Author Archives: penny

About penny

I live in Norfolk, England in a cottage on the edge of the Norfolk Broads where it can be peaceful and beautiful, or wet and muddy, or occasionally wild and windswept. With me is husband Tim, Henry the elderly and opinionated tabby cat, and Higgins, the miniature dachshund with a massive personality. You’ll find me chattering on about wool and textiles, knitting and crochet, recipes, books and patterns, exhibitions and shopping and of course, the adventures of a small dog! Planet Penny has a Facebook Page, you can find me on UK Handmade and I am featured on Channel4/4Homes Favourite Craft Blog List.

Woopee! A Market!

Looking forward to a Girls’ Day Out on Saturday, off to Holt in North Norfolk for the Pick n’Mix Makers’ Market. This market is the brainchild of Teena of Kitschen Pink and Lisa of Bobobunand is SO worth a visit. For every one who has gone to a craft fair and come away despondent at the lack of innovation or worse, acres of bought in poor quality tat, THIS is the place to go. Teena and Lisa hand pick their artisans to provide an eclectic mix of beautiful and unique crafts. I know I’m going to spend too much, because I went to the first one last year and broke the bank! I will have to bear in mind my ’25th of the month’ pledge to excuse any extravagance.

Going a bit Cuckoo.

Last year I didn’t hear a cuckoo at all. It felt a bit like the beginning of the end of the world, there’s ALWAYS a cuckoo. I know they are anti social bullies, parasites on birdy society, but they are part of the fabric of an English spring in the country, and last year I really missed that distinctive, distant call.

Not this year. Someone told the Cuckoo he (or it she? I’m no ornithologist) had been missed. I’m being treated to a fly past. Every morning. At full volume. At 5 am…lovely. But then the blackbird sits in the cherry tree and sings me back to sleep again so it’s not too bad…not really.

But I’m going to blame the Cuckoo anyway for missing my deadline. The trouble with blogging is that you either have time to write and nothing to write about, or you are busy, busy, busy in the studio, the garden, the house (notice the order of my priorities there) and there’s not a minute to collect your thoughts and write about what’s gong on.

So I’m really sorry that I haven’t done my 100th post draw yet. I hope you haven’t all been waiting with bated breath, but here we go. I’ve given everyone who sent me kind words about my bloggy anniversary a number, and I hope the Amazing Random Number Generator will come up with a result.

Actually, scrap that idea…I’ve been defeated by living at the end of the line, internet wise and instead of the ARNG I’m getting the ‘Ooops’ notice so, Plan B, little bits of paper…and someone to pick a ticket…

Hmmm…the tasty basket is probably a bit of a distraction…

Not much help from Henry, although to be fair it’s not easy to get a look in once Higgins gets his teeth into something…

So, we’ll remove the basket…

And eventually, deprived of the nice crunchy basket a ticket is picked…

Now if I can just rescue the ticket before the ink runs…

The winner is…

…Teena! Congratulations Teena, of Kitschen Pink, I will get your parcel to you very soon.

Thank you again to everyone who has called in and left a comment on any of my posts. I really like to hear from you all, if I’m actually talking to myself then it will be true, I really am going a bit cuckoo!

Let the Dog See the Rabbit…

…as my father used to say. I don’t know about rabbits, it’s been possible for a small herd of hippos to find hiding places around here over the past few weeks such is the amount of stuff I have been moving from place to place and box to box. Last week it all seemed to reach a crescendo of chaos and, despite my inability to be tidy, I am debilitated by mess.

However, I think I am now on the verge of normal service being resumed. The studio is more or less fit for purpose and the bogeyman now has room to fit back under my bed (even the the dust bunnies have gone thanks to Kryton)

I’ve managed to keep up my Twenty Minuter pledge with little, in-front-of-the-telly sized projects, but between the box shifting and the vegetable plot not a lot of creativity has happened.

Outside though, Mother Nature has been as creative as only she can be, and the camera has been an essential part of Higgins walking equipment. One of the joys of blogging is the discipline it imposes on recording things to write about so this year I have far more images of the fleeting loveliness of the English Spring to keep the memories fresh.

I love the lush, multi shaded green-ness of May, with the sprinkling of bright spring flowers from Bluebells and Stitchwort, Speedwell and Queen Anne’s Lace, wild Plum and Apple blossom right down to the humble Dandelion and Dead Nettle.

The tulips have been lovely this year, and on a visit to Kit’s garden I found one which had obviously been wired up to the National Grid!

I do have a few of my own, but I think I will have to take a leaf out of Jane Brocket’s book for a more spectacular show next year.

The beautiful red tulips at the end of the garden are Higgins favourite. Unfortunately he thinks they are delicious and I caught him tearing round the lawn with one hanging out of the side of his mouth like Carmen Miranda! No picture alas, I couldn’t catch up…

I shall have to dash now and get a little parcel all packed up. I’ve been taking part in a bloggy swap organised by Emma of Em’s Shabby Shack and have a little pile of goodies ready to send off to my partner, Kelly of Kelly’s Recipe’s for Life. I shan’t show them to you just yet or I will spoil the surprise so watch out later in the week.

And don’t forget there is still another week to run on the 100 Post Giveaway so if you haven’t done so already don’t forget to enter the draw,

Back soon…!

Guest Post: Higgins and the Seal

Hello All, Higgins here! Being helpful again! Mum’s been busy in the garden all week. She says I’m not helpful there. At All…Grrrrmph….those green things are growing aren’t they? Why do they have to be in rows?

So I’m on the tappy thing. Do you want to hear about me going to the beach? I went with Auntie Aimee And Auntie Charlotte. Mum didn’t come. She can’t do long walks like we can. I had to wear my seat belt, it’s boring.

I like the beach but they said I had to wear my jumper.

That’s boring too…but it’s warm…I s’pose…

There’s a big bath at the beach, it’s called the sea. It’s very cold…not like my bath at home…and there was a thing, having a bath…

I thought it was dog, and we could play, but it didn’t have any EARS!! I’ve got lovely ears. Auntie Charlotte said it was a seal…

I think it wanted to play too…

…but it didn’t have any LEGS! I’ve got legs even though they’re only little … AND he didn’t have a towel…

My legs got a bit tired so I had to have a carry back to the car…

I had to have my jumper taken off…

… AND wear my seat belt…AGAIN!

…but I had a lovely day…THANK YOU!

P S. A big thank you to Charlotte for the great photos…

Post One Hundred

Happy May Day! Did anyone rise at day to wash their face in the May Day dew? It was apparently once considered a foolproof beauty treatment. Personally I decided it was far too late!

And it’s a special day too because it’s my bloggy 100th birthday. It’s hard to remember the first tentative post I wrote. I do know that I was so convinced I had nothing to write about that that was what happened for the first few months, nothing! But it’s proved a life saver. I had to make things happen, I had to make things.

So now I’m inviting you to celebrate with a present from me to you as a thank you for allowing me to ramble on.

It’s a little knitted cotton bag lined with Cath Kidsonesque fabric and I’m popping inside a knitted and felted rose corsage and a notebook, all made here on Planet Penny. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post to be entered into the draw which I will do on the 22nd of this month using the Amazing Random Number Generator and I’m happy to post anywhere which has a reasonably reliable postal service.

So, don’t be shy…I know there are lots of you who pop in and pop out quietly. This time stop and say hello, I’d love to hear from you all.

Have a lovely weekend…

How To Look Good…

…but NOT naked!

One of the best pieces of advice I gave my daughter when she was growing up was knowing when to stop. And she did, she stopped at a nice, manageable 5′ 6″ with size 7 feet. Clever girl! I on the other hand grew like a weed, reaching 5’9 (and a half) at 14 and I have never, ever had any confidence in how I look. This was compounded when shopping for clothes. Anything which would fit over my coathanger shoulders billowed out round my skinny lanky body like a bell tent. The sales girls in shoe shops would pale and recoil when their careful measurement of my feet revealed I was a size 8 and a half AA fitting. Norfolk in those days was not ready for a skinny giant, which was how I came to regard myself.

I look back at old photos and wish I’d realised then that I was absolutely fine, not bad at all, and enjoyed it. Even though these days being tall is more and more common, outside London (and Long Tall Sally shops) it’s still really hard to find clothes that are long enough in the leg, the sleeves and waist. Although I left the beanpole stage behind after the first baby I latterly ballooned after developing M.E. so there has never been a time when clothes shopping hasn’t been a nightmare.

But, it’s never too late to change. I’ve been tackling the weight problem for a while now with Weightwatchers and it’s plain to see that the whole weight/M.E. thing is a vicious circle of tiredness, lethargy,depression, comfort eating, weight gain causing the tiredness, lethargy etc, etc… Not carting around three and half stone of extra weight means I’m more active and so burning off more calories and the spiral starts to go up not down. Years ago I used to make my own clothes, and now I’ve slimmed back down to the size of my dressmakers dummy!

(Admittedly it’s at it’s largest setting at the moment but THIS WILL CHANGE!) I’m getting my confidence back by tackling the shirt in this month’s SEW magazine, and have spent the afternoon cutting out a toile in calico so I can add the inches in the length I need.

Also, I’ve signed the Handmade Pledge so I’ve got to do it now, I can’t afford anyone else to make my clothes…!