Shambellie House Museum of Costume

Rob and I went to the Shambellie House Museum of Costume a few weeks back. It is near New Abbey in Dumfries & Galloway, and well worth a few hours exploration. There is a walled garden you can also visit nearby, plus Sweetheart Abbey and several other attractions in the area.

Here I am in the gardens, admiring a living willow sculpture.

As well as the permanent exhibition showing fashion through the ages in a series of dioramas, there was a special exhibition called 'Marriage In The Movies'. This shows a room full of beautiful period-style wedding dresses that have been used in films and tv series. My favourite one, above, was worn by Helena Bonham Carter in the film 'Frankenstein' from 1994.

Another beautiful dress was the one above, centre, worn by Nastassja Kinski as 'Tess' in Roman Polanski's production of that name from 1980.

This beaded hand bag is one of a number of delectable accessories, including fans, displayed in the Museum.

The wedding dresses will be on display until the end of October 2010.

After enjoying the exhibition, you can stop for tea and cakes in the Museum's tea room, and buy souvenirs in the gift shop. I managed to get another book about buttons to add to my collection ;o)

The Swallows' First Day Out

Here are some photos Rob took of the swallows nesting in our front porch. We put up a shelf for them, but for some reason they preferred the light fitting. This shows the babies the day before they fledged...

And here they are on their first day out...

There are five of them all together, and they have been practising their acrobatics and fly catching techniques for a few days around the house and nearby fields. They seem to be expanding their property portfolio with a second nest, if the new mud splatters on the wall are anything to go by!

Austerity Britain #7 Rag Rug Wall Hanging

I finally finished a rag rug wall hanging folk art representation of the Union Jack flag that I have been working on for about a year, on and off. It is made from a variety of red, white, blue and cream coloured fabrics. I tried to use almost all recycled clothing and charity shop finds to make the artwork.

It can be wall mounted with a hidden baton (provided), or could be used as a small rug in a low traffic area.

The pieces of fabric are 3" long and are 'prodded' through a hessian background, giving a pile of just under 1.5".

This close up shows the texture and whorls of the cut ends of the fabric.

The wall hanging is available for purchase in my Fire Horse Textiles Etsy Shop at £149 + shipping.

Bargains On Ebay!

I've just listed three items on Ebay, all with the bargain starting price of £0.99 each!

First is a huge quantity of cosmetic grade colours / powder dyes

Next is a Brother Super Galaxie 2100 Embroidery/Sewing Machine for spares or repairs (ie. it isn't in working order, but someone may like the spare parts for their own machine, or may wish to pay for it to be repaired).

Finally, a Brother SA346 Memory Card No 46 Australian Animals. 

The items finish on Sunday 13 June 2010 at around 8.20 pm.

Newcastleton Craft Fair

Our trip out this week was to Newcastleton in the Scottish Borders. It is an attractive village laid out along one very long high street, with a river running parallel. There are lots of flower boxes in the street; the local people are very friendly, and there are a handful of interesting shops, cafes and pubs, plus a museum, music festival, and lots of walks locally. 

It was the 27th annual craft fair (running 27 May to 5 June, 11am - 5pm this year) in the village hall. Actually we were a bit early, but were let in anyway as it was all set up. The sale of teas, coffees, cakes etc raise money for the upkeep of the hall. It was 50p for entrance, and all the stalls are set out by the individual crafts people and artists, with a single payment point - quite a good system, speaking from experience. 

There were all sorts of crafts, including woodwork, pencil drawing, household sewn goods, plants, cakes, chocolates, cards, horn craft, furniture, jewellery, painted wooden objects, hand painted jugs and peg boards, fimo figures, decorative objects and more!

We had coffee and delicious homemade cakes in the dining area, and admired these beautiful miniature flower displays, which were on every table.

Here's what we bought:-

• Little dog bag/key charm from Jo's Little People
• 3 x cards featuring prints taken from original pencil drawings by David Mandle
• 2 x 3-D decoupage cards by Mary Johnson from Cumbria
• 6 x fused glass pendants with rubber chokers
• a vintage chunky pale green plastic three strand necklace from Isabel's Antique/Bric a Brac/card shop in the main street (this little shop is lovely; full of a mixture of vintage fabrics, jewellery, interesting objects, and lovely cards, together with locally made chutneys/jams etc)
• an Argyranthemum daisy plant from Holm Hardware.

We ended up in the Olive Tree cafe for lunch. Rob had eggs, chips and beans; I ate jacket potato with cheese savoury and salad. With a pot of tea and a bottle of mineral water, the bill came to under £12. The food was quite nice, but I would have preferred an oven-baked rather than a microwaved potato. The cafe also sells bread, rolls, pastries,cakes etc to take away. It has a nice airy interior with modern furniture and artwork on the walls.