Saturday, 28 April 2012

Monthly makes and other stuff.



This is one of the things entered for my Monthly Make but just for fun.
It's my bra decorated ready for the Moon Walk in London on the 12th,
I've done 2 more the same for 2 of my girls who are keeping me company.
They are not very professional but as I said it's just for fun.



This is one done by another girl in our group. they are pieces of felt sewn on to her bra,
I think it looks amazing.


we had a fundraising morning selling cupcakes and breast cancer badges


as well as raffling this fantastic cake made by my friend Carol.


We also borrowed a treadmill and walked the 26.2 miles 
in relays.  We needed to in order to keep warm
It was very cold and wet
 but at last count we had raised nearly £300 which in a small village is pretty good going.  
The girls that did the same thing last year said they had got sunburnt doing it
 but didn't raise as much.

We even had the local paper come down to take photos,
they had doing an exaggerated walk waving our bras in the air,
I can't wait to see the photos.
Heres the link again if anyone wants to sponsor us.



My other monthly make ( alongside the 50 metres of bunting for the wedding on the 19th)
is a new journal cover made with damaged lace and doilies from Lavender Linen and Lace.




I have used old buttons and a laundry mark as well.
Some pieces are machine stitch in place while other are hand stitched.
I got the idea from Pinterest and I'm really pleased with he result.


My week this week has been taken over with painting.
As regular readers know 2 of my children are involved with Beach Lifeguarding 
and surfing.
A couple of years ago my son set up the North Norfolk Surf Lifesaving Club and 
it has really taken off. So they have managed to get some backing from the council
and leased a club house from them.
The building has been recently converted from what used to be 
Victorian Public Toilets.
So all this week my little one and I have been 
dancing round to the Script while holding a paintbrush.


I love the bright red doors and skirting 
although they don't really show up in this photo.



This is how it used to look in the 1900's 
but the shop had been demolished many years ago and the toilets had been 
shut for along time.


So I think it's nice to see it put to good use again.



Next month I'm joint administrator with Annie for the Monthly Make
So if you haven't joined us yet go along to Annies blog and join in.

It's my birthday this week as well as my 30th wedding anniversary
so I'm going to be doing a giveaway I think 
although
I haven't decided what it will be yet so watch this space.

See you soon
Gillxx

Monday, 23 April 2012

A Postcard from Wales



We have just got back from  a couple of days in South Wales with our son 
so I thought I'd show you some of the photos.

We stopped to make use of our National Trust membership on the way
at Aberdulais Falls and Tin works which we both found great fun, 
me for the beautiful surroundings, Mr T for the boy stuff such as turbine rooms.




As there had been alot of rain the falls were awesome (shame you can't hear the noise)
as was the wildlife but I couldn't get any photos of the birds, my camera isn't that good,
so you'll have to make do with some of the plants.



I love this insect house.









Then a day in beautiful Tenby in the sunshine.





This is the old lifeboat house which was apparently on Grand Designs.


And heres the new one. 











Hope you enjoyed my trip. 
See you soon.

Gillx

Sunday, 15 April 2012



Lavender Linen and Lace had our first outing to a vintage sale today.
Up until now we have done most of our selling through the internet
but decided to try doing a sale.
We have both been getting so nervous about it,
 made list after list to make sure we had
covered everything and even took over Lynn's kitchen
 to practice our table set up .
We just had to hope that we got some customers.

I made a very early start and passed these chaps on my way
 to pick up Lynn and couldn't resist
taking a photo.


This is where we were going to spend the day,
Culford Hall School in Suffolk.


we were in the hall perfectly placed near the tea stall.
we quite quickly went from this---


to this, 
thanks  of course to our pre planning (worrying)


I should have taken a lot more photos of the other stalls but 
had such a great time talking to all the great people
who came to speak to us.  It was so nice to know that other
people admired the textiles we have as much as we do.


 So time to pack up and leave these beautiful surroundings
for the journey home already talking about the next one.


Hope you have all had a good weekend.

Gillxx

Saturday, 14 April 2012

Moon Walk 2012

4 weeks today I will be walking 26.2 miles over night around good old London town, IN A BRA,
all in aid of 

Breast Cancer.

I have my hat and t-shirt I just need to decorate my bra.

Union Jacks seem to be the order of the day.


The training is well under way with the other girls from my gym that are in the team
but at the moment I am getting very nervous.

So

If any of you Fabulous people are feeling generous

Please click on the here and sponsor 

Gill Thompson.

 Wish me luck and Thank you.


Gillxx

Sunday, 8 April 2012

A Family Easter

I thought I'd bring you all up to date on what I've been up to over the last couple of weeks.

Firstly I went to my first W.I. meeting where we had a talk from the Pearly King of Streatham,
who actually lives in Suffolk.

I have seen pearly kings and queens at all sorts of events when I lived and worked in London but knew very little about them. 
Apparently they are all about making money for charity which is why I saw them at all the big events I worked at.
This one says he sews on all his own buttons, 20,000 on this suit alone and all of them shell.

 He passed around a jacket which weighed a ton so heavens knows what the whole suit must be like.



Every meeting also has a competition where your told
to bring something ( this time 3 or 5 buttons) 
and they are judged by the other members.

These are what I took in honour of our speaker
and won 2nd place.

I also won a prize on the raffle so all in all it was a good first meeting .




I've also had a house full of visitors.
 My nephew and his 3 children came last week and had a 
few days holiday with Auntie Gill which was tiring but fun.

We went to Wroxham Barns which is just down the road from us
 It has a small fun fair for the children where  the 2 older ones had great fun.
The youngest is only 7 months old.


Before moving on to feed the farm animals although this  fellow
pinched the paper bag as well.




When they went home my eldest girl came home for a few days.
So today we have been on a family day out to the 
Sainsburys Centre for Visual Arts  
which is on the campus of the University of East Anglia.

The accommodation blocks here won awards when they were built
and look out over a big lake, it is lovely, although not in the rain.



If you have seen the BBC 2 series about Art Nouveau "Sex and Sensibility" then you would have seen 
the building below and the presenter talking about the Anderson Collection of Art Nouveau that is housed there.


And that is what we went to see today before having
lunch in their restaurant.


I would have loved to have taken some photos but of course your not allowed.
the one above is from the guidebook.


My girls decided to design their own brooch in the resource part of the exhibition.

It is lovely to hear them giggling like teenagers again, they haven't seen each other for 7 months.


This is their design and I love it. 
It would look great in enamel.


I also treated myself to a source book of fabric patterns
which has a great  cover.


I thought I'd leave you with a couple of designs you might like.



Happy Easter

Gillxx