Category Archives: Open Studios

Open Studios for Handmade Monday

I’m sitting in the garden outside the studio typing and listening to the birds singing whilst we wait for our visitors for the Norfolk and Norwich Open Studios.

Kit is working on a lino cut at the other end of the table…

and in the middle is a little furry helper…

It’s been fairly quiet so far today but the visitors we have had have been lovely and we’ve both made sales. Open Studios isn’t just about selling, but it would be nice to cover the entry costs and then anything else is a bonus.

My studio is looking great, so tidy! You wouldn’t believe how much I’ve got stashed away in boxes and hidden…

And it’s so lovely to be able to sit out in the garden and just enjoy the fresh air after all the wet and miserable weather which has gone on, and on, and on…

As you can imagine, I haven’t got any thing new in the way of textile creativity to show this week after all the preparations have been taken care of, but I’m still linking up to Handmade Monday over on Handmade Harbour so you can follow what’s going on on all the other creative blogs which take part.

If you only visit once a week, you may have missed the guest blog post from the Young Adult Fiction writer Thomas Taylor. There’s a chance to win a signed copy of the book and still time to enter so please don’t miss out.

Open Studios continues for another two weekends, so if you are in North Norfolk over the long Bank Holiday or the weekend after, it would be lovely to see you…

Silent Sunday

Mini Mice for a Crochet Handmade Monday

I wish I could share this beautiful tree in a shaft of sunlight with a blue sky background, but alas the gloom of the last few days makes me worry if I wait for the sun to come out, all the blossom will have faded and died. It tends to run in a two year cycle, last year there were about three flowers, this years it’s really going to town!

I seem to have spent so much time over the past week with my head down, working, that things are popping out in the garden and I’m missing them. I’m hopelessly behind with the Garden Diaries, I was full of good intentions but there is only one of me, and it’s a bit of a struggle to not only do it all, but write about it too!

We’re really in the run up to the Norfolk and Norwich Open Studios now, doors open next Saturday for three weekends, which is both scary and exciting. We’re not novices this year though, we had a really positive experience last year, so we’re looking forward to it.

In between winding many, many little balls of cotton over the last week for the Rainbow Mouse Kits I’ve been working on a new pattern and I’ve just finished making the prototype in time to show it to my Handmade Monday chums… I seem to be in the grip of a mouse obsession at the moment, both crochet and needlefelt and I can’t quite move on from it yet. I wanted to devise something small, to use up those little oddments of yarn which might otherwise be wasted, so I’ve now got a teeny, tiny mini mouse!

I couldn’t let him be lonely…

…and in the end of course, there had to be one of each colour… and then I thought… MAGNETS!

I’ve had quite a lot of fun playing with them….!

I hope to write the pattern before too long and I’ll put it on the Etsy shop, although if you’ve bought a Planet Penny Yarn pack I will send you the pattern on request. I’m thinking about a kit too, but does anyone know whether sending magnets through the mail, especially overseas, is a potential problem? I hate to think of one of my ‘pink parcels’ being detonated in a car park somewhere!

If you are a Handmade Monday regular and wondering about the rest of the wedding bits and pieces, I wrote about it in my last post which you will find here. It’s worth a visit just to see the amazing wedding cake made entirely from….well I won’t spoil it, go and take a peek!

Next week, hopefully on Thursday, I will publish my first ever Guest Post. If you have children, or grandchildren aged 10+ or are an avid reader yourself come back to meet the author Thomas Taylor, talking about his novel, ‘Haunters’, which is published next week. (It’s dedicated to me and Tim, it’s amazing what people will do to be allowed on Planet Penny!!!)

I’ll leave you with a link to Wendy’s Handmade Harbour so you can visit all the other Handmade Monday blogs, and yet more mice…

See you soon….squeak! x

The Merry Month of May….

Everything seems to be happening in the merry month of May 2012! In the spirit of chasing along so as not to get left behind…

…and before I run out of time…

I know…sorry!

I’m squeezing in an extra post so I don’t get completely overwhelmed with things to say, photos to show and no time.

So, May….first of all, there are three birthdays. Poor Tim drew the short straw having to go back to work on his birthday. The Carrot Cake recipe must come out in time for his return home I feel! Then of course there was the wedding… I do have some more photos to share, don’t worry, but they won’t be of the Mother-of-the-Groom. A line must be drawn! And, my own big news, Planet Penny is now officially a business. Not perfect timing but things were running away from me, and I needed it all to be official.

The Norfolk and Norwich Open Studios event is fast approaching, in fact it’s the weekend after next. There is still loads to do, but we’ll get there, and if anyone is in the Norfolk area it would be SO lovely to see you. You can find out all about it here.

The next big exciting thing though is next week, and it’s the launch of my son Thomas’ debut novel in Heffer’s bookshop in Cambridge. Obviously I’m a proud mum, but I’m not alone in thinking he’s pretty special and you can read a bit about the launch here. And of course if you are in the Cambridge area you could join in too, and come and say hello, I’ll be the one with a proud grin from ear to ear!

Thomas is going to write the very first Guest Post for Planet Penny in the next few days, too, so do look out for that.

But back to the wedding, and the decorations. We had Wedding Trees! It had started in the back of my mind as painted branches on which to hang little pretties, but with the help of St Serendipity again, we found two beautifully shaped Japanese Maples in pots. At the time they were completely bare, but just in time they put out the most beautiful red leaves which were still small enough for an overall lacy effect, and I draped them with little white lights, tiny white calico hearts and paper doves…

But the thing which occupied most of my time in the run up to the wedding was the cake topper. I’d had a particular idea in mind from the moment I heard it was going to be a cheese cake. and I don’t mean a cheesecake, I mean a cake made of CHEESE! Wallace and Gromit would be proud!

It had to be mice, didn’t it? And I didn’t let the fact that there weren’t actually any bridesmaids, or even a pageboy put me off…

And the chef made an amazing job of putting the whole construction together…

I have to say it was delicious too, and very much appreciated by all the family, complete cheese fanatics every one!

Finally, a Planet Penny Cotton Club update. I have just moved the yarn packs, Rainbow Mouse Kits and patterns on to the Folksy shop. I’ve been a little overwhelmed by the administration involved selling them directly, I need time to be creative or I just don’t function! It all seems to be working well but let me know if you have a problem.

See you soon…x

A Prize Draw for Handmade Monday

I can’t quite believe how quickly the weeks are whizzing by, and it’s time for Handmade Monday again! It’s been busy, busy, busy here on Planet Penny. The felting needle’s been red hot, the sewing machine has been whirring away, and it’s all stuff I can’t show you at the moment! We are now on the final countdown. Never mind about Will and Kate… that wedding is so last year… it’s just thirteen more sleeps till Will and Louise’s big day!

The weather is still appalling, I’m hoping it will get all this rain out of it’s system so we can have just one sunny day on the 12th. Surely that’s not too much to ask?

I’ve been in and out of Norwich getting the last few bits and pieces so I don’t let the side down, and now have proper Mother-of-the-Groom shoes, no boots or Fitflops for now, and a trip to Get Ahead Hats for a smart titfer. I probably ought to get a very large brolly too!

I fitted in coffee and a ‘team talk’ with the Mother-of-the-Bride which was lovely, and a satisfactory plan was hatched involving a champagne bucket and two straws! Well, we can dream, can’t we?

Kit and I went to the Norfolk and Norwich Open Studios Exhibition private view last Monday in the Forum in Norwich and there were lots of beautiful pieces of work. There is certainly going to be masses to see over the three weekends that it’s running, with studios open all over Norfolk and Norwich. I really hope that if you are in the area you call in to see us in our little corner.

I’ve also been beavering away with the Planet Penny Cotton Club yarn putting the packs together…

and the Rainbow Mouse packs have also been very popular…

And in my spare moments in the evening I’ve been wielding the crochet hook, using up all the oddments of cotton left over from all the other projects. I’ve been making little flowers…

I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with them yet. To be honest, by that time of the evening I haven’t many functioning brain cells but it’s a simple little pattern I can do on auto pilot and I’m sure a cunning plan will present itself eventually.

But, I hear you cry, what about the draw? Who is going to giving a good home to Goldie the sheep?

I’ve been all through the comments, and I firstly have to thank you all for all your good wishes for my trip to the dentist. It was worth all the trauma of the visit to know that the problem tooth has gone and all is well, and I’m sure all the positive thoughts you sent my way helped, so thanks again.

However, back to the comments… I added up all the entries, with the extras for Facebook and Twitter, and there were 68! Then allocated every entry a number, and used the Random Number Generator to choose the winner…

and….

it was…

Natalie, of Free Spirit Design!

Congratulations, Natalie. I’ll be in touch to get your address very soon!

Thank you to every one else who entered, and commiserations. Not to worry, I’m sure there will be another excuse for another draw before long! But now it’s time to link up again with Handmade Monday over on 1st Unique Gifts, where you’ll find plenty of places to visit, and lots of lovely crafty things to see.

I’ll be back soon….x

Needlefelt Birds for Handmade Monday

Happy Easter to all! Are you full of chocolate yet? We’re having a quiet time here as the family are away and so needlefelt birds have been in the forefront of my mind and the felting needle has been smoking…(which is what mustn’t happen to the lamb shanks I shall be putting in the oven shortly for a long slow cook for our dinner à deux tonight !)

We celebrated the start of the hosepipe ban last week with a really rainy day here…

Some people found it most depressing…

Of course, Murphy’s Law applied too, as after days and days of dry weather, this was the day the soil was delivered to fill my beautiful new raised beds from Home Grown Revolution…

These are now looking absolutely splendid…

…all ready for warmer weather and the time to get them planted. I’m feeling very guilty about the garden as despite my best intentions things are slipping rather, but short of that elusive extra day in the week I would love to find, it can’t be helped.

As well as the smoking felting needle, the keyboard’s been pretty hot too, as I’ve been writing. I haven’t mention it before (because I sort of didn’t believe it until I saw in black and white) but I am now a Features Writer for UK Handmade, and you’ll find my first offerings here and here if you are curious. And if you haven’t found UK Handmade’s website before, there are lots and lots of really interesting articles by some amazingly creative people to keep you amused over the holiday weekend!

I was also asked to write a guest blog post by Sue, of SusanD1408Crochet Addict which you can find here if you’d like to know how Planet Penny came into being.

Meanwhile, back at the felting needles…. You’ll remember last week I had got as far as this…

….but nobody guessed where I was going with it.

I started with the pale yellow on in the middle…

(those little feet are very important) …and turned into a special Easter chick…

However the real aim is a piece to exhibit at the Norfolk and Norwich Open Studios Taster Exhibition at the Forum in Norwich next month. This has existed in my head for so long it was rather a shock to realise that I hadn’t actually made it yet, so I’ve been working on it all week. This involved my Easter Chick having a few more friends, a whole flock of needlefelt birds…

I’m now at the final stages, with leaves crocheted in Bluefaced Leicester wool….

…and with any luck I should finish it this evening in front of the fire. The branch is made from the lambswool yarn I bought from High Fibre, and used with the needlefelt robins at Christmas and I’m really pleased with the way it works in with the whole concept. One day, when I have time (!) I will knit myself the raspberry colour mug hug from the yarn I bought from Fiona at the Pick’n’Mix Market last year.

Needlefelting is getting a fresh burst of publicity this week with this month’s issue of Mollie Makes. Aren’t these cute?

So I hope there will be lots of enthusiasm for the Needlefelting Course I’m teaching on 17th April at The OutHouse Studio in Aylsham, North Norfolk. I think there’s a place or two left, so if you are near enough, it would be lovely to see you!

I’ll leave you with a link to Wendy, over on 1st Unique Crafts who hosts Handmade Monday, and there you will find plenty more interesting things have been going on over the past week!

See you soon x