Good morning everyone! Boy, that was an interesting weekend. I really wanted this weekend to go well but then something happened that was really unexpected. This is the first time we have opened our house and we were advised that a good weekend would be up to 80 people pottering through the house. Instead we had an amazing response to all the leaflets that had been distributed and we had over 550 people - yes more than half a thousand - staggering ....
We are well aware that we are in a recession and our prices ranged from 50p to £375 so hopefully we were able to appeal to many people's pockets. Anyway, I promised you more pictures once everyone was set up
properly. This is the fabulous work of Ann Wood who is a glass
maker. Her work just suits our house so perfectly. She makes
stunning tiny hearts, cupcakes etc up to large mirrors
Cake eating it seems is not affected by the recession and we served loads of tea and cakes (the real variety) but here is a fantastic close up of one of Ann's glass cakes.
We had an eclectic mix that hopefully appealed to many girlies out there!
We had work from Nadia who is such a talented artist - whose skills range from tiny houses ....
to spectacular drawings ...
We have cheerful bird hoops.
Cards were very popular and Hilary's brooches were a hit. She also makes stunning silver jewellery but when I checked my photos I stupidly haven't taken any of her things on display. So you will have to wait until next weekend for a photo. I only have photos of Lin's amazing textiles with other people in the picture and I don't like blogging people unless I have asked them so here is a photo of some of Lin's amazing lace in her studio at her home.
The little ones had moments of quiet and moments of noise - what a mixture!
Mostly they spent their time in our bedroom making a cinema out of all the dining room chairs and munched popcorn and watched films - perfect for the end of term knackeredness! They made camps out of blankets - with up to 9 children here at any one time they did actually cope with the upheaval very well. So we have this week living in choas as our furniture is all over the place and then one more weekend of Open House. Please come along it would be great to see you all! Please check out Sophie's blog who did a brilliant write up for me! Thanks Sophie - it was great to meet you!
Lastly, the weekend was amazing to me because two really wonderful friends, Lin's daughter, Sarah and Louise helped me so much. They were so giving. I could not have managed without them and it really showed me how wonderful they are - although I knew that anyway!!!! - SO SARAH AND LOUISE THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!! Words really cannot express how much I love you both.