Happy days :)

Blowing gently..
Bowing harder...
BLOWING REALLY HARD!!
How gorgeous is it to run free through the Dandelions in spring ?


Happy Days :)

Spring is here :)

On Sunday I was at The Dairy House for the 2nd Vintage Textile Fair. There were lots of guest stalls outside full of gorgeous vintage textile related goodies and inside was packed full of beautiful antiques, clothing and furniture. There has been a major reshuffle inside and Sue from Vintage to Victorian has got even more drawers to rummage through full of buttons and vintage fabrics.

We were very lucky with the weather, I managed to sit in the sun most of the day (inbetween serving customers of course) Above is Justines stall from Pink Milk on Etsy , she uses a lot of Fabrics from The Dairy House in the making of her gorgeous cushions.
Yesterday Arthur and I went with a friend and her son to Brokers Wood near Westbury and had a fab day out. A picninc by the lake and a wander through the woods, where all the flowers are about to come out.




We have been so lucky with the beautiful sunny weather and I am lucky that I have been able to take advantage of it. We even had our first barbeque with a nice glass of Pimms. Perfect :)

Spring Fever

This is what happened to the beads I was making, this is a picture of six of my new necklaces. There have been requests for one as above which I am working on at the moment. A collection of these necklaces went straight into Cream in Frome as they look fantastic on Avrils gorgeous knitwear.
I have also been experimenting making fabric beads.. and since making these have been on a bit of an adventure. Back in January I put my name down to attend The Best Of British Open at Liberty London, and a couple of weeks ago I got an e-mail with the details on it. I became very excited and decided to make some of the fabric beads with Vintage Liberty Fabrics and luckily Donna Flower was able to provide the most perfect fabrics. I didn't really sleep much over the 14 days leading upto the 2nd of April. My mind was buzzing, 'what if they did like my things how could I cope with the orders', (I do have an army of knitters and crocheters that would help) 'what if they didn't like them' etc etc. Mainly I was going for the experience and whatever happened I was going to have a great day.
I used the Liberty fabrics wrapped around curtain rings as well as making the beads and embellishing them. I also wrapped the fabrics around woooden beads and did a few embroidery stitches to give it a bit of texture.
The one above is quite a long one and one of my favorites, I really should have worn it on the day!
I got to Liberty fairly late, about 11 and there was none of the queuing I expected. I went straight in and up the stairs to a waiting area signed in and was offered coffee and tea, much more relaxing than I thought. I spent the next couple of hours nattering and people watching. There were some amazing designers there.
When I went in to do my pitch I was sooo nervous, your given 3 minutes. I started talking about my work and the first thing I took out of my bag was a necklace nearly 2 metres long which I had made to look like the one at the top, I was sort of going for the vogue look. I think I probably came across as absolute beginner and not at all the person I am with 24 years experience in retail ;) I then showed some of my other work. The people judging had really already decided that my work would not suit Liberty and felt it was a 'niche' market. Ah well I did my best, and was so glad I did it. It was something I had been dreaming about since my 20's and maybe one day I'l go back who knows. The only thing I think about getting in later was that the buyers had probably seen 300 people each before we all went in and it must have been such a tiring day. If you think you've got what it takes they are doing another one in August. I would say dress quirky and wear what you are selling if is jewellery or clothing.

I now have a really strong collection of work and 6 Galleries interested in stocking them, which is probably a bit easier to do and fits more with this years plan!

Dinosaur Birthday

Arthur has had a fantastic Birthday weekend. Saturday he had a special Birthday day with his best friend. Tony took them to the Haynes Motor Museum to see the Alien Invasion. While I got ready for Arthur's Birthday party the next day, baking biscuits and a Dinosaur cake and doing a general tidy up. Ted and Arthur manged to test the biscuits and cake and have a preview birthday tea.

The cake started as above, I had an idea for a Volcano cake, but really wasn't sure how I would go about it. I looked at tins that would have been perfect but cost more than buying a cake! Tony had the brain wave of making lots of layers, I had already decided on doing marbled cake to give the affect of rock layers. So I made 2 victoria sponges but divided the mixture into 2 before putting in the tins, 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder and 2 tablespoons of boiling water (to mix powder into paste) were added to one, and vanilla esscence to the other then the cake mixture was blobbed into the tin, some of each mixture, then mixed gradually to make the marbled effect. The second cake I added red food colouring and strawberry cordial.


The icing was made using my special recipe of not quite set fudge mixed with icing sugar..sets like rock :) Arthur helped add the finishing touches.
I was quite pleased at how it came out, not all of my cake ideas work am better working with wool ;)
Arthur was very pleased with it.
The layers worked really well.
Arthur had 4 friends over to tea, and we had been preparing all day. There were masks to make..
Bones to discover, I was going to use the ready made plaster ones, but felt they may not be as good for 5 yr olds as discovering these bones and building them after.
Arthur did a little test. We also buried lots of fossils (George had a big collection) so it was great telling the boys all about how fossils are made and they were really from Dinosaur times.
I think they enjoyed it, my brushes were totally wrecked, my face when I saw them made the boys laugh ;)
Tony built a cave and we did a chalk dinosaur egg hunt, then the boys did some amazing cave painting, all this lasted about a minute!! was like a whirl wind going around the house.
Tony had been experimenting for 2 days (shouting 'come and see' each time) with Coke bottles,mints and bicarbonate of soda, in the search of the highest Volcano...he went through 10 bottles of tonic water 2 tubs of bicarb,20 packets of mints, and approx 20 coke bottles (luckily it was the 19p stuff).
In the end he found Minto's in Coke to be the best, but the mints had to be attached to a wire to keep them at the bottom of the bottle, otherwise they floated to the top and blocked the flow... so at one stage he was drilling holes into mints *slaps hand on face* we did point out someone had invented polo's but apparently they were not as good. It was good fun for the boys, counting the mints and seeing the reaction and doing the countdown.
Above is the mints going in..
Then Tony gets ready to run..
and we have blast off..
Reach for the sky!
and up passed the boys who are standing on the balcony shouting that's rubbish do it again ;)
The grand Finale was the Volcano exploding. It was a really fun couple of hours..
and I was so glad I'd tidied up before hand noooot! Luckily our kitchen is downstairs so we could leave the mess and enjoy a tea and later a wine upstairs :)

Colourful Beads

I have been having more fun making beads. This time I have made them by crocheting a ball and stuffing it with merino tops, using all the different wools I have as a little test. Then putting them in the washing machine, they did start off in a pillow case but escaped *note to self tie up the pillow case* I put them on 95 0 and was really pleased with the results.

Then I got together all my embroidery threads and some very old pamphlets with samples of embroidery stitches in, and decided to have a go at embroidery. I am not the neatest of sewers so was not sure how they would come out, but I do like the results...no dainty stitches there, I like the naive look of the beads.
They are now in the studio ready for me to sew some beads on, and then turn into necklaces.
They will be mixed with the crochet and some felted beads with a lot of freeform crochet in between.

The scumbled workshop went well and I am running another one on the 19th of March. Everyone produced lovely freeform crochet work. The best being an 8 year old who just quietly worked away next to her mother and produced a beautiful scumbled heart. There is a link here to The Air Gallery on Facebook.

Next week I am going to experiment making fabric beads, I am soooo lucky that I can call this my job :)

OO shiney :)

Arthur has been home sick with a cold for 2 days, so I've not been able to make it into the new studio to work.

I have managed to crochet these beads though :) Which have taken 2 days to make using freeform crochet. The colours are perfect for Summer. I have been dreaming of long hot days by the sea and walking through gardens full of colourful flowers as I crocheted away :)

Looking forward to a day in the Studio tommorow, turning all of the beads into necklaces.
I am also getting ready to run a Scumbled Crochet Class at The Air Gallery in Wells on Saturday, should be fun :)

Its been a making sort of weekend..

I made these little flowers and beads yesterday, I'm working on a new collection of necklaces so making beads to go with my scumbled crochet ones. Arthur saw them this morning and asked how I made them so..
I showed him and he made a couple of beads (with me starting the felting process off) then we experimented making a sort of sausage shape and adding layers of colour.
When dry we cut them into beads, Arthurs are the blue ones and I did the pink.
This afternoon we did a bit of baking, I tried to make Chocolate Kisses but they came out completely wrong and a more like brandy snaps without the brandy ;) maybe I overcooked them or left out a really important ingredient like flour lol ??

Luckily the second batch of biscuits came out ok, and we had fun decorating them with a little bit of a Valentine feeling going on :)
We have nearly finished moving the shop and office, Tony is doing the finishing touches now, its been a long hard slog but Its so going to be worth it. Am looking forward to having a sitting down making week.
Hope you all have a fab valentine :)