Bunting galore

Morning Everyone,

A couple of weeks ago I shared some of my ongoing projects which had kept me away from card making and I showed you the completed panel of bunting cross stitch. Well, the keen eyed amongst you will have noted I took it to the Craft Fayre I did the other weekend. Sadly it failed to sell, but I did want to show you the finished piece in all its glory:

It's just a simple pillowcase cushion with blue spotty material and wide rick-rack to finish it off. I wanted to keep it really simple as the bunting itself is so detailed. I really love it but was mildly upset no one else seemed to fall in love with it too.

Hope you like it, thanks for stopping by and I promise I'll have a card soon! Don't forget to enter my Candy if you're a follower, or if you'd like to become one.

Until next time. Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting

Vintage and Craft Fayre

Saturday morning saw me heading off to work, as usual, but not to work as a Visitor Assistant - oh no! today I had a stand at Blakesley Hall's very first Vintage and Craft Fayre. It was an overcast morning, chilly but thankfully dry and as I approached the hall the sky opened up and for just a minute I saw that strange yellow light in the sky that I believe we call a sun?! sadly it vanished just as quickly as it appeared. Nevertheless, grey skies and cold winds couldn't dampen our spirits today.

The visitor centre and barns had been bedecked in bunting and paper chains; the cakes, decorated within an inch of their lives be me the day before and there was an air of quiet hopefulness in the air. Although it is never easy to judge how successful any event is likely to be at a museum, this was something that had never even been attempted before - the possibility of doing another rested on the success of just 4 short hours.

Once on site I began setting up promptly, for the first time I didn't have any help for the stall and as per usual, I arranged, rearranged and started over many times. You wouldn't think so little would take so long to put out! I had, what at first instance, appeared the prime spot. In the reception foyer, first person you see as you come through the doors - fabulous! in reality, whilst a great spot it had two down sides; first, it was freezing! secondly, everytime the door opened I ran the risk of chasing down flyaway cards if a strong wind had picked up outside! *Note to self: next time, find clip stands and blue tack to avoid this issue again*

Nevertheless, the stand was set up and a cup of tea was in hand by the time the doors opened at 12:00. There were a wide range of stands, across the spectrum of vintage and crafts; from vintage clothing to modern milinary, beautiful soft textile crafts to hand made soaps. We were also lucky enough to have the talented women of the Birmingham and District Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers with us on site, demonstrating in the historic house. It all merged so well together and the hard work paid off.

With some jaunty 50's and 60's music playing away in the background and the sounds of the tearoom filling the visitor centre we awaited the first of the days visitors - and arrive they did! It was a wonderfully busy day and although the rain did visit briefly and the temperature never rose much above unbelievable cold (technical term, I know ;D) it all ran like clockwork with barely a hiccup in sight, it can safely be said that the first vintage and crafts fayre was a resounding success.

As for me, well I didn't make millions and to be honest I still can't work out why some items sell and others don't (not that there seems to be a common trend across all the fayres) but it went well and I enjoyed myself. Oh! and most exciting of all, this time round I had business cards which my darling brother designed for me (front and back):

                                                  
So anyway, here's to Blakesley's next fayre and three cheers to all the staff for their hard work, especially to Kim whose brainchild the day was. Bring on the next one!

Until next time, happy crafting! x

P.S Many of these images weren't taken by me and remain the soul property of Samina, my friend and colleague who kindly gave me permission to use them, thanks hun!

M.I.A

Just a quick note to say sorry for being MIA. I have a craft stand this saturday and needed to bulk up the reserves a bit, so i've been busy making some of my best sellers again - thus nothing new to share. So between that, work and planning a month long lavender festival for Blakesley Hall in June (assuming there is any lavender after all this rain) I've not had much time for blogging.

I'll be back soon to blogland and who knows - I may even have a little candy just to say thank you to all my lovely followers who put up with me.

Hugs x

Blue jay cloths, the last line of defence

Afternoon all, it's been an utterly horrific day here in Birmingham. I've been at work, not that we saw anyone at the museum but that's not the point. It turned out that it was just as well we were on site as the timber framing of our little Tudor house had finally had enough and water was pouring down the walls and through the beams.

Blakesley in the sun

It's been a real challenge cleaning up and trying to stem the spread of water in a property which has limited heating, conservations issues and no real tools. Solution? A serious disregard for clothing, 3 determined young women trained in conservation and jay cloths, lots and lots of jay cloths.

Windows!

Attic floorboards

Jamming gaps to the outside wall with cloths, lots and lots of cloth!

Hopefully the house will stop leaking water soon, but if the rain continues like it has today then it could get to the stage of a sheet of water across all the floors and some serious structural instability in the attics - eek! only time will tell.

Until then, well I feel like a human sponge!

Could you help?

Morning everyone,

Just a quick message - an appeal really. I wanted to spread the word - so the question is could you help?

From Mina's blog:
Hi everyone me again I have popped on to tell you about a lovely friend called Steph who is running the Belfast Marathon on the 7th May in aid of the Macmillan Cancer support, her life and the life of her family have been touched by this horrendous disease and Macmillan helped them to get through it...there is not one of us who hasnt been touched in some way by it and the Macmillan support are amazing and so deserve our help...Steph is going to be dragging herself all that way around the marathon bless her but is really struggling for donations...heres the link to her just giving site and you can even donate using paypal (thats what I did)...even 50p/cent or £/$1 in fact any amount would be fantastic...thank you all so much and as an extra thank you if you donate you can have an extra entry to my candy, just enter again and put donation in brackets after it and I will speak to you again tomorrow...thank you again
Mina xxx
p.s. if you cant make a donation could you please post this on your blog so we can spread the word...every little helps

I know we are all strapped for cash at the moment - but Macmillan is a charity which is also close to my heart. Their nurses gave my uncle a dignified end to his life after a long battle with cancer. They helped my parternal grandmother settle her accounts and provide home care when she was given 6 weeks to live following being diagnosed with stomach cancer and most recently were on hand to help my godmother navigate her way through all the red tape of benefits when her husband was diagnosed with bone cancer last January.

They seem to keep popping up in my life and for all the help they've given my family and the ongoing support they give hundreds of families I would ask you to support Mina's friend and donate. Even if its only a couple of pounds.

Thanks

Congratulations

Evening all,

How is everyone tonight? It's been another long week and my day off went by far too quickly, with a trip to the GP's taking up far too much time for an injured shoulder - turns out i've sprained it; damaged the tendons so that they're swollen and catching under the collarbone..... ouch! So doing anything makes it ache and sadly by the end of the day at work, I don't feel much like crafting at the moment.

Nevertheless, I had to make tonights card, as yet another of my friends has got engaged! I'm starting to feel like a spinster - lol! anyway...... It's not really a new design, rather i've revamped one that you've seen before as I think it works so well (and it's really quick to make so I can shoot it off without delay)

I used the trusty Marianne D die and inside I used a cuttlebug die that I've had forever and never seem to use - shame on me. The papers are all from a SU pad, the sentiment was printed and gems are from stash.

Simple.

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:
CRAFT - wedding/anniversary
Fussy and Fancy - punches and dies
Everybody Art - wedding

Thanks for stopping by and until next time, happy crafting!

With Love x

Morning all,

How is everyone? I hope you're all staying warm and dry. Sadly I seem to be in a perpetual state of cold and damp this week - but what can you do except drink a lot of tea? lol! anyway, on to todays card. This is for Sketch n Stash's challenge this week:

This is new image for me from the fabulous talent that is Saturated Canary - Isn't she just the cutest? I originally wanted to colour her in black and dark purple - which was my old colour combo when I dressed for a night out at the rock clubs - ok, have you all picked yourselves off the floor from the shock?! moving on.... anyway, I came to realise there was one floor in the plan, I have no dark purple promarkers - oooops! nevermind. change of colour scheme. I'm still really struggling with doing shades of black on things like trousers but I think this is much better than last time.

The papers are from SU, the pearlised card is from stock and the sentiment is a freebie from a magazine. Pips are from stash.

Thats about everything. Thanks for stopping by - your comments mean so much to me.

Until next time, happy crafting!