I went to a sale last week, it was a sale with a Reputation. I had heard talk of it at Knit and Natter when I was new to this town last Winter, and it sounded like My Sort of Thing. Apparently this sale happens a couple times each year and is advertised on the front of the local paper, and I had been eagerly waiting for it to come round this summer. Are you curious? Well let me tell you more...there's a small shop in a village a few miles from me that is full of gorgeousness. Gifts and lovely things for the home, some big name stuff (think Cath Kidston, Emma Bridgewater) and some lovely hand made items too. Pretty and quirky, vintage and modern, colour and pattern and all round lovliness.
The shop is tiny, bijou, and rammed to the rafters with stuff, its far too small to hold a sale really. So the clever ladies that run it decamp to the chapel next door, spread out a little. They string bunting up outside to let everyone know this is an Event. Tresle tables are set up inside the chapel all around the walls ready to be laden (and I mean laden) with goodies. There are ladies wearing pretty aprons in the little chapel kitchen setting out glasses of lemonade and piling a huge wire cake stand full of fresh strawberries. Refreshments for the Sale-shoppers.
In my excitement I arrive early and get to wander round the chapel before anyone else arrives. I am sooo excited. There is a mass of Cath Kidston bedding all at half price. There is Emma Bridgewater pottery at half price. There are pretty cushions, delightful childrens clothes, and there is yarn. Yes a whole area full of crates packed with delicious yarn, of the Debbie Bliss variety. I get busy. Oh Joy, this is like the best type of jumble sale! I rake and dig, select and discard, sort and stack the yarn until I find balls all of the same type. Its merino aran wool, and it's only two pounds a ball!! By rooting around I manage to find ten different colours, sixteen balls in all get plopped into my bag.
By this time the sale has officially opened and when I look up from my own private yarn-fest I find I am no longer the only one there, in fact the place is absolutely mobbed. Its packed full of ladies raking and digging, selecting and discarding, chattering and exclaiming, the noise is incredible.
I leave the yarn and go over to the Cath Kidston tables. I have to wrestle my way in, have to use elbows. Its every woman for herself. I umm and ahhh over the bedding. I think I might have mentioned before but I am not sure about CK stuff, its quite full-on pattern for me. I keep picking up duvet covers (HAlf PRice!) and putting them back again. Pick up, carry around a bit, then put it back. The fact is that even though it is Half Price (!!) it is still bloomin' expensive. In the end I settle for a couple of rosy pillowcases for £5 each (normal RRP is £15, how extortionate is this stuff?) and an Emma Bridgewater tea towel for £3.
I'm feeling dazed and shattered by this point, the noise and the crowds have worn me down. I bump into Lovely C and I do the yarn thing again with her, but I have Sale Exhaustion. I can no longer think straight. I go and pay (ooo yes that was quite an expensive half an hour even if everything was !! Half Price !!), then push my way across to the lemonade and strawberries. Ahhhhh refreshment, that's better. I had no idea that la-de-dah ladies could be soooo noisy and pushy. It was like going into battle with no forewarning and no armour.
But I came home jubilant, very happy with my yarn which I think is going to become a granny square something or the other (a bag maybe?)
And I
do like the pillowcases too, like laying my head down into a soft bunch of roses. I'm not
sure if they go with my Laura Ashley bedspread, what do you think?
J was quite approving of them too, which thoroughly delighted and surprised me, but then again he is quite knowledgable about bed linen. He understood what I meant when I said it was Superior 200 Thread Count Cotton Pecale. It thrills me to talk bedding with my man.
Are you going to keep the location of the village a secret as a resident of North Yorkshire I would love to know! You could send me it in code ie leave some letters out and I will guess so others don't know.
Posted by: Alchamillamolly | July 09, 2008 at 01:07 PM
Love your CK pillow cases, good find. I am a big admirer of Laura Ashley too, but the yarn!...I would have to say you hit the motherlode big time!
Posted by: Toni | July 06, 2008 at 02:50 AM
lovely! I am a bit fan of CK and yes it's expensive but it cheers me so! have you seen tescos shopping bags in CK prints - only £3.50!
the sale sounds wonderful!
Love S x
Posted by: Sarah | July 05, 2008 at 07:15 PM
I think jealous comes in colours other than green. Almost as many as your wool shades, in fact.
Posted by: Ali | July 03, 2008 at 10:40 PM
Oh wow! What a dream day! Can I come too next year?!
Posted by: French Knots | July 03, 2008 at 10:10 PM
how completely fabulous!! And incredibly tempting as well-I so love the idea of your knit and natter sessions, am thinking of trying to start something similar when we open the cafe-your blog inspired the idea, so pat yourself on the back! I love the pictures from the cafe where you do it as well, it look really lovely.x
Posted by: Anna | July 03, 2008 at 07:19 PM
Ooooh, lucky Lucy!! Sounds like every crafty bloggers' dream sale. I like Cath Kidston in small doses...those pillowcases are perfect. And yes, here's another girl who has a thing about threadcounts. X
Posted by: Diana | July 03, 2008 at 05:58 PM
I wish I had somewhere like that to go to. You described it so well. I bet you were glad to get in early and have the pick of the bunch. I do love your bedding. I have a thing about bedding and thread counts. I look like a tramp but at least my bed is nice!
Posted by: simone | July 03, 2008 at 05:28 PM
Wow, this post was like being transported instantly to my dream world! Sales of yarn (!) and flowery linens (!) in chapels (!!!) with lemonade and strawberries (!!!!!). Delectable in every way. I'll probably have to revisit it again and again just to drool and sigh.
(I think the big roses are fab, and usually I'm not a loud-prints-on-pillowcases person either.)
Posted by: Lynn | July 03, 2008 at 05:08 PM
WOW! Lucky you! I desperatley need yarn, you must tell me which village holds this fab sale ready for the next time.(just whisper so no-one else can hear!)
p.s. your Laura Ashley quilt is lovely and I too get excited at thread counts for bed linen, I treated myself to some 400 count white cotton sheets from M&S just before I had to hand my staff discount card back, sheer bliss! (even my wonderful man noticed how nice they are!!!!)
Posted by: Fi | July 03, 2008 at 04:55 PM