CHINA IN YOUR HAND

I'm a bit of a vintage china addict so I'm always pleased to see Tea Party at my vintage fairs. With prices from 50 pence for a saucer there is always something to suit every budget, and Elsie usually runs a 3 for 2 offer on her teacup, saucer & plate sets.

Tea Party will be at our Seaside Frock Vintage Fair at Cairn Bay Lodge this Sunday 26th June from 1 - 6pm. Admission is free and refreshments will be available.

KITSCH BITS

A first-timer for our events, Susannah of Keepin' It Kitsch will be appearing at our Seaside Frock Vintage Fair this Sunday and I'm really excited about seeing her stall as she is another vintage button and haberdashery fanatic.

Choose from funky and kitsch handmade button jewellery or if you are a crafter yourself you will love these bags of buttons, the themed Kitsch Bit packs and lace, ribbon and braid available by the metre.

SNAIL MAIL IT!

Having officially launched at our inaugural Vintage Bridal Fair in June 2010, Arbee Cards celebrated their 1st birthday at our 2nd Annual Decadence Vintage Bridal Fair last week and now they will be appearing at our Seaside Frock Vintage Fair this Sunday.

Come along and see Arbee Cards creator Rachel at Cairn Bay Lodge in Bangor for bespoke wedding stationery and greetings cards for all occasions - unique and vintage inspired designs. We love the Arbee Cards range of framed collages and key rings and the fact that Rachel uses vintage ephemera, lace and buttons in her creations.

Arbee Cards have also teamed together with Aware Defeat Depression, a Northern Irish support network for depression & bipolar disorder, to create gorgeous personalised charity wedding favours. For more details visit the Arbee Cards blog.

X-WOMEN

If you missed X-perience Boudoir at our Vintage Bridal Fair last week, you will be able to catch them again at our Seaside Frock Vintage Fair this Sunday.

X-Perience Boudoir Photography is run by award winning professional female photographer Trazanne Norwood, and specialises in boudoir and burlesque photography, pin-up and retro shoots, pregnancy shoots, and makeovers especially for women.

X-Perience Boudoir Photography have a dedicated studio entirely for the purpose of both vintage & modern boudoir photography and have an aim to make you feel wonderful about how you look. The photographer, digital artist, printer and framer are all professionals in their field and are all female, and all portraits are produced entirely in-house so X-perience Boudoir can guarantee exclusive privacy for every client.

Come along to Seaside Frock this Sunday at Cairn Bay Lodge, Seacliff Road, Bangor from 1 - 6pm to chat to Trazanne, and visit X-perience Boudoir on Facebook to keep up to date with regular special offers.

Trazanne Norwood - X-perience Boudoir photographer

Alicia McTeggart - X-perience Boudoir make up artist

A VINTAGE VACATION

Keri Johnson of Vintage Homebird has recently opened a vintage shop at Hoops Courtyard in Greyabbey but she has found time in her busy schedule to join us this Sunday at our Seaside Frock Vintage Fair at Cairn Bay Lodge in Bangor, which is just a stone's throw from her home.

Vintage Homebird is a celebration of all things well-loved and well-worn, the quirky and the imperfect, and Keri says that 'Vintage Homebird was born out of a passionate interest in all things vintage. I have a long-standing fascination with the world of interiors, particularly in design that is less about convention and more about the individual. As a long-time collector, I decided it was time to share my collection with others and to inspire people to express themselves more fully in their homes. I believe that this creates for people a home which is truly unique to them and acts as a mirror for who they are as individuals'.

Another arm to the business is the Vintage Homebird interior design service, with Keri offering a full consultation, design and sourcing service to support clients who have the desire to go for the vintage look in their homes, and Keri even offers us the chance to escape from it all at her Vintage Homebird thatched holiday cottage, where you can snuggle up beside a roaring log fire and enjoy a cosy night's sleep in a Romany caravan! If you fancy taking a vintage vacation, pop along to our Seaside Frock Vintage Fair this Sunday afternoon to find out how.

ROLLING STONE

Another new exhibitor to our Seaside Frock Vintage Fair this Sunday is Bangor artist and businesswoman Shelley Cave and her husband Colin with their interior design and decorative art business, Juniper and Stone. Regulars to our events will have met Shelley at our very first vintage fairs at the Wellington Park Hotel in 2008 and 2009, and then again at our Retro Rooms Show earlier this year.

Shelley says 'growing up in an arty, crafty home, it’s no wonder that scouring antique shops, junk shops, auctions and skips has led to a life long passion for old, unique, vintage items with a story to tell. Nothing pleases us more than being able to breathe new life into these wonderful but unwanted items making them beautiful and loved once more. At Juniper and Stone we love all things vintage, not just furniture, and if it’s not perfect just as it is, we’ll turn it into something else like our cushions, handbags and corsages, bunting, table runners and napkins. They’re all made from vintage and vintage inspired textiles. Recycling at its most creative and fun'.

Juniper and Stone will be taking over one of the outbuildings at Cairn Bay Lodge this Sunday so if you are looking for something beautiful, unique and unusual for your home, be sure to come along early to catch the bargains.

OPTIMISTIC GIFTS

Visitors to our Seaside Frock Vintage Fair this Sunday will love The Optimists for their eclectic and unusual range of collectables. Owner Gillian is a Norah Wellings doll expert and her main love is collecting and selling antique and vintage dolls, toys and bears.

The Optimists also have a lovely range of vintage jewellery and evening bags, vanity items, 1950s beaded tops and cardigans, linens and lace, sewing baskets and dolls teasets, and all at really reasonable prices. This is the place to pick up a really unique gift for someone that you love, or just to treat yourself to something pretty and girly.

POSTER PALACE

Our wee Seaside Frock Vintage Fair in Bangor this Sunday is not going to be so wee! Taking advantage of the summer weather (!!!) we are utilising the outbuildings at Cairn Bay Lodge as well as the main house this time. News of the success and fun of our Christmas event must have spread as this time we have a couple of exhibitors who are travelling quite far to take part in the day, the first of whom is Palace Posters who will be coming all the way from Dublin.

We first met Palace Posters at our Retro Rooms Show in March, earlier this year and we were blown away by their collection of original vintage movie posters. Johnny and Anita Bonnie are not only avid collectors and dealers but are also really great fun so we are over the moon that they are coming along not only to brighten up our day but to also brighten up the walls of homes in County Down.

Seaside Frock takes place on Sunday 26th June from 1 - 6pm at Cairn Bay Lodge, 278 Seacliff Road, Bangor, BT20 5HS and admision is FREE. Visit our website for the full exhibitor list and more details.

You can visit Palace Posters online and also on Facebook for details of their latest acquisitions, but here are a few images of their stand at The Retro Rooms Show in Belfast on 6th March. 

EVERYTHING BUT THE KITSCH 'N SINK

Carrying on from my last blog about Becknik's Wonder Emporium in Chester I confess that I returned and bought some gorgeous deep blue glass dessert dishes. If I had enough money I would have liked to have bought this 1950s kitchen and had it shipped home to Northern Ireland, but my budget didn't stretch far enough!

Next blog I will show the lovely pieces that I did buy.

A DOUBLE WHAMMY!

I'm on 'holiday' at the moment, staying with my sister in lovely Chester. I love the vintage and charity shops here and usually return home with a case full of goodies, so within an hour of arriving Sis gave me a treat by taking me to the latest addition to Chester's vintage establishments.

The outside of Becnik's Wonder Emporium looks fab so I had a feeling that it was going to be amazing inside, and it was. I took quite a few photos but they all turned out too dark to post on the blog but I'm going back again tomorrow so hopefully I can get more. Becnik's was packed to the ceiling with vintage clothing for men, women and children, accessories galore, jewellery, china, linen and lace, old sewing baskets, fabulous teasets, china cabinets, retro kitchenware and picnic sets, mirrors, old school desks and comfy sofas.

I found some lovely crocheted doilies with pansies in this old sewing box and I bought them for the new Decadence HQ (you can tell its not going to be your typical office!)

Now, anyone that knows me well will know about my obsession with teasets, and my obsession with collecting owls, so this was a double whammy - an owl teaset!! My lovely Sis bought it for me as an advance Christmas present (I wish I was as organised as her) so I won't get to see it again until 25th December. I'm sure that by then I will have accumulated more owls and more teasets so it will be right at home.