Christmas Shop in Pen-y-Lan

My last weekend was fab. For the 1st time I had been participating in the Christmas Shop sales in Pen-y-Lan (see the earlier post). The whole selling-buying machinery started on Friday with the opening, mulled wine and carolers but it was last Saturday morning when I and my other better half turned up in person there. On a chilly Saturday morning we were greeted by a line of cars trailing a long way away from the place where the shop was set up. ("Look! Everybody's queuing to buy your stuff!" - my bf loves to tease me :D I did hope so!)

The big marquee was set up additionally to a small room in a building where the crafts were displayed.

 

Inside there was a big array of hand-made artefacts of all sorts from over 30 local crafters in North Wales.  18 of my own items went on sale there. A few sold. Good :)

There were also the tables tops and chairs to sit and have a sip of tea or coffee and munch the mincemeat pies.

 

I loved all the decorations - perfect for Christmas gifts and the displays were good too. The idea was: the items for sale were all mixed together so I was finding my stuff being displayed in all corners but this makes the whole thing a lot more interesting. You never know what you may find on shelves round the corner. 

I loved that tree with ceramic decorations. The two white ceramic birds came home with me :)

I just loved this folksy jug. Sadly, this one wasn't for sale.

Found my painted glass among the other items too! :)

... and spotted some of my seasonal pictures and votives ...inside the display room

 

There were lots of chunky wooden ornaments - reindeer, star, Christmas trees, birds, angels and votives. The stock from that crafter must have been massive as it outnumbered all the others.

The display room had some hanging decorations with Christmas lights and some metal / glass clanging items...

In the middle - the table with more stuff displayed and walked around by customers...

I absolutely adored those machine-sewn purses and pouches with the woodlife. Soft, cosy and tweedy foxes, squirrels and owls...  just right for this time of year :)

This cute purse with the cat in red hat has been mine now! Just couldn't leave without one!

The boss being busy at the till :) Nice when the money flows and customers leave happy.

The event proved to be a success and received a lot of public attention. Apparently it has been the 3rd one and the biggest one so far. Let's hope Lisa, the boss, will keep it up in the future. Would love to see more of these.

Woohoo!

Last week the Amazon shop made my day - they had emailed me about the new book of Arne and Carlos being on pre-order and released sooner than I expected. I was delighted at the opportunity of not having to wait until February 2013 for the English version of "the Easter project book". A few days later this fabulous book arrived at my doorstep! Woohooo! So long and impatiently awaited and finally mine! 

Voile! Easter Knits. Eggs, Bunnies and Chicks - with a fabulous twist by Arne & Carlos - famous Scandinavian knitwear designers and authors of knitted balls. 

 

And this is what you can find inside the book - knitted Easter balls, eggs, bunnies, cosies and chicks. All fresh, vibrant with colours and bringing freshness and joy to your spring house. I shall surely be knitting those Easter balls and eggs away as soon as the Christmas season is over :))) Can't wait!!!

Oh! I can't wait to knit those eggs!

Isn't that tree with Easter balls and eggs great? :)

On the Christmas frontline - I'm obviously working on my next few Christmas balls and the Nordic stocking sampler. A new line of cross stitch has been added - the line with the birds ...

... and I started to stitch the new line of Christmas trees.

Now, the bottom part of the stocking is starting to emerge.. Still plenty to go!

Back to my knitting. Hope your weekend is going well. x x x

ps. Welcome my new likers :)

Winter Sampler finished!

Ta dah! My winter sampler on the navy background has been finished! Pleased with the overall effect  and now on the lookout for a nice frame :) This is what it looks like when taken off the stitching frame (not washed or ironed yet).

No time to waste! In the meantime I started another Nordic project (suprise! suprise!) :P This is going to be a personalised Nordic stocking with my name. My first project on the red aida  too. 

Loved stitching the little hearts as much as the mittens. Each element of a sampler is a separate bit of fun to stitch. There is symmetry and regularity here. You just go line after line adding little elements to your project and it's convenient to stop between the lines. This is a great thing I love about cross stitch samplers. Easy and pleasant to make, yet charming :)

Also been working on my next woolly balls. Currently knitting my 47th / 55 :) Not far to go! Almost there!

The news of this week for me is this:

Thanks to my friend, Grażyna (dzięki!!) , I've been introduced to a lady running this lovely Christmas shop and this year my glass painted pieces will be sold there for the first time. What a fab start to the coming Christmas season! This shop opens only once a year but this year it will be selling for two days due to its growing popularity. If you live in the area of Pen-y-Lan / Wrexham, do pop in for your Christmas shopping. There will be plenty of  beautiful hand-made crafts to buy as presents. I'm very excited to go there!

Time for Hand-made Monday. Joining a bunch of talented crafters. Head over and see what they have been up to.

Now, gotta go and get ready for work. Will be visiting your blogs in the afternoon, when I'm back :) Have a good day, everyone! x x