Broadstairs Food Festival

Nice picture taken quite early morning last week, Broadstairs is gently putting itself into winter mode, but we still have one event left Broadstairs Food Festival this weekend 5th - 7th October 2012 at Victoria Gardens, hundreds of food and drink stalls, lots of testing and sampling should make for a good weekend, fingers crossed on the weather though.

And just to make sure you are ready,  on my wesite www.thefabricandcraftcompany.co.uk  I have just listed some Berisford Halloween Ribbon.

Broadstairs Summer

Well the Summer came and went just as quickly, I am sure it will be back (hopefully)

It has been Dickens Week this week lots of characters dressed in Victorian costume wandering round town, being followed by foreign students with very quizzical looks on their faces.

The sudden rash of School fairs is upon us with Upton School Fair taking place on Saturday 23rd June 12pm - 4pm, hope the sun puts in an appearance.

Big Broadstairs Weekend

Took part in the Big Broadstairs Weekend firstly as a Stall Holder  then as a Dancer.  It was very windy and cold, but everybody had a good time - hope we achieved the record. 

I am also running free delivery in Thanet on my website www.thefabricandcraftcompany.co.uk so come and have a look around lots to see.

Alikits Craft Kits

Now available from www.thefabricandcraftcompany.co.uk Alikits Felt Craft Kits, each kit comes complete with everything you need to complete it apart from scissors.

Each character has its own story and they have Facebook and Twitter pages where you can follow their adventures.

Made in the UK, these would make lovely presents for somebody who would like to start crafting but is not sure where to start.

Come and have a look around our Alikits selection at www.thefabricandcraftcompany.co.uk

The Fabric and Craft Company



More fabric fat quarters

Since March we have been working on a new project

www.thefabricandcraftcompany.co.uk

 Not only do we stock some lovely fabrics but we have bags of buttons, felt squares, lots of different types of ribbons and trims. 

We also stock Buttonbag, Paper and String and Alikit Craft Kits which make wonderful gifts and are made and developed in the UK by some very talented crafters.

So if you feel like getting into crafting, have a look around my site you never know what you might find.

www.thefabricandcraftcompany.co.uk

2012

I was going to write about the Weather, New Years Resolutions and Current Affairs.

 I have decided that your probably all sick of this so all  I am going to say for the moment is Happy New Year. 

Christmas Fayre

There is a Christmas Craft Fair tonight at Holy Trinity School , Ramsgate 7.00pm - 9.00pm, everybody welcome and yes I know its a bit early but I have been making christmas tree decorations for the last three weeks.

Ramsgate Slipway

My Grandad and Dad used to operate the slipways at Ramsgate Harbour. We were looking through some old pictures recently and came across this one which we thought was quite topical at present.

This picture of the Steam Tug Kenia marked a turning point in the history of Ramsgate Harbour. The reason being that she was the last Steam Tug to be repaired on the slipway at Ramsgate. The companies that owned the Fleet of London River Tugs (Watkins and Ship Towage) decided to have larger diesel tugs built. This meant that they were to big for the slipway at Ramsgate. Later on all the repair work was moved up to Sheerness with the loss of many jobs at C.Halladays and Claxtons, this was around 1960-61.

Lavender shortbread

When we were in the Cotswolds a few weeks ago we visited Cotswold Lavender and tried some Lavender shortbread which was delicious. So I thought I would have a go at making some today.

The recipe I used was one I happened upon in a magazine and it had cornflour in it which is quite unusual but the resulting shortcake just melts in the mouth and the lavender flavour is a fantastic reminder of summer.

Next maybe lavender scones, lavender ice cream, lavender .........

Headless Football

Having just beat my son in the Headless Lego Tournament 7 - 3. He had now decided the game is boring and had wandered off to watch telly and yes I know I am supposed to let him win but it is nice for me to win occasionally.

Cupcake Pictures

I felt the urge for cupcakes today, but not having access to any I had to make do with making some pictures instead.

I was hoping that the lovely colours would take my mind off the weather, is it just me or has it got chillier in the evenings, I have taken to wearing a jumper which is not good for the start of September.

Adult Education Taster day

I decided to try a pottery taster course at Hilderstone today. I am not too sure what happened as we were supposed to make a cone shaped pot to go on the wall, mine ended up as a rather oval type vase. Anyway it was great fun, out tutor was so fantastic I have signed up to do a course. Watch this space for more weird and wonderful thingys.

Outer space cake.

The cake from outer space complete with space dust.

Buttons

I love buttons. It comes from a childhood button box that my nan had. She would bring it out when we were bored and we would spend hours counting and sorting them.

I have started making button jewellery which looks really funky but trying to find the right buttons has been really difficult and expensive. But on holiday I discovered a lovely wool shop in the Cotswolds selling large packs of buttons at reasonable prices hence I have a lot of buttons in lots of beautiful colours.

Trouble is with having lots of buttons is how to store them my others where away in a box but I liked the idea of having them on display so I had some kilner jars which I thought might work - it did.

So now the kids are back at school I can catch up with all the crafty jobs I have put on hold including sorting out my every growing button collection.

Ramsgate Squall workshop

I attended the felting workshop as part of the summer squall event. Nobody quite knew what to expect and all those who attended took home a wonderful felted flower. It was really good fun and very therapeutic as there was a lot of pummelling involved - a great stress buster.

Thank you to Joan Ward for a brilliant workshop and those at Ramsgate Arts for a job well done.

New beads for folk week

Margate

Well haven't had chance to post about my little trip round the Turner centre last week. I thought it was a lot smaller than I expected but they seem very enthusiastic, I enquired what exhibitions we could expect but they are not releasing details until the Autumn but they have planned as far ahead as 2013.

I also asked about parking - they are expecting people to park in College Road Car Park and walk through the Old Town past all the shops. Trouble is I wouldn't park in that car park as I find it very scary and so do a lot of people I have spoken too, hmmm!

So that's another trip to Margate under my belt, next one will be for the Kite Festival.

Broadstairs Harbour

I had a good day at Broadstairs Market today, met lots of interesting people, watched the local kids hurl themselves off the end of the pier, chased litter around to stop it wrapping itself round by tables, ate freshly made doughnuts (haven't done that in years) and generally had a lovely day!

Broadstairs Harbour Market

Off to sell my wares at Broadstairs Harbour market tomorrow, thank goodness the wind has dropped.

My littleun has had a nasty ear infection all week so in between feeding him medicine and given him hugs, I have been trying to make some more jewellery to sell this week, which hasn't been easy.

How do other people manage to work from home? Its very difficult and with the holidays coming up I am wondering how its going to work. The Broadstairs Harbour market will be around all folk week and hopefully weather and stock permitting I will be there, and then we are going on holiday! I think I am going to need it.

How does you garden grow?

I have been making a lot of flower brooches, hair slides etc to take to Broadstairs Harbour Market on Sunday - hope its not as windy as last week, we had to take the gazebo down or we would have ended up in the sea.

We were quite surprised by the amount of tourists we spoke to on Sunday, didn't know they existed in such large quantities, everybody loved the place and the majority said they would be back!

So TDC listen up, stop cutting the tourism budget, the tourists are here and they need looking after.