The Garden Room opens at RHS Harlow Carr Harrogate this weekend

Firstly I must apologise for the amount of photos I plan to attach but it is really to document my recent jewellery creations.

The weekend has finally arrived when a new exhibition blasts off featuring lots of new work from local artists and makers.

My friend, the uber talented textile artist Corinne Young, has devised and is curating this fabulous garden inspired exhibition which runs until the end of March. All the details about the exhibition and artists involved are featured on Corinne's blog.

http://stitchedgarden.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/the-garden-room-opens-this-weekend/

I've been busying myself making things in the windows of opportunity between a busy schedule of graphic design work and as well as the embroidered gloves and birds you may have seen on here recently I have a new range of tweed & felted Old Masters brooches.

Some of the jewellery has turned into necklaces and here they are packaged and ready to go.

Next we have the Old Masters range of flower vases and these are needle felted designs onto Harris Tweed.

The layers are built up and I only had one finger pricking incident!

I enjoyed slapping lots of different colours into these and here they are almost finished before turning into brooches or pendants.

I want to wish Corinne all the best as she's in for a busy and exciting fortnight. Hope the weather is kind too.

Thanks for sticking it out to the end if you made it and have a good weekend.

A busy week & a trip to Harrogate

A week has flown past. I ended October with a few tasty treats in the form of buns and toffee apples which I hadn't made for years.

I took a selection of festive items to the Art & Rose Gallery in Pocklington, including these Harris Tweed landscape brooches with sheep.

I think when I made the biscuit brooches it was Anne who commented they would look good on a plate with biscuits so as I had a few jammy rings I popped mine on the same plate!

I managed a quick visit to the Warhol exhibition at Ferens Art Gallery in Hull which was pretty good with lots of different work and not just the soup cans.

On Friday I went to Harrogate to the Homebuilding exhibition which was rather good. It also allowed a trip to the best coffee shop in Harrogate, Bean & Bud. Had a most delicious sandwich and cranberry and white chocolate tiffin, with you know who as company!

Had also heard about La Maison Du Cafe so popped across there for a nice Red Brick espresso too.

Look what I spotted outside a butchers in Harrogate, these wonderful Nutcrackers.

And whilst on the subject of Nutcrackers, I'm currently stitching one up for a textile picture.

I've got a busy few days stitching as I need to make another gallery drop with festive goodies by the end of the week.

Harrogate - Bean & Bud, and fabric!

Had a most enjoyable morning in Harrogate and this time didn't even have to worry about car parking as a bit of research on the internet last night showed up some free parking streets. It was just a 10-15 minute walk back into town and into Bean & Bud for refreshments.


I know this is only my second visit to Bean & Bud but they seem to have something new to tempt you with each time you walk in. I plumped for tea today and had the special China Oolong which had a lovely smoky taste to it. To eat I had the most delicious plum cake with a hint of almond, this is one of my favourite combinations, just lovely. Stocked up with some bags of coffee and teas.


The other thing I like about Bean & Bud, just a few doors along is that amazing fabric shop and I treated myself to a few fat quarters.

Harrogate - The Remnant House

Just a few doors along from Bean and Bud is a fantastic fabric shop which has some really groovy stuff as well as the usual things. I found the fat quarters to be some of the cheapest I've ever sourced at £1.50 each and are shown below.


The shop has an upstairs with literally hundreds of odds n ends of remnants and really cheap.

http://www.remnanthouse.co.uk/

Harrogate - Bean & Bud

Weather not great this morning but the destination was Harrogate. It's usually only a place I drive through on the way to the Lakes and I haven't actually shopped in Harrogate centre for about 20 yrs. Eventually found some parking after driving around for nearly an hour, I hate it when you are not familiar with a place or its one way system and you keep going in circles or having to find somewhere to turn round. Anyway the plan was to find Bean & Bud cafe whose owners I met on the recent cupping course at Limini Coffee.


The cafe was near to the centre which was great as it was cold & drizzly and it was lovely inside, a warm welcoming red colour with groovy music to relax to. The owners Ruth & Hayden prepare all the drinks themselves to ensure the finest quality coffees & teas.  I had a delicious flat white with a beautiful heart and I tucked into a delicious chocolate & pistachio cake. They had the most enormous and elaborate cup cakes but it was a bit early to do justice to one! 


Came away with some of their loose tea to try.
It's a lovely cafe if you are in Harrogate and you'll find it on Commercial Street.