Fancy a trip around Cornwall ?

Tired of this rubbish weather we seem to be having lately ?

Wishing you could take a little trip somewhere ?

Then come with me (and my family) on our annual jaunt to Cornwall !!

When the weather is as rubbish as it has been here in the UK, you can guarantee that the weather won't matter if you visit the Eden Project.

Built in what was formerly a quarry, the Eden Project is a charity that has created giant "Biomes" - one contains a rainforest

and the other has a mediterranean climate - beautiful flowers (and wonderful homegrown food!)

If your mojo seems to have disappeared, a trip to St Ives is a must. Full to the brim with artists studios and wonderful handmade creations, along with the Tate St Ives, you can bet your life that your creativity will soon return and you'll be full of new ideas.

Why not buy and download a "Treasure Trail" ? We did a couple of these last year and were so impressed that we decided to do another this time. This year, we chose Falmouth - home of Cornwall's National Maritime Museum. Unfortunately it rained rather a lot whilst we did the trail, but hey, we were on holiday and having a good time ! Rain won't stop us !!

Visit the wonderful Minack Theatre - Cornwall's open air theatre, perched on the cliffs at Lands End. Fantastic productions, come rain & shine !

Try a bracing walk along the beach (yes, I know, it's July!) at Marazion

and then walk across the causeway to St Michael's Mount.

Climb the winding path through wonderful sub-tropical gardens all the way to the castle at the top and then have a wander around the beautiful castle, home to the St Aubyn family since 1659, finished off with a cream tea (or pasty) in the National Trust cafe. Breathtaking views .... even on a cloudy, damp day.

Fancy a bit of shopping ? Wadebridge is a fantastic little town from where you can take the Camel Trail to Padstow (see last year's post about this wonderful cycleway). Browse the many individual shops and Boutiques and have a lovely lunch in one of the many tearooms

Head a bit further north into Port Isaac

and if you're really really lucky you might get to see the ITV show Doc Martin being filmed !!! This has to be one of my most favourite programmes (I admit to owning the box set), so seeing the stars of the show filming the latest series was a real treat !

Go on a Friday evening and settle down with freshly caught fish & chips on the causeway in the harbour to watch and listen to the absolutely brilliant Fisherman's Friends - acapella singing at its very best !!

Of course, a visit to Cornwall wouldn't be complete without a day on one of Cornwall's 150+ beaches and even in cloudy weather, the kids love it. Fortunately for us, the sun came out just after lunch and we enjoyed body boarding, sandcastle building and watching kite surfers.

This was Hayle beach, lovely golden sand, a giant 3 mile sweeping beach and shallow calm waters - perfect for families.

Penzance is an up and coming town in the very far west of Cornwall - almost at Lands End, it has all sorts of wonderful individual shops and restaurants.

A couple of eating places I can recommend - The Lookout St Ives is situated in the Pedn-Olva Hotel, perched on the cliff edge at St Ives. Gorgeous food and fantastic views

The Mount Haven Hotel in Marazion is another fantastic restaurant, serving delicious local food with view of St Michaels Mount

Cupcake in Port Isaac is the cutest little coffeshop / tearoom, housed in the one of the numerous quaint cottages just a stones throw from the harbour

Sandsifter Restaurant & Bar at Godrevy is where all the cool surfer dudes hang out. It serves brilliant food and drink all day and is a bit more lively in the evenings, with live bands through the summer

And so endeth our annual trip to Cornwall. There are, of course, hundreds of other fabulous places you could visit, some of which I mentioned last year (see this blog post) and lots more which I could write another blog post about, but I've hopefully included a few different ones here.

Let me know about your favourite places to visit in Cornwall .... maybe we could visit them next year !!

xx

PS. Normal Blooming Felt blogging will resume shortly !

Where to start ?

I've got so much to tell you !

We've been down in Cornwall for the last 12 days visiting Paul's family. Fortunately, the weather was half decent this time so we managed to be out and about pretty much all of the time. I'll try not to bore you with all of my holiday snaps, but thought you might be interested in a few of the things we got up to ?

Before we went away I googled "Things to do in Cornwall when it rains". Normally when we go to Cornwall it chucks it down the whole time and we can never find stuff to do, so this time I decided to be organised and find lots of things to do before we went. During my internet search I came across this particular site Treasure Trails. What a brilliant find !! Based in Truro, this company has lots of treasure hunts in Cornwall, so we decided to buy the Boscastle and St Ives trails.

Boscastle, apart from becoming well-known from the "Seaside Parish" tv series, unfortunately became far more well known after the devastating floods. However, this wonderful village has picked itself up, dusted itself down and has returned to the beautiful Cornish village it used to be.

We spent a good 2 hours wandering around looking for treasure hunt clues, and enjoying the lovely surroundings. And the good thing about the treasure hunts is that you get to see lots of things and parts of the towns and villages that you wouldn't normally see.

Our 2nd treasure trail was in St Ives. Unfortunately, the weather on this particular day was absolutely awful but we met up with some friends that happened to be on holiday in St Ives and spent another 2 hours wandering around in the pouring rain searching for Murder Mystery clues this time. Again, we saw lots of parts of St Ives that we haven't seen before and we've been to St Ives A LOT !!

We were so impressed with the treasure hunts that I've bought another 2 for Essex and we'll be doing these later in the school hols. Why not take a look and see if there are any trails near you, or for places that you'll be visiting on holiday ?

I had also booked our 2 monkeys on a Baywatch Babes course at Lusty Glaze centre in Newquay.

Don't panic - it's not what it sounds like, and I do think they could rename both the course and the centre - but anyway ... What a fantastic 2 hours they had !! As neither of them are old enough to learn to surf (properly) yet, Lusty Glaze has a course for 4-7 year olds which covers life saving, rock pooling and boogie / body boarding.

The centre provides wet suits so you only need to take a towel to dry the kiddies off when they're done and they have a great cafe / bar where we were able to sit and drink hot chocolate (it wasn't the warmest of days!) and watch the goings on.

There is loads to do at the centre for all ages - including inflatable sumo wrestling .. designed for adults but hysterically funny when two 7 year olds are taking part !! Sadly, Sam wasn't able to overpower our friend's daugther, but like I say - very funny to watch !

Are you still with me ? I hope I'm not boring you too much !

What else ? Ah yes. Trevoole Farm.

I read about this lovely place on someone's blog last month (can't remember whose it was sorry). Opened as part of the National Open Gardens scheme, Trevoole Farm is a really beautiful place. Sadly, we missed the actual open day, but Beth very kindly agreed to let us wander around. What a treat !

It can't begin to tell you how wonderful it was, but please believe me when I say I've never seen anything like it !!

My favourite part had to be the Summer House. What I wouldn't give to have a summer house like this !

Once again we cycled the Camel Trail. This year we did it the other way round - parked at Padstow and cycled to Wadebridge for lunch and then cycled back to Padstow for a bit of retail therapy. Not a spot of rain to be seen and a lovely day out !

A few other days on the beach - Porthminster and Hayle - completed our very lovely Cornwall holiday 2010 !

OK - before we went away this is what the view from our dining room to the kitchen looked like.

When we came back ... it looked like this !!

I can't believe the difference having a wall removed makes (I also can't believe the amount of dust having a wall removed makes !!) We are now steeling ourselves to be without a kitchen for around a week whilst the new one is istalled. Our new AGA will be installed on the 11th August (very exciting !). I have no idea how to cook on an aga so would welcome all of your hints / tips and favourite recipes !!

The day we trotted off to Cornwall my massive felt delivery arrived. I had been waiting for it for what seemed like forever - sometimes I wonder whether the couriers actually use aeroplanes or just donkeys (as seen in Truro last week !!)

In the 6 GIANT boxes was lots of lovely felt as well as supplies for the new Blooming Felt kits which I'll be launching at the Knitting & Show in October - so watch this space ! I've updated the website so the following is now back in stock:

• Felt string
• 10 x 10 inch felt squares (4mm thick) - not many P1 sheets as they were missing from the delivery - sorry
• Grab bags of stars, hearts, pebbles, plain and beaded felt balls
• Felt shapes
• Wool roving
• Gillian Gladrag felting kits

Right - I think I've probably bored you to tears by now so I'll say thank you for sticking with this very long blog post and I'll see you soon (probably covered in dust, and very stressed from not having a kitchen and having to do the washing up in the bath !!)

Sarah x

Happy Holidays and Heroes

Hellooooooo !!

Well, I'm back from a really lovely family holiday in the West Country.

Our first week was spent here in Devon - and it couldn't have been a better choice. Amazingly child friendly and the cottage was a home from home. The kids absolutely loved being able to roam around without us constantly watching them, made friends with some of the other children, and wore themselves out swimming and playing on all the play equipment.

Fortunately for us the weather was just perfect with temperatures in the low 80's so we spent an awful lot of time on the beaches. First we visited Bigbury and watched the people staying at the Burgh Island hotel (featured in a Poirot film), being ferried back and forth from the island on the sea tractor.

Burgh Island in the top left of the picture (taken from Bantham Beach)

We then spent 2 further days on Bantham beach which was really lovely. It actually looks across the bay to Bigbury, but is quite a bit larger so we were able to space ourselves out a bit from all of the other people that were also taking advantage of the glorious weather.

Bantham Beach taken from Bigbury

The children had a whale of a time building sandcastles, running in and out of the sea, jumping over waves and collecting shells with their hero of a Dad (more about this later). A boogie board was purchased so that Sam could don his new wetsuit and attempt to ride the waves. Sadly, he didn't quite get the hang of it but hey, he's only 5 !! There's plenty of time to make a surfing champ out of him yet !

Kingswear taken from the Ferry on a return trip from Dartmouth

So, on to the hero bit. Driving home from the beach one day, we were coming through a small village and heading up the hill. Suddenly there was a terrible screech of brakes followed by a very large bang. Paul looked in the rear view mirror to see the car behind us somersaulting through the air, eventually ending up on its side. The car it had hit was half in the hedge.

The panic and dread that runs through you when you see something like that is awful. Paul slammed on our own brakes, leapt out of the car and ran back down the hill. I got out of the car and ran up the hill to try and stop the oncoming traffic. When Paul reached the car, the driver was still strapped in and was conscious - she was crying and saying that she could smell smoke so Paul turned into the incredible hulk and yanked the sunroof off so that he could pull the woman out through it ! Fortunately, the car didn't go up in flames, but of course we were then worried about the lady he had pulled out and whether he might have done more damage by pulling her out and not leaving her where she was until the ambulance arrived. The couple in the other car were trapped - both cars were complete write-offs.

By this time a number of other cars had come across the accident and were all trying to help. Eventually the emergency services arrived and the fire brigade prepared to cut the roof off the the trapped couple's car so they could be rescued. The passenger was very shocked and upset, apparently she had been in a serious accident before. Then the air ambulance arrived (which was very exciting and also very windy !!)

The police took our details and said we could go. And the children slept the whole way through it all !! Good in one way because at least they didn't see the horrible mess, but sad in another because they would have loved to see the firemen and the air ambulance landing.

We received a phone call a couple of days ago from the lady Paul rescued and fortunately both she and the other couple sustained only minor injuries. She was extremely grateful to Paul for getting her out of the car and said that she didn't actually remember the accident itself, which is probably just as well. So - there you have it. My husband is officially a hero !! (well, I think so anyway)

So, back to the holiday .... our 2nd week was spent in Cornwall. Paul is a Cornishman born and bred and his family still live there. So fortunately for us, we have free accommodation whenever we visit.

Unfortunately though, the weather changed 2 days into the 2nd part of our holiday, so we only managed to visit the beach once.


The rest of the time was spent being wind and rain battered in St Ives, Flambards and Fowey.

However, Paul and I did have a lovely meal at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant at Watergate Bay. We treated ourselves as it was our wedding anniversary at the beginning of July and we just hadn't had time to go out for a meal beforehand. If you haven't been to either of Jamie's restaurants, I can highly recommend them. Whilst I haven't visited his London restaurant, the Cornwall one was fantastic. The service was great and the food absolutely gorgeous. The setting of the restaurant is amazing - set into the side of a cliff overlooking Watergate Bay, the whole front of the restaurant has sliding glass doors that completely fold back so that you feel as though you're actually sitting on the beach. Fortunately, the rain had stopped so were were lucky enough to have a table right at the front of the restaurant and watched the surfers in the sea until almost 10pm. A really lovely evening !!

Sadly, the bad weather resulted in us cutting our holiday short by a day. But, once we got back to Essex the glorious weather was still here, so we could continue our holiday, at home, in our own pool !

It was so lovely to have almost 2 whole weeks to spend with the family and not feel that I had to keep going off to check emails and put orders together. To actually be able to sit outside with a glass of wine and read a book, or just veg out in front of the telly of an evening and not be crouched on the living room floor putting together orders was a real treat.
Of course, being back home means that everything is now back to normal and I'll be spending the best part of the weekend making up the orders that came in whilst I was away. Still, I really shouldn't complain. I'm very lucky to have such a lovely little business and to be able to work from home.

A number of items on the website are unfortunately out of stock, but replacements are on their way. So if you're looking to order an out of stock item, don't worry - they'll be back in stock within a couple of weeks. Also on their way are a number of new items (more about these once they get here). Oh, and I was lucky enough to be interviewed whilst I was away by the trade paper "Craft Business" for an article on Felting Trends. The article will apparently be published in the September edition, so if you do subscribe to this paper, please look out for it / me !

Enjoy the rest of your weekend !

Sarah x

Helloweeeee !!

Hiya !!

We've made it back from Cornwall, wet and bedraggled unfortunately, but we did have a good time :o)

I was rather brave whilst down there and visited a number of shops and galleries with some of my felt accessories. I just want to say a massive THANK YOU to Sara of all-about-eden who had very kindly done some groundwork for me the week before and checked out a number of places that were suitable and then sent me an envelope full of business cards and leaflets and suggested that I visit some of them. Sara - you're a star !! A little thank you will be winging its way to you very shortly.

As a result of visiting some of the places, I managed to secure quite a large order of my loopy felt brooches and also needle-felted brooches with Crafty's Country Store in St Ives. I also spoke to a lovely lady in the most fantastic litle bead shop in St Ives and she gave me a tip off about a few other places I could try and also a couple of websites that might be worth contacting. Of course, it would have been rude not to buy something from her shop after spending so long chatting to her, so I purchased these lovely little seed beads which will be used on my Christmas stock. They also have a website where you can buy beads online - so if any of you beaders out there are interested, the website is http://www.gjbeads.co.uk/

I also dropped leaflets and business cards off at a number of other places and spoke with a lady at the Duke Stret Gallery in Newlyn who also happened to own another gallery in St Ives and she is quite interested in some of my felt corsages. So ... a busy time all in all and added to that, I also received 3 orders through my website whilst I was away, so spent all of last night packaging orders up to be shipped off today.

I really should go away on holiday more often because when I got back I checked the answerphone and there was a message from a lady who is organising a charity christmas shopping event (for "ladies that lunch" !) and wondered whether I would be interested in taking a table. Of course, I said yes and she then gave me 2 fantastic contacts, both local to where I live, who she thought would be interested is stocking my felt accessories, so I shall be contacting them both tomorrow and will let you know how I get on.

Another thing that was REALLY exciting was the fact that I received a phone call (whilst I was sitting in the pouring rain on the little Lappa Valley Railway) from the features editor of Crafts Beautiful magazine. You may recall that last month I placed a joint advert with Sarah from paper-and-string in the magazine? Well, the features editor wants to do an article on me and my needle-felted accessories !!! YAY - fame at last ;0) She wants to me to send her some of my hair bobbles, fridge magnets and hairclips for them to feature and also a piece about how I got into felting and what I like about it. Fingers crossed it will kick start the felting supplies side of my website.

I've just realised that this post sounds a bit like a self-promotional article, which I really didn't intend it to be, but I was just so excited about all of the things that happened whilst I was away - I just had to tell you lovely like-minded crafty people. Apologies if it seems like I'm blowing my own trumpet - I'm really not.

Of course, going on holiday means spending money and I couldn't resist this lovely card for my hubby as it's our wedding anniversay on Sunday (although Paul will be on his way back from Snowden as he's taking part in the 3-Peaks 24 Hour Challenge this weekend). I shall be dismantling the card in the future though because I want to reuse that lovely ceramic button. You can buy the buttons from Stockwell Ceramics

We also splashed out on this beautiful print which will take pride of place in our hallway (apologies for the flash in the middle of the picture !). It's entitled "St Ives on a Foggy Day" and is a little reminder of Paul's roots back in Cornwall.

and these little coat pegs for Grace's room and towel clips for Sam & Grace's towels in the bathroom

And now, it's back down to earth with a bump - sorting the piles of washing and ironing out.

Sarah x

Nothing much to report

Hi there !

Well, from having a jam packed blog post last time, I am afraid to say that this post isn't very interesting. I've been having a bit of a rest, because the last couple of weeks have been pretty manic.

I've listed a few of my items on ebay as it was half price listing weekend (not that I'm a cheapskate or anything .... oh, ok, maybe I am !) I'm not really expecting to sell anything, but was hoping that it might be a bit of cheap advertising and drive people to both my website and my blog in the hope that they might think of me in the future when they need a few "different" gifts.

Yesterday I attended a craft fair at Cressing Temple Barns which is about 10 miles or so from where I live. It was a 2-day affair and I wanted to check it out because they are running another 2-dayer at the end of September which I was considering taking a stand at. However, after seeing how few stands there were (not to mention people), considering it is such a big venue, I was a bit disappointed and have decided not to bother. BUT, they also run a 2-dayer Christmas Food and Craft fair in November (I attended this event as a buyer last year and it was absolutely packed - over 2,500 people), so I'm thinking of enquiring about costs etc and hope to take a stand at that event. I reckon if I start making my christmas stuff now, I should have enough by then !!

I've added another little section to my blog - over there on the right - it's a section where I list some of the books that I either own (or wish I owned) and that give me lots of inspiration. Having said that, I've just bought this beautiful Japanese craft book from ebay and I can't wait for it to arrive - what's the betting it turns up when we're down in Cornwall ??!

Talking of Cornwall, I'm not sure if I mentioned it previously but I am hoping to do a mailshot to a number of upmarket gift shops and galleries down there in the hope that I can get a few appointments to see people and get them to stock some of my items. But, I'm having a bit of a nightmare getting the names of suitable shops etc, so this is a plea for help. If you can recommend any places you think might be worth contacting, do please let me know. I am ideally looking at St Ives, Padstow, Mevagissy, Falmouth, Mousehole areas, but am more than happy to consider others. You can email me at sarah@pictureitinstitches(dot)co(dot)uk. I do have a couple of other lovely bloggers who know the area, doing a bit of research for me and I truly thank them.

And now, in true Cornish fashion, I'm off to have a pasty !!

xx