Lille 2

This is the exhibition in the Musee de L'Hospice, that was just my kind of thing. Beautiful taxidermy animals, in a paper ark, in a lovely old building. The animals are from the Maison Deyrolle in Paris, which had a bad fire in 2008. It is somewhere I didn't know about for years, and have been to Paris quite often. Maybe I wasn't interested in taxidermy then. Anyway, it lost 90% of its collection which is so sad. The artist visited the gallery after the fire and drew an ark in the guest book, which, according to the description below signifies that those animals which escaped the flood were then caught by the fire. (They are all stuffed so it is academic really.) Some of the animals in this ark are from the gallery, and are scorched or quite badly burned. The thing I liked about it the most was how the animals were positioned, a giraffe lying down in amongst them all, a tiger facing into the boat, a snake curled around a piece of wood at the back, and two polar bears who look as if a private conversation has been interupted, and they are not happy about that.

Lille

We went to Lille for the day on Saturday. It is very easy to go to the Eurostar station at Ebbsfleet. It only takes 20 minutes to get there and you pre-book parking so when you arrive at the carpark it welcomes you digitally by name! I love that.

We were going with the vague thought of Christmas shopping, but the Christmas market was disappointing. Lille however was not. It has some lovely old streets and buildings would be worth going to for at least a long weekend. We wandered around the streets looking and taking photos (well I take them and Andy kindly waits for me!) Here are a few (quite a lot) of them, and I have a few more to share too! There was a great art exhibition we visited in an old hospital-very old-13th century I think. It was just my kind of thing. Also the lights were very pretty. But here are some moments from the day.

 The sun illuminated the sun, and shone through the fountain too.

 A fish made from trailed paint caught my eye.

 I loved the graffiti covered models in this shop window. The shop sold spray paint. I always thought that paint for graffiti was got by less legitimate means. 

 \Lille is filled with pattern.

This is in the Musee de L'Hospice. The combination of shadows on the stairs and the blue and white tiles looked most attractive.

 Tile detail

 Santa was there, overlooking the market and despairing. I suppose it was not that bad, and we did buy a tiny Jesus and Mary and some quite strong mulled wine, which caused us to need to sit on a bench for some time to recover. It is just that they advertise it as a reason to go there and there are so many other great things to do instead. I want to go on the weekend where everyone, or nearly, sells things from their houses on the streets. It sounds totally mad and eccentric.

 Glitter ball on the big wheel. We didn't go on it, as it was scarily high and probably very cold.

 Cute sign. I am not sure what it means though. Maybe that it is safe not to hold the adult's hand here as it is a big square? Or maybe it is a lesson in perspective.

Jazz cat.

Firsts and Button Angels

First day of winter. First day of December. First trip to somewhere new-more later!

 To make button angels, first make your table look like this.

Once it is a chaotic mess, start to assemble your dolls.

 I used flat clothes pegs-super cheap from Hobbycraft and also have been hanging around for ages. I drew little faces with a fine sharpie, added a little colour with pencils, then used scraps of fabric and yarn to make their clothes and hair. The yarn is all the ends I have been saving from crocheting and the fabric is all the off-cuts from the dolls. I used other little bits and pieces too. The wings of some are made from beautiful wired tissue I have had for ages, and some are ribbon. Their halos are made from pearly looking plastic buttons. I started with white but had to move on to other colours as the collection grew.

 Some angels are snow angels, with felt clothes and little pom poms.

 Glue guns are great inventions!

They are all coming with me to Kent tomorrow for the fair. Apart from the three I have kept! 

The Craft Fair

I have not stopped since the fair and also have been mulling it all over in my mind before I wrote about it. I only sold three things ( a brooch and two dolls) so I at least made the table cost. I was a bit disappointed but I enjoyed the experience and felt quite positive afterwards. I got mostly lovely comments and gave out lots of cards so you never know where things may lead. It was lovely to see my friends and their little girl who is so funny. I had good conversations with quite a few people. One with a woman who makes cloth dolls too, to raise money for cancer charities. Hers are bald because of this and have little hats. She happened to have one with her. She uses that expandable scarf yarn very cleverly to make the skirts. Another conversation was with a woman who had recently visited Greenwich and really liked it. The other stall holders were very friendly and Jemma, who was next to me selling her pretty jewellery, helped me set up. We watched each other's stalls for breaks. My friend did a brilliant job of organising the fair, and worked really hard on the day. The gallery owner gave her good feedback and wants her to arrange another one. He also was complementary about my dolls she tells me. I had my photo taken for the local paper which made me laugh. A taste of another life perhaps!

 Here is the lady with the doll. I just love her little feet and the skirt.

 This is the delicious lemon meringue cupcake which my friend's sister in law made. Mmmm!

 I had a quick wander to find lunch. Newark market looked tempting. It was a lovely crisp day-eventually-after the rain in the morning.

 The week after the fair I took a break and crocheted some rainbow things with some vintage yarn I bought from one of the stalls.

 I have recently invested in some pom-pom makers after having them demonstrated to me by my friend a while ago. Pom-poms are a bit addictive!

A first attempt at following a snowflake pattern. It worked ok until the last little bit when something had gone wrong, but I just finished it anyway as I didn't want to undo it all again!
I talked to my Mum when I got back, and was telling her about how I felt-disappointed but excited to try and do it again. Then a few days later my Dad rang. I knew he was doing a craft fair soon, selling his lovely wood turned objects. He said he had talked to Mum and to the lady who organises his fair. He has got me a stall for two days this weekend. We are out on Saturday-a day trip to Lisle, but he is going to set my stall up and look after it for the day and I will go down on Sunday morning. I went down on Monday night to take the stuff and have dinner there which was very nice. I realised that Sadie, their cute little dog, is an even bigger and more accomplished cadger than Cassie!
I am really looking forward to the weekend. Day trip to France and craft fair! Just wish I could have a day off to recover afterwards! Thanks for all the lovely comments and good wishes about all my recent ramblings, they are much appreciated!

Early One Morning

Saturday morning. We got up early and I took Andy to the station as he was going to Edinburgh. It was foggy and I took some photos. I love fog if I don't have to drive in it!
I didn't hear any maidens singing though.

A Tale of Two Utilities

Last week went something like this. There were the best of plans and the most annoying attempts by life in general to sabotage those plans. (There was no prison, no evil French aristocrat and no guillotine though, so I shouldn't complain.)
Craft fair imminent. Loads of work at work. Me and my colleagues ill. Children behaving badly. Smell of gas when we turned the fire on. Whole of downstairs socket circuit blown at six in the morning on Monday. Loud recurring explosive noises from somewhere in the vicinity of the large shelves. Growing fear that we would be fried in our beds if the gas met the spark. Increasing necessity to switch off the electricity when we were in bed or out.
Phone call to British Gas. Threat from British Gas that The National Grid people would break our door down to turn off the gas if nobody was there to let them in. Panicked rush home from work at lunchtime to prevent said door from being assaulted. Gas off. Bowl baths.
Friday afternoon kind head teacher let me go home. Gas people didn't turn up. They were supposed to come between 12 and 6. Stressed Andy arrives home. I set off on dark foggy drive to the Midlands. The gas and electric people did eventually turn up on Saturday after many calls and texts back and forth. The boiler was fixed and the electric problem fixed.
Craft fair over I get home to find piles of stuff everywhere and have to face up to the fact that I am a massive hoarder and need to sort it out now before we are climbing over things to be able to do anything. We started with the books and managed to fill 7 large shopping bags. The shelves will have to go as the way I had piled them up with stuff was what caused the problem. The concrete floor under the laminate had cracked due to the weight and had broken the electric wire causing the explosions and fuse blowing. There is now a hole in the floor and two junction boxes but for now that can stay. The main task I have now is de-cluttering. It is now the following Saturday and I have made good progress. The flat is in the biggest mess but there is method to my madness and it will all hopefully be liveable again by tomorrow. Then I will plan the next part of the get cleared up campaign.
It is a far far better boiler than it has been for a while and it will soon be a far far tidier flat than it has ever been.
The moral of this story is that hoarding is dangerous. I think. Sorry Dickens.

Whirlwind Weekend!

This is my stall at the fair yesterday. I will tell you more about the weekend later in the week but for now just a few pictures. There has been so much going on this week and today has been a long day too, so all I want to do now is sit down with my glass of wine and do a bit of crocheting for no other purpose than enjoyment!

 If by any chance you are visiting me with a view to having another look at the dolls or accessories. I will be listing most things in my etsy shops over this week.