Yummy teardrop keyrings

I've added a couple of new items to my Folksy shop today - two lovely crocheted teardrop keyrings. I haven't made any keyrings for sale before and I'm really pleased with these; I mentioned about experimenting with beads and sequins and stuff to make keyrings in an earlier post. They'd make a boring bunch of keys look really chic, I think! Or how about attaching them to a bag? Or a belt loop?

The first is a pretty candy pink with shiny black beads on the body, and silver, black and clear beads in the tassels. Very glam!





The second is a peach teardrop with 'chocolate chip' beads on the body, and chocolate, silver and clear beads in the tassels. This reminds me of a yummy peach and chocolate summer dessert. Mmmmm!





I've made up a few more teardrops in other candy colours; I just need to sew the beads on and then I'll list those too. I hope you like them - let me know what you think.

My romantic hubby

After a long, tedious day at work - and a seemingly never-ending journey home due to heavy traffic caused by roadworks elsewhere which everyone is trying to avoid - hubby suggested that we go out for tea. It was a lovely warm night, and the sun was still shining, so we had a nice walk down to one of the pubs near our home.

I have a tendency to get bored with a main course halfway through, so I was pondering at getting a couple of starters for a bit of variety when I spotted the 'Sharing Platter for Two' - chicken pieces, onion rings, breaded salmon pieces, BBQ dip, garlic ciabatta slices, potato scoops with cheese and red onion, and tortilla chips with cheese and spicy chilli relish. We decided to order a side salad too, to even out all those carbs a bit...! Some things were better than others, but overall it was really tasty. And with the warm evening sunshine and lovely conversation it felt just like picnic-ing(?) on holiday. Bliss!

On our way home I spotted a couple of conkers that had fallen and hubby risked life and limb to collect them for me (well, he waited for a car to pass and then nipped across the road!!). He never buys me flowers as he claims the ones in our garden are much prettier (cop out!), so this was a true act of romance on his part.


Flowers? Pah! Give me conkers any day...

More from Gateshead Flower Show

There were a few nurseries outside selling their plants, but fewer than in previous years I thought. They travel from all over the country to exhibit and sell at flower shows like this, but I guess with the recession they may have had to stay closer to home this year.










As well as the plants, there were some great garden sculptures for sale.


And some gorgeous furniture too. I loved this arbour from Henderson Garden Products. I can just imagine sitting outside on a warm summer's night, with a glass of wine and a good book, lantern burning cosily...




Street entertainers wandered up and down the main aisle, doing their best to give everyone a good laugh and brighten up the gloomy grey skies.






Inside the main plant marquee Gateshead Council showed off their silver-medal-winning Chelsea garden 'A Window of Opportunity', sponsored by Northumbrian Water. The plants in the garden are watered via pumps which are powered by two static bikes. Water runs down the frames and trickles down through the terraced edible planting in the rear BBQ area. The idea was to show how growing plants to eat can be fun, and the importance of water. It looked really attractive, and I'm sure all the herbs, fruit and veg tasted fantastic too!












Here are some of the other exhibits which I liked:


Chesters Grove Garden Centre won a silver medal for their cottage garden - with lovely arbour!







Cowell's Garden Centre won a gold medal for their showcase of hanging baskets and container planting.



A silver gilt medal was awarded to the Cottage Garden Society for their colourful, tranquil retreat.







The Northern Fruit Group had a really juicy and colourful exhibit.




I especially like the gold medal garden created by the Durham Organic Gardeners' Association, full of edible and attractive planting - and all in containers.




Willowbog Bonsai displayed a fantastic array of exquisitely pruned bonsai, and were awarded a gold medal for their efforts.




Students from East Durham College created a really striking planting scheme to run either side of a rill, complete with heron ready to snatch an unsuspecting fish!






And students of Finchale Training College created a bright and colourful garden workspace.





I had a great time in the Craft Marquee too, doing a bit of birthday and Christmas shopping. I love to buy handmade gifts that you can't find on the high street; and it's good to support fellow makers too.


Sue Fenlon uses watercolours and pastels to create some exquisite artwork. The colours are so dreamy and soft.






Elizabeth Bailey displayed lovely pieces of handthrown earthenware pottery; some decorated with simple, quirky animal images. I loved the mouse plate - great for cheese and crackers?!


Ingrid Wagner (of 'Coat for a Boat' fame) had an exhibit showcasing her Big Knit products. A simple but beautiful rug can be knitted in only four hours using BIG needles (40cm to 1.2m in length!) and recycled BIG yarn. I had a try of her big crochet hook too; it was a bit awkward at first but after a few minutes the results were quite attractive. Not an implement to be used on public transport though!


I also had a lovely chat with Alan Birchall who makes original stoneware ceramics. He really enthused about the different clays, slip and glazes that he uses. That's why it's so lovely to go to craft fairs like this because you can chat to the makers and find out exactly what they do - and why they love doing it. You don't get that sort of enthusiasm from your average high street retailer!

First Prize in the Gateshead Summer Flower Show

I got a First Prize for my crochet bag!
Woo hoo! There were quite a few entries in the 'Other handicrafts not mentioned above' class so I'm really chuffed. I just entered it to get a free entry ticket for the show, so I'm thrilled to get some recognition too.




Unfortunately my mam and sister didn't win anything in their class (Cross stitch work framed), but there are tonnes of entries in that section and it tends to be the unique items rather than the pictures from kits that the judges favour (there's still a HUGE amount of time and effort put into them though).

I took a load of photos today; here's some from the Amateur Classes marquee - the general public show off their stuff! It doesn't matter what you're good at - whether it be working with yarn, fabric, wood or metal; growing fruit, veg or flowers; baking or preserving; photography or painting - there's a class that you can enter.

Gorgeous items of handicraft, and tasty bakes.










Exquisite single flowers, and beautiful arrangements.



Huge specimens, and colourful varieties of vegetables.







More tasty and attractive baked goods, jams and honey. Mmmmmm...










And the kids had a few classes of their own to enter too. This fantastic garden is by Megan from Winlaton.

There were some gorgeous arrangements in the Floral Art marquee too. Some pieces told a story, others were traditional and colourful, some were structural and unusual - all of them looked fantastic!














We had a great day today. The weather was a bit wet and windy to start with but it did improve after lunch. At least we could dash into one of the marquees when the heavens opened; the poor stall holders outside couldn't. I hope the sun shines on them for the final day of the show tomorrow!

If you want to see more of the show, please come back tomorrow and I'll show you the work of the 'professionals' this time - plant displays from the nurseries, societies and colleges; and stalls in the Craft Marquee that I liked.

Gateshead Summer Flower Show

Even though we've had a lot of rain lately, there have been a few sunny spells inbetween the showers. Some of the bedding plants are looking quite bedraggled, but there are a lot of plants still flowering well, showing off their colours in the summer sunshine.

The Met Office have now said that it doesn't look as if we're going to get the BBQ summer that they predicted for us in May. The heatwave lasted for about a week here, and we've had showers and sunny spells since then. Ho hum, the great British summer. As a gardener I do appreciate the rain though, I just wish we didn't have so much of it all at once. I can cope with two days of rain if it's sandwiched around a day of lovely sunshine!

I'm hoping that the weather will be dry and sunny on Saturday as I'm off to the Gateshead Summer Flower Show with my mam and sister. We all love gardening so it's a great day out and a chance to spend some quality time together. The family gardening gene has missed my brother out though! He's a very creative person in other ways (working with wood and doing lots of DIY projects amongst other things) but he sees gardening as a real chore and would rather pave it all. He does appreciate a pretty garden though!

Back to the show - as well as the plants, garden furniture, sculptures, etc. for sale at the show, there's nursery and plant association displays, a huge floral art competition, a farmers' market, and a big craft marquee too. It's fab! I try to save my pennies for the show because there's some great stuff to buy - I usually start my Christmas shopping in the craft marquee! I'll definitely be taking my camera, so hopefully I'll post some images of the show over the weekend.

It's £7.00 to get in, which is a bargain really as it is a full day out, and there's so much to be inspired by. However, if you put an entry into one of the Amateur Exhibit classes you get a free ticket! It costs £1.00 to enter up to five classes and you could win a prize in each. There are 375 classes to choose from, ranging from 'a bowl of sweet peas to be viewed all round', to a 'basket of vegetables arranged for effect', to '2 jars of light honey' and many more. So whatever your talent, there's a chance for everyone to exhibit something handmade or homegrown.

I'm entering one of the handicraft classes with this crocheted bag that I made a couple of months ago. The design was in Simply Knitting magazine, issue 55 (June 09). The colours used in the magazine were very rich and vibrant, but I was making this bag for our holiday in Cornwall so I decided to go with creamy, icecream shades. I'm really happy with the way it turned out as it was my first real crochet project - and now I just can't stop hooking!

Model #1 and experimenting with pretty things

I thought it would be a nice idea to have a photographic record of my customers wearing/using the item that they bought from Bliss Knits. So here is my first model (drum roll please)...

Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for Marjorie from County Durham!

Marjorie recently bought my Peppermint Sunglasses Pouch. She said: "I loved the design, and the colour!"

And with all this rain we've been having, Marjorie's sunglasses have certainly been tucked up nice and cosy in their very own protective pouch. Hopefully the sun will shine again soon.


The rubbish weather yesterday give me an excuse to play indoors for a change - I had a lovely day experimenting with lovely bright yarns, pretty buttons, shiny sequins and sparkly beads.


I'm working on a range of bright and cheerful keyrings at the minute and it gives me a chance to be creative with all the bits and pieces that I've hoarded over the years.


Here's a sneak preview of some of the designs. I'll be listing them on Folksy as soon as I get a nice batch together.

Dad's old greenhouse

Hubby and I went out for a lovely Italian meal last night to celebrate our 16th wedding anniversary. I can't believe it's been that long since we got married; time certainly flies when you're enjoying yourself.

Consequently, after a big meal and a few drinks I had to have a bit of a lie in this morning (and it's Saturday!) so I missed the most exciting (and dangerous) part of the day. I'll start at the beginning...

My Dad loved his garden, and he was also a bit of a DIY expert; he'd try his hand at anything really. So when my parents got the wonderful new double glazing fitted my Dad decided to recycle the old window frames and made a greenhouse at the top of the garden. We reckon that was about 30 years ago.

The whole family were quite sentimental about it; Dad sadly passed away in September 2004 and we associated the old greenhouse with him - sowing seeds, tending his bonsai, or just having a cup of coffee and some peace in his den!

After three decades the greenhouse had seen better days and was actually getting quite dangerous with loose timbers leading to possibly loose glass.







Mam agreed that it would be a good idea to look for a new greenhouse, so we ordered a few brochures online and spent a couple of Saturday afternoons deciding what she'd like. And then we ordered, and waited (only three weeks!).

The new greenhouse is due to arrive next week, so we set about taking the old one down today. My sister and her hubby turned up at 8.30am, but as I'd had a late night celebrating I didn't turn up 'til 10.15am and missed a lot of the 'fun'!

The roof came down easy enough, but Dad had put the greenhouse together so well that when they tried to take each panel down the whole side came down too. Sister's hubby's face was a picture, I'm told, as he was in the middle of it all!! So when I turned up the greenhouse was mostly gone, and Mam's, sister's and her hubby's hearts rates had just returned to normal!


We still spent another few hours knocking down the walls (great fun!) and sweeping up. I'm sure Dad was watching us today - having a good laugh, no doubt!



It's amazing the space that's left though, it looks so small considering how big the greenhouse was and what was in it.


So, watch this space for the next installment...

I'm off now for my bacon sarnie. Hubby has gone to Scotland today for a football match (Annan Athletic v Queen's Park FC) and to meet up with an old mate, so I'm being naughty and having a bacon sarnie, can of Coke and a Twirl for my tea. I'll put some lettuce in the sarnie though - make it vaguely healthy. Mmmmm!!!