A beautiful painting by Pamela Slater Sue and John are having an Open House at their home in La Verdrie, France. I am so cross I can't be here to help - I am off home tonight. I would have loved to have stayed to help with the teas and Sue's fabulous cakes - you know how good I am with cake!!!! Everything is looking fabulous . . .  There will be -  Paintings Greetings cards Textiles Hand-woven Kilims Wood-turning Photography  and Furniture Plus teas, coffee and cakes of all shapes and sizes.   There will also be wood-turning, painting and knitting and crochet demonstrations. 16 rue de la Verderie, 17770 Brizambourg 10 - 4 Sundays 18th and 25th August. if any of you have friends in the Charente Maritime region of France, do share this  with them.  If anyone needs directions - just ring  Sue on  0546 9408 53              Do go along if you can - you will be made very welcome. Have a great weekend -

  Independent Open House 29   - Pink Birdhouse 29 Southdown Avenue Brighton, BN1 6EH 1273 541589 clarerose.designs@ntlworld.com www.clarerosedesigns.co.uk The house is packed with lovely affordable things.  Clare Rose: Beautiful and sometimes humorous textile and felt pictures  Chrissy Smith: One-off fabric bags made from vintage and recycled materials  Jenny Sutler: Jewellery  Shirley Rose: Plants  Tina Clarke-Sheward: Victorian preserves and magnificent cakes  Colin Rose: Organic honey  Lisa Pilling: Mosaics  Kim Thittichai: Wonderful voluptuous cushions Well the first day was amazingly busy and several large pieces of work were sold as well as many smaller items, what an amazing start. I think people have realised that if they collect someones work they need to arrive early. We opened at 11am and the first rather large sale was at 11.05!!!! Boy were they keen.  The house was open and we were just about ready - Me on the left and an exhausted Clare on the right. She and