My Week...

Some of my favourite moments from the last week - tea and cake with my mum and husband in Shrewsbury, visiting the Yorkshire Sculpture park with my lovely friends, and making friends with a bee while we were there, and a business meeting over big red tea-cups. It's been a pretty good week. 

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Yorkshire Sculpture Park is one of those places that I'd always wanted to visit but never quite got around to, so we made a plan and picked a day and off we went on our adventures. It was the most wonderful place, and I already want to go again. 

Some of the huge sculptures in the grounds
Henry Moore - Large Reclining Figure
Nikki de Saint Phalle - Buddha
Nigel Hall 
Sophie Ryder - Sitting

The Camellia House was one of my highlights, it was so beautiful, I could have lived there. There's just something about the strangeness of huge trees and bushes being inside, and the light and all of the glass. It was heavenly.

The Wave sculpture is being installed at the moment, after missing it at the Tower I was so pleased to see it. It's stunning. 

 The Shell Grotto

The Boat House, the lake and the Dam.

And my absolute favourite part of our visit - the Rob Ryan exhibition. It was just the best thing to see so much of his beautiful work in one place. 

Hello London

The summer is passing so fast and has been so full of adventures, but our trip to London was my favourite so far. We took ourselves off to the big city for three days and went to lots of fabulous places. 

We started at Tate Britain on Sunday, I've been so excited for the Barbara Hepworth exhibition and it didn't disappoint! I loved her beautiful sculptures, especially the later ones with the incorporation of coloured threads, and it was really special to see her sketches and drawings. 

On Monday we ventured up to The British Library to see the Magna Carta exhibition, then on to Gower Street to visit Speedy's cafe and the front door made famous in "Sherlock" (One of two nerdy pilgrimages of the trip, we also popped along to King's Cross to see Platform 9 and 3/4 and the shop next door but the queues were unbelievable! We went on to the Grant Museum of Zoology, it is part of the University College London, and is full of specimens and slides and it is really fascinating. We managed to pick up tickets to see "The Mentalists" in the evening, I'm a bit of a fan of Stephen Merchant so it was very exciting to see him perform. We were even in the front row!  

On Tuesday we had a slower day, starting out in the National cafe for breakfast, and then on to the National Portrait gallery to see the Portrait Prize. We had tea and apricot cake in the Coffee Tree on Shaftesbury Avenue and left there with beautiful vanilla Cannoli to take home. After that we wandered on up to the Flinders Petrie museum of Egyptian Archaeology, and I was particularly thrilled to see the drop spindles. Our last stop of the day was the Wellcome Collection, a place we always wanted to visit but never quit got around to. The special exhibition was work from Alice Anderson and it was amazing, I'd definitely recommend it! The main collection is full of strange bits and bobs from the history of medicine and anatomy, there are shrunken heads, medical implements, and even some examples of Plastination from the Gunther Von Hagens institute. Of course, my favourite part of the gallery was the oversized Jelly Baby...

Taking Stock...

Making : Cosy Blankets and little hats
Cooking : Raspberries
Drinking : Tea
Reading: Lots this month - just finished "Not That Kind of Girl" by Lena Dunham
Wanting: more pretty plants in the house. Especially Succulents as I seem to be managing to keep them alive...
Looking: forward to a day at the seaside when the weather improves
Playing: "Cards Against Humanity"
Deciding: where to go for adventures
Wishing: cake had no calories...
Enjoying: a mix-tape from my husband
Waiting: for sunshine
Liking: dinosaurs 
Wondering: if learning to use a drop-spindle would lead on to harder-spinning-behaviour? Is it a gateway craft?
Loving: the summer's first beautiful orange roses
Pondering: new projects
Considering: what to read next
Buying: Moomin PJs and more thrifty bits and bobs
Watching: classic movies from my childhood - "Jurassic Park" and "Ghostbusters" mostly
Hoping: for more strawberries from the plants in my garden, they've been a bit sad so far...
Marvelling: at the amount of little hats that are arriving at my stall already!
Cringing: at how rubbish people can be to each other.
Needing: to sleep properly
Questioning: how fast time flies, how can the days be getting shorter already?
Smelling: the flowers in the garden and the Raspberry Crumble in the kitchen
Wearing: pretty Cath Kidston dresses and skirts 
Noticing: how friends become family and how we cross the paths of others
Knowing:
Thinking: that I can't wait to visit the Rob Ryan exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Admiring: beautiful blankets and crafty things online
Sorting: out bags of wool and 4mm knitting needles for our Big-Knit-Along!
Getting: excited for the Big-Knit-Along!
Bookmarking: crafty projects and patterns
Coveting: Cath Kidston dresses and PlayPurses (especially the yellow one...)
Disliking: grumpy people
Giggling: with my dear friends
Feeling: grateful, ever so grateful
Snacking: on "kid's tea" (©Amy H)of Quorn Chicken Nuggets and Potato Waffles
Helping: my sister get started with her new business and feeling ever so proud
Hearing: lots of pretty songs - I rather like Daughter, they have a nice song called "In the Shallows"

Thanks as always to lovely Pip at Meet Me At Mike's for this fabulously inspirational list!

My Weekend in the Big City

This weekend I packed my little red suitcase and I took myself off on a little jaunt to the big city. With my notebook and knitting in hand I set off on my way, dashing through the rain and hopping over puddles to the British Museum, where my adventures began...

In just one day, I travelled the world and explored treasures from every continent. I started in Ancient Greece, at the "Defining Beauty" exhibition, and then moved on to Korea, and then China and onwards to Japan. 

The cabinets full of tiny things are my favourites, so many precious little objects, ancient hand crafted loveliness. 

After a tea break, I carried on to Europe, taking a little wander around the pretty jewellery and ceramics. 

By the end of the day, I think I had been in every room of the Museum, and felt utterly worn out, and my poor little feet were aching, but I had a head full of absolutely amazing things. 

After a good nights sleep, my adventures continued with a trip down to Tate Britain. I had a jolly lovely time looking around the exhibitions, and the permanent collection. 

I am home from my adventures now, my suitcase is unpacked and my notebook is full of big ideas. It's nice to go away, but it's lovely to come home again.

My Week...

This week has been delightful, full of happy moments and time spent wisely enjoying the first bits of spring. Sunday was a day of gardening, taking time to have a little look at the plants peeping out, breathing in the fresh Spring air, and having a chat with the Chickens. They are quite rightly fed up of the grotty winter weather, and were very happily trotting around munching on the weeds that flew over the fence to them. 

There was a lovely little jaunt to the big city on Monday - my sister and I had an adventure in Liverpool, where we shopped, and had lots of tea and delicious cake. It was absolutely delightful. I had a couple of thrifty-finds in local shops, I picked up a peachy little vintage tin from the market, and some fabulous floral fabric from a charity shop - two of my favourite things. The week was topped off nicely with a train journey to another city, this time Birmingham, to spend the evening with the charismatic Morrissey. "Every Day is Like Sunday" was the encore, and I was so happy I could have burst. 

My Week...

Well, another week has flown by, and suddenly we're mid-way through March! The highlight of the week was a trip to Liverpool - we visited a rather lovely Moroccan restaurant and then spent the evening with Placebo, one of the bands I have loved since I was a teenager and of the utmost importance in the story of "us". 

The rest of the week was spent quietly crocheting and reading, spending rainy days at home with our feline friends, who found cosy places to curl up. As of this morning I have a new plant to take care of, a blue Hyacinth, from my lovely husband - it will live in my shop, and bring me good cheer as I go about my crafty makings. It's the little moments of happiness after all. 

2015 so far...

Here we are, halfway through a crispy January, and only now am I finding myself back into my daily routines. It was a delightful festive season, and I fully immersed myself into the holiday spirit, with plenty of crochet, reading and good food. I finished my granny-a-day blanket at a nicely cosy ninety squares, which is plenty big enough for my sofa, and began a new daily square blanket on 1st January. I took the plunge with rather large ambitions to make a Sunburst square for every day of 2015, the plan being a blanket that will be 16 squares by 23 squares, hopefully finishing up with a somewhat impressive 368 squares. I am holding out high hopes for this one, I really do want so much to complete a year long project. 

As is always the way, I was completely unable to get through a holiday without starting a new project, and I am very pleased to say that I finished it yesterday - a sunburst square cushion. It was a low-concentration stash-buster project, and I am rather pleased with it. 

Some of the other adventures from my holidays were passing my driving test on New Years Eve (a rather lovely way to end 2014), turning 30 on 8th January and the mountains of tea and cake that followed it, and being enlisted as Bridesmaid for one of my most wonderful friends - I am so terribly excited, I have never had the honour of being asked before, and I hope to do her proud.

I also had a splendid trip to London with my dear husband! We visited the British Museum for the Germany and Ming exhibitions, as well as the National Portrait Gallery for the Grayson Perry exhibition, which was fabulously inspiring. 

So I suppose that after all of those adventures, my plan to hibernate for the rest of January seems completely reasonable. 

Happy New Year lovely friends, I hope 2015 is a wonderful year for you!

My Week

As always I have found the week has passed me by in a whirlwind of adventures, beginning on Sunday with a trip up into the pretty Welsh hills to Ruthin Craft Centre for the beautiful Julie Arkell "Away" exhibition. I have loved her work since the first time I encountered it, feeling drawn in by her very unique style of nostalgia and sentimentality, and her unashamed thriftiness, keeping every little odd-and-end and finding a place for it somewhere. 

My second big adventure of the week was taking the train to Chester with one of my dearest dears for her Birthday shenanigans. There was sock knitting on the train, vintage shopping, dress buying (Cath Kidston sale dress, it would have been rude not to...) much, much tea drinking and cherry scones that were so large that we were somewhat shocked. The other highlights of the week have been flowers from husband "to make our place nice", kittens discovered in a pile, crochet procrastination and postal My Little Pony loveliness from another of my dearies with a sweet Blythe doll postcard. I am truly so very lucky to have so many sweet dearies in my life. 

My Week...

It has been a week of delightful adventures, cake and craftiness. There was a trip to the seaside on Sunday, with a visit to Oriel Mostyn, and a splendid mooch along the seafront. I always enjoy the quaintness, and the peachy pastelness of the hotels. There was also a little bit of time for a trip to Chester, and one to Liverpool, for shopping and festive present buying, and regular tea and cake breaks. 

 



On Thursday one of my dearest, sweetest friends visited, and as always it was like we'd never been apart. There was a wander up to the old castle mound in Oswestry, and a visit to two of my favourite tea rooms and the gallery. It was a splendid day and reminded me yet again of the loyalty from my foul-weather friend that I am more grateful for than I have words to explain.

My personal crafty endeavours this week have mostly been the progress of my latest pair of Frankensocks, squares for my mood blanket and a dainty little crocheted flower. The flower pattern came from a book that had belonged to my Great-Grandmother. It was an opportunity to connect with a lady of whom I have only the vaguest recollections, mostly where dots have been joined by the people that knew her, through their stories and anecdotes. I cherish the idea that I sat working through a pattern that she herself may have tried, wondering if she stumbled at the same points, if she would have found my "magic ring" adaptation interesting or if she stuck rigidly to the instructions. I felt a heavy sense of missing out on the chance to spend time with a kindred spirit, but that I am joined to her with the knowledge that she may have taught my gran to knit, and that she in-turn taught me - the passing of skills from generation to generation. 

Off on an Adventure

London is one of my most favourite places to visit, and I'm lucky to spend so much time there. Our little adventure started on Saturday, here are some of my favourite moments...

Sunday at Tate Modern for Matisse and Malevich, followed by a visit to the Twinings shop and museum.

Monday at the London aquarium followed by the V&A Disobedient Objects exhibition, particularly liked the Guerilla Girls section, and the "Nike Blanket" petition. We had a mooch around Covent Garden too, it's a lovely place.

I love the aquarium, it's a curious and interesting environment, so different to the every day experience. 

And on Tuesday we had a second visit to the Harry Potter Studio Tour, and it is absolute happiness. 

It's back to normal today, in my stall chatting to lovely customers, and working on pompoms for Big Knit hats!

A Visit to Ruthin

I love to visit quaint little towns, and one of my favourites is Ruthin in North Wales. It's an old town, with a castle and a gaol, and lots of lovely shops, but my first stop is always the Craft Centre. It's an Applied Arts gallery, full of beautiful objects and exhibitions from a variety of disciplines, and is always very inspiring.

The special exhibition was "As William Morris Said..." inspired by the quote -

"Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." William Morris

I particularly liked the ceramics by Derek Wilson, in tones of grey and white, with some lovely yellows. I think personally I am drawn more to colours and patterns than the more utilitarian, minimalistic work in this exhibition, but it was interesting nonetheless. 

As well as the main exhibition, there is a Willow installation that fills the entire of Gallery 2, called "Inundation". It really is amazing, such a massive expanse and filling so much space, but still so open and airy.

The town itself is lovely too, and I always enjoy pottering around the charity shops, antique centre and the yarn shop, where I gave into temptation and bought three skeins of beautiful sock yarn. And of course there was cake, because it seemed rude not to...

In Search of Giants

I've had many strange and whimsical journeys, but this was one of the most magical of all...

The Giants were charming and absolutely delightful, it was surreal and wonderful. 

Welcome

Well, hello there! I guess the best place for me to start is with introductions. My name is Gemma, and I am a full-time crafty-maker. My alter-ego is gemmipop, of gemmipop designs, the name of my little crafty business, which is based in Oswestry Market. But this is a home for some of my other adventures - a little nook for me to share my love of making and visiting nice places and doing interesting things, usually involving tea, and probably cake. 

The boundaries between work-craftiness and personal-craftiness are often rather blurry, because I really do just love making things. It started when I was quite young - I was always working on some little project, mostly made from cardboard and paper (for example, I made a zoo and an aquarium...) but my favourite thing was knitting, only row after row of garter stitch but it felt like the world. My gran taught me to knit, I was about seven years old at the time, and I had little green knitting needles with apples on the tops, and stripey-rainbow yarn. 

These days I crochet more than knit (although I always have socks on the needles!), and I love making blankets and pretty things to hang around the house. I live with my husband, as well as three cats, two Budgies and two chickens, and we have a pretty cosy little life.
When I'm not making things, I like to read - Jon Ronson's "The Psychopath Test" has been my favourite book of the year so far although I usually go for fiction. I love to visit art galleries and museums, and try to go to new places whenever I can! I also enjoy mooching around Charity shops for crafty materials, kitsch ornaments and vintage toys - a vice of mine that I don't think I'll ever grow out of!
So, that's me - Hello!