A very fun day

I feel like I have been a busy bee of late, sewing lots including some keyrings for the Makey Do goodie bags. Not all were as good as I would have liked and I worked out what I was doing the more I did, but phew I was so glad to get all 60 of them made. Of course, I forgot to take a picture of them before I sent them to Jenny! I have also been appliquing anything I can get my hands on for my stall! Will post some pics of the new things I have made soon.

Well a bit late but here are some pictures from the fun day we went to at Tankerton Slopes last Sunday. It was a beautiful sunny day, hurrah!

Me, my mum-in-law and the kids were very excited to see a Lancaster bomber fly over, it had been the air show in Margate and they did a fly over Whitstable on their way home!

The kids had fun on the rides - the first time they have ever been on them! F was always too scared before (there is normally a yes I will, not I won't moment with F hopping on and off of the ride and money exchanged and then handed back!) but he loved it this year and D was big enough to go on.

They also had a ride in the fire engine too!

A lovely handmade find

I was very excited to come across this gorgeous skirt in a charity shop in town. I loved the fabric and the style, but it was only as I looked closer for a label that I realised it was handmade. And how beautifully made it is too. I am very curious as to how anyone could give away such handmade loveliness, but very lucky it was for me as it fits perfectly!

It's Father's Day today, but my Dad is on holiday and L has gone sailing with his Dad! Happy Father's Day anyway you three! We are going to head up to Tankerton Slopes today for the Fun Day, where there will be a lots of stalls and rides etc and hopefully a fly over, heading our way from the Margate Air show! More photos to follow, fingers crossed the sun comes out as it is hiding at the moment!

Fun at the beach

Had a lovely catch up with my friend Zoe on Wednesday. She came for a trip to the sea with her 2 youngest Lily and Max. The reasons we met - Felix and Darcie, whom we were pregnant with when we met at NCT classes 6 years ago, were both at school - well, Felix was actually on a school trip to the Natural History Museum.
It is so nice catching up with friends, especially ones we don't see so often nowdays.

Ahh, don't they look sweet. Never too shy to pose for the camera is our Daisy (on the right!)

Create in Whitstable

Two lovely faces 'Created in Whitstable' at F's school fair yesterday!


D was a butterfly and F was less-obviously a dinosaur! He made very hard work for Liz the facepainter, as you can see from his screwed up face!! The first time he has ever had his facepainted, he has never wanted it done before, where as D is an old pro!


Now I would like to tell you about a local lady, doing a wonderful job in making Whitstable even more creative! Through organising the craft fair I have met lots of local, creative people. One of these is a lovely lady called Catriona Campbell. Catriona has extensive experience of tourism marketing, having previously worked in senior roles for among other companies, The London Tourist Board.

As part of this years Whitstable Oyster Festival in July, Catriona has co-ordinated some taster workshop sessions at the Horsebridge Arts & Community Centre, called Create in Whitstable. These workshops sound fantastic! For a mere £5 (including all materials) you can take part in a 2 hour workshop and create something fabulous to take home. There are some very talented people running the workshops - including two of my Craft fair stallholders Kirsty from Meplusmolly who will be showing you how to make beautiful shabby chic hearts and Gill Goldsmith who will be holding a beading workshop. The other workshops include felting, watercolours, oil painting, sculpting, self-portraits and mixed media art to name a few! Have a look at the Create in Whitstable website for full details.

Catriona is also developing Create in Kent, a business that will promote creative breaks including painting , sculpting, crafting, pottery and cookery workshops throughout Kent. Her website is well worth a look, she even gave me a very nice mention!. She is doing a fantastic job, promoting creativity and crafting in Kent and I hopefully in the future I may be involved in Create in Kent - although probably not a workshop - the mere thought of standing up in front of 10 or so people makes me come out in a cold sweat!.

Another weekend sewing summer blouse!

Not being totally happy with the first one I made, I decided to make another summer blouse from the fantastic Heather Ross book Weekend Sewing.

Please excuse the crumpled, just-got-out-of-bed look! I fear it still looks a bit like pj's, but I loved this fabric, and have actually worn this one out and about - I didn't care if anyone thought I had just rolled out of bed!

I made a few adjustments to this one to suit me - I added 4 inches to the length, shorterned the placket and used the same fabric rather than a contrasting one. I also used the small pattern (which still came up quite big so I took it in a wee bit more).

I was much more pleased with this one! The hardest thing with this pattern is finding the right fabric! I am sure I will make another one, but I might have a go at something else in the book if I am brave enough!

Before that I need to get back to the sewing machine and make a bit more stock as I am going to be taking part in Jenny Flower's Makey 'do' in Sandwich on Saturday 11th July, which I am really looking forward to. More of that another time - I had best get busy sewing!

A seaside fair - lots of pictures!

Well, the sun was shining and when the sun shines in Whitstable, it means our little town gets very busy indeed. And, thankfully, lots of the seaside visitors, and local folk decided to come along to the fair!

There were stalls a plenty, with so many different and beautiful goods for sale.

I mananged to take a few photos here and there, but not as many as I would have liked!

Many thanks to all the brilliant stallholders who made such an effort with their stalls and to all the lovely customers who came along for a browse and a shop. It was a very busy day and non-stop in the morning. Sales eased off a bit in the afternoon, as I think most people had disappeard to the beach! But we still had a steady stream of people.

Everyone said that they had a really good day, there was a lovely, friendly atmosphere in the hall and all of the stallholders were really busy and people were actually spending money! They all did really, really well.

Emily and Jacquie above sold lots of their spotty cushions. They had come all the way from Surrey, so I really appreciate you travelling so far and hope you had a good day.

It was so lovely to meet some new crafty people, especially Kirsty above (hiding!) from me plus molly who I have met through the blog! I hope you had fun too Kirsty, it was really nice to meet you and I am so glad you did really well.

My lovely mum was there with all her knitted baby things.

And this was my stall. I did really, really well at the fair. Not only did I really enjoy the day, make some new friends, but I also made more money than I have ever made at a fair before!

Thank you to all my very nice family and friends who made a real effort in coming along, and for buying lots of things too.

I also did a live interview on BBC Radio Kent, which was pretty scary but ok! I had to run and hide outside the hall so that nobody would see me blushing whilst I did it! I knew my nan, who couldn't come, was listening so I said hello to her on air which I think she really liked! It lasted about 3 minutes the interview and was fine once I got into it, not too bad.

Phew, it's all over now.

Time to start thinking about planning the next one on the 12th December now........................... well, maybe not just yet!

Boot fairs and pre-fair nerves!

I have finally found 5 minutes to do a very quick post!

I have been very busy the last week getting all the final bits and pieces sorted out for the fair on saturday...eeek! can't believe it is only a couple of days away now.

I managed to squeeze in a boot fair on sunday morning with my friend and next door neighbour Vicki - the lovely lady with the bump in the picture below! I know you look at my blog sometimes Vicki, so I had to put you on here! We didn't make very much, but got rid of some old bits and I did give out lots more craft fair flyers. I also caught the sun a bit too much as after the fair I went on a door-to-door flyer delivering mission!

I am just about there with all the organising now! Gradually I am crossing things off of my huge to do list! I have got some brilliant stallholders for this fair and I am very excited to see what everyone has made and how it all looks together. Kirsty from Me plus Molly will be there with her gorgeous textile pieces, I can't wait to see what she has made. Also taking part are Butterfly Cottage Ceramics, Jane Bourne from The Cloth Hall and Kerry Mayo with her beautiful photographic prints of Whitstable and the local area.

There are obviously lots of other talented people taking part, but they don't have blogs or websites to link to. If you have a look at this post, from the Christmas fair I organised last November, you can get a taste of what treats are in store! (Although not all of those pictured were able to come this time).

Organising fairs is always a bit of a panic, especially when you get a last minute cancellation! My poor friend who was making and running the cake stall has fallen down the stairs and hurt her back, I hope she is ok but sadly it means she has had to pull out today. I haven't been able to find another cake maker who can produce cakes quickly enough for the fair, which is a huge shame. Luckily, underneath the hall is a cafe with a lovely garden, so nobody will go hungry!

I am also going to have to do something on Saturday that I am petrified about! I have listed the fair on lots of websites, including the bbc kent one. I got a call yesterday from a lady at BBC Radio Kent asking if someone could call me on Saturday morning for a 1-2 minute chat about the fair - where it is, what time etc etc. Err, yes please - but oh my god I am scared!!! I am sure I will sound like a bumbling idiot, but I couldn't turn it down could I! Hopefully it will bring some more people along anyway.

Well fingers, legs, etc crossed that all goes well - I will post with some pictures next week!

At least we have the weather on our side on Saturday anyway!