Last Bank Holiday until Christmas

True to form, the Bank Holiday weekend was another damp squib!   Lark Lane on Saturday wasn’t too bad weatherwise but it wasn’t very busy – I think everyone had gone to the Matthew Street Festival.  

On Sunday, we braved the threatening sky and, with our husbands, we went into Ormskirk to see the Motorfest.   In the event, the weather stayed fine and was actually quite warm so we stayed quite a while, looking at all the veteran, vintage and classic cars.     Liz and I took numerous photos but it was difficult to get clear shots of the cars because there were such  crowds of people there.   I’m, hoping that I might have some half decent shots of the cars when they actually drove round the one-way system – but I haven’t downloaded them yet.   However, I have downloaded some shots from the flower show and the camera club’s outing to Southport  and there are some promising shots there.  

On Bank Holiday Monday, the four of us were going to go to Matthew Street Festival but it absolutely poured down all day, so I spent my time putting some new products onto my website.   It took forever – Liz is the expert , she seems to whiz through but I thought it was time I got into it a bit more – I suppose I’ll get quicker in time.    I still need Liz to check for any howlers though!

I can’t believe that, next week, the children go back to school – I’ll miss Adam, my grandson, who has spent quite a lot of time with us this holiday, but it will make me get back into some sort of routine again and down to a bit of serious work – that’s if I don’t get distracted by the Paralympics!

Felt brooch

Lazy bones

I have been a real lazy bones for the last ten days.   The Olympics were partly to blame – I’ve run every race, jumped every jump, thrown every missile, swum, paddled , sailed and cycled, to name but a few disciplines – I’m exhausted!    I compounded my laziness by going to Old Trafford to watch a day’s cricket at the weekend and I shall be skiving off to the Flower Show at Southport towards the end of the week as well, so not a lot achieved this week either.

A few weeks ago,  I helped one of my grandsons to make a couple of pieces of felt which I promised to make into a pencil case for him for when he starts secondary school – this week, finally, I put it together and put a zip in it – it looks super - I should have taken a photograph of it before he took it home.

I also did some nuno felt samples – I was checking which of my stash of fabrics might be suitable for the technique before I embark on any larger scale projects.    One of the samples, made using purple and  black merino on mauve chiffon, I have used to make a pretty anemone brooch with a  beaded centre.

As well as having a mammoth sort out of a drawer full of old photographs, I intend to try to make some sense of lots of clutter in my ‘workroom’ this coming week.   Wish me luck – I’ll need it.

Rain, rain, go away!

This week, like many other people in this country, I’ve been glued to television watching the Olympics so I haven’t been very productive at all.   I make the excuse that it’s only once every 4 years and won’t happen again in this country in my lifetime, so it seems a shame not to make the most of it.  

I did have one day when I made lots of jewellery using some of the beads I bought on holiday.   I think the total was 2 dozen pairs of earrings ,1 dozen necklaces/pendants and 6 handbag/phone charms.

On Saturday, we went to Bickerstock – a music festival in Bickerstaffe.   Luckily we were located in a marquee so, despite the teeming rain showers we were at least dry.    It wasn’t particularly busy for us but, among other things, I sold a felt covered sketch book which I was rather fond of and my favourite purple and pink felt scarf.   Liz sold a couple of bags and a pretty scarf.  However, I don’t think we’re music festival material, the noise levels increased as the day wore on and we were reduced to plugging our ears with paper tissues at one point!    We made our escape at about 5 o’clock with our ears ringing and our heads buzzing.

Today, we were again in a marquee at Knowsley Flower Show.    It all started very well, a lovely morning and the staff were very pleasant and even helped us unload.    The ground was quite wet when we arrived and, by the time we’d set up and  despite wearing strong walking shoes, we had wet feet.    I don’t know what time the rain really started to come down in bucketfulls but it was deafening on the canvas of the marquee.    Then the thunder and lightning started and the rain became even heavier – think Noah’s flood.    It seemed to go on forever, but the best was yet to come.   Suddenly, we realised that big pools were forming under our feet and  little rivulets were forming.   Then we noticed that, just above our heads, the canvas was beginning to sag ominously where a large volume of water had collected instead of running off.   Just as we were trying to decide on our best course of action, a member of staff arrived and ordered everyone to ‘abandon ship’ as the site was about to be closed due to flooding.    Forget women and children first, it was every man for himself.   I don’t think we’ve ever packed up as quickly (or as untidily).   We dashed for the car (that’s if you can actually dash and paddle at the same time) and crammed everything in as quickly as we could.   Getting off the site took ages, everyone, exhibitors, traders and visitors all trying to leave at the same time, some getting bogged down in the mud, but at least we were not getting any wetter.

Since coming home, I have unpacked, dried out and repacked.   If I am ever tempted to do an open air/marquee event again, I hope someone will remind me of just how risky it can be in terms of ruining all those lovely photographic prints and textiles and how very lucky we were to get back with everything intact.   And, if all else fails, remind me that were fortunate to not come home with trench foot!