My Wooden Mushroom

 I was up early and ready for my first workshop at Hope and Elvis on Saturday morning. It was a Darning workshop with Tom of Holland. I am always excited to go there, as Louise has the most interesting workshops going on, and also I love the relaxing atmosphere. I always meet some new faces, and some old, well, regular faces.

After tea/coffee, we all gathered together to listen to Tom and his stories of mending and darning. He is such a talented artist. The darning's were not just ordinary darnings, but a piece of art work, and that's what I was interested in.

Pieces of cut jumpers, were laid down for us to pick and practise darning techniques.

The table was all set before hand, by the lovely Louise Presley.

I took my most loved and worn wooley sock with me to darn, as you can see. We were given some instruction leaflets. OK, so I am not very good with those type of things... But I thought I'd give it a go.

Tom showed us all in a group techniques of darning and mending our loved clothes, as well as lots of individual attention was paid by him.

The wooden mushroom. I always wondered what can you actually do with them. Ah! Thanks for telling me Tom. So I used my wooden mushroom and did my very first darning.

The tinsy winsy one on the right is mine, hehe, and the one on left hand side was of course Tom's work.

Just look at this. It is darned so beautifully. The colours and the stitch, simply delicious.

Some of Louise's work, which she has patched; darned and embroidered, was on display too.

This blue top I have seen so many times on Louise, and she does look lovely in it. I just want to do that one day. Yes, one day I shall patch my top.

 Another sample jumper darned by Tom. Little blocks of different techniques have been used here.

 Wow, what a wonderful day it was! Girls were happily darning away. Nicola was very quick in darning. Well done girl!

Jan, from "Lemonade Kitty Blog" got the hang of darning very quickly as well. No one could stop her from darning.

Charlotte did the most pretty darning of all. The cute little heart.  Awwww... so clever; and she was one of the youngest member in the group that day!

Are we getting a bit tired now? Well we all did work very hard.

 So we were allowed some more tea, and a little chat here and there.

Love the fabric, so delicate, and beautiful darning was going on there.

Rachel from Ted and Agne's Blog was busy darning as well. I couldn't believe how wonderful and down to earth person she is. With all that talent and fame under her belt and yet, sat there like a girl next door. I loved her handmade bags she brought with her!

 

It was so nice to have met Jan and Rachel.

It was not all over. Tom showed us yet another technique of darning by using this little weaving gadget.

How quick and neat that was. I am sure I will take a long time though, Tom.

Thanks Louise and Tom, I really enjoyed the day and so glad to have learned a new skill.

I always go to Hope and Elvis with a big hope to learn something new, and am never disappointed!
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Hippy Thread

Beads, buttons and hippy thread...

 ...Shells, drift wood collected from the beach; a bit of my mothers old sari ribbons...

...all on my crafty desk to thread something quick and fun and maybe a bit hippy.

I threaded them all together and...

 ...there it was! A little fun craft hanging on the window. Not so easy to photograph, so thought of placing it next to my bag, which I made last year at Hope and Elvis workshop.

I have my two little brooches bought from lovely Viv of Hens Teeth, if you notice.

And the red one I made; an obvious influence from Hens teeth makes. I used vintage quilt scrap, old linen, lace and Suffolk puff made from my mother's sari.

Now my wall looks complete!

Ding Dong it is Ready!

Ding Dong, it is ready. Yes, finished two of my knitting projects! A lot was going on, had two jumpers. One for me and one for little Emily on a go. I also had the Gypsy blanket and a hexagon quilt for Olivia. I might have undertaken two many projects at the same time but I like it that way. I do get bored with one thing. After completing my blanket I picked the jumpers. I had to finish them, especially little Emily's before she grew out of it without even wearing it.

This cardigan is done using DK yarn. I love the Picot edge. I have used the largest size in the pattern, which was for 3 to 4 years old. I am glad I did so even though she is only two and a half years now, as this just fits her well and might not be for too long. She is growing so quickly. I really have to speed up with my makes for her.

 Emily choose the pink buttons. Oh, she is very much a purple and pink girl!

And... she loves it. The cardigan stayed on her whole day:

While she played; downstairs and upstairs. She even wanted to sleep in it!

Outside in my garden; some tulips are coming out now!

I put on my cardigan, which I also completed to take a look in my garden.

My little pond was covered with blossom from the tree, so pretty.

I stood watching my pond and my cardigan kept me warm. The recipe of my cardigan is very simple.

DK yarn, moss stitch and stocking stitch. Nothing more, just three ingredients.

I like it this way. Simple and quick. Well, might not have been so quick but its all done now!

Dreaming of a Gypsy Life

This is what I have been dreaming of for a very long time. How badly I wanted one of them and to go around the beautiful English countryside.

But in the practical world that was not possible, so I asked for this one instead.
And did I get it?

Well I had to compromise and settle down with Tiffany. My hubby was not very keen on the camper van so I thought to agree with this or else there wouldn't be any!.When it arrived on our drive I was so happy and excited that I couldn't stop myself from going inside the caravan again and again. Oh yes, literally 100 times. Believe me, I could not sleep well that night. My brand new little caravan was finally on our drive. This is the smallest new version of these type of caravans.Who knows maybe in future we may get a bigger one but for now we just want to get used to this.

It was mothers day weekend, weather was nice so we decided to try Tiffany on the road. We only went  to Ilam for one night.

It took us, well hubby darling to be more precise, half a day to set up the awning tent as it wasn't so easy.

Hopefully next time will be lot quicker.

Even curtains came along with it!

Inside it has the cutest little hob and wash basin. Love the glass top lids.

The girls were really happy and excited just like me!

 

Hubby and Olivia went out whilst Emily was trying to sleep and I was flicking through my magazine.

 

 

Little one was not quite sleeping!

 

This is what we could see out of our window. Not a nice photo as I took it from inside .
Wow I still cannot believe it. I wanted to have this for a while now. Only took me three years to persuade my hubby. I simply am loving it and can't stop dreaming of my gypsy life. The indoors is a bit bland for my taste. Needs a bit of colour.

So I pulled out my Gypsy blanket and it was finally complete. I added blue trim to give bit of a boho look. In the shop, this red fleece caught my eyes and I thought it would be lot quicker and easier to add fleece instead of a wadding and another layer of fabric. It is cheating a bit but tell you what, it feels really nice and cosy.

I so love the blue trim!

Now that my first make for the caravan is done, I can start thinking of my next project for Tiffany.

Wow, it's a big splash of colour, but that's what I wanted.

I just thought to try it out, so the blanket went in the back garden with me

My Gypsy blanket kept me quite warm outside and was so cosy that I fell asleep once again dreaming of my Gypsy life.


Hope all of you out there had a wonderful Mothers day too! Xx