I had a very busy day at The Secret Garden Craft Fair on Saturday.

The busyness started early. There is limited access to the venue, so everyone has to unload in relay, at set times. I was unloading at 8.15 am – and the fair didn’t start until 11!

This was actually A Good Thing.

Last year my slot was later, and the fair started before I had a chance to see anyone else’s stuff.

This year I had lots of time to pfaff and plump up cushions. Then I priced everything up, stashed away my bags and boxes, and had a nice chat with my neighbours, Relick and Corrina Rothwell.

And after I’d finished doing that, I still had plenty of time left to claim my free cup of tea, track down a veggie bacon and egg buttie and consume it – and then peruse the wares of my fellow stallholders…

To be honest, I could easily have spent an absolute fortune. 

After looking around I was a little perturbed that all the other stalls appeared to be visions of restraint and good taste – whilst mine resembled… well, sort of the opposite of that. It was a bit… clashy. But there was no time to dwell on that.

There was something I’d had in mind since last year… so I made a beeline for Rachel Ainley’s stall to make sure I got in before the punters did.

And thus I bagged me the bag of my dreams…

I absolutely love it. I love all of Rachel’s bags and purses, as I mentioned last year  – but this particular one definitely had my name on it.

But that wasn’t the only thing I came home with.

A blog reader brought me a present! This is the second time that this has happened. And I was equally touched both times.

It’s not every day that someone whom you have never met before comes up to you, out of the blue, and offers you a lovely piece of vintage fabric for free.

This wonderful stuff looks to me to be from the late 1950s or early 1960s. It has a name on the selvedge…

And a label, obviously from it’s days languishing in the remnant box of a shop…

But I haven’t been able to find out any more about it. So if you know anything, please share!

It came to my benevolent reader as part of an inheritance, but she felt that she wouldn’t use it herself and therefore very sweetly decided to donate it to me instead.

I promised to blog about whatever I make from it. So you’ll no doubt be seeing it again some time.

I also brought home quite a bit of my own stock, despite being very busy and selling a lot.

So I’ll be updating my shop this coming week, and also reopening my Etsy store.

For all those of you who couldn’t make it to the fair, you can still take home a little something yourselves. ♥