craftyness, busyness and happenings.....

where to start with the last week or so...crafty beginnings as a craft fair loomed on the horizon....getting closer and closer so it was off down to the studio at every spare moment...as the dust bunnies grew into monsters and the piles of clean washing massed encroachingly on every available chair...(at least it was clean....)

and then there's the news about Sally the goose.... turns out she's Brian the gander!! ...this may explain 'her' predilection for hissing and menacing your ankles.... ( well how would you like to be called a soppy old girls name like Sally when you're a red blooded male?? - Brian) 

had to take Bethany cat t'vets with a wounded horridness on her bottom ...probably a cat bite.... kept her in the kitchen for a week for lots of tender loving care and cuddles –  she got used to having the run of the house and lying in state on all the sofas while she got better.....and was restored to her full cattyfluffyness, bless her...

the next casualty was Emily hen, victim of 'Sally' ....who attacked her badly around her head and she was battered and couldn’t see, poor thing....so she was kept in the kitchen in the big box we keep for duck/hen/goose transportering.... and slowly she has recovered.....she is now outside in the wee hen run and all the other hens are out and about...and there is now a big new sheep wire fence down between geese and hens in the orchard ....like a sort of Berlin wall, minus the searchlights and guards.....we thought about sending Brian to a new home ... but this is where he lives now, we couldn’t bear to send him who knows where...so he’s our goose come what may...tho' maybe the solution is to teach him to read.....

then there was the night of the big storm...the sky loomed darker and darker and the rain came and forked and sheet lightening.... we watched from an upstairs window as the drama unfolded and the thunder rolled round the hills and the storm came closer...all very exiting...

things in the studio getting a leetle tense by now as craftyness enters a phase of frenzyness of cutting, sewing, finishing 8 things at once, labelling (first design then print your labels the night before and then ask husband at breakfast on the day of the show to cut 'em up... which he heroically did) as everything piles up everywhere and there definitely isn't anything for tea...wishing you had another week, collecting up paraphenalia galore and throwing it into the back and front and side and boot of the car and screeching off at high speed...

then the pleasure of arranging everything on a table in a local village hall...the craft fair is a lovely homely affair with some delightful arts and crafts, friendly makers and wonderful stalwart ladies of the WI making tea and cakes, not a whole lot of customers but made some splendid new maker friends....sharing ideas and swopping ‘how to makes’with kindred spirits is priceless...there are some talented people out there.....

the end result, love it! well worth the effort....must go for a lie down now...

and then there's the gorgeousness of other makers' work...it is the highest of compliments to say I wish I'd done that.....beautiful handmade books presented in deliciously crafted bags....loveliness and practicality in delightful colours...who could ask for more? Talented Mrs Hill.... and connect with printmaker and bookbinder Ian Hill in his delightful musings at Printedland 

and then a different feel again from the beautifully made embroidered rich silk handbags and hand knitted delightfully twirly and lacy scarves in jewel colours, together with jewellery all patiently created by the talented Jackie Farnworth....

it is so wonderful to see handmade and making is alive and vibrant, creativity is so many things, art, craft, printing, carving, painting, jewllery making, knitting, sewing....so many talents one small village hall....the pleasure in the making is even more so when someone else likes what you make.... 

...and finally, BIG studio news - after much debate and wheeling and dealing we are putting in underfloor heating and a heat pump so it will be so cosy and ever so very ‘green’ next winter!!! and I won’t need the gloves and woolly hat....just the small effort of clearing out my life’s work and all my fabric stash(!) and an odd collection of furniture and more....so we now can’t move up at the house.....and my nice clean white studio is full of black dust and the smell of plaster.... but it will so be worth it! Daughter has been 'out-messed' as there is nowhere to sit in the lounge and there are teetering piles of delicious fabriccy necessities and pretty items and what nots I can't possibly do without....

and the last word today is from Basil who simply wonders what all the fuss is about........biggest decision is whether to stay in in hope of more cuddles and a third breakfast, or to head for the big outdoors....