It's been a while ...

Box frame by Jane Winton

It certainly has been a while since I approached my blog without some apprehension as my ability to string words together these days is a bit of a challenge. Where I once prided myself on my multi-tasking abilities, for example ironing a pile of shirts, whilst cooking up a two course supper and talking to the cat about the state of the economy, I now find the simplest tasks, focus all of my concentration and take ten times longer. Why is that I wonder? Is it the fact that as I grow older, greyer of hair (thank you Clairol for your subterfuge) and longer in the tooth, that the grey matter inside my head doesn't function as well; or is it that life is getting more frenetic ..  read that as frantic?  I do admit that the last 10 months have been mostly absorbed with our attempts to move house and all that it entails. As anyone, who has been through this 'Top ten most stressful life event' will know that it does require nerves of steel, super human reserves of patience and a jolly good hoover. Our house has been preened and dusted, tweaked and adjusted to try and please the slow stream of anonymous visitors through our door since last June when we innocently put our house on the market thinking that we would be packing our tea chests a few weeks later. Wrong!!! The housing market and process of buying and selling has fallen into black hole since we last sold and bought and using the usual cliches.. it has been as painful as pulling teeth and as frustrating as pushing jelly up a hill.  BUT...  on March 13th we had, not one.. but two, offers on our house... totally out of the blue.
Rather like a pregnancy, I have been reluctant and most superstitious in announcing this news as until the ink has dried on the contracts... anything could happen. The light at the end of the tunnel is getting a little brighter by the day and we hope.. pray.. that we are able to start packing boxes with gusto.. in the next few weeks. I'll keep you posted!

Other news..

Last month I had the pleasure of a day trip to London to visit the Selvedge Fair and say hello to a few familiar faces and good friends. This small jewel of a fair was packed with an abundance of original works from far flung and not so far flung places..
I was smitten with the work of Claire Fletcher from Made in Hastings and her adorable paintings and illustrative works and had to give this little bunny a home..

He asked me to take him home with me.. honestly!

I also had the pleasure of finally meeting lovely Emma from Silver Pebble who had a fabulous display of her dainty silver jewellery pieces..

sorry Emma .. borrowed this image from your blog!

There were was a wealth of talent packed into the hall from  designer/makers showcasing their work including these lovely cards ..

and needle felted birds..

The icing on the cake for me was to visit my friend Viv with her delicious display of embroidered bunnies, brooches, bags and more..

After feasting my eyes and setting my heart a flutter at the fair we then hot footed it into the heart of the metropolis and pounded the pavements, doing rather a lot of window licking on the way and finally ending up at Liberty & Co. where I was keen to see Cowboys & Custard cards in situ and have a snapshot for the scrap book... 

 

Now I shall attempt to publish this post which in itself will probably take a while as Blogger has helpfully changed all the settings, format, widgets etc etc in my absence.

Signing off but hopefully for not too long!