Flapping around

A different subject....Birds!!

I recently visited a craft fair in West Bridgford to give my support to the Nottingham Ukulele Orchestra who were due to appear there despite the pouring rain when my attention was distracted by these gorgeous creatures.

 



 






Well Done Kilton Raptor rescue centre for looking after these birds.

playing catch up

Hi, its been a while but I'm going to play catch up with the next few posts and there will be a FIBRE heavy post on Woolly Wednesday in a few days time. In the meantime here are some photos from a recent small craft fair that I attended with Wikkidknitter. I did think that I had a photo of each stall but must have got distracted halfway round so big apologises to the ones I've missed out and I will try to put links to your sites at the bottom of this post.

First out of the bag is my friend Libby and I really love her work :-) She blogs under the name LilyBelle likes sewing and her new blog is called The Sewing Box, and introduces her quirky style of embroidery.

Next we have Leanne of Buffer Zone Nails who did a marvellous job of organising the show, these are Leannes hand painted nail sets, just the thing for Christmas.

Unfortunately, not one of my best photos :-( however this is Wikkidknitter with his amazing beaded Jewellery. It's not ofter that I wish that I had both ears pierced for earrings but the drop earrings are gorgeous.

This is Claires stall, Pinky and Boo, pretty crochet flower broaches, sewing baskets pin cushions, aprons and many other delights.

More Jewellery was on Sale made by Emma and I'm pleased to say that she remembered to take photos of the other stalls which can be found here Emma Ruth Jones

So, apologies to Perfidious Jewellery,  
                            To Vintage and Beyond
                            Toyz N the Hood
So sorry that I don't have photos but why not check out their sites?

A likle inkle weaving

I've been playing on the inkle loom again, this time making wrist bands with plastic clips to put on a friend craft table next weekend. A impulse purchase of 30 balls of crochet cotton has meant that I now have a wider colour selection to play with.

On the loom at the moment...

 the collection so far....

the only problem is that I get so far with these then suddenly get the urge to do something far more complicated!!

more from Venezianische Messe 2012

Hi, a few more photos and vids. Although it was early September, the temperature was hitting the eighties and I really felt for some of these guys. They were dressed up all day and spent a lot of time posing for the cameras and wearing the masks they couldn't even grab a drink and they do it all for fun.






the entertainment was vary varied from tradional Italian folk to a Zorb act onvolving a lot of fire !

The detail on some of the costumes was amazing and reflected the hours of work put into them.

 This peacock costume even had peacock shoes !!

So I will leave you with a video, this was advertising as a balance act so I had visions of  a tightrope act or the Chinese style balancing chairs on your head sort of thing. Nothing prepared me for this !!



Again thanks to Bikerted for the film.

Why, Hello there

Seems ages since I've posted here, well a couple of weeks or so, but I've been under the influence of a virus and simply haven't had the energy to come up with the words and pictures.
I think I left promising pictures of Venezianische Messe 2012 which took place in Ludwigsburg in Germany in September, weekend of venetian style carnival, masks and music. Amazing costumes, many of which were homemade and speaking to local people it became apparent that some visitors actually bring a selection of costumes to change into.
The whole event kicked off on the Friday evening with a procession of over a thousand revellers walking through the streets from the train station to the town square.

We had a good vantage point, the local subway bar was empty and in the 1st floor:-) The crowd made its way into the square and after a prouncment by the local speech, the fun started. The first act to get under way was Teatr na Choduljach, a stilt act from Ukraine.

 Thanks to Bikerted for the video.

More photos and vids to follow, have a great weekend.

woolly wednesday

Hi

This post may be a bit disorganised as I didn't know about Woolly Wednesday until a few hours ago! So  this is going to be a monthly round up of things woolly and is you check my side bar you will see a link to spinspiration where hopefully several bloggers will join in to share their projects and adventures. Since this is all going to happen on the first Wednesday of the month I have had to delay my post about Ludwigsburg but this may be a good thing as Bikerted is busy uploading some vids of the festival so I will be able to share the sounds as well as the sights with you.

So, what have I been up to? well I did take some knitting to Germany with us, strapped to the back of the bike with a drop spindle and an ukulele :-) Its a simple stocking stitch shawl that mainly shows off the colours of the yarn. The yarn is hand spun merino dyed by Babylonglegs purchased and spun a year or so ago. It had been sitting in my stash bag waiting for me to decide what to do with it!

An Oxford down fleece mysteriously followed me back from guild last weekend and some has now been washed, carded and is sitting ready for me to get one of the wheels out to have a good spin.

 The inkle loom has a super skinny scarf on it, merino/silk blend which may be dyed once finished.

 and the large bag on top of one if my many sewing machines is merino/baby alpaca dropped off by one of my friends at the weekend, she had promised to grab me something nice and soft and certainly did !!

I think that is possibly about it for now so I will leave you with a photo of spinners hard at work :-)

Although I suspect that, judging by the number without owners, that some of the spinners have sneaked off for a coffee!!

TTFN Guzzisue x

Germany, the Black Forest

I would love to share photos of the black forest, we found some really beautiful roads to ride along but pictures of trees flashing by are simply not interesting,
We decided to stay overnight at Freudenstadt as it looked a reasonable size town on the map although without wifi we couldn't really check it out in detail so we did it the old fashioned way. Ride into a town, look for hotel signs or tourist info office, follow them , get lost, get off the bike, tum it around and try again!!! Usually we look for a small hotel/guesthouse near the town centre with somewhere to park the bike out of sight. The bike may be old but its our only means of getting home !



So when we pulled up outside this hotel, my first thoughts were 'ok, well out of our league here, lets try somewhere else' but then I thought ' we're grown ups now (that always comes as a shock !) lets just see how much for one night'

We stayed to enjoy the luxury for a change, bathrobes and slippers provided, baby grand being played softly in the bar, chandeliers in the dinning room although we did feel a little uncomfortable being welcomed in to look around wearing scuffed black leathers and a days worth of road muck!





The view accross the forest was impressive as was the blue sheep on the gardens on the other side of the road!!
 

 

We ate in the town, admired the fountains, enjoyed ice creams and earmarked this as a good base for touring round the Forest area in the future as we had to be in Ludwigsburg the next day for the highlight of our holiday.





more soon xx

finish the washing up and stack the pots....

 neatly on the ceiling...Thank you :-)

hehe xx

Road Trip....France....Buildings

So September started with me packing our bike with clothes and toys ready for a short road trip across the Channel. A few days less then usual due to family commitments but still plenty of time to pack in a few varied destinations. These post will probably be photo heavy as Biker Ted will be writing up the trip with all the details that I usually forget to put in!!

Our first destination was Colmar in France, a very picturesque town in France where , if you stare at the houses too long, you begin to wonder if its the houses leaning or yourself!!



our hotel for two nights



Bakery



Detail from the shutters

 

see what I mean by being a bit wonky!



A stream runs through the town



Small passage ways are always interesting although I had to wait a day for this one as the dustbins were out when we got there.



Still pretty at night time.

More about how we passed our time in Colmar (other than sitting in bars)  in the next post.xx