Hello. I'm back.
Sunday I dragged Mikey to Hampton Court for the Handmade fair, which was great. Getting the 0630 Megabus was not so fun, but at least it was the Gold version, so we embraced the sense of adventure and were on our way with a complimentary muffin and bottle of water.
Hampton court is beautiful, and possibly the best part of it was the surroundings.
It was hard to imagine what it would be like as I'm pretty sure it's the first handmade fair to be held, and I was a bit concerned it would be really corporate (especially as it was sponsored by hobbycraft) but it wasn't. The majority of the stall holders were genuine small businesses. There were two large tents of stall holders, selling all sorts of handmade goodies, with quite a few fabric and wool venders.....it was quite overwhelming even. And there was A LOT of girls - poor Mikey.
We missed our first skills class unfortunately, but went to the Annie Sloan Chalk paint demonstration. Where we were guided through painting a candle stick.
It was fairly simple - i mean.....most people know how to use a paintbrush don't they?! But it was inspiring, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to start painting random bits of furniture around the house now. And I really liked Annie herself, especially when her answer to the question 'how do you clean/care for the furniture in the long run?' Was along the lines of....'I don't really think about that.....I guess I'm a bad person, but life is too short for stuff like that.' I like your attitude Annie Sloan!
Now Tilly was there, but I was too shy to say hello....and she was very busy teaching her sewing class. But we got this stalkerish photo, as proof of seeing her.
Other famous sewists spotting.....I also saw Lisa comfort off of Sew over it in the toilets. Pretty darn exciting.
On the way home we stopped off in clapham junction and went to this lovely coffee place called The birdhouse and had a lovely cup of tea.
All in all - a delightful day out.