Here are a few of my favourite things...

One of the best things about taking Halfpenny Home out and about to a craft fair is the packing up of all our most favourite things...this Aspalls bag has been used an awful lot and not always just for the lovely Aspalls Cyder bottles it was originally designed to carry - it's also perfect for transporting the handpainted knitting needles that we love using!

It was my turn to choose which of our favourite goodies from HH HQ I wanted to take along to the Saint's Fair in Ipswich, a BRILLIANT craft fair organised by the rather wonderful Jess and Chris combo imakefunstuff - it's always a lot of fun!

As you can see I decided to show off just some of the ribbons, ric rac and trimmings that we have along with some rather wonderful Knit Collage and Gedgrave Flock yarns!
It was lovely to meet people that had read about Jacqui and I in the EADT piece by Steven Russell 'The Tweeter and the Tax Investigator' BUT the highlight (for me!) was meeting up with a fellow Tweeter @katiewardwriter ! Katy has just had her first novel Girl Reading published and as we are all local writers Ipswich Waterstones have been so very supportive and organised events for us!
Twitter brings the most unlikely people together - crafty girl meets a proper author! Katie is as lovely in real life as she is on Twitter! (as this bit of the blog is all about my obsession with twitter I should add a :-) right about now...) as I also met up with @katyark who I have met a lot in real life but didn't realise she was her...and she dodged the camera, tsk!

Look at those scrumptious yarns...irresistable!

The other great bit of Sunday was that on arrival I found that the HH stall was right next to a great friend of both Jacqui and I! Anita is a glass blower and she runs amazing workshops where you can transform old glass into beautiful pieces of art for your home!

Some of the fantastic cheeseboards that Anita makes from old wine bottles.

All this socialising and chatting about craft can build up quite an appetite but I never bother with taking along a picnic (unusual for me!) for the Saint's Fair as the food on sale there is always fab!

The lovely stallholders even delivered...

What a lovely day, Nic x

Flowery Fizz!

I've been planning to make Elderflower Champagne since Nic and I went to Lisa's Pudding Evening last year. I'm partial to a drop of fizz and love all things elderflower so the thought that I could make my own for a fraction of the price was very enticing.....if it works of course!!!

Having done my recipe research, I was raring to go. Despite reading several warnings about the possibility of exploding bottles Iremained undeterred! I've been carefully watching the elderflowers progress when out walking Rory and set off last weekend to gather my supplies.

The recipe is a bit of a hybrid of one I found on the internet along with Lisa's recipe which she kindly passed onto me.

Of course, some lovely summery lemons are included

And white wine vinegar from our favourite local cider producer, Aspalls.

Must admit, I was a little worried by the sludgy appearance of my concoction when I put the elderflowers along with all the other ingredients into my fermenting bin!

We've had a really busy few days at HH (more of which to follow soon) so it was just as well the brew required a few days fermentation period in the brewing bin! I returned to it today for the next stage. Taking off the lid and the muslin cover was a pleasant surprise. It certainly smells pretty good! I've strained it into the demijohns to continue its work. And there it will stay for a couple of months - if I can bear to wait that long! Must admit I did taste a tiny drop and.....it actually tasted pretty good so fingers crossed!

Must admit, it looks a bit like cloudy apple juice at the moment however, I'm an optomist and my bottles are ready and waiting to be filled!

Looks like Rory's already been at my brew!

A rare moment of respite!

I'll let you know how the Champagne tastes when Nic and I crack open a bottle in the not too distant future! And, so long as we're still here to tell the tale, I'll post the recipe then!

Jacqui x

1st Birthday Celebrations at Halfpenny Home!

We can't believe that a whole year has passed by since the party that we held to celebrate the opening of Halfpenny Home! The sign at the end of the driveway went up on the morning we opened, a little bit late as it had only just arrived the day before..

It's been a very busy and exciting year and we've met loads of new people and made lots of new friends and we wanted to celebrate Halfpenny Home's 1st birthday with them.
With the Humble Jumble all finished and packed away over at the Ark it made sense to us to take a bit of HH over there.

Look familiar?!

What could be better on a chilly October evening than a Fish and Chip supper? We couldn't think of a better way to spend the evening so Hussien over at Has Bond's and Son cooked enough for us all! Served with yummy tartar sauce, vinegar, ketchup and Maldon Sea salt in old glass salt dishes served with some pink bubbly, Aspall Cyder and mugs of tea - perfect!

Thank you everyone for making this a fantastic year for us at Halfpenny Home, Nic x

More Birthday Treats!

Found on a quick visit to our local charity shop, teacups and a lovely pastel coloured stripey sheet! Then more birthday presents - a 1930's needlework magazine with some fantastic illustrations from Harriet and some beautiful vintage fabric from Janet which led us to emit textile firework noises - oooh aaarggh oh!
(Cherry said that we sound like we're watching fireworks when we're looking at fabric and yarn, the loudest day was Colinette yarn delivery day!)
Then I found this bread 'birthday cake' when I went to feed the chickens, it was from Lisa and David.
I started to make a collage using the teacup pincushion which lovely Beth illustrated for Oh Comely magazine for inspiration...
Here's the original illustration which she very kindly gave to me for my birthday accompanied by some very lovely Aspall's Cyder!
What a great way to spend the Bank Holiday! Thank you all again, Nic x

Birthday blog!

It was my birthday yesterday and all week everyone has been popping into Halfpenny Home to wish me a happy birthday and they have all been so kind and generous. I have met so many new people since the shop opened and as we all know they are all so clever and creative. See the lovely pictures below that Jacqui has printed onto canvas and mounted on frames and the pretty 'handbag' card, she knows how much I love an Efes (turkish beer) also!
Michelle, one of the 'Sew and Crow' ladies bought me this tiny sewing machine that has it's own little carry case. Love the fact that it is called Essex, Michelle and I are both from Essex.
This beautiful knitted necklace and cuff set were made by the wonderful Jane Southgate and I thought Lily and Cherry were going to explode waiting for me to open the parcel that they came in. They also presented me with the retro mug that has 'a balanced diet is a piece of cake in each hand' embazoned on it.
My good friend Kay who has just tackled the tricky task of shortening the sleeves on her denim jacket made us some millionaire's shortbread with rosemary and seasalt. As you can see the container is empty, it was delicious!
Here are they all are, thank you everyone for making it a really lovely day!
Maria M finally caught up with me this morning and presented me with the Aspall's and the fantastic card with balls of yarn, thank you. Nic x

Second Vintage and Craft Fair

What a lovely weekend! Halfpenny Home was buzzing with excitement on Saturday as some brave souls set out their wares in between showers.

The scones and muffins from Scoffin' are out of this world! We are extrememely grateful that they made it as they had been at the Latitude Festival the night before and hadn't gone to bed until two that morning - well done ladies!
Helen and Charlotte bought us some beautiful flowers and a picnic...
Of course the best thing is that we do it all over again next month!
Hope you can make it to the next one, Nic x

Halfpenny Home's big day out!

Where to start! What an enjoyably exhausting day we all had. Having chosen lots of lovely creative goodies to take with us to Crows Hall, not to mention the fantastic picnic food, the big question was, could we fit it all in! We managed somehow....just!

Our home for the day was a marquee looking out over moated gardens and traditional barns housing other craft makers and demonstrators. Blessed with fine weather, if a little breezy at times, we busily set to work creating Halfpenny Home from home, ready to welcome our visitors. There was just time for some of Nicola's fantastic home made sausage and egg pie before Annie, Nicola and Pat changed into their wonderful attire - created especialy for the day. Nicola's appliqued cowboy skirt was soon joined by beautifully embellished skirts and blouses that Pat and Annie had created - resplendent in many of the gorgeous buttons and notions to be found at Halfpenny Home.

Our newly created home was soon buzzing with visitors and lots of laughter. Word soon spread that not only did we have a dazzling array of wares to tempt; jelly babies, chocolate buttons, dolly mixture and other yummy goodies were also up for grabs!

In true Halfpenny Home style, we were encouraging visitors to have a go at creating something unique and many took up the challenge! We had a beautiful display of assorted buttons from which to choose to make into a button bracelet, or necklace. They looked so scrummy we had to ensure they didn't get mistaken for sweets! The picture on Annie's blog is absolutely beautiful. do take a look, it will make you swoon! http://www.pixieannie.blogspot.com/

It was lovely to see the pleasure gained from making something. Several visitors made bracelets to give away as gifts, which is lovely and even more special to receive. Instructions on how to make a bracelet are to follow, so keep checking back.

We also had gorgeous millinery makes - a beautiful and bountiful selection of felt and straw hats with an abundant and colourful choice of petersham, feathers and flowers with which to adorn your hat of choice. This may be the first of many hat decorating sessions.....watch this space!

There was need for refreshment during the day and luckily for us, Aspalls, producers of our favourite tipple, aspalls cider, had a stall at the fayre http://www.aspall.co.uk/. Peronelles Blush is a particular favourite but, in truth, we love them all!!! Even better, they are a local company - and here at Halfpenny Home we love to support our local producers.

The fayre ended at 6pm as visitors trailed away. We chatted about the events of the day as we packed our wares back into the vintage trunks and handmade bags from whence they came, returning home tired but happy. It was lovely to see old friends who came to seek us out especially as well as meeting lots of new customers who we hope will come and visit us in Needham Market very soon and, we hope, become regular customers. Remember, the kettle is always on!