Welcome to the (New) World of Former Glory

Another long period of silence on this blog, I'm sorry. Unfortunately our son became very unwell after his treatment for leukaemia and although he remained mostly positive and the leukaemia never returned, he was so damaged by the potent treatments that there was no way back. He left us in July of 2018. It was devastating.

We're rebuilding our lives without him and are determined to help other people who find themselves in the same situation. Last December we held an open day at our shop, (oh yes something else that has happened, we bought a shop in our village). It was a French themed day, we offered coffee and croissants, a prize draw and a selection of quirky things that we had bought in France and then restored. It was pleasingly busy, we raised over £200 for the marvellous local leukaemia charity LEAF who had supported us so well during the three years of illness.

The shop

Me with Tash (Founder of LEAF charity) on the Open day 

So now we've made this a permanent part of our life. We have been so lucky to be able to earn a living doing what we enjoy - so it's pay back time. We'll be organising two or three events at the shop each year and also making a series of films about the trips we do to find the special bits and pieces for each event. I hope you'll enjoy them. The link above is just the intro for the films yet to be uploaded. The first two episodes show us travelling through four European countries in search of treasure. Our next open day is on 27th July this year, one year and one day since our son died, so a memorial to his life. Maybe we'll see you there?

Congratulations to........

Amanda!!! Her suggestion for a basketmaking kit was:

"How about a letter/post basket? We usually end up leaving our post in a pile by the door for people to sort through to find their own. It looks untidy and often gets knocked onto the floor."

Yes, we have the same problem in our house, so I'm going to play around with a few ideas and hopefully design a kit to make a useful and attractive post holding receptacle!!

Many thanks to Amanda and everyone who took the time to enter our competition. A little berry basket full of goodies will be winging it's way to Amanda next week.

Meanwhile, we wish everyone a peaceful, happy and prosperous New Year. Noses back to the grindstone on Tuesday!

Basket design prize - hurry, closes in December!

So the prize will be...................

This "hand made by me" Bridesmaids Berry Basket filled with local Dorset goodies and produce!! So help me out please, what kind of basket would you like to be able to make if you could choose? You can either e-mail me at sales@formerglory.co.uk or leave me a comment here on this post or the previous prize post here with your suggestions. Entries accepted from Europe and America/Canada, (because the postage isn't too bad!) but sorry to all in Australia/New Zealand, this package would be a bit too large and expensive to send, but then I can always organise a different prize........So please don't be put off from entering.

Painting!

We seem to have had paintbrushes in our hands for much of the last three weeks. However, it does finally feel like things are moving on. The floor of the studio at the back of the workshop was in a terrible state, look at the difference a lick of paint makes:

It's covering up five years of spills and other work related mess! It was in such a poor state that I was ashamed, but it's starting to look good now, should be finished by tomorrow night.

Meanwhile, I haven't forgotten the basket design competition sorry that it's been a bit delayed......but I do have a cunning plan and will be making an announcement very, very soon.

Announcing the basket design inspiration prize!!

We're working on creating DIY kits for baskets, so would love to hear your ideas of just what type of basket you would like to see. Would you want practical or decorative, modern or traditional, coloured or natural, textured or smooth, tiny or HUGE........................Whatever! Here's some I made earlier.

Just e-mail me or comment here on the blog with your suggestions and ideas. There will be prizes for the most inspirational suggestions, some Dorset goodies....................

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