The Pumping Station

Sorry everyone, another picture intensive post (as are all the posts planned this week). I'm desperately trying to get to grips with my camera and am still rather rubbish as I can't quite figure it out. I'm sure I'll run out of things to photograph soon, just bear with me.

I was at a bit of a loose end one weekend and decided to go for a wander around the Pumping Station in Cardiff, a beautiful Victorian pumping station once owned by Welsh Waters and now a treasure trove in a Grade II Listed building. Everything is for sale, and it has everything you can think of: antiques, vintage, even modern day ... erm, stuff. My parents, once they learned where I was headed, decided to tag along to hunt for a birthday present for one of their friends. The Pumping Station is so big, so packed with goodies, that we only covered the ground floor before lunch. So we headed to the nearby Harvester in Cardiff Bay for yummy goodness and then returned to the Pumping Station to scour the upstairs floor. Be warned people, you could lose days there.

Some old friends ... erm, miniturised

Apparently, this is the world's largest lion and is in the Guiness Book of Records.
When he died they stuffed him and he ended up here!

I wore my Ginger skirt that I'd made (and completely failed to blog about, shame on me). I love my Ginger skirt, unfortunately my step-dad can't seem to work my camera either and the photos he took of me were mostly too blurry to post. Suffice to say, the skirt looks awesome, fit together really well and completely deserves its own blog post (note to self, write that!).

Not only did we manage to fit in the Pumping Station, but we also decided - as the weather was being particularly lovely - to go for an ice cream and a wander along the Victorian Pier in Penarth as my parents had never been. The art deco pavillion on the pier is beautiful but in need of restoration, Penarth Arts & Crafts Ltd are asking for local volunteers to help with their planned renovations. The pavillion managed to survive a fire in 1931 that destroyed much of the pier, the Port Royal Park (a 7,000 ton ship) being blown by gale force winds in to the pier in 1947 and the Bristol Queen paddle steamer running in to the pier during dense fog in 1966. Poor thing, it's had a bit of a bad time of it, and it's one of the last remaining Victorian Piers in Wales. It's not particularly long but it has great views and, on this occasion, a local brass band playing. Any day that involves ice cream is a good day, but this one was particularly lovely.

Thanks for stopping by,

The Big Cheese 2011

Every year my local town, Caerphilly, holds a free festival called The Big Cheese on the last weekend of July. So named - I presume - because once upon a time it was an actual cheese festival to showcase Caerphilly Cheese. Nowadays it's the site of a huge fun fair and market with organic food, homemade gifts and exotic animal showcases (the birds of prey are fabulous). There's living history and battle re-enactments in the castle, not to mention the mead and ale tent. Oh, and the hog roast. There's an awful lot of pig eaten at this event.

Every year I take the wolf for a wander through the crowds ... a very slow wander as we're often stopped every couple of feet by people asking about him. This year I took my camera and below are some of the things I snapped whilst out and about. Warning, a little picture intensive (I got a bit over-happy to be posting a non-css post).

I was a little fascinated by this lovely cider press, but it was awfully noisy

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St Fagans Family Outing

St Fagans (aka The Museum of Welsh Life) lies on the outskirts of Cardiff. I've known of it's existence for years, Doctor Who filmed there for the two-parter Human Nature and Family of Blood back in Series 3 but I'd never visited so I eagerly agreed to a family outing to the (free) museum with my Mum, my sister and my nephew. It was slightly surreal to walk around the village and recognise it all, knowing full well I'd never been there, but otherwise it was a lovely day out and I highly recommend a visit if you're ever in the area with some time to kill.

Noah, aged (nearly) 3 years old

My little sister, Elizabeth Bennett (I kid you not)

St Fagans Castle Gardens

Climbing all over Mum ... Lizzie could relate

Static Electricity Boy!

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Walk This Way

Autumn is well and truly here. It was a lovely crisp afternoon here in the Cwm Rhymney so I decided that, rather than trudging around the Old Tip as usual, I would take the wolf up the Pit Road and across the mountain ridge below the farm for a wander. Below are some of the sights we saw on our travels. It may surprise you to learn I don't own a camera (at least I hope it would), all the photographs on my blog are taken by myself on my phone unless otherwise stated. It makes getting interesting photos that little more challenging!

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Vintage Fashion Fair

Sunday was the Blind Lemon Vintage Fashion Fair in the Coal Exchange in Cardiff Bay. I was right, it was a fabulous building! Lots of wood and carvings (of dragon's faces!), I imagine it was an impressive place in its heyday.

AnnaP and I arrived nice and early. First thing early. Anna's Swedish, married to a guy up the road and I met her walking their two dogs. We hit it off and one of the things she'd mentioned is that she loves vintage. What could I do but invite her to the fashion fair?

We left the village at about 9am, drove to Cardiff Bay and parked at the Red Dragon Centre where we stopped for coffee and tea cakes and, coincidentally, validated our parking for the entire day, before heading over the way to the Coal Exchange.

The fair was much smaller than the one I'd previously attended, with only about 20 stalls in total, if that. It was small and intimate and I have to admit that the quality of merchandise available was a lot less charity shop and a little more vintage. I think I enjoyed this fair more, the atmosphere and the quality far surpassed that of my previous experience.

AnnaP and I trawled through all the stalls, twice (just in case!). AnnaP likes taking vintage jewellery and re-working it into something new. I was looking for a compact (again) and patterns. And we were both rooting for the £100 prize draw at noon so we could go nuts and buy everything we coveted. Alas, it was not to be. If we had arrived one person earlier we would have been in heaven, unfortunately most of the merchandise remained out of our price range.

I did, however, find 5 patterns and a head scarf (no compact, boo!) so I counted the day as a win! I also managed to fit into a 50's dress, although - once again - I didn't manage to get out of it (or into it) alone. The back was fastened with little covered buttons that were impossible to open and close by myself, poor AnnaP had to button me in and then get me out again. Also included in the day, as a bonus to ourselves, was a trip to Ikea and Bhs where I bought muslin and a tea pot (and sweets!). All in all, a fab day out!

Some fab undies we found almost immediately upon arriving

The carved dragons heads on every supporting arch, aren't they cool?

Yummy bag that AnnaP fell in love with

Finally a 1950's dress that fit my waist ... shame about the rest of me!

{ Bestway C.203 two-way slip and knicker set }

{ Style Print 1421 }

{ Butterick 3058 }
(don't ask me why, I have no clue, I have no partner to sew it for)

{ Le Roy Pattern 2322 maternity dress and smock }
(again, don't ask me why, because unless I'm the new Virgin Mary I'm not wearing this any time soon!)

{ Butterick 2198 Misses lingerie coordinates }
Possibly my favourite (I can't wait to make view D!)

Thanks for stopping by,