Daisies and toadstools

(Warning, shameless self promotion ahead)

What are you doing tomorrow? If you're in the North Essex/South Cambs area you might like to pop along to the St Mary's School Spring Craft Fair in Saffron Walden. It runs from 11-4 and I'll be there with lots of felty and textiley goodies, plus some of these little chaps:


A tiny fairy ring complete with daisies, and with a penny next to them to show you the scale. If you can't make it (and I realise that's the vast majority!) I'll be revealing what I did with these little cuties very soon ... but if you do come along, please say hello!

Here are the details:

St Mary's School, Castle Street, Saffron Walden, Essex, CB10 1BQ.
Sunday 25th April
11am - 4pm

Parking can be interesting in Saffron Walden but there are large public carparks that are within easy walking distance and are well signposted as you come into the town.

Back to nature

The Smalls are very keen on bringing wildlife into our garden - which suits me fine as apparently wildlife friendly = very untidy. Or so I thought until we visited the glorious Standen (more on this another time - if you have even the faintest interest in the Arts & Crafts Movement you simply HAVE to visit). Tucked in various locations around the gardens we found their palatial, and really very tidy, bug hotels. We will be making one of these but I don't think ours will be nearly so pretty ...


Anyway, last year we decided that we needed a little pond. In previous years we have had large populations of baby froglets hatching from spawn laid in abandoned rainwater filled seed trays, and we thought it might be kind to give them a proper place. Space is at a premium here, plus we do have a lot of small visitors so a big pond was out of the question. But we did have room for a washing up bowl sunk into the ground and filled with a couple of water clearing aquatic plants.


It's not the prettiest creation, and it has become the resting place for various bits of broken pots, but if you peep underneath the largest one, you can see someone seems to like it.


This chap had a friend with him the other day, who I've since encountered wandering around the garden. Might we have some tadpoles later on?????


Edited to add: Zoe from Scented Sweetpeas has a far prettier tiny pond and instructions on how to make it too!

Proof that the skills swap worked?

Some of you may recall that a few weeks back Emma introduced me to the magical world of silver art clay as part of a skills swap. It took me a while to sort out a heat source (no gas in our village, and our use of a blowtorch last year ended in near disaster) but I finally cranked up our old camping stove, bought enough gas cylinders to last a lifetime and rapidly used up a block of clay making flowers and hearts and all sorts until I felt confident enough to make tiny pendants for my girls. Just before Easter I added some crystal flowers and butterflies and here they are.

One for a yellow loving girl:


And one for a fan of pink:


There was also one for me but the girls insisted I make one for their cousin so I recycled my chain for her and mine is now waiting till I order some more for myself. How many of these can I wear at once, I wonder?

I am not going to admit to how many silver headpins I wasted along the way. Gulp.

Hoppy Easter

Hope it's been a good one!

Peeps brooches made by me for the Smalls, from here via here.

Flannel bunnies made by the Smalls for their grandparents, with instructions from good old Blue Peter.