Summing up [Sunday] Sale!

So, this is why we haven't been consistently writing for a while...

EVERYTHING HAS BEEN HAPPENING!

(this may or may not be hyperbole)

I'll talk you through things. First, remember that crochet baby blanket that I started, er, in February or something? Z was born healthy and happy about four months ago. But I still hadn't finished the blanket. FINALLY, when I had finished they got invited over for lunch (unfortunately very brief) and I got to meet mummy for the first time, and little Z. So cute!

All the ends cut off after being sewn in - what an achievement!

Mapping out the blanket - took a long time as it was really hard to colour match properly.

                                  

                                         Doing four more lines of border

The TA-DA picture will have to wait until I can get it off A, I'm afraid, but they seemed very pleased. It was my first go, so a lot of mistakes and pretty messy, but they seemed to appreciate it. Just hope it gets used!

Okay, so big thing NUMBER TWO has been taking up A LOT of time. We (as a family) have decided to raise £1500 over the year for The Hope Project, which is a branch of The Dogs' Trust. It specifically helps dogs whose owners are in housing crises, as a lot of shelters will not accept dogs, and there isn't a lot of veterinary support for them. Dogs are vitally important to some people: a friend, protection, warmth... We'll have another post more on the fundraising in the future with lots more details, and in case anyone wants to be involved.

SO, we left it all a bit late, so by the time we'd booked our stall at a local school's PTA craft fair, we only had four weeks to make everything for it. Here's some shots of our work in progress:

Sequin ball-balls - would you believe that we spent £18 on pins alone?? We didn't know that, and certainly made no  money!

Felty decorations (there were also stockings and snowmen)

Cutting out the tops for A's 'Luxury mincemeat' and 'Christmas Apple and Cranberry Chutney.' They both sold very well.

Stall putting up in action - great way to display things between canes with sticks.

And here is our stall! I won't bore you with pictures of everything we made, but I can do a list, can't I? Mini bunting, big bunting (both sold well), hot chocolate sticks, Christmas cards, glittery baubles, reindeer baubles, mini and larger glittery stars, printed wrapping paper, a scarf, beautiful paper stars made marvellously by Alison (we had 30 or so and only FOUR left), little felt critters made by a generous woman from A's work, salt dough decorations, willow stars, willow bird feeders (all went quickly), Christmas cushion, Christmas flannel... I think that was it, but it would've been really easy to miss something out. What a great stall.

And look how much went! The top bunting was reserved already, but everything else went.  A few bits and bobs left for sale TWO (yes, I know we're mad, but it's a little stall this time).

Good idea for next year - cinnamon sticks wrapped up nicely. So easy!

I had to show these. They may be very cute, but they are made from books. As in entire books. One book = one hedgehog. I just couldn't do it.

These were our very nice next-stall neighbours. Apparently, this was a really bad selling year, but we did all right!

Few other bits and bobs - a lot of chocolates, big raffle, jewellery, nick nacks, pens, wreaths, glass work, loads of cards, clothes, scarves, accessories... A real mix. Not much time to get round, but looked like a great a sale.

So, onto other things. We had our very last family therapy session with J and S. It was hard, and heartening, and humorous and sad. We've been with them for a long time, and it seems so alien that they won't be journeying with us anymore. We will be travelling in a different way.

Our memory book - one for each of them

And not to forget Joyce's 93rd birthday! A nice evening at Sewell house with two cakes (a homemade Victoria sponge and a shop-bought chocolate cake) and alcohol! Only one person got drunk, so that's not too bad!

Joe, Susan, and Joyce

That's about all, folks! Well, a lot of other things have happened as well,  but it's a quick run-down. Hopefully, we'll get into a schedule again, but no promises.

(No Guardian Quizzes - no time!)

The Bethlem Sun Fayre

Bethlem royal hospital has an annual sun fayre where the on site gallery and  OT departments get together to put on a community event in the green and shrubby gardens. It's been a relatively low key event when I've been with E in previous years but we thought it would be a fun and positive venture to run a craft stall to raise money for charity. As everyone remarked it seemed most bizarre that E and I had never done this before despite our crafting ventures over the years.

E managed to recruit some other  contributions from  Tyson West 2 ward and with a beautifully old borrowed stripey gazebo, rickety wallpapering table covered in an old blue tablecloth and a set of camping chairs it looked like the real thing. A complex network of string allowed us to hang a pained blue sign and E's exquisite knitting. We managed to produce a range of crafty things over weekends in June - blue Haiku bowls ( paper bowls made from strips of newspaper with a special haiku written by T in Cambridge on the bottom in torn letters) , wash bags, patchwork cushions, appliqué cards, button and bead jewellery, friendship bracelets and broaches from Ay. I brought a huge bucketful of Somerset flowers to make into posies of wildness, and a tray of seedlings. 

The day was showery so it was an exciting event with us sheltering from rain in our little tent, the stage at one end of te gardens producing a range of music and ramblings, other stalls with bric and brac and tombolas, and the art collections of Terrence and his colleagues in the gallery's tents.

We were pleased to raise just over £100 for charity - all but about £18 going to BEAT ( beat eating disorders) and the remainder to the Royal Marsden hospital in London . Thank you to Bry and Ay for helping us run the stall and face painting so continuously, and to all those who supported us. 

June birthdays

The year is running away from me and here we are at the longest day.. The garden is at its height of fecundity so when I do get home without more work to finish I try and tame the jungle outside. So, little time for crafting. But the wonderful June birthdays at least make me sit down for a little while to go through my drawer of papers and create cards!

The green one is a print I made many many years ago on a wet day on st martins with an artist called Mandy who created amazing paper sculptures with findings from the windswept beaches. I have always wanted to emulate her one winters beach walk and will do so one day. The card and gift  of a tiny green handmade notebook is for Richard who spends his life tending trees and plants. 

The pink card is from recycled bits - a moshulu bag and Emma Bridgewater catalogue-  for my dear friend Caroline also with a notebook. This one a bought find of beautiful birch trees and line drawings. It is a wonderful time of year to have a birthday and I wish them both well. 

Lino cuts

E and I treated ourselves 2 weekends ago to a couple of hours Lino cutting tuition. We went armed with hugely ambitious idea and projects which couldn't come to fruition but did learn about the basic processes a bit more. We made a couple of images for J's birthday, so hence the delay in putting them up as we didn't want him to see them! We have plans for some tremendous cards in the future but will devote a whole weekend to it rather than 2 hours.

And an update on spring crafting

I didn't manage to photograph some of the card making from the 16th when E was home and B with us ... This was my design for a spring celebration - buttons and those particular yellows and greens that come with new shoots. I liked the way the 'stalks' all went criss crossy.

Spring Crafting - New Beginnings

Welcome!

 

Welcome to 2 Coombe Cottages! It's one of a pair of semi-detatched cottages, nestled in the foot of the Mendip hills in the Southwest. We are blessed with beautiful things: huge trees, murmurations of starlings on the Somerset levels, swathes of daffodils, hedges laden with fruit, cows to watch, hills to climb. We've always loved to create, and we hope you enjoy our records of the things we do.

Card-Making on a Rainy Friday

 

On Friday, inspired by some sunny spells on Thursday and thinking forward to Spring and Easter, hoping the persistant grey would shift, we collected together our little boxes of buttons, paper scraps and threads, as well as the big drawer of card-making supplies (and don't forget a saucerful of PVA - it sticks the world together, don't you know?).

A liked the buttons, and played about with greens and yellow to feel springy.

E was drawn to some yellow corrugated card and bird images.

B went for purple, and Easter eggs!

All in all, a satisfying little craft project: sitting around our Laura Ashley table cloth adorned table, paper and glue crowding for space with our tank of frogspawn turning into tadpoles (another post to come!), a rather folorn looking stephanotis and a still-growing-strong windowful of Mother's Day blooms - gyp, carnations and statis. A reminder of all the crafts we used to do together as children - nice to converge and connect.