WOYWW 525

WILLING TO BE A SHELTER IN A STORM
YOUR WILLOW, OH WILLOW, WHEN THE SUN IS OUT

Goodness but I've got a lot to share this week - apologies for that and also for being terrible at replying to comments last week. Sorry, I'm usually really good but life just happened, if ya know what I mean! I promise to be better.....

The desk (No 1)

I'm doing a school summer fair this afternoon in selling crafts in aid of the RNLI - I'm taking that huge box of items that you gave me, Wipso, and am adding a few odds and sods of my own. 

Yesterday was Yarn Day at the WI meeting with a talk on Fleece to Shop and a knitted/crocheted item for the competition. I had an idea inspired by Twiglet's little dragon, so here's Desk No 2:

Obvious what it's going to be eh?! I didn't have a pattern for the tea cosy so got my pot and made it up. There was a cross stitch chart for the Welsh flag online so I copied that onto paper....

With the addition of three pom poms and a crocheted edge to the flag. Ta -da!!

OK desk stuff finishes here but craft stuff continues...sort of. The boys and I went on a road trip last Friday to Cardigan. We stopped at Cilgerran Castle (NT) which was amazing. There was a fantastic figure of Sir William Marshal made out of willow, so clever.

The maker had used different colours of willow with different weaves to create the effect of armour etc.

Here's a 6'3 son for scale! 

You can see a face and emblem on the chest - so clever!

Then we carried on to Cardigan - it's a very old market town on the coast with a really interesting history. I'm going to go back because we didn't cover half the ground we wanted to...

The market was a real surprise - talking to the fabric stall lady, it's the only purpose built historical market in Wales. It reminded me of the mosque/church in Cordoba with all the arches. You could see where the original cattle stalls would have been.

The lady in blue was very interesting to talk to and explained that the market group are trying to get funding to repair the fabric of the building.

Oooh, there was lots to see....

And many different shops to tempt me!! I was restrained.......

It's a two storey building, the upstairs wasn't as good as downstairs but there were more sculptures made of willow....

Aren't they wonderful? Cardigan Bay is a brilliant place to see dolphins, basking sharks, the odd whale, sunfish...all sorts come across the Atlantic. You don't even have to go out in a boat. At Newquay (Cardiganshire rather than Cornwall) you can stand on the harbour and watch the dolphins off the coast.  

I'd have liked the willow dolphins for my home or garden but couldn't fit them in my back pack!!

Have a wonderful week xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 524

BLUE, BLUE HEART, YELLOW GINGHAM DRESS
YOU PLEDGED TO ME YOUR TRUE HEART, FORSAKING ALL THE REST.

I was determined not to start off with 'where did the time go?' or 'Who stole the week?' but honestly, where did it go and who stole it?? It's been a time of getting back into the normal swing of things after the holidays and visitors - we haven't had as much rain as many of you have (I know, amazing for Wales, huh?) but even so, we came back to this:

Everything's just gone whoosh and shot up - all you can hear is buzzing from the bees on all the plants. I'm really pleased with it, now all we need is some nicer weather to sit out in it!

The desk has seen a fair bit of action too:

Lots and lots of bunting flags ready to sew onto tape for a barn dance that I'm helping to organise for the WI in Sept. I know it's only June but there's metres and metres to sew, so I shall do it bit by bit.

I bought a metre each of 7 different colourways and cut cannily in order to maximise the triangle-osity of it!

I've also dived into the fabric brought in Shrewsbury - the Harbour Lights cafe had sold out of everything I'd put down there, so I'm having a quick make and restock. I like both these fabrics, they're fun! In the background is an ATC from Kelly that arrived a couple of days ago, thank you, Kelly, it's great fun! I've got a feeling that I promised to swap with someone and have forgotten who - if it's you, please remind me, pretty please!

When I was laying out items for the bunting, I put the two reels of tape on the table and:


Well, it's just gotta be done, lol! Hope it made you smile too - have a great week! I may be late in returning comments as I have a friend staying for a couple of days, but I will be back!

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WOYWW 523

YOU'VE GOT TO FINISH WHAT YOU STARTED...

The Crop and week away in Shropshire seems almost like a distant memory now!

I unpacked all the stuff that had been given to me (huge thanks to Wipso, Neet and Shaz) and had a sort out before putting it away. The fabrics that I bought are already on the desk as I know the cafe is running low on the stuff I make to sell there.

No stroking of new stash for me, straight in there with the scissors!

I picked the yellow lining in the end....

All the ATCs and little gifts from everyone are now on the Shelves of Shame! I did have a lovely time really admiring them before sticking them up.

And this was seen in person by a surprise visitor!

Catriona and Norrie had bought their camper van and were staying in the local park, it was lovely to see them again and have a proper chat. They'd been down the RNLI shop beforehand and Catriona very kindly bought some glasses cases off me with all the money going to the charity. Hope you had a safe journey back Catriona xx

The crafting-on-the-sofa project is the crochet that I took with me to the Crop (and didn't do a stitch...)  Well, it has grown a bit since then...

Now I've learned to crochet a bit looser, I'm actually enjoying working with this Caron yarn, the seaside colours are quite relaxing. I did think about doing a waves pattern but you have to count stitches all the time and this version is mindless - if ya know what I mean. Empty head space, don't have to think crafting!

To end with (I feel I can't say And Finally now, as that's Shaz's line, lol!!) here is a lovely pic that G took of a busy bee on the laburnham arch at the cottage we were staying at:

Hard at work gathering lots of pollen!  I hear that there have been murmurs about a Shrewsbury crop next year - if so, we may well book the cottage again, it was fantastic and we had a good rest there as well as doing some touristy stuff. The drive back through mid-Wales was stunning, it's a beautiful part of the world.

Hope you have a good crafty week, enjoy whatever it is you're getting up to!

WOYWW 522

YOU GOTTA HAVE FRIENDS....

Hello everyone! If you are wanting to see the photos from the Crop, then scroll on down to the previous post. Be warned, there's quite a few so have a coffee/tea/beverage of your choice to hand!

It was such a wonderful day but I sort of knew that I wouldn't get a chance to really sit and chat to Wipso and Twiglet, as they'd be busy running the day. So I contacted them previously and invited them over for lunch and crafting on the following Monday, while G took himself off to Ironbridge.

So here are the two wonderful ladies, without whom the Crop wouldn't have been such a huge success!

Yay, happily having a furtle through the bags of stash that Neet and Shaz had donated to us. (We took quite a lot between us!)  Cups of coffee, lots of chatting, we had a really good catch up that didn't happen on the Saturday. Julia even joined us for a video call, she was drinking coffee too and wearing her tiara, lol!!!

We did a bit of crafting too - I got out the crochet that I took to the Crop but didn't touch!

The 3 Musketeers!! We had a lovely few hours, true friends xxx

Here are the ATCs and gifts that I garnered on the day, with a lovely embroidered book and bottle of gin from Jo and Annie. Caro had brought these rather lovely little badges, mine's at the front - it's definitely going on my jacket. It was so lovely to meet Caro and Catriona for the first time as well and completely wonderful to sit and chat with so many friends.

G and I are staying in the area all week - the weather wasn't too clever yesterday, so we headed into Shrewsbury for a wander through the gorgeous streets and indulge in a little shopping....

Oh dear.....
The first fabric shop had obviously heard I was in town and put the barriers up before I got there....

But Abakhan was open :-D Yay!

So much fabric.....

...so little time......

I spent a happy half hour having a really good browse and ended up buying different fabrics that will be good for linings and inners, I've still got a fair bit of furnishing fabric for the outers. 

I got a metre of each because they'll last for ages.  I need to polish my halo because I kept out of the haberdashery section, having picked a lot of ribbons etc from Neet and Shaz's donation. I'm looking forward to getting home and having a play.

And G is an understanding soul, he even held the fabric rolls for me in the shop. We did have a lovely time!


As I'm away until the weekend (thanks for house and cat-sitting Rhys!) I may be late returning comments. Don't forget, the Crop photos are down below! 

Have a great week everyone xxxxx

CROP 10....The Shrewsbury Tales


 Well, what a fantastic day that was - a new venue, which was a brilliant space, amazing hosts in Annie and Jo and some new (in reality) faces to meet as well. It was so good to catch up with friends that we hadn't seen for a year or so as well - I thought everyone was looking really great!

Radbrook Community Hall was a lovely venue, bright and breezy with loads of parking. Jo and Annie addressed the troops with a lovely welcome...

The two fab sisters who were our hosts for the day..what a brilliant job they did of it too!

Annie very helpfully demonstrated the safety announcements - either that or she's doing the YMCA dance ;-)

And here you can see the real reason for the Crop...cake, of course!!

The donations/swaps table soon filled up....

Lots of stash for someone else to give a new life....

Julia thanked Jo and Annie for hosting and all their hard work and presented them with a gift each.

The Raffle table filled up as well, with one of Annie's memory bears in the centre.

New this year was a photo booth corner, which was great fun. Catriona, a Crop newbie, had bought Harris Bear, made for her by Annie!

I bet you can guess whose table this is! It was lovely to see Maggie Craner after an absence of a couple of years. Her ATCs were glorious....

I had a go and really enjoyed it!

Now that's a look of deep concentration, lol!!

Shaz was blowing bubbles...pretty bubbles in the air...ok. she was really blowing alcohol inks around to make a coloured background. Very effective it was too.

See, there WAS some crafting going on!  Margaret (Glitter&Glue) was crocheting an edge around a blanket, Caro was zentangling, Camilla was enjoying the goings on and Sarah was colouring. Well done girls, you get extra brownie points for that! Talking about brownies, a shout out to my son Rhys who made some for the cake table....mmmmmm, they were lush!

It was so awesome to see Helen (Stamping by H) again..she had the fantastic idea of making a double page background for Crop 10 that we could all sign.

And my goodness, it was fab to see Chris (Mrs D) despite her recent ups and downs. So good to be able to catch up and hear all about her new place and the Craft Tower!

 Sarah was having fun colouring!

Jo was doing a sterling job keeping everyone topped up...

Margaret was doing a cracking job of bordering the multicoloured blanket...

We were thrilled that Caro made it to the Crop for the first time - so good to finally meet someone that I've known for a few years now!

Helen was doing some work in her journal...

Can you tell this was the naughty table? ;-)  Anne and Neet were on good form!!

And it was so good to see Heather again as well...

Obviously something really important was going on!

And Dolores made it as well - it was so brilliant to see her again, a surprise as we didn't think she could make it this year. 

She was doing some really delicate work.

Elizabeth, Christine, PJ and Camilla doing what crafters do best - craft and chat, good old multi-tasking!

Catriona was doing some beautiful embroidery embellished with beads...

Really detailed work - you've got a lot of patience there!

A close up of Harris Bear - and let me tell you, he is a true Scotsman :-D

Naughty Table Number 2! Elizabeth and Christine were having a good gossip...

Elizabeth was rocking a funky new bob hairstyle...

And Christine wouldn't be right without her pink locks!

PJ was working on his amazing wooden model train!

And it was awesome to hook up with Shaz, I've missed her.

And of course, we all wouldn't be there if it wasn't for this gorgeous gal!!

Would you trust this bunch of reprobates??

Or these??

Or these?? This made me lol!!!

Whereas these two gals were just tooooo gorgeous.....

I think Caro rocked that pink boa!

Who are those two mysterious masked ladies?? I couldn't possibly say......

And what a lovely pic of EM and Elizabeth...

There are two other WOYWWers in this pic...Pear Shaped Chris and ZsuZsa who turned up for a short while, so good to see them!

Back Row: Christine, Chris, Sarah, Camilla, Zsuzsa, Annie, Heather, Jo, PJ, Caro, Anne, Neet, Elizabeth, Margaret, Catriona, Shaz

Front Row: Helen, Chris, Julia, Jan, Dolores and Maggie

The biggest number of deskers at a Crop for a couple of years, it was brilliant to see you all.

Zsuzsa called in on her way somewhere, hope the rest of your journey was ok.

Two deskers!

Annie and Jo had one final surprise after lunch - we toasted WOYWW with Prosecco and there was a special cake (made by Jo!) for Julia to cut.

And every Queen of Snoop has to have a tiara!!!

Julia did the honours.....

So here she is....the person who made it all happen. And we all heard her say it - the next 10 years? She will if we will - there were witnesses, lol!

What a wonderful day - huge thanks to Annie and Jo for the amazing organisation and also to Gordon, Mr LLJ for being cameraman/photo editor as well.

I'm all typed out now...time for bed! See you on Wednesday..... xxxxxxxx



WOYWW 769

 WE'LL MEET AGAIN.... I'm going to take a break from blogging for a while - please don't worry, all is ok! - think I just need a...