Phew!

What a busy time we've had this weekend.....

Months ago we promised that we would enter a tree into the local Christmas tree festival, the theme being Village Life.  An opportunity to use all our lovely habby goodies that seemed too good to pass up!  We spent a lovely Friday afternoon carefully decorating our small, but perfectly formed, tree to bursting point with gorgeous haberdashery notions and embellishments - with the tag line,  "never knowlingly under-embellished" 

It was lovely to see everyone arriving, all with different interpretations on the village life theme, from "afternoon tea" with branches adorned with gorgeous vintage tea wares and fairy lights to the "demise of the post office" a rather sad, but poignant reminder of the loss of local services.

We made a dolly peg fairy for the top of our tree, as well as button garlands, angora pom poms, mini bunting and also these cute little replicas of our brown paper carrier bags!

And cute parcels tied with jute string.

Hot on the heels of the tree festival preparations came the Swedish Fayre at Creeting House on Saturday. 

The barn was adorned with boughs of the beautiful trees cut from within the grounds of Creeting House and though it was cold outside, and quite cold inside, we were kept warm with gluhwein, yummy saffron buns fresh from the oven, and hot dogs. 

Our budding young crafter Caitlin came along with a selection of her beautiful card creations as well as some rather fetching robins that will be popping up on the blog very soon, we hope!

It was a lovely sociable day. 

Then today, rather than my usual Sunday morning routine of eggs on toast served up alongside the Archers omnibus edition, we were out on the road again, this time to Woodbridge to do a book signing for our book, A Green Guide to Country Crafts, at Woodbridge books!  The book shop fronts onto the main thoroughfare where a street fair was in full swing, so, we set up outside the shop with our weaving and our knitting! It was a lovely, buzzy atmosphere and we had a really fun day and met some lovely people.

We're now both pretty pooped.  I don't know about Nic but after such a busy time I'm now enjoying a large G and T and am just about to take my weaving in to sit beside the lovely log fire that is luring me away from my computer! 

Hope you've had a great weekend!

Jacquix

A 'tail' of two halves...creativity and destruction!

Being the last weekend before the Swedish Fayre, and being ever so slightly concerned that I wouldn't have enough goodies for my stall, I decided to spend Sunday afternoon cooking up some of the pinecone firelighters that feature in our book, A Green Guide to Country Crafts. 

They are ever so simple to make so, having gathered together all of the suitable vessels I could find to fill, I set about melting my soy wax flakes...

The job was made all the easier due to a recent find in our local Sue Ryder Charity shop - this rather fetching preserving pan - very sturdy and in great condition.  A steal at £5! 

I waxed some wick and put one in each mould before filling with melted wax.....

And then topping each one off with a hand-picked pine cone!  The trick is popping in the pine cone just at the right time - when the wax has partly set.

The metal patisserie moulds are the ones I used in the book, but I have to say, the silicone moulds worked a dream and were dead easy to slip out once the wax had set.

All ready to go the fayre!

And then.....ready and waiting to counter my burst of creativity head on...Rory the destroyer set to work!

Firstly it was hubby's (quite expensive) slippers.....whilst my back was turned for a moment.

Followed shortly afterwards by the very swift destruction of a new toy.  It lasted all of half an hour in Rory's very capable paws!

And as something of a finale, a pair of our lovely painted bamboo needles bit the dust care of yours truly!

Good job I love him to bits, little monkey!

Still, without him, I would not have been out walking this morning and I would have missed the pleasure of these.  I just love the ethereal quality of honesty and have an idea for using some to make a card for a friend.....

Jacquix

Road trip!

What's Tammy the HH 'Twinfit' dress form doing in a hall full of lovely artwork then eh?
Keep scrolling down and all will be revealed...

I get a lot of comments about all the stuff that I manage to cram into my lovely little basket with the green and orange handle. But yesterday we were grateful for all the odd bit's and pieces that lurk amongst the crochet-covered fruit, mp3 player and pliers...
We were heading over to Burnham Overy Staithe where the Norfolk Arts Exhibition 2011 was being held.
Look at all the lovely bunting!

Helen Brown and Paddy Peters along with some other great artists organise this event every year and this year the committee invited Halfpenny Home to showcase A Green Guide to Country Crafts!
Helen and Paddy are great friends of both Jacqui and I and their 'Old Piggery Pottery' is one of our favourite places, Helen makes the fab mugs that we use at HH HQ! We are also allotment neighbours but I won't bore you with seed talk right now...

Another great friend of Halfpenny Home is Danielle Wade of Polly's Textiles and her 'Dutifully Purposeful' items are wonderful so it's no wonder that the committee had also invited her along too!
We sell Danielle's hand-dyed and screen printed fabric at HH HQ and so we decided to make the long journey up to North Norfolk together!

We had a lot of fun displaying the lovely items that Danielle makes from her fabrics...

The suitcase that is usually at the bottom of the stairs crammed full of beautiful cushions!

Country Crafts open on the page showing Samantha Hayes wearing a Polly's Textiles Apron!

One of the beanbags that Danielle has just to started to produce sits alongside a Roman Blind that I made for another exhibition, we had this on display in HH HQ for a while and everyone loved it, the pleats show off the print perfectly!

Let's hope the visitors to Burnham Overy Staithe Village Hall, North Norfolk PE31 8JD between today - Saturday 16th July and Sunday 21st August like our crafty wares...Nic x

Country Buntkin...The Country Living Bunting Giveaway Competition thing...y

We've been waiting for this issue of Country Living to hit the shelves (or for subscribers their doormats...) with slightly higher excitement levels than usual!
We're in it - or rather, the things that we've made are in it and my (Nic's) hands are just visible...

Some of the 35 beautiful step-by-step projects from A Green Guide to Country Crafts are featured and amongst them is the gorgeous bunting made from old shirts, we LOVE this photo and have very fond memories of the day it was taken by the very lovely and rather brilliant photographer and cake expert (!) Gavin Kingcome.
We couldn't resist decorating this barn wall with it over at Green Lodge Farm owned by our good friend Val Beeson.

How gorgeous do the fabrics look against the black boards??!!

It was fun to make this bunting as we got to include the shirt details like this button tab...

How could we celebrate Halfpenny Home's first appearance in Country Living and getting our 100th blog follower?
Hmmm...

Jacqui had a fabulous idea!
A blog giveaway - a bunting kit with all you would need to make some bunting just like the one featured in Country Crafts and Country Living!

We've prepared some flags from the very same shirts that we used on our 'Bunting made from old shirts' which along with the old, red seam binding will mean that you can recreate your very own 'Country Living' moment (gate not included)!
You've got until Monday 15th August 2011 to enter and to be entered into the draw you need to be a follower and leave a comment and to get an extra go tweet Nic @halfpennyhome
We'll get Mike the Glassman to draw the winner out of a really lovely Czech glass bowl...
Good Luck!
Nic x

On the make....Tales from the New Forest!

I took my leave of HH last week for a week away in our motorhome. A visit to the New Forest, planned some months ago, was upon us! And what a beautiful area it is! Ponies of course, rule the roost, and roam freely along with the cows and the donkeys. They have the right of way over traffic and caused their own special brand of roadblock!

Apparently, as decreed by William the Conqueror, the animals are owned by those who live in the forest confines, "commoners" as they are called! Each person still has the right, upon payment of a certain levy, to graze animals, collect wood and, if they wish, dig for clay!
We were very close to Lymington and so the lure of a short ferry trip across to the Isle of Wight was too much to resist! Beautiful weather and beautiful views!


I always have to take along a crafting project when I go away and this trip was no exception. I'd carried on the weaving started when we were at Waterstones last month and had the idea that I would make a little cushion, similar to that featured in our book.


However, by the time it came off the frame, I decided that a textural 'vessel' was more the order of the day!!

So, using the same technique as the little Knit Collage 'nest' in our book, I set about making a fleecy bottom - over a glass of wine, of course! Nic had given me a sample of a new yarn that will shortly be arriving at HH, to try out.

It's called 'Baba'. Aren't the colours just fab?

In between the crafting we ventured out on some beautiful walks.

The views were enormously varied from countryside to coast in one walk - how cute are these newly shawn llamas? They were a little wary of young Rory!

I took this photo of the dandelion flower and seconds after Rory showed his appreciation by demolishing the subject matter!

A funghi shot especially for 'mushroom' Jane!

We stopped for a picnic en route!

Before reaching the shoreline......

This reminded me so much of our day spent on the Nacton shoreline when we were doing our candle style shots this time last year! The only thing missing is the candles!

On the final day of our hols, I managed to finish my project! I think it will be perfect for my overspill of odds and ends of ribbon that currently need a home! Despite the glorious colours and textures I can't help feeling that the addition of a button would add a certain something....you know me!

And, just to finish, a very contented and pooped Rory after another long walk, just before we made our journey home!

A fab time was had by all!

Who needs to go abroad?

Jacquix