All the fun of the fair

Bunting everywhere!

Last Saturday Pickle-Lily and I had a fabulous day at The Handmade Fair at Hampton Court. You know, the fair 'organised' by Kirstie Allsopp. I did manage to get a glimpse of her this year, but that was it!

My glimpse of the lady herself!

We had such a lovely time ...

So much to do!

...spending money

Annie Sloane display

...meeting Tilly Warnes from The Breat British Sewing Bee series one

Tilly Warnes with us

 .. . spending more money

My finished red work

 ... Dandelion Designs workshop was the best yet, it included a lovely mini red work kit

We're in this picture Mandy Shaw put on Instagram

... spending more money

all the table cloths were pom pommed!

... enjoying the Mollie Makes Mash-up between Mr X Stitch and Lisa Comfort

Mollie Makes Mash-up

 ... making felt flowers

Needle felted flower

 ... P met Lauren Child ( Charlie and Lola author and illustrator) such a lovely lady

P and Lauren Child

... and a HUGE thank-you to Mr P-L who drove us there and all the way home again.

Bristol Wool Fair

Last week-end was spent at Bristol Wool Fair with Pickle-Lily.

All set up!

It was a new venue for the fair and very different to last years Downs venue. I 'set up shop' on Friday, next to Fleecewitch and her beautiful alpaca yarns, and sure enough it wasn't long before I succumbed and bought my first yarn, and to be honest I had bought lots more from her by the end of the three days!

Fleecewitch yarns

I've now got two scarves on the go using her lovely yarns!

Valais Blacknose

Angora rabbit

Alpaca love!

There were alpacas, angora rabbits and Valais Blacknose sheep. I will leave the pictures to do their talking, but the sheep have to be the cutest sheep ever!

Vikings

Naalbinding

I met and chatted to lots of very friendly Hildsvin Vikings and found out what naalbinding is - making a crochet like material but sewing in blanket stitch type way, rather than using a crochet hook.

Viking camp

On Sunday, P and I took part in a needle felting workshop for the morning with Lydia from Black Dog and Ginger Cat. It wasn't nearly as easy as I hoped it would be!! But Lydia was very patient and a super teacher and yes, we came home with one of her kits.

Toft

There was so many fabulous stalls at the wool fair - I added three more pairs of Knit-Pro needles to my collection, Cat from Stitches from the Sofa ( also has a lovely blog post or two about the fair) brought two amazing dresses, I even got some super cosy mittens made from upcycled wool fabric, different beautiful yarns and much more.

Needle felting display by Jenny Barnett

It's on again next year - it's definately worth the visit!

Baskets for sale

Frozen needle felting

Dismaland - A Perfect End

After our holiday in St Ives (see last post) Pickle-Lily and I decided a trip to Dismaland would be just the thing to finish our holiday off. It was the perfect ending!
We went on a miserable Monday afternoon and queued for an hour and twenty minutes in the drizzle and finally we were in!

A perfect ending

The check in was brilliant - the amount of detail and grumpiness of the security was amazing. P did enquire about  a job, she felt she that she can do miserable, grumpy and sarcasm with ease, but sadly there were no vacancies.
Once through security it was truly amazing. The old abandoned lido was the most apt setting and it was genuinely hard to decide what was original and what was added. We were very lucky that it wasn't that crowded and we could take our time and see with ease. There are now hundreds, probably thousands of photos on line, and I must admit we did all the 'standard' ones, but I will share some favourites.

Just like our back garden sometimes!

The miniature town was staggering in size and complexity. I wanted to sing 'Stupid deaths' from Horrible Histories when Dancing with Death came out in his bumper car (but was told firmly not to!)

Stupid deaths, stupid deaths ...

 I really liked the cross stitch car and the detail both inside and outside Cinderella's castle. Another favourite was the plants in the cardboard food boxes - staggering.

This was cross stitch

There was lots more there, but I can't do it justice. If you get the chance GO!