All I can say is "Get there a.s.a.p". If you can visit the "Country Living Christmas Fair" before Sunday at The London Business Design Centre in Islington you will be surrounded with a fantasy of Christmas! You will need to run away with it all and put it in your cupboard of loveliness.Every year near the entrance there is a beautifully dressed cabin - the kind one dreams of escaping to at the bottom of one's garden (yeah, right, along with the fairies). I stared misty eyed at this for 20 minutes yesterday (daft sod). Words in brackets denote husband-like comments.
There's a huge variety of "loveliness" to browse and buy and some very useful bags on wheels for sale for a fiver to put the booty in.
Things I loved were Susie Watson's ceramics and fabrics, a whole section on crafts from the Orkneys, the lingering cinnamon stick aroma, fabric Christmas Finnish-esque elves (Tomte) - hmmmm could be easily addicted to them and lots of decorations made from rusty tin. I know, I know barking mad but happy (when are you getting the Brasso out?). My God husbands can be so practical, literal and analytical.
The food hall is wonderful. There are all sorts of sausages, smoked salmon, cheeses, soups, wines and olive oils to sample. Lunch has been had after 30 minutes in there.
The worst part of the day was trying to lug my trolley bag and it's contents up to the 9th floor of the station car park when getting home. £2.50 worth of wheels had dropped off by then. Ho hum - a small price to pay.
There's a huge variety of "loveliness" to browse and buy and some very useful bags on wheels for sale for a fiver to put the booty in.
Things I loved were Susie Watson's ceramics and fabrics, a whole section on crafts from the Orkneys, the lingering cinnamon stick aroma, fabric Christmas Finnish-esque elves (Tomte) - hmmmm could be easily addicted to them and lots of decorations made from rusty tin. I know, I know barking mad but happy (when are you getting the Brasso out?). My God husbands can be so practical, literal and analytical.
The food hall is wonderful. There are all sorts of sausages, smoked salmon, cheeses, soups, wines and olive oils to sample. Lunch has been had after 30 minutes in there.
The worst part of the day was trying to lug my trolley bag and it's contents up to the 9th floor of the station car park when getting home. £2.50 worth of wheels had dropped off by then. Ho hum - a small price to pay.
Anyway I had a spare 20 minutes today and was feeling in a sort of New Englandy kinda mood and quickly whipped up Block 7 of a quilt that has been ongoing for a long while.
I just need a little rusty tin heart for the door knocker. Who says my trip was purely a self-indulgent waste of time?
I just need a little rusty tin heart for the door knocker. Who says my trip was purely a self-indulgent waste of time? By the way you've got to watch this blogging thing because now someone at my son's school has read this and discovered that I do this fiddling with fabric thing and I have got the job of making 9 Kalidah costumes for "The Wiz" (rock version of "The Wizard Of Oz") in the early Spring.
Any ideas welcome!
