The Purple Art House.

My friend Caroline lives in an amazing house, its like something out of a fairytale - a technicoloured fairytale, and she is also really good at bringing people together. For a long time she had wanted to run a "retreat" for want of a better description, where women would come and have their minds, bodies and souls nourished with good food, arts, crafts and have a chance to just relax and go home renewed.

Last Saturday was a trial run, she had asked me to come up with some craft projects, my Mum was put in charge of the kitchen and eight ladies came to play.

I made name badges for everyone, here they are being modelled by Miss Mannequin!

 The kitchen table comfortable sits 12 so there was room for everyone to spread out. It as surprising how quitet everyone was while they worked, there were tonnes of supplies to use and the work at the end was gorgeous. Some people were crafters and some had never tried anything arty before, some people talked about why they were making certain things, the reasons for choosing certain materials and some just quietly worked away. It was an odd day for me because it wasn't a craft class as such, I couldn't put a time limit on things, I actually had three projects prepared but we only completed one, but there was a nice flow to the day all the same.

 Its hard to find a project that challenges everyone with out being too easy for some or seeming too scary to others, I was delighted with what everyone made, and more importantly they seemed to be too!

 It was a long weekend getting everything ready, and here is my Mum at the end of the day actually sitting down.....(the first time all day) she did an amazing job, she made two kinds of soup, three kinds of salads, scones, carrot cupcakes, apple pie and kept the tea and coffee coming all day!

 and here are Caroline and Myself, still smiling, fit for nothing except a glass of wine!