…..did I choose doing up old furniture as a job?  I currently have two chairs, recently painted pale blue, drying off in the middle of my kitchen.  A dresser, minus a door, which Ben is fixing at his place, also in the middle of the kitchen,  various boxes, candles and packaging lying around all over the place and I’m supposed to have everything all perfect and gorgeous looking for November 26th, when we are having our website photo shoot!

The Craft Hub Falling Leaves Fair went very well on October 30th.  I was really busy with my candles and everyone seemed interested in the fact that they are made with natural wax, which washes out, so I also plugged my refilling service and hope to have some takers soon (apart from my pals – thank you all for your support) I think it helped that I lit a gingerbread candle and had that burning away for the duration, making everyone hungry.  Can’t wait until the next Fair in Topsham on the 12th December and the next Cr’after Dark evening in Exeter, when we will be learning to crochet Christmas decorations, which no doubt I’ll be rubbish at!

Progress with the website has been very slow, mainly because people keep asking me to weird things like stand in as a dinner lady at my daughters primary school,  I did look quite fetching though, in my blue and white chefs apron! I will endeavour to get something into the “shop” before my next blog entry.  Speaking of dinner I had better go and make a start on ours……

What a week it’s been. Three of us made it to the City Gate Inn in Exeter for the Sock Monster workshop last Wednesday and very enjoyable it was too! The room was full of women, socks, buttons & needles in hand, whilst Kate gave us a demonstration and we all learnt how to turn the raw materials into these gorgeous little creatures! It’s definitely going to be a home-made Christmas in my house this year, candles, chutney and sock monsters for all!

meet the family

On Friday I went to my friend Kat’s, who was holding a breast cancer fund-raising evening.  Lot’s of pink cakes, pink biscuits and pink balloons (oh, and Kat’s pink thong) went down very well! I took some candles along and everyone loved them, especially the fact that once they had forked out for them they can have them refilled as I have decided to do a candle refilling service.  I sold £100 worth of candles – yippee!  Hopefully a positive sign for the future of my candle making business…….?  And Kat raised £150 for the charity – Well done Kat.

Paul (other half) or “poor Pauly” as my friends like to call him – can’t think why? – has been working on the website as you can see….  We will soon have a “shop” he assures me, how exciting!  I am off to a packaging company in a minute to get some  boxes made up for the candles and vintage cake-stands. Maybe one day I’ll have to send one somewhere.

Ben is in Suffolk this week for a wedding, but he has already been to an auction and picked up some vintage Poole Pottery for candles and cake-stands, so I’ll let him off for taking a holiday at such a busy time of year!  We have our first Craft Fair on Saturday (St Matthews Church Hall, Newtown, Exeter 10am-4pm) since joining The Craft Hub, a photo shoot looming, Christmas around the corner and a website to build – better go and sort out my boxes!

too many plates...

Being a collector of all things vintage, I have decided to put to good use my enormous hoard of plates.  I have,  after much searching,  found a supplier of gorgeous cake stand handles which start off gold and silver and are then sprayed with a matt white enamel and knocked back, creating a distressed finish which fits perfectly with my old plates.

As well as being a vintage magpie,  I am also a shopaholic (mainly for research purposes – honestly!)  Anyway… I am increasingly coming across shiny, new cake-stands which yes,  you’ve guessed it,  are made in China.  Why do that?  Mass produce perfect,  floral cake-stands when you could probably fill Wembley Stadium with all the unwanted plates in the UK? And they seem to be so sought after at the moment.  So, we are going to add to our range of candles (hand-poured into vintage finds),  & old furniture (given some new love), cake-stands,  made from lovely vintage plates!   We at Peagreen think that they will fit in very well with our philosophy and will be available to buy soon… watch this space, as one day we will have a fully transactional website.

crying out for cupcakes!

On that note,  Ben and I went to visit our lovely photographer friend Mike Evans today,  in his amazing studio in an old barn,  to arrange our “shoot” which will take place in my house in a couple of weeks’.  Very exciting,  except I’ll have to do loads of cleaning beforehand… not my favourite pastime!

Off to make sock monsters tonight in Exeter – can’t wait!

okay…..I was feeling slightly better today as due to extreme nature of diet the weight seems to be falling off at a reasonable pace.  Then I remembered that I had promised my daughters I would make them a soggy chocolate brownie cake that involved dirtying my hands with such nasties as chocolate, sugar and butter!  Talk about needing an iron will!  I nearly had to lie down as a result of throwing those dripping utensils into the washing up bowl without so much as a lick!  And predictably,  they both shovelled it in for pudding – topped with loads of Madagascan Vanilla Cream – without so much as a “thanks Mum”,  and all I had to distract me was a…………wait for it…………….. ham and “light” cheddar cheese omelette!   All night the cake has been talking to me,  from behind it’s great glass dome and  now,  at 41,  I can fully appreciate what those poor kids  had to endure in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory that day………….it was based on a true story wasn’t it?  And I bet they all behaved so appallingly because their parents had them on carbohydrate free diets!

It’s great how things fall into place as you get older isn’t it? All of a sudden the penny drops, like when I was watching Mamma Mia & realised that I’d spent the last thirty years singing the wrong lyrics to Abba songs and then the morning after my 40th, when I realised that the mature, articulate grown up I was expecting to take over was never going to come!  And now I’m “old” and my kids are singing the wrong lyrics (and they are the wrong lyrics, because they are re-worked dance tracks that I used to listen to twenty years ago!) but what do I know?  I’m just their Mum………

………….I find this mantra helps me in troubled times :

when chocolate cake is calling you and wine whispers your name,

change your focus, something new, play a little game…..

dig out your old dungarees, faded blue with ripped up knees,

turn your ipod onto “rave”,  jump around and misbehave

and if you feel like getting “wasted” or getting “out your head”

remember you’re a grown up,  have some tea and go to bed !!!

well…haven’t been able to blog as I’ve been moping around like a desperate drug addict all week, having been deprived of sugar, caffeine, carbs and alcohol since Monday morning! I’m not totally sure that getting rid of my belly is actually worth getting rid of my life, but hey ho!

Been falling (literally) into bed earlier and earlier with lack of energy, all be it false energy, it was 8.30pm last night!  And I’m supposed to keep this up for 14 days……………..roll on Vodka Redbull.

Ben's attempt at photography....not bad Ben

Sam's attempt at photography....not as good as yours Ben!

Peagreen has experienced a severe lack of commitment this week (sorry Ben) but I did manage to sort out the order for our marvellous stickers (it’s all about branding you know) and hunt down another 2 vintage glass jelly moulds for candle making and join the Craft Hub and book a table at their October 30th fair and their December 11th Christmas fair, so I don’t think I’ve done too badly!?  On their website you can now see one of our gorgeous 1950’s kitchen chairs, repainted in F&B French Gray with a newly covered Cath Kidston oilcloth seat (which will be available to buy on the website soon, well as soon as Paul pulls his finger out!)  Also some good news on the photo front, a very talented photographer, Mike Evans, who lives in the village, has agreed to do some snaps – yippee!  That’s let brother Luke off the hook for a while, (also a photographer)  Just had word that he’ll be down from London for Christmas,  roll on party time!

Whilst perusing cool websites I came across www.madebykate.co.uk an interior designer who also makes sock monsters.  Her blog is great and it’s where I read about the Exeter based craft co-operative “The Craft Hub“.  They run craft fairs in Exeter and do pub nights where various crafters teach other their skills.  Cr’after dark – fab name!  Anyway during October, the 20th I think, Kate is running a “how to make sock monsters” night. What do you think Nat?  Shall we go?  It’s only a fiver….

In the gingerbread house am I,   having spent today making candles with a new gingerbread scent that I had delivered (not by a witch I might add)  That would be a great name for a candle supplies company wouldn’t it?  “The Wicked Witch of the Wax”  The scent went down well with my kids, which is always a good sign, especially when they try to eat the candles!  They didn’t really,  but that has just reminded me of a funny story when I ate some strawberry scented bubble bath back in the 70’s.  I can’t be the only one to have done it,  big cork lid,  smelled gorgeous? – tasted like shit though.  I was so naive that I thought it would actually taste of strawberries,  how sad is that….?  I’m not sure how old I was at the time, old enough to know better though.  Whilst other kids around the UK (mainly Paignton) were busy impregnating themselves I was eating bubble bath!  Kept me out of trouble though, until the ripe old age of 14 when Central Park opened in Beaconsfield on Maxwell Road and then a whole new journey began…..well,  the journey from my house to the pub!