Birthday presents

It was my birthday last weekend so it's about time I showed you my birthday presents - the crafty ones of course!

At the Hobbycrafts show earlier in the month, we came across this amazing glass artist - Sharon Baldry Glass Designs, go and check her out, she's seriously talented.  I fell in love.  Mum told me I could have a piece as a birthday present and I said I'd think about it as it wasn't cheap (and nor should it be), but I kept coming back to stare and in the end we left with this piece:

My photos are seriously not doing it justice.  It also has the added problem of changing colour depending on where you look at it from and the light.  Here's a close up:

It's absolutely incredible.  I've never seen anything like it and this is my first piece of real art! I can see myself adding to the collection with other pieces from this wonderful artist.  She also does fused glass pieces.

I also go another 7 craft books which brings my total to 119!  This doesn't interfere with my pledge not to buy any more craft books (which I've repeatedly broken anyway) as they were gifts.




As ever, if you want a review on any of these books, or any of the others I have, please just ask.I also got some non-craft books.  As you'll know if you read my last post, I've already finished one of these!  I've always loved books about life in Communist countries/times, perhaps brought about by my time in Poland and travels in Siberia, but I'm also fascinated with polygamy and travel in general.




I got home made goodies from my ultra-talented mum, along with some books and the stained glass and of course the weekend away (yep, my parents are incredibly generous and just all-round wonderful)

She's knitted me a few of these sparkly scarves before, but knew I wanted a red one.  It's really hard to photograph due to the sparkle.  I'll try again.

Nope, that picture wasn't much better was it!  And I got this gorgeous heather coloured scarf which is unusal as one end tucks through the other - no annoying dangly bits!
 

Two fat quarters of Sweetwater fabric, pictured here with a metre of Bliss I found in Durham at just £7!

He also bought me a layer cake of Grace.  Oh, and I might have accidentally bought myself a layer cake of Ruby as it was on offer!

For our weekend away, me and Mr CA drove up to Beamish, near Durham (in the North-East of England) to meet my parents.  We stayed at this, very posh, hotel, where I was delighted to discover the had bunnies in a wonderfully big enclosure.  One of them looked just like Colin so we called her Colinette.  We had a day out at the Beamish Museum which is a real treat.  It's a living museum, divided into areas and time periods.  You travel round on old trams or buses from one area to another, including a hall from the 1930s where we saw a spinning wheel (sadly the lady wasn't spinning at the time), a town from 1913 complete with real shops, a pub and a cafe.  I bought these in the drapery shop:

Gorgeous fat quarters at just £1.50 each.  You could go into each of the shops or the bank or the dentist and into the houses and talk to the people "working" there.  We also saw a lady making bobbin lace and she gave us a demonstration.  On to the pit village where we saw rag rug making and 3 gorgeous bunnies!  Unfortunately some areas were closed due to the weather so we hope to visit again in the summer to see it all.  You really need at least a full day there, but the entrance ticket buys you free admission for a year.  I'd really recommend it if you're ever in the area - forget fuddy-duddy museums, this is an experience.

Look at the detail on the end:

How talented is she?  By the way, she sells her knitted creations in our Folksy shop if you're interested:  Fat Bunny Designs

My lovely husband bought me some fabric.  OK, it was off my wish list!