Category Archives: Life in General

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

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

All Sheep Shape…

Have you heard the sound of birds singing and sheep dancing on Planet Penny this week? It’s all because the sun is shining and I have finished my piece for the Norfolk and Norwich Open Studios Taster Exhibition at the Forum in Norwich….yippee! I’ve just looked back and found I published my Ta-daaa moment for the last piece almost exactly a year ago today, you can read it here. And I said “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” And I can say exactly the same this year. It’s amazing how a deadline focuses the mind!

But first, the sunshine. It’s still not very warm, but it was a relief to wake up yesterday morning and realise the wind was not whistling in the chimney which it’s been doing for days.

I’ve had the doors open into the garden for the first time this year (and kept my fleece on) to let some fresh air into the house and Henry and Higgins have appreciated being able to wander in and out as they please. Henry has a spot on a warm paving slab where in a few weeks he will be able to get spaced out on Cat Mint…

…and Higgins parked himself under the bird feeder to make sure no pesky birds could get at the little dish of water I put out for them. He found it was particularly delicious, so much nicer than the inferior water in the dog bowl!

There’s a lot of bare earth in the garden, even the weeds are holding back, but there are patches of Spring to enjoy…

And so to my big project for this week. I really wanted to do something completely different this time, to step away of the bright colours, the crochet, the small things. Also to challenge myself on the needlefelt front and make something much bigger than little birds and mice. So I’ve used a very subdued palette…

Natural Merino fleece with a background of charcoal grey.

So can you guess what I made? Well, of course it’s a sheep!

It’s actually quite hard to photograph and get the angle right…

It’s called ‘How to Knit a Sheep’… (but please don’t ask me for a pattern!)

The knitted part starts off as unspun fleece and gradually reduces in thickness until it becomes undyed 4 ply to knit the lacy part.

This has been a rare moment when the finished piece is almost the same as the picture in my head, hence the singing and dancing! As you can imagine, I haven’t done a lot else this week but there are exciting Planet Penny things in the pipeline which I hope to share with you soon.

It’s Handmade Monday again this week so I’m linking up with Wendy for Handmade Monday over on Handmade Harbour and I’ll be back very soon…x

Waiting for Spring

Happy Easter! It seems strange to start a post entitled ‘Waiting for Spring’ that way but we are really stuck in some topsy turvy weather at the moment. Hard to credit getting up on the first morning after the clocks change for British Summer Time to a sprinkling of snow! We’ve actually got off lightly here in Norfolk as far as snow goes, the pictures of devastated farmers digging their sheep out of snowdrifts in other parts of the country have been heartbreaking. We’ve just got the Arctic blast coming straight off the North Sea and hitting us sitting on the exposed lumpy bit sticking out of the East of England to contend with.

So I’m sharing a pretty Spring like picture to cheer us up…

Higgins is not a fan of going out in the cold and I’ve had a running battle with him over the building of dachshund ‘nests’ out of the soft furnishings. He’s only really happy when he has buried himself and if he finds himself on the sofa with no available ‘blankie’ he will grizzle until he’s been covered up.

Since he’s eaten the corners of all the old cushions he now has a cushion of his very own, and a fleece blanket he can do whatever he likes with. Unfortunately, he feels these are just not good enough, and compare very poorly with the fluffy throw I have draped over the back of the sofa, and the new velvet cushions in anemone colours I rashly bought a few weeks ago.

Every time my back is turned, this happens…

…and he might look guilty…

…but that doesn’t mean he’s going to move!

I’ve reached a bit of a hiatus on Planet Penny just now. It’s always slightly problematic judging stock levels with the Planet Penny cotton because I don’t have a huge amount of space to store it. Unfortunately an unexpected rush of orders has coincided with a couple of colours being out of stock at the suppliers so it’ll be first come first served on the few packs remaining until the middle of April.

But…

There are some changes afoot. I’ll be trialling a new pack, which some of you have been asking about for a while AND I have a new venture in the pipeline which I will tell you about later on in the year, so I’m not standing still by any means.

Meanwhile, Open Studios is on the horizon and I have started an ambitious needlefelted piece for exhibition so a lull on the cotton front is probably a good thing. There are only so many hours in the day! It’s refreshing change to be doing something creative and challenging just for me, I hope it turns out looking at least a little bit like the image in my head.

Just a reminder, the Bunny crochet pattern offer ends tomorrow, Easter Monday at 5pm UK time. After that it will be available through the Etsy shop, but for now it’s still yours for FREE!

I changed the yarn to make this version, a big soft squidgy version as a baby toy…

I’m off now to dig Higgins out of his latest nest, put on his coat and march him round a field or two…

…and then get back to my felting needle. Don’t forget to nip over the Handmade Harbour to see what’s going on for Handmade Monday this week.

I’ll see you soon…x

To the seaside…with cat…

Hellooo and Happy Sunday! I’m here to tell you all about our adventures returning the Mad French Cat to his family, and also fitting in a couple of relaxing days out of the Planet Penny orbit (mostly!) I think you all know from past posts that I do love to be beside the seaside but the South coast is very different from our wild windswept beaches here in Norfolk. Very genteel and civilised, no need for wellies or anything…

Except, except…

Except the day we decided to travel.

There isn’t a lot of scope for spontaneity round here because as well as having to fit around Tim’s work patterns, Higgins has to be booked in with a family for a holiday (ensuring the continuation of all home comforts) and I have to arrange cover for my Mum’s care. Also we had all been bolstering ourselves up for weeks for relocating Clovis. Although he was not a suitable pet for a old and disabled lady ( think Kato in the Pink Panther!) he’s beautiful and affectionate and we knew he’d be much missed.

So a little bit of snow wasn’t going to stop us. Clovis was actually very good in the car, after mewing piteously for half the journey he gave up and slept. We drove in and out of snow showers all the way until the last 15 to 20 miles when it was really snowing in earnest. If we’d left home even half an hour later it would not have been nice.

Having unloaded Clovis into a quiet bedroom with a bowl of food and litter tray to settle down we ventured out to experience snow at the seaside. I’ve never seen snow on the beach before, have you?

It was getting dark, and snowing heavily but the snow reflected an eerie light. The tide was out, and the sea was foaming away at the edge of a bank of cloud and snow just beyond the rocks…

By the morning the snow had stopped, but two small boys were delighted that their schools were closed and we ventured out once again in the freezing wind. Quite the wrong snow for a snowman alas, but perfect for snowballs!

By the third day the sun was out, the snow was melting and it was perfect weather for a stroll along the front.

And Clovis? Well even though he’s been away from his proper family for a couple of years he slotted straight back in as though he’d never been away. Despite the new house he seemed to remember the furnishings (especially the soft furnishings, in particular the hand knitted wool bedspread!) He had a little problem with the stairs – my mum lives in a bungalow – but was soon thundering up and down with his mouse.

….and he found the bannisters a particular source of delight.

Back in Norfolk I’m missing the family, the cat and the seaside but it’s great to be able to pop to our new shop for milk and a Sunday paper. Thanks so much for all the lovely comments about our new community Shop last week. I will announce here that despite my reservations I have volunteered for staff training and I will try very hard not to destroy the till!

I’ve rambled on for quite long enough so I shall save the crafty bits for the next post but if you need reminding about Kato and the Pink Panther I will leave you with a little clip…

See you soon…x

Edited to add, if you want the other side of the story, check out Thomas’s blog right here!