A WISLEY WANDER

Hi everyone

We survived last night's wind and rain - everything in the garden remained where it should be.  I had visions of getting up this morning to find the new pebble area have been 'moved' to the other side of the garden.  It is still very windy, but the sun is shining and it is warm, so it's rather nice to be outside.

A friend and I went to Wisley yesterday for a wander around the Sculpture Trail and we saw some weird and wonderful pieces.  We do pottery together and feel confident we can add our work next year - as if.  One item that we both wanted to take home with us was not part of the Sculpture Trail - the gorgeous dandelion heads.  Really beautiful work and if you live near to Wisley, you must make sure you see this sculpture (as well as all of the others):

As my life is full of cats and my friend is a fellow cat-lover, we were both pleased to find a statue of one:

In typical cat pose - asleep.

My new pebble area is going to be home to a range of small grasses and I bought some in the Wisley Plant shop yesterday and placed an order for some more when I got home.  Arriving tomorrow, and I will leave them in their pots and put them in various places before I plant them to make sure the area looks how I want it to.  Pics to follow when all the work has been completed.

It's back to work now and and plans for my Christmas shop are moving forward - I have two of my A Fair to Remember stallholders joining me and I am planning to ask another two.  It's important that I have a variety of work in the shop and there is method in my madness, I will need cover for the times when two people are a must and/or I cannot be there.  Exciting times, but a lot of work as I am approaching my autumn /winter events, making stock for them and my shop and organising everything the shop needs.  Roll on January - sorry, didn't mean that really.

Have a great week everyone, enjoy what is left of summer and hope you haven;t suffered from the wind, rain and other weather horrors being thrown at the world at the moment.

Jill

EXCITING TIMES

Hello everyone

It's been holiday time here - well holiday time for Richard.  I have been fitting my holiday time in and around work things.

It has been a great two weeks with time spent in France, going to the cinema, lazing, catching up with friends, 'heavy duty' gardening (laying 100 cwt of Glasgow Pebbles) and yesterday we went to Bletchley Park; a place we had promised ourselves to visit on several occasions and really glad we got around to it at last.  As it says in the guidebook 'it is where the World War Two Code-breakers broke seemingly impenetrable codes and ciphers and where the world's first electronic computers were installed and operated'.  We were able to take photographs of displays and other pieces in the huts and this is one of a 'sculpture' of Alan Turing produced in pieces of slate.  An amazing piece of work that must have taken an incredibly long time to create.

I have been working hard on producing new stock for the events I am taking part in and to add, as soon as time permits, to my website.  However, my 'exciting times' is all about me renting a shop for the four week period up to Christmas Eve.  My shop will be in the VillageGford complex in Guildford town centre.

If you follow me on Facebook, you will have seen that I have been sharing and liking a lot of the posts for this venture.  In addition to a wide variety of shops, there is also a bar and several eateries and nearly every day sees activities for children and their families.  This, according to my family and friends, is a crazy and mad thing to do, but I love a challenge.  A friend is helping out the the pre-opening work and will also have some of her work in the shop (and sharing the 'shop assistant' role with me).  I also have two of my regular stallholders taking part - and I am planning on asking a couple of others to join in too.  There will be special opening-day offers as well as other offers during December, so keep an eye on the Christmas Pie Crafts website and this blog.

Later today we will be celebrating the birthday of one of our neighbours - he is 89 and has much more energy than I do.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Jill