One of my leaving gifts from my old work was a Tatty Devine workshop, for making a lobster necklace, which I went to late last year.

It was at their Brick Lane shop in London.  You get to go into the shop when it’s closed, and spend about an hour and a half making whatever the workshop is for, and then the shop opens to the general public!

At the end of the workshop, you get to spend some time in the shop, looking around, and you get discount that you can use that day in the shop, to buy any bits that you’ve been lusting over for a while!  All in all, it’s a lovely way to spend a morning!

For the lobster workshop, there weren’t many choices that you had to make, other than what colour chain and jump rings you want to use – either gold or silver, and where to put the sparkly bits!

You put together the bits whilst they’re covered in plastic, which is pretty useful as it means you are far less likely to scratch the plastic as you put the bits together!

The downside to the bits being covered in plastic is that you have to take the plastic off, which isn’t a fast job!

I chose silver for my jump rings and chain, and decided to go with the placement of the sparkly bits as they had them on the sheet!  I know that’s not very exciting, but I liked the way that they looked!

And here is my finished lobster!  Slight diversion, but every time I say ‘lobster’, all i can hear is Iliza Shlesinger, (who is an American comedian, who has a couple of stand up comedy shows on Netflix) talking about lobster on a date – you can watch it on Netflix, and the show is Warpaint!  Go forth and enjoy it!
The awesome artwork above is an original that I bought when I was in the shop, and it’s currently filed away, waiting for wall space!  This kickass Aries woman is wearing the Aries necklace from Tatty Devine, which came out the day before I went to the workshop!

I visited Liberty for the first time in November last year, and I really loved it, but then I think that might have something to do with the age of the building! I mean, just look at it!


Not the brightest of days, but look at the outside!  It’s mock Tudor, built in 1924, and I love all of the detail, inside and outside!



There’s a flower stall at one of the entrances, and they had some really lovely flowers! I resisted buying any, since they would have been a pain to carry around for the rest of the day!  I might stick with buying flowers close to home, and dreaming of Liberty flowers!





I went to the cafe, and found these adorable salt and pepper shakers in the shape of TARDIS!



There is something about these chandeliers that feels very fitting in Liberty!


I thought this plate was adorable!


See what I meant about the detail?



Who needs one mirror when you can have numerous plates with bits of mirror in their middle instead!


These were the Christmas decorations that they put up, and I was there on the day that they had

finished installing them. 




Can I just stay here and keep looking at this ceiling please?

I would thoroughly recommend going to visit Liberty if you want a nice way to spend a couple of hours!  Just be warned, it’s pretty pricey in there, so resist falling in love with too much stuff, if you can!

In October 2015, I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show in London, and had a fantastic time looking around at all of the amazing things that people created!

I was useful and put all of the lovely photos from it in a post, but forgot to actually put the post up, so here it is!

I’m going to the Knitting and Stitching Show  in October, and will do a proper post after it.

In the meantime, enjoy some of the photos that I took last year!

As you can see, it was a beautiful day, and really REALLY sunny!

I walked up the hill from the train station which made me feel pretty virtuous!

This was in the foyer – what else does every foyer for exhibition centre need than a bit of a jungle, complete with sphinx?

I think these were thimbles that you could wear around your neck, so you always have a place to put a pin!

No, I’m not sure why there’s boobs and genitals on the wall either….

Sorry for the bad photos – these were all taken on my phone!  But here’s a photo of some lovely overdyed thread in rainbow colours!

Some knitting yarn bowls.

I bought a kit to make up a pin cushion in the same style as the one above!  It’s ribbon sewing, and makes such a nice effect!

And that’s it for the Knitting and Stitching show – this photo above is the last photo I took that day.  I had so many lovely comments from people about my turquoise fox.  I’m afraid this isn’t the most flattering photo!  It was really rather bright when I took the photo!

As you might have guessed from my silence this year, I’ve been a little busy!

The last year has been a very different year for me – I quit my full time job, ebayed, and started organising renovation of 2 house, one of which is finished, and the other will be finished in the next month (urk! There’s still a lot to do!).  I’ve become a teacher, at a local college,  passed my AAT (and had a graduation ceremony for!), and taken up running.  A bit of a difference from last year on all counts!

Here’s some lovely lavender that’s grown in our garden!


But now that things are starting to slow down (or will do later this year!), I’ve decided it’s time to get back into blogging, so there should be a sudden flurry of activity on here!  I hope you enjoy it!