Tag Archives: Craft

Bury Show 2024

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I managed to enter a few items in this year’s craft competitions, after the traditional last minute decision that I had to make something new to enter into the knitted / crochet baby item class!

It was an early start to walk down to the show grounds, but I made it in plenty of time and entered 7 items into 4 different categories. I really must do some baking for it next year too!

I went home for some breakfast and made some lunch to take back later. Nobody wanted to come with me so I took a more leisurely stroll back to the show, hoping to spot a kingfisher. ( I didn’t) It was pretty cool and drizzly so I went straight back to the craft tent to see how I had got on.

I was thrilled with my placings. Four prizes out of seven entries wasn’t a bad haul at all. There were two third places for my knitted headband (bottom in the above photo) and for my crochet baby comforter – which I had only finished after midnight!

Best of all though were being placed First and Second in the Handmade card competition.

Apparently the pop-up box card was loved by the judges and was considered for best in show! Although that was won for a needle felted picture which was gorgeous.

There were more entries than I’ve seen in the past, which is great for all the crafters. And there were lots of visitors to the tent during the afternoon. So it was a good day all around and I really did need my roast dinner when I got home!

I’m going to aim to make some things for the show much earlier next year as the knitted and crochet items that won obviously took more time than the day before! So next week I shall start thinking about what I can make and getting prepared.

Happy crafting

x

I’m back!

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Hello again, it’s been a long while since I posted anything on this blog, but I am back and hope to be able to post a little more frequently in the coming weeks at least!  Over the last couple of years I have been working in the local primary school during lunch hour, doing admin work on the school website and volunteering to read with some of the younger children.  This has taken up far more time than I had imagined it would and I guess this blog is what I sacrificed.  However, I have been crafting when I can and my facebook page has been updated more often than the website.

I am currently not able to do my lunchtime role in school and the additional admin work I was doing seems to have dried up as well.  Yesterday was the official end of my contract and I don’t predict that to be renewed in this current climate, so I am now back to crafting and looking after the home again full time.  Of course, my daughter is also at home and I am trying to find ways to keep up with her school work as well as keeping her busy and interested each day.  I would love to hear of any activities you think would be useful to share with an eleven year old about to leave primary school!

So while I sort out the rest of the day, here’s a card I made last summer, using Tonic adorables die and stamp set – Kirby and Lulus Wash Day.  I think it sums up how I feel at the moment.

Cute cats in washing

Stay safe and happy crafting.

x

 

Paint-a-Pot

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As we approach the end of the school year, we seem to be on a never ending run of parties – and not just children’s.

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What I am pleased to find is that now she’s seven, Alice’s party invitations have become a bit more adventurous than a soft play centre.  Today we’ve been at Emily’s Paint-a-Pot in Prestwich. Each child was able to choose an animal to paint and was given instruction on how to go about it. It felt far more grown up than the usual running wild amidst screaming kids of all ages! So we left them to it and had a stroll around Heaton Park before the rain set in and we headed back. The party room is upstairs and we could hear squeals of delight along with the traditional rendition of ‘Happy Birthday to you.’ They were all obviously having a great time. We stayed downstairs in the main painting room, where we had a very lovely cuppa and a look at all the drying pots. It’s a pretty little place and they don’t just cater for children. I was intrigued to see they run Pottery and Prosecco evenings. Something I quite fancy, I wonder why?!

Alice really enjoyed her afternoon. She painted a cat and can’t wait for it to be finished off in the kiln.

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It’s a great place to go on a rainy day, and while not a cheap activity, it is something different to what we generally do at home, so it’s definitely somewhere I hope to visit again. Next time I want to have a go too.

Happy crafting
x

Visit to Bristol

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This weekend we had a family visit down to my husband’s family in Bristol. We were visiting the family as we haven’t been down since Christmas and one of our nephews was playing at the Totterdown music festival.

The trip down was pretty uneventful, a bit of rain and fortunately it was cooler than it has been of late. Our air-con in the car stopped working a while ago and we didn’t want to be stuck in a boiling car for over three hours! Anyway, we had a good trip and I even managed to get some knitting done on the way!

On Sunday we were taken to a lovely new craft café on Wells Road, called Craftisan.

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We were told it was a craft shop and café, so it’s the ideal location to visit for me. Who can resist crafting goodies and cake?! I wasn’t disappointed. It’s a lovely shop, loads of natural light and lovely bright displays of craft materials, tools and some hand crafted items too. And the cake is delicious. Between us we sampled most of the selection on offer. I can totally recommend the millionaires shortbread and the chocolate, cookies and cream cake.

As we were off to watch the festival, we couldn’t stay too long, but I think we will be visiting again. They also have a lovely craft table for kids and run some craft workshops. So I reckon it would be a great place to visit with Alice, she could do some messy craft while I eat cake, drink tea and knit / crochet.

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Do visit if you get the chance, it’s laid back and very comfortable. The sofas are enormous!

Happy crafting
x

New Year’s Resolutions

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For the last 5 weeks or so I’ve been battling some bug or other and have felt pretty rubbish. I’m hoping that I’m on the mend now and that I can get back to crafting properly. Better late than never, I’m feeling up to catching up with all my blog posts and setting down my resolutions for 2015. I’m hoping that this bug is all the illness I’m going to have this year and with my recovery from two operations on my feet, I’m hoping for a fully fit and healthy year.

So for 2015 I hope to:-
1. Work on my social media presence, in particular Twitter, Flikr and Pinterest
2. Work on online stall on the Stall and Craft collective
3. Attend 2 craft fairs
4. Blog at least once a week

Rose

I’m going to try to use my crochet more in my card making as well as promote my personalised and bespoke service for card-making. Like last year I also hope to be more organised for the big events of the year and I will have more gifts available for Easter, Mother’s Day and Christmas.

With some more work on promotion I would like to reach 350 facebook ‘likes’ and 500 followers on Twitter!

I’d also like to interact with people more and I would love more comments on my page and on facebook.

Happy 2015 crafting
x