Shop refit

On Sunday and Monday (actually i started Saturday night!) we had a huge shop reshuffle, we moved all the yarn from the back room above into the front of the shop, I had made a plan the saturday before and even measured it up to make sure my plan would work.  It was much easier for Tony to just come in and do the moving the furniture bit and go back out again. The first job was moving everything out of the corner below to make room for the wool shelves, quite a bit of shuffling went on! and the house filled with yarn when we moved the shelves in place.
It had to be ready for Tuesday Morning so we had to work quite fast...while packing the house inbetween.
I think the shop looks great now and it has really given it a revamp, there is still a bit of a way to go unpacking my bits into the back room which will be my office and workspace (the buttons have there very own display cabinet and shelves) actually I'd forgotton how much we actually moved...all of my stash and the shelving, I will put a photo of the finished room on my blog next week.
I really l;ike where the jewellery cabinets are it all seemed to go to plan!

I am hoping that the house move will go as smoothly, I have loaded the van with the first lot of boxes and Tony's new chair especially for relaxing with a cup of tea.

ooooooooo moving tommorow whoo hoo, I may not be able to walk much after the move my legs are aching already!

Moving House

Well the move is well under way, and I am feeling amazingly calm. I have been slowly clearing since July, though there is still masses left to do I think it is achievable by Friday 23rd Oct.

We are having a major shop refit today, clearing the back room in the shop at the moment full of wool and clothes, andf putting it in the front of the shop..I have a good plan and think the shop will look fab when it is finished. 

My major stash of fabrics, buttons,beads and vintage books are being moved into the back room which will become my workspace and a place Arthur can relax after Nursery. A whole little room will be fab, I will be able to see the fabrics rather than having them in boxes and customers will be able to go through the buttons and beads. I have had a corner of the dining room for the last year as my workspace which has gradually filled up and spread into the rest of the room.

I am so excited about the move, and everytime I start to feel exhausted or cross with the mess I just look at this pic, and calm right down.

This is just such an amazing house :) It is the black painted one.An Edwarian house over  4 floors, our room being right at the top. (will need tea stuff and a little fridge,or i will not be making tea and taking it back to bed!)
A very long garden which needs a bit of tlc, we're hoping to have a section each, I am imaging a little blue painted wooden studio surrounded by herbs and cottage flowers, Tony will have a potting shed, Arthur a little house, and the teenagers are having the bottom end and thinking about a skateboard ramp...not sure about that one. Obviously this will be over time ..
This is the sitting room, and down the next floor is the dining room, both with balcony's.
OOOoo I can't wait to sit here, will not care about opening boxes! I have ordered cakes from Dee incase any one drops in over the weekend. It will be amazing to have our own place and be sociable again and though having the shop attatched to the house was great while Arthur was a baby. Locking the door and going home will be priceless :) The new shop and Tony's office are only 200 yards from the new house. 
Right I am off to sort the shop and move my stash, leaving loads of space to pile boxes.

Travelling Anonymous Market Bison Farm.

On Saturday I took my little shop to the Bison Farm at West Knoyle in Wiltshire. I aimed to get there early so I could drive in and drop off my bits instead of walking it all in, got there just in time..5 minutes after Kate and I unloaded our cars everyone else arrived.  That gave me an extra half hour to set up, I was not so stressed this time and everything seemed to fall into place. Putting the wool in the boxes worked really well.


Kate has been collecting lovely vintage bits and upcycling them as well as mixing with more modern fabrics and selling gorgeous bits of china, love the coffee and tea flowery pots.
The Lavender Russian dolls make a great use of the fabric I have in my shop, I imagined doing something like that when I originally saw the fabric so its really nice to see them made up, backed with vintage fabrics. I have asked kate if I can have some for my shop so hoping she hasn't sold out ;)
There was a great feel to the market, the sun was shining and everyones stalls looked fab! The bus above was a cafe inside and sold delicious coffee.
Dee has just started a cake business and sells to offices in and around Gillingham and Shaftesbury, her cakes are yummy :)
A que formed immediately hee hee :)... who let the goats out!
I loved Rose Hatchers felt, she has not been felting that long but has done some amazing work. I can see her work selling well in Galleries. I have got some of her cards in my shop which look fab and I really like to stock local artists work especially when people are just starting out.
and I really really want this coat!!! but would have to win the lottery or maybe sell one of my original paintings. Will have to have a go at wet felting it looks great fun.
some more lovely stalls :)

There was lots of fab food too, the most delicious salads and Olives.
and of course the bison..who luckily didn't get out..you would have seen me abandoning my stall if they did!
It was a great day in the sun, and Arthur went off with his best friend Ted to a little theme park..so I had a lovely break, could have done with lots more customers though!! think people went off to the beach instead :)

Tony went off to The Goodwood Revival and texted me what a fab time he was having and how it was vintage heaven..mmm he originally told me it was  a car thing!  I will be booking my tickets for next year i think!

Lots Going On

I have not blogged for a couple of weeks, I seem to spend lots of time on twitter as it is more instant and you can also chat to other crafters while you work :)

I was embellishing these little hats last week. After teaching lots of teenagers how to do blanket stitch over the summer holidays while making mobile phone socks, I realised I could do it myself, I had not been able to do it neatly before, its still not perfect but I am pleased with the results.  I have used found bits of fabric and embroidery to add onto the hats a great way of recycling little bits of fabric.  I have cheated and not knitted the hats first, the credit for those goes to Bridgette my knitting angel :) using the Adriafil Mirage yarn. I have just realised i have not put those on my website..lots of updating to do next week :)

On Saturday I ran a Needlefelting workshop, always great fun. I cover the table with all the lovely Merino wools, a mixture of the embellishing yarns I have in the shop as well as beads, buttons and findings so everyone can take home finished items.

This is what every body made Tina aka Mollimoo has blogged about the workshop :)

One of the ladies went home wearing her cupcake and leek brooches she made during the class and was also armed with enough knowledge to go and teach needlefelting at a craft workshop in the school where she works.

I am getting ready to have a stand with The Travelling Anonymous Market at the Bison Centre East knoyle On Saturday.

Arthur helped me to paint these lovely old potato trugs, he loves doing little jobs like this,

and cocentrates very hard :)
I chose some colours I thought looked a little bit vintage and would look great sanded down to give an aged feel.
Then I realised that I had been influenced by the colours in the car museum..inspiration can come from anywhere, it is funny that I took the picture above while we were at the car museum, it obviously was ingrained in my brain. As I took the picture below I had a feeling I had seen it before and had to search back through my photos for the one above ;)
They have come out quite well considering they were covered in mud and looking very shabby.
Now I can put my yarns in them and they will stack on top of each other (easier to use sack trucks to get to pitch) and then go straight on the shelves saving me some setting up time.
George said they look like 'farmers market' but with yarn instead of veg, well that about sums it up I think?

Fibre Fest, Coldharbour Mill.

I had such a great time at The Fibre Fest in Devon, organised by the lovely John and Juliet. 

 I arrived at 8.30 on Saturday morning , and had volunteered to help two mornings in return for getting in free and staying on the exhibitors campsite.  Obviously I did not do this to save money as I realised after I volunteered it was only £6 to get in if tickets ordered in advance :) I thought it would be great fun meeting other Ravelers and there was mention of spending time in the Phop knitting tent.

So I arrived on the gate armed with knitting.  I met the girls on the gate and was a handed a high vis waistcoat to put on, then I was thrown in at the deep end by Juliet and sent round the exhibitors tent to hand out the Fibre fest brochure to all the exhibitors.  Which was fab cause I got a sneak preview of who was in the marquee before the general public arrived (good job cause it got so busy later it was hard to get to any of the stands) what i didn't realise was that with the lovely green jacket on I looked like I must know every thing, 'where are the toilets?' 'can you get me a ladder' etc.. I just smiled and said I had just arrived which didn't go down so well lol.

When I got back to the gate all hell had broken loose and there was a long que of people going way up the street..and thats where I stayed.  The girls on the gate were fantastic and kept smiling all day dealing with any problems that came up really quickly.  It was great to see so many people coming through the gate many of whom I recognized.

Dee and Debs arrived on Saturday so i spent saturday afternoon going around the fest with them, Debs was trying to make up her mind between one of the fleeces or a gorgeous big handmade basket.  The setting for the Fest was perfect the marquees were put up in the grounds of Coldharbour Mill a working textile water mill.

There were animals outside alongside basket weavers and music playing next to the knitting tent.

A great atmosphere!
Above is a little bit of the yummy tops I bought for spinning and felting, I was trying not to add to much to my stash as we may be moving soon and I already have soo much!
Dee fell in love with this gorgeous fleece, the colours in the marquee were fantastic, but I did not take any pics of the stands, I was put off at Ally pally last year when I asked if I could take pictures the standholders said no and glared at me as if i was just going to copy them. So now I am very careful, what i need though is a more discreet camera.

On Sunday I worked again in the morning and was lucky enough to do the Vintage sock workshop in the afternoon. It was great fun and I felt like I had used one before, though I did get lots of holes! I'm sure with practice a pair of socks could be knitted in no time. I will be on the look out for one of these little machines :)
I fell in love with all the bits inside the mill especially the bobbins which just look amazing with the yarn on. Debs bought some from The Threshing Barn with lovely multicoloured yarn wrapped around them.
I really enjoyed my time at The Fibre Fest and was more than rewarded by John and Juliet when they sent me a box of mixed bobbins as a thankyou..I was so excited when I opened the box :0  (not pictured) I now have them on display in my shop. ( though I will not be selling them they are just for looking.)

I forgot to mention all the lovely people I met up with like Picperfect and knitcave and puddytatpurr.  

Blog Awards

Ya, I have been given 2 blog awards one of which was a little while ago and i hadn't noticed.

The first one is from Woolyholic (and she lives up to her name. ) Her crochet skills are amazing, and make you wish you were part of the Granny Square swap..take a looksee :)

                                              

Thankyou Woolyholic :) 

My second award was from the lovely Mollimoo her blog is full of loveliness and sharing as well as the crafty things she makes for her Folksy and Etsy shop, she is also a bit of a buttonholic so when she pops into my shop for a visit we don't stop talking!

                                       

For this I must make an acceptance speech..so here goes.

I would like to say a huge thankyou to all you bloggers who pop in to read my little blog and leave comments.  It is a great comfort to know there are so many crafty folks out there and I am often inspired by all of your blogs and creations.

*tears welling up*  stumbles off stage.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I will pass these on my next post, which will also include the fun i had at the Fibre Fest in Devon.

Holiday snaps

We had a fab break. It was raining and grey as we headed down to Lymington to catch the ferry to the Isle Of Wight.  We got on the ferry and as it crossed the small distance to IOW the clouds cleared and the sun came out Ha Ra!
We drove straight to the beach, and spent the rest of the day enjoying the sunshine, very unexpected! The boys had a great time, George and Harry are so good with Arthur. I sat on the beach and crocheted flowers in lots of different yarns while sipping tea perfect :)
The Hotel was hidden down a little lane and on a cliff edge though the trees blocked any view of the sea.  When we arrived we were told that we no longer had the rooms we had asked for as there had been a mix up, we had booked a suite of 3 rooms and two bathrooms..before getting cross we went to look at the alternative, which turned out to be 2 rooms one of the rooms had 5 beds in it!  Any way it was not what we wanted at all.. the man got on the phone and came back to us, with an offer of a suite for the teenagers and we have the first suite with Arthur, the only problem is (he said) that they are in two different wings of the hotel..you should have seen George and Harry when they saw there rooms! They were over the moon, and next to the snooker room, swimming pool and table tennis.  It worked out fab, they could have there time and we met up at dinner. 

Tony managed to find a quiet spot, and on Sunday I spent the morning sat in the garden on my own reading a book, lovely.
The boys taught Arthur to play golf and table tennis (Arthur occasionally went in search of George and Harry, they all loved it, and also met in the pool before Arthur went to bed.
Sunday afternoon we went down to the beach near the hotel, no sand, but it was very quiet and unspoilt and very hot! I yarn bombed a few pebbles, Harry did some cave painting..

George found a quiet spot, and sat thinking..
mainly about skate boarding, and what he could do instead..
Jumping the rocks seemed like a good game!  I took photos and tried very hard not to shout be careful or don't be silly, I have learnt that he needs these extreme times and nothing I say will stop him.  There is quite a big gap between the rocks in the photo above.  
I took a lot of photos as the colours were fantastic,
I love these weathered roots of an overturned tree,
There was weird red sea weed everywhere which contrasted beautifully with the azure blue of the sea.

We did drop George off at Vetnor on the Monday so he could get his skateboard fix, and we went off to Shanklin for a walk up the chine and a play on the slot machines to get that real seaside holiday feel :)

It was a lovely break and we were so lucky with the sun. We got back to Lymington and it was pouring with rain and we drove through torrential rain all the way home. What a fluke :)