craft fair and more

The craft fair is over!! Here's a photo of my stall, last Sunday.

It was a good day, very busy and with pretty good sales. I must admit I find it a bit stressful getting organised, coping with my expectations, and feeling exposed sitting there with my art. Hopefully the more I do it the more I can relax and enjoy... This time I made the mistake of letting all my kids stay for the second half after dropping in for lunch, and they drove me round the bend!! Just too hot and too tired to deal with them by then. Oh well, you live and learn.

Here's a photo (taken by my son) of one of two pineapples we grew in the front yard - which have been guzzled, very sweet and beautiful! All the family love them so we've planted all the 'slips' (little shoots that grow off the bottom of the pineapple) so hopefully we'll have ten to eat next year.

Bye for now, have a great weekend!

Reasons to be cheerful

(The title of this blog post shows I'm an Ian Dury fan from way back.)

First reason to be cheerful, is we have two pineapple plants flowering. Growing pineapples in the tropics is easy, but only for the patient! You just cut off the top of a pineapple, plant it in the garden, water it now and again, and wait...a couple of years...

Here are the plants, about thigh high,

and the beautiful spiky flowers nestled inside that should be fruit by christmas. I'm also waiting with bated breath for 3 eggplant flowers to open. Fingers crossed they won't just drop off like the tomato flowers did.

The second reason is these gorgeous embroidery threads that I couldn't resist at the dollar shop. I don't do much sewing, even less embroidery... I'll probably sit and look at them for a while, maybe steal the colour combinations for some of my paintings.

The third reason is this inspiring new book I picked up at the library - Eco books by Terry Taylor, it shows you how to make books from recycled materials, there are 40 projects to try, some simple, some too complicated for my limited bookbinding experience! I'm having a go at a fabric covered one and I'll let you know how I get on.