Category Archives: Life in General

An Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Workshop

Last Saturday saw me, apron and hairdryer in hand, heading off into Norwich to Stubenhocker for a spot of paint and colour therapy. I have a steadily growing list of pieces of furniture that I want to paint, from flower pots, working through to chairs and culminating with my biggest challenge, the dresser.

I’m a big fan of Annie Sloan, and have one of her books, as well a couple of her gorgeously inspiring Colourist magazines but there’s nothing like playing around paint and brushes in the company of an expert to get the feel of the medium and inspire ideas.

The bonus was the venue, a fabulous shop full of wonderful home accessories and furniture. Much of the furniture show cased examples of the sort of paint effects we were trying to achieve so I, and my other two fellow students were very inspired.

The last time I painted furniture and played around with paint effects I was using emulsion paint and candle wax so I was really impressed with the way the paint is SO quick to dry, and covers practically anything with one coat. Perfect for an impatient person like me who wants to have a piece painted, waxed, in the room with a vase of flowers on it that same day (and very possible a pot of tea and slice of cake too!)

I now have a selection of paints, and lots of ideas.

I’m on a mission now. Planet Penny has been in the doldrums for too long, for reasons which I won’t bore you with. I want to get back to my blogging roots, creating every day and writing about it. It could be painting or gardening, baking or textiles, or hunting out inspiration in workshops, books, websites or magazines that I can share with you, my online friends.

I’m looking forward to it, I do hope you’ll join me…x

A Word for 2018 – CHALLENGE!

Hello, my lovelies, I hope you have had a wonderful, fabulous Christmas. I have to say I think this one for me has been one of the best ever, so I want to take that forward into the next year. I have been mulling over my word for 2018 for several days, and it presented itself to me about twenty minutes ago whilst I was peeling potatoes!

CHALLENGE…

this is what I have to do to myself on a daily basis with lots of things. M.E. doesn’t make life easy. But there are other challenges I can rise to which might well make a difference. I love this quote…

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”

Henry Ford

So I’m going to challenge myself to change things. One of those challenges is going to be fighting the perfectionism which has stopped me writing my blog, posting on Instagram and quite a few other things which I’ll write about in days to come.

Do you have a word for the coming year?

I’ll be back soon, but in the meantime…

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

All Change at Planet Penny

Hello again… I know, another long pause, but I do have an excuse. We’ve been doing a Grand Design. Well, it wasn’t meant to be, we started out deciding we needed an extension and somehow it grew. It’s been going on since the middle of June and now we are actually in the last stages I feel I have enough space in my head to tackle a blog post and catch up with you all.

Creativity has been non existent, I’m longing to get it back. Every room in the house (and my studio) has been affected, and the contents of the ground floor is in a container on the drive. But today, after being without a kitchen for six weeks, the worktop has been fitted, and it’s so beautiful. It was the one big extravagance, black quartz with tiny shards of reflective crystals which glitter when you move. I feel like the room has been sprinkled with stardust (sorry, just a teensy bit carried away there but if anything needs stardust it’s a planet!)

So today, for the first time for ages, I feel like I can start heading back to normality. Part of that is giving the PP website a bit of a makeover to match what has been happening at home. There is still some pretty yarn left in the Etsy shop and all the patterns but I need to decide on a new direction and I hope you will come with me.

There will definitely be knitting and crochet, some sewing and stitching, I can’t wait to get in the sparkly kitchen and share some recipes, I’m rather into interiors at the moment as you can imagine, and there is still Higgins of course!

And, if you can bear me to mention the ‘C’ word just now, there are preparations to make. The reason we decided to enlarge our house rather than downsize is to be able to have all our offspring plus their families to visit at the same time without bursting at the seams, and this Christmas will be it. I’m very excited!

If you are curious about what has been going on, here’s a little video which will give you some idea. I can’t wait to be able to give you an update…

See you soon…x

A Loooong Pause…

Oh, I’m sorry! I dropped off the radar again. It’s all been a bit of a muddle here over the past weeks. I dived into Monty Don mode with the arrival of the wonderful greenhouse, and then the builders arrived.

We are having an extension built. A lot of my front garden has been scooped up and taken away, and in it’s place cement has been poured, and there are walls growing. We haven’t even got to the place where the existing walls come down…

eeeek! *repeat to self ‘it will be lovely when it done, it will be lovely when it’s done…*

It flung me into a bit of a mental block and I’ve been finding it REALLY hard to pick up my blogging reins again. However, I’ve given myself a virtual ‘boot up the bum’…….and here I am!

I have no excuse really because last month I had a wonderful day at Blogtacular listening to and learning from some really inspirational speakers. People like life coach Natalie Lue, the writer Greta Solomon, the blogger, broadcaster and author Emma Gannon, and Catherine Dean, Editor of Mollie Makes. And these are just the ones I got to see! Add in the chance to meet up with lots of like minded people and eat delicious food and it was a really inspiring day. I will certainly be looking to go again next year if I can, who knows, I might meet some of you there!

(If you look very closely you’ll see me, marked with an arrow and under a white balloon! Blogtacular-2017-©-Amber-Rose-Photography So I must get my act together now I’ve dived back in. In the meantime, there is one lucky winner of the Mollie Makes Comic Relief Magazine, P Collingwood. Congratulations!

I really will be back very soon, promise! See you then…x

A Postcard from Wales

Hello, my lovelies! I hope you’ve had a wonderful Easter break and didn’t eat too much chocolate. We did…I feel a spot of dieting w?ill be in order after our hols.

As my iPad is on hand, and the Wifi isn’t too bad, I’m writing my latest post in sunny Wales and share some of my holiday snaps. It’s so beautiful here. This is the view from the conservatory of the cottage we are staying in.With the door open, all you can hear is the sound of birdsong, interspersed with chickens, the cockerel, geese and ducks and occasionally, Dylan the sheepdog. Over the hill there are sheep……and lambs! I’m afraid I’m just a bit soppy about lambs but I don’t think Higgins would be too impressed if I took one home.The hills been rather a strain on my poor flatlander legs but we’ve found some beautiful places to walk and my head is filled with the colours of Spring. This time of year there are so so many shades of green as the new leaves start to open, and Wales is particularly blessed with spring flowers. The fields are golden with the bees’ favourite, dandelions and the woods are carpeted with bluebells. I’ve never seen so many wood anenomes which spring up along the roadside… …and the gardens are full of blossom.Having decided that my latest crochet project was too big to bring, it was absolutely necessary for me to find a yarn shop (or two) for supplies to keep me busy in the evenings. So, I started with some super chunky and a pair of e-NOR-mous needles which was super fast to knit…Which meant an expedition to find another wool shop (I have a long suffering husband!) Abergavenny came up trumps with The Wool Croft, and an irresistible half price offer on this gorgeous Louisa Harding wool/silk blend…There are so many different hues in this yarn, every row has a different flavour!

I’ll be home next week, feeling refreshed and full of ideas so I’m looking forward to being back here with you.

Changing Direction

April

Hello, lovelies…have you wondering where I’ve been hiding? I have to confess to disappearing down the rabbit hole, and longer I was down there, the harder it became to climb out!

But April is here, the sun is shining and I can see things more clearly now.

I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that Brexit has done for Planet Penny and the cotton yarns. The supplier is in Europe, and between the fall in the pound and the prospect of customs and duties the knock on effect to my prices is just not viable. I need to find another direction, and that what I’m working on right now.

In the meantime, the stock I have remaining is still available in the Etsy shop. When the Rainbow, Ice Cream and Pastel packs have gone I will create some one off collections with what is left .

Planet Penny Cotton – Rainbow

Planet Penny Cotton – Icecream

Planet Penny Cotton – Pastel

So if you would like the chance to purchase one of the last ever packs of Planet Penny Cotton, be quick, there aren’t many left!

In the meantime I am going back to my eclectic creative roots here on Planet Penny to see what happens next, I hope you’ll join me. In the meantime, there’s always Higgins!

Miniature Dachshund the dog walking habit

See you soon….x