Fifty Shades of 4 Ply: Coming Up For Air......

And breathe........ Geez what a mad mad busy few months! I honestly don't know where the time has gone. Ok well maybes a heap of commissions to finish, holidays, work and other stuff has filled my days. All good stuff though :-) I've just returned from a wonderful trip to Holland for our Bloggers Days Oh how I just adore these get togethers.

Here we all are enjoying a relaxing day of creativity and just generally catching up and chatting!

From left to right: Kirsten, Jellina, Esther, Dedri, Carmen, Esther, Christa, some strange photobombing chappy, Atty, Tatsiana, Bernadette, Sarah, Nerissa, Tammy and finally me! Sadly Annelies and Susan couldn't make it this time (they were really missed!) but hopefully next time :-) Day one saw us meeting up at Scheepjes HQ for the obligatory mooch about the warehouse hyperventilating at all the gorgeousness. I mean, seriously? What's not to love about miles of scrummy yarns stacked from floor to ceiling??? Oh and then there's the ribbons, buttons and fabrics. As per usual I didn't take photos (I know! I'm crap!!!) but Sarah has some lovely photos on her blog and Nerissa wrote a blog post that made me bulb!!! So after the yarn fondling and a spot of lunch we got down to some serious business. A session on pattern writing and basic garment design given by Cara Medus. It was really very useful and I hope to put everything I learned into practice very soon. Then came something VERY exciting!!!!

All will be revealed very soon ;-) Trust me, it'll be worth the wait! Don't you just love/hate a secret????!!!!! Before we knew it the day had flown and we headed off to the hotel for a group dinner. Driving in Groningen is interesting to say the least! I think we nearly killed 4 students cycling erratically and got honked at by a bus. I won't tell you my response as it was rather rude!!! ;-) Dinner was delicious and copious amounts of great food and wine were consumed along with lots of chatter and laughter. Good times! The next day we all met up at the Prisenhof Grand Cafe where a private room had been booked for us to fill with creative projects, chatter and more laughter. It's hard to out into words how amazing these bloggers days are but I came away inspired and a mind bursting with new ideas :-) The day passed way too quickly and before I knew it we were saying goodbyes :-( Roll on the next ones! Next on the exciting agenda is the new Scheepjes CaL (crochet a long) Due to launch on 20th April it is in memory of the lovely Marinke (aka Wink). She was working on this project just before she tragically lost her battle with depression. It's called Last Dance on the Beach and there are three themed kits (each available in basic and luxury format to suit all budgets). As the designs weren't finished, 12 of her blogger friends have completed the designs in her honour. I can tell it was one of the most emotional projects I have ever worked on!!!