Hatfield Heath Festival Weekend - Day 1

Yesterday saw the first day of the Hatfield Heath Festival weekend, with the school fete from 12pm until 2.30pm, the church flower festival and a history exhibition in the URC Hall on postcards and pictures of Hatfield Heath both running all day (and all day today as well). But the bit i was involved in was in the Village hall from 11am to 5pm (and the same again today) - The Art exhibition and craft fair - although when i say craft fair there were only four of us who had book tables for crafts in the end. So we each took a corner of the room whilst the paintings and art work hung on boards in the centre and on the wall around us.

I set up on the friday night, so i could plan my table and it's layout which i was quite happy with eventually. I purposely chose a corner that had space where i could hang things behind me too. So yesterday morning i arrived at 10am to add to magnets to the board and lay things out with out too much stress. Adorned with my own 2 badges, a hair clip (not that people could see that unless i turned my back to them!) and a pair of earrings, i was ready to go.

The day started well with one of the other stall holder buying my largest cross stitch before we'd even opened to the public.

I had taken a cross stitch with me to do however i didn't seem to get much done, as with still feeling ill i spent most of the day picking at my lunch trying to slowly eat something, hiding behind my stall! good view for people watching though....

It was very quiet though and i think the door count my the end of the day was no more than 80 people, but then this was kind of expected as today is the main festival day on the Heath with much more going on, starting with a fun run at 10.30am. Other things include a classic car show, dog show, fancy dress, punch and judy, falconary, a little fun fair and other stands. The Salvation army is doing a song's of praise on the heath at 5pm and as i mentioned earlier the church flower festival and history exhibition are going on today as well. So there's a lot more to attract people.

However despite the quiet day yesterday, as well as the cross stitch i also sold 2 keyrings

and a bookmark.

so i had covered my £10 stall fee and thats even after i have donated 10% of my takings to the village pre school which is this years chosen charity.

So now to watch Casualty before mum and D wake up, which D kindly recorded for me last night as i ended up joining them at his friend's 50th birthday bash and we didn't get back until 11pm.

Finger's crossed for another good day, the sun is shining which always helps matters. I must just say a quick thankyou to some wonderful Swap-bot members who have been replying to my panicing and worrying posts about this event, Spinjeny and Mojo, you've been super support. Thank you.

My Favourite Colour ATC Magnets - recieved

After a particularly bad morning, i arrived home to find not only the 2nd lot of blue ATCs but a small jiffy bag too, on the door step. The customs sticker on the front said it contained 4 magnets, which confused me slightly, in fact almost worried me, as the envelope rattled when i picked it up.

So i opened it up to find a lovely package:

The first thing i went to check was how many ATC magnets i was supposed to have made as i had only sent 3! but on logging onto swapbot i found that the swap description did say 3 ATC magnets. She made them using air dry clay, and i have to say they made me feel that my attempts that i sent were pants! but i know that everyone's artist/crafty talent is different.

The reason the envelope rattled was due to the 2 extras my partner had included.

2 packets of seeds! One of green beans which i though mum might enjoy as the beans seem to be her thing (despite her saying the veggie gardening is my domain) and also chilli peppers - which is i sow now but keep inside in the heat of the porch might grow and even ripen too! i doubt they would go red and ripen if they are outdoors even in the warmest of spots, as i found that problem with the sweet peppers. Something else thats new to try!

It certainly brightened my day.

Colour Blue ATCs received

I recieved my Blue ATCs from one partner a week or so ago and i put them away before taking a photo but then yesterday i got the swap from my second partner, Amybelle.

Along with the 2 Blue ATCs she sent to blue tea bags too. According to a little translation and research, "Harmonia de Ervas" is "Harmony of Herbs" in Portuguese. i haven't tried that one yet but i tried the Lady grey, a tea i hadn't actually tried before, or at least not that i recall, anyway i think i'll be sticking to Earl Grey in the future.

Art Nouveau ATCs

not my best ATCs by far. each of my 3 partners had one of these:

and then i made another one but used the initial of each partner:

T-shirt Tote Bag Swap

The brief for this swap was to create a bag from an old t-shirt using a simple tutorial which meant all you needed to do was sew a seam along the bottom of the t-shirt, cut off the sleeves and cut a semi-circle round the neck to create the handles.

So i found an old t-shirt i didn't want anymore, set up the machine and successfully sewed the bottom edge a few times to give it some stability, cut off the sleeves and cut round the neck. This is what i came up with:

Then i couldn't find another t-shirt that needed to be thrown away so i decided to have a look in the charity shops. My partners profile said she like bright colours, and i found a strappy top, which meant i didn't need to cut the sleeves off or cut the neck so there would be no fear of the edges fraying. However my machine skills let me down this time. i managed to sew the bottom seam the first time but after that the thread kept bunching. i think it was the material which was slightly elasticated, anyway, after the 3rd attempt i gave up and finished it my hand. Machine sewing is certainly one skill i haven't yet mastered. The finish bag was ok tho.

ATC Magnet Favourite Colours Swap

These ATCs were created for the swap host who was my partner. The swap brief was to create 3 ATCs using your partners 5 colours that they had listed but the were to be magnets too. My partner was Weeatcrayons - the name came from her arriving home to find her cats eating a packet of crayons one day! her listed colours were:

1. Silver


2. Black


3. Turquoise


4. Purple


5. Dark Green

so here's what i came up with!

she also mentioned that she liked monkeys on her profile.

So there will be on their way to the USA later today with a few packets of milk bottles. I was surprised how hard it was to find milk bottles prepacked, but then they were originally they were designed as penny sweets in the good old days. I found them on a pick 'n' mix counter but i thought i should try and get them prepacked as i was sending them abroad. in the end after searching the larger supermarkets, i found then in the little newsagents in the next village!

Colour Blue ATC Swap

I'm getting slightly more into ATCs but i think my problem is that i won't pay for pre cut and pre made blank ATC cards. instead i reuse old cardboard and cover it with my own white card. Using materials i already have basically rather than wasting money on new stuff.



One set of these went to the USA and one to Devon in the UK.

Bottlecap Blue Bloom

Blue Skies

25 Questions penpal swap

Haven't really been doing many swaps recently, maybe because i'm not feeling very craft inspired right now.  however, this swap is a letter/penpal swap which is always great fun and a wonderful way to contact people all over the world.  The person i'm sending to is in Maryland, USA and these are the questions i'm asking her:

I'm due to receive from a lady in the USA who reckons she might be the oldest swapbot member!  To be honest i can't wait to get my question because i still feel at least twice my age in my brain so kind of prefer to have a partner who isn't a young fashion and music loving energetic 20 something  - basically everything i should be but am not!

Fruit and Veg ATC Swap

Mojo pointed this swap out to me on swap-bot (thanks jen!) and i must admit ATCs aren't my favourite craft/swap but the theme won me over on this one!

So here are 2 going to goodies2shoes in the USA:

"Beetroot Bliss"

"Fabulous Fig"

and then these 2 are off to Canada to Wacky Stuff who prefers digital ATCs:

"Strawberries are hot!"

"Eat Beet!"

I had to Angel my matchbox swap :(

Sadly someone who was in my 2nd letter in a matchbox swap flaked (the definition of "flaked" for non swapper is that the didn't send to their partner) and it turned out that they were partially suspended too,  so i think they had flaked on more than one swap.  What was even more sad was the swapper who was flaked on (who didn't receive), it was her first matchbox swap and she was really looking forward to it. 

Not having hosted many swap (a total of 4 now) i was too sure on the angeling process.  To angel a swap it the send to the unlucky person without receiving in return.  As it was my swap and only one angel was needed i decided to angel it myself and the unfortunate swapper was happy with this.  so i set about creating another letter in a matchbox - she said she would just be happy for the matchbox,  but i couldn't let it go like that!!

So this is for Pym, with a couple of little surprises inside!

Catch-up time

Easy way to do a catch, as i have a bad memory is by the photos i've taken, so here goes:


Well, i received a wonderful Jiffy Bag full of Crystal Light Honey and Lemon Green Tea from Christina in the USA, for which i sent her a set of personalized bottlecap magnets (i'm sure i blogged about them before i sent them)

Then i did a handmade magnet swap on swap bot - the brief was "4 handmade magnets" for 2 different partners. i wanted to do 2 sets of for but it ended up a set of 3 and a single for one parnter (runningoutofroom). this is the single:

and then the set of 3: she's received them as said she loves them.

Then the set of four for my other parnter, who i can't remember off the top of my head, but they are in the USA so it will be a couple of days before they get there yet i think. and both people sending to me are in the states, plus the send date hasn't passed yet - it was the 28th i think.

i received my letter in a matchbox, which was the swap i hosted, from clareyfairy


and her's the one i sent to chappykat, who received it happily!

I responded to Diddldonna's rquest on the forum for some swap cards, which i designed, printed and cut up - they are about ATC size (2.5 " x 3.5") - and in return she has sent a little suprise for a special occasion to a person who is special to me.

I've started cooking dinner once a week for mum and david again, to give mum a night off, so for the first week it was shin of beef and ale casserole with potato and celeriac mash. i dug up the 3 celeriac we planted from the seedlings grandpa gave us.........the thing about root veg is that ou don't know whats under the surface......

Not much was the answer!!!

lots if bits of roots but not much main root!

Mum got a new orchid as the last flowering one had finally dropped its flowers after 2 months and wanted some photos:

i might try this one as a greetings card, and mum mentioned there was one she thought might look nice on a canvas.

Then came Mojo's Digital ATC swap, 2 ATCs of digitally altered images for 2 parnters:
2 for Chaz:

And 2 for my other partner (sorry bad memory):

My final photos are of a cake mum asked me to make ready for the canadian visitors on sunday, it was a kind of fruit cake but the bog standard dried fruit in tesco looked so unappealing so i got a bag of jumbo raisins, golden raisins and dried cherries. doesn't look too bad, does it?

Only a couple of days now to find out if it's "matured" nicely and tastes ok!