Normality returns but for how long?!

 This was the view from my hotel window, one delightful evening where the sky was the most amazing colours, my little point and shoot camera doesnt do it justice sadly, but it was simply wonderful. The Humber Bridge looking lost against the magnificent clouds, the river Humber to the left and the metal bar, outside my window, presumably to stop  me from jumping out!

But Im home now and am getting back to normality, still cant find things but thats nothing new....

Just had friday and saturday at the NEC and had a really great time, infact you could say Ive been overloaded with inspiration! I went with a friend and we stayed overnight at a hotel and though they were small little single rooms each, they were adequate to rest your weary feet, sleep and ready yourself for the next days allecking round the shows! I recommend doing it that way, staying overnight I mean. It was amazing how much we saw the second day, that we had walked right past or simply not seen the first day!

Now I went to the old Madeira Show when it was at Harrogate at the Showground and do love that venue. You dont feel crushed there and there was always a great atmosphere. Then they altered it to the Fashion & Embroidery Show and it managed to maintain its splendour and I have always come away, exhilarated by what I have seen.

This year and from now on Im told, the show is to be held at the NEC but you still had access to the Hobbycraft and Stitching for Pleasure show within the cost of your ticket, so good value anyway.

Now I have to say I am not a fan of the NEC for the F&E Show and it lost some of its magic for me by being in the huge hangar venue, tho the NEC is a tremendous venue dont get me wrong! But there were expanses of vacant space all round the edges, the stalls centrally situated and it lost the 'feel' that the Harrogate Showground has to it.

That said I was as stunned as ever,with what I saw there, so wasnt short changed from that point of view. I do wonder if many folk dropped out and I didnt see as many of the northern colleges exhibiting for instance. On the other hand I suppose I will have seen work from people further south, who might not have ventured up north for the F&E in Harrogate, so maybe it will all sort itself out in my head for next year.

Now Hobbycraft left me stone cold.........it was a dreadful crush and to be fair I have limited interest in card making or scrapbooking and we wasted some time looking for the Stitching for Pleasure Show, until we realised it was all a part of the F&E show! Stalls were simply labelled iether Stitching For or F&E on their top most banners.

We'd been told there was a blanket ban on taking photographs, so we didnt take any, but on saturday we noticed others doing so, so I did ask a delightful lady who had some of her lifes work displayed there, if I might take photos to show Miniaturist friends of mine. I will put her pics on the blog later but suffice to say, she had an alternative example of 'dolls houses' which was fascinating and her stitchcraft was amazing.

Now I went there proclaiming that I was not going to buy any more books or wool.............well I did manage not to buy any more wool...waheyyyyy!

However ....... books?

Well that was a very silly idea of mine anyway......how can you NOT buy books?!

Whats the point of a bookshelf without LOTS of books on?

I will list and review what I bought later, when Ive gathered it all together and taken stock of how much I spent.....sheeshhhhh.

But for now, afew pics of the tactile book I was working on before I went off to the Midlands lol

Obviously, The Gingerbread Man!

This book is for our visually impaired Yr1 and 2 children to use so a simple tactile version of the story. I have copied the origional illustrations from a particular book we own and laid them beneath the laminated pages so that any child with some degree of sight, may be able to enjoy those too. I adapt if necessary any text and a Teachers Aide will assist the child to understand what he/she is accessing. I Braille the text too and it is stuck over the printed text on the left hand pages, so children learning to use Braille, will have simple text to read. Notice the Fox's lower jaw is moveable, so its an interactive page!

Now obviously we dont sell these books and I can only adapt printed books so that our children can access them for educationbal purposes and we have alicence which allows us to do this.

I have three and a half stories that I have written myself, that I could sell adapted in this way, if I wished to...though I should really finish that half one! 

Okay time to feed the dogs and to sit with a cupper and read some of the books I bought lol thouigh I SHOULD...be making the next 'ribbon' phase of my Shelagh Folgate Challenge now Im more settled at home...... I promsie I will get stuck in this week Shelagh, watch this space..... :)