Friends, Ibiza and a new logo…

July 2, 2015 by sam

My old friend Simon Heale used to say “no man goes like a mango goes” whenever a mango came into sight and it always made me giggle. Another good one of his was “I think therefore I am – I’m pink therefore I’m Spam”

I’ve been thinking a lot about friends, old and new & how important they are are for fun, laughter and general well-being. I’ve recently been on my friend Nicole’s hen-do in Ibiza and it was a blast.

I managed two all-nighters (I know right? At my age!) Quite frankly I was shitting myself about going to Amnesia (I can say that ‘cos it’s my blog) which doesn’t open until midnight & a vodka redbull will set you back 26 euros (eeek) but we did it & wandered home at 8am, along the beach, looking alright compared to some…

We did the obligatory sunset at Cafe Mambo (can’t believe these guys have marketed a sunset..?) It was an experience though, especially afterwards as we ate our supper with a Hen party on one side, a Stag “do” on the other and a lady playing with fire on the beach! The entertainment was constant from the moment I got in the car on Wednesday ’til returning home on Sunday morning and I would definitely go back. Especially to the beautiful beach at Calla Basa, a half hour boat trip from San Antonio, where the sea is warm & turquoise & I had the best lobster paella & sangria I’ve ever tasted and listened to live sax on the beach!

Back to reality with a bang I then raced up to Beaconsfield (where I grew up) as my pal Sally (who lives in Spain) was back visiting her Mum. I caught up with Val (for lunch) had dinner in Bourne End (thanks Michael) spent the following day with Sharon, Sally & Lucia in the glorious sunshine and managed a quick trip to my childhood home (now worth a ridiculous £800k – my parents bought it for £28K 35 years ago!)

Unsurprisingly it looks awful, the front lawn turned to gravel parking, the clematis ripped from the roof, which it used to cover in a veil of pale pink every spring. I’d choose Devon every time & getting to spend a few wonderful years down here with my Mum before losing her is much more valuable than bricks and mortar.

During the 200 mile drive home I found myself giggling away at the events of the previous week and realised that I have emerged from the gloomy mood I have been in since 2013. I have resigned myself to the fact that life will never be the same again without my lovely Mum BUT I have some amazing friends & family who have encouraged, supported, cajoled & put up with me. Thanks for hanging on in there everyone, I’m nearly there!

PP managed to get the new logo sorted incredibly quickly for him! What do you think? I love it and have ordered stickers from moo.com for my bags, boxes and wrapping which should arrive today. It’s going to take a bit longer to sort out the website and email stuff so bear with me. At the moment traffic from peagreencandles.com will be redirected to peagreenfurniture.com as both are live.

My first pots made it safely through their glaze firing and I took three of them to a fair in Dartmouth at the weekend, sold two and left the other with a shop I supply there (The Crafted Emporium in the Old Market Square) It was a busy weekend and for the first time I paid my daughter to come and assist me, she was a natural of course!

My next fair is an evening of Craft and Vintage in Uplowman Village Hall (4 miles north east of Tiverton) on Friday 10th July 6pm – 9pm. This fair is being run by Holly who is working towards her Gold Arts Award.

Come and see me if you require a smelly, spotty candle or two….

peagreencandles.com

June 12, 2015 by sam

I’m so excited to be taking my little company in a new direction and as I no longer up-cycle old furniture and spend most of my days making candles (& pots) I have (after thinking long and hard) decided to rename it peagreencandles.com

These are the pots that I really want to focus on, hence my Monday afternoon classes with Ron, who I mentioned in my last post…

He’s so lovely, seriously, he makes me a better person…

Here are my first pots, hand-thrown & decorated by moi! He encouraged me to make my own mark on the base and gave me a pad to sketch out a funky logo but I thought I’d just keep it simple….

I have now decorated the sixteen pots I have made during the past few weeks and am waiting (on tenter-hooks) for them to be fired. I’ll be back there on Monday to throw some more shapes (Mighty Boosh reference for my kids!)

So, feeling motivated (for once) I bought a huge cupboard from the lovely Jon Pearce (Vintage light & Shade) and tidied up my studio. I also sketched a new logo…

which needs a bit of tweaking and the new name added (PP is doing this so don’t hold your breath)

I ordered some posh boxes from The Tiny Box Co. and will be ordering some nice stickers from Moo.com with the end goal of sorting out a proper shop page on my website – I know, get me! It must be all the inspiration and support from the wonderful group of Creative Women I have been meeting up with…

One of the members runs Jolley Cupcake – check out this fab Rolo cake which was for sale at the Artisan Market last month, serious yumminess!

My next fair is on Sunday at the magnificent Cotehele National Trust property in Saltash, Cornwall. It should be a fun day out, maybe I’ll see you there?

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

Sick of being sick!

November 16, 2012 by sam

AAaarrggghhhh….my busiest time of year and I’m sick of being sick! At least I work at home and have been able to potter around making candles (at a greatly reduced pace though!)

You may remember that I did some candles in unwanted Cath Kidston stuff that I had hanging around the house, well they are back for Christmas by popular demand (more pix on my facebook page) I have been cracking on with my orders….

These are for my postie who knocked with parcels the other day while I was making creme brulee candles…”what are you cooking?” he asked and then ordered four! Bless him.

I have been messing around with candles in 1950’s pottery, as vintage teacup candles seem to be popping up everywhere now and I don’t like to be doing the same as everyone else (unlike some people in Birmingham I could mention!) The trouble with programmes like Kirstie & her vintage home, is that things become more expensive and increasingly difficult to source. I am fortunate to have lots of vintage contacts now though, having been doing the shows for the last few years. They often let me know if they have jelly moulds etc. Don’t think I could survive without them now! Thanks gals!

My lovely friend Emma is organising this Christmas Craft Fair in North Devon on 29th November, it is in the Carriage House of a friends property and sounds lush (haven’t seen it yet) There will be various artists and makers, mulled wine and mince pies plus lots of festive goodies if you want to shop handmade and local this Christmas!

I have just found out that I am doing another local fair on the evening of November 27th, 7pm at The Crab Shack, Teignmouth (on the back beach by The Ship Inn) this is in aid of a fishermans charity. There will be lots of local goodies including driftwood & my candles…more info to follow..

I am in Portscatho on Sunday 10am – 3pm at The Memorial Hall. This is always a fab day out run by the artist Jane Winton and Gertie, who runs the gorgeous shop “The Sea Garden” in Portscatho village. Free entry, great local crafts, vintage homewares and yummy cakes!

I’m getting quite excited about Christmas now and hoping I’ll be lurgy-free….. I made my Guinness Christmas pud during the week and have my Christmas cake fruit soaking in Cherry Brandy in the fridge – yum! Today I’m making Amaretto candles, the whole house stinks and it’s making me feel extremely hungry. I should be trying to shift a few pounds in the run-up to festive over indulgence but I’m too ill & have already nearly finished the jumbo tin of Celebrations I bought for the hol’s and told the kids to leave alone! Fortunately MadMen 5 dropped through the letter box the other day so I have had Don Draper etc. for company and I’m reading a great book “The Woman Who Went To Bed For A Year” very encouraging, think I may take a leaf out of her book! Can’t wait for The Killing III on Saturday night too but for now I had better go and make some candles x

Still ill….

October 24, 2012 by sam

this week I have been mostly

a) Getting cross with this cold, which is into it’s third week…most annoying!

b) Having my artistic integrity compromised (by a so called friend who bought a load of candles from me then 2 months later decided to start her own candle business, pouring soya candles into vintage items such as jelly moulds!)

c) Sleeping (in an attempt to get rid of my cold)

d) Eating (no change there) in an attempt to get some energy from somewhere other than huge hits of caffeine from too strong black coffee!

e) Sulking – because “Revenge” has finished and I was loving it! Got to wait until 2013 for the next series….

and

f) Making candles – surprise, surprise!

I found these gorgeous old spice jars in a charity shop for 50p each – yay! My lovely Christmas ribbons arrived from The Netherlands…..

the picture is slightly blurred, sorry about that. And I have been making my jam-jar candles look a bit sexier. What do you think? They have not been on sale for a while whilst I devised a way to get the tags to stay on (they were tied on with string and kept falling off!) I think the operation was a success, with some nice 1950’s ribbon purchased at The Nostalgic Mix Fair in Totnes last weekend…

My next fair is on Saturday in Exminster, I haven’t done it before but it has been running for a while and is supposed to be a great day out… see you there?