Recording Events(Sorry for all the brackets) :)))

Some random bits of life since the last post which was too long ago.
First a bit of death, sorry.
You must remember from a few posts ago and from here and there in the blog, little Blodwen.

Well sadly she is no longer with us. She had a good 'innings' as they say and we were very lucky to have had a bit of her company in the past. She was a sweetie. I am imagining  her gambolling over the Elysian fields reunited with her little Dachshund 'sister', Porky, their ears a-flap in the breeze, perhaps being followed along by our dearly loved and missed Willow, who found the two of them quite a puzzle when they stayed with us a few years ago.

How things change.

Last week I spent two full days which nearly finished me off, teaching in a FE college nearby. 

Starting out at 8.15 and not getting home until 5pm is a struggle when you usually have, shall we say,  an unstructured day, and I have immense respect and admiration for those who do it daily. 

I don't do it very often and when I get there I am looked after and made to feel very valuable, but still , just before it comes round, I wonder why I do it.

Well, I had two lovely days. 4 different groups of 16-18 year olds who made felt, and smiled and worked hard despite the awful colours they had to work with.  Mostly red, that horrible green that always gets left, and some awful yellows. They still managed to come up with some variety, and all but one (yes there's always one) were a delight.

I also met an artist who makes the most amazing lino prints that made me want to give up pretending to be creative. Look at her work here. I saw the first three of these prints in the flesh, a metre square and breathtaking.

A by-product of my 2 days in college was a solution to a problem that has been keeping me awake.

I've applied for another demoralising rejection craft event and wanted to make a tree to display my wares upon. (oops sentence ended with a preposition. Sorry) I happened to mention it to the Mr Fix It of the college who said I should draw it out and take it in the next day and voila!

OK. Its an awful picture and the tree isn't painted or anything but I'm thrilled to bits. Its free standing and the perfect height for on a table. 

 (Its no good someone as short as me hanging stuff above head height now is it?)

Even if I don't get in to the event, I'll have it for other events. 

It needs a nice coat of 'String' or even 'Cord', 'Clunch' or possibly 'Matchstick' and a few little knobs on (I'm working on that) and I can hang my brooches on it. 

That's if I have any brooches left.

Since I showed my last ones I have been lucky enough to have been asked by the delightful Rachel of Lazyhill Gallery in Dorset to send her some..so I have. If you live near Abbotsbury, pop along there and see them in the flesh! It looks beautiful and I wish I could visit. I also have work in The Platform Gallery, Clitheroe,  The Chapel Gallery Ormskirk,  and Fibre+Clay, Knutsford.

I have been contacted by whole host of other people for bits and pieces too, so in some ways I can do without having to hang on to things for a possible craft fair. (Thats just to pre-empt rejection and make me feel better)

Now here's some actual Textile content of sorts.

If you were reading in the summer you may have seen a family of blue tits emerge from the nest box. 

I've just emptied it to clean it out and hang it back up for next year and look!

One little leftover egg. And beautifully woven in around the edge of the nest some fragments of pink wool! Do you think the could have picked them from some of my felt hanging up to dry?

I'd love to think so.

How clever birds are.

I do hope they come back next year. They were such fun to watch.

I am going to the Knitting and Stitching show in Harrogate a week on Thursday.

Will anyone reading this be there? It would be great to meet a few bloggers. 

Let me know.