Creake Abbey Plant Lovers Fair

At the end of May, Mum, Dad and I went to visit the Creake Abbey Plant Lovers Fair - Dad had found the details in the local paper ages ago, so we popped the date in our diary to go and check it out.  I'm not sure what any of us were expecting, but the size of it was amazing!

We were hooked from the first stall we saw - and there were about thirty more! The choice of plants was astonishing - there was something for every type of garden. I had a list of things I would like to look at - I've been making assiduous notes while watching the current series of Gardener's World. In fact, I don't watch any gardening programmes on TV now without my note book beside me.  The mistake we made was not having enough cash with us - actually, that might have been a good idea, to stop us getting carried away! Not all of the stallholders took cards, cash was king that day. (Although it got a bit tricky in the tea room as I had to pay for our coffees and cakes with pennies and silver!)

The tea room was set up in a barn, with artwork all around the walls. The tables sat ten or twelve, so there were a number of different groups on each table, all with our carrier bags of plants. It was actually a great opportunity to quiz strangers about what they'd bought and which stall they'd visited - it was a very collaborative event!

This picture is one I'm very proud of - I posted this on Twitter and tagged the organisers and they have asked if they can use it for their publicity next year - of course!  How exciting! (The irony is that this wasn't actually taken on my new zoomy camera, it's taken on my basic-as-anything camera 'phone!)

I'd visited Creake Abbey before but the bonus this time was that the gardens were all open too so this was the first time I'd visited there.  It was a lovely surprise, as we had no idea we'd get a chance to explore them.

I love this picture of Mum and Dad studying the planting.

This rosemary was enormous - and smelt beautiful.

Time for a sit down with all our purchases - Mum had brought her funky trundle with her - jolly good idea actually.  Next year I'm taking mine!

An absolute fantastic day - much bigger than we'd anticipated but at least we know for next year. I will continue to make my notes of plants I'd like and I will definitely be taking more cash with me!

Folksy Sale #10

Back in May (I'm so behind with posts!), we had another Folksy sale - we sold two blankets.  One was made by Amanda and was made in a gorgeous lemon colour.

The one made by myself was made in gorgeous heathery colours in a very random way.  I'd used the wool to make an earlier more colour coordinated blanket, and had enough wool left over to make another blanket, but not enough to coordinate the borders.

We are getting quite low on stock on Folksy at the moment - we haven't replenished anything that we've sold and we really need to get our collective fingers out and crack on!

Tada! "Birthday Cocktails" Dress

I've lost my sewing mojo a bit recently - I think I'd lost a bit of confidence.  However, I'm delighted with Shannon's dress - the whole process was fab and really fun.  We had a couple of fittings and came up with little solutions to problems of my own making!  I ended up putting darts everywhere to make it fit!

The pattern was a Little Woollie pattern - Connie's Cocktail Dress.  Shannon asked me to make a dress for her birthday and we looked for fabric at the knitting and stitching show in Olympia.  And then Shannon found the pattern when wandering around on her own - she came to find me to drag me back to the Little Woollie stall and, while there, we spotted the dress on one of the stall holders - we were both sold on it immediately! The dress was being worn with a big net skirt underneath to make it stand out - it was beautiful and we know that Shannon has that option too.

This was also the first garment I've cut out with my new pizza cutter and my cutting mat - god, it makes everything so much easier and quicker!

(The stones weighing down the pattern are now path of my mosaic garden path, so I need to collect some more weighing down stones!)

And I'm so impressed with my zip this time - the first one I've been absolutely delighted with.  Check me out!

I also had never used bias binding before and had no idea what I was doing.  Thank god for the internet! Shannon teamed the dress with a black belt and it looks fab, with that and little black pumps.

I'm so pleased with the way it's turned out - it's gorgeous.  It's definitely given me back a bit of confidence - I really need to stop talking about sewing and just get on with it!

Shard

After our morning of spotting Shauns around London, the last Shaun brought us to the Shard and we travelled to the top to see the views - it was a beautifully clear day so we could see for miles. Now, I don't have a problem with heights at all.  However, even I felt a bit wobbly at the top of the Shard and had to hold on to whatever I could to steady my nerves - handrails, windows, Andy!   Goodness me, I wasn't expecting to feel so wibbly.

I'm actually leaning against the window here to stop myself falling over!  The viewing platforms are on level 68 and 69 and you can walk up to floor 72 where you are slightly more open to the elements - eek!

While at the top, Andy asked one of the guides if there was a restaurant we could go to, which meant we had to go all the way back to the bottom, leave the building, come in a different entrance and go back up to level 32.

It was so worth it - obviously the tables by the windows are the most popular, so you find somewhere to sit when you get there, then move nearer to the window as tables clear, until you get a prime spot.  We did it in three moves!

It was just perfect - we had dimsum, some olives and a bottle of pink Bollinger - check us out!  Just a fantastic surprise.

The olives were served in ice and rosemary - I'm definitely going to try this.

Andy made me laugh - the waiters automatically came over with iced water for us when we sat down, but Andy called the waiter over to say that he didn't like the water and could it be swopped for a beer. The waiter appreciated the joke and the water was duly swopped!  We spent a couple of hours here, enjoying the atmosphere and the view - we even saw a red kite in flight - just talking and congratulating ourselves on how lucky and spoilt we were.   

Before we left, we wanted to try the loos - we're so predictable! - and they were fab - Andy enjoyed the experience of peeing over London!  He's such a boy!  

 I didn't get to pee over London, but I did get to wash my hands with a wonderful view.

A wonderful experience. One I'll never forget.