Dorset

Half term saw us pootle off down to the seaside to West Bay in Dorset.

We didn't have a holiday last year, so excitement and anticipation levels were high!

This is the view we had when we walked down to the harbour after dinner, the light was fantastic and the sound of the sea was such a lovely welcome!

The weather was very kind to us only one full wet day and lots of sunshine. We went to Lyme Regis on Sunday and it glorious, these beach huts are on the front, the beach is fantastic, lovely sand and then also rocky/gravelly bits for exploring/finding.  A lovely English seaside resort, we'd definitely come back here.

Bit of a walk up the hill to get into town but the views are worth it!

We had a walk up the main Broad Street, found Alice's Bear Shop by accident, which turns out to be the bear shop in a story book we bought for the eldest many years ago from a book signing event in Witney - Chunky and the Bone, it was very surreal and then inside was the actual author and illustrator of the books! It was very exciting! The girls liked the bear hospital at the back of the shop and we were able to buy another book to start a collection!

Next door was Ruby Rockcake which we'd been tipped off to by the lovely Attic24 blog, inside was full of lovely home items, I got an old fashioned milk bottle (pic later!) but could have happily spend more, I did um and ahh over finally getting an Orla Kierly mug, but resisted!

We had a great lunch in the Bell Cliff restaurant, who were very accommodating to get all 7 of us in, including all our beach bags and the buggy!

We bought pasties for tea from Pasty Presto, another tip off from Attic 24 - we found a lot of inspiration from Lucy for our holiday!

They were amazing, I had a lovely chickpea and potato one, it was huge and so nice and filling after a long day at the beach!

We tried fossil hunting on Monmouth beach, which is on the other side of the harbour but we didn't fair very well, even with Grampy's fossil hammer! Still, it kept us all amused!

Bank holiday Monday saw us browsing Bridport, mainly to the vintage quarter, which was quieter than I'd hoped but still good for a rummage.

Wish I'd bought these now!

I did get a lovely Poole pottery cup and saucer for the princely sum of £5, one thing we did notice as a region were the prices, much better value than in our neck of the woods! Even the charity shops were better.

Tuesday was the really wet day, so we took advantage of the caravan park's swimming pools and had a wet walk around West Bay! The caravan park is run by Parkdean and our accommodation was fine, nice and clean, three bedrooms and two shower rooms (one en-suite) but the park wasn't very inspiring, the girls liked the amusements! But the swimming pool was small and only one depth so only the 9yo could swim in it and then the toddler pool was very small and only good for splashing/walking around in. We did brave an hour of kids entertainment at the main bar but it really wasn't our thing! Over all the stay was fine but I don't think we'd rush back there, unless it was much cheaper, it definitely wasn't worth the money, especially being half-term week, this was the first time we'd holidayed out of term time and I'd rather face a stern talking to from the headmistress (or fine!) than do it again.

West Bay was lovely though and the fresh fish should be tried, we had some lovely fresh caught scallops one night which were delicious.

On Wednesday we decided to head west to Charmouth beach. It was an overcast day but still nice to be out and exploring, we found a few more fossils here, mostly by accident in the tide, there's a shop and museum here which is great for fossil information, they have on display a large fossilised Ichthyosaur which was found here in 2000.

When the tide goes out you can see a lot of exposed rocks which are great for exploring!

The forecast looked good for Thursday so we planned to go back for another beach day at Lyme.

On the walk from the car park we found this small nestle of shops with the museum, cheese maker, pottery, sewing studio and brewery. We went back later to get some cheddar cheese which had been matured in Wookey Cave and a selection of beers!

We spent the day on the sandy beach this time, we tried to fill in the large hole left by the previous occupants! Is it a boy-thing to dig as big as possible?! The 9yo liked to go off and clamber on the rocks and even declared she wanted to buy a wetsuit as she fancied a swim!

We had the most delicious sandwiches for lunch from a local shop, my crab sandwich was heaven and the kids enjoyed their lunchbox option.

Just on the seafront is this antiques centre and I could have spent a LOT longer in here!! It had oodles of stuff and the prices were really reasonable, I got some more Poole Pottery - bowls and small plates this time.

And of course, the girls wanted to go to the amusements! I too loved going to these on holidays, so I try not to say no and at the moment they're quite happy with the 2p machines!

As we were walking back the weather was changing, and the showers that we were lucky to miss earlier, started to head in, but in true Brit style we had an ice-cream! I had a delicious turkish delight flavour!

Last proper day of holiday and it was blazing sunshine, so much so that due to the wind I forgot about my sun-cream in the morning - and paid for it later!

This is Burton Bradstock, just round the corner from West Bay, it was actually my least favourite beach, the surface was very sharp gravel and not nice to walk on - even with my trusty crocs on, the 6yo didn't like it either.

But the scenery and the blue skies were hard to dislike, it felt very good being here rather than at home or work!

There's a lovely cafe on the beach - the Hive Beach Cafe, which served lovely seafood but we stuck with our picnic but enjoyed a delicious ice-cream from the stall behind the main cafe, this time I had mango and enjoyed paddling my toes while enjoying it.

This will be my memory of the other side of our holiday as during most of the break our eldest wasn't on top form, I don't think it was a tummy bug but she struggled most days with either constipation or diarrhoea, so she was a little sad on some days which sort of meant that in the back of my mind, I didn't really feel like I was on holiday. There was always some thing to think about, what are they having to eat mostly! The toddler got grumpy when she wanted to sleep and didn't like the feel of sand on her feet!

So as a holiday it wasn't restful or idyllic but with small children is it ever?!  I think I just need more practise at holidaying with children! A couple of breaks a year should be mandatory!

West Bay on Friday evening, like saying goodbye.

Saturday, last day of the holiday, up early to get out of the caravan and we decided to treat ourselves to breakfast the Watch cafe (another Attic 24 find)

My full English, with pot of tea was just the way to start an early morning!

It was another glorious day and as it was Saturday I wanted to head into Bridport for the antiques market! Which was great, so many traders, it was bustling, I wish we had something similar nearby.

We managed to pop into Yarn, the local wool shop and the Girls Own Store (yes more Attic24 tip-offs!)

Some lovely stuff in here, I got some fab notebooks, one of those ringing counter bells and a wooden toy book for the bath!!

We bade farewell to my family who were heading home via Dorchester and then grabbed some lunch from the lovely Leakers bakery so that we could have a picnic at the park in West Bay.

Their spelt croissants were fabulous and were great with the Lyme Regis cheese!

After the kids tired themselves out at the playground and we'd bought souvenir biscuits, Dorset Teabags (which are lovely and also available in Waitrose!) and postcards (a little late!), it was with very heavy hearts that we had to admit it was getting late and time to go back home :(

Thankfully the kids slept most of the way and by the time we got back at about 9pm it was actually nice to see our house and be amazed by how green everything looked, (not a lot of green at the seaside I suppose!)

Goodbye Dorset, we'll be back next year!

Fibreworks and the Festival

Last Saturday I had a trip out to Chipping Norton for their Fibre Festival.

This was a new event organised by the Fibreworks shop in town and held in the town hall.

We arrived early in the morning and already the hall was buzzing, there were lots of stalls, varying from wool to other creative crafts.  Lots of demonstrations running through the day, all of which are offered as classes at Fibreworks.

The stalls were mostly run by the tutors of the courses and they were all lovely and welcoming, eager to talk and to explain their craft.

There was patchwork and quilting, which I'd love to do, sewing children's clothes, kanzashi flowers, flower arranging, millinery and fabric printing.

All the stalls were beautifully laid out, it wasn't too crowded and I wanted to sign up to all the courses offered by Fibreworks!

The demonstration on when my mum and I arrived was rag-rugging so we were eagerly watching as we were signed up to do this on the following Tuesday! It really got us excited and gave us a chance to think about what materials/colours/shapes we'd like to produce!
The venue was a lovely space, I'd never been before but it was just the right size, it even had room for some tea tables and they have fabulous large portraits on the walls, very grand!
I really hope it is the first of many, it was easy to get to, easy to park and there are plenty of places to go after for a bite to eat or shop! We had a good mooch around all the charity shops, which were full of lovely things - pity I couldn't afford the £85 for the Poole pottery set I spied in one! 

I did manage to get an early birthday present from my mum at the fair though, a, lovely Liberty and bead bracelet, I'm afraid I've mislaid the makers card, do let me know if you can help credit this.

So after a very hectic weekend, which included mine and my daughters birthdays and a party, on Tuesday we were ready for our turn at rag-rugging! Even though I was shattered, I was definitely ready for some 'me' time!

We arrived at the Fibreworks shop at 10am and were warmly greeted and sent upstairs to the craft room.

There were 5 of us on the course and our tutor Claire quickly talked about the history of rag-rugs, about how they used to be made from fabric scraps, worn out clothes and how they would be rotated through the house, a new one made for best at Christmas for the parlour, and then each rooms rug would be demoted down the hierarchy of rooms, to the lowly back door rug which when worn out would be composted!

I love this make do and mend philosophy!

Then we got stuck in (with tea and biscuits) to having a go with some scraps, the technique is very simple, with the latch hook you go through the hessian from front to back, then bring the hook out a few strands away, then push the hook shaft all the way through through both holes (this opens the latch), then you place your rag piece on the hook end and as you pull through both holes, the latch closes and holds onto the rag.

I found the process very calming and methodical without having to be too worried about neatness or perfection, the charm is the handmade-ness, it doesn't have to be perfect!

So then we had a think about what we wanted to produce and we were able to get a piece of hessian cut to our liking and think about a layout or design. I had taken some t-shirts with me but the shop does have a stash for you to use as well. Claire recommended using old t-shirts/tights/ socks as the jersey doesn't fray and usually rolls up into nice coils, if using cottons its best to cut up with pinking shears and that gives a more shaggy look.

Mine is hopefully going to be mainly blues and greens in blocks/squares/triangles, I'm not sure how long it will take to complete though!

Before we knew it, it was 1pm and we were done for the day, I think the timescale was spot on, enough to get started without being too long. We all headed home with plenty of fabric, our piece of hessian and our free latch hook, which was great value I felt for the course fee.

I definitely think we'll be back for more courses!
If you want to have a go, they have two more rag-rug courses coming up:
Tuesday 17 September, 10am - 1pm
Wednesday 6th November  10am - 1pm
http://www.thefibreworks.co.uk/classes.html

It's all about the trousers

Having a little one in cloth nappies means that normal trousers just do not fit!

I'm a bit late to the re-usable nappy table, I didn't really think about it with the first two, things were so busy with only two years between them!

So trying to find clothes that fit now, have proved more difficult, any clothes I did save were mostly jeans and they are not a friend to big bottomed babies!

You need room and stretch, which for me has meant lots of leggings! Tights are good also but I don't find them with skirts/dresses to be very practical for a toddler who wants to climb/crawl/be active!

So as per previous posts I've been making a few pairs and currently my mojo has returned (and I've bothered to put the walking foot back on the machine!) so I've cranked out two more pairs using the lovely Meg McElwee book - Growing Up Sew Liberated.

First, a new pattern for me, the pajama bottoms/everyday leggings.

I can't believe how easy these are! After getting the fabric from Fabrics Galore (finding a good jersey is the hardest bit), I made these in one day, I want to make a whole load more!

Excuse the unfinished waistband in the pic!

Then because they're so comfy, I made a larger pair of the bubble pants, these are like loungewear for babies.  These are not the height of fashion, I up cycled a white t-shirt (size 22 from the charity shop - these take a lot of fabric) and used a lovely jersey print dress that my friend gave to me for the insides.

The next pair to finish are a green cord version of Anna-Maria Horner's fabulous quick change trouser which will have this lovely tree fabric as the lining. I got this from Eternal Maker at the quilt show a few years back!

Haven't quite finished them, I've been waylaid by another school dress-up day, which requires an Egyptian costume! Photos of both will have to follow...

The Spring Knitting & Stitching Show

On Sunday while it was snowing heavily (!) I headed down to London to visit the Spring Knitting and Stitching Show by Twisted Thread at Olympia.

It was surprisingly easy to get to, my sister drove us down and parked at the Westfield Shopping Centre nr Shepherds Bush (£8 all day parking), it's then a very short hop on the overground to Kensington Olympia, ( or apparently it's just an 18min walk, which I was going to do as I still don't like trains but actually I did get on it, Yay!) it wasn't packed and the journey took about a minute!

So I have previously been to the quilt show and the Ally Pally show, all run by Twisted Thread, so I was curious to see how it would compare.

The show was held upstairs in the west hall, so was quite a small venue, like a conference centre, it was quite quiet, not packed and also there wasn't a buzz when you walked in.

I was later annoyed at spending £4 on the show guide which only had about 2 pages of things to read, the rest was a list of all the days workshops and the exhibitors, oh and a map but seeing as this was largely displayed at the front of the hall, I wished I hadn't bothered!

Speaking of annoyance, the venue was hot and stuffy (as they usually are) so as I'd left my water in the car (oops), I literally HAD to have a cuppa to keep going half-way! I treated myself to a cookie and was horrified to find the total was £4.20, I hate that venues do this.

Afterwards we had a bite to eat at the M&S cafe in Westfield - much better value!

Anyway, so there were quite a lot of stalls, I looked at the Folksy pop-up stalls first, these were changing daily and on Sunday, it was a real mixed bag, some lovely artisan pieces and then also some slightly naff looking 'handmade' 'craft' items!

The above photo and the ones below are from the Stitch, Craft, Create stall, again they were having different daily sellers (I was sad to miss on Friday Alice and Ginny with their new book 'Sewing for Kids') Sunday's was Laura Long - who I follow on Twitter with her new book 'Knitted Toy Travels'.

The stall looked lovely, lots of lovely handknit items and most of the animals from the book, the giraffe was fantastic and I would be tempted to investigate this book further when I get my knitting mojo back.

At the Felt Makers stall there was a good demonstration of felt making which even I thought looked easy and gave me some ideas to try.

Lots of lovely fabric about, mostly home or quilting.

There were a few quilts on display from the Quilters Guild.

Colourwash Goes Red by Angela Rodda

Star Struck by Angela Browning

Silver Sword Hawaiian by Pippa Moss

Blame Jean by Margaret Smith

There was a display stand for Liberty fabrics but it's only now having seen pictures online and studying the map that I know I missed some more display bits!
There was a knitted garden and knitted bedroom which for reasons unknown was tucked back in the second hall, facing towards the back!
This would have been much better placed at the entrance to the halls to greet you as you arrived to help give a Wow factor.

The first hall seemed empty and spacious compared to the second hall at the back and it definately wasn't like Ally Pally which although was crammed it means conversely it's full of people and energy.

It didn't have lots of great yarn or fabric stalls either, definately not as much knitting and there seemed to be lots of spaces on the day's workshops but not many stall demonstrations.
But seeing as it's new it just needs to find it's feet and identity, I guess it may not have helped that the Sewing for Pleasure show is on at the NEC this weekend too.
I would be happy to go again, it's easier to get to for me than Ally Pally and I did manage to get a cheaper ticket due to being a Mollie Makes subscriber!

So....just as importantly what did I buy?!?!!

Well a lovely comfy bag from the Aid for Burma (KSDP Charity)_stand...I know it looks a bit hippy but it fits on your shoulder really well without falling off and is even reversible, for a tenner it was a bargain.

And finally, I managed to get hold of Bungle Jungle! 

I saw this ages ago and loved it but didn't get it and then I've struggled to find it online ever since. The moral of these charm packs/jelly rolls is that they don't hang around forever, the Moda range seems to have a high turnover, so if you like it, get it!!

Of course I think one of the reasons that I ummed and ahhhed previously is not knowing what exactly to do with it, which I'm still not settled on, but I did get a free book from Puddleducks for spending over a certain amount (don't ask!) which has a few nice quilt patterns in, which may work.

So from Puddleducks I also got another Moda pack - AppleJack, a small charm pack with lots of vibrant colours and prints.

and then after more umming and ahhing I decided to treat (!) myself to a quilt kit - the ABC 123 quilt, which I loved! There's a picture further up from the Puddleducks stall of the quilt made up and I'm hoping that by having it as a kit I won't need to query how to start or what to do, I can just jump straight in!

What I really wanted was some dressmaking weight fabrics, I didn't find anything I liked for myself - it's so hard to visualise a) whats a good fabric for the pattern and b) what would look good on me.

But from Fabrics Galore, I found this lovely soft jersey cotton for toddler clothes, only £6m so I got a couple and hope to get some leggings and a top out of it, hopefully using my Sew Liberated for Kids book.

I got some red felt and large buttons for possible badge ideas I have and then some washi tape, Mod Podge and Heat n' Bond to try, as I've seen them all used on Pinterest and I have a few ideas for them.

Now I'd just like some time to use them!

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the show too, or if you have any shop recommendations for dressmaking fabrics!

Knitting & Stitching Show

I'm looking forward to the weekend, as I'm off to the Spring Knitting & Stitching Show at Olympia.

It's a new show, on from the 14th - 17th March, so fingers crossed it's good!

Tickets can still be bought on the day, see the website for details.

Take a few toilet rolls....

...an idea from Pinterest and you get a lovely day of crafting with the kids.

It's been so long since we all crafted together and we all enjoyed this idea.

Squash down some ear shapes, paint and add faces and hey presto, we have a family of cats and dogs for our family!

You can find loads of great ideas, not just things to do with the kids, on Pinterest, find me HERE