Oh we do like to be beside the Sea

Cobwebs needed to be blown away today. We've eaten and eaten, played games, opened our gifts, cosied by the fire and had a lovely family time. Now the snow has finally gone, blue skies and warmer weather beckoned us outside to the sea. At New Year we always head to Southwold (just got there a few days early this year).

The Bun's climbed onto the guns as usual.

Then I suggested hot chocolate and marshmallows, so we rushed off to the pier to sit in the sun.

We played in the surreal amusements for a while - riding on the submarine and having our fortunes read, before heading to the sand for stone collecting and a dance or two.

Now I find myself here cosy by the fire once more on the eve of my 41st birthday; New Years Eve is fast approaching and on the 2nd January it will be the year anniversary of my blog. A whole year of so many memories, makes and lovely people.

A Party Boy & The Stable

George, who came back with us from the Pick 'n' Mix, has finally had his christmas crown made. He feels very seasonal and would like to wish you all a magical christmas eve.

Now the main reason I'm on here when there's chocs to be eaten and presents to wrap is because little Bun asked me to. I walked in on her game and in the way that you do I took some pictures. This then led to the please put them on your blog mummy conversation. So here are a few folk you might be familiar with at this time of year.

I think the Shepherds are my favourites, with their well fed sheep.



Have a magical day. This is definately our favourite. Anticipation and Excitement all bubbling up. Spicy Butternut Squash Soup and Pear and Mincemeat Tart for tonight while we wonder if Santa is on his way. Nightlights lit in jam jars to show him the landing pad and carrots cut for reindeers.

Wonder what time we'll be woken up this year with whispers of He's been, he's been.

Merry Christmas one and all.

Glittering Snow

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year to you all. Since writing this post I thought of all the jobs to be done and realised I won't be back for a few days.

Late on Saturday as we drove back home through our village everything was so still. I don't like the silence that comes with the snow. Actually I don't like snow at all. Yes it looks quite attractive and our messy garden is hidden nicely under lots of neat and tidy white. I hate being cold and not being able to go places if it's suddenly deemed too dangerous.

Anyway, ignoring my contempt for the white stuff, I have to say the village did look stunning. The ducks managed to find a small piece of pond that wasn't frozen. The war memorial looked perfect in this frozen setting. I forgot the church which also looked amazing.

Behind us the sun was setting across the fields and that scene did take my breath away. Now I'd like it all to go away as I've had enough of it now.

Inside is much cosier. School made decorations have come home and been hung from the beam.

For the first year ever I stopped being such a control freak and let the Bun's loose on the tree. Maybe I was too tired to take over after having got back from Pick 'n' Mix the day before.

So many memories as each year we have added a new bauble for each of the Bun's to the family ones. This year I somehow never got round to buying one for them. I still have time to get them as I feel sad that I forgot.

I bought this lovely paper fan from Daniella which popped into a vase from Teena looks perfect.

After all this glitter I want to tell you another reason I hate the snow. Living in the countryside means that the rats and foxes who live here get very hungry when the ground is frozen. This morning I went to fill up the straw in George and Lucy's hutch. They are small dwarf rabbits and get cold easily. Such a terrible terrible sight of our two gentle friends laying side by side, killed by a rat. I'll spare you the gory details, but I can't get the sight of them out of my head. I bought Lucy for Mr Bun as an anniversary gift five years ago and then George moved in with her months later. She bossed him and he quietly took whatever mood she was in. They laid on top of one another and got panicky whenever I took one out of the hutch without the other. Just such a senseless awful way to die. We can't even put down poison as we'll probably just end up killing the cats, hens and daft dog. Our hens have been barricaded in for safety and we've checked over Pixie and the Pigs. It's not easy giving your heart over to all these animals.

Some of the Mix

It's now a whole week since we set free our first Pick 'n' Mix Makers Market. A whole week which has been so busy that I've fallen asleep on the sofa each evening. A week later I have a handful of pics to show you and to tell you what a great day we had.

We had a queue forming before we had even opened for business, so at 10am we threw the doors open and then pretty much until the end of the day we had a hall full of excited shoppers.

Best eye candy jar of sweeties for the stall that had that christmas zing. Catherine, from Blue Sky at Wells, came to judge the sweet toothed winner and she picked the lovely Daniella of Acorn and Will. I bought quite a few lovelies from Daniella which I must remember to show you. A small boy doll (who has now been named George) was spied by Mr Bun. He came home with us as a thankyou for all his hard work and support (Mr Bun, not George).

If you look carefully you can see him standing between the two shelves.

Once the Bun girlies turned up they did a lot of dealing with Sasha for some of her gorgous and truly original toys. I'll add these to my list of pictures I must show you.

After setting up the night before and then the whirlygig of manning a stall and the market I realise I have very few decent pictures to show of all the fabulous makers that were there. Apologies for that as the stalls looked fantastic.

This week I started my new job, fought off yet another bug and am madly trying to finish making the Bun's presents. On top of that Mr Bun has his birthday on Sunday so tomorrow will be a day of preparations and dashing again.

I need to get back to this blogging lark in the next few days as on January 2nd I'll have been doing it for a whole year. I guess I'd better come up with an idea how to celebrate and thank all of you who take the time to read, follow and leave me a comment. See you soon.

Do you Peep?

A few short hours of sleep is all I'm existing on at the moment to try and juggle making selling stuff, present stuff, tick jobs off on the long long list of things to do and remember for Saturday and in the middle of all this I chose this week to change my car. So a failed MOT and then work on the old one and all the paperwork to sort for the new one. Hope we can fit everything in it for Saturday as I've swapped a big beast for a small one. There probably could have been better timing?

The Playmobil advent is fast becoming one of the favourites after the card ones. The snowy scene is gradually building up with a few additions from me. Well you need a cosy cottage in the wood and toadstools - they're de rigeur in playmobil land.

We're in the press again. I promise you this is the last - for a while at least. We were thrilled with this double page spread as it really promotes the market, us, the changing face of the craft fair and how blogging has become a networking essential for many of us crafty types.

Sighs of relief are hard to miss around here as they know they'll have the table back very soon. No more meals on trays and the glitter and pens can come out at last.

Amongst the chaos of trying to find things, I finally sorted an organised space today. I could actually see what I was trying to make.


The basket of new stock is slowly filling up - only a handful of mistletoe kisses to finish now. I've hired Coco Before Chanel from the library to watch while I put those last few stitches in tonight.

I'm so thrilled with how the trinket and buttony bags have turned out. I've been having lots more stitchy ideas as I worked on these, but they'll have to be tried out another day.

Now going back a day or two. Spot the roadsign for Pick 'n' Mix just outside of Cley. I think this lady looks interested, don't you? Hope she comes along.

We'll be setting up the hall tomorrow night and seeing just how funny our handmade decorations look. They were made pretty quickly out of crepe paper and I'm not sure they're up to a drive with a mad dog in the car. We'll have fun whatever happens. Looking forward to seeing our plans become a reality and meeting all the lovely makers.

Jingly Jangly

On Sunday we rose very early as we had a steam train to catch. The Santa Express no less and we didn't want to get in trouble with the elves if we got there too late.

We boarded the train and snuggled up in our seats with sherry, mince pies and juice. As we set off along the North Norfolk coastline we waited for that first glimpse of sea, laughed as the golfers disappeared in clouds of smoke and then suddenly we were there at Santa Land. We've been doing this for the last five years now and think we'll still be dragging the Buns here as teenagers as we love it so much.

On the way back we took a slight detour to Holt so we could put our very snazzy banner up for this weekends Pick 'n' Mix Market. I can't believe it's here at last. What was an idea in February is very nearly a reality all these months later.

Last Friday we were in the local press with a great feature and tomorrow will see us in another edition.

Now back to the reason for all of this which is the making of things. I've been busy cutting, sewing and generally decorating stuff. A few months ago I ordered a fat quarter of fabric from Aneela. It was the first of the designs she sent off to Spoonflower and quite a few of us wanted some. Well it's been a long time coming, but I've finally cut into it and made a few brooches with a small piece.

All a little bit of doodly christmas to pin on your outfit.

I've finally covered all the hangers I'll be taking with me. Now just to sew up all those trinket and button bags, sew the floral brooches and just a few more things and I might just be done.

Tomorrow I'll be back in Holt with Teena a few signs and a mallet. Fingers crossed for no rain. Hopefully there'll be time to hit the shops there again as last week I found a couple of these gentlemen and a bit of tinsle. If I find any treasure you'll be the first to know.

All Sorts

Well it's another week and it's the 1st of December at long last. I got woken in the wee hours by Little Bun crawling into bed for a cuddle and then Eldest Bun whispering to me a few hours later if she could go and open the advent calendars. I love their absolute excitement for each of the small details of advent, all so much better than the day itself when you know it's nearly all over. They had a card advent calendar each, our wooden box one which has come out each year since they were two and three and new this year (for me really I think) a Santa Playmobil one. Well the elves had left small reindeers in the boxes today, other days will be notes, drawings or chocolate all treasured by them as they contain magic.

So much has happened in the last few days that has made us feel as if christmas is on it's way. On Friday evening we went to the market towns Victorian lights switch on. It was a wonderful evening. In previous years we have moaned as for some reason they had a mardi gras style drum band with women in bikinis gyrating away. We would rush to the church for some traditional christmas music and atmosphere. This year they pulled out all the stops and there were Mollymen (who we had great fun dancing with); the Salvation Army Band and Carol Singers. We visited Santa in the church and then popped down to the crypt for warm mince pies and a drink.

After a lovely evening we got the Bun's home to bed, lit the fire and I set to icing the cake and buns for the school christmas fair the next morning.

It was our first event at the school as the Buns only started there in April, we had a great time. Secret Santa presents were bought, we saw Santa again (he really gets about) and in the tombola we won a bottle of fizz and red wine. Well I never that went down well in the evening. Well just the one honestly.

Now on Sunday I was all set to go to Little Vintage Lover and set up shop. I had made all sorts of lovelies to sell and then my back struck me a blow and I was in agony. It's been off and on like this for weeks now since I had flu. At least I'm not walking all hunched up anymore as that looked odd and was really painful. As it was a two hour drive I knew I would be in too much pain so I called Zoe and had to miss out on all the fun. Teena filled me in the next day over cake.

Before I met up for cake, I had an interview for a fabulous job. Two days a week teaching vunerable adults which would leave me three days for Bobo Bun and being a mummy. Basically meaning I could do all the things I love in a whole week. It was my first interview in eleven years and I actually got the job. Much whooping and hugging went on around here I can tell you. So as of January I will be handing over the tugging on of tights and hairstyling to Mr Bun for two days a week.

Now I have a few extra bits and bobs that won't all find room on my Pick 'n' Mix stall, so I've put them on the shelves of my workshop. If a mistletoe kiss brooch is just the missing ingredient to add to your festive cheer then pop on over as I've added these to the shelves.

There are also a couple of stockings. Let it Snow and a Christmas Pudding for Santa to pop a few gifts into.

BBC Homes & Antiques is out tomorrow and there's a feature I've been looking forward to seeing in there. They've also mentioned Pick 'n' Mix which is great. Then on Friday we have a feature in our local paper the EDP and lastly in the Evening News version on Tuesday 8th. It's all go here.

Two days of sewing and then on Thursday Teena and I will be racing over the North Norfolk countryside with a hammer and some posters. Beep if you see us.

Have a great week won't you if I don't manage to get back and say hello before then.