Craft Fair

These are the photos of the NSPCC Craft Fair held here in the Town Hall on Saturday. Huge thanks to Jo and Annie, not only for contributing their gorgeous creations but for staying with me all day too, it was great fun and they were really good company. Thanks also to Hannah of Lonely Hearts for sending her fab jewellery and other things and to Julie for sending me her gorgeous felt brooches. I couldn't have managed without you all.

Unfortunately I've had a very emotional time lately with a few issues that have left me feeling completely drained and fairly shocked. And even though I've had to make a very difficult decision, it will, hopefully, make things easier and allow me to get on with things.

Having said that there have been some really nice things going on in our lives too. Gav and i drove up to Birkenhead after the Craft fair on Saturday to see Steve Hackett play at the Pacific Road Arts Centre. We booked into a B&B because neither of us felt like driving back late in the icy weather. The B&B was above an Italian Restaurant and we had a lovely meal before the concert. It's so nice to spend intimate, quality time together, we talk for ages, he's tremendously supportive and helpful in difficult situations. He's filming Steve Hackett at Shepherds Bush on Tuesday, so we went to have a look at the performance so he could get some idea of what he would need to do. We were invited backstage for a chat and to meet members of the band, it was so nice.

Also I've finally managed to get my artwork and editorial off to Cloth, Paper Scissors magazines for publication. I think they said it would be in the March issue next year, i can't wait to see it.

Not enjoying this cold weather at the moment, haven't even ventured out for our evening walks for a few days. Perhaps we'll manage it when Gav gets back from London this week. We've been invited to a book signing at the country works gallery on Friday and after that we've no committments leading up to christmas and i'm so looking forward to having time to prepare the house for that.

"If malice or envy were tangible and had a shape it would be the shape of a boomerang"

- Charley Reese

Aladdin's Cave

Nearly everyone visiting the shop this weekend commented that it was like an "Aladdin's Cave", which i'm really pleased about because it was the effect i was looking for when we opened it. Thought i'd share some photo's.

I've been busy finishing off all my small collages to put in the shop.

More cakes A boat for a change
Another cake

Here they all are on the wall, getting lots of viewings and two have been sold already.

WEDDING UPDATE

I've taken the stress out of wedding arranging by delegating everything,

i feel much more relaxed now.

The day, time and church are finalised/booked, as is the rehearsal. We've now booked the Town Hall for the wedding reception, booked the caterer and chosen the menu. I've managed to have a short meeting (in the shop) with Jan, the flower lady and we'll follow up with a meeting soon, she's done flowers for weddings at St Nicholas' before and at the town hall so most things i can leave up to her, she comes highly recommended and i'm happy to work with her. I have my dress, my wedding ring and the bridesmaids are nearly sorted out (Gav is sorting himself out!!!). I've booked all the hair appointments for us all at the local hairdressers and i've booked a room for myself on the wedding morning at the dragon (Gav and i are staying there overnight), i'm hoping to book another room for the morning so us girlies can get together, get dressed and indulge in chocolate and bubbly. It's all very exciting especially now that i'm feeling more relaxed about things.

I'm continually getting requests from various people to run some more workshops. The Ladies Club Christmas workshop was great fun and I, along with others, were able to show some new techniques. Although, i'll wait until next year now, at least until after the wedding, to put some serious thoughts and ideas together. I've been thinking of a series of courses/workshops whereby people attend for a few weeks and work on one project throughout in it's various stages. It's hard doing something in an afternoon slot or a two hour slot, especially when waiting for things to dry and like this the projects can be completed at a more relaxed pace.

Now that things are slightly less hectic for us, gav and I are looking at printing. We have an all singing, all dancing printer that we bought before the shop opened in order to do prints of my artwork to sell and to print our own greeting cards etc. Up until now we've not had much chance to do anything, but it's the next thing we're looking at, thats all exciting too. The prints of my artwork on to cards and as mounted prints makes it all more affordable.

Some collages i finished off today. The background was achieved by using some old paper gift bags i found in my stash of papers, i used gel medium to adhere fragments of the paper to the wood and painted over them.

The last lot of wooden brooches i made sold so well in the shop i decided to experiment with some new designs. I made these using some illustrations from pages of an old book.

I've had such a lovely day today. This morning Gav and i attended the vicarage for our wedding preparation course along with four other couples. It was quite interesting. Then Nicole and I went to Bishops Castle to get her bridesmaid dress and spent the afternoon looking around antique shops, book shops and drinking coffee...a gorgeous mother/daughter afternoon to be treasured.

"A daughter may outgrow your lap, but she'll never outgrow your heart" - Unknown

Here are a few more paintings i finished this week, these are the little ones on wood about 4x4 inches, they sell really well in the shop. This one i sealed with wax, but wasn't sure i liked the effect, but lots of other people say they do, so i'll give it a try.

I can never resist doing cakes!

and......da da.....

My Christmas display window

guess what it is? he! he!

I finally got the opportunity last week to spend a whole day in my art room, which was a complete mess and i had to fight with my conscience not to spend that precious time cleaning it, which was difficult, so i just focused on what i wanted to do. This box is gorgeous, i got it from an auction a few months ago and i think it was meant to hold pencils or paints. It has a wonderful textured worn cover and feels so nice, almost like soft suede.

It's not finished yet, but here's a sneak peek of the inside. The image of the lady was cut out from this stack of old french magazine papers i picked up from a car boot sale in the summer. These pages are old and delicate and are perfect for collage.

I love these wood blocks, i found them in a textile shop in Bishops Castle last week, i could have bought the whole shop, gorgeous textiles. I'm hoping to use these in my collages, i've never seen so many designs in one place.

Some old receipts i got at auction for use in collage

The inside of Montgomery Town Hall where we're having our wedding reception and where i'm doing the craft fair on the 27th November. I managed to get in and take these photos last week whilst the market was open downstairs, i think it's fab for the wedding. This is facing the stage

The bar area to the side

and the view from the stage

Town hall from the outside

(notice the road works going on last week, where the council closed the whole square without letting anyone know!)

closed off Kerry Street, no-one could get to our shop and the noise was awful.