Duncton Mill

Took a drive to visit a client this morning at her wedding venue - beautiful Duncton Mill fishery in Petworth. We set up a table to show her the vintage china and for a 'tasting' of the afternoon tea treats in store for her wedding. The fishermen thought we were mad setting up a village fete type affair!

Doily Days 1st Birthday!!!

Doily Days is only young. Just a baby actually. It was born last May and has gone from strength to strength ever since. We've been lucky enough to be involved in some fantastic events so far - an 'art deco' style wedding complete with orchids, black and HOT pink decorations... a charity event comprising different 'country garden'
themes for each table, a 90th birthday party in London where the theme was 'colourful' - Lily of the Valley was shipped in at great expense but the amazing scent was priceless (that wasn't the colourful part! The colourful part was tulips, hyaciths, menu cards complete with vibrant feathers and vases in all the colours of the rainbow). A retirement party in Worthing, a rainy :( wedding in Kent complete with VW transport and rustic hog roast. Beautiful cake stands have been created.... fabulous plates have been smashed in the process :( I've stayed up very late drinking wine and making cute wedding favours, I've learnt the names of my favourite flowers, I made hampers at Christmas time, I've spent a LOT of time at car boot sales and charity shops and i've consumed far too many Rhubarb and custard sweets!

As for the future - Sandy (the beautiful splitscreen camper) is soon to mark a special occassion for some young girls as we're transporting them to their prom! A Surrey wedding is on the cards next month - Vintage china, rustic floral centrepieces and homemade namecards... we're off to Somerset in August to beautiful Brypton D'Evercy (www.brympton-weddings.co.uk). Also in August we're keeping it local and providing VW transport for a blushing bride and her hubby to be in our native Brighton (she's the assistant manager at Cath Kidston don't you know!). Sempember - Sandy's busy looking beautiful again and we're off to Duncton Mill for a tea party/hog roast extravaganza!

Thank you for all your support in our first year! We're looking forward to the rest of the season and many 'Doily Days' to come.... xxx

Mismatching Vintage Plates for BBQ/Hog Roast style wedding

One of my clients is getting married in Henfield in August. She is having a wedding that is right up my street. A marquee in a field opposite her parents cottage, they're getting all the food themselves and a local community group is BBQing for them. They're hiring vintage china from Doily Days! The tables will be laid with mismatching main plates. The client is making her own jams and chutneys for wedding favours and I am providing old fashioned jugs and vases for her bunches of seasonal flowers. They're having bunting and they're colecting jam jars for the tables... I'm proving mismatching platters and bowls for their BBQ buffet. For dessert they're having a selection of cakes (so I'll be proving cake stands) and trifles (so I'll be proving cute little vintage bowls) sigh. Love it! And so pleased to be a part of it. Can't wait to see the pictures.

I was washing up a few of the plates before I packed them up for our meeting and I thought they looked lovely drying in the rack - what do you think?

New Teacups

The car boot season has well started as far as I'm concerned - clear, sunny morning, armed with a purse full of change - my very favourite start to any Sunday morning.

My local car boot sale was actually on Saturday. The first one of the season. There was one planned for 3rd April but due to the horrendous weather it was cancelled (much to my dismay).

I purchased some perfect plates with which to make cake stands (it's the middle tier that's tricky!), a beautiful navy blue top with cream ruffles (a snip at just £2.40), some adorable fabric to use for my wedding favours and last but not least some sexy new teacups. They are Grindley and the design is quite different from the rest of my collection. Six teacups & saucers, six plates and a milk jug all for £4! Plus the woman took my business card because she may have someone interested in my services.... you can't say fairer than that can you?

Wedding Favours

One of my clients is getting married in less than two weeks! She found out about Doily Days when she read the fantastic article on Daily Candy back in September http://www.dailycandy.com/all-cities/article/74345/Doily-Days-Vintage-Events

I agreed to make her 140 'country garden' style wedding favours - small glass jars full of old fashioned sweets. See the last blog post for the fun I had at the wholesalers buying the sweets! I felt like a kid again....

I bought some pinking scissors at great expense and set to work cutting circles of fabric. Luckily I have quite a stash of fabric as it's something else I can't resist on my car boot sale missions. I found the perfect size sugar bowl to draw round and then set to work cutting out the circles. Luckily my friend Emma joined me that evening - armed with supplies of red wine and chocolate! So we chatted while i snipped and she set to work filling the jars with the sweets.

But Emma had to leave at about 11pm (because she has a 'proper' job and has to make serious decisions) and I was up until about 2am - tying the fabric to the top of the jars - eyes propped open with matchsticks, the only thing keeping me going was the sugar rush from the sweets I kept dipping into! Anyway, 2am and I was still only half way through so the next morning I cracked on - seemed to have it down to a fine art by that point and got them all done and dusted!

I was sooo pleased with the result and I think they will look lovely on the wedding tables.

I collected some more gorgeous fabric at the weekend because I am making 130 similar favours for a wedding in August - this time the jars will be full of homemade jams and chutneys.

Doily Days Bargains!

Well, the sun was shining on the South coast this weekend and for a change I had a little time on my hands so I thought a spot of car booting was in order! I meandered through the farmers market on Saturday morning nibbling on tasty morsals and smiling at the jolly farmers.

I found myself at the Sussex Yacht club where they were holding a car boot sale. Much of the stuff for sale was boat themed - not really up my street as I don't have a boat. But then I stumbled upon a bike! I jumped on, wobbled round for a bit and thought 'this has my name written all over it!'... well, not strictly true because my names not Raleigh but you know what I mean. I beat them down from £25 to £20 and peddled off to the beach! Great for this time of year and the perfect excuse to kick start my exercise regime...

But the bargains didn't end there - oh no. Sunday morning I found myself at Brighton Marina for the Sunday market. Again, sun shining. An hour or so later, some random banter with stall holders and some tense negotiations and I found myself waddling back to the car laden down with a COOL book about campervans, a vintage teapot, a gorgeous pink coffeepot (called Rose Cloud - love it), a three-tier wire cake stand, a pair of jeans and a teddy bear I couldn't leave behind...

I photographed my treasures to share with you.

And a quick reminder - if you'd like to hire any vintage china or book a VW Campervan please check out my website www.doilydays.co.uk

Doily Days Does Sweets!

I have been like a kid in a sweetshop today! Well okay, like a kid in a massive wholesalers - wondering at the huge trolleys, marvelling at the price of breakfast cereal! I am in the process of making some wedding favours for a lovely bride to be and I need to deliver them next week - eeek! The clock is ticking... I have the little jars so todays mission was to buy the sweets. I deliberated for ages with my friend Mel (who was equally as enamoured by the huge array!) and I finally went for Rhubarb and Custard (but of course - sweet shop classic), Rosy Apples, I suprised myself by choosing Sherbert pips but I thought they were colourful, had a certain charm and the size would add a new dimension!... I also went for Dolly Mixture - could we rename it Doily Mixture? and last but by no means least - Sugar Mice!!!!! Ever since I saw this heartbreakingly beautiful polariod picture by Vicky Stevenson

www.vickeh.com/polaroids.php I've been on the hunt for some gorgeous sugar mice of my own!

Anyway - now I need to get cutting circles of fabric for the top of the jars and hey presto. Job's a goodun!

Contact me via www.doilydays.co.uk if you're interested in my sweet favours for your wedding!

Life is idyllic xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx