My First Craft Fair...

 I had a stall at a craft fair today!

It was fun!  There was a boy playing the guitar and a swing band (bit loud though!) and lots of pretty things to buy!

This was my stall...my mum made me the bunting, which says 'susie stars' on it and the table cloth is one that used to come out on our birthdays when I was little, I've always had my eye on it!

I have loads to think about now, mostly about pricing and how to display things, but it was really fun, I bought myself some vintage fabric to add to the pile and mum bought a lovely glass cake stand and won a raffle prize.  I was very relieved to actually sell some of my things (I kept having a panic that nothing would sell!) and quite a lot of my items were sold to adorable little tiny girls, which was not my target market at all, but Very cute!  

It all got too much for me at the end, my money belt was too heavy and the band were too loud and when I got home I had a nap (or two!)

from here

A Craft Explosion...

Here is my 'craft preparation area'.  Also known as my mums living room floor.  Also known as 'I'm in trouble'!  I have my first craft fair stall on Saturday....my arm is doing a funny clicky thing from all the crochet and my sewing machine has been making ominous clunking noises....I'm nearly ready (unless you count the 4 Easter bunnies I have to crochet and the phone cases that I've pretty much given up on!)...I'm enjoying all the crafting, but I wish I wasn't in soo much of a rush to get everything made...I've been crocheting for about 2 weeks solid, I miss the real world!

Spring, Spring, Spring...

I've been sooo happy to see the sun poking his head out and giving us some lovely light...it's properly cheered me up after all the cold wintery-ness.....the garden seems to like it too....

Even the fairies have come out now the weather's nicer!

Do you have signs of spring yet?

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Library Love....A Greyhound of a Girl, Diamond Star Halo...

This month I've loved reading...

A Greyhound of a Girl - Roddy Doyle

This is one of those books at work that no one knows whether to put in Adult Fiction or Junior Fiction (I just googled it, it's junior fiction!), both me and my mum have read it and really enjoyed it.  It's the happy, sad, real, funny story of 4 generations of women, 1 dead, 1 dying, 2 living, discovering their stories and going on an adventure together...I shed a wee tear at the end!

Diamond Star Halo - Tiffany Murray

I loved this book mostly because of the setting, it's set on 'Rockfarm' a family farm converted into a recording studio, and features the bands that pass through the family's life, gypsies, ghosts, growing up, families (and some quite dysfunctional sexual relationships (eek!)...it's funny and sweet and made me want to live on a farm/recording studio!

What have you been reading?

Happy Pancake day....Plus Vegan Pancake Tips...

Happy pancake day!  Hope you have eaten many battery, lemon-y, sugar-y pancakes! My vegan pancakes were particularly delicious this year, so I thought I'd share some of my tricks with you (it's my 5 year vegan-iversary this month, so I've had 5 pancake days to perfect it!)...

1. My recipe is really simple and makes 4 pancakes, 2 tablespoons of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 2 teaspoons of sunflower oil and enough water to make a medium thickness batter (still runny but not thin and watery...slightly thicker than non-vegan pancake mix, it needs to be thicker to help it hold together, as it doesn't have eggs or milk to bind it)

2. Use more oil in the pan than you would for a non-vegan pancake, about a teaspoon per pancake, otherwise it WILL stick to the pan.

3. Make a thicker pancake than you would a non-vegan version...you won't get a really thin, crepe type pancake from this recipe, cos it needs to be thicker to hold together (it's the no eggs thing again!).

4. Get the oil really hot in the pan, pour a quarter of the mix to make a thick-ish pancake into the pan then leave it alone...don't prod it or poke it or try to lift up the sides for about 3 minutes to let it form a crust so it hold's itself together (there's a theme here right!?).

5. Trying to flip the pancake is probably a bad idea..it will fall apart, turn it over gently with a flipper thingy, then leave it to go brown

6. Slide onto a plate, cover with enough lemon and sugar to make your teeth hurt, and enjoy!

Did you have a happy pancake day?  Do you have any vegan pancake tips for me?

Charity Shop Treasure...Handmade Cardigans and Hornsea Fawn...

I have bought not one, but TWO cardigans of joy!

Both are handmade, the granny square one was £4.99 and the grey knitted one was £3.49...both are lovely and warm for work (it's very draughty in my library!)

I also purchased a fawn of joy!  He will live with the bunnies of joy!  Someone had given their entire collection of Fauna vases to the charity shop and I decided mum would kill me if I bought it all so I just chose my favorite one, I left about 15 pieces there, I went back today for another look and all the rest of it was gone :(

Have you bought anything joyful recently?

Composting at Work...

We have a Lot of recycling bins at work, paper, plastic, card and tins, all looked after by the council, which is great.  But no composting.  The council here don't collect kitchen green waste and a lot of peelings and tea bags are going into the landfill bin at work.  I asked a few of my colleagues if they would use a compost bin if I provided one and they said they would, so I checked with my manager, who after I reassured her it wouldn't be smelly and dirty and I would take it home to empty at least twice a week, said if I bought a little kitchen waste bin we could have it in the staff kitchen.  After much googling I found a company called Garland who make compost caddies that ticked all the boxes on my checklist - made out of recycled plastic, has a handle for carrying home, has a lid that stays on.  It arrived today!  Tomorrow I shall have a grand unveiling at work and hope all my work buddies use it!

Do you recycle at work?

from here