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

SUN, SAND AND SHOWERS

Hi everyone

As the post title says, it has been a week of sun, sand and showers for us.  At the beginning of the week we spent a few days with Richard's sister in Norwich.  A very interesting city with lots of great buildings to explore and we were disappointed we only had a few days there.  Here are some photographs I took while we were in and around Norwich:

A view of Norwich Cathedral through an archway

Norwich was playing 'host' to more to 50 life-sized gorillas that created a conservation art trail throughout the city centre.  We saw some beautifully decorated ones, and the above photograph is of one of those we 'met' in our travels.

I also took a photograph of the Edith Cavell monument in Norwich, but am embarrassed to admit that I chopped her head off!  

We spent one day in the lovely Wells-at-the-sea.  We walked the full length of the beach and arrived rather tired at Holkham Hall.  It was lovely walking through the sea and of course walking on sand is pretty good exercise.  The beach at Wells-at-the-sea is BIG, clean and not very busy on the day we were there.

There hasn't been a lot of crafting carried out this week, but I feel a lot has been packed into our 'holiday'.  We rounded it off with a family get-together yesterday; cousins (Maralyn and Evelyn) and sister (Anne), plus husbands joined us and as always we had a great time, lots of laughs and sadly as always, the time went far too fast.  Looking forward to the next one.

Today a friend and I went to the Plant Fair At Wisley and thoroughly enjoyed our visit.  I bought lots of my favourite plant: Heucheras (I will include some photographs next week), as well as some Sempervivums to put in pots around our pond.  Despite the rain, it was very popular and we only got caught out once - we decided to shelter in the Dahlia marquee and as you can imagine, there were some absolutely gorgeous blooms on show.  Here are some of them:

The variety of colours was superb and some of the blooms were the size of dinner plates.  All so lovely.

Back to serious work this week.  A bag decorating session tomorrow afternoon with my cake-making friend and back after a long gap at the Jacob's Well country Market on Friday.  And, two kittens arriving here on Thursday - definitely for fostering, not for adopting.  I think the Five Pie's would kick up a storm if we adopted any more.

Thank you to everyone who visited my blog this week and in particular to those who gave me ideas for getting rid of the wrinkles and creases on the jute bags I am decorating.  Steaming has helped and I think while they are a little damp weighting them down has also helped solve the problem.  I took delivery of some more this week and they were crease and crinkle-free, so I am hoping the first ones were the only wrinkly ones.

It's time now to visit Handmade Monday and catch up with my fellow crafting bloggers - a great opportunity to find out what they have all been doing over the last week.

Have a great week everyone - I will be back next Sunday and Milly will be here on Wednesday.

Jill

THE HOTTEST DAY OF THE YEAR (SO FAR)?

Hi everyone

It has been sunny and hot today - perhaps a little too hot, but so much better than too cold, or too much rain.  I hope the weather is good for you and that you have had a great week.

I took part in the third Craft and Food Fair at Ripley Nurseries yesterday and it was great and I am looking forward to taking part in July's event.  The organiser, Claire Dadswell was lovely: very welcoming, friendly and helpful. The fair had a really nice atmosphere and the other stall holders were friendly and helpful too.   Apparently not as busy as the previous two (when told that you get a little concerned, but it wasn't only the organiser who mentioned this.  The general feeling was that as it was a day packed with sporting events, all being televised, and there was a big event at Wisley - not far from Ripley - a lot of people were at home glued to their television).  However, quiet or not people were buying - not in large amounts but I covered my stall fee, costs of materials and travel and had some profit on top of that, so I was a very happy bunny.  Here are a few pics of my stall, the 'shed' and my crafts:

 

The view form the 'shed' doorway

A shot of most of my stall - see the very smart bench I had to sit on during the day.  Very handy as I used any free time to make more cards - plenty of room to spread my bits and pieces around.

I made some citronella candles in lovely mini-flower pots I bought from the company I used for my candle-making supplies.

These are half-and-half and my apologies for anyone who feels it is not strictly handmade (as I say, it is half-and-half).  On a recent shopping trip, I came across these lovely pink rose serviette rings - they were reduced to 99p each and I had a 10% discount on sale prices card at the time!  I couldn't resist them and knew they just needed a matching napkin;  I bought rose-printed linen and made six and got them finished in time for Saturday's event.  They didn't sell, but were admired and I have plenty of other selling opportunities later in the year.  However, one male stall holder said 'if I was a woman I would buy them' - er, in there must be some sort of logic, but I still cannot think what it is.

When I signed up I was advised that we would be in sheds - my first thought was that it might be sheds that are used for growing plants, veggies, mushrooms even.  However, when I arrived I wad discovered it was garden sheds as in sheds, summer houses, lodges, etc; big and small ones and I was lucky enough to be in one that was rather like a large summer house: plug sockets, lighting and carpet!  Amazing. I had visions of it being uplifted and 'planted' in my garden so I could use it as a workshop - seventh heaven.  I shared the shed with one other crafter, a lovely lady selling unique jewellery made from computer net work wire, the wire from old plugs, etc.  This was her (Sarah) first event and she did very well.  She had made some really beautiful necklaces, which were hard to resist, but I couldn't resist her earrings and bought two pairs:

These are orange coiled wire - a poor photograph, for which I apologise.

Believe it or not, these are supposed to be read, not fuchsia pink!  Very pretty though.

Sarah's work is lovely and I have recommended Handmade Monday to her as it will be great for her work to be seen by established crafters, so I hope she joins us.  Don't forget to visit the other bloggers taking part in this week's shared blogging event.

It's back into the sunshine for me - my cats have been knocking very large stones into our pond in an effort, I think, to see who can throw furthest!  I have to rescue the stones.

I may not make next week's Handmade Monday blog party.  I am going into hospital on Thursday to have a lump removed and because it is near to my appendix, that is coming out too!.  A double whammy.  It could be that I may be a little groggy from the anaesthetic - I was going to say out-of-it but that is sometimes situation normal :0).  This 'problem' has been hanging over my head for the last few months and has caused me to get behind with work and commitments and not do lots of other things - even ones I had promised to do.  Whilst I am naturally concerned about the operation, my biggest fear is that they will attack me with a road drill to take more blood!  I am beginning to feel like a tea bag, so many perforations that if I was dunked in a bath I would sink to the bottom.

I hope to post either over next weekend or soon afterwards, and in the meantime have a great week and let's hope this fabulous weather lasts for a long time.

Jill

SNOWY CHRISTMAS PIE

Hello everyone

Yesterday's weather was a big shock!  I hadn't expected to see snow this far south and and was very surprised to get up to find nearly 2" of the white stuff had landed during the night.  Even more surprising was that Chilworth, where I was taking part in an event, had no snow!  What went wrong?  Did someone shake the snowy blanket in Surrey and send it to our side of the A3?

We woke up to a light scattering of snow this morning, but no more has settled during the day although it has been 'sprinkling' all day long.  If you are in a snow-bound area, I hope you are not suffering because of it and if you are I hope all services are either being maintained or will be switched back on very soon.

A friend and I went to Wisley this afternoon as they had some plant demonstrations taking place as well as a Plant Fair.  Gardeners are hardy people - it was very busy and the car park was nearly full.  Mind you I think we found most of them in the cafeteria where we had to visit as it was bitterly cold outside.  Lots of lovely plants for sale, but this time around I bought some packets of unusual seeds: orange aubergines, black carrots and something I am really looking forward to tasting the results of, Samphire.  I love Samphire and wonder if it isn't farmed from the sea what will the taste be like?  I will let you know in a few months time

It has been a very busy week for one reason or another, mainly working on new things for Christmas Pie Crafts as well as making lots of new stock for yesterday's event.  It wasn't a great success - very well attended by mums, dads, grandparents, toddlers and babies (the event was to raise funds for the village play group) but they were not in a spending mood.  I have one more event on 6 April, then I will be back to sticking to my guns and not doing many events at this time of the year.  However, I do have some wedding fayres on my list of to-do's.

Here are a couple of pics of some of the cards I have made this week:

Most of the new stock will be added to my wall at Bourne Mill Centre tomorrow.  Stock levels are reasonable there, but I like to ring the changes bringing in new stock and moving the remainder around a little.  Makes it look as though the whole wall of cards has been replaced.

Another busy week beginning, making stock for the next event, planning the next workshop, brain-storming on joint-ventures with Linda, my cake-making friend, and catching up with other friends over the Easter weekend.

I hope you all have a good week, keep warm and don't forget to whiz over to Handmade Monday to catch up with everyone and read about their week.  I will be back next Sunday (mustn't forget the clocks will have gone forward) and Milly will be here on Wednesday with more stories from a kitten's point of view.

Jill

THE SHADOW UPDATE

Hi everyone

Lovely, lovely weather - please let it last for a long time.

Thank you to all of the lovely people who commented on my Handmade Monday blog post - I love to hear from you and try to reply when time permits.

My mid-week post this week is about Shadow.  You may remember I briefly wrote about him a week or so ago?  The vet was able to save Shadow's leg from amputation and he eventually came home with a plate and pins in his leg.  Very subdued possibly due to pain and being kept in.  My neighbour took him to the vet on Monday to have the stitches removed from his leg wound and to check out a swelling that had happened on his leg.  Unfortunately it turned out the Shadow was rejecting the plate and pins, but never ones to give up, the vets splinted his leg and wrapped it in tape.  Home again he came sporting a pale blue bandage, settled down for the night and everyone was hoping he would be fine.

On Tuesday morning my neighbour called us to say Shadow had somehow managed to remove his bandage/splint and was off to the vets again.  This is no mean task for a weak-ish cat as the splint/bandage is approximately 6" long.  The vet wrapped his paw up again and Shadow came back home with a bright blue bandage.  So far, all is peaceful and we hope he will not be stripping off any more until he goes back to the vet next Monday.  The big problem of course is trying to ensure he doens't hurt his leg by moving around too much - pretty difficult with a cat.

The trials and tribulations of 'owning' a cat (or dog) are many - but the fun they bring into our lives is amazing.  With this in mind, don't forget to come back on Friday and read my guest blogger's post - it is a great post and I know you will enjoy it.

Enjoy the sunshine.  I am off to an event at Wisley tomorrow evening with a friend, so hoping to get some goodies for the garden.

Jill