Saturday 12 November 2011

Reporting From The NEC ...

which was over a week ago.  Generally, I'm straight on here sharing the event but what with everything else going on - well, you know how it is ....
This time, I stayed in an hotel at Birmingham Airport - mainly because I simply couldn't be doing with all that very early morning travelling on the day of the show and then travelling back laden with stash and having to stand all the way to Reading, even though you have a reserved seat !!!!  So, this time I travelled up on Wednesday afternoon and went back Friday morning.  so I thought, what the heck, treat yourself to a hotel.
So - there I am late Wednesday afternoon, all checked in and what do you do next?  After all there's only so much you can do at Birmingham Airport - lol.  So I did some knitting, got some real treats for my tea from Marks & Spencers, watched a bit of TV and had an early night.
Next morning (after a rather disgusting breakfast at the hotel) it was off to the show to meet up with the girlies - the lovely Sue, Anita and Carol - and the lovely Sue's husband, who had come along to assist with the stash carrying - bless him .... 
So here's some of the purchases -
These are from the lovely Jenny Mayes - am loving all of these and hoping that there will be some time to make a few Christmas cards this year - lol ....
Here's a variety of stamps from Inkylicious (just love the two-way Santa and sleigh), Dimension Stamps and Little Claires (those circles will go well with the other Just-Rite stamps and Nesties I've got).
Here's some books I bought ...
Totally Tangled is a book chock-a-block full of Zentangle patterns and ideas - absolutely lovely.  The first Toft Alpaca knitting pattern book (and yes I did succumb to a purchase from their stand - lol) and the Domino Knitting book.  On the stand there was the most beautiful pieces of knitting using this technique that I simply had to get the book and a pattern, which you can just see on the right.  (I had a go at a basic square last night on a set of Knit Pro rosewood double pointed needles that I also got at the show, and which were gorgeous to knit with.  Methinks the Domino Squares and the rosewood needles will become yet another favourite on the knitting front). 
These are the highlight purchases - a Tim Holtz District Market shopping bag and the kit for the Giant Bulb Bag from the Toft Alpaca stand.  This was a little on the expensive side but I've always wanted to make one, so thought hey ho - have it for your Christmas present to you - lol.  Another highlight was a lengthy one-to-one conversation with Sarah Lawrence of Crafty Notions about glue, of all things.  What a lovely lady ...
So all in all a good time.  It was lovely to meet up with the girls again - and we'll do it all again next year.
Right off to do some more on the Wedding Invitation front - progress report tomorrow ....

1 comment:

Photocat said...

Too funny. The stamp of the row of houses is the little town of Shaftesbury that we visited in September of 2011. How neat. Now I nead that stamp of course...
Looks like you found some treasures... The wool sounds fab...