What's it all about anyway?

Hello Lovelies!

I've been thinking a lot about this little blog lately. About why I blog, what I want to blog about, how I wish I had more time to spend on the blog, about other fantastic bloggers, about the type of blogs I read and why I read them.

A lot of thinking about things you'll agree!

I was talking to two of my fellow Cumbrian Bloggers yesterday over lunch - Jo and Anna - about some of these things. I always said that I never wanted to do a 'sorry I haven't updated the blog in forever!' style post, because a) I don't think that many people would even realise that I hadn't been blogging and b) you get all kinds of guilty feelings when you start to think like that.

Jo asked me yesterday "Do you ever not post for ages and then just feel like quitting?" - I know exactly what she means, although I don't feel like quitting. I try my hardest not to feel pressure to blog, but the fact that I actually have a blog is pressure itself, even if that pressure only comes from me.

In all aspects of my life, I seem to want to do everything. At work, I'm the one who volunteers for everything. Martin has said to me recently that I shouldn't start any new hobbies as I have enough stuff going on already. He was talking about loom bands, which to be honest, I lost interest in after about a week.

So what is the point of this (actually pretty random and rambly) post?

I guess it's to say to any of my readers (if I have any) that I'm still about, even though it's like the Marie Celeste over here. I'm enjoying spending time with my family, and enjoying the sunny weather (which now seems to have disappeared), I'm enjoying reading books in bed with Martin, and I'm enjoying spending (some of) my evenings exercising (yes - that's right - me! Exercise! Ha!).

I'm sure that at some point I'll pop back on over - I have lots of posts in my drafts folder (including some Woolfest related ones). They aren't going to go anywhere though, they will still be sitting there patiently waiting for me to sit down in front of my laptop with a cup of tea.

Woolfest 2014

Hello Lovelies!

Last Friday I went to Woolfest in Cockermouth (no giggling please!). I met up with my wonderful Godmother Penny and we had a day filled with yarny goodness, chatting and catching up, and spending money! This is a pretty picture heavy post - just to warn you!!

I've been trying to get to Woolfest for the last 3 years or so, and have been thwarted each year - but not this year!! I was determined to go, so booked the day off work and organised childcare for Zoe (thanks Diane!). And I am so glad that I did.

My Woolfest survival kit - peanut M&M's - standard. Camera, business cards, fancy phone camera lenses, notebook and pencil, pennies, lippy, juice. Ready to go! Not pictured: phone, map, excitement, plan of attack.

While I was waiting for Penny to arrive I went to check out the fleece sale - it was very strange - people were buying and selling these sacks of fleece, straight of the sheep - it all seemed very interesting, with people bartering and cash changing hands like they were dealing!! 

I also went to check out the alpacas which I think are me new favourite animal - well apart from owls!! Look at these cuties!!

We started off with a coffee while working out a plan of action using the programme, then we had a 'structured wander' around, before I pootled off to do a workshop on Tunisian crochet. After I learned my new skill we had the yummiest lunch followed by a bit more wander, spending of money and chatting to some of the stall holders.

Buttons! Hundreds of buttons! (I didn't get the name of this stall unfortunately)

This is the lovely Helen from the Thread of Life stand teaching us all how to do Tunisian Crochet - I picked it up super fast and was showing some of the other people there how to do it! Check out that crochet skirt!

And here is my sample of Tunisian Crochet - not too bad! I bought the hook so I can do some more at home, I just need to find some patterns now!

I definitely had my favourite stalls that I have been stalking online since I got back. I wish I had more pennies to spend on wool and stuff! It would be very easy to spend hundreds of pounds at Woolfest! What I will do so as not to bombard you with another three million photos is do separate posts on each of these stands:

I couldn't believe how colourful the Easyknits stand was - it was a riot of rainbow colours! I bought one of the varigated yarns in this photo - can you guess which one?

I was initially attracted to the H-anne-MADE stand because of Anne's use of maps in her art, but to be honest everything on this stand was beautiful! And Anne herself is the loveliest lady!

 The beautiful examples of crochet shawls and blankets on The Natural Dye Studio's stand is what caught my attention initially, but the yarn was so pretty and squishy and all made with natural dyes (hence the name!). 

 I just wanted to talk about this fantastic woman - Sophie Pattinson - who runs Bangladesh Hand Embroidery. This stand had the most beautiful hand embroidered throws, cushions and little lavender pouches. They are all designed by Sophie and then hand embroidered by women in Bangladesh as part of an income generating project to support women living in remote areas of Bangladesh.

So I will add in links to the more in detail posts above when I've posted them. If you stayed with me this long then well done, that was a big post!! 

But if I haven't bored you to tears with Woolfest talk, you can go and have a look at Amanda's post on her blog over here [click].

Sticky9 Giveaway Winner!!

Hello Lovelies!

This morning I put all of the names in a hat a spreadsheet and used the random number generator to pick a winner at random. Here's the spreadsheet:

 - and that winner is ........

*drum roll

The Lovely Jo from The Perfect Hiding Place!! You were lucky number 5!!

Yay! Congratulations Jo! Hope you enjoy your Instagram magnets!