Welcome to Mum's Spring Fair

 (This fair is taking place most of the day and some of our stalls may not be all up and running until nearer the end of the evening. If they do not have their Spring Fair post, please be patient and call back later.)


The sun is a-shining to welcome the day,
Heigh ho, come to the fair,
The folk are all singing so merry and gay,
Heigh ho, come to the fair.


All the stalls on the green are as fine as can be,
With trinkets and tokens so pretty to see,
So it's come, then, maidens and men
To the fair in the pride of the morning.
So deck yourselves out in your finest array,
With a heigh ho, come to the fair.


Why not visit our stalls. I'm just going to give them my contributions. First of all on the Homemade stall I'm going to put my little angel - this month's Nativity character.

Homemade 

Fancy some knitted garments?


Visit Cathy at Still Waters. Oh Cathy, you've been so busy creating beautiful clothes and scarves - so many to choose from.


For contributions to sewing and food visit Debbie. This is one very talented lady.


On to the Home Baking stall now. I can't leave my cake here as part of it was consumed as soon as it came out of the oven. (That's my excuse, anyway!)

Home Baking

(Dreamer from Dreaming of a Simple Life)
Oh my, you'll never want to leave this stall!


including the Decorate a Fairy Cake table
(Shara from Mama's Mission)
I can tell you that all these fairy cakes are winners with their Spring colours. You will be spoilt for choice. What a team.


I'll leave this bunch of daffs on the Plant stall.

I'm not very good with plants in pots. I don't think anyone will virtually buy these!

DH does better with orchids.

I'll leave a few sticks of rhubarb, too, as it's growing pretty well at the moment.

Plants

 (Anne from Azza's Blather)
(Sorry this stall is closed. Thank you to the stall holder. Hope to see you soon.)


Now for the Bric a Brac. I've got far too much of this. Time to off-load so someone else can virtually enjoy. Jill might fancy this lady. She's been hanging around for some time. She holds the jewelry that I don't wear. Perhaps I'll donate that too! Jill  from Land of the Big Sky could put the lady on top of her barn in the middle of nowhere.

I don't know whether she's standing on the world or just hanging about the Universe.

I think her wheel or cog is broken. She's got a bit of an evil eye, too.

Bric a Brac

(Sorry this stall is closed. Thank you to the stall holder. Hope to see you soon.)

I think I'd better stop at this next stall for a manicure. Gardening isn't too kind on the hands. I daren't show you a picture of my nails!

Manicure/Nail

(Willow92 from Willows World)
You will be spoilt for choice here - I'd opt for a different style and colour on each nail and then you can admire the 'handiwork'! Oh for a full set of decent nails.

Now what's this stall? It's a mystery to me.

Mystery

(I hope you are there Green Flag from Green is the New Black v2)
Here's a new idea for a stall next time. Lovely creativity.

Ah - let's stop a while at the sewing stall. A friend off-loaded 2, yes 2 sewing machines, that she'd inherited, on to me after my machine died. I really ought to start this quilting lark. There aren't enough hours in the day, are there? So many things to learn, so many things to do.

Sewing

(Sarah from The Little Family of Three)
She's been so busy sewing for this stall. I'm sure you will find something here that will take your fancy, I did.


Games


I thought we could have a 'Name the Teddy'  but he's a little too big to post to the winner and DD would not be very pleased if he suddenly disappeared.

Let's just play this one.

Hook a Duck

What about a raffle? Whoops, no, we'd probably need a gaming licence.

Tell you what - Pick a Number, any number between 1 and 100.

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70
71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80
81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90
  91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100

Were you lucky?

Phew, I'm worn out now. Sit down awhile with me and be entertained.

This place looks nice and warm. Hang on it's moving. Whoa there!

Entertainment

Pony Rides

Dartford Warbler at Where Beechmast Falls

Now try this entertainment from Diane.
Fantastic - I particularly liked the man who was hypnotising himself with his balls until he reached a fever-pitch of excitement!

Hey, who's that? It's someone who has come a long way to be here. Hi Sft, on your travels again? Hi, neice of SFT. Good to see you. I bet you enjoy visiting your aunt.

Come on, I'm parched. Let's go to the tea room for a cuppa with

Liz at Shortbread and Ginger, (You'll stay here a long time with your cuppa, I'm sure, admiring all the china and tea-cup displays. Don't forget to help with the washing up after!)

while we watch the

Hat Parade

I thought I'd pick some flowers to decorate my hat but it seemed such a shame to pick them so I didn't.

(Jane and Chris from the Maple Syrup Mob)
Smile please - this one is going to be a winner.

Anyone else care to don a hat and meet us all in the comments section so we can view some more? Plenty of virtual easter eggs to go round in this parade.


Closing Ceremony

Ladies and Gentlemen, I hope you have enjoyed your time at the Fair. May I thank all who contributed to and set up stalls. Much time and effort has been put into this fair and we've all had a terrific time browsing, eating, drinking and being entertained. Three cheers for Spring (Autumn) and Bloggy friends around the globe.
Hip, hip ...
Hip, hip ...
Hip, hip ...

Hooray!!!!!!

We're getting there!

Four more down and a few more to go.

I'm using 'bargain' fence paint from a car boot sale. We've enough to last a few more years.

Good job because I've finished this bucket. Heigh ho, heigh ho, off to paint a fence I go!

See you tomorrow at the Virtual Spring Fair.

xx

Tea time

Mix one fifth of this curry sauce paste with one pint of cold water.

Stir over a low flame until thickened. Set aside.

Chop up anything wokable. We had onion, garlic, peppers, carrot, garlic and cabbage.

Wok the wokables.

Do you like my music spoon. You can turn it around
and use it as a drumstick!

Once wokked pour over the sauce and serve with rice.

If you put it in those plastic cartons it looks just like a takeaway.

My job

DH is fixing the sun room roof because it leaks. This entails taking the roof off and putting it back on again. The glass was recycled to start off with and now it will be recycled again. The trouble with using recycled materials is that you have to break down before you can build up. Guess what my job is (aswell as painting fences)?

Now just take off the old putty and silicone (and gunge and grotty bits), wash it down and polish it up.

I'll do that in between painting the fences, shall I?

We're getting there!

Just checking

I just want to check that everybody's ready for the Virtual Spring Fair on the 31st March and that I've got all the organisation correct.

Homemade 

(A Blessed Life from Serendipity, Rain ... and Roses)

Cathy at Still Waters

Home Baking

(Dreamer from Dreaming of a Simple Life) 

including Decorate a Cake
Shara from Mama's Mission

Plants

 (Anne from Azza's Blather)

Debbie contributing to sewing and plants

Bric a Brac

(Anne from Azza's Blather)

Manicure/Nail

(Willow92 from Willows World)

Mystery Stall

(Green Flag from Green is the New Black v2)

Sewing

(Sarah from The Little Family of Three)

Games

Entertainment

Dartford Warbler at Where Beechmast Falls

Diane - do you want a link to your blog or not?

Tearoom

Liz at Shortbread and Ginger,

Hat Parade

(Jane and Chris from the Maple Syrup Mob)

(A Blessed Life from Serendipity, Rain ... and Roses)

As you can see there's still room available for more participants especially in the Games section, the Hat Parade and the Decorate a Fairy Cake section.

If I've missed anybody or got anything wrong please shout out and I'll alter it. Click on the Virtual Spring Fair label if you have no idea what I'm talking about or if you want to check what you volunteered for!!

PS *Foster mummy, can you get in touch either via email or comment re still being willing to receive and join granny squares.

*Welcome, new followers. Hope you enjoy your visits.

Keep going

Another day, another fence panel.

Only another 98 to go!

(Only joking!)

Welcome new follower, again. I can't seem to get to your blog through your Google thingy.

Thank you

A big thanks for all who commented yesterday. I'm taking all your comments on board and I'll get back to you all shortly. I've left replies for everyone and will do if anyone else gets in touch. Meanwhile this is for Campfire and anyone else who was interested in the joined circles square that I posted yesterday. I got the pattern from this book - 201 crochet motifs, blocks, projects and ideas by Melody Griffiths. It is published by Cico Books and the ISBN number is 9781904991649.

Here are a couple more 'fancy' squares.

This one's from the book. You can see it
incorporated into a jacket on the front
cover.

This one's just an ordinary granny but designed to
look like a flower.

This one is in the book and done in variegated wool
but I didn't enjoy doing it one bit.

Welcome, new follower.

Bloggy Blanket

This is just an idea and it may or may not work. We'll just have to see.

Me

1. Crochet a granny square with 5 rounds using DK and a 4mm crochet hook.

2. Send it off to another blogger.

3. Write posts about it on my blog, including the link to the next blog.

The recipient blogger

1. Crochets a granny square with 5 rounds using DK and a 4mm crochet hook.

2. Attaches it to the other square.

3. Writes a post about it on their blog and asks for someone to continue the blanket.
4. Sends it off to another blogger volunteer.

5. Write a comment on my blog (adding the next Bloggy Blanket volunteer) and I will add their link to a Bloggy Blanket Page.

Repeat the process until the blanket has 120 squares (10 x12).

Then

1. The next blogger does one round of edging.

2. Sends it off to another blogger.

3. Writes posts about it on their blog, linking to the next blog.

4. Writes a comment on my blog and I will add their link to the Bloggy Blanket Page.

Until 5 rounds of edging have been done.

Then

1. The final blogger does a final edge of his or her own choice.

2. They find a suitable person or cause and donate the blanket. There are many links on the web which list worthy causes.

3. They write posts about it on their blog.

4. They write a comment on my blog and I will add their link to a Bloggy Blanket Page with a congratulations for a completed Bloggy Blanket and undetailed details of the recipient or charity.

Now this can either end up like Chinese Whispers - as complete gobble de gook with lost parcels of crocheted squares or will end up as a blanket that is appreciated by a person in need. There would also be a list of links on the Bloggy Blanket Page showing each step of the work in progress.

Either way the thought is there and the task is not too onerous for like minded crochet people.

Now who wants to receive the first square? If more than one person says 'yes' then we could have more than one blanket. What do you think? We could do a knitted one for the knitters or fancy squares to show off our versatility. (There are plenty of 'Versatile' bloggers out there.)

Please be aware of the postage costs involved of sending a working granny blanket in progress around the world. This is the only drawback. I think we'd have to keep it in the UK only but there's nothing to stop other bloggers in other countries doing a Bloggy Blanket and linking back here.

Can it be done or not?

If I can help somebody ...

This is for Lesley.

Hope it helps!

xx

Another one

I started with 3 clusters then went up the side of the first cluster and just carried on going round and round. I wanted just to do clusters, no corners as such just grannying along without having to stop and join or sort out a corner. I aim to use up all those 'tiddly bits' of wool so when I've finished the red I'll choose another colour and keep on grannying along. 

In order to keep it flat, which it is doing so far, I just pretend I'm in a corner and do 2 clusters joined with 2 chain to get me nearer to the next cluster. There's no maths involved here. If it won't granny straight away, call it a corner then carry on. That's the theory anyway.

I wonder what shape it will be when I've finished it? Will I finish it? Will this be another blanket! Is this free form crochet? Stay tuned.

Decorated Fairy Cake Show

Julie from KC's Court suggested a Decorated Fairy Cake section for the Virtual Spring Fair. It's a brilliant idea. I'm afraid I'm absolutely rubbish at decorating cakes, not having mastered the art of mixing icing sugar properly yet but I know that there are a few of you out there that are extremely creative in this area. Would you be willing to showcase your decorated cup cake for all to see? I don't think it would be fair to judge the best decorated because I'm sure they all would be the best but we could all drool and coo over all the ideas. Could we make this happen or not? I'll await your replies but for now I'll pencil it into the list. 

Thanks, Julie.

Committee Meeting Number 2

This is my attempt at a poster for the Virtual Spring Fair for anyone who wishes to advertise the fair on their blog.

(I used Paintbrush for Mac which is an application that can be downloaded for free. I found some tutorials on Youtube to guide me in putting text onto a picture.)

I've started to put together a post for the day and it should be an enjoyable affair. Here are a few more ideas if you feel like joining in.

Spring Hat Parade (decorate one of your hats and take a picture)

Dancing (I'm sure some readers 'trip the light fantastic' occasionally. Do you have a pic to show or a video? Anybody Morris Dance?)

Lucky Giveaway - (This is instead of a raffle which apparently is a no, no. You could host a giveaway on your blog for the Virtual Spring Fair.)

Teas Area (Showcase your sandwiches, cake or tea.)

Any more ideas out there? 

Please let me know if you are going to join in (and not told me already) and I can link to your blog on the 31st. Click on the 'Virtual Spring Fair' label if you haven't the faintest idea of what I'm going on about!

Hope you're enjoying the sun.

xx

Kitchen window - March 2012

The tulips are going over now.

The smaller flowers are helibores best seen from below.

It's a Sunny Day

It's surprising how much can be done when the sun is shining. More fences were painted, a cake was made for the Virtual Spring Fair. Bread was baked and 2 curries made.

The roof has to be replaced on the sunroom so it had to be emptied and swept.

Some of the orchids have gone into the back room for now.

These two have stayed in the sun room.

Even the cat is sunning itself!

Happy Mothers' Day

Flowers are there to be enjoyed.

I'm certainly enjoying mine ...

... both outside and inside.

Thank you DD, perfect.

xx

Let's not forget Granny and Grandma.

Happy Mothers' Day

Not getting in the way ...

The blanket is already in use and I've not finished it yet.

I'm just doing the rhombi to go around the edge. I've been doing 2 chains on the pointy corner not 1. It lies flatter.

Pussies keep muscling in, though.

It's a hard life!

Welcome new follower. I can see you like cats! This post is just for you and everyone else, of course.