There was an Antiques Fair/Fleamarket held on Carmarthen Showground yesterday. There had been - and was ongoing, looking at the glass and furniture gathering frost as we walked round - a hard frost the previous night. Not many people braved manning the outdoor pitches, but inside the building was full and warmer!
We were quite abstemious, as it cost £3.50 a head to get in, and we only intended to satisfy our needs, not our WANTS. However, I found a little book by Sabine Baring-Gould: Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, a 2nd edition from about 1873, and battered/water-stained, but got the price down to £2.50 and it came home with me, along with a book about Lytchett Minster in Dorset (we used to live in Lytchett Matravers before moving here). I also fell in love with a ducky little 1950s 1lb cake pan. It had a pretty stamped star-like pattern on it and I am going to use it today. I felt "compelled" to buy it, and wouldn't be surprised if there is a little old lady casting her shade upon me as it had such a good "feel" accompanying my buying it!
Lots of china everywhere - some of it better than others . . .
My eldest daughter collects costume jewellery and would have spent ages at this stand.
An odds and sods stall . . . quite a few like this.
Various pictures and a fire guard . . .
Wholecloth quilts on display.
Another photo is for my eldest daughter, who would have been drooling over this stand!
This is for Morning's Minion, a wonderful quiltmaker, to give her an idea of what turns up at auction round here. The best quilts go for hundreds, and often end up with American quilt-collector Jen Jones (now at Lampeter), but these were priced at about £70 and £90 for the top two.
One of the outside stalls with steens, old cast pots, modern jam pots ("retro") and a couple of earthenware hot water "bottles". We still have a couple about the place and used to use them for the children when they were small.
Lastly, but most definitely NOT leastly!, is the cracking loaf my son turned out on Christmas Day. Can't you tell there is a Baker in his genetic make-up (my g. grandfather).
