My Lovely Weekend

What a lovely way to spend the weekend!  It felt a lot like this was the beginning of a new chapter in the life of Redeem Creations.  Over the last ten years I have brought five children into the world - which has without doubt been the most creative challenge of my life! (And will always be!)  One of the challenges has been laying down Redeem each time a new baby was on his way - never quite getting a good enough "run" at it to do it the way I wished I could.  I've learned so much about myself and how to keep creativity alive over this time and I'm sure I will continue to do so and one of the greatest joys is sharing my passion for making things with my children.

This weekend felt like the first time I have been able to think cohesively about my collection of handmade things and how I wanted to present them.  It felt good to bring it all together!

My lovely friend, Esther and I had such fun, setting up the stall (Can't get away from that little girl feeling of playing shop, even at 37!), and chatting with customers and each other.

It was also great to meet some fellow makers - like Nerys, my new blogging friend who makes the most beautiful things from up cycled paper, buttons and maps.  Not only were Nerys's things utterly lovely - but the lady herself was funny and friendly.  I'm adding her blog to my daily reads - so you can have a peek too!  I do hope we bump into each other again sometime soon!

A Nerys creation

The weekend would not have been half as nice without our supply of tea and cakes from the ladies at "The Tea Set" cafe, set in one of the barns.   It's rare to get such a lovely cuppa at things like this, but it didn't disappoint - and the cakes....oh my goodness!  Delicious!  All served up from the beautiful pop up cafe in the yard, complete with vintage china, bunting, 1950s aprons and beaming smiles.  Just what you hope for and the finishing touch to such a lovely event.  Hannah, who is the lady behind The Tea Set has a fantastic website, well worth a look, over here.  Perfect to sit down and have a secret sigh over in your afternoon tea break. Aaaaaah....pretty things......

It was also a treat to peruse the pretty things on the Cinnamon Kids stall - a delectable mix of handmade goodies and vintage china, books, toys and trinkets.  I may have spent a few pounds here, but I'm not telling......

And - meet the lovely Becky on her stall for GirlsTravelClub - a great mix of travel accessories and gifts - so much to take in, I may have to spend a while on her website, seeing which Christmas list boxes I can tick!

some of the lovely things from girlstravelclub

OK, so it was a fab weekend - my stall looked the way I had hoped it would, people seemed to love the things I had made, I met some like minded makers, spent some quality time with a good friend, even purchased a couple (or three...or four) little things myself - which I PROMISE I will be giving away for Christmas.  Honest!  All in all - it felt like the perfect way to kick off the new chapter of Redeem Creations.  One in which I work terrifically hard, but get to do something I LOVE with a passion.  Talking of which - I ought to be out in my studio right now, making more Teeny Totes to replace the ones that have found new homes!!!

Teeny Tote "kits" ready to be sewn up

A little mention finally for my gorgeous little Noah, who turned 3 on Sunday and celebrated with a "Mike the Knight" cake, finished by mummy at about 11.30pm on Saturday night!  Phew!  He is our ray of sunshine.

P.S. Thanks to everyone who helped me get to last weekend and thanks to everyone who keeps encouraging me to go for it.  It really does keep me going at midnight, when I'm stitching up the 27th bag in a row!

XXXXXXX

Just a minute!

I've just got a few moments before cooking dinner with my lovely husband to show you a couple of things....

It has been another packed weekend and in amongst the getting ready for shows, I had the pleasure of creating a special cake for a special person.  One of the loveliest people I know turned 60 on Friday and I was asked to make a cake in honour of this momentous occasion.  The cake itself is a whimsical tribute to the farm diversification that is going on over his way at the moment in the form of six huge lakes for breeding carp.  Hopefully his two grandchildren enjoyed being featured along side their grandad on the cake too!

I have also been working round the clock (almost - but it does feel that way!) on all sorts of things for shows over the next few weeks - the first of these being this weekend.  If you have a look at the side bar, you can catch up with where I am selling.  I have also included a link to my facebook page, where you can have a peek at a few of the items I have for sale.

Suffice to say, after a busy weekend, full to the brim with family and friends and one thing after the next - we are heading into another even busier week.  But, hey - that seems to be the way we do things round here and one day I will stop saying to myself, "Once I get this out the way, I'll have a rest!" 

I am properly blessed to have such a busy time of it - and I do love it really!  There's a blog post in there for another time - when I'm not so hungry, and the pasta doesn't smell so enticing!!!! 

XXXXXXX

P.S.  Sorry about the rambling nature of this post - as you can tell, I'm a little tired!

Celebrations

What a lovely thing it is to create something special for someone. Something that will make them smile.


This last week I have had the pleasure of creating two such things, one of which will hopefully have caused a a few giggles and added to the festivities of a 70th birthday party.


What a privilege to hand over a cake to someone, knowing that it will help create the memories that family will cherish for years to come. I hope you all enjoyed eating it as much as I did creating it for you. Happy Birthday!


My second opportunity to bless (and surely this is what life is for?) was for my lovely newest nephew on the occasion of his dedication.

Three years ago this coming January, my wonderful Dad went to be with his Creator. Some people travel through this life lightly, and dad did. He didn't leave us much that the rest of the world would count as valuable, but goodness me, he left us so rich.

His three children all have beautiful families now, and we each have one child who was born after he died. I have been realising a lot recently that there is comfort in the knowledge that although they may never have met this wonderful man, they will know him through the homes they live in, the way they are brought up gently, the creativity that oozes from every corner of their living spaces, the way problems are overcome, the things we say and do without knowing and the inheritance of our family history (and I don't mean the superficial "who married who", but the much deeper bonds of how we loved each other and built our memories together).


It was an absolute honour to present my brother's boy with our dedication present to him. I had a special time reading through my dad's letters to me - of which there are many, and picking out the words I wanted to give little J. He is welcome to use them too - they are big enough to share! These are words of comfort, encouragement and love from my Dad, embroidered into a cushion made with a remnant from one of his shirts. I hope that as J grows, he will understand these words more and more, in different ways and that they will comfort him and spur him on.
Maybe they will be a comfort to you too?


I've also been thinking about you - yes, I mean YOU.

We are all creative in some way, whether it be baking, fixing things, gardening, sewing, problem solving, encouraging words - whatever - no-one goes without the gift of creativity in this life. Whatever your gift is - why not think about using it to make some one's day? Sometimes we shy away from giving in this way because we think it's not what people want, or we're not quite good enough at doing it. Let me reassure you - the gift of creative thoughtfulness will always touch someone deeply, and perhaps the way you have gone beyond your comfort zone in giving it, will make it even more special to the recipient.

Go on - give the gift of creativity.

What Summer afternoons are made for

Where is the best place to spend a lovely, sunny afternoon like today? At the beach, of course! Yesterday was a busy day, full of various men of the family climbing under poorly cars, children climbing over my poor sofas (soon to be recovered, once R is a bit further through the sticky finger phase) and me climbing the mountain of decorating another cake! It's not a mountain because I dislike cake decorating, just that decorating said cake in small kitchen whilst also trying to cook dinner/get drinks for everyone/trip over R or the contents of the cupboard he has just emptied, can be a challenge lets say!

Anyway, the cake was safely delivered to its recipient, to be enjoyed at a family birthday party. Phew! It went out of the front door safely! I hope it went down well with the birthday boy!
On that subject, if you'd like me to make a cake for you - I'd love to! Just contact me for details I am going to add a cakes gallery page too, so take a look.



Today was much more like holiday. Brunch for around 20ish at our place - lovely! The a trip to Brighton to pick up our new kiddie trailer for the bike. Picnic bike rides, here we come! We drove on to find the lovely little pebble beach at Rottingdean - a really sweet little place which the children loved. It's simple pleasures like this that make all the hard work worthwhile. They were completely happy climbing, splashing and frolicking (funny word, but just right) on the beach. R really enjoyed getting wet too.



N and I made some more pictures with pebbles on the huge granite rock sea breakers. Aren't the colours amazing! Beautiful. He's pretty precise and decisive for a 2 year old, and we made circles, flowers and fish for a little while together.



All in all, a perfect day. I hope yours was too, however you spent it.

The End of a LONG LIST!

Back in April, my lovely hubby helped me write a plan to get through the next few months of craziness, to include 3 birthday parties, a wedding, a stall at the Fete in the Park and all the other stuff that life throws at you! Today was the final thing to check off that list - number One's Birthday Party.


In true C style, he wanted not only a Harry Potter Party, but a party in the woods, with 11 friends. So, by borrowing Nanny and Grandads' super Camper van (with the all important toilet!), we were able to provide such a party! All day we looked out of the window, wondering whether to cancel, whether to decamp to the Youth Club (cool, but not very Potterish), or whether to go for it and hope all the other kids were as up for getting wet as C was! In the end, we decided to trust the weather forecast and go for it - and a little miracle happened - for 3 hours straight, after wind and rain, the sun shone in the woods and the children ran around like spring lambs!



I have to say, I found it hard to get this party together in my head - such fun, a Harry Potter party - so much inspiration to draw on, but I just couldn't get it straight in my head. Maybe it was the hundred other things I was trying to do at the same time!



In the end, we had a lovely time, Jonny did a brilliant treasure hunt around the "Forbidden Forest" and we had some fun games and food. The babies survived their two hours in the confines of the Camper van and had a lovely time with nanny - after romping about in their wet weather gear and jumping in as many puddles as they could find!

So, the list is at and end, but as you know, there are always more things being added than taken away - and actually in less than two weeks my good friend Jo and I are running the inaugural workshops of our new venture, Make Space. So on Monday morning, I will be sitting down once again with a cuppa and a new list.