Category Archives: Life in General

Off to the Seaside!

This is a very quick little post as I’m running around getting ready for a couple of days away. I had hoped to email all the lovely people who had kindly volunteered to be pattern testers, but time is galloping away as ever, so thank you so much for getting in touch, you know who you are!

I will get back to you after the weekend with a plan, (she says optimistically)

We are having a family get-together, which never happens often enough, down on the South Coast. Also we are planning another trip to the beautiful gardens at Great Dixter which I’ve wanted to revisit for ages. I’ve just looked at my post about it and it was five years ago…FIVE! where does the time go? Long border - Great Dixter

I shall be taking my new camera and getting a bit more familiar with it ahead of my Photocraft Course, but hopefully I will have some reasonable photos to share with you despite being an SLR novice right now!

See you soon…x

Writing and Testing a Crochet Pattern

One of the aspects of writing a crochet pattern is the constant niggle in the background of accuracy.

I don’t know about you, but I rely heavily on my spell checker when I’m using a keyboard, my spelling is much worse when I’m typing (and it can be a bit erratic when I’m using a pen, I must confess!) However, that’s no help at all for typing crochet abbreviations so it’s quite a slow process. And that’s after dreaming up the idea to begin with and then making it a second time so the pattern can be recorded.

By the time you get to the point where you make the item again from what you have written down it’s hard to judge whether you have explained yourself properly. By then you know the pattern inside out!

My latest make is a granny square cushion cover using the Planet Penny Cotton Colours with Snowdrop yarn which I backed with one of the PP fat quarters – jolly red and white spottiness.

I’m very happy with it, but now there is the question of the crochet pattern, and the making up instructions, and making sure it all makes sense.

What I need are some testers, and I’m trying to work out the best way to make it work.

So…

…if you are a Planet Penny customer with a Rainbow pack of yarn who would like to make a cushion, I’ll provide the pattern, the fat quarter and a ball of Snowdrop yarn in return for trying out the pattern, giving constructive criticism, and sending photos of the finished article. How does that sound?

If you could help test the Granny Square Cushion crochet pattern I’d love to hear from you. You would need to have some crochet experience, be used to working from a pattern, have basic sewing machine skills, and be able to produce a clear photo of the finished article.

You can leave a comment, or get in touch via the contacts form with some details which will help me choose. I need 2 or 3 people to get a good cross section.

I’m really looking forward to hearing from you and hearing about your crochet pattern skills!

Art Therapy Colouring Books – Review and Giveaway

When I was approached the other day to review a couple of Art Therapy books I wondered if someone had been peeking in my office, because I have this picture pinned on the wall beside the monitor…

…and I have had a wonderful excuse to do just that with the two books which arrived a week or so back from Jacqui Small Publishing, Art Therapy Stained Glass and Art Therapy Mandalas.

Stained glass colouring book, art therapy

There is something very relaxing about letting someone else worry about the lines and the shapes: when all you’ve got to do is think about what colour crayon to pick up next, or washing your paint brush ready to mix another shade. And now it’s official, we’re not wasting time, we are relaxing, it’s therapy!I’ve been scribbling away happily over the past few days and after all the worries about my mum it’s been lovely to switch off that part of my brain. This was my favourite from the Stained Glass book…

I’d rather like this next design as wallpaper, wouldn’t you?…

With this one I went to town with the paints. I may get round to finishing them but I actually rather like the colours set against the black and white.Having shared my adventures on Facebook and Instagram I was not surprised to have lots of positive comments about the whole idea of colouring in. Such positive comments in fact from both my daughter and daughter-in-law that I shall restrain myself from further scribbling so I can pass the books over to them. As my daughter is soon to embark on Teacher Training and my D-in-L is a new mum I think they need all the relaxation they can get!

And I’m pleased to say if you feel in a need of a little Art Therapy and relaxation there is a Giveaway! I have two more copies of these lovely books lined up to give away to the even lovelier Planet Penny readers!

All you have to do is to leave a comment telling us about your favourite place to relax and get away from it all, and which of the two books you would like to take with you.

The winners will be picked on Friday 8th August, I’m looking forward to hearing from you!

(Thank you to all who took part. The Giveaway now closed, winners to be announced very soon)

Blog Hop – Pending…

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by Claire of Mrs Brown Makes who asked me if I’d like to join in with a Blog Hop. This sounded like a lovely idea with plenty of time to get to grips with it.

But you know what it’s like, life got in the way. You may know I’m my mum’s carer, and I got the dreaded summons one morning, could I come, she couldn’t get out of bed. She’s very frail anyway after a catalogue of illnesses, and this latest thing, a combination of Labyrinthitis and a urinary infection meant I had to decamp to her house to be in full time charge.

Although medication has improved things for her a lot, she’s lost confidence with walking and so needs help on hand a lot of the time, and that’s been me. And although a lot of the time she has been contentedly reading a book and I’ve had time on my hands, my mum has no Broadband so I’m most terribly behind with everything.

So if you’ve arrived expecting a more interesting post than this, I’m so sorry. I will post as soon as I can, I hope it will be worth the wait!

From the Heart

Here I am, at last. This is the longest gap in posting for years, and it’s been playing on my mind.

When I started writing this blog it was just for me, and I had no real expectations that anyone else would even notice I was I was here, let alone actually read it. And then come back and read some more.

What writing regularly did for me was to make me do stuff, and this fed my creativity and became a creative spiral. The fact that you out there dropped in to encourage me was a lovely bonus, thank you!

But it’s all so much easier when you can trundle along in blissful ignorance just doing your thing. The rot set in when I started thinking there’s more to all this world wide web stuff than I first realise, maybe I’d better find out about it. And then I started a business and suddenly there was all this big stuff which people were telling me I have to use, like SEO,…keywords …categories… And the little thing which was fun and interesting and created interaction with nice people suddenly became fraught with rules and regulations.

I worry about getting things right. And so rather than get things wrong I’ve ended up sacrificing the spontaneity with which I first started the blog, feeling overwhelmed by what I should be doing, rather than what I want to do. And I’m guilty of letting that happen in life at the moment too.

This is a busy time of year, next weekend Open Studios starts and there’s lots to do. It would be so easy to put off writing until it’s all over. But it’s like when you owe a letter to a friend, and for various reasons you don’t get round to replying and then time goes on and it gets harder and harder to justify why you’re such a bad friend that you can’t even put pen to paper to say hi. And you end up sending Christmas cards every year saying, ‘Will be in touch in the New Year’. And you don’t.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you will know I am a great believer in serendipity, the happy accident. It’s stood me in good stead over the years. By happy accident this morning I came across an amazing post this morning which really made me think about what I am doing. This is a quote …

…but if you want to be inspired as I was, click on the quote and read the whole post. It really makes you think.

So let spontaneity rule all round! I might just arrive here with a photo, or a short post, or I might write lots and fling in a tutorial, who knows! But I won’t let WordPress or All in One SEO bully me by pointing out I’ve only written 250 words and the recommended length is at least 400 words or whatever. It’s my blog and I’m not writing a dissertation!

This isn’t my usual kind of post, so thanks for bearing with me and I hope you’ll stick around, I wouldn’t be here without you …x

500 Blog Posts…?

Goodness Gracious me! It doesn’t seem possible that it was 2007 that I wrote my first tentative post, and followed up with my first recorded finished project…

I’ve spent the last couple of days scrolling through all the posts and collecting images from each year. (And saying to myself…’was it THAT long ago?…how time flies…sigh’) It’s been quite a good indicator of my changing interests and how things have developed. My first year was quite transitional. I started our local Knit and Stitch group, Higgins arrived, I made my first forays into dyeing and discovered the delights of a good compact digital camera with lots of photos of the garden, flowers and nature.

2009

The following year I discovered the rainbow loveliness to found at a budget price with Stylecraft yarn. Got my felting needles out again after a bit of a lull after graduating and my new studio was built.

2010

There was a lot needlefelting in 2011. I had a stall at the Pickn’Mix Makers Market and took part in Open Studios for the first time…

2011

Big things happened in 2012. We had a lovely family wedding, Open Studios again and I discovered the Planet Penny cotton and opened my little online shop. I wrote my first patterns and got invited to few exciting events.

2012

2013 was more of the same, with some needlefelting workshops to run into the bargain, and a new Art Trail for Open Studios…

2013

And this year, with a new member of family and lots of other plans, is shaping up quite nicely too!

2014 – the story so far!

But what has made it all so special is you. All you out there who visit, and comment and sign up to follow. Who leave comforting messages when things are difficult and encouraging remarks .

Writing this blog has meant I’ve met up with like minded people, and also been in touch with people from the other end of of the country and the other side of the world. It’s an amazing privilege, and a lot of fun!

So I’m planning a very special thank you.

I’m going to create a Box of Delights and fill it with the essence of what Planet Penny is all about. Little bits and pieces of everything I do. So there will be some yarn and fabric, ribbons and bindings, beads and buttons, ooh, all sorts of small bits of loveliness!

I’m going to be putting the box together over the next couple of weeks and sharing it so you can see what will be inside. I’m really looking forward to it!

And then? I’m going to give it away…to one of you.

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post to take part. Maybe say something about yourself, about what you do, why you visit Planet Penny (maybe you come to play with Higgins!) The only stipulation is that it’s a)non-offensive and b)it’s not of the ‘me,me, pick me’ variety (you have to do a little work!)

I’ll do the draw when I’ve filled the box, and no, I don’t know how big the box is yet! And it’s open to everyone. If you have a standard postal service in your country I will send it there if your name come out of the hat!

I’m off to the studio now to start looking through all the goodies I have stored in boxes, tins and baskets, and hopefully a by-product of the Box of Delights will be a tidy studio. (Well, I can dream!)

See you soon…x