Living up north usually brings disappointment when events are announced as London is the usual location of choice, so when I found out something big was set to happen in the north east and be of an interest of mine, I was pretty excited.

I love vintage, shabby chic home styles, making things and being money savvy so the Festival of Thrift over in Darlington was right up my street.

The weekend began for me with an exclusive blogger meeting with Wayne and Geradine Hemingway and Lingfield Point owner, John Orchard, where we discussed what being thrifty means and how it applies to today’s generation.

Wayne Hemingway & Becky Magson (me!)

It was interesting to hear about Wayne’s upbringing where thrifty actions were just the norm – memories of melting down soap ends to create swirly new blocks of soap and seeing his mother create her own dresses, recalling she “always looked amazing”.

When Mr BB asked Wayne how he defines the term vintage, he hit the nail on the head, saying “vintage is timeless”, which is true.  Trends come and go but classic, well made pieces – clothes or cars – will always look fantastic 10 years on.  Solid furniture and fine china tea sets equally grow old gracefully and represent the true validation of vintage.

Over the weekend Mr BB and I attended talks with recycling and eco living experts, but the weather was just too lovely to hide away indoors!  There were tons of gorgeously presented stalls by traders selling various crafts and vintage finds.  My favourites were (unsurprisingly) of needlecraft items and insect prints, but there was so much to see, smell and taste at every stall.  There were even some honey bees although you wouldn’t have wanted to taste those…!

Creative hand crafted gifts by Vintage Owl – check out the pretty bunting!

Embroidery Hoop Prints by Vintage Owl – I love the adorable bunnies!

Mrs Tiffin

Handsome fauna printed homewares at Kettle of Fish

Intricate victorian style illustrations on useful things – the bees are beautiful little guys!  Kettle of Fish

Quirky, cute & modern wall hanging embroideries by Rachel & George – the colours just pop out of those hoops!

A pretty set of embroidered fondant fancies you could just eat!  Rachel & George

Reclaimed vintage furniture wares by London’s Scavengers

Scavengers show how lavender looks vintage chic in old metal drawers

As the event was quite spread out across the buildings and outdoor areas I struggled to locate everything I wanted to see.  I was gutted to miss out on screen printing because the workshop was so popular, so I didn’t get to be as hands on as I’d hoped.   It was also disappointing not to find any of the promised chickens and goats, as I’ve had my heart set on rescuing ex battery hens and I could have done with some chicken keeping advice!

Spot me hooping!

I managed to hoop my stuff with ‘Rock a Hula’ over at the Alternative Village Fete, although I was no where near as good as the amazing pin up hooping host!  That was great fun because it’s always good to have a laugh at yourself.

Read Festival of Thrift: Part 1