Ascot, Crikey at Killerton, candles & a new website!

July 3, 2014 by sam

Well Saturday is nearly here and I’m madly making candles for Selina Lake’s Handmade & Vintage Summer Fete and book signing in Guildford, 11am – 5pm. I’m honoured & excited to be asked to stall there (mainly due to my friend Kitty who gave her one of my candles last year & she loved it!) Kitty will be there too, serving the all important teas and coffees – come and say hi (especially to her – she’s nuts!)

We managed a family trip to North Devon where we visited a wonderful Sculpture Park and Art Hotel (Broomhill House near Barnstaple) I (obviously) loved this teacup! Difficult to find something that suits us all now and doesn’t involve shopping as girls are 16 and 12, but this ticked all the boxes!

We had our own Ascot Ladies Day round at a friends house & the sun shone, bets were placed, the BBQ was lit and plenty of Pimms was drunk! The cheapest charity shop outfit was supposed to win a bottle of fizz BUT Mel drank it all.

Killerton weekend was fantastic, again the sun shone down on us, I sold loads of candles & had a stall next to Kelly Rowe from Blueberry Hill Vintage we had such a giggle!

PP has been messing around with the website, still not done but looks much better and easier to navigate, fresh candle deliveries have gone off to The Crafted Emporium in Dartmouth Market Square, Good Golly Miss Molly (in Bunyip Beads, Fore Street, Exeter) and Honeysuckle Homes Interiors, Castle Circus, Torquay. Must dash off now though to get some candles made for the big day on Saturday x

a new car, candles, Cornwall (& the rest…)

August 16, 2013 by sam

It’s been over two months since I last posted anything but I’m afraid that all has not been rosey in the “Sunshine” house! Killerton was loads of fun, Shelley did a fantastic job and got over 6000 people through the door, I sold lots of candles and there was a cocktail caravan there too – perfect!

This is my stall at Littleham fair (near Exmouth) on July 6th. How appropriate that I should be in a Pimms tent. It was a gorgeous sunny day & great to see a traditional country fair in full swing. One of the visitors to my stall worked for a big candle company (Yankee Candles) in Bristol and said that I had the scents of my candles just right! Praise indeed.

After many requests I finally ordered the boxes and got some tealights made up. Each box contains 12 candles (in refillable cups) each one has a 5-6 hour burn. 72 hours worth of candles for £12.95 can’t be bad. Anyway, they’ve sold out (mainly because I delivered a huge amount to Rocombe Valley Retreats) but I’ll take that as a good sign! I had to enlist the help of my pal Helene for a frantic clean-up operation as a photographer and journalist descended on my house a few weeks ago. I’m going to be in a magazine called “Style at home” in Spring 2014 – exciting!

We managed three nights in The Lizard at the end of July (one of our fave places) the weather was glorious, the beaches were pretty empty (Praa Sands above) and the Roskilly’s Ice Cream Cafe held as much interest for us as ever. On the way back the clutch went in the car so we ended up in a tow-truck back to Devon, there was so much wrong with it that it wasn’t worth fixing so we’ve bought a big, beautiful, beast (in my fave colour) mpg is hideous though so not sure how long she’ll be around……did I mention that my phone crashed too? And I lost all my contacts? If it’s not one thing…….

Unfortunately I had to pull out of my two August fairs (Portscatho and Tavistock) but I can confirm that I will be at the next Portscatho fair on November 17th and the next Tavistock fair on November 24th. My next fair will be The Vintage Bazaar in Hartley Wintney on September 21st and until then I have a few weeks off to prepare a huge jelly mould order (40!!!!) and start to think about the “C” word (Christmas obviously!) Don’t forget my candles are available at Porters of Station Road, Bovey Tracey, The White Approach, Exmouth & Honeysuckle Homes, Torquay if you need to get one for a present. You can also contact me directly through facebook or my website. See you soon x

Salcombe, sun and tealight candles…..

June 12, 2013 by sam

I’m feeling slightly guilty about not having written anything since April but I’m here now so I’ll begin….

…..quite frankly the sun came out and the Sunshines’ went out to play! We had a night camping in Bantham, dinner in The Sloop (lovely) a visit to Kingsbridge for ice cream (even lovelier) and a day in Salcombe (not so lovely as I got dragged into Jack Wills and found myself parting with £50 for a bikini for the teen!) We have had a walk on Dartmoor, a picnic by the river before a visit to Castle Drogo, a gloriously lazy day on Mothercombe beach with BBQ, wine & good friends. We went to see Overbecks….

What a view……………?

I have painted my shed (Willow) bought a new sofa (Laura Ashley sale bargain) and done fairs in Portscatho, Frome, Hartley Wintney & Tavistock (phew!)

I also have my candles in two, new, local business ventures “Porters” in Bovey Tracey & “The White Approach” in Exmouth and have delivered a huge candle order to Honeysuckle Homes in Torquay. I have been asked to produce some tealight candles for a friend with a glamping/yurt business in Rocombe which is exciting. I’ll see how they turn out, but I will probably start to retail them in boxes of 12. Each tealight will have a 6 hour burn time AND, in the spirit of recycling, I am going to dig out some beautiful old china (with hairline cracks) to house the tealight candles in “yurtsville”. Citronella for outside & various summer scents for inside! Yum!

I took this picture on the ipad whilst lying in the dunes at Bantham…I thought it was rather good….

walking to the beach…

we arrived at the beach but it was too windy so we ended up sheltering in the dunes where Meg amused us, singing in her goggles!

Here at Peagreen HQ I have also been experimenting with some new scents. Champagne and strawberries, Raspberry fool and Coconut & lime are my faves. I went to visit my local vineyard, Old Walls Vineyard in Bishopsteignton, they give me with their old Bonne Maman jars (good excuse) & have wonderful views from the enormous deck outside the cafe, produce a few gorgeous Devon wines (the Bacchus in particular) & is well worth checking out if you live near Bishop.

Had to post this picture of my cats who I found chilling in the kitchen in their baskets earlier – aaaggghhhh! I have had a visit from an interiors journalist and a photographer about a possible article but will wait for more news before I start to WAX lyrical (hahaha – get it?) My next event is the “Crikey it’s Vintage Weekender” at Killerton House near Exeter on June 22/23, which I’m really looking forward to………..hopefully see you there…?