BritRock Must Be Destroyed Tour

This month has been as exciting month here especially for me as I went to see two of my favourite bands, twiceI saw on Facebook last year that there would be a tour featuring three British rock bands from the 90's. The tour named BritRock Must Be Destroyed features The Wildhearts, Reef and Terrorvision. I've been a big fan of Terrorvision and The Wildhearts long before my children were born and still have some of my old band t shirts (though I must admit to get in them now would be a bit of a squeeze). After informing Anders he told me to keep my eye open for when tickets would be available and he bought some the day they went on sale. That was November last year so we've had a long wait.


The opening night was May 4th at Manchester Academy and it was fortunate that we bought tickets early as it sold out. This venue was standing only and with me only being short I couldn't see much, the head and shoulders of the band members if I stood on tip toes and peeped around other people's shoulders. Dodgy was the opening band (we didn't watch as it's not the kind of music that we listen to), The Wildhearts, Reef then Terrorvision. All bands played 60 minutes with the last one being classed as the headliner and playing an extra 15 minutes. The order of the line up changed throughout the tour but both concerts we attended the line up was the same.
The day after Manchester I asked Anders if he would go again then quick as a flash tickets were purchased for May 24th at Leeds O2 Academy which was the next venue closest to us at about 70 miles away. So that's where we were last night. This time we sat up in a balcony and I could see everything. I didn't know until we were there last night that children aged 8+ could go (on the balcony with an adult) or we would have taken Little L, it would have been a great experience for her. She would have loved it plus she's really in to The Wildhearts at the moment. 
Both nights were amazing, all the bands were fantastic. I liked the different venues for different reasons, Leeds because I could actually see the bands but Manchester seemed to have a better atmosphere but maybe that was due to being in a large crowd.
My question to Anders on waking this morning was 'Would you go again'? but with the last date being in Portsmouth over 200 miles away from us I don't think we'll be making that one tomorrow.


Folksy Friday - Spooky Stuff

Recently Little L had a day off school due to illness. I wasn't too keen on a full day of the Goosebumps series even though I think some of them are quite good so I decided to introduce her to the film, Lost Boys. 
I've watched it countless times but not for a long while. I'd forgotten how nice looking I thought Corey Haim and Keifer Sutherland were at the time and how good the soundtrack was. Little L loved it but I don't think she quite as taken with vampires as she is with werewolves.

Little L dressed for World Book Day


So for this weeks Folksy Friday I've been looking at items that are often associated with horror films.



Tarot card lampshade


Spooky castle and bat necklace


Ouija board design jewellery box


Skeleton Brooch

I hope you liked this weeks selection
Have a great weekend

Crafty Catch Up

Just a quick post to share what I've been up to craft wise. 


I have mentioned that I wanted to make something patchwork but while I was looking through my fabric I found something that I'd started but had forgotten about. Last May I purchased some pre cut squares of vintage fabric and had sewn some plain natural colour fabric on to the back of the pieces with the intention of making a fusion blanket. That was as far as I got with it so this week I've been busy sewing blanket stitch around the edges of the squares. There are 60 squares in total and I'm about half way through with the blanket stitching.


These are some of my favourite prints.
               The fabric was purchased from Ebay seller, coneygarth.


I've also started to knit a multi stripe cardigan using a pattern from an old Let's Knit magazine. This was to use wool from my stash but I needed to buy a couple of balls so that I had enough. I bought the extra wool from Deramores. I've now remembered why I don't knit so much these days, I'm in agony with my hands after just a couple of days knitting so this cardy is going to take a while.


Little L asked if she could try knitting again so we got her little needles out and had another go. The thing with Little L is that she gets distracted so easily by anything ... the dog, the telly, other peoples conversations. I cast on 20 stitches and counted them after every row she knitted (at one point she ended up with 34). She's get there in the end.

Folksy Friday - I Can See A Rainbow

This week I was going to choose a colour as a Folksy Friday theme but as I couldn't decide which one I went with a rainbow theme instead.
Here are just a few rainbow inspired pieces that are available on Folksy.

Rainbow brooch

Fused glass rainbow


Happy rainbow cloud print


Colourful crocheted baby blanket


Pop up rainbow card

I hope you like this weeks selection
Have a great weekend

Folksy Friday - Pretty Patchwork

I've been thinking of making something to use up some of my fabric stash and patchwork would be the ideal way to use up some of the smaller pieces of fabric. Also because Little L likes to have a go on the sewing machine she could help out with this. I don't think that I have enough fabric to make a large quilt so I'll have to have a think on what we can make.
For this weeks Folksy Friday I have picked some of the lovely patchwork items available on Folksy.


I love that vintage linen have been reused to make this bag

Patchwork pillowcases


Bright patchwork book cover


The fabrics used on this cot quilt are so pretty


A handy tote bag

I hope you liked this weeks selection
Have a great weekend

Folksy Friday - Signs Of Spring

No, not had any here yet. There was even a light sprinkling of snow as I took Little L to school yesterday morning. Usually at this time of year the flowers on my pampas grass are being stripped bare by birds for nest building but even those are still intact. (Our plants are in the back garden, I've heard what having these plants is supposed to mean)
The Folksy Friday theme this week is Spring.


Snowdrop egg cup


Sterling silver and freshwater pearl bird nest necklace


 

Stained glass daffodil suncatcher


Primrose posy pin



Blackbird's nest lino print

I hope you like this weeks selection
Have a great weekend

Folksy Friday - Let It Snow

Well even though there was plenty of weather warnings I was still a bit surprised when I woke to see that we had snow during the night. If we get any it is usually not enough to stick to the ground so I was just expecting the icy part of the weather.


Opie loves snow but needs to wrap up warm so I crocheted him this neck warmer to keep him snuggly in the snow.
This week's Folksy Friday theme is snow.


Ceramic candle holder


Silver snowflake necklace


Glass snowflake ornament


Miniature snowy cottage


Snowflake hoop earrings

Thank you for looking at this weeks selection
Have a great weekend

Folksy Friday - Storage Solutions




Little L has been on school holiday this week and she spent most of the days de-cluttering her bedroom. This was her own idea as she feels that she has outgrown a lot of her toys. She has done a good job too and manage to clear out 7 bags and one large tub of toys.  The stuff she no longer wants then gets passed on to our relations for their children and a children's hospice.  
The Folksy Friday theme this week is storage.


 Shelves are an invaluable means of storage in our house. These cloud shelves would look lovely in a nursery.


The Icon Workshop
I love this display shelf to store cars. Little L keeps her cars in a big bucket that used to store icing (my Mum used to work in a bakery)



This is a great way to display to display Lego figures 


Tatts Treasures
Drawstring bags come in useful for storing bits and bobs. Little L still uses one that I made for my oldest boy almost 20 years ago. I love the applique work on this one.


Pallet Earth
This wooden chest would be an ideal toy box or handy place to keep bedding.


Ruby Gingham
I like lovely nautical print on this fabric basket

I hope you liked this weeks selection.
Have a great weekend







Horror Film Embroidery

As you will know if you have read this blog for a while, I love horror films and books and recently I made a couple of embroideries inspired by this interest of mine. 


This first one features quotes and taglines along with a little picture to represent the film. It wasn't something that I planned out and just popped some calico in an embroidery hoop and penciled on the wording as I went along (this is why things are not evenly spaced)


I quite like the little shark and fangs but I should have made these a bit bigger to fill the space.



It was a fun trying to decide which pictures and quotes to use as I went along but if I were to make another I would make an embroidery pattern.


The next one I made is a dessert tub from the 80's film, The Stuff. 


Both have been covered with felt at the back.


Folksy Friday - In The City

After our little trip in to Manchester earlier this week I decided to chose a city theme for this weeks Folksy Friday and show just a few of the prints which are available on Folksy.


Sheffield poster print


Edinburgh city skyline

Chester Eastgate clock print


Royal Albert Hall, London signed giclee print


Manchester pride parade

I hope you liked this weeks selection.
Have a great weekend.



Valentine's Day In Manchester

Anders managed to book Valentine's Day off work so we nipped in to Manchester. It's always a treat to go on our own because we like different parts of the city to the children. They would happily stay in the Arndale Centre all day while we tend to favor the Northern Quarter. I think that harks back to my younger days when I'd jump on a train most weekends just to go and rummage around Afflecks.
Opie was dropped off at my Mum's for a day of being spoilt rottten then we set off. It was spitting with rain when we arrived but I wasn't prepared for the bitterly cold wind, it was freezing.




Some street art that we spotted near the car park.



The first thing we did was look for a building which was used in a film (Habit) that we watched last year. I wanted a photo because you never know how long these old building will remain. 
Then we were off for a wander around.



In to the Empire Emporium to rummage through the vinyl and books.



I went in here to look for books but there was more porn than paperbacks.



Then off to Afflecks (I'll never get used to all those stairs)



I love this sculpture of Pan/faun from Pan's Labyrinth. It was created by local artist Lee Nolan using recycled rubbish from bins and skips. It was featured in an exhibition last year but now has a permanent home in Afflecks.



On the way by to the car I spotted this door, a bit of a gaudy colour and the graffiti does it no favours but the lion heads reminded me of the gargoyle door knockers from the film Labyrinth.



We had a great day even if we did get bit wet and windswept.