The Sunshine that makes the Heart Sing

There has just been the most tremendous thunderstorm. It's been brewing for 24 hours and has just broken. It got so dark I had to put the lights on, and then, suddenly its over again!
As this is England, and it is June, you can't depend on the weather.
The weekend weather was beautiful, so I played some more with the camera. The garden is filling up with flowers, so I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

The thunderstorm is on its way back again!  Time to close the windows!

We are all looking forward to the sun coming out again tomorrow but in the meantime I will be embellishing some jolly nice crochet scarves and hats and some cutie hand warmers for the autumn season, and will put some pictures up to show what will soon be in the shop window for your delectation and delight - and hopefully for you to purchase as well.
I'd love to know what you think, so feel free to drop me a comment if you have a chance.
Byeee

Chatsworth Road Market

It was a quiet at the Market on Sunday, so I had a chance to chat to some of the lovely stall-holders and try out the camera.  Some lovely things on display and some lovely people to exchange ideas with. 

Me Time - beautiful and natural soaps and scrubs

Kilner Jars from Drake & Naylor
drakeandnaylor.co.uk 

D&N's has lots of lovelies looking for 'forever homes'

and vintage board games

Vintage Suitcase from Matt

collars and cushions made from vintage fabrics
saralowesuk@yahoo.co.uk

 Proper Old has some lovely Wood's Ware - my new collecting interest
postdesign@lycos.com

and lots of other interesting ceramics and what-nots

sunshine fabrics to brighten any day
saralowes@yahoo.co.uk

So we are hoping that our photography is improving and the pictures are doing these lovelies justice!

At Last ....Some Pretty Pictures

Courtesy of the lovely traders of today's Chatsworth Market I am gracing today's post with some pretty pictures taken with the help of the NEW DSLR and uploaded via the magic of technology!

More details to follow - but for now I am happy to bask in somewhat better pictures than I have managed to post before!

Not perfect yet, but improving!
It was lovely to talk to people at the market today, even though I only had about an hour to spare, but it was a really nice hour indeedy.  More details about who the cheery folks are, and what all this lovely stuff is will follow soon, but for now.... enjoy.
I do hope that these images are uploading at the desired resolution at last.  Blogger teething problems sorted, with a bit of luck!
Enjoy your evening and see you soon!

A Post with no Pics

I am having a very frustrating time!
A VERY frustrating time, indeed.
Having noticed the strictly amateurish nature of the photos I have been posting, I realised that, not only am I a rubbish photographer, but also that perhaps using a tiny compact camera was not helping my limited skills one bit!
So yesterday, with great anticipation, I entered the hallowed halls of the camera shop on Camden High Street.  I only expected to take some advice and perhaps get some ideas about slightly better than average compact cameras, as I didn't quite feel ready for a DSLR.  However, I was persuaded by a phenomenally good deal and left armed with a 4 year old Canon DSLR and all its trappings.
Feeling a very happy girl I spent the afternoon playing about with it - mostly photographing my feet.  I thoroughly enjoyed reminding myself of all the old photo-buff stuff - aperture, ISO, depth of field and all that.  Even the crappy crap weather couldn't dampen my spirits!

Not so today, I am afraid and the reason for the lack of photos on today's blog....

Eager to see the results of yesterday's experiments, I started to install the camera software on my lovely new computer - only to find that the software is NOT COMPATIBLE with Windows 7.
Humph.
Very annoying.
Very frustrating.
It never even occurred to me that there could be such an issue (buyers of second-hand cameras beware!) but here it is, staring me in the face.
I'm sure there is a way around it, and so, on the advice of Lovely Spouse I have decided to 'park it' until Monday.
If I need pictures I will carry on with Clarrie the compact. 
I am donning my best smile and going downstairs for a snuggle under the duvet with Miss Lu (the weather is STILL awful and its COLD!) and hope that tomorrow will bring more positive events!
Cheery bye!

Knitting the Clapton Mile - Part 1

So the Clapton Festival happened last weekend, and so did our Knitting Event.  The idea - from the lovely Emily Hallgarten, was to 'Knit the Clapton Mile' - a craft project to create a knitted/crochet/woven/sewn artwork which would embrace the community from the Square to the Pond in a great big textile hug!  Embedded within the project was the motivation to provide a soft and textured counterpoint to the old thoughts of this part of Hackney as the 'Murder Mile'.


 So...
     in typical style...
              we began our crafty endeavour....
                                                                                              in the pub!

 For a few weeks we spent every Thursday evening in the Elderfield (How awful! I hear you cry!) with an ever-changing group of knitters and crocheters making and creating in wool donated by the knitters, the Craft Council, the Salvation Army and husband of a dedicated knitter who had recently passed away.  And to add to the synchronicity of the event - it was also happening on Worldwide Knit in Public Day and International Yarnbombing Day!

Emily, Natacha and Eleanor in the Elderfield

 We were even filmed by an intrepid local production company making a film about the festival!

 So Saturday itself dawned and after a showery start the skys cleared, the sun came out and the Festival began!

A marquee was set up in Clapton Square and bands played all day....

...to the delight of the crowds who gathered - including Thing 1, Thing 2 and Romy

And so Saturday was deemed a great success by one and all - especially Lu and Miss Lu, who had enormous fun all day long and are looking forward to next year when we will have our own stall, we hope!

So, what about Sunday and the Knitted Mile? I hear you shout
Well you'll have to wait until the next post to hear about that one!
Toodle pip!

Round here

The Clapton Festival - day 1.
No time for a proper post but suffice to say ...... Its been brillaint!
We have had a fantastic time and the whole event has been a marvellous experience and, dare we say.. a success.

We have to say how much we enjoy living round here

So much to do....so little time

It's been ages since we last posted as we have been running round like the proverbial flies - and not all of our outings have been craft related, either!
Happily, though, we have managed a bit of crafty time and an opportunity to put the studio in order, so we are hoping that soon we will be comfortably settled into our regular crafting and blogging adventures and not just getting swamped in the extraneous stuff that is of the rest of our lives.

So what have we been up to for the last few weeks?  Well, we have been developing our contribution to 

the Clapton Festival 
 http://www.claptonfestival.com/

which is called

Knitting the Clapton Mile

How times have changed.....
Some people may remember when the area between the Lee Bridge Roundabout (or more specifically the edifice then known as The Chimes Bar), Clapton Pond
                  

and Hackney Central was known as Murder Mile.

Things have moved on a lot since then, what with gentrification and the rising house prices that accompany it.

Now, in the wake of the very successful rebirth of the

Chatsworth Road Market

                                                  
and a new vibrant commercial streetlife

                                 
this summer we are celebrating with the inagural

                                              

Our Crafty Mission.....
Knitting the Clapton Mile is and attempt to swathe the Lower Clapton area in a multi-coloured, multi-crafted, multi-textured mile-long creation to celebrate to diversity and creative talent of the area.
Lu and Miss Lu and many of our yarn-obsessed friends are happily producing meterage to add to the creation which we will stretch from the Square to the Pond. We currently have sections of knitted and croched pieces to join together, but we welcome contributions of any textile or fibre creations.  We will be working on it in the Elderfield pub on Elderfield Rd on Thursday from 8.30 if you would like to join us for that, or if you find yourself in the area on Sunday 12th June please bring along your needles, hook or loom and help us to make the yarny journey in Clapton Square in celebration of Knit in Public Day and Yarnbombing Day as well as the Festival and all its lovely events.