"We all love figgy pudding

... so bring some right here!"

Christmas Pudding mini make

A ta-dah post for Pickle-Lily's latest mini make  - the Christmas Pudding decoration. In the mini make kit there is felt, ribbon, a button and some seriously glittery felt all cut ready for you to sew into a sparkly Christmas pudding to hang on your tree.
I am so pleased with these that I am going to have a mini giveaway for one.
How to enter

Follow my blog and then leave a comment to say you have done this. If you are already a follower (thank you) please just leave me a comment.

For extra chances to win you can....

'Like' me on my Facebook page and leave a comment on the post there.
Or leave a comment on my instagram post about the giveaway.

Please ensure that I am able to contact you. Pickle-Lily will pull all the names out of a hat on Friday 6th November.

Win me!

Good luck!

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!

Not a perfect post!

You are always seeing these amazing lifestyle posts on other people's blogs, full of idyllic photographs and fabulous photographs. Well this post is about a real family!
Earlier in the year Pickle-Lily went to St Ives with her school for an art trip. She came back full of enthusiasm for the the place, the golden sand, the blue sea, the museums and please can we go back. So, together, we planned a family holiday camping there this August. Big brother said he would come with us so he could go surfing, and I was (sadly) aware this was probably our last family holiday together.
I found a lovely campsite - Hellesveor Farm and booked us in. The farm is a lovely friendly little camp site, with a brand new shower block, clean and stylish you could say. An enclosed washing up area, no washing up in the rain for us and a beautiful tumble dryer - thank goodness. Mel and Andrew only took over last September and have worked so hard to make it like this.
Because, boy did it rain!

The view from our tent

We put up the tent in the rain, dried the inner with some old towels Mr P-L had put in the car and lit a stove in the porch to warm us up. All our clothes had to go in the tumble dryer that afternoon, we were soaked.

Look at those meringues!

Pickle-Lily and I explored St Ives in the wet - shopping in some of our favourite dry stores who all had thoughtfully provided umbrella buckets.

Poppy Treffry

 We visited the Tate St Ives - clean and dry, with a lovely dry cafe.

Fish and chips at the Tate St Ives

 I did enjoy the art as well!

My favourite

The Barbara Hepworth museum was also dry indoors, and the sculpture garden was amazing, and so well packed with plants and trees kept us relatively sheltered!

Barbara Hepworth

The local bus service that kindly stops at the farm entrance (parking in St Ives is a nightmare) broke down on us on the way back to the camp site, in the rain, but Mr P-L came to our rescue.
Big brother enjoyed surfing - Mr P-L watched in the rain!

Pickle-Lily

What became our final night was torrential - I lay in my sleeping bag listening to the hammering rain, and decided that I am really too old (and scared) for this, so in the morning I made the executive decision we were going home. As we packed up our trusty tent - thank you Mr Vango for making great tents - in the rain, I was sad to be going home but so looking forward to a quiet, dry house.
We drove home - in the rain - and now the very wet tent is spread all over the garage drying, but will it be used again? Sadly not, I think :(  

The shower block

I would like to say ..
Thank-you to my brother for my wellies ( a great Christmas present) I lived in them.
A BIG thank-you and I love you you to Mr P-L for everything.
I highly recommend Hellesveor Farm if you want a lovely, simple campsite - we will be back, but in a caravan next time!

The view from the camp site

Pussy cat, pussy cat ...

Cat notebook, key ring and needle book

At school we have a very friendly cat called Boris who has adopted us! He belongs to one of the teaching assistants, but spends more time in school with us than at home. He has his own special box in the office, but will often join me in Forest School.

Boris in his bed

As the Pickle-Lily logo is a cat, and in honour of Boris, I have revamped my cat 'range'. We have notebooks, key rings and cat badges, as well as a needle book design.

needle book

There is also some cat mini-bunting to come, but my sewing machine is being treated to a service so it is in the ever growing sewing pile. I love the fuchsia and grey colour combination, and I am hoping the cat range will be popular!

Cat badges

Mermaids Ahoy!

Mermaids ahoy!

As a change from knitting owls and bunnies I was recently asked to knit some mermaids. These lovely ladies are made from Rowan pure wool and I make the tail colours from blending two different shades. Although I am looking forward to my wool delivery, as Rowan are now doing some heather shades and one of those looks like a lovely mermaidy colour!

I can't do a thing with my hair!

Pickle-Lily and I also belong to The Lucky Dip Club - a present through the post once a month - and this months delivery was all about mermaids, so my two merladies are modelling all our goodies! Although they may be discussing who gets what!!

Which do you like the best?

 This month we got a funky shell necklace, a Mindful Mermaid note book and a shell charm for the charm bracelet. There was a very cute jellyfish crochet kit and a cheeky sea horse brooch (don't you think he looks cheeky!!!) which I'm allowed to have, her royal Pness is keeping the rest!!

Dolly Carrier

At a recent fair I was asked if I made dolly carriers for a little girl to put her dolly and teeny accessories in. So, after some research and consultation with Pickle-Lily herself, I have now come up with dolly carriers!

Dolly carrier

The perfect size for a dolly or two and accessories to travel about in, unroll and then ready for action! They are available empty - if you already have lots of dolls, or with a dolly and tiny friend (the dollies will vary).

Please come and play with me!

The outers are made with this lovely button fabric from Moda with a wool felt inner - flower colours vary!

dolly carrier rolled up

Lovely ladybirds

Ladybird goodies

Over the past few weeks we have been on ladybird or ladybug watch. We found several trees covered in hundreds of these gruesome looking bugs - and when I told the children they would grow up to be ladybirds, they just didn't believe me! So we watched!

I'm going to grow up and be a ladybird???

The gruesome bugs became strange looking cocoons - they did look a bit like ladybirds.

ladybird cocoons

And then last week, by precise timing by me (actually complete luck) we watched a ladybird hatching out of it's cocoon and found a newly hatched one sitting in the sun! I didn't realise how lucky we were until I went back the next morning to take better photos on the camera (as opposed to my phone) and couldn't find any at that stage, let alone two different stages. So apologies for the fuzzy photo!
I've been busy making some ladybird goodies after watching these amazing creatures - so I now have ladybird key rings and badges, as well as ladybird mini bunting and bug mini bunting including ladybirds. I just love ladybirds and we are going to have lots this summer!

hatching ladybirds