last saturday we forfeited our well-earned lay in to get up and out reasonably early, to meet some of our favourite people. kim and rory were in town for renegade craft fair, and we decided to tag along and spend the day with them (sorry guys!). we met them at liverpool street just after 10:30, and just as it started to rain. i'd checked the weather that morning and i was assured sun and highs of 10, so... having not brought a brolly, straightened my hair especially, and wearing shoes with cut outs, i was perturbed to say the least.
we headed to costa to grab a quick coffee, then decided to hang out in spitalfeilds until the rain cleared out. while walking around we stumbled across a number of vinyl resellers, selling quality albums for £1! needless to say, boyfriend and i got involved, grabbing out at least ten vinyls before culling them down to a neccessary four. in the lot that went back was a jason donovan album, that the seller decided to throw in for free just so he didn't have to be seen with it anymore... unsure who lost that round.
after a quick spin in the undercover market, we decided the weather shouldn't get the better of us, and made a mad dash to the old truman brewery on brick lane. when we got there, there was not a sign to be found declaring the event, so we wandered aimlessly among several other groups of drowned rats who were clearly as lost as we were. popping in and out of doorways, we finally found the back entrance to the brewery, where the guy on the door was denying entrance to a 20-strong group of crafty women! who did he think he was! finally he caved in to a sea of booing, and allowed us in and up the cement stairs into the hall iteself. what a relief to just be out of the rain!
we did the rounds -- aimlessly at first, casually backtracking and sidestepping our way through the sellers until we each had found something perfect to buy. kim and i were excited to finally meet sam of polka dot dreams in the flesh, as we've been long time online friends and fans of her etsy shop and wee sleepy felt critters, and also did a bit of instagram celeb spotting while we were at it (but being too shy to really say hello -- pathetic!). spotted in the crowd of sellers were ella masters, oh no rachio! hello harriet and ladybird likes, as well as the gorgeous ellie from pretty much penniless (check out ellie's renegade round up - it's much better than mine!) and miss daisy from make, thrift london who was super busy holding paper-stamping workshops!
a couple of hours passed in a blur of brooches and badges and cat quotes - oh my! and soon enough we were back to spitalfeilds on the hunt for some food. we pulled into the diner for shelter from the cold, and sat and ate our weight in all-american goodness like shortstacks and cheese fries and milkshakes and corndogs... food, glorious food! with a break in the weather we took a wander down bishopsgate, past monument and over the bridge to borough market where we avidly tried to dodge the thousands of fresh-food punters who had the same idea as us. by this time it was almost four, and the guys were no doubt getting sick of us. we parted ways at london bridge - us, homeward bound and them, westfeild bound, before heading back on train journey of hell home later that night.
pouring my crafty wares out over my duvet at home was fun - look at all the cutie pie things that i bought! my favourite quote on a card (and running joke), and quote of the day "don't be shit" is from lovely jojo's (who is rather lovely!) and i'm hoping to add more of her quotes to the picture wall in my lounge room. kim and i finally picked up something from ladybird likes, after uhm-ing and aah-ing over the pug collar clips and "i like books" badges, i picked up the vintage lady brooch for a steal. my other fave bits are the acrylic umbrella and tea pot pendants, that were only a couple of quid each! absolute bargains.
so, all in all, we had a really nice day with kim and rory; wandering and catching up was obviously the intention, and renegade gave us a reason! spending the whole day saturday in the wet and cold made me feel less guilty about spending the whole of sunday in my pjs and on the sofa. ha!
