Something a little...

...different.

Saturday was the monthly "all day" parchment class at Pinnacle Crafts but folk who are 'parchers' would have found it a little strange this month.

There was no scribing, embossing, pricking or snipping going on. In fact, there was some straight-forward tracing and cutting followed by lots of...WATER and ink.

Yes I know, shock...horror...water; dishes of the stuff.

There were lots of traced pieces...

 ...to cut out of our parchment.
Then we soaked each piece in an ink/water bath and applied additional colour around the edges...

 ...a process that had to be carried out quickly...

 ...and then the individual pieces were left to dry whilst we toddled off for a spot of lunch.
It is surprising how quickly the parchment dries and we were soon curling and putting together layers to create...

 ...pretty parchment-paper flowers. Here are the 3 completed but waiting for the glue to dry...

 ...so that each flower could be teased and shaped as wished.
This was the final result (sorry about the glare)...

...a pretty spray that can be used as a button-hole or as a floral piece in the home.

Thank you Joanne for a lovely class............................................................................

150 Little hats...

...will be winging their way to join the BIG knit.

From 11 May 2017 until Friday 14 July 2017 our Craft & Chatter group have produced 150 mini hats for 'innocent smoothies' to place on their bottles this Autumn.

This was the colourful heap that I turned out onto the table...

...so that I could count what we had made.
I even managed to add a  "4th of July" hat...

 ...actually knitted on the 4th of July.
Just look at all these pretty colours...

 ...don't they look cheerful.
"Ollie" octopus managed to join the collection...

...just in time for the big send off.

This batch will be heading off later this week to add to the ones donated by folk all around the country - here's hoping that the target of 2 million hats has been reached/exceeded.

As a group we have decided to continue with these fun little knits so that we can see just how many we can have ready for next year's event.

These little hats don't take long to knit and help to use up all those little bits of yarn that we crafters can never throw away (although I admit I did buy some more yarn when some pretty colours took my eye LOL). So I'd better keep those needles handy and busy - perhaps we can manage two boxes full by next year...................................................

My Happy Place...

...in the Sun.

My lawn will never be a velvet green patch that could put a bowling green to shame. To be honest the lawn looks more like straw with a hint of green.

I don't have loads of flower beds abundant with colourful blooms. The yucca is likely to have a mass of white bell-like flowers later in the Summer but for now the only colour is the purple of a wild buddleia.

However, when Mother Nature sees fit to bless us with glorious blue skies...

 ...it seems a shame not to sit outside and make the most of the lovely weather.

Problem was, until last Friday the only seats I had in the garden were a rather uncomfortable bench and some plastic white chairs (fine for sitting at a table but not very comfortable to sit in for any length of time) which are actually a little too high for me as I'm only 5ft 4ins on a good day.

A couple of years ago I saw the perfect chair for me in a branch of The Range but the colours on offer were not to my taste. Then earlier this year I saw the same chairs in just the right shade for me - but by the time payday came around they had all gone. I was sure it was not to be but then last week they had some more in but I didn't have space in the car. It looked like I was going to miss out again.

Just on the off chance, I called into The Range on my way home from Barleylands on Friday and luck was on my side. A chair and table were soon making their way to my car in the car park but oh dear - the chair would not fit. A length of rope, and the tailgate left open  (I was determined to secure my purchase) and I headed home - at a rather gentle pace.
 
As you can see, the grass leaves a lot to be desired but I love my new seat and table....

 ...the seat is just the right height for me...

 ...and for a moulded resin chair it is wonderfully comfortable. The perfect place to sit with a cup of coffee...

 

 ...and enjoy a bit of crafting outside in the sunshine...

...in the ideal spot in the garden. The place where I've set my table & chair is in a part of the garden that gets the sun for most of the day and is quite secluded so no-one is overlooking.

My garden may not be the prettiest place in the world but I now have my own little "Happy place" where I can sit and enjoy the sunshine and while away a few happy hours.

I'm now on the look out for a sun umbrella in a matching or toning colour then everything will really be perfect..........................................................................

Today is our weekly...

..."Craft & Chatter" at work.

We will be doing a count up of the mini hats made so far.

At last weeks gathering we had a display table of the different types of craft that folk have been doing. This was in sup[port of a "Health & Wellbeing" event that was being held in the building and there were various talks & stalls set up in different parts of the office.

There were examples of cardmaking as well as the knitting & crochet...

...with a selection of seasonal and general cards...

 ...the mini hats were very popular...

 ...and the basic knitted squares seemed to prompt a few folk to consider getting their needles out...

 ...but surprisingly, these Christmas cards with images of the Bugaboo character "JJ"...

...seemed to catch more attention and we may have a few folk join us to make a few cards.

It will be interesting to see how many 'new' folk turn up for the group today.

In the meantime, the knitting needles are still clicking away and we will have to see what our total number of mini hats has reached as we will be packaging them up next week to send off.....................