Living Crafts in Hatfield

Today, my 3 year old Craftyguidelet and I braved the mud at Hatfield House to go to the Living Crafts Fair. The fair is huge.   It’s made up of lots of marquees with demonstrations of sculpture, oil painting, pot throwing, paper making, chainsaw carving and many, many more.   Alongside this are dozens of designers and makers selling their crafts. If I wasn’t under time constraints (there’s only so much a 3...

Spring Swap Parcel

This morning I received some lovely post, the loveliest being my Popular Crafts Magazine Spring Swap from the talented @Gemma_Winter. Isn’t this gorgeous? The amount of work that must have gone into this.   It’s fabulous. And my treat was great too. Some gorgeous glitter in my favourite colours and some adhesive lace which I’d been thinking about buying recently.   Gemma is a mind reader! If you...

Forty one and a quarter

On my 41st birthday, I blogged about what I hoped to achieve in my 42nd year.   It’s been a tricky 3 months with sciatica, flu and tonsillitis, but I thought it was time to review. Knit a pair of socks – Wool bought, pattern sourced Learn crochet – I’ve had a lesson with the lovely @meanyjar but not progressed any further Organise craft area of office – Done! Improve my jewellery making –...

Spring Swap

After all the fun I had with the Popular Crafts swaps before, of course I was going to enter the next one.   Unlike the button, owl and heart swaps, Spring wasn’t that obvious at first.   Added to that, a bad back stopped me from doing anything creative for some time. I was paired with @Gemma_Winter whose likes included sparkly things, unusual things and kitsch.   Having changed my mind several times about what to...

Girlguiding UK’s Big Gig

On 31st March, I took 17 Guides, 2 leaders and a parent helper to Birmingham’s LG Arena for Girlguiding UK‘s Big Gig.   The Big Gig is a music event at a major venue exclusively for Guides which Girlguiding UK has been running for 12 years.   In the past, it’s also been held at Wembley Arena, Manchester’s MEN Arena and The Millenium Dome. I’ve taken Guides to Wembley and Birmingham in the...

Nothing to see here!

Yes, nothing at all for too long. I have neglected my blog and the website for ages.   The main reason is my bad luck with my health.   There was I, minding my own business, blogging and crafting as I should when I was brought down by sciatica.   No warning, no reason, just the proverbial pain in the derriere.   This was accompanied by pains in most other places which made it impossible to sit at a sewing machine.   Or...

Heartswap

That sounds like something medical, doesn’t it?   It’s actually the next Popular Crafts magazine craft swap, and this time I was linked with the lovely @sarahwalters99. Her likes included fabric, buttons, pink and girlie so I got my thinking cap on and came up with a heart door hanger.   A bit of IKEA curtain remnant (which I use A LOT!), some buttons, some felt, embroidery thread, a Sizzix Big Shot and flower...

Cubby Kits Review

Having spotted a tweet from @cubbykit asking for bloggers to review their craft kits for kids, I wondered if I was the girl for the job: a) I have a blog, b) I love crafting, c) I have 2 craftyguidelets who d) love crafting and e) it’s half term!   I qualify and Cubby Kit agreed to send me a box to review.   Yippee! As my girls are 5 and almost 3, Cubby Kit chose to send me a box suitable for 3-4 year olds.   A box...