Handmade at Home

The end of November is looming and that means it is time once again for Handmade at Home

For the past couple of years I have filled my home with handmade goodies from talented crafts folk from Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire and invited folk around to come and have a look and purchase at will!

Last month was the first event for this year and we are doing it all again this coming weekend.

This is a wine rack made with recycled wood by Roch Furniture  I have mentioned some of their work before here and now, in addition to the painted furniture they are making their own pieces - tables, benches and these lovely shelves.

  

The hallway was sparkling with a table laden with beautiful jewellery from Sheena's Beads.

Karin from Kus Design takes lovely pieces of vintage china and displays them with floral arrangements and packed into boxes.

Set along the mantlepiece are four of Sharon Taverner's textile and mixed media art pieces.  Fabulous colours. so rich.

The dresser was just the right place to show off cushions and quilts from RuthDesigns.  The cushion at the top of this post is also one of Ruths.

I went all red white and blue on this table!  Land Cuckoo goodies.

In case you are more of a crafter and want to have a go at making something of your own there was a selection of fabrics, patterns and kits from Maggie over at Sunflower Fabrics.

Set up next to the window where the sunshine can really show off the glorious colours are Linda Boys glass creations.  Plates, cake stands, jewellery and decorations all in jewel like colours.

Who could resist this delightful angel, handcrafted by Sew Sonja she was perfect looking after the jam!

Wow, a dresser full of jam and chutney!  All made locally by Vickie at Humber's Homemade

All together we had tables laden with handmade delights. 

And this weekend we'll be doing it all again.  There will be some new crafters with very different products that we have not had before and new fabrics, colours and products from those of us who have been before.  Thats the beauty of handmade, no two collections will be the same, even if we try!

If you are in the area do come and see us.

Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th November

10am - 6pm

Wrestlingworth in Bedfordshire

Contact me for further directions and information if required

Hope you all have a good week and successful sales for those of you who are crafting like crazy for the Christmas season.

Take care all

Sarah x

Catching up

Once again I have abandoned blogging for some time.  Have been doing a lot more than George has!  This is his favourite spot in the house, half way up the stairs next to the window where he can watch what is going on outside and in.

A couple of friends and I popped down to the Knitting and Stitching show at Ali Pali last month.  Had a wonderful day out and found some great new fabrics and projects.  Linda had a go with some rather large knitting needles!

Markets and events are in full swing now, just waiting for the customers to get into the Christmas shopping mindset, it seems that no-one is really getting started on the seasonal things yet.  I know that may sound daft as it is really quite early still but usually I have noticed a marked difference in the things people purchase but not so this year.  Maybe I am selling different stock this time!!

My dining room table currently looks like a Harvest Festival collection!

All the jars and tins are supporting my painted signs so that the wet edges don't stick to the table!

Lovely lovely sea of painted wood all ready to be stencilled.  Need to be getting another batch made up today.  I have to wait until we don't have any imminent visitors as they wont have anywhere to eat!!

Best get back to it, hope you are all well

Take care

Sarah x



Checking in

Not been blogging much recently, as you can tell, but just thought I'd fly past and check in.

Got a lot of stock to make up for market this weekend, got lots in the pipline but waiting for paint to dry seems to be taking ages, even in this gorgeous late summer sun we are having.

So strange isn't it to be out in shorts and t shirts, kicking up the autumn leaves whilst looking at Christmas decorations in the shops!!

Have been making up some of these button fridge magnets ready for the weekend, just need a delivery of buttons to arrive so I can get the rest made now.  I love buttons!!

Also rather like ribbon.

Not to mention fabric.

Hmm think I'll be off to indulge in more of the above now, apparently its called 'work'.

Take care all and have a lovely weekend in the sunshine

Sarah x

Question: Where does a chicken keep its brains?

Answer: In her feathers!

How do I know this? Because my lovely 3 girls have started to moult and the quantity of feathers lost directly relates to the ability to remember how to do regular everyday tasks.

Now the delightful Gladys, Vera and Betty have never been top of the leaderboard when it comes to brains.  They've never managed to complete the Daily Telegraph cryptic crossword (or any crossword really come to think of it, no thumbs you see, makes it difficult to hold the pen) but just their regular job of walking in and out of the enclosure to go to bed or to get food and water is all that is asked of them.  I don't even expect any eggs now the feathers are coming out.

However, even the simplest thing eludes them this week.  Corn didn't even work.  Betty, ususally the first to come running when she hears the corn in jam jar shake couldn't figure out what she was to do and in what direction to go when I was clearly asking her to go and eat corn in the usual place! 

So in conclusion, the brains must be in the feathers which are now strewn across the garden.  Vera has no tail feathers and Gladys looks so shabby, bless her.

Not sure what tactics to employ at tea time tonight, who would have thought that rounding up just 3 birds in one garden could be so difficult!  George Doggins and the cat sadly are no help whatsoever as they just come running to me as if to say 'I know what you want, look I'll go and show them!' which only succeeds in scattering the feathered ones even further across the garden.

No doubt the neighbours will soon be enlisted to help form a pincer movement towards the hen house!

Hope you are all ok, have a lovely weekend

Sarah x

A dogs life

Afternoon!  George here, Mum is busy getting ready for tomorrow's market so I'm taking over the keyboard.

Guess where I've been?

Back to Devon, I do like it there especially on the beaches.  I played frisbee on this beach, even went in the sea just a little bit.

Played with someone elses frisbee that we found on the rocks on this beach, we left the frisbee there incase it's owner came back again.

Mum was busy eating a great big portion of fish and chips when she took this picture!

When we weren't eating out, we (that is the royal 'we') had a go at cooking on this - it was stinking hot but did make lovely bread!!

I played on this beach in the rock pools

I'm not interested in sheep, apparently I should be but they just smell funny and look very odd to me.

Now, this I was interested in.

Fish.

Not the sort Mum had in batter, although I do rather like those too.  These move underneath the shiney wet stuff and are all different colours.  When they disappeared then I met ducks too, not seen them before, well I don't remember them if I have.

Another one of Mum's culinary treats!  We didn't eat at our home much this week!  I mostly slept when we were at home because we walked and walked and walked out in the sunshine and the rain too all day every day!  It was a lovely holiday and I hope I get to go away again soon.

Think Mum might be back next week when she has finished putting all the stuff away that she has to get out when she goes to markets.

Love from

George xx

Lavenders Blue

Yesterday evening we went over to Hitchin Lavender for a tour around their lavender fields.  We, being the Crafty Night In crowd that meet up at my house once a month for a catch up and a bit of a craft.

We set off up the field, gathering stems from the different varieties as we went.

You can see the rows on the right of the photo have been harvested.  Sadly some of the crop has been lost this year to the drought and late frosts.

Nick, our guide showed us the different varieties of flower, insects and wildlife that thrive in the fields and the oils with their different fragrances that are produced from some of the varieties grown here.

When there is such a large amount of lavender all together the colours are amazing and so clearly different from variety to variety.  I particularly liked the colour of the Ice Blue (I think that was it's name) so fresh and cool along the edge of the paddock.

As the sun moved, mainly behind the very threatening big black cloud above, the colour of the lavender changed with each photograph.



We finished up our tour in the grand barn, filled with the heady scent of lavender with plenty of lavender products to choose from to take away just a little of the scent and colour we had just been walking through.

I don't know about the rest of the ladies, but I slept very well last night, all that lavender and fresh air!!

Take care all

Sarah x

Too-in and Fro-in

Going this way and

that way!

Been an odd time of late in my little world, lots going on in my head which has rather stunted all other activity!  Hence the lack of blogging recently.  Strangly though, I do still have plenty to catch you up on, nothing major but just stuff!

The birds have flown now.  The two surviving Blue Tits took off a couple of weeks ago on a delightfully sunny afternoon.  It was so wonderful to watch them fly off in to the big tree at the bottom of the garden where they busied themselves for a few hours getting used to the big new world!  It was the same tree which they were born in, well where the nest box was but I don't expect they knew that!

Haven't seen either one of them since that afternoon!  I do keep and ear out for the little blue tit call and maybe one day I'll get to see them out and about.  They will be easily recognisable as one of them only stood on its right leg, the other only stood on it's left one!!  They could still use the other legs but just didn't seem to want to!

Anyway, I better go and find food, nothing changes really!

Take care all

Sarah xx

All boxed up

Very exciting news today.  My treasure boxes have been selected to be in the We Make London Summer Boutique Pop Up Shop next month in Hampstead.

The shop is going to be held in Oak Studios which is a well established shop and gallery which regularly hosts workshops.

Throughout the week we are there, there will be more workshops available and late night shopping.  It is promising to be a great week for shopping in Hampstead!  And I am so thrilled that my humble treasure boxes will be there too.

This is a treasure box I was commissioned to make a few weeks ago.  It has the blue dotty fabric lid and has been whitewashed and varnished.

And then inside I have made a lift out tray to maximise the amount of 'stuff' that can be kept in there!

This was made specifically to be a sewing box to hold a lot of cotton reels

I am very very pleased with how it has turned out, quite proud of myself to be honest!  Nothing like singing your own praises is there!

Well I must go and make lots more boxes now and maybe try out a few new ideas I have.

Take care all, til tomorrow

Sarah x

That was the weekend

I had a good old busy weekend this week, just putting things back to where they should be, tidying up and getting ready for the next week now.

Last Friday I went over to an exhibition being held at St Neots Museum in Cambridgshire.  It is an exhibition of Textile and Mixed media Art by my friend Sharon.  More of her work can be seen on her website

Sharon's work is so full of colour and I am really pleased for her that the private viewing evening went so very well and wish her all the best for the rest of the month, the exhibition is on until Saturday 16th July.

Linda who I went along with arrived in style - she travelled by boat!  Ok so it was tipping it down and my little car nearly floated there instead of driving but she was on a proper boat.  How lovely to be able to moor up and be right in the town centre with the swans swimming right past your window, sorry porthole!

Also exhibiting was Elizabeth Bruning with her stained glass work.

Saturday morning dawned, not so nice and bright and I was off to Welwyn for the Craft and Farmers market.  Yes that big grey cloud above us did soak us too!

Here is Land Cuckoo all set up for the wet weather, ie, huddled in the middle/back of the gazebo with everything clamped down - just look at the table cloth blowing in the wind!  Welwyn is a windy market anyway but on days like this we all stand on the weights and hug the gazebo legs just to help keep them on the ground!

We still had a full compliment of stalls even with the inclement weather.  Karin from Kus Design was there with her pretty flower arrangements in antique china.  One of those printers trays has found it's way home with me, oops!!

And Roz and Rachel were there with their lovely furniture, this bench was so comfy - I had to use my chair to keep things off the ground after the rains so had no space for me to park myself, so I demonstrated the furniture for them!  This table and benches is from a range that they make themselves.

This picture is one I just took this morning on my way down to the workshop of one of the blue tit chicks basking in the sunshine in its aviary.  The two that have been outside for the weekend have been doing very very well and are eating enough mealworms for a small army!  Sadly Fidgit died yesterday, Hubby was there at the end and held him so he was not on his own.  Fidgit was such a pluckly little bird and I am actually very very sad even though we never expected him to pull through the first 24 hours but clearly there was too much wrong with him and he was not developing like the others.  I did what I could and he had the best little life that he could have had.

So now I have a bird free house as this morning I put the last little one out in the aviary.  Three surviving chicks from five is not at all bad and they all seem to be happy in their new home.  So once again I am off to chop up some worms although I don't think I'll be needing to do this for much longer either as they are all getting so good at fetching their own, but got to make sure they keep their strength up!!

I hope you all had lovely weekends

Take care, til tomorrow

Sarah xx