Workshop day - minus 363!

)Well, I had a wonderful weekend and, possibly, one of my best ever birthdays!

Wendy and I set off on Friday and met up with Louise at Bramble Patch.  After a quick catch up and coffee we toured the shop to see if there was anything that needed to come home with us.  Of course there was and this sign caught my eye!! In fact, it was so exhausting, deciding what not to buy you understand, that we had to sit down with a light lunch!




Next stop was our Hotel - Horwood House (where, Wendy tells me, the gardener Percy Thrower was born).  We arrived, checked in, unpacked and were in the bar by 2:30pm where (and yes, it just had to be done) I enjoyed a birthday drink whilst opening my lovely gifts.  I have to say that I felt very spoiled so thank you if you sent me a card or a pressie.  It's always difficult to single out individual presents, for fear of offending, but I loved Wendy's table runner - this is my current favourite fabric collection -and this mug from Sewingbuddy seems quite apt!!

Saturday was the workshop with Lynette Anderson and we were greeted by this unassuming brown paper bag.  the project for the workshop is always both new and a total secret (hence why no blog yesterday - there are a group of people sewing today and they are doing the same project that we did).  Once it was unveiled, the project turned out to be a Japanese inspired sewing box made from a Japanese steamer.  I had seen a different pattern for this in one of her books but had never completed it.  Of course the day was made all the more enjoyable by learning new techniques and meeting new friends - many of who were there last year and will,I suspect, be there next year.  (At this point I should confess that we have booked in for two days next year - hence the blog title!)

During the day, we were asked to display our Mug Rug that we had bought for the swap (you may recall that we had been sent an embroidery to complete but the design of the mugrug was up to us).  Once displayed, we were asked to vote for the best rug - and I won!!!  I was gobsmacked!  I even heard a few compliments from Lynette about the satin stitching on my spool holder (You can imagine how difficult it was to get my head through the door!!)






After the workshop, we had decided to stay for the evening meal and head back on the Sunday.  Sadly we then encountered a few problems that I won't go into now but the hotel apologised with a free bottle of prosecco - which helped our pain (cough cough).

The next day, and after another lovely breakfast, we headed home - via The Fabric Guild of course - it would have bee rude not to!  Now I am not saying that I was tired - but I slept REALLY well last night!!



 Today has been a little more gentle - dog walking, grass cutting in between the showers and weetabix muffin making ready for the taster session at Slimming World this afternoon.  So - how did it go?  Well - I am not sure that wearing my shirt inside out helped at all - but I lost half a pound so I was pleased.  I am aiming for never gaining weight in August so I am off to a fair start after that weekend away (plus a very naughty sticky toffee pudding!)