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!)

Knitting and Stitching Show 2014

Following a few years of indecisiveness, E and A were finally brave enough to visit the knitting and stitching show! It was held in Olympia this year and the huge venue was jam packed!

We saw...

Quilts...

Beautiful fabric...

Buttons...

More quilts...

Blue fabric, specially for A...

More quilts (I love this one)...

Ribbons...

More buttons...

And lots more besides!

The booking system wasn't great, so we didn't get to the workshop we'd originally intended, but we did one workshop at a stall, and one that we managed to book on the day. So, after our first peruse around the place, we settled at a stand to do some decoupage. (Side note: not entirely sure what decoupage has to do with knitting or stitching, but never mind.) A chose a star to decorate and E worked on a coaster. It's surprisingly easy - A decided that this was her type of craft - fast, inexact and using lots of glue! (Actually, she was instructed to use less! But A's conviction is that PVA sticks the world together, and that hasn't changed.) want to see?

Our second workshop was very different. Sarah is part of a movement called craftivism and we spent a quiet hour stitching mini protest banners. A noticed that the slow process of stitching letters made the meaning of the words really sunk in a different way. More on this later, and the movement of craftivism, later. 

And, of course they did some shopping! 

Good haul, eh? Most of the things here have destinations in mind, so watch this space for more crafty activities...

This is also our one blog-aversary today! Our little blog is one year old today! Wow. So, as a celebration of our birthday, if you are reading this please, please leave a comment so we can say hello. I hope people have seen a little of our CCC life.

Xx

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. 

Introduction to Zentangles

Hello everybody! I wonder if there are any readers to this blog? If there are, please leave a comment and say hi!

Now, I've discovered a new way to "waste time." (I'm sure the zentangle community would crucify me for saying "wasting time!") I started doing general doodling a while ago, as a way to keep my mind occupied and whilst searching for inspiration online, I came across zentangles.

Source: craftthatchery

So, what is a Zentangle, and how does it differ from "just" doodling?

According to my Zentangle book, a Zentangle "turns drawings into artistic dsegin while reducing stress and focus. This relaxing process can be done anywhere and no 'artistic' talent is needed." (Sounds good to me - I can't draw to save my life!)

"Traditional zentangles...

A very simple process is part of every traditional Zentangle. 1) Make a dot in each corner of a paper tile with a pencil. Connect dots to form a basic frame. 2) Daw guideline 'strings' with the pencil. The shape can be a zigzag, swirl, X, circle of just about anything that divides the area into sections. It represents the 'golden thread' that connects all patterns and events that run through life. The lines will not be erased but become part of the design. 3) Use a black pen to draw Tangle patterns into the sections formed by the 'string.' 4) Rotate the paper tile as you fill each section with a pattern."

So, there you have it! There are "Tangles" in the book I bought, and there's a huge wealth of them online as well. And there's so much you can do with a Zentangle. You can make it into shapes...

source

And you can add colour...

source

As well as Tangling on different spaces/different media...

source

It's all pretty inspiring and exciting stuff! Needless to say, my own attempts are not anywhere near as good as any of the above. I will post some of mine, but I thought that in order to make this post at least somewhat pretty it was important to include some "proper" zentangles! My first attempt was this:

Not anywhere near as impressive as any of the others, but it was quite fun to do. At this point, I decided to buy myself some nice new black fine-line pens, and made some more attempts. Here are some of my later attempts:

Getting a little better, although I think the thing I really need to work on is shading... I'll leave you with one final Zentangle (I think it's technically "Zentangle Inspired Art" as it isn't a "tile") - this one is a card that I sent:

Hope anyone reading this has enjoyed the introduction the world of Zentangling! I may post some more in the future, so watch this space...

E

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.