What a Beautiful Time!

This is an amalagamation of the last month or so, we've been so busy that the blog has rather fallen by the wayside. So much has happened!

We went to Beautiful Days festival in Devon the third weekend in August & it was exactly what it said on the tin - our best festival

of the year! It really felt like after a summer of rain & mud & a tangible collective gloom that post Olympics Britain was definitely on the move towards an optimisitc Autumn.

There was still rain & mud (this is England after all) but everyone seemed more cheerful than they'd been all summer & importantly for us people were spending!

Our good friends Amy & Beth came to help us out & we discovered how much easier it is doing a festival with four people helping to construct & deconstruct a stall. There were some amazing bands, our personal highlights were Bellowhead, The Peatbog Faeries, Reel Big Fish & ofcourse the Levellers who seemed in particularly fine voice this year.

The theme for this tenth anniversary of the festival was hearts & we did our best to get into the spirit of it. There was even a unique performance by the red arrows. 

& the floral display was perfect for taking photos

All in all a gorgeous time was had by all!

Next Camilla went to Mosely Folk Festival with our good friends at Sixteen & their gorgeous little girl, the public were emphatically not spending at this festival which led to some severe down moments but we made good friends & managed to have a giggle anway, which sometimes is all you can do.

Emily spent the weekend printing up a storm & we have a Lovely selection of new long sleeved tshirt designs to show you all very soon. (As soon as we've had time to photograph them)

After that it was back indoors for the first time in about 3 months, on ironcially one of the nicest weekends weatherwise of the whole summer. The Milton Keynes Handmade & Vintage Fair was a great weekend, our baby vests particularly found favour with the shopping public so Emily had to frantically reprint all the campervan baby vests as soon as we got home. Our favourite sale of the weekend was to a fellow stallholder who admired the vests on Saturday & said that she'd be back if the baby arrived over the weekend & obligingly the baby was born in time for her to come back on Sunday & bag one of the last campervan vests as a present!

Then on 15th September it was Lovely's 4th birthday & we celebrated with a shopping party, cake & gin cocktails. This year we were really late organising our birthday party & inviting people but once again our friends turned out to support us & we had some new visitors who hopefully will come back again next year. Our good friends from Copenhagen once again came over & spent the week before helping us to get ready which involved less cleaning than in previous years but more marquee & tent erecting as our collection of Lovely structures has gradually been expanding, we couldn't do it without them! Most importantly however they also brought with them my oddson & Emily's odddaughter & we spent the week enjoying having small children in the house, introducing my oddson to the joys of hula hooping & cuddling Emily's odddaughter.

It was very quiet after they left, luckily we were at Ruislip Duckpond market  & our lovely Duckpond friends were on hand to stop us from suffering too much from post visit blues!

So a couple of quieter weeks now to calm down, regroup & start getting ready for Christmas. We love this time of year as evenings get cosier & you can start eating apple & blackberry crumbles & warming stews again. It's time to dig out those warmer clothes & start bringing out our Autumn ranges which include long sleeved tshirts, as I mentioned earlier & courduroy aline dresses...and to start planning for Christmas. I know lots of people hate early mentions of Christmas but this year is all about starting early, making the money stretch as far as it can & making this year's the best ever whilst remembering to enjoy all the beautiful things about Autumn.

We have so many exciting new things to show you!

Lovelies go Away with the Faeries!

'Come Away with the Faeries' in Enfield Town Park last weekend, restoring our faith in events this summer!

Follow the Pixie Doors for the story of a magical weekend. Find us in Pixie Patch behind the blue door.

Behind the Pink door here's Emily off to take part in the Guinness World Record attempt to record the most Faeries in one place, all you needed to qualify was a wand, wings & a tutu! (She was holding my wand too so I could be there in spirit!)

Behind the Purple Door were some of the brilliant things you could do like wand making, useful as it turned out! and Fairy houses, which could only be made out of natural bits & bobs found in the woods

Finally behind the yellow door are all the imaginative touches that make the Fairy Festival such a joy to be a part of!                                                                                                                                                                                               

Don't get stuck in the Frog bog!

 And we even took some money this weekend! Happy Lovelies all round

 

  

Marooned in a deserted corner of the Secret Garden Party

We've waved goodbye to Bob the hire van, washed most of the mud off our various clothes & products & cashed up...Secret Garden party is officially over...

This was the festival that we were most excited about doing this year, not only because it's really hard to get in to but also because it fell on my birthday weekend! We arrived at the site on Wednesday at 10am prepared for a long wait, we'd already been warned that there would be delays in order to protect the ground as much as possible. After a slightly worrying moment when we were parked in a field miles away from our pitch & told we would have to carry everything there the horror on our faces persuaded the steward to give us a delivery pass & we joined the queue waiting to get on...

Four hours later after the ferris wheel had been driven backwards & forwards & finally sited in the opposite field & having convinced the stewards to let us leave our van behind our stall we were on site & ready to set up.

 At first we were delighted with our pitch, we were at the end of a line of food traders on one side & part of a trio of traders next to the kid's area on the other. Perfect! Not in the melee of the main arena with all it's associated issues but in a calm corner where hopefully lots of families would see our stall & be tempted in.

Sadly however at Secret Garden Party this year, calm meant deserted as we spent four days watching for hordes of customers that never materialised even on Sunday after the quagmire had been tramped down & the walkways were passable again. We'd close up around 9pm each evening & head out to the stages in the other field & feel completely overwhelmed by the sheer mass of people who were steadfastly staying close to the music & alcohol & seemed dead set on consuming as many hallucinogenic substances as possible.

So from a monetary standpoint this weekend was a washout ...

But you can never keep a Lovely down for long & there were brightly coloured jewelly moments during the festival too.

Our honorary Lovely for the weekend Emily Brady (designer of our Faeries) was probably the brightest of them all bringing her own brand of joyful crazy to the Lovely team & her artistic skills. Our fellow traders were brilliant company especially 'Mum' next door Janet with her toy stall (whose company name I have rubbishly forgotten to write down) & my birthday twin Theresa & Ellie of Eclectica all of whom kept us cheerful & giggling. We had some very cute customers, who came back modelling their purchases.

The site itself was pretty amazing with wood sculptures, fire pits, bijou stages in bars playing an eclectic mix of music, the bonkersness of the Badger stage, the floating stage in the middle of the lake that you had to take a boat too (we didn't have the chance but it looked stunning) & a giant hay statue of a fox (or wolf...opinions vary). And last but by no means least the boys in the Charge & Store lorry who kept us seeing the funny side of it all, even when we really didn't want to!

My birthday was Lovely too with birthday wishes & presents from our fellow traders &
we had a hilarious afternoon with Gin cocktails, pink fizz & cake followed by some of the best fireworks I've ever seen...just for me naturally!

Now we're home again, Emily is recovering from a hideous cough that plagued her all week, I've caught up on paper work (well I've moved all my filing into one terrifying pile at least!) & we're dusting ourselves off & getting ready to be all enthusiastic about this weekend's Fairy Festival in Enfield...

Wings at the ready!

Mud Mud Glorious Mud!

Well whatever the hippos think I must admit that I've had enough of mud for this year! Our stock is mud encrusted, we've just cleaned our walls off for the second time this year & I'm not entirely sure that my apparently enviable tan wont wash off if I have the opportunity for more showers!

 Our stall at Penn Festival

Having spent the second weekend in July at the lovely but ulitmately very muddy Penn Festival with our friends Nic & Frank of Sixteen I thought we might have done our mud for the season but after a weekend where a trip to the toilet
felt as Frank described it 'like taking a treck through the Amazon jungle' honestly I'd hoped for some better weather...

Now Emily spent this week again with Nic of Sixteen doing a handmade & vintage fair in Milton Keynes shopping centre as part of the MK Fringe festival. Now you'd have thought that Emily had the better end of that deal wouldn't you...

But...Nic's car died on the way to day 3 of the MK fair & our Dad & Brother came to the rescue driving over to get them to the fair & home again & apparently Thursday brought all the rude people out to complain about our products...But on Sunday she went to our regular Duckpond Market in Ruislip, where she caught up with our lovely Duckpond friends & generally had a Lovely time.

And I spent the week at Larmer Tree Festival, up to my eyeballs in mud!

 

Silke in the flood outside my stall

 But...

I got to glory in a double rainbow after a what felt like a hundred years of rain
& to appreciate the dam that our neighbours built to keep the tide of mud from engulfing our stalls & which over the course of the weekend was added to

 until in the end it was a glorious creation & quite the talking point of the festival
it was even filmed! although we didn't find out what for.

I also found that in adversity traders absolutely stick together, there were three stalls that were particularly affected by the flood plains of Larmer tree & yet we had help from other stalls to gather woodchip to stem the tide & there was a real
feeling of solidarity among stallholders that we haven't really encountered at festivals before.

 The Flood, in my stall!

It just goes to show, when the chips are down, mud is thicker than water...couldn't resist, actually when it really counted this week at Larmer tree, there was a fellow trader to laugh, cry & comiserate with!
My thanks must also go to Silke of Dakini Leathercrafts who kindly drove, kept me company & fed me all week & performed her hero feat when my stall flooded & dragged back 3 wheelybin loads of woodchip to keep the tides at bay!

As I'm writing this we're all packed to head of to Cambridgshire for Secret Garden Party Fetival tomorrow & keeping everything crossed that we wont have the same mud issues again.

So I'm going to ask...as Saturday is my birthday & all I would really like is for the weather to be good...please could you all make a wish with me & see if we can all change the weather together & bring on the sun...whatever happens we're determined to enjoy the experience!

Fabulous Felt Part 2

Having had a gorgeous time last monday, we were really excited to go back & have another go at felt making. This week we embellished last week's pieces as you can see below:

I embroidered beads onto my flower brooch & a few flower centre beads onto my felt panel & you can just see (it looks like I photographed this in the dark!) I stitched some detail into the clouds & over the sari silk thread.

 Emily has as you can see needle felted detail into her tree so that the trunk has texture & the leafy top really stands out!
The second half of the day was taken up by designing & making our final pieces using all the techniques we'd learned over the two days. This is mine an abstract tropical flower panel which I'm going to embroider one day very soon when I have time (I'm very proud of it!)

 & Emily did her take on a Mad Hatter's Tea Party with tulips coming out of his top hat & a tea cup on a table cloth. It's all felted together & just waiting for some embellishment.

I forsee lots more felting in my future & we both say a huge thanks to our Lovely Paula for being a fab tutor & the Community Learning Patnership for being a great organisation & running such inspired courses!

Having a Fabulously Felting Time!

Yesterday Em & I were lucky enough to be able to go to the first of a two day felting course, Fabulous Felt, run by one of our friends from our Tuesday Stitch & Bitch group. (For anyone who doesn't know what a Stitch & Bitch group is, ours is basically an excuse to chat & eat cake & we occaisionally get some crafting done too!)

Emily's felt panel!

And it was utterly fabulous! Not just because it's such a treat to spend a whole day doing craft just for fun rather than for work (although we do love doing it for work too sometimes it's nice just to 'do' rather than to first think about costings & practicality & whether anyone will ever want to buy it).

Now our Lovely Paula is such a fab teacher that by the end of this first day we had a panel, a felt flower to be made into a brooch next week on day 2, the makings of another felt brooch, some prefelt (loosely felted sheets that can be felted together at a later date) to start our stash off & two sausage shaped felted things that we will, hopefully if we've felted them enough, be able to cut spiral bead slices from!

                                                           Above My felt panel

She also exploded some of our preconceptions about felt: we learned that you can loosely felt a sheet of fibres together, dry it off & then come back to it at a later date & add more to it or cut it up & add it to something else, it is possible to add loads of detail in to your picture before you start to felt it rather than felting a plain panel & adding all the detail in later & my favourite tip of the day it's much faster to felt on your draining board so not only do the fibres fuse together faster but you end up with a shiny draining board. I wonder if there are more crafty techniques that could be used on other housework chores...all suggestions welcome!
 

Prefelt & spiral bead sausages!

So all in all a fab day & we can't wait for part 2 next Monday, who knows what we'll come home with then!

To see more of Paula's amazing artworks & hear about other classes, you can find her blog here: http://frecklesandflowersgirl.blogspot.co.uk/

My felted flower ready to be made into a brooch next week.

Let the marathon begin!

This last week has been challenging...on Monday our washing machine broke & panic ensued as Emily had planned to spend this week dying & printing tshirts & baby vests for our forthcoming festivals. Happily however family & friends came through & let us use their washing machines & this is the result:

 Printed tshirts & baby vests draped over every surface!

Making Friends at Markets

At markets some of the best people you'll ever meet will be your fellow stallholders. They'll cheer you up when you're having a bad day, they'll chat to you & make you laugh when it's a slow day, they'll cheer you on when you're making loads of sales & they'll help you pack up when you're on your own & taking a hundred years to pack your gazebo down!

So this is a shout out to some of our lovely fellow stallholders of all ages who have made some really dire days hilarious & some really great events even better.


In no particular order we have:
Dakini Leathercrafts - Handmade leather items with a funky twist bags, belts & kindle cases sit along side winch holders for canal barges
Madame B's Boutique - Handmade origami jewellery
Artwork by Emily Brady - mixed media artist, cartoonist, illustrator & designer of all our Lovely Fairies
Daisy Chain Baby - gorgeous organic baby clothes
Sixteen - Retro tin signs, reconditioned painted wooden furniture
Ruth Milliam London - Designer clothes from floaty dresses to feather & sequin encrusted boleros
Ambrosia Chocolate - Some of the most gorgeous you'll ever taste
McGrumpy & Snuffles - a dog & cat bakery that also sells fab toys & useful pet items
Popcorn Box - Retro style goodies for you & your home
Anaya Trading - Gorgeous Indian Tunics designed by the owner & scarves & jewellery
Violets & Butterflies - Homemade fudge & cutsey bits from vintage tea sets to jewellery
Ardwood - fab Handmade furniture
Aroma Candles - Scented candles for every occasion by a trained aromatherapist
My Sisters & Me - funky crocheted jewelry & accessories & handmade soft toys made from your drawings 
Amy Psychic Medium - Psychic readings, crystal healing sessions & loose Crystals to buy
The London Crepe Company - for those essential market crepes - my favourite is nutella & strawberry yum!
Usborne Books at Ruislip (although we know her from other places too) great books at affordable prices
Phoenix Cards at Ruislip - a great selection of cards
Handmade Cards by Lorna Kyle - some of the nicest handmade cards you'll ever find
Mamacha - Fair trade Peruvian knitwear
Ella Jane Gifts - groovy gifts at prices to suit all pockets
Paisley Camel - Great Henna & fair trade goodies from India from scarves to rings to bags to wallhangings!
People Puppies - Now sadly emigrated to New Zealand but still selling gorgeous handmade children's clothes
Talyana Hair Bows -  hair bows & headbands handmade with Mummy love

All these stallholders (and we're very sorry if we've missed you off the list) have made it onto the Lovely list of Stallholder friends & we hope to meet more soon!

The highs & lows of market trading

It's been a week of contrasts...Emily went & did a stall infront of the restaurant at Milton Keynes hospital & with the exception of a couple of incredibly rude people (honestly we don't mind if you don't want to buy anything but a bit of politeness goes a long way!) had a pretty good day. We'll be going there again next month for sure.
Then we had a shopping evening on Friday at the Sir Henry Floyd school in Aylesbury with triple the amount of people who attended last year, a good percentage of which were in the mood for shopping which we always appreciate!
We split up over the weekend & on Saturday Emily went along to support our brother Harry at Tough Mudder, a 12 mile asault course through mud & raising money for Help For Heros...

while I had a great day at Bloxham May Festival, on a street with three pubs, next to a hot chocolate stand (not pictured) whose owner took pity on me freezing in the bitter wind & gave me warmth restoring hot chocolate!

I was opposite a crepe stall whose owner had come from France for the fair - that's dedication!

& the two Rosses who had a stonking day with their slow roasted lamb baps & had sold out by 3.30pm.

It was a beautifully organised & friendly festival, great music, a supportive public & organisers who were genuinely interested in looking after their stallholders (always great when you're doing a stall by yourself). Definitely one we'll do next year, we're thinking that next time if we're together, we'll pack up, repark the van & then go join the party & listen to the bands.
My favourite moment? Packing up to a band doing a rocky cover version of MC Hammer's 'You can't touch this'...hilarious!

Yesterday we split up again & Emily had a slow but ultimately good day at Aston Clinton's School Fete surrounded by lots of great stalls including our friends McGrumpy & Snuffles who provided giggles, company & kindly picked up the contents of her table when the wind blew them all off! 

while I spent the day at Flexmore Farm's Honey Festival where for the first time in three & a half years of trading I didn't make a single sale...It was a friendly event, nice location & there were some great stalls there but it was one of those days where unfortunately the people who came were not feeling 'Lovely',

happily I had good company

& Silke had a better day than I did!

It's the best feeling in the world when you do a good event & then the most demoralising feeling ever when you drive to an event, set up your stall & stand there for 6 hours before packing up with exactly the same amount of items that you went there with. Fortunately so far the highs have outnumbered the lows & we'll put this fair behind us & move on, hopefully to successful events next weekend. We'll be at Rickmansworth Canal Festival both days next weekend & at Ruislip on Sunday, hopefully the weather will be good & the shoppers will be friendly!