Hello there, hope you are all well and happy and in fine Xmas crafting mode!

Ellie and I have had a lovely week, she came home on Weds and we hit the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching show where more wonderful fabric was acquired plus some fab buttons, more of that later.

Today we have been at my second Xmas Craft Fair at Oakwell Hall -a beautiful 17th century house and country park near me. Pics of the hall can be found in my posts here and here, today I was in the barn selling my wares and we had a lovely day.

We sold lots of the hearts and some stockings and baubles. not many gift bags (which sold really well last year which was why I made more this year) but had a really nice time chatting to people and it was very nice spreading the Xmas ornie love.

One gentleman was very kind, he bought one of my baubles saying he always bought something special every year for his tree and  he said how lucky I was to be able to be creative which I heartily agree with.

I think anyone can do it given the space to and I think like most things it increases with practise. Most of what I do is unplanned, I spread all my fabrics and ribbon around me and just combine things until I am happy with the result.

Here are some pics of my stall, apologies the light was not very good.

Now for the fabric – I have been looking at lots of home mags and ornies in the shops and have noticed the Scandinavian style ornies are very popular so am going to extend my range for next year. I do mainly make very traditional ornies in traditional red, green and gold but have previously made silver, blue and purple as commissions but I do really like the simpler style ornies – I just really struggle with the idea of minimalism! It is the medieval re-enactor in me where everything has to be OTT but I am hoping I can restrain myself here.

I have bought beautiful red, white and silver prints with Xmas motifs on.

And snowflake fabric to back red felt hearts which I will decorate with snowflake buttons – complete with coordinating ribbon.

I have also stayed true to my roots and bought this additional Makower fabric to go with the stocking prints I already have.

And some lovely ribbons!

Then there are the buttons. I have been to button heaven – most of these were from the Stitch Witch’s stand  and they are gorgeous, they are made by Dress It Up and can be found under the Accessories link on her website – just look at all this Xmas buttoness!

My button box is looking fab (and very full – note to self need more button storage!)

Thankfully did not sell all the stock as need some of the hearts as my Xmas ornie for special friends this year (if you are one of them please act surprised when I give it to you!) Also have a WI craft fair next weekend and have promised to take some to work so still have supplies to do that as am now severely running out of time – can we just put Xmas back a week to give me a little more stitching time?

No seriously want it just where it is – we are off to Disneyland Paris for Xmas and we are getting very excited now as it is less than a month and we have been looking at the programme of events there (a lot of princess things for Ellie) and booking our festive dining and we are really looking forward to seeing Mickey and the gang (and Santa of course!).

So will return next week with more craft fair updates – in the meantime hope that you have a very lovely time and thanks for visiting.