Our lovely camperbug!

My partner has nursed an obsession for all things old and vw for most of his life having placed his name and number under the windscreen wiper of various objects of desire a number of times with the note " Dear Owner, If you ever think of selling this vehicle....". Well, the chickens came home to roost a few weeks ago when he got a phonecall from a campervan owner who had kept his note from three years ago! Various discussions on pros and cons of buying said vehicle commenced and to cut a long story short we are now the proud owners of a 1971 Bay windowed Dormobile van and I have to say I think she is a beauty!

The plan is to have her looked over by the garage who will also fit rear seat belt and new upper level bunks in teal canvas then take her on a summer camping adventure! After that she should be for rent. All very exciting!

European Street Team Winner!

Congratulations to Star of the East for the gorgeous Circus Bag which wins the European Street Team Challenge this time - I love it! It totally catches the mood of Circus whilst also being super stylish.

New Etsy Street Team Challenge

My Rainbow necklace won the Street Team Challenge hosted by Dina Fragola last week so now I get the chance to pick the new theme!

Inspiration for my challenge idea comes from a trip out into the beautiful English countryside last weekend where I went to see the wonderful Giffords Circus. They tour villages greens of the West Country over the summer season bringing a magical musical extravaganza of a show with a different story to tell each year with stunning costumes, music and acts. So my challenge for the Street Team is going to be C I R C U S.

This years Giffords is based on `War and Peace' but other themes have included the life of Jasmine Smart and Caravan wonderful images of which can be seen at talented photographer, Andrew Rees' website
The challenge is to run for two weeks so I pick the winner on the 18th July with last entries in by midnight on the 17th.

Etsy Street Team Challenge

Rushing to make a twelfth hour entry for the Etsy Street Team Challenge which is `Rainbow' set by last times winner Dina Fragola. I have made a cotton crochet necklace. See what you think...

More images available on my Etsy website

Holidays!

Just returned from a batch of holidays with Easter and the Royal Wedding/Bank holiday weekend. I haven't been able to do much felt making so have been working on some much more transportable crochet jewellery instead including my first ever Glow in the Dark item ! We spent a couple of days in Brussels which was fantastic - a doddle to get to from London on the Eurostar and full of so many beautiful art nouveau buildings!

We were lucky enough to turn up outside one of the best, Maison Ct Cyr, just as someone who has just refurbished the facade turned up to give a talk to a group about the difficulties and dilemas of the project. One of the issues was apparently whether to return the building to its original colour palette which included the pale green metalwork rather than the black you can see in earlier photos. Another high spot was stumbling across The Sequence by Arne Quinze close to our hotel - gorgeous!

High adrenalin

Extreme sports are not really my bag...at all in fact. However I found myself given the opportunity to try out the new Olympic White Water Course in an inflatable raft last week and for some obscure reason felt I couldn't say no even though I would normally prefer to eat my own shoes than engage in such an activity...Anyway here it is looking quite modest when you are not actually in it! I also show a shot of the thing as it fills up - obviously when not in use the water drains away which reveals curious blocks under the surface which help create the gushing waterfall effect over the 5.5 metre drop. The totally dry course shown at the bottom is the mini- version known as the Legacy loop.

The building itself, by Faulkner Browns is great - a great big folded wave - seen here with the conveyor belt in the foreground. This drags you and your boat back up to the top once you've been round the circuit.

It opens for business this month from the 22nd when you can go rafting or Kayaking if you pass the requirements so get down there!

Blue

I have mixed feelings about bedding plants - they can look great - but not always for me. I had to kill some time in Greenwich last week and ended up strolling through the park where they have cut out giant circles here and there in the grass in what looks like no particular order. They have then filled them with a mass of all one, or occasionally two, types of really bright flower so that the overall effect is quite abstract. The results are spectacular with the added bonus particularly when walking past the hyacinth beds of a blast of glorious scent. I particularly liked these blue ones...