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Thursday 30 September 2010

Upcycling??? Is that a word?? - Folksy Friday..

......'Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value.Upcycling is the opposite of downcycling, which is the other half of the recycling process. Downcycling involves converting materials and products into new materials of lesser quality. Most recycling involves converting or extracting useful materials from a product and creating a different product or material.' Wikipedia

A lot of my bits and pieces in my shop are 'recycled'and 'upcycled' but never really knew the difference before, so now we all know!! Here are some of the more unusual and amazing upcycled things I found on Folksy.....






Friday 24 September 2010

Caravan of Love!! - Folksy Friday

We've just got back from a lovely few days away near York (again!) Being slightly less hardened campers these days we managed to borrow a little caravan of a friend to keep us lovely and snug. I have to admit to having an abject fear of pulling caravans along busy roads, not helped by starting our adventure in very wet and windy conditions, nearly losing it after a huge gust hit it side on just down the road from home!! Still, after the 'white knuckle gripping the door handles' for half an hour afterwards I managed to relax and we had a  nice calm, drive over (only with a slight queue of trafic behind us!!)  The caravan did come into it's own once on the campsite, we were nice and snug whilst our friend in a tent wasn't!! So here is a Folksy Friday all about caravans, campervans and anything else like that which caught my eye.......






Friday 10 September 2010

Woodlands are beautiful!! ....Folksy Friday

After enjoying the Woodland Festival at our county show yesterday I decided to dedicate my Folksy Friday to everything woodlandy. They are magical places which we as a family love to explore and play in, we have a small piece of woodland near us which we swear has fallen out of the sky from Narnia!! The kids have renamed 'Narnibithia' ...for those of you that read or watch films that's a cross between Narnia and Terebithia!!





Had to get this one in...my nickname is Gnome and my hubby is David!! 



We love the woods!!



Thursday 9 September 2010

It all happens here!!

For a little town in South Lakes there's a lot going on here!! It's a really happening place....Ok... not quite up there with the big city but this is the country version of happening!! Today was the huge Westmorland County Show  , not just cows and sheep but loads of things going on. We got there early (ish) and stayed all day, and still didn't get around all of it...here are just a few of the things the kids got up to.

  Hugged a Ferret....

Saw some very cute goats....

Squished a very, very large Guinea Pig.....
Had a go at some Stone Masonry....

and....had a fantastic time making Journey Sticks in the Wood and Forestry Festival area. We could easily have spent all day here! They had willow weavers, green wood workers, charcoal burning, making clay Green Men and wood spirits...it was brilliant, something I really want to take further.....

Sunday 5 September 2010

The Bizarre, Weird and Wonderful......

Today we spent most of the day down at MintFest enjoying all the amazing street entertainers who were doing their stuff all around the centre of Kendal.

Here are just a few of the shows we enjoyed...(or just watched becuase they were completely bonkers!!....)

Kuljit Bhamra's CHUTNEY - had to get a picture of this fantastic little vehicle!!


La Cabane De Pepe - a walking theatre which the kids loved.

Some very random show - still not sure what that was all about!!

Dr Butlers Hatstand Medicine Band - the guy on the trumpet was amazing! 


And this was our favourite...an absolutely incredible show, the pictures really don't do it justice but it was brilliant and this girl must have muscles like iron!! 'The comical and surprising tale of a window-dresser and a special mannequin that has rather more life than one might think' She kept her body completely still and straight while being flung all over the place.......incredible!!  Yes...... she is a real human being!! Oddlings - Mannekino



Friday 3 September 2010

Fireworks and Cars - Folksy Friday

Last night was the start of Mintfest-Kendal's International Festival of Street Arts and we headed of to see 'Bombs Per Minute' by Les Commandos Percu - an amazing long show using fireworks effects with some fantastic rhythmic drumming by a group called Les Commandos Percu. Prior to this there had been a short show by Adrift which was brilliant as well. If you are in to quirky, sometimes bizarre street arts this is the festival for you!!  There is a whole weekend of things running in Kendal so can't wait to see what else there is coming!!

Anyway.....getting back to the point......on the way home, very late with two very tired children in the car (one feeling ill!), we managed to hit a HUGE rock which was on the side of the road and about a minute later the car was feeling very sorry for itself. It had punctured the front tyre completely and not sure what it's done to the back one or the tracking!! So there we were at 10.30pm, pitch black, sitting in the middle of a tiny country lane having to change a tyre. Needless to say tempers were a little frayed at this point!! Ho hum........it could be worse...

So in sympathy for our poor car here is a Folksy Friday all about just that......cars!!







and one chosen by my little lad just because he likes it!!


Wednesday 1 September 2010

Thought for the day...

It's been a lovely sunny day again here in the North West.....something we've had a bit of a lack of just recently! Sometimes when the weather is rubbish, life's busy, busy, busy and stress levels are flying high it's so easy to forget how fortunate we really are.....

I have two gorgeous, healthy children, one lovely hubby who does things just to make me happy, and the amazing countryside and mountains that I can see from my window. Ok it's not always smelling of roses but sometimes it's good to take a step back and really look!!

Yesterday we watched the farmer collecting his hay bales in the back field, (excuse the picture of the horrible fence!)!  We are so blessed to live near enough to a town but still be out in the middle of nowhere and able to watch the farming seasons pass. This field sometimes has sheep in, sometimes cows, and sometimes hay bales!!

And today we went for one of our favourite walks in a quiet, un-touristy part of the Lake District where the only noises you hear are the cows, sheep, running water, birds and sometimes tractors....

Yes..............I must remember just how fortunate we are!!