The Country Living Christmas Fair 2012

What an exciting week we have had last week at the Country Living Christmas Fair, with my little company My Aunt Agatha. We had a tiny stall - the same size as on the Spring Fair. And we sold as much on the first day as we did in the whole week on the Spring Fair.Imagine!
This is the little stall just before opening. See my sign over the stall !Yay !!!

 And here is stall before everything was sold..

It's super tiring to stand all day on a stand from morning till evening , 5 days in a row, and I am writing this while coughing and drinking fizzy Vitamin C.

I could not have done it  without my angelic mum- in-law.
Here she is modelling the latest aprons, with the super popular Winter Wonderland Christmas Stockings in the background.

I should have made hundreds more of those stockings.. they sold out in a flash.

The cushions were very quickly gone as well.. sort of sad really ( but good )- I loved the linen one on the picture with the white applique. But I can always make a few more..( once I am over this cough ! )..


It was a lovely Christmas Fair with loads of fabulous stalls. 

 Here's an overview of the stalls from the first floor.

I am just going to share a few of the pictures I took of other stalls that took my fancy- there was so much lovely stuff!!

I treated myself to one of these wreaths- it's hanging in the room as I write and it smells lovely- the link to their website is here

I loved these dogleads and collars from Scrufts- here's a link to their site. there were so many colours and designs to choose from!

I adored these children's toys, clothes and cushions from Treefall Design.The link to the shop is here
Supercute! And I just love the wallpaper.

 Other stands that I really loved with fabulous stuff were Jan Constantine with her festive Christmas cushions.
The link to the shop is here

 Then there were lovely cushions from Chloe Vintage Antiques
Love the embroidery, don't you!

 Here's the stand from Whinberry & Antler. Jacinta and I met at the Spring fair and have kept in touch ever since.
She is super talented and will go very far, I am absolutely sure.Here some more pictures from her stall.

Then there was the huge stand from Susie Watson Designs.Here are some pictures of the stand ..

 And lastly a girl who had a stand for the first time - two stands down from me .Her new website will launch soon and is called  Sophiemadethis

She used lovely Westphalia fabrics for her patchwork cushions and I hope she will do very well with her new website and het future plans.

Hope you have enjoyed the show- it's goodnight from me and goodnight from Maud ( and Millie) - we all need to recover from the busy week!

Have a great rest of the week!
XOXO
Bea

The Country Living Christmas Show

Tomorrow is the start of the Country Living Christmas Show. You can see the details for the show here
 I will be there with my stand of which you can see some pictures here.

 Hope to see you there!!
     XOXO Bea

My first stockist and the Country Living Christmas Fair

Things have been super busy lately.
 I am very proud to present my first stockist ever, the Merchant's House .
 From today some of my stock is now on show in their shop.
Here are some pictures of their Christmas Present Room, in which they have placed the My Aunt Agatha products.
Here below is a display of another designer by the by.
It's a lovely old building with lots of character as you can see.

My cushions, teacosies and AGA covers, and cafetiere warmers are all there to look at, admire and buy :-)

The link to the shop is here by the way.
I have also been working very hard at producing lots of stock for the Country Living Christmas Fair next week .
And here are some of the products I will be taking to the show...

Here is the link to my entry on their site by the way.

My mum seems to be thriving in the care home.In fact she is doing so well, with the regular support and the lack of worries, she will be transferred to a regular ward with residents that do not suffer form dementia at all. And she will be getting her own room.So all good.It's been an emotional roller coaster but I am
super proud of her.


Hope you have a great weekend people!!
XOXO

Bea

Living the good life- Dutch Manor houses and formal gardens

The countryside in that part of Holland where my mum lives is dotted with pretty little country houses built by
wealthy Dutch merchants and citizens.Most gardens are in a formal French/ Versailles style  .The garden and house you see here is about ten minutes away from my mum's house It's a real pleasure to stroll around in it on a lovely summer's day.There are tunnels with climbing roses to walk through ..

And a lovely kitchen garden..

There is a formal parterre, all twirly trimmed box hedges like here..

Here is another picture which is more to the left of this path..

This gazebo-style plant support is covered in honey suckle and roses- and there are a few of these dotted a round the box parterre- the whole design is completely symmetrical as they do in the French formal gardens.

The symmetry starts with the entrance where an avenue of trees leads straight to the main entrance of the manor house.

Quite pretty, don't you think.

The entrance gates are huge and in front of the gate is a big bench .You always see a group of little old men sitting there, gossiping and chatting and it's supposedly called the "Liar's bench" because of all the invented stories that are being told there.

There are espalier fruit trees, trained against the warm brick walls, and loads of garden urns dotted around.

The house itself is from brick and split in three parts - although you don't really notice that inside the house.

It's surrounded by a moat and clipped hedges.

And then there are more formal gardens, lawns cut through with paths on which at the end you see big garden urns.

There is a sweet little garden room where the owner could drink a cup of tea and gaze out over his lovely gardens...

And the whole of the gardens and the house is again surrounded by a huge moat flanked with huge old trees.

Not a bad life , eh, living in a place like this.
I hope to show you a bit more of Holland, villages, towns and the countryside, but for now
I leave you with one last picture of this lovely old place.

And if you ever want to visit these gardens, and you are in Holland , you will find the link to the website and details here

Have a great week !

XOXO


Bea

The best kept village

A few miles away from where I live , through just about the loveliest bit of English countryside you can imagine, lies a little village in a valley.
It won " the best kept village " some years ago.
The road down there is one of my favourites as it offers you peeks of lovely rolling country side.

Right in the middle of nowhere is a little cottage which I  would love to live in.

It has grand views all way round and no neighbours whatsoever.

The village itself has one of those cute finger posts that looks like it's been there for centuries.

It's just one big street with a few cottages ,  a manor house and a pub.

These entrance gates belong to a cute cottage-ey style manor house.

They used to have geese walking free at the front but I haven't seem them for a while.With their gak-gak-gak noise and their wing flapping they were pretty scary and extremely good as guard dogs.You can't get past them silently.
.And then there's the rest of the village.

You know, when I see show gardens on tv or in real life, at the Chelsea Flower Show, or the Hampton Court Flower Show, I always think that there are many more " show gardens" around that never get a medal, haven't been designed by a famous garden designer and won't be shown on tv.

But they are just a fabulous anyway.

English people just know how to make gardens look fantastic, even if they haven't got a garden designer certificate.

This poor little doggie was desperate to go for a walk and was longingly looking at Maud and Millie who were being taken for a walk.

It's a cute little street with lovely houses- nothing too grand , but just the right kind of nice.

And if you get bored with the main street there is a lovely walk along the canal if you go past the Gate keepers cottage.

It's perfect for a quiet evening walk..

And the dogs love it there.

Yep, it's cute all right.Even if they did not win the " Best kept village " award this year, it looks pretty well kept to me.
Have a great weekend.


XOXO



Bea