An end to the year

2014 is almost over an it has been a busy year for me and one with plenty of changes.
For the first time ever we became a host family for Wwoofers, Worldwide Working Opportunities on Organic Farms. This means we had people staying with us that helped in the garden, we provided food and board and they gave us 5 hours work a day. Now we are not a farm but are a food producing garden and I use our produce to make preserves to sell and also sell the eggs and salads at the front gate. We are not certified organic but have used no chemicals in the garden since we have had it and spoke the farmer who had it before us  and he hasn't used anything on it for the 20 years he had it. So we had Anabel from Spain, Clement from France, Eloi from France, Grace from Canada, Eoin from Mayo, Remy from France, Ander from Basque Country and Anais from France all stay with us from March to September. It was a great experience for us, we got to pass on skills and learn new things and I would recommend it to anyone needing help with their garden or farm. For further information you can contact Wwoof Ireland at wwoof.ie. I found the forum a great help and full of advice before we made the decision to become a host family.

Ander and Anais taking a break at a festival

Remy working at a show with me

 

With all this gardening I didn't have much time for making any crafts over the summer at all. Then in September I went back to working in adult education and this left even less time. However a new opportunity opened up for me when a room in our building became available to me, I moved all my craft paraphernalia into it and The Stitching Room was created. The Stitching Room is a dedicated craft room where anyone can come and learn a new skill. I have all the equipment you would need including sewing machines, rotary cutter and mats and a small die cut machine.  Crafts covered include knitting, sewing, patching, quilting, felt work, card making and paper craft. It is great for me to have a whole room to keep everything in and somewhere I can drop into during my regular working day as it is located in the building I work in. You can see more about The Stitching Room and details of classes here

The fabric corner

Busy at work

We had a lot of classes planned but the most enjoyable were the ones were we made felt and fabric wreaths for Christmas and some hanging decorations. It was good to see people other than me get excited about odd buttons and tiny beads.

Essential equipment

A finished piece

This then got me back to making some small hanging decorations for myself and we ended up having one Christmas tree (one of three) full of handmade decorations.

A Gingerbread house with no calories

A not just for Christmas heart