Wednesday, May 27, 2009

The papered parlour

I was reading daily candy this week, and found out about a brand spanking new craft venue in London which I wanted to share - its called The Papered Parlour
This is what they say about themselves:

The Papered Parlour, a new independent craft venue for London.
Tucked down an alley in the heart of Clapham, our space is decked out as a parlour - a home from home where we run craft classes, host performances and put on exhibitions.
Inhabited by artists, designers, musicians and theatre practitioners, we also have an onsite cafe, an artist’s studio and a beautiful gallery space available for parties and hires.

and if this isn't enough to whet your appetite, just take a look at the pics of the venue and try telling me you don't love it.


all pics are courtesy of Claire at the papered parlour. Thanks Claire :o)

Monday, May 25, 2009

and there was sun sun sun

The bank holiday weekend has been spent in a way which all long weekends should - lovely long sunny days doing pleasurable things. Nothing ground breaking here (unless you can count gardening !) - the simple pleasures of time spent with family and friends, stress free pottering, barbecuing, a spot of gardening, a little bit of creativity, a cheeky shandy or two, and a general feeling of well being. nice.

I've done a spot of recycling too - this necklace got broken at the weekend - not bad thing because it was cheap and I wasn't that keen of the yellow metal used to link the beads, so I took the opportunity to make something new out of something oldAll that was required was some waxed string from the local craft shop (£1), a few buttons from my stash and a little bit of time, et voilà!
I have lots and lots of beads left over so I'm off to the garden to make a few more in different coloursI'm also loving this tune at the moment, and I like the birds in the video too

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

paper bunting

I've been through my paper stash and picked out lots of papers I have never used, or been able to find a good use for - you know the ones included in the paper packs you bought because you liked 1 or 2 of the papers in them, and then you end up with another 12 which you are not that keen on. I've used them in this paper bunting - and amazingly they seem to have transformed into something a whole lot prettier:This was a very lazy bunting mind you, I just used a ball of string I found in the drawer and a roll of double sided sticky tape - very blue peter-esque. The bunting is for an indoor tea party and I think it does the job quite nicely.

In other news, the slugs have been having a party of their own in my greenhouse, and have demolished my cucumber plant. I am not defeated though - I have banished all slugs, bought copper tape for my grow bags and pots, and have planted some more cucumber seeds - fingers crossed that this will do the trick.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

I'm hooked!

On Friday, I went to an 'introduction to crochet' class, along with my sister at John Lewis in Kingston, which was run by a rowan consultant called Lesley. I was quite prepared to come away from this and still not know how to crochet, however I am pleased to say that after a 4 hour intense session, I can now crochet! (and so can my sis). Our hands ached at the end of the session, probably because we were not very relaxed - finding the correct positions for our hands took a while.
I'm probably getting a bit ahead of myself now by saying I can crochet, as you can see from the pic above, I can double and triple in a straight line (don't look too closely), and I can just about interpret a pattern. We were given a 10% off rowan voucher for the day, and remarkably I didn't buy any wool or cotton, however I have my eye on this book on amazon:I did however have some happy time browsing the haberdashery dept, and bought some fabrics and notions to feed my stash - mostly from the bargain bin - great :o)
I can't imagine why crocheting has eluded me for such a long time, but I'm happy to have this new skill. Ripple blanket here I come!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

how does your garden grow?

The first thing I do when I get in from work is go to my little greenhouse to check on progress.
Some of the things I've planted were from seed, others were from small plants - a combination of being too late to grow from seed and too impatient. I'm pleased to see that some of the things have started to grow - with gusto! All the tomatoes are growing well, the strawberries are flowering, the peas are reaching for the sky, the radishes and rocket seeds are really sprouting up, and my flamingo tree is starting to look very pretty in pale cream, pink, and green - it's all very satisfying to seeMy 2nd birthday giveaway was drawn in a lazy fashion using a random number generator:no.5 was paper-and-string! Sarah, I'll pop the cards in to the post to you tomorrow.
This is what you'll be getting:
Thanks to everyone who left a comment - especially the delurkers.
I did manage to get a few designs into my folksy shop too, and I do mail internationally if any of you folks outside of the UK are feeling flush :o)

Sunday, May 10, 2009

I am 2

it's true, doesn't time just fly - 2 whole years of my virtual life, here in blogland.
This is the first time in my life that I have actually kept any sort of diary for such a long period of time. There is much about the goings on in my life which I don't write in my blog - I think it's important to keep a little bit of yourself just for yourself. That said, there is much more I wish I had documented here - it's great to look back and see forgotten pictures, or favourite recipes, or lost memories, or to read how I may have been feeling at a particular point in my life.
Note to self: write more, and take the camera out with you more often.

May I take this opportunity to pause for a small moment and thank everyone who takes the time to pop by and leave me a comment. I've met some lovely, friendly, kind, generous, funny and inspirational people since starting my blog and long may I hope that continues.
It's been some time since I gave something back, so it seems a good time to do so. If you'd like to own a couple of my new cards (similar to those in the mosaic below) then please just leave me a comment below. I will draw the lucky recipient at random on Wednesday 13th May (probably some time in the evening)

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

getting my hands dirty

After a weekend spent getting my hands dirty (it took ages to get the dirt out of my nails), Monday was spent in the happy, compost free surroundings of my work room making mess of an altogether papery kind. The fruits of these labours - some more cards. I'll make a few more this week and then get them into my shops. Some are missing a theme though - should they be birthday, thanks, general greetings? What say you?

Sunday, May 03, 2009

Dig in

Before going off to the garden centre today, i thought I'd at least do a bit of research on sowing and growing, and found this excellent BBC website called 'dig in'. Well, it is quite basic, but it suits me just fine - and I think the animations are fab.
I also think Sara Cox is very funny, and she makes me feel like less of a fogie for having my little greenhouse (which was erected yesterday by Mr Monda) and growing some veggies, fruits and herbs.