Siberian Spring, goodbye March, hello April!
Well, March certainly lived up to its "in like a lamb, out like a lion" reputation! We've been really lucky here in Comrie, we've had hardly any snow over the last month, it's just been bitterly cold. Anyway, April is well underway and spring can't be too far behind.....can it?!
I was selling my ware at the fantastic Lady Magpie and Me Spring Fair this weekend. It was supposed to take place on the 23rd March, but due to the ridiculous amount of snow they had in our Siberian Spring, the event had to be postponed. There were STILL snow drifts, in places, of about 3 feet deep!!
I have never really been down to Dumfries and Galloway, in the bottom left hand corner (technical term obviously!) of Scotland before, and I don't know why. Castle Douglas was so pretty and had a really lovely "feel" about it. I didn't get much of a chance to explore the town but I will definitely be back in the future! Now, this is where I should insert lots of lovely pictures of the buildings in the town and the quirky shops and even the aforementioned snow drifts but.......I forgot to take my camera! Mahoosive FAIL on my part!
So I have NO photos of all the lovely stalls and vintage goodies on offer at the fair. The magnificent bread and hot cross buns that were for sale opposite my stall, the AMAZING cakes and cups of tea being sold by Mrs Greens Tearoom! But if you hop over to the Lady Magpie and Me blog or Facebook page you can find the detail of all the stall holders and some fantastic pictures!
I've also been a busy bee, updating my Etsy shop and have listed all of my new screen print designs and also the few canvas tote bags that I have left! So don't delay and miss out!
I am going to add an Events page to the top of the blog, (I've put it on my To Do list, and now I've told you, I'll HAVE to do it!) which will have details of upcoming exhibitions, craft fairs, art markets and open studios events where you can come along and see my work in "the real world" and have a chat!
I was selling my ware at the fantastic Lady Magpie and Me Spring Fair this weekend. It was supposed to take place on the 23rd March, but due to the ridiculous amount of snow they had in our Siberian Spring, the event had to be postponed. There were STILL snow drifts, in places, of about 3 feet deep!!
I have never really been down to Dumfries and Galloway, in the bottom left hand corner (technical term obviously!) of Scotland before, and I don't know why. Castle Douglas was so pretty and had a really lovely "feel" about it. I didn't get much of a chance to explore the town but I will definitely be back in the future! Now, this is where I should insert lots of lovely pictures of the buildings in the town and the quirky shops and even the aforementioned snow drifts but.......I forgot to take my camera! Mahoosive FAIL on my part!
So I have NO photos of all the lovely stalls and vintage goodies on offer at the fair. The magnificent bread and hot cross buns that were for sale opposite my stall, the AMAZING cakes and cups of tea being sold by Mrs Greens Tearoom! But if you hop over to the Lady Magpie and Me blog or Facebook page you can find the detail of all the stall holders and some fantastic pictures!
I've also been a busy bee, updating my Etsy shop and have listed all of my new screen print designs and also the few canvas tote bags that I have left! So don't delay and miss out!
I am going to add an Events page to the top of the blog, (I've put it on my To Do list, and now I've told you, I'll HAVE to do it!) which will have details of upcoming exhibitions, craft fairs, art markets and open studios events where you can come along and see my work in "the real world" and have a chat!
Happy new year and lang may yer lum reek!
I hope you all had a fabulous New Year or Hogmanay as we call it round these parts! We're lucky here in Comrie to have the flambeaux take place, I wish I had some photos to post but alas I'm not normally to capable of focusing a camera come midnight! There are some brilliant photos here on Flickr to give you the idea! The flambeaux torches are lit at midnight and are carried to the North, South, East and West of the village, proceeded by the pipe band and followed by a fancy dress parade, it's quite a spectacle.
It makes for a fantastic atmosphere as there is a great turnout of villagers and visitors. It's a good way of welcoming in the New Year with your friends and neighbours without the stress of going to a New Years Eve party which are always an anti climax. The return of the flambeaux to the square is the signal for everyone to depart and do a bit of first footing. I think our record was getting back to the house at 5am, not nowadays with two little people in tow..but give it 3 or 4 years!!
I forgot to take photos of most of the presents I made but here is my favourite one! This sketch book was supposed to be a Christmas present for my friend Anna who was in need of a bit of creative inspiration for the New Year...but in the rush of Christmas it didn't get finished. It's now winging its way to her as a New Year present, complete with some inspiring quotations and images I know she loves!
I traced to word inspiration on to cream cotton and then embroidered french knots in three shades of turquoise around the outside of the word. The french knots are raised off the material, giving it a lovely 3D touchy-feely vibe.
It makes for a fantastic atmosphere as there is a great turnout of villagers and visitors. It's a good way of welcoming in the New Year with your friends and neighbours without the stress of going to a New Years Eve party which are always an anti climax. The return of the flambeaux to the square is the signal for everyone to depart and do a bit of first footing. I think our record was getting back to the house at 5am, not nowadays with two little people in tow..but give it 3 or 4 years!!
I forgot to take photos of most of the presents I made but here is my favourite one! This sketch book was supposed to be a Christmas present for my friend Anna who was in need of a bit of creative inspiration for the New Year...but in the rush of Christmas it didn't get finished. It's now winging its way to her as a New Year present, complete with some inspiring quotations and images I know she loves!
I traced to word inspiration on to cream cotton and then embroidered french knots in three shades of turquoise around the outside of the word. The french knots are raised off the material, giving it a lovely 3D touchy-feely vibe.
What a week!
Last Thursdays windy day was one to remember, 102mph winds were recorded by the Met Office at Glen Ogle which is about 10 miles up the road from us. Our electricity went off at 11am and didn't come back on until Saturday at 10pm. We've got a woodburning stove and an open fire so we didn't freeze. I could cope with out the computer, tv and radio (just!) but having no hot water was really hard work, we constantly had a pan of water boiling! Back to normality now, thank goodness!
Two friends have moved house this week so I've been making some housewarming gifts.
Firstly this set of Christmas tree decorations from air dryed clay, cut out with shape cutters, stamped with letters and then painted. I had quite a few attempts with the letter stamps before I was happy, but the good thing is all you need to do is roll them back into a ball and start again!
Second on the list was a paper star wreath, it's really easy to make but they look so elegant and complicated!
Christmas presents will be the name of the game from now until Christmas, lots to make but I think sweeties will be the biggest portion! I'm off to make a shopping list, can't wait to see the checkout assistants face as I arrive with bags of sugar, butter, chocolate and not much else!
Two friends have moved house this week so I've been making some housewarming gifts.
Firstly this set of Christmas tree decorations from air dryed clay, cut out with shape cutters, stamped with letters and then painted. I had quite a few attempts with the letter stamps before I was happy, but the good thing is all you need to do is roll them back into a ball and start again!
Second on the list was a paper star wreath, it's really easy to make but they look so elegant and complicated!
Christmas presents will be the name of the game from now until Christmas, lots to make but I think sweeties will be the biggest portion! I'm off to make a shopping list, can't wait to see the checkout assistants face as I arrive with bags of sugar, butter, chocolate and not much else!
Christmas Craft Fair
My first craft fair is done and dusted. It was a bit of a rush to bring it all together in time but it was good fun and I had some really nice feedback from people, someone even told me I had the nicest things at the fair!
I thought I'd be doing well to make £30, but in the end I made £75, less 10% for the stall fee (which I rounded up to £8 as the organisers had bought some decorations from me) so I came home with £67 in my sky rocket, absolutely delighted with myself and feeling like I could conquer the world!
I also got a comission to make another paper star werath and a possible commission to make place names with paper roses for a wedding!!
I could have sold a lot more star wreaths, I'd only made 3 and I was surprised that I sold all the gift tags, I only really made them as extras. I didn't sell as many of the tree decorations as I thought, all the ones that sold were either heart shaped and/or the pinky purple colours.
What next on the business side of things? I'm not sure, I got really positive feedback from people and I've got lots of ideas for various other items but finding somewhere to sell them might be the biggest challenge, ho hum!
On a different note, it's snowing really hard outside! We had about 2 inches on Sunday night and there's about the same again now...we'll see what the morning holds!
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| The stall, all set up! |
I also got a comission to make another paper star werath and a possible commission to make place names with paper roses for a wedding!!
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| Paper rose gift tags |
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| Tree decorations |
On a different note, it's snowing really hard outside! We had about 2 inches on Sunday night and there's about the same again now...we'll see what the morning holds!
Playtime
We've all been laid low with horrible snotty noses for the past week, not too much fun. J, a typical 2 year old, who despite being full of the cold wouldn't sit still for more than 15 mins and B who howled everytime I put him down.
I was looking for fun, non energetic, indoor games to keepme sane J entertained!
J is a huge sticker book fan, give him a pile of stickers and he'll keep quite 'till they're all stuck. Not always the right way up, on the right page or even in the book! In the spirit of reusing and recycling a new favourite is tractor stickers (he's a machine obsessed boy!).
Cut out the pictures, stick some glue on the back and hand them over to your budding Picasso! In our case, thanks to a stack of old Farmers Weekly magazines from my dad, we have tractor stickers! I even took some of the collages and drew on ploughs, balers etc to the back of the tractors.
I'm also a fan of this great website The Imagination Tree that has loads of ideas for indoor and outdoor play and recipes for making paints, play dough etc. I can't wait to try out her recipe for mouldable sand, just need to get to the shops to buy baby oil!
I was looking for fun, non energetic, indoor games to keep
J is a huge sticker book fan, give him a pile of stickers and he'll keep quite 'till they're all stuck. Not always the right way up, on the right page or even in the book! In the spirit of reusing and recycling a new favourite is tractor stickers (he's a machine obsessed boy!).
All you need is:
some paper for sticking the pictures on,
scissors or craft knife, glue,
some old magazines
and imagination.
Cut out the pictures, stick some glue on the back and hand them over to your budding Picasso! In our case, thanks to a stack of old Farmers Weekly magazines from my dad, we have tractor stickers! I even took some of the collages and drew on ploughs, balers etc to the back of the tractors.
I'm also a fan of this great website The Imagination Tree that has loads of ideas for indoor and outdoor play and recipes for making paints, play dough etc. I can't wait to try out her recipe for mouldable sand, just need to get to the shops to buy baby oil!