New shoots

Early spring always lifts my spirits and it was great to get out into the garden today. Clearing away the winter debris it was great to see all the new shoots coming through after such a long, cold winter.

I love the zingy yellows and lime greens of spring. Forsythia (below) offers the first splash of yellow of the season.

Good old reliable geraniums. The first perennial to put in an appearance every year.

No sooner have you cut down the gorgeous autumn reds of sedums heads than the new green buds come bursting through. 

I've chosen citrus shades for the house too this week

I'm can't wait for the new gardening season to get into full swing can you?

Spring flowers

This beautiful display of spring flowers in a wonderful collection of containers caught my eye tonight as I walked past The Flower Shop in Bushey. Sorry the pictures are a little blurry but I so wanted to share them with you.

Here's some more beautiful floral arrangements from the shops website

Roll on spring!

Mavis and a trip back in time

In such a fast paced life where nothing seems to stay the same for a moment isn't it wonderful when you come across something that has hardly changed in 60 years. One such place is a craft shop called Mavis in Bushey village. It's a gem of shop too. Mavis http://www.mavis-crafts.com/ was founded in 1935 and stocks a huge range of knitting wool and all manner of sewing bits and bobs. No packets of six - here you can buy just one button if you like.

(No you were not mistaken, it is on Cow Lane)

Mavis makes no concessions to modern fashions (see below). It's a shop firmly set in the 1950s and brings back memories for me as a child visiting Alsops, the local haberdashery store with my Mother. Alsops of Loughborough was heaven to me. As a little girl it seemed enormous, set on two floors it was packed with fabric. The highlight was when you made a purchase your money was whizzed across the shop in a canister that went on wires above your head. I thought this was thrilling! 

Alas Alsops, unlike Mavis, closed many years ago. I tried to find an old image of Alsops on the internet and came across these images of Loughborough, the town where I grew up, taken in the late 1950s. They're taken during the annual fair which still takes place today. As a child this was the most exciting week of the year. Gosh, the memories these photos bring back. 

Have a great week.

Love & Lilacs first photo shoot

British weather is so contrary. Yesterday it felt cold enough for snow and today was deliciously spring like. With less than a month until my first craft market stall in St Albans I need to get cracking on some photos for my business cards to hand out on the day. I was having an, ahem, 'working from home day' so I took advantage of the lovely weather and ventured down to the summerhouse for a bit of a photo shoot.

I bought this lovely old crate in a Berkhamsted junk shop a few weeks back. I think it will look great for displaying cushions on my market stall.

I also created an indoor 'studio' with white flip chart paper to shoot my soaps. I was quite pleased with how they turned out. What do you think?

Any Etsysellers out there? I've just started up an Etsy shop (loveandlilac) http://www.etsy.com/shop/loveandlilac?ref=pr_shop and would love to hear of your experiences of selling this way.

Right. Fun over. Back to the day job...

Vintage Elvis!

I'm recovering from a very hedonistic weekend in Birmingham where I attended a fundraising event, so regular blogging has been put on the back burner for a few days. Tell me. Does an Elvis impersonator that sings Bruce Springsteen count as vintage? I think the expression 'you had to be there' comes to mind!

Normal blogging will be resumed forthwith!

(Elvis has left the building)

Regent Street Anthropologie

Made a short trip into London yesterday to meet my son for lunch. Very conveniently he works for Apple and just across the road is my favourite shop Anthropologie http://www.anthropologie.eu/uk/page/home - like I needed an excuse! I had some time to spare so I took a stroll along Berwick Street, home of the London rag trade, to browse all the fabric shops. I knew you would love this sewing shop below with its vintage inspired window display. Aren't those blue vintage buttons gorgeous?

Tucked away off a side street I spied Duck Lane. I love these old street names (my favourite is a country road near me in Hertfordshire called Trotters Bottom - yes really!).

Berwick Street is in Soho, London's red light district, but don't be put off as its actually full of lovely old independent shops like this wonderful Italian deli.

So anyway on with my mission to Anthro.... and no I didn't have to traverse the Amazon jungle. This is the inside of Anthropologie! A huge wall covered in wonderful vegetation.

Lots of lovely bits and bobs

I confess to have something of an ironmongery fetish

And beautiful displays, like this

And this...

Inspired...

Isn't this display great?

Now look at the bottom of the picture above. See those little cups? They featured different animals - cats, dogs, foxes -  and had beautiful gold handles. I was tempted so I picked one up and looked at the price on the bottom of the cup. £56. No that is not a typo, they were £56 each! Well I was prepared to pay more for something beautiful but goodness me! Drinking out of one of those would be like having tea with Hyacinth Bucket, all shaky hands wouldn't it?

Not everything is quite so pricey thankfully.  Here's some more mouthwatering images from Anthropolgie stores around the world.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend xx