The Country Living Spring Fair

Yesterday I went to The Country Living Spring Fair,it may have been cold and dreary outside but Spring was definitely in the air inside the fair! Alongside the lovely stands of beautiful treasures what really caught my eye was the inspirational Easter table setting...



I loved the rustic vintage charm of it...



the Country inspired garden...





and the tree hung with Easter eggs and pretty little glass votives full of Spring blooms...



Have a sweet day!

Petra Boase

This week for my 'shops i love' page, I bring you the quirky eclectic brand of vintage-inspired wares by Petra Boase.

Petra Boase graduated from Manchester University with a textile degree in 1990. From there she went on to present the popular interior show 'Change That' on the BBC, whilst at the same time styling lifestyle editorials for popular interior magazines. In 2000 she started her Petra Boase range with collage canvases and greeting cards. Since then it has grown into a large collection including home textiles of lampshades, tea towels and tablecloths. She also does the prettiest patterned sticky tapes, notebooks and notecards, knitted toys, mugs and wall art.

Have a sweet day!

Velvet Ribbon

On Monday I showed you some cute craft room inspiration. I loved the cute storage idea of the Mason ball jars on the wall. They looked so pretty full of trims and ribbons. Velvet Ribbon, who I discovered at the The Country Living Spring Fair, sells the gorgeous blue toned mason ball jars here in the UK. They also sell wonderful old rustic wooden crates that would look fabulous on the wall in my laundry room, like the inspirational ones featured in my Laundry Room Storage post.

Velvet Ribbon is an online boutique selling a delightful range of unique home accessories and vintage clothing featuring a striking mix of old and new. Each item is individually sourced from all over the British Isles and Europe for its vintage charm and beauty.

Have a sweet day!

Cape Henley

Before I visited the Country Living Spring Fair I loved Cape Henley. They love France and New England so they've combined the two and put together a range of home and garden accessories, and furniture that captures the essence of this style. They have lots of whitewashed wooden furniture, distressed rattan and the prettiest vintage floral and check cushions.



I love their weathered rattan trunks, which would make really good laundry baskets and the ceramic bird napkin holders are the cutest!



Have a sweet day!

Jane Means

At The Country Living Fair show last month I discovered Jane Means. Her stand was such eye candy, with rolls and rolls of delightful ribbons and Easter decorations. Jane Means, an ex florist, started her business in 1995 making bespoke cards and wedding stationery which became very successful and a card she was commissioned to make for the Queen was on display at Buckingham Palace Mews. In the late nineties Jane turned her hand to her real passion, gift wrapping, and after completing her teacher training she started gift wrapping courses in her parents Lincolnshire watermill.

Jane is now known as Britain's gift wrapping expert and runs a gift wrapping school up and down the country, appearing on television and featuring in many glossy magazines and national newspapers.

From the website:

"She has worked for a well known French Fashion house in Europe, wrapped a gift for the Queen and personally gift wrapped for various celebrities (She won't disclose names!)."

She also designs her own ribbon collections and decorations, which are featured regularly in the press and are sold online and wholesale.

I bought quite a few of her wonderful ribbons on the day and have started incorporating them into my Easter decorations, coming soon...

Have a sweet day!

Deck-The-Halls

One of the prettiest Easter boutiques at The Country Living Spring Fair was Deck-The-Halls.

Deck-The-Halls was started by Paula on the kitchen table 10 years ago. In her words: "It was a weird start as my father died unexpectedly on Christmas day, only 6 weeks after my son was born so we did not really celebrate Christmas and I found it hard to put it away that year. I started making Christmas decorations and friends were asking me for them. I decided to see if they were just being nice by taking them to local shops, who then placed orders. I started exhibiting at Country Living Christmas 2005 where we won the editor's choice for the best stand and the rest is history!"

Paula now works full time on designing and making the collection with her husband and sells to shops including Liberty’s.

Have a sweet day!

Pinks and Green

I loved the Pinks and Green stand at The Country Living Fair as it was so bright and colourful! Zoe, of Pinks and Green, is crazy about Danish design house Rice* and boy, does it show.

The store is stocked full of bright, colourfully printed, functional melamine cups, plates and bowls; funky, kitsch, brightly coloured duck watering cans and pretty pastel ornate candle stick holders and kitchen roll holders; decorative rafia kids toy boxes in a range of themes from the circus to the zoo. For outside, there are the cheeky gnome candles and funky fly swatters. Picnics will get brighter with the fun cocktail glasses and giant decorative velvet floor cushions.

Have a sweet day!

Ella's Kitchen Company

Kids Cabinet

I was delighted to meet Katerina Saunders of Ella's Kitchen Company at the Country Living Spring Show, having coveted her beautiful kitchen storage for years. I envision owning the pale blue 12 scoop and spice Norwegian Cabinet like the one featured in Living Etc one day when I have a large kitchen with a dedicated baking area! I would fill the scoops with my flours and sugars and fill the little pots with my baking sundries. I love the colours they come in and the vintage charm to them.

Katherina started the company in 2004, drawing on her Norwegian heritage. The original Kitchen cabinet was left to her by her Norwegian grandmother, Ella, and she has fond memories of seeing and using it since her childhood in her home in Oslo. When Katerina started children's baking courses in 2003 she loved how the kids got excited queuing up for their baking ingredients from the Norwegian Cabinet. This sparked her idea to make them and Ella's Kitchen Company was born.

Have a sweet day!

Acorn & Will

I have loved Acorn & Will since I met the lovely Daniella at Vintage at Goodwood. I was delighted to see her at The Country Living Spring Fair as she sells the cutest vintage treasures that are both fun and affordable.

The stand was a joy to look at, from the shabby chic curio cabinet filled with cute vintage bunnies and colourful ducks to the array of decorative white shelves weighed down with candy filled jars and the prettiest vintage crockery. There were smatterings of Easter treasures, like the honeycomb bunnies, cheeky sheep and pastel yellow wind-up chickens. Check out her lovely site for lots of great gift ideas and Easter Goodies.

Have a sweet day!

A Day in Provence

One of my highlights of The Country Living Spring Fair was meeting the lovely Shirley-Ann of A Day in Provence, an individual collection of hand-made and vintage items. From the cute papier-mache dogs her husband Ian makes in their Kent studio to original paintings of flowers, dogs and, my favourite, birds!

Her passionate hobby of collecting the prettiest vintage treasures has turned into her business. We are so lucky she shares these treasures with us! I particularly like the parrot painting in the stunning duck egg blue frame and the divine vintage Easter egg tied with pretty pink velvet ribbon. Oh, and how cute is the tea party bunting?!

For more info on where she will be selling next please visit her contact page.

Have a sweet day!