Celebrating in Salisbury

Last weekend my husband and I headed down to Salisbury for a long weekend to celebrate our sixth wedding anniversary.

Back in January, when I was booking somewhere to stay I noticed most of the places were fully booked and I thought to myself, "gosh Salisbury is a popular location!"
It wasn't until I had finally booked a B&B after a lot of searching that I thought I would check to see if there was a particular reason for that weekend being so busy.
Indeed there was and it was a case of not putting facts I knew together!
One of the reasons I wanted to go to Salisbury is because the cathedral is home to one of the copies of the Magna Carta, the best preserved one in fact. I was also well aware of the fact that this year is the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta. So knowing those 2 facts and that everywhere was almost full right at the beginning of the year you would have thought that I would have worked out that it would be the anniversary whilst we were there! I'm a dope.

Day 1 consisting of exploring and shopping. Fisherton Mill, appropriately located on Fisherton Street, is amazing and most definitely worth a visit! It's a wonderful space filled with exceptional goodies, all of which were exquisitely handmade (perfect for picking up my pops a Father's Day present too). There was a lovely coffee shop on the ground floor with yummy looking cakes but sadly we had just eaten. I was told by another customer though that the coffee was the best he'd had in a long time. Upstairs are a number of studios, well worth exploring.

There was Born To Knit, as the name suggests it was filled with lovely yarns, books and tools. I was very restrained and only bought a single ball of wool but I certainly couldn't leave empty handed. Next to that was Create Escape, a boutique haberdashery and bespoke soft furnishing makers, there I picked up a couple of lovely fat quarters. There were many other studios worth having a look around as well as higgledy-piggledy floor boards and old machinery.
Also on the same street was a wonderful shop called Franklins, the downstairs of which was mainly dedicated to sewing and including machines, fabric threads etc. Upstairs housed all the yarns and books, notions and what-not. All in all another great shop.

Our plans for the Sunday included lots of history and culture, we  went to the cathedral to see the Magna Carta.

We also visited the ruins at Old Sarum managed by English Heritage. We were pleased to discover vintage buses had taken over the main square as the local bus service "Salisbury Reds" which cover Wilts & Dorset routes were celebrating their centenary.

There were lots of vintage buses to be seen and we got to take 2 free trips, one of which dropped us off at the ruins- how handy!

Another part of the celebration was "The Barons' Trail", 25 life-size, decorated baron sculptures representing the barons who represent the wealthy landowners who signed the Magna Carta alongside King John. My favourite was Baron 1 "Conrandin", the design is based on medieval illustrations of the Guilds and craft workers who helped create Britain!

In the evening on our way to dinner we stumbled across some yarn-bombers- appropriately disguised with knitted facial hair.

Their mission was to promote their group Yarn ARTivists, they looked like they were having a lot of fun doing so, this is their Facebook page. Great stuff!

I would recommend a weekend in Salisbury, lots of lovely shops (most importantly good crafty ones) and restaurants and plenty of sight-seeing (although not all the celebrations we were lucky enough to encounter)
Until next time, craft in earnest! Craftin' Ernest x

Brooches Stash

My husband and I decided to make the most of the sunshine the UK is experiencing at the moment and went out for dinner in our favourite cafe/bar/restaurant. Just as we were sitting down I realised the brooch I had being wearing was missing! Uh oh, this led to a panic and I ran off to retrace my steps. Thankfully I found it on the ground next to the car, I think it must have caught on my seat belt but I recovered it, phewee! It was this sparkly delight...

A few years ago I lost a real beauty on the way to a concert and even to this day when I walk the same route I look for it. My only consolation is imagining the delight on the lucky finder's face when they discovered it.
I've got a thing about brooches, I think they really are a nice finishing touch to an outfit, especially a blazer or summer cardigan. A lot of people I know see them as old fashioned and don't tend to wear them but that's definitely not me, anyway old fashioned is a plus in my eyes. 
As such I have a lot of brooches and some are really special to me so I thought I'd share a few of my favourites with you, they are either very sentimental to me or I just love the design but a lot of the time it's actually both.

As all my family know how much I like them I was very lucky to get my Grandma's collection when she passed away and these are very dear to my heart. 
This one I simply adore even though it's a little damaged but to me that just shows it has a history. I love the design and colour but most of all I love that my dad said he remembers his mum wearing it when he was young.

This next one was a present from one of my truly best friends, she gave it to me for making the place settings for her wedding. She knows me so well as I couldn't have picked better myself, it was such a delightful surprise.

This one I've mentioned before, my husband bought it for me because I love bumblebees. Again, this one has "history" as I dropped it the day after receiving it (so like me) but thankfully it was a clean break and could be glued, otherwise I would have been heading straight back to the shop.

This is a fun one that was originally a child's hairclip but thanks to a pair of pliers, some glue and a brooch finding, it has a new purpose.

Tortoises are another favourite of mine (none more so than my actual tortoise Evie) and as such I have numerous ones, many of which were gifts.

This one a good friend of mine bought for me as a souvenir when we visited San Francisco Zoo, sadly we're no longer in touch but it brings back very fond memories of a wonderful Summer.

On the subject of animals, birds make numerous appearances in my brooch selection, especially owls. Oh and insects too for that matter.

OK, this was supposed to be a quick post but I could go on and on so I'm going to stop here. It has occurred to me though that they could be displayed a little better so I can enjoy them even when I'm not wearing them rather than sticking them in a box. That's my next project sorted...
Until next time craft in earnest, Craftin' Ernest x

Day Tripping- Delightful Stroud

Last weekend my husband and I decided to go out for the day but couldn't make up our minds where to go. We were in the car when I suddenly had a brainwave to visit a town nearby which neither of us had ever been to. We're a bit spoilt for choice where we live, although we live in quite a rural town we have easy access to 3 big cities- Cardiff, Bristol and Gloucester are all within 40 minutes of us and so we tend to head to these.
As such we've never been to Stroud which is only 30 miles away and actually a little closer than Gloucester so with the Sun shining on we went.
On arrival we immediately discovered a lovely Farmer's market, which was fantastic and as it turns out is award winning- http://www.fresh-n-local.co.uk/markets/stroud.php It was a lovely mix of yummy food (lunch and dinner sorted) and handmade items. It put me in the hubby's good books as they had a great selection of real ales- his equivalent of my buttons.
This led to a street that gave me high hopes for the town, Threadneedle Street!

Situated here were shops and a flea market with a whole array of goods for sale from wool roving to antiques. Now we're talking!
Whilst in a charity shop around the corner I headed straight for the button tin (it's like a magnet), this is where my other half stepped into his own and told the lady I'd buy the lot if I could, at which she replied you can have them all for £3! Wahooooo yes please, thank you very much.

There was a very interesting "pop-up shop" filled to the rafters with weaving looms, wool and truly beautiful blankets. A shop called "Made in Stroud" as you can guess selling items made in Stroud, there were some exceptional items, it really was a feast for the eyes- there are some very talented people in the area.
On the other side of the high street was another market selling fresh produce outside and an eclectic mix of items.
At the bottom of town was as a wonderful vintage shop, Strangeness & Charm http://www.strangenessandcharmvintage.com/ I picked myself up a quirky vintage brooch made from wire and thread. It's so intricate and I love the thought of someone crafting each of the individual petals and leaves before putting it all together- I look forward to pinning it to my favourite blazer.

The lovely owner was super helpful and gave me a map of Stroud she'd put together pointing out all the great places you might pick up a vintage treasure or two.
There was also a wonderful wool shop called Yarnarama but as I have given up buying wool for Lent I only paid a flying visit (roll on Easter).
We'll definitely be returning in the not so distant future and it just goes to show there may be a little treasure of a town near you just waiting to be explored, give it a go, who knows what you'll find!
Until next time, craft in earnest! Craftin Ernest xxx

Button-tastic Clock

This post involves something I had been meaning to make for a long time but had never gotten round to. Well, as is usually the case it took for me to have things I need to make, in order to get round to making something I wanted to make (and yep the things I need to make still haven't been done).

I really liked the idea of making a clock with buttons instead of numbers. I bought some clock mechanisms from the online store that has everything- good ol' Ebay. Unfortunately I used the mobile phone app and didn't look at the description properly so bought the wrong type of hands to the ones I wanted. Totally my fault but there's always a way round these things.

I used a piece of "wall art" I picked up for 50p in a second hand shop. I was going to use a blank canvas but this was very similar with a piece of hard board in the back and therefore already had support built in. With the help of my hubby I measured and drilled a hole in the centre of the picture for the clock mechanism to go through. It's amazing how keen he is to help when power tools are involved ;-)

I had some lovely Moda fabric: Lucy's Crab Shack by Sweetwater #5481 - Deep Sea Kite Ties www.modafabrics.com .I just love the colours especially the lime green so choose this colour for the buttons and the handles.
I'm usually a do-it-by-eye kind gal but this is one craft a tape measure/ruler and a protractor really is a must!
Firstly I drew around the frame on the back of the fabric making sure I had enough excess around the edges to fold over and cover the frame to the back. Then using the tape measure I placed an up-turned plate in the centre of the square and drew around that too. With the aid of the protractor I marked a dot at every thirty degrees from the top of the circle all the way around.

Hey presto, all that's needed it to sew a button to the right side of the fabric where each of the dots are and you have the twelve "hours". I used a vintage shank button for the twelve o'clock position and an assortment of holed buttons for the rest.

I used double sided sticky tape to attach the fabric to the frame. Getting the positioning right was actually the trickiest part and took a couple of goes but a necessity for accurate time keeping. I folded the corners as neatly as possible and used thumb tacks to hold them in place.

With a scalpel I carefully cut a hole in the fabric where the hole in the canvas was located and attached the mechanism following the manufacturer's instructions.

If I had been happy with the hands I had ordered all that would be involved now would be to lightly sand them and paint them the desired colour, again lime green, with nail varnish and fit them to the clock. However, as I messed up I had to do a few alterations first. Also I choose black ones and think if I had picked gold ones, the other option available, I could have skipped the sanding and gone straight for the nail varnish, another lesson learnt.

The hands I received were far more ornate than I had intended but as they were made from quite thin aluminium, I used some wire cutters to trim of as much excess as possible and to shorten them. I gave the edges a quick rub with sandpaper too to smooth them out. I'm rather pleased with how they turned out.

Again I followed the instructions to correctly attach the hands and popped in a (rechargeable) battery.

Now I can tell the time using buttons- perfect!

Until next time, craft in earnest! Craftin' Ernest x

Brooch Making Frenzy

Unfortunately, we didn't have any takers for the giveaway so I am going to extend it, surely someone has something to say about buttons, for example how wonderful they are? ;-) It's difficult not to get tempted by the fabric bundle myself, they're crying out to used, some patchwork hearts or mini bunting perhaps?
All you have to do is leave a button related comment OR email craftinernest[at]gmail[dot]com mentioning buttons OR tweet @CraftInErnest, you guessed it, about buttons!

This week I have mainly been making brooches, here's a few I've made using various materials and techniques-

The weekend post will include a tutorial to make a felt rose brooch!
Also I did some button-related crafting (I think you're starting to realise how much I love buttons),

And these extremely simple button earrings. Just a case of using a strong glue (e.g. epoxy resin or E6000) to attach earring posts to a pair of buttons. I particularly like these vintage, metal buttons

I also had a great day on Saturday with my Dad out our second "Time to Knot" macrame meeting at Craft in the Bay. We arrived a few hours late as my Dad had to get a quick (not at all) round of golf in, but we still had a lot of fun. I knocked up a rather simple bracelet but haven't attached a clasp yet.

Thanks for reading! Remember to Craft in Earnest x Craftin' Ernest 

GIVEAWAY- Fabric Bundle and Vintage Buttons!

Hi there, today’s post will catch up on a few things and include the first giveaway!

In a previous post, I mentioned a small, oak table I renovated in a class with my Dad for my Mum. I didn't have a photo to hand at the time of that post but took a couple over the weekend. As I said before I don’t have a picture of it before we got cracking sorry. Just imagine a really black table barely recognizable as wood. A lot of elbow grease, a scraper, very fine wire wool and some furniture wax later…..voilà

We had some bad news on the sheepskin front :-( Seven of the ten skins were rejected by the dresser (the person who inspects and prepares the skin) as the fleece was too long and some had begun to moult. Hard to believe in the weather we've been having! To look on the bright side, at least three are going to be tanned. It would have been heart-breaking if they were all unsuitable.
On Sunday I taught a crochet class to seven beginners that hopefully have caught the crochet bug- it’s awfully hard to resist! The all did really well and were super keen, I really enjoyed myself.

So on to the giveaway….........The prize is a varied bundle of 10x10cm fabric squares (approx. 85 in total) and 5 vintage, peach coloured buttons!

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post, send me a tweet @craftinernest OR email me on craftinernest[at]gmail[dot]com (fill in the "at" and "dot" as normal - I'm trying to avoid spambots) and mention BUTTONS. The closing date is Wednesday 17^th April and I will pick a random winner on Thursday 18^th April.

Best of luck and remember to Craft in Earnest!

Salt Prints with a Vintage Twist

Last year I took part in a great, day long workshop at Bristol’s Folk House making salt prints. 
The Bristol Folk House is a charity run, adult education centre which run a variety of classes from Arts & Crafts to Fitness and Personal Development. It also has a really gorgeous café which makes amazing Spanish omelette and little dark chocolate, truffle bites- simple delectable! http://www.bristolfolkhouse.co.uk

The salt printing is a process for making “photographs” using common table salt and silver nitrate. The resulting prints have a lovely, old fashioned brown hue and a vintage quality.

The process was quite simple and as it was a sunny day we used sunlight to develop some of our prints but a dark room and the paraphernalia that goes with it is also essential. We also used UV bulbs and as I have a pet tortoise we have those at home so I had every intention of doing more at home but as is so often the case even with best intentions…

Here is a link to a website I found with great instructions on salt printing which includes a few examples:

http://www.alternativephotography.com/wp/processes/saltprints/a-dash-of-salt

For some time I have wondered what to do with the prints, I also had some box frames (bought in The Range) hanging round the house. I decided to grab my box of trinkets, some lace and the obligatory buttons and put it all together. Layering things up as I thought went with the prints. Some of the lace, whilst actually old, was still quite white so I “aged” it by soaking it in some hot water with a teabag. Some of the buttons had shanks so I removed them with a pair of mini wire cutters. I stuck everything together with either double sided, sticky tape or contact adhesive.

The frames were just plain, untreated pine. I stained one with a single coat of dark oak, wood stain. I painted the other larger one with regular emulsion in “Brandy Cream”. I then scribbled all over it with a dark brown, oil pastel, rubbed that all in with a piece of cloth then sanded it down with some fine sandpaper.

I’m quite pleased with how they turned out. I think if you fancied doing something similar you could always use a nice wrapping paper instead of salt prints- there are lovely vintage ones available!

Thanks for reading! Always Craft in Earnest !-)

Baby Booties

It’s been a busy week and I’m guilty of burning the candles at both ends. Naughty me!

Saturday was spent shopping for a bridesmaid’s dress with my wonderful friend Becky. Her wedding is in February so it’s full preparation mode now. We had a great day and have more planned.

We also called into Bristol’s Vintage Fair, well it would be rude not to, and a purchase or two-ish was made ;-)

I haven’t made much this week as I was busy, busy, busy but I did manage to make a pair of baby booties. 

Unfortunately they weren't smooth sailing. This was mainly due to not thinking my materials through thoroughly and that led to a major mishap. I bought a lovely, fleecy blanket in Ikea for the fabric. It’s purple on one side, fuchsia on the other and is really soft and snuggly. I thought I would use this to line the boots with the purple side facing out. As the outer fabric is cotton I decided it would be best to bond the fabrics together before sewing. In doing this, the heat from the iron caused the purple and fuchsia sides to separate, something I really should have taken into consideration. This resulted in the fleecy side of the fuchsia being bonded to the outer cotton, leaving a shiny side exposed. Not good! To overcome this I had to separate more of the blanket fabric and had to cut all the pattern pieces out again from just the fuchsia side. I didn’t bond this to the already bonded cotton and fleece, I just pinned it and sewed the sections together whilst completing each boot. Obviously, If I had chosen a single layer fleece or separated them first, I would have saved time and effort.

I have put together a tutorial for the booties if you fancy making a pair yourself. I have done it as if I hadn’t messed up, so let’s just pretend I didn’t, yeah? I designed the pieces using the measurements of an average newborn weighing 7lb 8oz, that is approximately 7.5cm long by 2.5cm wide.

Continue reading for the tutorial!

Obsessive Hoarder

Thanks so much for having a look at my first post! I hope you like it and check out my future posts. I plan to post at least once a week about the different things that interest me. I love to craft and all things vintage. I will include tutorials and giveaways and would love to hear from you.
I'm afraid I'm an obsessive hoarder. I have trouble throwing anything away because you just never know when it may come in handy. Thankfully I have a very understanding husband who, shall we say, tolerates the overflowing baskets, drawers and boxes without too much complaining. He's very good really.
My crafty streak mainly came from my dad who has always been the kind of person to tinker with one project or other. As a child I remember him making household items using macramé and he ran a model making group. Both he and my mum encouraged me to make things (as long as I tidied up afterwards). I use a wide variety of crafting techniques, often combining different crafts to achieve the end result. I have a passion of wool and buttons so these feature heavily in the stuff I make.
Thanks again for looking. The next post will feature one of my favourite things to make... Owl doorstops and will include a tute!
Have a great day.