Wendover pop-up craft fair

A lovely sunny day on Saturday, just perfect for the mini pop-up craft fair at the Courtyard Gallery in Wendover.   I met some amazingly talented local crafters and it was a great opportunity to see the range of lovely things they had available.

Nicole from Hot Chop Threads was selling her practical and very desirable baby bibs.  

Here is one of my favourites, being modelled by Teddy, however they look even better on babies, or even small dogs!

Vicky from Teasel Bags had some covetable handmade bags.  Sadly, I don't have any photos of these but, hey, she has lots on her website if you want to take a look.

There was an amazing range of soaps, bath salts and other goodies, all handmade from natural ingredients by Tanya from the Zesty Soap Company.  

I have been on fence-painting duty today and this Gardener's Soap was fantastic at getting those last scraps of paint off my hands.  The soap smells gorgeous and left my skin feeling so soft.  It is the perfect everyday luxury.  

And I was there selling quilts (more on those later) and chocolate or vanilla cupcakes decorated with buttercream roses, hydrangeas, sunflowers or chrysanthemums.  

Cupcakes make a lovely gift for a special person and can be made in colours and designs to suit you.  Here are just some of the decorations available.   Perhaps a bit top-heavy on flowers in this photo but who doesn't like flowers?   

Thanks to everyone who visited the craft fair.  I hope that you all had a great day and hope to see you at the next one.

5000 poppies

Rather than making ANZAC biscuits, my sister suggested that I should make some poppies for the 5000 poppies project.  Next ANZAC Day will be the 100 year anniversary since the ANZAC Gallipoli landing and there are a number of activities in Australia planned to commemorate this event.

The 5000 poppies community art project is a tribute of respect and remembrance for all Australian servicemen and women who have served over the past 100 years.   On ANZAC Day 2015 they plan to display a field of over 5000 poppies in Federation Square, Melbourne.  To date they have received over 10,000 poppies from crafters from different parts of the world and are now working toward 25,000 poppies for the display.  I have no doubt that they will make this target and the poppies will make a stunning and very moving tribute.

Here are the first poppies that I have made using a wet felt technique.  

Instructions for how to make them, as well as patterns for crocheted and knitted poppies, can be found on the 5000 poppies blog under the poppy patterns section.  Mine will be winging their way to Australia next week and will hopefully find a place in the display next year.