Dream Country Chat

HOPETOUN HOUSE, THE FUN FAIR

I'm back, and even before I unload the car I wanted to give you The Hopetoun House Christmas Fair. Before you even reach the house you have this fabulous view of the Forth bridges.

Then this view, Hopetoun House in all her glory.

This has to be the most wonderful location for a fair. it is just so special.

For just a few days once a year you feel part of this magical place.

A mere blip in time for such a place as this, but it is oh so special just to have that tiny part of  it.

These are just a few snaps of the ground floor of the house. We were in the servants area. In fact our coffee area was the old butlers pantry.

Spot the coffee makings in the little wax work set up they have. A tad spooky to have your cuppa with these guys looking on.

A snapshot of life in days gone by.

And now some snapshots of life right up to the minute. Here are the stands of friends old and new. Sue Quinn makes THE most amazing bears and little woodland creatures. Idgy was helping me on my stand and spent more time with Sue and her hubby than she did with me. Needless to say one of Sue's gorgeous furry creatures came home with us.

My  Brazilian friend Cristiane who makes the most amazing jewelery. We have known each other for years and always do swapsys with our goodies each year. This time I got a gorgeous pendant to add to my little collection.

Lesley of Cottage Clutter had a great show. Her standlovely and Christmassy you just wanted to get in there and find all the goodies.

These great mosaics are made by Carole, a blog reader! You guys turn up everywhere. I love these plaques, you can use them in the house or in the garden.

This is down in our little burrow where we have four stands together. Totally Tartan is Julie 's fabulously colourful and cosy stand. Don't you love those pooch pillows!

Moira's Barefoot Books. A magnet for the child in all of us. So much info and learning all wrapped up in colourful fun.

As ever Carey's stand for Rustique Interiors was just amazing. She puts so much work into her into her set ups. You are welcomed into her cosy, comfortable world of tweedy patchwork, hand painted clocks, naturally scented soaps and quirky furniture. As ever Carey's stand is the rightful star of any show.

And her's mine, last but not least. Looking a tad bare, but I did take these pix yesterday on our last day. The show was really busy all weekend, we only really had time to spare on Sunday when the public were enjoying coffees and teas in the main hall. It was at this point that a certain silliness took over down in our burrow.

Moira (Barefoot Books) had been telling children stories using one of the seriously realistic puppets on her stand. She had been carrying about this goat puppet all day, he was highly popular with everyone, old and young alike. We decided that his popularity was his downfall, the goat must go. First we kidnapped him and left Moira a ransom note. A search ensued and Moira got her goat back. Hours passed, the goat got more popular by the minute. People were coming into our burrow and asking 'where is this marvelous goat puppet we've been hearing about'. Enough was enough.

The goat got it!

It is not all serious selling and hard work at these fairs. There is fun, friendship and just a dash of frivolity. Hopetoun House is a fun fair.

Karon x

COCO AND COCOA

 What a treat!

Yesterday I spent the afternoon holed up in the living room all cozy by the fire (no curtains due to being packed for next fair) and enjoyed some serious treats. Fresh coffee (ok not my usual cappuccino, but you can' t have it all) and black Chilli chocolate and one fabulous movie.

'Coco before Chanel' is a visual joy. For anyone who likes fashion, interiors and the French countryside it is eye-candy. For those of us who enjoy a good story it is most certainly time well spent. I didn't know anything about the background of this fashion icon, her life was pure drama. From being orphaned and brought up in a convent she became a seamstress by day and sang in bars by night. Met a rich gentleman who kept her like a pet. Made a splash in society with her laid back style, and eventually became the star of the fashion world that we all know today.

Seriously good viewing. What could be better. Oh, I know, lets throw in some fabulous black chilli chocolate and great coffee. Now I have to say I am usually a milk chocolate gal all the way. Hate white chocolate (too sweet) and the black stuff is just too bitter, but this stuff is sheer heaven. The best bit is that a little really does go a long way. Just two squares makes a great treat. It is so rich you really don't feel the need to gobble up the whole bar, what joy! Piggy feelings abated, craving satisfied, perfection in place. This chocolate is also seriously good with red wine, sounds daft but tastes great.So that was my afternoon yesterday, a real treat to the senses. I did load the car, I did sew doorstops, but I did take time out and have some fun.

Karon x

CARS AND COFFEE

Another day, another car loading session. Honestly you would think I would be a dab hand at this business by now, but every show seems to bring yet another packing challenge for the trusty jeep. Actually it is probably just my aged mind forgetting how to pack the damn thing between one show and the next. Age gets you that way.......

Tomorrow I drive through to Edinburgh to set up for the Hopetoun House Christmas Fair. This is only a 3 day event (they are getting shorter, next one (the last!!!) will be a two day affair) running Friday to Sunday and is usually pretty busy.Hopetoun House is a fabulous location, I'll take some snaps of the house for you, but don't worry, I won't bore you to death with hundreds of pix of my stand. I think we have got the general idea of my theme for this year - red!

Yesterday was a head down and hit that sewing machine day. Fabric was flying, pins were piling up as I trundled away on the trusty Singer. Radio Two kept up a constant chatter and I got through the day on a fraction of the coffee intake I have been using during these shows. I think I have become addicted to cappuccino. Always been a big fan but only had access when in town, not so at fairs. There it is, teasing me with its frothy, creamy strength and action packed calories. I fail every time, I stand there with all intent to buy my standard black coffee just as I would drink it at home. But oh no, that calorific caffeine fix gets me every time, and I return from the coffee bar clutching a bucket sized beverage that adds inches to the hips and enough buzz to the brain to keep even Alice's's dormouse awake. In HQ there is no fancy coffee, just the black stuff in a mug and me at the sewing station. I imagine my fancy drink and sip on the plain one. I sew and sew and sew.Today is not a sewing day. Today it is packing, organizing and oh yes, taking down the livingroom curtains again to use as a backdrop again.

Karon x

DEEP WATER

It's great weather for ducks! These guys must be the only happy campers at the moment, this weather is just hell.

My heart goes out to the people in Cockermouth and surrounding areas. Their homes, pets, cherished belongings and everyday chunks of living, all washed away on a tide of flood water and sewage.Last night while watching the news Idgy asked why people couldn't just dry off their things and everything be okay again.

She was horrified to know that the water is all mixed up with sewage from the burst drains etc. 'Yuck, that's horrible, those poor people. how can we help?'.

That's my girl, big proud moment, right there, right then.

Karon x

COUNTRY LIVING

 

Been there,done it and got the proverbial T-shirt! Country Living is over with for another year.

It was a fabulous show and I am really pleased with the overall results.

Country Living is always a great show to do. It is organized to the nth degree, the whole thing is beautifully set out (apart from the amazing 'Walking with dinosaurs' exhibition, this is the most expensive set up at the SECC in Scotland) with design, comfort and of course festivities in mind.

I always dread the setting up for this fair. The hassles, the dragging of stock and props from car park to stand and all the dodging about to get to your own pitch carrying  way too much every time. Well, let me tell you dear reader, the Fair Fairy must have been on my case on set up day.

Not only was it not raining (I arrived at 11am and got everything into the halls before the heavens opened and stayed that way over the next four days) but I managed to park right outside the doors and joy of joys I found an abandoned trolley (this is a serious coup) and was able to empty the jeep in only 5 trips instead of the anticipated 12.

I painted the stand in Laura Ashley raspberry (real blood red and so much better than having to use the livingroom curtains!) and it matched the carpet and trim so thoughtfully provided by the organizers. My corner was very festive and colourful but easy for people to get in and out of and see everything.

All my little display ideas, from the heart stamped price tags to red painted baskets, really worked. For once I was really pleased with the set up.

It really is worth putting in the extra effort on your stand. Not only do you get nice comments from passers-by, it really does improve your sales. This whole fair is so professional and slick, you really have to make a big effort if you want to be noticed.

I haven't taken pix of other stands (sorry, thats why I am boring you to death with all these views of mine) as I just didn't have time to wander about at this fair. I was kept consistently busy with a steady stream of customers throughout the show.I think our entire village must have found their way to the SECC at some point over the weekend. I caught up with friends from far and wide, even a girl from school days came up to say hello. That is something I really love about this fair, the friendliness. Not just the way people are wandering around in awe at the fabulous displays and love to come up and chat to you and tell you how much they are enjoying their day out. No, it is the comradely of the stand holders I love. Some you see from one fair to the next, rather like some colourful and mad gypsy caravan moving around the country, others you only see at Country Living, and although you only see these guys once per year, you really pick up where you left off and step right back into your friendship again.

As I have said, there are some lovely people at these fairs. People who want to be friendly, chat and maybe buy your work. You don't even mind the endless questions from would be stand holders who want to know everything (I will gladly tell them who the organizers are and how to apply, a rough idea of costs etc, however I draw the line when they ask where I got this and that and even how I make the stuff. As for those who whipped out a camera to take snaps of my work - forget it) however, there are also the mean minded scum bags who come just to rip you off and steal your stuff. I had some hearts stolen yesterday and the woman was so horrible she scared me rigid. She was threatening and downright nasty, and although I knew damn well she had stolen the stuff she knew I would be too much of a wimp to do anything about it. Those are the people that ruin it for others. It may only be a cheap little heart that they have nicked off the stand, but I had to make that and why should they just take what they want. I would rather give it away than have them do that. There you go, had my wee rant.....

So apart from the shop lifters my only gripe for the weekend was the break-down. Couldn't get my car within 500yards of the hall so had to run backwards and forwards in the pitch dark and lashing rain. I fell over, have a cut knee and grazes all over my hands. Did I swear, shout and generally lose the plot. Yes you know me, did it in style!!Anyway Country Living is done for another year. It was great. It made up for the losses at Newcastle the other week. It was well worth all the effort.I now have to offload the car. Fill orders from the web site and make more stock for Hopetoun House this weekend.Life goes on....................Thanks to readers who came up to say hi, I really appreciated it.

Karon x

GET KNOTTED

My stomach is tied in knots. today is set up day for Country Living fair at the SECC in Glasgow. It will be mayhem, it will be too, too busy, stressy, stressy, stressy, and a day of lugging about piles of stuff from car to stand over about half a mile of the assault course of other peoples belongings. Ah the joys of doing a major retail fair...............

Every year at this time I remind myself that, yes I will be stressed, yes I will get tangled up in wires, string and anything electrical, and yes of course I will ache from lugging in all the stock, and yes, yes, yes it is a foregone conclusion that by close of play I will be liberally splattered in red paint from decorating the stand. Reminding myself that it is only one day and it will all be over with soon, never really works. I just dread the whole thing.By tomorrow the stand will (hopefully) be a sparkling wonderland of festive colours and heavenly scents. It will be a joy to the senses and a mini market place of Christmas goodies to tempt and delight. Oh yes, rather like the elegant swan, all graceful lines, beauty and calm above the water line, and paddling like hell underneath, Dream Acres will be on show again. Visitors will be unaware that the charming lady so casually chatting to them on the stand (me!) was the raving lunatic of  a few hours before. Someone who bore more of a resemblance to an overworked pack mule than shop owner. A nutter festooned in Christmas lights without a plug point to put them in, and someone who will swear (oh yes frequently) that 'this is it, never, never again'.
Today is not my favourite day of the year. Wish me luck!

Karon x

A WILLOWS TALE

Fourteen years ago I moved into this little corner of the world with  Eric (ex-husband) and we marveled at how pretty it all was.

The garden and fields were full of willow herb and it was in full bloom. Just like the photo above, gorgeous colour and a profusion of pretty flowers standing tall, and well EVERYWHERE. The cottage had been a rental for a few years before we bought it and the garden had gone a tad wild.

From our original 'ah, how pretty' observations on the willow herb, we eventually grew to hate the stuff. Boy was it difficult to shift. There was just so much of it too.Anyway, eventually we freed ourselves from its clutches and reclaimed the garden.

Willow herb grows wild all over this area. The lanes are full of it all summer. This year I photographed it as I was running past. I grew to appreciate it for a beauty in its own right. Not just as a towering strength of purple flowers so glorious in their massed splendor, almost like an army in their straight form and closed ranks.

No, it was in its changes that I found most beauty and interest. Yes, those purple flowers were showy and definitely eye-candy, but as the summer wore on the willow herb changed her dress and got softer and more approachable as she aged. She went from beautiful but hard, to soft, faded but  touchable.

By the end of the season all her foliage fell. From riotous purple, to fluffy snowy softness, now there was just the bare bones on show. No longer a display, no more a flower in any form.

Now a shape. Her comrades may have fallen around her feet, there may be less of her type standing, only one in ten has made it through the year. But see her stand proud in her naked splendor (Gok would be proud of her!), see the shape of those delicate yet iron strong bones. She is still there, she is still a beauty, only now she is pared down, she if different and yet the same. It is still her, these are her bones, she just had different coverings on show throughout her lifetime. Now she stands tall in her own right, in herself.It's those bones inside that count.

Karon x

FESTIVE FRUIT

Far more than the satsumas (and what self respecting stocking would be without one) the fruit that says Christmas to me is the pomegranate.When I was a little girl (way back in the depths of time here) pomegranates were a real treat, a rarity that only 'came out' at this time of year. I remember the excitement of trying this fruit for the first time. How could such an unpromising item hold such excitement within? Those delightful tiny jewels like rubies, so juicy, so sweet, and oh just SO much fun to dig out on a pin and eat one by one.

November was the time that the local green grocer would proudly put up a sign to tell the town that pomegranates were ready. My poor mother would be badgered to buy them. My brother and I would have races to see who could guzzle through the jewels fastest, but only of course eating them one at a time.

Pomegranates also take me  back to a favourite book of teenage years. 'My brother Michael' by Scottish author Mary Stewart. Set in the ancient village of Delphi in Southern Greece, it is a romance and a thriller all at the same time. Our heroine finds hidden statues in the mountains, dastardly baddies who cause mayhem, and of course love in the form of a rather nice Englishman. Anyway, at one point she is sitting at the top of the amphi theatre in Delphi in the moonlight (as you do) and the very charming Englishman picks her a pomegranate from the little tree right at the top. he hands it to her and tells her that there is a Greek legend that says if she eats the pomegranate in the place that it grows she will always come back to Greece.

Well, I loved that book (and all the Mary Stewart novels) and when I was a mere seventeen I took a bus all the way to Greece with my friend Alison. I had 'My brother Michael' in my rucksack and I was determined to go to Delphi. We did, on the ricketyest old village bus terrifying us as it swooped round the hairpin bends on the mountains, and finally dropping us at a little Greek village that saw thousands of tourists every day to see the fabulous ruins, but rarely had them stay more than a night. We stayed a week, we loved it. Everything was set out just as Mary described in her book, okay, so there were no baddies lurking in the bushes, and maybe the romantic situations were a bit thin on the ground, but wow, it was as if we were inside the book itself. Her descriptive writing was so detailed, so accurate, it was like a map, it was wonderful.

We walked round the ruins many times, we went at night (just as the heroine did) which I don't think you would ever be able to do nowadays. We went to the amphi theatre, I sat on the top row of seats, I saw the little pomegranate tree, and yes, you guessed it, I pinched one and ate it right away.

Did it go back to Greece? Oh yes, I ended up working there for five years for different holiday companies. I loved Greece and her islands. That love first sprang from Mary Stewart and 'My brother Michael', the village of Delphi in the mountains, and oh yes, I am sure that pomegranite really did have something to do with it.

Karon x

SIGN LANGUAGE

On my little run round the lanes here I do tend to spot things. Normally pretty nature type things, but also on occasion the signs that are littered around us. Signs, they are there to tell us something, they are a message.

That good old Union Jack that is ever so popular on cushions, bedspreads, bags and boxes just now, does actually have another purpose in life, it is proudly displayed to say 'Made in Britain'. Okay so this old muck spreader was made quite a few years ago and does bear the signs of age as well as workmanship and the hmmmm muck!

We even have people round here, and some drivers do need to be reminded of that.

Signs tell us where we are. Always useful when you are running round and are just desperate to get home and get the whole movement business over with. This is the name of one of the local farms. Apparently many moons ago when the big farm was divided this smaller farm didn't even get a proper name, it just became 'Fifth part'.

Signs give you warnings. Attention, look at me, stop and listen, do not touch! It might be old and faded (know how it feels) but you get the message none the less.

Signs tell you what is happening, just in case you didn't notice already. After all, a tractor with 8 foot blades on the front slashing through hedges is often easy to miss.

But I am leaving the best till last, the ultimate in sign language, my piece de resistance, here it is.........................

Signing off for today,

Karon x

PERFECT CHRISTMAS

It really is the 'Count Down To Christmas' now. Every  advert on television seems to be  shouting the advantages of this toy over that, this perfume over another, and just how manly an aftershave can get. If you believed all the hype your kids would be perfect, happy and permanently brain trained, you would not only smell delightful, you'd have men at your feet, be flying trough Paris, and obviously be at least six sizes thinner and be wearing something made with pink frothy feathers, or acres of scarlet silk with diamonds at strategic places.

You'll also notice a multitude of ads for festive/party food. Oh how delightful and tasty a canape can look when presented by some not-quite-A-list celebrity. This will of course put your own once a year vol-a-vents to shame. You should feel guilty for thrusting  bread sticks and dip at your friends and family. Don't they deserve the very best that this supermarket and that supermarket have to offer.It's not just adverts tho. The real push comes from the 'lifestyle' programmes, those that just happen to mention the most popular toys for this season. The 'must have' gifts and goodies that tempt and tease us into wanting something we had never even thought about.

That's just the television for you. Every magazine (including Your home with my house) is crammed full of articles and features promoting the perfect Christmas. From Victoriana to ultra modern monochromatic, designers and stylists would have us reworking our 'look' at the drop of a Santa hat.

So what if your 'look' is every decoration you have ever bought over the last 20 years and in every colour of the rainbow. Who cares if you still have paper chains and painted fairies that your kids (or you) made all those years ago in nursery class.

We are presented with perfect decor, pristine table settings and of course the perfect family gatherings and parties full of well behaved and impeccably dressed friends and neighbours. No sign of Uncle Harry passed out in the corner, or the teenagers getting it on in the spare room. Oh no, everyone is in the correct festive attire of stunning red velvet (aha! another use for those livingroom curtains, I shall turn into Maria from the Sound of Music at this rate and the damn curtains will turn up everywhere and on everyone from Idgy to the ferret!) cinched into a tiny waistline that has never seen a decent sized bag of crisps in its life, the men are resplendent in dinner jackets and maybe just a hint of humour about the bow tie, and children, well of course they are decked out in mini-me perfection (see red velvet and silly bow ties), even pets are posed in cute bandannas and silly hats, they are not throwing up all the canapes they scoffed or pooing in a corner. Oh no, this isn't life as we know it, it's Christmas!

It really is no wonder that the rates of depression and suicide go way up at this time of year. Most people just can't live up to the image of Christmas, the Christmas we are meant to be enjoying, the perfection presented from November to January everywhere we look.

I  know I sell Christmassy things on my site and at the fairs but God forbid I ever come across as a festive fanatic ramming stuffed hearts and robins down peoples throats and insisting that they have more, more, more. Yes I have to sell my things to make money to live off and I'm not above the odd hint here and there that maybe a visit to my site would be a nice diversion and maybe you might just like the lovely advent box I've made at the top of this page , but please the moment you see me in red velvet, reaking of scent (perfume and aftershave of course), handing out improbable canapes whilst at the same time impressing all with my well toned brain-trained mind, patting my perfect mini-me children on the head and pulling the perfect cracker with Mr Right in a silk printed bow tie only available in the finest emporiums. Yep, you guessed it, just shoot me!!

Karon x