And yet more news......

Two posts in one day eh?!! Actually in one evening!!!! So please scroll down to catch up with everything else we have been up to!
On Bank Holiday Monday we went to Kelmarsh Country Fair. We had intended to take the two dogs but as I woke up feeling a little under the weather, throat wise, i decided against it. Which was probably just as well really.
There was so much to see.
The working dog arena was obviously very interesting especially the chap with the working cocker spaniels. He had two little ten week old puppies that he was teaching to fetch and then a few just over a year old (about Louis' age) that were doing so brilliantly, it made Louis look unruly!!! Which he isn't. It's just that he is a family pet, not a working dog, but it showed that he has the potential to be a good gun dog if we so wished, as he has all the good characteistics that th eman was talking about.
My favourite part of the show was the rope worker, John Kemp. He was amazing! The stuff he made was brilliant and he was really funny too. The sign outside his tent said,'John Kemp, ropeworker and complete knotter'!!!!
And he was! I just wondered how many people walked past his tent, or even went into it without recognising it as a joke!
He was making net bags while we were there, and he some lovely canvas pokes on display that he made. They were £15 and he said they took him about 45 mins or so to make. Brilliant. He had rope dog leads, table mats, floor mats and he also makes knives.
But the best thing he made? It was a fabulous canvas bucket with a wooden base. The stitching was just so perfect and it was just so beautifully made. He said it took him a day to make one of those, and so for obvious reasons were not for sale unless you had LOTS of money to burn! Which we do not. So I am trying to convince him to do me a tutorial!!!!
Next door to him was a wood turner making bowls, which was equally as fascinating but not as entertaining! He had some lovely bits for sale, but I have a Jonathan and a Rob, and so will not buy one until I am sure I cannot make a bowl maker out of one of them!!
There were birds of prey and an unusual animal stand. David was enthralled by the Boa Constrictor, scorpion, hissing cockroaches and the gecko. We spent a long while there while he asked questions. My favourite there? The pygmy goats of course!!!
The day inspired a few books from the library last week....
Knots and ropework
Bags
Long netting and net making
Lost crafts
Kids costumes
Renewable energy...as always!!

The knots and ropework is of course interesting, but it wasn't the one that I really wanted. Why is it that all the books I want are never in the library? Only available on Amazon or the like? Typical, but some things to have a go at never the less.
The bags book has some interesing ideas for bags. No canvas pokes or buckets LOL None in there that I would actually make but a few ideas I could poach for my own designs. I like the knitted bags but I am not sure about their longevity for little boys!! So I have ideas for using old jeans...watch this space!
The kids costumes was full of fairy outfits and pirates, furry animal costumes and nativity play robes. Which is about the only bit (bizarrely!!) that was of any use!!!

I'm halfway through a pair of socks, I have just finished a bag for granny like the one I made for Eve and I have made another waldorf first doll for a friend whose first baby was born last Thursday.
BUT.....
I bought the material for David's wizarding robe a few weeks ago now and hadn't got around to starting it. Its a little scary! I had the idea. Drew up some rough plans and got excited, as it seemed a fairly simple concept. Then I bought the material and reality kicked in!!!
The plans look like this.....



















But I eventually took the plunge after reading the kids costumes book. I made a pattern from the wallpaper that Will uses on his easel for painting, and just went for it!!! I cut out the material, pinned it together and tacked it. And then Tom fetched this down from the loft!















It isn't perfect. It isn't quite finished (button and badge to go) but it does resemble a robe and I am secretly very pleased with it. Well, maybe not so secretly now!!!!
I'll try to post a photo as soon as I finish it and can get David to model for me!!

William has been painting while tea was cooking.....

It's Annie!!!! Can you tell?



















And I say while tea was cooking, but actually it was Jonathan who cooked tea in the end. He wanted sausages and I hate frying.

LOL!!!!!!!!!
















Tom is away at the moment. He left on Friday night last week to go to Holland with Explorers. They are cycling across the country on their own, with their leaders driving support vehicles and meeting them at each checkpoint!!! They have to gather information along th eway from various places to put together a presentation when they get back. It is part of their Explorer belt wawrd. So exciting and a wonderful opportunity. He had to get some sponsors to help fund the trip and a fair amount of that came from his off road forum friends. We had some Euros left over from a holiday to France in 2004 and so he had some spending money too!
I am keeping up with their progress on twitter and hope to plot a map with his route to show that younger ones where he has been. I might try to post it on here if I can!!!
David had a different swimming teacher last week. A young man. David was very apprehensive at first as he had not had a male teacher before, but he soon got used to him and had the best lesson ever in the end!!! He has been struggling with his butterfly stroke for a good few months now. He just can't seem to get it right. This young man obviously explained it differently, and in one lesson he had pretty much got it!!!!
I was thrilled and David was buzzing afterwards! I spoke to the young man to thank him and he said that David was a natural at butterfly, and that he should know, because he's a flyer!!! It took me a few moments to work out what that meant, but eventually the penny droppped!! So needless to say, David would like to change teachers now. Progress is being made, folks, progress is being made.