Soakings, Soaps and a Submarine..

What a week it's been down here in the West Country.. not that I was around in the middle of the week, but we've still experienced some wild weather!

We drove up to Kent on Tuesday in torrential rain to stay with my other brother-in-law and his wife - and to take in the Gillingham v Exeter City game. It was so riveting that the soaking we got was bearable especially as we won... and even though Graeham's brother was undercover with the home fans and wasn't as drenched as us!

On Wednesday we went to Chatham Historic Dockyard - us, a school party and about 6 others I think! It was fascinating and we went on this submarine...

Quite a feat for me as I get very claustrophobic - I even enjoyed the experience - although I was only on board for about half an hour  with a handful of others - not quite a full tour of duty with 69 submariners for weeks/months on end.

We finally left for home with some samples of my sister-in-law's bath melts and shea butter moisturiser -

she runs a handcrafted soap and other bath product business and I'm always happy to explore her workshop and wares! You can see more at Fentons of Kent.

It was a good thing that we didn't try to come home a day earlier, apparently Exmouth was cut off - and it happened again on Saturday night!

Anyway once we got home and dried off there was another book waiting for me to work on...

I'm trying not to see it as a warning for a much worse spate of weather to come!!!!

Oh, yes and I haven't been idle with some more boxes (told you they were addictive) and bracelets ready for next Sunday's craft fair and these fingerless mitts - an attempt to diminish the stash a bit further. These just need blocking an sewing up - they should be nice and warm as they made from some more of my homespun...

Right, time for Handmade Monday to see what everyone's been up to - hope you'll forgive my lack of comments last week - will try to make up for it a bit today!

See you soon...

Help - Addiction Warning!!

I thought I'd just try one or two boxes as featured on the Craftseller Calendar (another good idea from Wendy Massey!). I dug out some of the craft papers from various Craftseller magazines and started to experiment, but this should carry a health warning as it became a bit addictive and I soon found myself taking other gift wrappings apart and making new templates, then more boxes and then.....

 

 

 

I did actually get something I promised finished... my sister-in-law rather fancied a hand spun hat that I'd made for my husband when we visited recently and I said I'd do her one.  Luckily I had some alpaca that I'd spun a while ago so whipped this up - it's ever so soft and lovely and warm too. I posted it off and she rang to say it fits the bill!

 



The craft fair at Mum's village went really well, despite the grotty weather! I've got another one in a couple of weeks and as I'm back and forth to Wales a bit for work I thought I'd get ahead with some more mini children's bags.. hopefully I'll empty a bit more of my stash!

 

 

No book phots for a while as I'm working on some American materials that are great, but don't have very photogenic covers - they explore a range of reading skills with specially written text - it's easy writing, but lots of repetitive typing!!

 

Right that's it here for today - I'm off to Handmade Monday to catch up with everyone else - see not only a box addict, but task evasion expert too.. I will get down to work soon - promise!!! 

Being Good!

I've been good and knuckled down to some work over the last ten days or so - hence my absence last week!

Firstly I had two more sets of teachers' notes to write.. the first on Cliffhanger

the usual thoughtful and fun read from Jacqueline Wilson and then a great book - The Bog Baby.

It's a really good story about two sisters who find a Bog Baby and take him home to keep in the shed, but he starts to get sick and has to released back into the wild...

Then I had to pop into Wales to go to a school in the Rhondda where I'll be supporting literacy. The drive up was foul with driving rain and horrid conditions, but the following morning driving over the top of the mountain was breathtaking and the staff were lovely. I'm going to enjoy going over there - I'm back again at the end of the month!

Then I got on with some finishing off - the grey scarf I posted about last time and some bracelets that I promised to a friend for her to give as Christmas pressies.. I also found these lovely sparkly bags in the loft for them to go in.

Then there's the purple bag that I spun and then knitted up. It went into the washing machine on a nice hot wash and came out like this...

I've just got to add a button and a length of yarn for fastening - I'll do it later while I'm sitting at a craft fair in my mum's village - my sister and I have a stall there this morning - Mum is on sales pitch!

It's really nice to do this fair as it means coming up to see my Mum, sister, nieces and 'nephew-in-law' and we can relax and chat aplenty..

Oh - and I really was soooo good on Wednesday as I parted with a Jacob's fleece that was stashed in the attic. I decided to be sensible as I still have two alpaca and two shetland fleeces up there and it could take a while to get to the Jacob. (It'll probably take a while to get to the others too.) So a friend at spinning took it ready for her husband to weave it into a rug. Win-win I say!


Oh, Thrift collection Number 4 - this one occured to me ten minutes ago as I was stitching the hem of my niece's skirt and battling with a hole in one of her favoured cardis... Spend an evening learning how to hem, darn and stitch a button - it'll save you a mint in clothes that might otherwise need professional sorting or (horror) be thrown away before their time. There's plenty of stuff on the internet to show you how to do it and it just needs a bit of practice. I'm not saying I go round darning cheap socks or that sort of thing, but just think of how much you can save when it comes to buying something off the peg or from the charity shop that just needs a bit of mending or button changing or curtains that simply need altering!

Well, that's me done - just off to Handmade Monday to see what everyone's up to - although comments might have to wait till I'm home tomorrow as we need to pack our bits for the fair!

Chat soon.....