Tag Archives: dachshund

Little Vintage Lover Fair

Sunday was a day off…hooray! A gorgeous sunny day, just right to pack the car and head off to the Little Vintage Lover Fair in Heydon, Norfolk. I’ve been spotting mentions of it on various blogs over the past weeks, I knew my friend Lisa, of Bobobun was going to be there and it’s so long since I last went!

It’s such a gorgeous venue, the quintessential English village, part of a large estate with no through road so it’s very peaceful.

Higgins was delighted with the park…

…and met some lovely people to talk to outside the tearooms…

The venue itself was in an early 20th century Army hut, with stalls both inside and out and there was so much to see…

We found Bobobun inside, (call over to the blog to see lots more photos!)…

..and Higgins was delighted to meet Lisa and Little Bun. He was also pleased to find he was not the only visiting dog so it was an interesting day for him too!

(He’s always a little cautious about bigger dogs who might stand on him as you can see!)

This week he’s spent quite a bit of time in the studio helping me (commandeering a crochet blankie to make under the desk extra comfy) while I get ready for the next needlefelt workshop at Arts Desire.

I’ll tell you more about it after Saturday, but this time we are making mice. Would you like to see?

I’ll be back soon….x

Happy Birthday, Higgins!

Oh dear..I’m sorry to have been away so long! I’ve been working hard on the ‘next big thing’ and there just haven’t been enough hours in the day.

But Higgins! It was his birthday this week. I can’t believe it’s nearly four years since we brought home this tiny bundle of black and tan trouble…

(You can see more cute photos in the 2009/2010 archives)

He was calling the shots right from the start! I tried very hard to get him in the party spirit for his birthday photo but you can tell, he really didn’t like wearing a hat, party or not!

He’s already eaten all the squeaks out of his birthday presents too, but he had fun doing it!

And coincidently I had a Higgins related present this morning which I’d like to share with you. You’ll remember from this post I had a needlefelting workshop at the Art’s Desire Craft Lounge making little fantasy birds, and one of the participants was Willow, half of Farrell and Holmes who make beautiful things like this…

Will had such a good time learning to needlefelt I don’t think she’s stopped since, and this morning I received a card…

and a mysterious little package…

In which I found..

..this gorgeous little mirror!

Now while I’m pretty sure Higgins would love to sit and gaze at his own reflection I’m sorry, it’s going in my handbag! Thank you, Will!

I’m off to do some photography now. Remember I was working on the Knitted Mouse Pattern? Well I’m nearly there and plan to launch it this weekend. If you are one of those frustrated non-crochet-ers who have been begging for a knitting pattern there not much longer to wait, I promise. All fourteen of the new knitted Rainbow Mice are lining up to show off their best profiles for the camera right now.

I’ll be back soon….!

The Right White

I can’t believe it’s sunny again! The Spring has taken so long to arrive but it’s so nice to be able to get out with Higgins for a walk with the camera.

I’ve just trawled back through the May posts for 2010, 2011, 2012 and been amazed at the flowers I photographed then. the cherry blossom was out, lupins and poppies, tulips, wisteria and roses. There’s an awful lot of catching up to do. I’m really hoping the back yard get’s a move on or it will look like a desert for Open Studios!

On our walk however, I was looking for ‘White’ and I found it. A daisy…

..a feather…

…white sloe blossom…

…and stitchwort…

Higgins tends to get a little impatient with all the stop/start on his walks. He does like to keep an eye on me at all times, and if he’s wandered away and found something really interesting (and probably revolting!) just hiding behind something is the best way to attract his attention. He come’s hurtling round the corner convinced I’m eating all the dog treats!

I’ve been thinking about white because I’ve been planning to add white to the Planet Penny Cotton range, as I’ve had quite a few requests. I trialled it at Christmas for the Christmas Crochet Bunting kits and was very pleased with it. However I’ve been caught out with the dreaded dye batch anomaly, and the yarn I received is not quite the the right white to put the Snowdrop labels on. I’m probably being over fussy as it’s the same lovely quality and the difference is very slight. But I’ve decided to sell it on at a reduced price because it may be just what you need to create a bag, or some bunting or edge your granny squares.

There are just 7, SEVEN, packs left now priced at £20.00, which is £2.00 a 50g/125m ball instead of the usual £2.60 and is a light DK weight. If you would like to purchase a pack just leave a message on the contact form with your email address and I will get in touch to arrange payment. The postage in the UK is £3.50, for elsewhere, please ask me.

And now I’m going to get back out into the sunshine and do a spot of gardening. I think Higgins will be assuming his usual gardening position, however…

…you just can’t get the staff!

See you soon…x

P.S. Don’t forget, there is still time to enter the Planet Penny MOO Prize Draw and win yourself some gorgeous business cards!

Sunshine and Flowers

Suddenly it’s Spring! It’s such an overwhelming change too, after a winter which seemed to go on forever. The daffodils at the side of the road, resolutely green and tight budded, responded to the sunshine so immediately you could practically hear the sound of popping as they opened. There’s now a definite green tinge to the brown twigginess of the hedgerows, in a few days Spring will really be busting out all over!

It’s been another busy week, which started with a trip to London. I went to meet the Pinterest Team, who came over from the US to organise a campaign with selected bloggers. And they selected me! Very honoured by that, and very surprised! Anyway, it all happens in May and I look forward to telling you all about it then.

With a little time to spare, I wandered round and went off to see St Paul’s, knowing that in a couple of days I would be seeing it on the news during the coverage of Margaret Thatcher’s funeral. I was too late to go inside, but it is a very beautiful and imposing building, especially with the blossom and late afternoon sunshine.

Back home, Open Studios is fast approaching. We’ve picked up boxes of brochures and postcards and tomorrow we’re off to the Forum in Norwich with our pieces for display in the Taster Exhibition which is on from Tuesday to Friday. I mentioned in this post that I was making a website for our Art Trail so if you would like to know more about us call over to the Two Rivers Trail (and watch out for the gorilla!)

I’m longing to find time to get out in the garden like some others I could mention…

…and Higgins isn’t the only one enjoying the sunshine out there either…

…but at the moment I tend to just wander round with a cup of tea and a camera in my tea breaks.

These little Grape Hyacinths have survived remarkably well considering they are on one of Higgins’ routes round the garden and he’s trodden on them regularly for months!

I’ve done nothing in the vegetable patch, so this little pansy has taken advantage and moved in…

I skived off from working for a couple of hours this morning to visit the beach. We’ve not been for ages as we’ve had weeks of Arctic winds blowing straight of the sea and I didn’t think it would do my sinuses much good! It hasn’t done the beach much good either, as our miles of pale gold sand has been scoured off and deposited elsewhere. The level of the beach must be about 15 feet lower, and there are pools and stretches of clay.

The huge chunks of granite which are part of the sea defences and normally partially hidden in the sand are exposed, and it was quite a feat of mountaineering to get over the top and on to the next stretch of beach.

Higgins really enjoyed the pools…

..and also discovered the most revolting bit of flotsam…or even jetsom..in the shape of a baby’s dummy. He smelt it from about 20 feet away, made a bee line for it and carried it all the way back to the car to put in his toy box!

So this is why I haven’t finished the project that was going to be my Hand Made Monday feature! I’m sure you don’t begrudge me a trip to the seaside though, and I will get back in the next few days when it’s done. I have also taken deliver of a fresh batch of Planet Penny yarn which I need to get back on to the Etsy site so it really is busy, busy, busy at the moment.

Don’t forget, there is still time to join in with draw for a copy of The Knitted Home by Ruth Cross. Just visit the post here, and leave your knitting story in the comments. Do take a moment to read some of the stories which have already been left, some of them really raise a giggle.

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