our spirits up as who knows what next year will bring.

So on a lighter note this weekend was Sadie and Bernie’s

             Vintage fair at Henley.

It was a freezing day but still a good many visitors came in and browsed , not a particularly good day sales wise but a good time was had as usual .

            The lovely Bernie.

Some pics of our furniture display…

Having a few problems with downloading the photos today…..

Please check out project gallery for more finished items….

until next time…. chin up every one…

Fair is fair…..

Decided it would be nice to take my grandson Elliott to the fantastic Carters steam fair on Saturday evening  in Maidenhead Berkshire, they were having a fireworks display as well.

Elliott was really excited despite being only 2 yrs old and not really understanding what we were doing.

Sadie my daughter (Elliott’s mum) dressed up warm and drove the few miles to the fair Elliott was happy and excited seeing all the fireworks exploding in the sky during the drive.

We had to park a distance away and walk as there were so many visitors to the fair.

It was packed and very noisy and lively, the stalls and rides as expected were all steam driven and very vintage beautifully looked after and enjoyed by everyone.

Elliott had a great time especially overloading on sugar treats like candy floss !!!! he was full of himself yelling and shouting orders at everyone around him making people laugh at his antics.

He loved winning 2 prizes on the ‘Hook a duck ‘ stall until he realised that he did not get to keep the duck he had caught!!!!

We walked around for a while and then joined the rest of the crowd to watch the fireworks…

well the first firework exploded over head in a blaze of colours and noise and Elliott followed suit his voice  or rather screams took off over the explosions….he ran off into the fair shouting” Home mummy, wheres the car” over and over … I have never seen him move so fast back to the car his feet barley touched the floor.

We watched the rest of the display from the safety of the car bending our necks so we could see around an enormous pine tree !!!

Still we all enjoyed the evening and Elliott slept like a log after his adventure.

So in all Fair is Fair when you’re only 2 years old one minute youre very brave the next .. well  who knows.

Apologies for the camera shake…. and lack of firework pictures…but we were to busy running in the opposite direction….

Well back to business, we have been very busy as usual getting ready for our next bvintage fair in Henly run by Sadie and the lovely Bernie.

We will be showing a selection of our smaller vintage furniture and homeware finds and Sadie will be there of course with her vintage clothing and accessories.

Please come along and join us we would love to meet you.

A great time is always had by all and there are great original bargins to be found.

Please check out our project gallery( tab at top of page) just added some pics for you to look at and hopefully enjoy ..please feel free to leave a comment

Pretty things

Hi been busy finishing off a few smaller vintage finds and thought I would share them with you whist I get together all my pictures of previous before and after creations to post .. there are hundreds of them and its taking some time to sort and size but do not fear I will post these asap.

So here are a few pics of a couple of old vintage fire screens that were bought at a local boot fair,

they have been refurbished and painted in Annie Sloan chalk paint. And the centers are decorated in pretty paper then finished in matt varnish to protect.

I like this old vintage tray with brass handles a lot , now painted in chalk blue with sheet music insert.

Waxed and aged to finish.

 

Sorry about picture quality will be working on this shortly….

Hope you like the pics still….I will do a more detailed blog tomorrow when I don’t have my two grand babies running riot around the house  Bless them!!!!!

I love my Christmas cactus its just one of 5 that I have blooming at the moment.

All in the name of Chalk paint !

So Sadie and I decided that we need to explore our local area of Berkshire to source some more Chalk paint.

We discovered that there is a shop not to far from us called Country mouse creative living that stocks Annie Sloan’s famous Chalk paint collection. So we bundled my grandson into the MPV and got out the sat nav. Here’s where the problem started the address was typed in but as per usual the sat nav didn’t recognize it as it had no house number!!!

Well it pointed us in the general direction so we set off, after  about 30 mins we began to get a bit suspicious when the road began to take us into country fields.

By now Sadie needed the loo really badly and the baby was getting fed up  in  his car seat  demanding chocolate.We switched the sat nav off at this stage as it just kept repeating itself saying ” you have reached your destination” which happened to be a horse field!!!

We drove off in a direction that looked as though life may exist there and came upon a cafe…only problem being none of the staff spoke enough English to give us any directions!!! aahhhhgggggg!!

Set off again in  the general direction of hand directions from cafe staff and after 5 mins whoopee we found it … no where in the direction the sat nav sent us.

Sadie dashed for the loo while I took my grandson of for a walk around the Antique village where Country mouse is based.

The shop is as we expected from the images on their web site http://www.countrymousehome.co.uk/  was lovely, full of vintage painted furniture and shabby chic home wares. Heaven for us as this is our area of interest.

And at the back of the shop Annie Sloan’s Chalk paint’, they stock a good selection of colours and sell the wax and crackle glaze also.

We browsed the shop and admired their furniture pieces and chatted with the lovely ladies who staff the shop, whilst trying to entertain my grandson who wanted to pick up everything he could carry.

Upstairs there are units for antique and vintage sellers who rent space to sell their items , here we found many really great pieces

Elliott my grandson was overcome with excitement when he discovered the vintage toy car collection, it took us 10 minutes to get him away from them without a tantrum which is exceptional for a 2 year old.

We really enjoyed browsing and will return again soon for further paint purchases .

Thankfully return home journey was uneventful!!!

I will keep you posted as to what the paint is going to be used for shortly along with photos .

Coming soon… really …

Just to keep you posted that I am in the process of adapting the blog and getting it to look just right for our new ventures.
Taking a while to bring things together and photograph our collection.
Thanks for your continuing support whilst in this process.
I am sure you will all be pleased with the new look when its finished.
Sadie is busy with my handsome grandson and as usual working her socks of on all sorts of new projects she will post all about this shortly.

I (Aisha) am covered in paint as usual being more hands on with our furniture re-purposing.
My house is a tip from lack of attention but all for a good cause if I finish our latest influx of vintage finds.
Well better get back to the sweat shop!!! paint is calling me!

A photo to wet your appetite ..please feel free to comment…

Vintage Tub chair Painted in Chalk grey and waxed and distressed. Re upholstered in vintage Parisian Fabric…..SOLD

Retrofestival Maidenhead

Hi everyone just of to Windsor race course today( in the freezing cold) to look at Marques for Christmas Retro festival in Maidenhead.
Will post details of this festival later this week…hope to see you there promises to be a fantastic weekend!!!

Changes Galore!

A warm welcome to all again,

sorry its been so long but we ( Aisha my mother and myself)  have been swamped with many new ventures and moving home.

You may notice that the blog looks a little different !

Well that’s because I will be taking a back seat as regards to the blog as I have little spare time now and will be handing the site over to my mum Aisha who is behind the Vintage Galore side of things which you may or may not know is our new furniture up -cycled venture. ( However I will drop in from time to time for a chat.)

This part of the business is taking off in leaps and bounds and involves us re purposing old and vintage furniture.

We have been doing this for friends and family for many years and have now after many requests included this in our business .

We source furniture and other household items and re love them to sell at our Vintage fairs and at various venues and antique markets ,We also offer furniture painting commissions.This allow us to dramatically change the appearance of any old piece of furniture you may have  with a fresh coat of paint. Furniture painting, repairs, and faux finishes . We will be posting the venues we will be selling the furniture in advance for those who wish to attend and view our handy work.

So in all many changes taking place hope you like them…. please keep following .

Breath…. and type…..

Well it surely has been a very busy few weeks (as usual) for team SBV..

We have attended a plethora of Vintage Fairs, and bumped into some fabulous blog world friends too!

But before all that, a little catch up.

One. We are moving house on the 20th of August. A whole month early, and whilst, as you all know, I have planned the entire redocoration and landscaping of the new house, I have yet to pack a single thing or change any utilities… hmmm.

Still, I am very excited and quietly confident of pulling it all together with a little help from my friends!

Two. Project Business expansion.  This has been going extremely well and we are now officially restorers and re workers of lovely old vintage and antique furniture, and we have even started selling pieces before our official launch which is likely to be the beginning of October.

So, now for some pics!

These were taken at the Antique vs Vintage Fair and The Pop – Up Vintage Fair.

 

 

 

 

August is a hard time for vintage and antique sellers alike, but we have braved through and had a good time doing it.

I was also delighted to finally meet the lovely Landgirl1980 and the HenHouse Family! Both running blogs that I have adored and followed for a few years now. I highly recommend adding then to your blog lists!

Right, flying visit, but I will be back soon (sooner that last time anyway) with more tails of vintage-ness!

kiss, Sadie xx

Alberto Vargas Beauties…

 

 

 

Hello to you all, hope you haven’t been swept away in this horrid English weather, and if your one of my friends from outside the UK, I understand now how you all presume us Limeys have such bad summers. We do.

As the quest continues for inspiration for the interior decoration of my new apartment, which I should be in by the end of August, I have been toying with the idea of having a gallery of beautiful images adorning my rather large and empty wall in the hall way. Alberto Vargas has always been a favourite of mine for his soft and sensual pin up girl sketches, but he also painted many aristo and society women too.

 

 

 

 

On another note. I have been attending a lot of vintage fairs lately as a seller. This weekend I’m at the Antique vs Vintage Fair in Surrey and on Sunday at St. Stephen’s in Hampstead for the pop up vintage fair. Come and see me if your around!

Also, I have been getting so many amazing, flattering and exciting business proposals and offers lately… it is so hard to keep things in perspective and Im trying to remind myself that as exciting as all these projects would be there is only one project that I should be spending my precious time with…

 

 

Love to you all, Sadie xxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Henley on Thames, a town with a passion for vintage!

Hello Kittens!!! I have been absolutely swamped lately, my work load has increased massively and business is going really well with lots of new and exciting projects coming up and already under way.

So I wanted to show you all some pics from my June Vintage fair in Henley on Thames before I unleash my new information on you!

I have a little more free time from now on to attempt to post more regularly so fingers crossed as I do so enjoy blogging to you guys!

photos courtesy of Avril Appleyard