Gaining momentum

Okay so after my initial joy at having created my own blog I went somewhat off the radar... but now i'm back and am intending to add a new post as regularly as possible.

I have been busy over the past couple of weeks because I was asked by lovely Katherine Hudson of the Arabian Tent Company to assist her with a charity event and photoshoot. The event was in private grounds in Crowborough and it was to raise money for the childrens charity Starlight. Katherine set up her Tea Tent which is gorgeous and features vintage doilies all over the ceiling! We like this a lot... it also features fabric cakes all over the walls, a huge Moroccan lantern hanging from the roof (which apparently is made from sardine tins!) and yards and yards of bunting jauntily hanging down the sides. You can see pictures of the tent on Katherine's website www.arabiantents.com

I set to work coming up with a centrepiece for each of the 10 tables. On two of the tables I featured silver candelabras with pearls, rose petals and silver distressed tea glasses with a pink bloom in each. These tables were completed with pink art deco bowls full of Love Hearts and marshmallows to complete the dreamy, romantic theme. On another table I used my Clarence Cliff inspired orange and yellow teacups with a brown tankard full of sunflowers and a small display of mustard pots topped with vintage fabric. Another was an old enamel 'flour' pot with a Hydrangea plant inside and surrounded by delicate blue and white teacups full of old fashioned sweets - rhubard and custard and rosy apples...

I will upload pictures so you can see how fantastic it looked. Lucy Mason from Eastbourne took some professional shots and i'm expecting the disc to pop through the door any minute. I'm really excited to see them because she's very experienced and has some beautiful pictures on her website www.lucymasonphotography.co.uk

Dispite the rain the event was a success with the hosts raising a whopping 30k for the charity!

My sat nav sent me on a wild goose chase when I went to collect my bits and pieces but all in all a resounding success!

Welcome to my blog....

I have decided to start a blog to track the progress of my new event business Doily Days www.doilydays.co.uk

Doily Days was an idea that evolved over time to fully embrace and combine my interest in hospitality and my love of all things vintage, kitsch and shabby chic!

I am a car boot/charity shop fanatic and I started collecting beautiful pieces of mismatching china for my wedding. The collection grew very quickly because I just couldn't resist gorgeous side plates, teacups, jugs for flowers, silver candelabras etc etc.... so I started thinking perhaps I could make a business out of this. And the idea evolved... and evolved and I thought hell, why stop at table decorations? I have experience working for various event companies, I know how these things work, lets go for it! So as you can see from the website I am going to be offering a 'one stop shop' for a vintage wedding - VW Campers and Beetles for wedding day transport, invitations inspired by vintage images, cupcakes etc etc...

The website is not ready yet, I have too many ideas for my web designer to keep up with! I'm really pleased with the positive feedback I've had so far and I'm just looking forward to promoting Doily Days as much as possible and taking lots of bookings. I actually did my first event last month - table decorations for a garden party style wedding in Headley, Hampshire. I had a lot of fun with that and made some really cute fabric party bags for the kids (pictures to be uploaded as soon as possible).

Well, that's enough for now. I'll hope to have some exciting news for you in my quest for publicity and I'm going to be making my own bunting soon. I've been collecting fabulous scraps of material from car boots and charity shops - so I'll upload some pictures so you can see how it turns out!