Good News and Bad News.

I have decided to close the shop in Wincanton from the end of January. This is good news for me but I know a lot of people will be disappointed. I have had a massive amount of support over the years in Gillingham and Wincanton and I am very grateful for that.

I am looking forward to concentrating on my designing, making and getting back to painting without the distraction of running a shop.



I will be doing a series of paintings from our house in Wincanton, where there is endless inspiration. The colours of the landscape change every minute, the dramatic skies in the storms and the misty autumn mornings, the amazing frost and snow we've had lately turning everything white, then pink in the sunset.
I would love to capture just some of that and paint the view through out the seasons, and just appreciate where I am. I will be aiming to have an exhibition called...'One View' sometime in the future.
When I am not painting I will be working on my scrumbled crochet brooches,necklaces and cushions which are now being taken by galleries and shops.

Of course there is Arthur to look after and I can't wait to be around more for him instead of him joining me in the shop. George and Harry leaving brought home how quickly time flies.

I am really lucky that I have the support of Tony and am able to make changes to work around Arthur being at Primary school.

I am sooo excited and really looking forward to the new year....

Meanwhile..

There is a huge SALE on in the shop, I need to clear everything including fixtures and fittings as there is not much space at home (mainly cause I have filled that up with crafty things already).
Vintage buttons are 50p a pack, there is bags of vintage cottons,zips, patterns, 2 old sewing machines, ribbons, and fabrics at silly prices.
Jewellery, and lots of gifts, as well as all the cards.
Worth a visit!!!

Its been soo long

I have not visited blogland since August. Life has been hectic sorting George and Harry out to go off into the big wide world. George started at Falmouth Art College in September and seems to be really enjoying it, and loving Falmouth itself. Well who wouldn't like to do Art by the sea?? Jealous moi ;)

Harry left last week to join the Army, he's based at Winchester to do his 23 week training and back on the 17th of Dec for 2 weeks. Am missing him massively now. With George we have been able to skype, facebook and e-mail so as much contact as when he was here really ;) ...But Harry has no mobile and very limited use of facebook, so it has seemed a lot harder.

Arthur started school in Sept, but seems to have been around more than before the summer holidays! The first half term was half days till 12.30 and since starting full days he's managed a week and then got a sick bug.

I have been busy making collections to go in Galleries and sorting out brochure and price list with the aim of visiting galleries while Arthurs at school.

You can now find my work in Fisherton Mill Salisbury, The Air Gallery in Wells and The Black Swan Art Gallery in Frome. ya!!

There's lots of other things going on with change in the air again ;) I will be back with pics and keeping up to date now I have remembered my passwords lol.

Hope you are all well. xxx

How to Marble Paper

Gather together a deep dish that paper will fit into laying flat, or cut paper to fit. Lots of different things for making the swirls, we had cocktail sticks,chop stick, whisk, crochet hook, pencil plastic fork and the best one the barbeque fork.
Fill the dish with water.

Then add some drops of colour (first shaking the jars of colour to make sure they are well mixed.)
make some swirls by dragging the cocktail stick gently along the surface of the water. (we found there was only a minute or so to do this before it started setting.)
Grab anything to hand to experiment with different swirls and patterns ;) Then you lay the paper gently on the surface and lift it up, all the oil paint will have stuck to it. we found thicker paper worked best. there is a little residue left which if you lay thin paper down on and lift it up as above, you will have clean water to start again.
Then all that remains is to clear up the colourful mess.
We were very pleased with how the paper turned out and started experimenting with other things. The Jam jars would make good night lights with a candle in, and I'll probably wrap some wool or ribbons around the top.

A fab week.

I put all my buttons out in the shop last week, to make jewellery and button hearts and to demonstrate how to make them. Customers could also have a go and make a button heart for £5.00, which proved really popular.
I poured out my jar of Mother of Pearl buttons (for me and not to share ;) I made two necklaces that I really like, inspired by the sea. I am going to do a beach window and these will look perfect alongside a couple of my beach paintings and a window full of pebbles.
I also made some tiny mother of pearl hearts also for the window, I sold a couple on Sunday so will have to make some more :) I will be leaving the buttons out this week and adding a few big beads and some hemp to make crochet necklaces.
In Wincanton we are very lucky to have Jenny who runs Divine Wines, not only does she have excellent taste in wine but is also an amazing cook. Part of the Wine shop is a cafe and outside is beautiful..if you like to get that 'holiday moment' this is the place to visit.
On Friday night Jenny ran a Greek evening, a five course delicious meal, (I could hardly move afterwards!) everyone sat on the long tables and though we didn't know anyone to start with we soon relaxed and enjoyed the company around us. It was an amazing evening and we could walk home ya! The wall art was gorgeous and I'm sorry to say I have forgotton the artists name, the picture are weather proof, a brilliant idea for the winter.
On Sunday I did the monthly Artisan Market at Catherine hill in Frome, I did not have any help so didn't get much chance to go around the market, I managed to take a couple of pictures of the fab shops that can be found on Catherines Hill.
and this stall of Sunflowers from a farm in Codford (which I would like to get to before the seasons out), they sold out in a few hours.
I was in my usual place at the bottom of the hill, I couldn't believe how much stock I had made over the last month, which means being in the new shop is starting to work. My next job will be to find some galleries and shops to supply with my scumble collection and brooches.
I loved Laura Merritt's work, unfortunatly I could only afford a couple of her cards but would really like one of her embroidered fabric canvases for my kitchen.
Monday we went for a picnic to Stourhead.
With My Mum and Sister in Law, was great to get the cousins together.
A really relaxed picnic in an amazing spot, probably spoiled a few photographs lol

Think Mum was pleased to see us altogether, Arthur actually took this pic with my camera with the zoom lens attached.
I have also been enjoying flowers from my garden, it has been great to walk down the garden and come back armed with beautiful flowers to brighten up the house :)
Hope you all have a fab week x

Feel like we have been on fast forward..

The older boys have turned into adults over night? They both looked very smart when they went to their proms. Me and Harry had a lovely trip to Bath to find him the suit above for his last Army interview, he is now through to selection on the 11 and 12th of August and if he gets through will probably start in September. Not long to go, quite scary, but very exciting for Harry. He is so enthusiastic and training hard.
Harry's band Vivid Unknown played at the prom.
George also went shopping to get some smart clothes, to go interviews in, he has been trying to get work through the holidays (not dressed as above a little bit more casual than that. )
We were given a huge trampoline, which has been amazing, it also helped to get the ground clear and gave everyone the motivation they needed :) our neighbours thought the boys were working really hard in the garden, then they saw the trampoline go up and realised why.
You can't see it at all unless your in one of the bedrooms, and the teenagers have actually gone out in the garden with friends which they were not doing before, makes it feel more like home.
We have had some carrots out of the garden, Arthur was soooo excited to pull them up and he ate the lot :)
We even managed to go camping to Charmouth with friends from Gillingham, and we were lucky enough to have a field to ourselves with the sun shining :) If your ever in Charmouth pop into Ida's cafe and shop, she has secondhand books and crafty bits as well as local crafts peoples work and has just started workshops.
I have been working really hard in the shop getting a few collections of brooches ready to go on Folksy and my website, as well as to supply other shops. The last 2 weeks I have spent needlefelting and sewing.

I have made some scumbled brooches to go along side the cushions and jewellery.


I had a lovely visit from Jo of Ilchester last week and she has mentioned my shop in her blog worth checking out her blog, she also runs a shop and loves vintage.

A Beautiful Week

What a fantastic hot week its been.
I had a stall at the Anonymous travelling market on Saturday and it was sweltering from very early on. I stupidly did not take my marquee, thinking we would be inside. I like how the stall looks but I had to keep hiding behind my van in the shade. Unfortunatley the market was so Anonymous very few people showed up. I enjoyed sitting in the sun (and shade) crocheting and listening to the live music. Maria (who's bunting you can see in the pic) came along in the morning and went and got me some suncream to stop me burning for which I am very gratefull!


It has been amazing to have the doors open in the sitting room drinking the odd glass of wine and enjoying the full moon :)
The flowers are all coming out in the garden, Star flower one of my favorites to add to salads along with nasturtium flowers (we eat very pretty salads lol)
The sweet peas have come out at last and look gorgeous.

and I have been lucky enough to spend time reading the paper and drinking tea amongst the flowers half way down the garden, my own little hiding place.
Arthur had his first sleep over on Saturday and they thought it was great to watch Doctor Who together, I made them a midnight feast (which luckily they ate at 7.30 ) and they were asleep by 8 after quite a bit of chatting. On Sunday we went to The Wincanton Classic Car Show which we thought would be very small.
But it turned out to be a really good show of vehicles, the guys were in there element.
Arthur and Ted loved all the steam engines,
Tony loved the bikes, He has an old BSA which he is slowly restoring.
Sunday afternoon we all planned to watch the World Cup with England versus Germany, Arthur has been loving the football and insisted we put flags on the van.
George and Tony put up a new goal for Arthur (well thats what they said) Think they went for a rather big one!
George thought he'd test out the goal....I don't think Tony was quite ready it was hilarious, he got quite badly hit by the ball as you can see from his face, I haven't laughed so much in ages.
Then Tony decided he would get revenge..not sure George was ready for it either, but he did turn sideways I notice ;)
The boys had a little game then went in to watch the match, which ended 4-1 to Germany, with a goal that was disallowed because the Ref didn't see it, he was the only person in the world not to see it, not sure about the rules there! It was so funny reading all the comments on Twitter...quite a bit of swearing going on!
I have also been busy making this week, I sold out of the felted brooches so thought I would make some more, I am also working on scumbled bags, which I am lining with recycled jumpers, and cushions which will be backed with recycled jumpers. I love playing with colours and textures like this. Great fun.
Arthur picked me this lovely bunch of flowers from the garden. I feel so lucky this year that we have the luxury of picking our own flowers :) Veg is also looking good and I forgot to put the picture in!