Arts Trail!

Two weekends ago I had a stall at the Saltaire Arts Trail Festival. It was a truly excellent and very busy couple of days. The atmosphere was great, I chatted to friends old and new, met lots of new customers, started Christmas shopping* and generally had a fine old time. I sold lots of jewellery and Tiny Tile Paintings - I even picked up a little teaching gig - more about that nearer the time.
*Early I know but there were sooo many beautiful things and I've booked lots more events on the weekends approaching Christmas time is short.

The collection of snaps above shows my table and images of the very many public art events happening around Saltaire over the whole two week event.

After a weekend working we spent the next weekend visiting. There was a fabulous continental foods market, with just about every food imaginable! There's just a few examples below. It was difficult to take photos as there were so many other visitors too! There was live music and a vintage fair, a fun fair, lots of interactive arts activities...the list is endless.

Although the children were a little overwhelmed just before we left we even managed to visit a couple of the Open Houses. This is were residents of Saltaire village display works of art by a collection of Yorkshire based artists and literally open their houses to the public to come in and look around. This may sound a little strange, a twist on open studio events I suppose, but it is really successful. The woodturned vessels in the pic above are displayed on a kitchen table, there were canvas' above the cooker, sculptures standing on the hearth. Next year I'd like to see all of the houses that take part.

All in all it was a great festival, even better than last year. I feel very lucky to have this virtually on my doorstep! The organisers are an amazing group of people:)

Saltaire Makers' Fair

It's that time again! The Saltaire Arts Trail begins this weekend. I have a stall at the Makers' Fair again this year 10.00 til 6.00 on Saturday 12th and 10.00 til 4.30 on Sunday 13th September. Sellers have to make an application for stalls at this event which ensures all items are made and sold by the maker. This also means I come away having spent up!

Below is my page on the Arts Trail Website.

In addition to the Makers' Fair there is the very popular Open Houses event where local residents exhibit the work of local artists in their homes.

On the final weekend there is an excellent continental market and events for children too.

Click here to see pics of last year's Makers' Fair.

I'm really looking forward to the fair this weekend and visting the rest of the events the weekend after:)

Change

I am a firm believer that change is a good thing, but as I sit here writing this at 5.30am on a chill Monday morning I feel some trepidation. You did read that correctly, 5.30, some things don't change - J continues to be such an early bird.

This morning we quickly crept downstairs so we didn't wake everyone. Today is my little girl's firtst day in her reception class, as she sleeps I am feeling soo nervous. I'm sure a great many parents are feeling exactly the same at the moment.

She is such a shy little girl. Whilst she enjoyed her year at nursery it was only in the last couple of week that she began to talk to one or two of the children. She is very articulate but I don't know how well this comes across away from home. I'm so glad that the nursery is a part of the school she is attending, hopefully this will help her to settle into a full day in the 'big school'.

I am going to miss my little pal so much! I am dreading the moment of coming away from school without her and I know I will be clock watching all day 'til we can scamper up the hill to collect her.

Someone else is going to miss his little big sister all day too. And speaking of changes two mornings a week he is going to be off to pre-school. J has had one session there last week which he enjoyed very much, he had a little wobble in the last few minutes but over all the virdict was "I love pre-school!" pronounced "I wuv pee cool!".

Reading this back I think it may be me that will be needing the most time to get used to all this.

Whilst it will be strange to have a few child free hours in the week it will mean that for the first time in a very long time I will have be able to work during the day. Set work time that doesn't rely on the odd DVD, playing in the garden or carefully orchestrated distractions which often included daddy taking the children out for the day so that I could fill orders and arrange gallery meetings. I can get so much more done when I work during the day than when I work late evenings. So I have big plans for my two mornings.

So as autumn begins to creep up on us again we will all be getting used to a new routine. It is still dark as I sit here huddled around the screen and there is a definate chill in the early morning air. Someone on the radio mentioned we may even have a bit of frost by the end of the week.

If your little ones are starting school over the next few days, chin up!

Edited just to add that she had a really good day! I spent the whole day with one eye on the clock and the words "I wonder what she is doing now.." wandering through my head every few minutes. J went to his second pre-school session today and loved it. And I worked during daylight hours!

Oh and I have noticed that the date on this post claims it is Sunday. I wrote this in the wee small hours of Monday morning - I hadn't noticed that the blog seems to work on US time:)