easily distracted by shiny things…
Posted in crafty things, museums, teaching on Feb 2nd, 2012
Have I mentioned lately that I love my job? I run the Toddler Time sessions at the Museum of English Rural Life (every Friday during term time, 10-11 & 1-2), and part of that is to come up with an activity every week – preferably one that’s linked to the museum’s collections in some way. [...]
Posted in museums, nature, volunteering on Sep 28th, 2011
Meet Izzy and Fizzy – a Herdwick sheep and lamb from Miller’s Ark. Over the summer, Miller’s Ark brought a garden full of animals to MERL, and I was lucky enough to be volunteering that day. The children were allowed inside the pen with the sheep and goats, so I spent most of the afternoon [...]
Posted in museums, volunteering on Aug 28th, 2011
Look, I made bread! Normally I’d use the breadmaker. This time I was volunteering at the Museum of English Rural Life, where I was helping to teach small children (and their parents) how to make their own bread and butter. We used the bread recipe from the flour packet, which you can find here. We weighed [...]
Posted in music on May 30th, 2011
This is my lovely Wheatstone concertina. I bought it about a year ago, and have been playing it a little bit ever since. I don’t normally post about music very much, because this is supposed to be a sewing and knitting and generally crafty blog, but summer’s clog dancing season, so I might mention it [...]
Posted in exhibitions, shoes on Jan 29th, 2011
The Museum of English Rural Life have an exhibition on at the moment called Land Ladies: women and farming in England, 1900-1954. It’s on until April 19th. The boots above were issued by the Women’s Land Army, and they belonged to Doreen Thorpe who served in Hertfordshire, Middlesex, Derbyshire and Yorkshire. I’m impressed that they’ve [...]
Today, rather than sewing something I actually need, like a dress for work or a winter coat, I decided to make a pirate shirt. As you do. (If you’re me.) The pattern is Simplicity 4923, view C. I made a size Medium. The fabric is just a plain black polycotton, and the cuffs are trimmed [...]
Posted in embroidery, FAQ, sewing on Sep 16th, 2009
Just a quick reminder that this weekend is my smocking workshop at the Museum of English Rural Life. Today is the very last day that you can sign up – in fact you’ve got about an hour and a half left if you want to secure a place! The course runs from 2:15-4:15 on both [...]
This is a sneaky peek at what you’ll be making if you come along to my Smocking Workshop at the Museum of English Rural Life. (It’s on September 19 & 20, and there are still places left! Book here…) As you can see, we’ll be working the smocking stitches on gingham. For beginners it’s the [...]
I’m sorry I haven’t been posting about anything other than work lately, but that’s because I haven’t really been doing anything other than work! I have finally managed to buy a new bike, so today Paul and I cycled all the way to (guess where…) work, so that I could time the journey. The theory [...]
Posted in gardening on Aug 4th, 2009
Contrary to the label on the box, this is in fact Real Food, from the MERL vegetable patch! The Museum of English Rural Life has a huge garden, about an acre, and there are currently two vegetable plots. One is planted in a wartime style, and the other is modern. Both of them are yielding [...]