Wild and Woolly!

This is a bit of a belated post, kids are on holidays so I'm a wee bit busy!

I've mentioned MakeSpace, the artisan cooperative coordinated by my friend Edwina, before and I've also mentioned Renew Newcastle, an initiative to fill old, and often run-down, shops on the Hunter Street Mall (in years gone by the main shopping street in Newcastle) with non-rent paying groups of artist or crafters who do up the spaces and make use of them until someone wishes to rent them.  The aim is to Renew Newcastle!  MakeSpace is now onto it's 4th shop, having done a great job of making their previous spaces desirable to renters.  This Thursday just gone was the annual Winter Wander where the locals get to have a look and see what all the different Renew participants are up to, have some mulled wine and sticky date puddings, a bit of communal crochet (or pompom making) and listen to some live music on the Mall.  I took some photos early on but by the end of the evening, Edwina said they had served 220 sticky date puddings in 20 mins!  It was a busy evening!  Unfortunately we didn't get around to yarn bombing the Mall but we had a bit of a crochet-along and I sold a scarf!

After all the wandering was completed, there was an invitation to go along to the hippest (in the most Hipster sense you can imagine) new bar in Newcastle, Terrace Bar, where there was food, wine and music.  Edwina and I stayed on when the others left as, with 8 kids between us, we don't get out often and got a little excited to go upstairs to hear the music!  We were looking forward to the music until it started and we realised that we were too old to be deafened and headed back down stairs!  Couple of old dears! 

We ended the evening by tracking down some fantastic pides in Beaumont Street before heading home before midnight.

Meg and I managed to make it to the Olive Tree Market on Saturday, thanks to no football,  and came across someone new, Blonde Samurai, who makes gorgeous glass beads and necklaces which will make very nice presents come Christmas time, along with our usual favourites such as Frejj, Sketch and Jones, DJL tees for the men in our lives, Jo Dyer and Pipkids.   We came home to a nice tidy house - good boys!

As for the holidays, there has been much of the usual, although since Wimbledon starts about 11pm here, it's usually following a long lie-in...  Hoping Andy can deal with Roger swiftly tonight as I could really do with an early one!

Back soon, maybe even with some crochet...

Busy, busy, busy!

As the title suggests, we have been pretty busy over the weekend!  There has been a large amount of sport and socialising and I even managed to squeeze in a very brief whip around the wonderful Olive Tree market as all the stall holders were packing up!

Friday evening No2 Boy does his tennis comps.  He was ridiculously late home (I drop off, friend's Mum brings home) and when he did finally arrive, he announced that it had been presentation night!!  He and his pal had won their doubles comp again and I wasn't there to record it for posterity! This pic from their last win will have to do instead.

 
Saturday mornings will now be dominated by Football until August.  No3 boy played first and scored his first goal of the season (obviously I had put my camera away by that point.).  They played a team that were mostly girls so they started off quite gently until a few of them had been knocked off their feet.  No3 Boy was knocked over/shoulder barged 4 times!  They went for it after that and played really well.

I love how the tongue is out with concentration!

Then on to No2 Boy's match.  We lost count of how many goals his team scored, needless to say, they look like they're going to do well this season!

You can click on the photo to enlrage it if you need more detail!

Husband then had his match, but we dropped him and raced to the Olive Tree market to get a present for Miss M's friend's 7th birthday.  We headed straight for Sharlene of Pip Kids.  She is a star, always has something perfect and is more than happy to do something special to order.  She saved the day!  We also bumped into Di of Sketch & Jones and put in an order for some local tea towels.  Such fabulously talented people!

Next was home to bake a Retirement cake for Husband's right-hand man, then to my friend Pippa's Phoenix Champagne and Cards event - it would have been rude not to!

As soon as Husband got back we were straight out for dinner and birthday cake.  By the time we got home, I still had a cake to decorate so was very glad of the extra hour!

Yesterday we then had a house/gardenful of Husband's colleagues so we all had to be on our best behaviour!  I do like having lots of people around but I also like when everyone goes home and the children go to bed.  A nice evening of 'Bones' and crochet for me while Husband snored on the other sofa.

Hope your weekend was wondeful!