Summer’s coming????
Just got back from a fantastic week in south Devon near Kingswear with the countryside bathed in the most glorious weather. The English countryside is surely one of the most wonderful places on earth? I stayed in a cottage owned by the National Trust (as I’m an employee, guess who got a discount!!) surrounded by beautiful rolling hills and everything bursting into leaf. As the cottage is 
deep in the countryside, well off the beaten track, the sat’ nav’ was a bit patchy – BUT, who bought an old O.S. map and found exactly where we were staying? Relevant today even though it was dated 1968, we could even find the farmhouse and all the little roads that in actual fact were laid in the second world war for a radar station 
and here they are - bit narrow, I think you'll agree but shades of my navigational skills as a child: this is the sort of road my dad would have to negotiate when I was in charge of the map; imagine that with eight up!! I never thought to actually use any of the library of maps I keep for my business, for real – that was fun.
And while I’ve been away, more orders have been coming in, which is lovely and just before I went away (to Devon in case you missed that bit, in wonderful weather!!) I had just completed a very enjoyable project for a lovely friend at work. Her son was marrying his long time love and my friend had asked me to produce a picture to celebrate this happy event, and this is the result.
With the signature colour of a beautiful dove grey for the wedding with daffodils for button holes and bouquet, I think the picture captures the moment well. The reception was held in one of the rangers’ lodges in Richmond Park – hence the deer. Another order has come out of that, as so often happens I find, and that is a celebratory picture for the bride’s parents which I have done a little differently to distinguish from the happy couple’s. When it's finished I will post it onto Facebook.
And on returning home (from Devon in beautiful sunshine, just to remind you) I see I am listed in a small article about local crafts people in my area magazine, “Look Local” which I am very proud to be included in. Featuring local crafts people, I top the article with a small piece about the prompts that started my business – which brings us back to maps, of course.
Well, now that I’m back from my lovely week in the Devon countryside – just wanted to mention that I had been away - you need to get out the diaries if you are in the Surrey/Sussex/Hants and south London areas and clear everything for June 24th and July 15th as I am going to be at two craft fairs.
- The first is in Albury near Guildford in Surrey, in the Albury Village Hall and what better way to spend a Sunday in June, than having a lovely lunch at the local pub, a stroll by the lovely river and dropping in to the village hall for a craft fair for a cup of tea, with free parking and free entry (or do the whole thing in reverse, it’s your choice) – and this is shaping up to be a good one with everything on sale from local artists and artisans.
- The second location I’m going to be at, is in Wallington at Flittons Nursery and Garden Centre on Woodmanstern Lane heading out of Wallington towards the Epsom Road – a lovely little venue and you can get all your bedding plants at the same time – result!!
Well, with the craft fairs springing up all over the place, summer must be on the way! Pop over to my Facebook page at Signpost Original Gifts and have a look at the latest news and, as always, thanks for reading my drivel. Comments welcomed (but you don't need to mention my holiday in Devon if you don't want to). Bridget