Village and County Shows

Village and County Show's make great days out for all the family.

You can view the photographs we recently took at a village show over at

Renaissance Life.

Vintage Retro 1960's Cookie's Album of Sweets and Cakes presented with Princess

This vintage retro cookbook leaflet was given free with Princess comic in the 1960's, it contains useful cooking information and recipes for cakes and sweets all delightfully illustrated. It's for sale at www.renaissanceshop.co.uk. click Vintage Retro 1960's Cookie's Album of Sweets and Cakes presented with Princess for further information.

The Continental Market

Continental Markets spring up all over the country, they are a great place to take your children to sample different foods.
More photographs of our visit to The Continental Market can be found at Renaissance Life

SPF for fabrics

This little top will protect your child's skin from harmful sun rays

it has a 50+ ultra violet protective factor.

For more info and to see the complet range visit Sunuva

Vintage Sewing Pattern 1940's McCall 1485 Boys Girls Cat Panda Rabbit Costumes

Vintage sewing pattern of wonderful children's fancy dress costumes

from Patternshop.

Annabel Necklace

Annabel Necklace

( available for Mommies too http://www.etsy.com/listing/49410540/tiny-flower-necklace?ref=v1_other_2)

is made with a vintage fire engine red bead chain and a row of adorable little flowers cabs set in lacy brass frames.The bead chain is connected to a gold plated chain and finished with a comfy lobster clasp.All jump jump rings are14K Gold Filled.

The necklace is available in 4 sizes:

TINY 2-3 yr 11" (28cm)

SMALL 4-6 13" (33cm)

BIGGER 8-10 14" (36cm)

BIGGEST 10-14 15" (38cm)

From Nest Pretty Things Kids Etsy shop

How to really love a child

Be there~ Say yes as often as possible.

Let them bang on pots and pans.

If they're crabby, put them in water, if they're unlovable, love yourself.

Realize how important it is to be a child.

Go to a movie theatre in your pajamas~ Read books out loud with JOY.

Invent pleasures together.

Remember how really small they are.

Giggle a lot, surprise them, say no when necessary.

Teach feelings.

Heal your own inner child.

Learn about parenting.

Hug trees together.

Make loving safe.

Bake a cake and eat it with no hands,

Go find elephants and kiss them,

Plan to build a rocket ship,

Imagine yourself magic.

Make lots of forts with blankets.

Let your angel fly.

Reveal your own dreams.

Search out the positive.

Keep the gleam in your eye.

Mail Letters to God.

Encourage silly.

Plant licorice in your garden, open up, stop yelling

Express your love. A lot.

Speak kindly.

Paint their tennis shoes.

Handle with caring.
Children are Miraculous
By Sark

Babys First Book

Baby's First Book project from the book

Sew Liberated: 20 Stylish Projects for the Modern Sewist

by Meg McElwee

Made by the super-talented Alicia Paulson

No posts here this past week but there have been a few firsts

on our other blogs:

For the first time we took part in Today's Flowers which is such a nice idea that we think we'll make it a regular post at Renaissance Little Green Notebook

Another first was the rather ludicrous photograph of one of our Silkie Bantams at The Chicken Daily and talking of firsts our eldest son exhibited some of his photographs in a gallery for the first time. There is a photograph of his photographs on the website http://www.renaissanceshop.co.uk/ in the What we are doing section.

Whilst we are on the subject of photographs isn't the one above adorable?
It's of Charles the baby red squirrel who fell from his nest.

Red squirrels aren't the only wildlife in need of a little help so we were pleased to be able to use the Renaissance Newsletter to help promote a WDCS Walk for Whales in nearby Hunstanton.

Over at Renaissance Vintage Notebook we seem to have spent quite a lot of time at the V & A looking at vintage inspired quilt fabrics and enthusing about the Grace Kelly exhibition.

We're always on the look out for beautiful ways to display vintage books, we are vintage book sellers afterall, and we found a rather lovely photograph whilst blog hopping which of course lead to the discovery of lots of new, to us, blogs

Maybe you'll find the time to visit them?

Happy Easter (& a weekly roundup)

It's been a busy week getting ready for the Easter hols at Renaissance HQwith little being uploaded to the website http://www.renaissanceshop.co.uk/.

It didn't start well with the news of Elspeth Thompson's death, so sad.

But we've had a reminder of new life with our quail starting to lay again, very seasonal.

We went all Eastery here at Renaissance Childrens Notebook with Easter Gift Bags,

Flowering Bulbs for Easter and How to Make an Easter Chick.

And all wistful over at Renaissance Vintage Notebook with a sort of if we had a real bricks & mortar shop we'd stock:

Flowers in vintage containers & Crochet Blankets, Bags & Cushions.

And now of course it's April ,we had to mark April Fool's Day with a little joke or two,

and Easter is upon us.

We'll be spending it together, the whole family is home this weekend, bliss.

Wishing you all a very happy Easter.

How to make an Easter Chick

Downloadable PDF instructions available from Selvedge

Flowering Bulbs for Easter

Get the children involved in potting up some Spring flowering bulbs

in vintage china for the Easter table.

There is a tutorial on our website www.renaissanceshop.co.uk :

Displaying Flowering Spring Bulbs in Vintage China

Easter Gift Bags

Instead of Easter baskets Kristina of Jolly Hockey Sticks has knitted

these drawstring bags

and Cherry Menlove has a tutorial showing us how to make these sweet

Easter Favor Gift Bags.

Weekly Roundup

It's been a wet, wet week here at Renaissance HQ causing endless frustration with pruning and animals.

As for animals our little menagerie has increased by two Silkie bantams who are now settling in nicely with our tiny Seebright and Nankin bantams.

Of course the weather has given us plently of time to enjoy vintage film : The Innocents , look at books : The Flower Shop and wonder what to do with all those books we've read but know we'll never read again , maybe the answer is Green Metropolis. But I rather suspect they'll go to the charity shop as usual.

We've watched The Delicious Miss Dahl on TV and spent quite some time looking at the kitchen Sophie Dahl used. We even found a seller of vintage items whose wares would fit wonderfully into the kitchen: Jolie Trouvaille.

Talking of vintage we continue to add new items to the shop and there is now a rather nice selection of vintage prints there.

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend.

My Petite Planet

My Petite Planet

"My Petite Planète baby couture is dedicated to producing fabulously wearable children’s fashion using only vintage fabrics and 100% natural fibers. "

" Fabrics are discovered at vintage stores and markets. Based on the size and detail of the fabric, pieces are designed . The fabrics are thoroughly cleaned prior to any fabrication of pieces using environmentally friendly detergent."

And

"a portion of the proceeds from each sale goes to benefit One Clean World (http://www.onecleanworld.org/), a foundation that supports, raises awareness and encourages eco- and sustainability projects in the U.S. and globally. "

Les Deglingos

"animalos molto funnios"

See these toys on location: deep sea diving, sking etc

at deglingos.com

Stella Macartney

Watch out for the new Stella Mccartney collection for Gap Kid

coming to a Gap near you.

Weekly Roundup

Psyche by John Hopper

So this week we have had the sad demise of Hetty the ex battery hen, now of course we are contemplating additions to our little flock.

Inevitably after joining Lovefilm we've been watching films Kinky Boots and Mr Blanding Builds His Dream House.

Outside by the sea we've been walking on Cromer Pier and the joys of country living continue with pruning in the orchard. After a hard days work outside it's nice to come into a supper of something warm and filling like Pork & Bramley Apple Bake especially when you've grown the apples yourself.

This week in the books to read and keep section of Renaissance Newsletter we've looked at a book you're all bound to love, Home by Anita Kaushal in fact we bet some of you already have it on your book shelf.

We must have spent a long time browsing the internet because we've found several blogs new to us, all well worth a visit:

Elspeth Thompson's Gardening Against the Odds
The Flower Shop Stories written by Sally Page
and
Charlie and Caroline's Blog written by the owners of Pedlars

Browsing blogs has given us a date for the diary with Donna Flower's Open House Sale definetly one for lovers of all things vintage.

We've also been inspired by Alicia Paulson and Cherry Menlove to start posting here again for the first time since January.

It hasn't just been browsing on the internet we've also manage to load some new items like the vintage print pictured to the Renaissance shop .

By the way we'd still love to hear your opnion on the Shovel Birdhouse

Wishing you all a lovely weekend.

Posie Gets Cozy

Along with hundreds, probably thousands of readers we've been watching Alicia Paulson prepare a wardrobe of the prettiest dresses for her future daughter. The one above is called Starflower , there is also Morning Glory, Little Prairie, Lemon Layer Cake, Bouillabaisse, Strawberry Ruffle and the Watermelon Smock each one stiched with love and absolutely delightful. You'll find them at Alicia's blog Posie Gets Cozy.

Soft Building Block tutorial from Cherry Menlove

Visit ‘Cherry Baby’ at Cherry Menlove to learn how to make these adorable

mini soft building blocks for children.

What a lovely handmade present these would be for a newborn.

Snow Dog

Instead pf a snowman how about a snow dog?

Image found via MSN homepage