Budget Suffolk Antiques Trail

If, like us, you love the antiques in Suffolk but just can't afford Long Melford and the high end shop prices, then here is the Antiques Trail for you. We found a series of budget places where a treasure can always be found for a pretty good price.


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A
The Theatre Antiques Centre
10 Church St, Woodbridge IP13 9BH‎ - 01728 621 069‎
(A great warehouse of affordable and really nice things. One of our one-stop recommendations if you want to get a lot in one place)

B
Campaign
The St, Peasenhall, Saxmundham, Suffolk IP17 2HJ, UK‎
(A great and quirky place. He specialises in traditional carpet furniture. You really have to see it to understand how amazing this place is. It is also connected to the community second hand shop next door)

C
Yoxford Antiques Centre
United Kingdom‎ - 01728 668 844‎
(A big warehouse where each vendor brings in their things. We love it. It is also a great one-stop to get a lot of things)

D
Snape Maltings Antiques
Saxmundham, Suffolk IP17 1SP‎ - 01728 688 303‎
(Specializing in smaller things. A huge array of silverware and an amazing collection of vintage wedding dresses)

E
Leiston Trading Post
17 High Street, Leiston Suffolk, IP16 4EL
(a great shop that seems to go on forever and is crammed with furniture and little odds and ends)

F
Thorpeness Emporium
Alderburgh Road, Thorpeness, Suffolk
United Kingdom‎ - 01728 454 639‎

(a very pretty destination and very inexpensive. Everything from knick knacks to clothes and all for bargain basement prices)

G
Vintage Forty-Six Antiques
46 High Street, Wickham Market, Suffolk IP13 0QS‎ - 01728 746642‎
(a small shop linked to a really nice cafe. The shop has such a high turnover of furniture and for good prices that we go each time we are in Suffolk)

H
Marlesford Mill 
marlesford, suffolk, ip13 0ag
(Another amazing all one-stop shop. Very reasonable prices and a million treasures to discover)

I
Monty's Country Pine 
The Old Post Office, Hacheston IP13 0DR, UK‎
(A little gem we found just driving around the area. Mostly antique pine furniture, but some great and extremely reasonable items such as grandfather clocks and wooden kitchen chairs)

J
Bed Bazaar
The Old Railway Station, Station Road, Framlingham, Suffolk IP13 9EE‎ - 01728 723756‎
(This one is not too cheap, but absolutely amazing to visit for bed ideas. And since you are in the area, why not?)

K
Woodbridge Antiques Centre
7 Quay Street, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 1BX‎ - 01394 387210‎
(We actually never went to this one, but somehow it got in on our list. So this one is still a mystery)

L
Bygones Of Needham Market
110A High Street, Needham Market, Ipswich IP6 8DW‎ - 01449 726 075‎
(This one is on our drive home. Amazing gems like old telephones and gramaphones)

Sweden: Wedding ring 'found on carrot' after 16 years

A Swedish woman has discovered her wedding ring on a carrot growing in her garden, 16 years after she lost it, says a newspaper.

Lena Paahlsson had long ago lost hope of finding the ring, which she designed herself, reports Dagens Nyheter.

The white-gold band, set with seven small diamonds, went missing in her kitchen in 1995, she told the paper.

Although the ring no longer fits, she hopes to have it enlarged so she can wear it again.

Mrs Paahlsson and her family live on a farm near Mora in central Sweden.

She took the ring off to do some Christmas baking with her daughters, but it disappeared from the work surface where it had been left, she explained to Dagens Nyheter.

The family searched everywhere and years later took up the tiling on the floor during renovations, in the hope of finding the ring.

It was not until 16 years later when Mrs Paahlsson was pulling up carrots in her garden that she noticed one with the gold band fastened tightly around it.

"The carrot was sprouting in the middle of the ring. It is quite incredible," her husband Ola said to the newspaper.

The couple believe the ring fell into a sink back in 1995 and was lost in vegetable peelings that were turned into compost or fed to their sheep.

"I had given up hope," Mrs Paahlsson told Dagens Nyheter, adding that she wanted to have the ring adjusted to fit her.

"Now that I have found the ring again I want to be able to use it," she said.

-Story from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16374283

My Exhibition at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital

 My exhibition at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital comes down today. It was a whirlwind show. I painted the images on returning from Canada in November. Above is a shot from my studio as I get ready.

 

I sometimes takes shots of paintings in the middle of painting them. This one I felt had a really nice feel half finished and I wanted to document it to compare it to the finished piece. You can see the last painting underneath (I have flipped the painting upsidedown).

Here is a shot of the finished piece (under terrible lighting).

 

In the end this one area was too small to hang all the paintings. I had to sacrifice one of my favourite images because a weaker another painting actually made the grouping look better.

 

 Further down my Antoinette series is hung.

I come back during daylight hours and get this shot.

(I just want to say having a new computer and a new blogger format suddenly makes blogging easy again!) Now to finish Croatia and the house blogs!

Merry Christmas from our house!

 Merry Christmas from our Edwardian house in London, United Kingdom!

(Yes, we are still missing the curtain rod and curtains!)

Croatia: Leaving Dubrovnik

This is our last morning in Dubrovnik. We are due to leave at 10am.

There is one last thing I want to see before we go. I take an early bus by myself into the Old Town and head for the Dominican Monastery which opens to the public at 9am.

Tour groups wander the streets in packs at this hour as the sun is not yet overhead and the heat has not reached its midday peak.

I head into the quiet courtyard of the monastery. The stones make the temperature even cooler and it is a quiet place to come in the morning (until the tours enter a short while later).

There are a few things to see here, a small museum and the church.

Building began on the Gothic-Rennaisance structure in 1301, the city, along with the Dominicans, provided funds and ordered citizens to contribute labour, due to its proximity right up against the city walls by the Old Port. It was constructed around the same time as the city walls.

A well sits unused in the middle of the central cloister.

The church has The Virgin and Child alter piece, 1513, with the bearded donor (from the Dordic family) kneeling at the feet of St. Martin in the lower right.

The Veneto-Byzantine crucifix by Paolo Venziano (14th century) hangs over the main altar.

Leaving the church by a side door one joins the cloister.

The cloister is filled with palm and orange trees.

I find the small museum which houses a small Croatian Renaissance Collection that blows me away. I spend most of the hour I have in this room pouring over technique, colour, gold leaf, composition, and framing. I am in awe.

I exit the monastery

and head down the stairs.

I pass the Old Port entrance on my way out.

The church and monastery resemble a fortress. One last look as I leave Dubrovnik.

Croatia: Sanja & Rosie's Laundrette

I just have to do a post on Sanja & Rosie's Launderette in Dubrovnik. It is our 10th day of travelling, we have packed lightly and are sharing a small suitcase. We need some laundry done soon. We come across an ad at my favourite veggie restaurant, Nishta's, that is advertising this launderette. We decide to give it a try.

We arrive to find a wide open self-service launderette (the only one in Dubrovnik) with laundry soap sitting on top of every machine. Launderettes are very hard to come by in a lot of Europe. I remember that from Italy.

Not only is there soap, but Shout and a scrub brush.

There are fun retro posters all over.

And all the decor has a 50's theme.

We notice that although the place is unmanned there are two cameras installed. Someone is watching from somewhere.

Music plays and the paying machine reminds me a jukebox.

All the machines look brand new and I can't figure out why no one else is in here.

There is a stack of magazines to read.

Free water.

Outside in the seating area I discover a guest book with a set of pencil crayons.

I read through to see where all the other people washing their clothes have come from. All over the world, it turns out.

I do a double take. What lollies?!

I quickly do a scan of the room and find "Candy Time". Pictured above is after we eat through half of it.

We leave our own message in the book.

It turns out that Sanja and Rosie are from Vancouver, Canada! Now, how on earth have they found themselves in Dubrovnik running a retro laundrette?

Even free Internet. Funnily, most places we go have the exact same password.

A great place to do your laundry! We highly recommend it.

Nigel: "You aren't going to blog this, are you?"