Monthly Archives: May 2013

Pin It Forward UK

Do you remember a few weeks back I went off to London to meet the Pinterest team? Well, since then I’ve had this exciting little post bubbling away in the background just waiting for today to tell you all about it. I was one of three hundred bloggers picked to take part in the Pin it Forward UK Pinterest Campaign, which was a great honour. And this is what it’s all about…

Are you like me? Do you have folders and box files filled with things you’ve seen in magazines and fallen in love with over the years, carefully clipped out and stored? Creative ideas, recipes, home decorating inspiration? Are you full of good intentions about sorting, cataloguing them, sticking them into scrap books and onto mood boards? And like me, have you failed hopelessly?

If this is you, you need Pinterest! It’s entirely changed my way of finding, keeping and sharing inspiration and ideas, and takes up no space at all in your cupboards and on your shelves!

The Pin It Forward UK campaign has been brought over by the Pinterest team from the US to spread the word around the UK via selected members of the blogging community over the month of May. Here on Planet Penny I’ve found Pinterest a fabulous way to collect ideas and inspiration, share what I have discovered with the like minded people who follow my boards and discover a wealth of creative individuals from all over the globe whose images and ideas inspire me.

By joining Pinterest you can create as many boards as you have themes, plan a special party with fabulous decoration ideas, track down recipe ideas, devise craft projects; the only limit is your imagination.

You can find all the Planet Penny boards just here on Pinterest, but the one I am having fun with at the moment is Stitched Together which is all about stitches…knitting, crochet, needle and thread, full of inspiring ideas. I would be so happy if you join me!

The next up on the Pin It Forward UK schedule is the lovely Jane at TeaWagon Tales, a super inspirational blog which I have been following for a while whose Pinterest boards are here.

I hope you have as much fun as we do, Pinterest is soooo addictive!

If you want to join the party, you can register here. Looking forward to seeing you…!

A Quick Update…

Hellooo….have you been wondering where I’ve been? It feels all wrong when I don’t fit a blog post in, but life has been sooo hectic over the past few days!

There’s been a lot celebrating going on, three big birthdays no less, and my elder grandson’s First Communion. This involved a trip to the South coast of England via South Wales, a round trip of 730 miles over three days. But it was lovely to catch up with friends and relatives we’ve not seen for years and it’s always good to have an excuse to enjoy cake and champagne!

Now we’re home, and in the run up to the first weekend of the Norfolk and Norwich Open Studios so we’ve hit the ground running with preparations. My gardener son did sterling work with pots and tubs in the studio courtyard while we were away. I just hope we get enough sun to make all the buds pop open, there’s so much colourful potential just waiting to be enjoyed.

I’ve been to have a chat with Kay, of Arts Desire in Norwich, and we now have dates for two needlefelting workshops in June which is very exciting…

Needlefelt Workshops, Arts Desire, Norwich

It’s great to have a venue in the city because a morning’s needlefelting could be so easily fitted in to a Norfolk weekend break that you don’t have to be a local to take part. And Art’s Desire is such a great venue, do you remember this post? I can’t help but treat myself or my nearest and dearest every time I pay a visit!

I hope to get to meet some of you over Open Studios if you are in the area. We’ve got a great Art Trail this year, there are eight of us taking part and we are a really diverse bunch. You’ll find out all about us on the website, The Two Rivers Trail and I can promise you sheep, alpacas and gorillas as well as painting, printing, painting and textiles!

(By the way, if you are thinking a visit would be a good way of buying some yarn and avoiding the postal charges it would be as well to contact me in advance.)

So don’t worry if it’s a little quiet on the blog, it’s all happening in the real world! And for those of you who are too far away to join in with what’s going on, not to worry. There’s a new book review in the pipeline, and a very exciting Planet Penny project bubbling away which I’m hoping to bring together in the near future. Plus, if you remember my trip to London to meet the Pinterest team, well that’s all coming together next week as well!

I’ll be back, very soon…x

Beautiful Blues

I’m suffering from the Blues a bit here after last weekend. No lounging in the garden for me this time, but it’s all full on for Open Studios in 10 days time, and anyway the weather has gone back to it’s default setting – Rubbish! I can’t believe it’s nearly mid May and I’m back to lighting a fire in the evening. Not that the four legged members of the family are complaining, they can’t believe their luck!

I didn’t even find time to write a blog post either, and I’ve been collecting lots of photos over the week. Mother Nature is a lot more robust about the weather than I am, she’s in ‘I’ve started, so I’ll finish’ mode and the garden is filling up nicely, and the hedgerows and verges too.

I love the way Spring has a sequence of colours, it’s reminds me of the little mantra of names I run through when I’m packing the Planet Penny Cottons…Aubretia, Delphinium, Cornflower, Eggshell, Aqua, Jade, Apple, Lime, Buttercup, Marigold, Peach, Petal, Gerbera and Rose Red. Spring starts white, with Snowdrops, but almost immediately there are yellow Aconites…

photo: Van Muewen

…and then the Daffodils and Primroses arrive.

Not long after, pink is added to the mix, with Primulas, Tulips and all manner of blossoming trees. But get to May, and it’s blue…the Beautiful Blues and probably my favourite time of year. I’ve tried and failed so often to capture that mysterious ethereal blue of the Bluebells but it always defeats my little camera…

…and anyway I can’t catch that glorious smell and save it in a file on the computer, can I? It’s an experience, and all the more exquisite because it’s impossible to completely capture it.

In the garden, there are Forget-me-nots.

….Periwinkles…

and Cornflowers, and quite a few of the ‘Wrong sort of Bluebell’ , a European interloper, very prolific but not quite achieving deep glow of our native species. Still, it looks pretty good as a flower arrangement…

There are also Irises, but I can never bring myself to pick those…

…aren’t they amazing?

Back in the studio the challenge is to turn the working space of one incredibly messy worker (Moi!) into an exhibition space for two, and it’s a l-o-n-g job. I can always think of so many things I would rather do than tidy up! T’was ever thus. My dear Mamma, listening to me moaning said, ‘Well, you always used to stuff things under your bed…’ Too late….full!

I’ve tried hard to keep the creative vibe going though. I mentioned the on going white cotton theme in this post, and I’ve at last found time to complete the project which required it. I found this gorgeous pattern…

…with a tutorial here which was just perfect for the Planet Penny colours. One day I might have time to make a throw, but in the meantime, there is this…

It looks perfect on the dresser.

If you are looking for white cotton, there are still a couple of packs left from this post and of course all the other colours can be found in the Etsy shop.

I might be a little random in my appearances over the next week or so, there are a couple of family birthdays, a confirmation and much travelling round the country coming up, but I’ll be back, like the proverbial ‘Bad Penny’!

See you soon …x

Switch Off for a Day in the Sun

Bank Holiday weekends should be the time to switch off, but they rather merge into the background on Planet Penny. One tends not to do just a five day week when you work from home, it’s very hard to shut the door and walk away, Tim’s working rota takes no account of public holidays and I’m my Mum’s carer. This means I can’t actually remember when I actually switched off for a whole day. Which is ridiculous!

So last weekend I awarded myself a Day Off!

First rule: Do Not Switch On The Computer.

Second Rule: Do Not Switch On The Phone.

I started with a trip to our lovely village shop, our Community Shop if you remember, I own at least a brick or two! I bought the Sunday Paper, a cup of freshly ground coffee and a Double Chocolate Muffin and took them outside in the sun . I took no photos of this, I’m afraid, but everyone behind the counter in the shop rushed out to take one as I was christening the new chairs and tables! (If you really want to see, you’ll have to check out the Facebook Page!)

Once back home I dragged the old steamer chair under the cherry trees in the garden and filled it with a throw and cushions…

…went in to collect the only paper work I intended to do all day…

…and got back to the chair to find it was being kept warm for me!

Once we had established that if anyone was going to sit on the grass it wasn’t going to be me, it was fine. I not only read both Saturday and Sunday’s papers I went on to finish the book I had started a while ago.

After lunch one of us decided to carry on sunbathing……while the rest of us went for a walk…

(the one with short legs did running)

The name of this lovely lime green tree escapes me, but aren’t the flowers pretty?

It seems only a short time ago the hedgerows were white with snow, but now it’s blossom.

So pretty and so fleeting…

Then home for a cup of tea.

A light supper and an episode of Endeavour finished the day and I woke up the next morning feeling I had a weeks holiday, full of ideas and plans!

This is something I must factor in to my life on a regular basis to keep the creative juices flowing, however hard it is to find the ‘Off’ switch.

I wonder… what do you do to unwind?

MOO Giveaway – Lucky Winners

MOO! Ermintrude the Cow makes a guest appearance to announce the lucky winners of the Moo Business Card Giveaway…
And the winners are…

Jo, at Pickle-Lily

Pip, at The Sock Yarn Shop

and Melissa at Story Book Felts

it was really hard to pick winners from all the great comments you made and I’m sorry I couldn’t pick you all. I hope Jo, Pip and Melissa will share what they did with their Business cards or Mini cards, I’d love to see. If you are intrigued about MOO and want to know more, you’ll find them here, just click the link…

Back soon…x

The Right White

I can’t believe it’s sunny again! The Spring has taken so long to arrive but it’s so nice to be able to get out with Higgins for a walk with the camera.

I’ve just trawled back through the May posts for 2010, 2011, 2012 and been amazed at the flowers I photographed then. the cherry blossom was out, lupins and poppies, tulips, wisteria and roses. There’s an awful lot of catching up to do. I’m really hoping the back yard get’s a move on or it will look like a desert for Open Studios!

On our walk however, I was looking for ‘White’ and I found it. A daisy…

..a feather…

…white sloe blossom…

…and stitchwort…

Higgins tends to get a little impatient with all the stop/start on his walks. He does like to keep an eye on me at all times, and if he’s wandered away and found something really interesting (and probably revolting!) just hiding behind something is the best way to attract his attention. He come’s hurtling round the corner convinced I’m eating all the dog treats!

I’ve been thinking about white because I’ve been planning to add white to the Planet Penny Cotton range, as I’ve had quite a few requests. I trialled it at Christmas for the Christmas Crochet Bunting kits and was very pleased with it. However I’ve been caught out with the dreaded dye batch anomaly, and the yarn I received is not quite the the right white to put the Snowdrop labels on. I’m probably being over fussy as it’s the same lovely quality and the difference is very slight. But I’ve decided to sell it on at a reduced price because it may be just what you need to create a bag, or some bunting or edge your granny squares.

There are just 7, SEVEN, packs left now priced at £20.00, which is £2.00 a 50g/125m ball instead of the usual £2.60 and is a light DK weight. If you would like to purchase a pack just leave a message on the contact form with your email address and I will get in touch to arrange payment. The postage in the UK is £3.50, for elsewhere, please ask me.

And now I’m going to get back out into the sunshine and do a spot of gardening. I think Higgins will be assuming his usual gardening position, however…

…you just can’t get the staff!

See you soon…x

P.S. Don’t forget, there is still time to enter the Planet Penny MOO Prize Draw and win yourself some gorgeous business cards!