Feeling like Goldilocks

Whose house is this? I don't recognise it.
You can see the table top and the floor is clean...

There's cake..
and there are no boxes or carrier bags full of wool and felt, or piles of magazines or tins of paint, or baskets of washing in the hall.
The spare room is all ready for guests.
Fresh towels in the bathroom folded so nicely it reminds me of 'Sleeping with the Enemy'. But Just a minute whats this in the spare room?
Boxes and bags with 'goods' in them.
Junk that looks like it came out from under someones bed..
and in the next bedroom, chaotic activity at the sewing machine.
Yes, its my house. Ready for guests and a Craft Fair.
Feast your eyes on the tidy scenes, they are rare.

My husband was very helpful. He went shopping. I asked him to get me one of these.

This is what he brought.
He is a little hard of hearing.

Musings of a domestic slobbess.

Isn’t it amazing how you can go for weeks with not much in particular happening and then a whole lot of things you want to do happen over the same few days?

For instance this weekend is the Traditions Folk Festival near here. On Sunday I am having a stall and doing two feltmaking workshops at the festival during the day.

Thats good. And I’m looking forward to it.

I’ve made a few more brooches and some hair barrettes that I thought might appeal to Traditional Music Festival goers.





When I go to a craft fair/workshop I sew up to the last minute then leave the house looking as if its been burgled. After the event I have a good tidy and clean.



But this weekend we are providing accommodation for two of the festival artistes, so I have to clean the house, and get ready for the event at the same time.



On Friday during the day its the last meeting of my embroidery group till September so I was hoping to go to that.

On Friday and Saturday its Woolfest



I could do with some wool tops for the felt workshop. I was wondering which day I could hope to go(..its about 2 hours drive so I don't think I can go on Saturday because of our guests..) when I received an invitation to an exhibition at a local college from 6.30-8.30, yes on Friday, with a personal note from the teacher hoping I could make it this year. (I couldn’t last year)

A lovely lady in our parish died last week and the priest rang today to say that the funeral is on Friday and I promised to do the flowers in the church, collecting them from the supplier on Wednesday, and arranging them Thursday, so it looks like the cleaning has been brought forward!

And when I say cleaning I don't just mean a quick flick of a duster, but moving beds, re-arranging the ‘spare room’, washing sheets, towels, rugs and throws which have been sadly neglected during the run up to the previous craft fair and left ‘till nearer the time’ of this one.

You know its bad when the dog refuses to get in her own bed till its been changed.

And when we emptied the junk from the cupboard space under what was my son’s bed so we could move it, I noticed this lovely and very appropriate box for my Celtic wares. It was empty. Now its mine.

You can probably tell from this.. the hoarding gene has been passed on to the next generation.

Why do some pictures load the wrong way round?

Please tilt your head when viewing the above.

Reflected Glory

Enough of my work for a while.
I would like to tell you about my husband since he appeared in the previous post.

There are not many photos so you will have to click on all the coloured links to see more pictures.
He was busy earlier this year helping with the restoration of The Midland Hotel, Morecambe, to its former glory.

Its an Art Deco hotel which has been restored by Urban Splash, with painted decorations by Eric Gill
These have been carefully restored by my husband.
He worked on the Ceiling Roundel at the top of the stairs laying tiny flakes of paint and retouching miniscule losses and when he had finished it looked like this
Then he had to make a painting, which was on a wall, safe before he moved the wall! (He’s done it before)
Its a relief map of Morecambe Bay with illustrations of the surrounding area.
Now its back to its original splendour and looks like this
There has been much publicity about the long awaited opening of the hotel and it was even on The Culture Show. Its hoped the Hotel will save the town from its decline.
When people hear what my husband does for a living they say ‘Oooh you must be very patient’,
He is. He gets a lot of practice. He’s lived with me for 31 years.

Art and Garden 2008

To make up for a week of the same thing on my blog there are a lot of pictures in this post.
(If you click on the picture it will take you to flickr where you can click ‘All sizes’ for a closer look.)
Despite what the weather man said we had a lovely weekend at ‘Art and Garden 2008’
Saturday was cool and the breeze was a bit of a problem blowing things off the shelves.
My stall was a bit untidy, but very colourful I think. You might recognise a few things here!
There were a lot of spaces at the end of the event.



Here are my first visitors. Isn’t it a lovely photograph?


Jo reads this blog, (Hello Jo) and it was great to see a real live reader in the flesh!
We had a short shower in the afternoon but Sunday was sunny and quite warm.
Here are some pictures to try to convey the atmosphere.

The weather has been cold,so the garden is a bit behind but that gave us sight of things that have usually finished by June.





Its a magical garden with secret places and winding paths, and heavenly fragrance from a beautiful rose rambling over a folly



Here’s a lily pad..



And here’s the frog, on its way ...(its only a baby!)



A quiet corner for contemplation



Here are just a few of the many exhibitors.


Mary Campbell with beautiful Collagraphs of Religious Processions in Spain, and below, Margaret Evans Fisher who does Landscapes with textured edges.



Mary Holden (who was my City and Guilds Tutor for Part I)with embroideries



Janet Park Stefan with her Batik paintings, wearing one of my brooches!


There were ceramics dotted around the garden, by Jean Bideau,



And all the time the sound of the river.

This young man was having a well earned break from his duties on the gate. The previous night he and his friend had a swim here!

There were marquees all around the garden and some exhibitors were lucky enough to be in the conservatory which has a large platform over the river.

Plant sales here:

And tea and cakes with friends here.

My other half (with the sun in his eyes-he does smile occasionally!) and our friend Barbara

Is that enough information?
I can’t think of a better way to spend a weekend in June.

The weekend

OH NO!
Maybe its a mistake?

(If you are wondering what I mean, click on the red letters)

*If you are viewing this anytime after the event the weather forecast will not be the same as it was the week before Art and Garden...if you know what I mean!

Next Weekend

I have been very busy working for my favourite event of the summer.
Click on the photo to view details.

Here's a map.
There'll be some of these and lots of other Artists and Craftspeople selling, (by the way, does anyone know why photos uploaded from flickr have half their right sides missing?)

and a lovely garden to walk through, with perennial plants and follies.

Refreshments will be available on the lawn by the river

We can't do anything about the weather but every stall is undercover.
See you there?

Innocent but still slimy

Just a quick note as we are off to Birmingham to see The Art of the Stitch
The answer to the slug/beer problem?
Be generous.

I added more beer and the result is..well ..repulsive.
Unfortunately innocent lives may have been lost.
My dead of night garden prowling revealed that my seedlings are being eaten by teeny weeny grey slugs with voracious appetites, and a huge great SNAIL!
It doesn’t help that my cat tried his own slug repelling earlier in the day by relieving himself upon my baby plants.
I give up.

P.S. on selling

I forgot to say in the previous post I would still feel the need to produce large amounts of embroidery even if no-one bought anything.
But would also like to say that for me selling is a terrific ego-boost. To think that someone would part with their hard earned cash to own a piece of my work makes me feel grateful.
Selling validates my efforts, it justifies the time I spend on sewing and the money I have spent on it.
It supports my addiction to materials and equipment, magazines and books.
Above all it keeps me from the front of a school classroom.I am far happier manipulating fabric and thread than a class full of Primary School children in 'Literacy Hour', even though the financial rewards are much less.
So a big thank you to everyone out there who has a piece of my work in their possession.
Its nice to think of a little bit of me in the different corners of the world.
I think its the only way I'll get there!

Separation Anxiety. Thoughts on selling.

As my biggest selling event of the summer approaches I have had some thoughts on selling.
Some items you make to sell

like these seascape brooches last summer, or these bags now with new owners,(I have more!)

or a small Celtic panel which long ago went to a new home.

And you are happy when you have sold them.

Other items you make, and you like them and want to keep them, especially when they are the 'First' of a new series,

and although you have people who want to buy, no amount of persuasion will make you part with them.

There are others you don't really think about, put a high price on them, and in the blink of an eye, they've gone. (Apologies for showing this yet again, but it fits here)


And thats Ok. Its good in fact.
Except that 'data protection' won't tell you who bought it!

But there are those you made and sold without thinking

like this mostly hand stitched Celtic Panel,which was the one out of all the 15 I made that I liked best;
or this Fifties style piece. Again, I made a lot, but this was my favourite.

Even though you sold them to lovely appreciative people,and you know they will treasure them, you really wish you hadn’t.
Of course,there are also things you make to sell..and you just can't shift them at any price!