Odds and Sods - April 2016

Crikey, the months fly past so quickly.  April has mostly been taken up with holiday and holiday planning, although I have shoe-horned in some other jollies along the way!  

Amanda and I visited the Norwich Makers' Market at the beginning of April, a craft fair which we have attended before as stall holders.  My plan had been to schmooze with the organisers and ask for a table near Christmas, but I decided against - the stallholders were all young and trendy types and the items for sale were amazing and very contemporary and unconventional - fabulous things!   And I think that my stuff is probably a bit old fashioned and "vintage" so might not fit in so well.  So I will stick to commissions and Folksy for now - although will definitely go and buy at the Market again - we have some very talented people in Norfolk.

Finn and I have been to Cumbria for a week - staying near Grange over Sands and walking some of the coast path - which will be covered in other posts elsewhere.  We had a brilliant week - the weather was gorgeous - teeshirt and sandal walking weather.  We went to Cumbria via Heathrow in a rather circuitous route so that we could stay with Andy for a couple of days which was lovely.

 Mum and I went to Foxley Wood as we had been told that it was THE place to go and see bluebell woods - sadly though, we saw less than the combined bluebell count in mine and Mum and Dad's garden!  We should have stayed at home!  To be fair though, we went on a very cold day and we'd had rain in biblical proportions leading up to that weekend so the woods were very churned up and we couldn't get through - I'm sure if we'd persevered we'd have seen loads.  We will save that for another time.  (The photos below rather belie how cold it really was!)

This weekend (so on 30 April and only just considered eligible for April's post!) Mum and I went to Morston Book and Plant Fair - oh blimey, that was dangerous.  We managed four plants and twenty books between us, two sausage rolls, two cheese scones as well!  A lovely day, beautiful weather, and will be covered in a separate post.  In fact, it was so beautiful that we then had a little drive along the coast to Blakeney for a wander in the sunshine.  We're so lucky.

In other news, I have re-instated sewing Tuesdays.  I had thought I might go back to do some sewing evening classes but was a bit late to sign up for the summer term, not to mention being in Cumbria for the first class, so would be missing all the fundamentals.  So, instead, I am having sewing evenings at home - on Tuesday, I have a very quick tea (which normally involves eggs, beans, toast, or all three!) and the computer and TV does not get turned on at all so I can spend a good two or three hours at the sewing machine and give it all my concentration.  (I even leave my 'phone in the kitchen so that I can't keep picking it up and checking for messages or texts.)

I've been making cushion covers and I'm delighted with them - the top one is a William Morris fabric that Mary gave me last summer so I used that to play with and to practise - I love it so much that I'm keeping it.  And the bottom two cushions were in the fabric that Mary wanted for her own cushion covers.  I do love them - I'm so pleased, although it took me ages to work out the flap logistics - I eventually had my lightbulb moment though and they've turned out very well.  

So, that's April - getting a bit warmer now so lots more time to be spent in the garden hopefully!