Snowshill Manor & Garden

The weekend before last, on a beautiful Autumn morning, we decided to hop in the car and drive somewhere new.  We ended up in the Cotswold's visiting Snowshill Manor.  

The manor houses the extraordinary collection of Charles Wade.  Comprising of thousands of things, from spinning wheels, keys, and clocks, to musical instruments, Samurai armour and Chinese picnic boxes.  Every room is crammed full of treasures from all over the World.  

The gardens are very pretty too.

On the day we visited, there was also an Apple Festival going on.  Over 400 varieties were on display.

Instead of Apple Bobbing, they held an Apple Fishing competition.

Here are just a few photos of the treasures inside the house.  You'll have to excuse the quality of some of them. Unfortunately, there wasn't that much natural light available.

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Have you ever seen so many spinning wheels all in one place before?  

This is Charles Wade's bedroom. He didn't actually live in the Manor House, but in a quaint little Priest's House with only a few rooms.

This is part of a quilled picture.  It was really hard to photograph as it was behind glass and housed in a very dingy room.  It's absolutely amazing.  I dread to think how many hours of work went into this piece.

Hope you enjoyed that little trip.

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Who's been spending money?

I want to start off today by saying a huge thank you to you all for the lovely comments, and encouragement you left on my previous post.  

Right then, I've so much to share with you.  I think I'll start by telling you about my new knitting project.

It's called Viajante, designed by Martina Behm.  You can find the pattern here on Ravelry.

As you can see, I purchased some beautiful Malabrigo Lace from Loveknitting.com.

And, didn't it all come prettily packaged?

I picked a shade called Hollyhock - isn't it lovely?

I wanted something to take with me to college and in to school to keep my fingers busy of a lunchtime.  I've had so many approving ahhhh's and oooohs from teachers and my fellow students.  It always amazes me how many people seem to love the thought of knitting as it brings back memories of grandparents and childhood, but can't or don't knit themselves.  I wonder if I've inspired a few to take it up.  Wouldn't that be lovely?

My Chocolate Brownies have also been going down a storm in the Staff Room at school, and I daren't not take any in.  I've actually been baking a fresh batch this morning, all ready for tomorrow.

Next up, I want to share with you a few recent purchases I've made.

You all know of my love for Foxes, so when I spotted this picture above by Stan Kaminski at a local fair I couldn't resist buying it.

Then, whilst browsing through Folksy, as you do, I spotted this lovely print by Lyndsey Green.  

I can't wait to get both of these framed and hung on the wall.

I also bought this little print for Violet's bedroom off Etsy.

It's by Danielle Barlow.  As I'm sure you can imagine, Violet absolutely loves it, and it looks so pretty hanging on her bedroom wall.

Do you know Beth, from The Linen Cat?  Well, if you don't, please make time to go over to her lovely shop and have a browse around.  Beth makes the most wonderful things.  She also has a lovely blog - please pop over if you have time and say hello.

Recently, Beth stocked her little shop with some Halloween inspired creations.  I knew instantly that I needed to buy one, but I couldn't make up my mind which one to choose.  The Green Witch, Dracula or The Lady Vampire!  All three were wonderful, but I ended up choosing The Lady Vampire.  Unfortunately for me, Violet claimed it as soon as I'd opened the box.

She already owns a few of Beth's other creations, including this Ballerina Mouse.  

According to Violet, these two are cousins.  

I never would have thought that a little Vampire Mouse would bring such joy to a six year old, but Vampire Mouse has been everywhere with her (excluding school).  Vampire Mouse accompanied us all when we visited the Cotswolds on Sunday, and sleeps in bed with Violet at night. 

I may have made the mistake of then showing Violet the Green Witch and Dracula............. I can feel my purse getting a little lighter!!

Hopefully, I'll be back here with you all again on Thursday.

Wishing you all the very best.

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Hello stranger

Well, hello there.

Sorry for the long absence.

The thing is, I've gone back to college to study to become a Teaching Assistant.  I've also decided to do a functional maths course as it's been 27 years since I passed my GCSE, so thought I needed a refresher.

As you can imagine there's some (A LOT) of homework involved, which I'm totally not used to doing.  I've had to re-engage my brain, and it's not liking it.

I've got a placement in a school for a day and a half each week, working with Reception children (ages 4-5). It's full on, but I'm loving it.

Needless to say, I've had no time to do any sewing or crafting, which is a real shame, but my course won't last forever, and I'll get back to it all at some point. Though I have managed to start a new knitting project, which I'll tell you about next time.

Today, I want to share something that happened recently, and which I can't seem to get over the shock of.

My brother came across an old photograph that somebody had posted in a Facebook page for the town we grew up in.  

The photographer appears to have gone outside to take a photo of a hot air balloon in the sky.  Nothing unusual about that I hear you say.  The thing is, the two people that he's also managed to capture in the photo are my parents.  

I'd literally never seen this image before, so when I saw it I felt like I'd been hit in the chest with a bullet.

 Because they've been caught on camera without it being in anyway staged, it shows them in their everyday life.  The way my mum is standing I found particularly upsetting because this is the way she always stood.  It's these kinds of mannerisms that I'll never forget about my mum and dad.

It must have been taken in the 60's.  That's even their first car in the photo.

Everything about this photograph has just blown me away.  It had the same effect on my mum's youngest sister when I sent it to her.  

Has anything like this ever happened to you?

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