Anglo Saxon Crafting – actually pretty cool!

Whilst I was away last weekend we happened to encounter an entire village of camping ‘Saxons’ and ‘Vikings’ who were basically doing re-enactment thing at Corfe Castle (Dorset)!?!

Whilst my rather judgemental side was inwardly giggling at the people who were giving up their whole bank holiday weekend to dress, sleep, eat and ‘role play’ like a people long gone, there was actually quite a lot of crafting going on that was pretty cool.

Two women in particular really impressed me.The first who was the weaving lady...

I watched her set up her weaving tools for about 15 minutes (imagine the worst wool spaghetti disaster and that was pretty much was she was contending with to set up), and then she used the blocks to act as some kind of loom. To make the patterns she twisted particular blocks.

It was very slow progress (about an inch per half an hour) and very hard work but the results were pretty good.

The second was the glass bead lady...

She’d done her PhD on Anglo Saxon glass wear and had spent tons of time trying to re-create the methods used to put colour in glass beads using iron, copper, tin etc.

Apparently the purples were the most difficult to get!?!  Amazing how these kind of beads are around everywhere right now and they were first being created hundreds of years ago! Love the colours.

Still - thats still a bit too much dedication to your craft for me!

My (Lazy) Creative Space

So it turns out that I’ve been enjoying holidays, time in the sun and family giggles too much to do any new crafting. Not that I'm complaining – I’ve had a couple of awesome bank holidays!

So instead here’s a belated post about the other bag (the one I said I’d put up at the weekend – oops!).

As you can see, its much closer to the ‘design’ I had originally had in my head, but it morphed into a summer tote bag instead. I put a zipped pocket on the inside of the bag and it is has a lovely 'not to big, but not to small' dimension to it.

I have mixed feelings about this one though: loving the blue and pink panels on the linen, but I decided to use all three of the Indian cottons I bought, including the orange one in the middle. Now I'm not quite so keen. It feels like the orange in the middle was a step to far. Mr T approves though, so we are divided on opinion! Not that it matters much as I’m probably too lazy to take it out again, but what do you reckon?

Orange in the middle - love or loath?

To see what other creative peops have been up to, pop along to Kootoyoo

Two weekends in a row!

What a luxury! I have just spent 2 weekends in a row enjoying unseasonably good weather (sun and warmth in April in the UK is almost unheard of. Would you believe it – I even broke into shorts!!!) in beautiful countryside/ beach surroundings with my entire family.

We had sooooo much fun...

We walked (many many walks) and talked, giggled until our sides and faces ached and ate tons of very tasty food. I loved every second!

As for that wedding, I don’t know about you, but I did end up watching it and thought the dress was lovely. I thought it was suitably regal on the bottom half and I LOVED the lace on the top half. Gorgeous! Mind you, now that every detail of the wedding has been on the TV and radio about 10 times over already I have more than reached saturation point. Enough said...

Easter in the Countryside

Very little crafting going on this week as the eating of holiday chocolate and spring walks in the country with my family have taken over.

We had lunch out a beautiful country pub in a beautiful old village...

had walks through fields ...

at country houses ...

along canals...

and through bluebell woods ...

Gorgeous!!! A perfect antidote for the work weary. I also giggled more this weekend than I have for about a month (and thats saying something as my husband makes me giggle daily!). Time with family is definately good for the soul!

Photos aren’t up to much this week as they were taken on my phone... still not sure why they look like they have been taken behind a film of Vasaline though!

Hope you had a good Easter too. x