My day at the NEC - Hobbycrafts and Sewing Show

So sorry that I haven't been around in blog land this past week  I have been making the most of this unusually nice March weather and spending lots of time outside in the sunshine.  I've been getting the garden tidied up after the winter and getting some seeds planted for my summer plants.  Also, we've been doing a bit of work around the fishpond, which we installed at the end of last year, after replacing our very tiny pond.  The pond has loads of frog spawn in it with hundreds of tadpoles.  I guess the fish will probably feast on the majority of them; unfortunately nature can be cruel at times.

I thought that I'd share with you my crafty stash after spending yesterday at the NEC Hobbycraft/Sewing for Pleasure show.  Once again, I spent far too much money but had a lovely time in the process!

These bags of flowers and beads were a total bargain at just £1.50 per bag!  Stocked up on a few of those .....

I'm really loving Lili of the Valley at the moment and stocked up on some of their lovely circular sentiments, a new background stamp and some rubber stamps.  You can't see them too clear but watch out for them to be appearing in a card on the blog soon ......

In the sewing side of the show there were some amazing creations.  I am always in awe of the talent and skill of some of the exhibitors.  One stand caught my eye in particular - Mandy Shaw's Dandelion Designs.  I just loved the vintage style makes and the bold but muted colours, with a  very English touch.  I had a couple of kits from there - can't wait to get the sewing machine out and start sewing again.  Talking of sewing machines - there were some totally amazing ones there.  The most expensive one I saw was £999 which puts my rather basic machine to shame!  I just loved the little wooden spools of braid which took me back to my childhood - sorting through my nan's sewing box of wooden spools of Sylko threads.

Almost forgot ...... these Tim Holtz tickets were a great find on the Lili of the Valley stand too!

I've got quite a few colours of card candi but I couldn't resist these cute polka dot candi's!

And, aren't these embroidery scissors just the cutest ever!

Need to get shopping and housework done this morning so that I can spend the rest of today playing with my new stash!

Thanks for visiting!

Amanda