Found some wonderful hand drawn and cut paper illustration work by talented Niki Pilkington today. Being half-Welsh myself, I especially love the bits of written Welsh that feature on a few of her newer pieces of work.
As mentioned in my Cotswold post from last week, these are the vintage finds I picked up during my stay. The original vintage trunk/suitcase I found in pretty Stow on the Wold shop, As Long as It Sparkles and is going to be perfect for displaying my handmade cards at future craft fairs. The vinyl records were 50p each from a charity shop in Broadway, bought purely for their great printed paper sleeves and typography. I’m planning to turn the Parlophone vinyl into a bowl like this.
Sharing in my passion for good tea, fair trade and social justice, my Good Thing Going this month features Traidcraft, the UK’s leading fair trade organisation. During Fairtrade Fortnight (27th February – 11th March) Traidcraft are urging people across the UK to help make a difference to the lives of farmers in the developing world by hosting a fair trade tea party. Traidcraft is encouraging schools, churches, and other groups to organise a Traidcraft Big Brew, where they can raise money for the vital development work of Traidcraft’s charity arm, Traidcraft Exchange, while enjoying a cup of fairly traded tea or coffee.
More than three billion people in the world live on less than $2.50 per day. Traidcraft works to help individuals, their families and communities, not just to earn more money but to flourish.
For tea farmer Margaret Wanjiku, growing tea is now just one of many activities
she carries out on her farm in Kenya, which help her to provide for her family. With training
from Traidcraft she has learned how to keep bees, to harvest water, change the plants she
grows – and even keep rabbits. She says: “I never knew this plot was enough for my family. I used to buy food and now I am comfortable. I go to the market to sell – not to buy!”
Joanne Wallis, Fundraising Manager at Traidcraft, says: “Hosting a Traidcraft Big Brew is an ideal way to take a step for fair trade. Holding a tea party, and enjoying a cup of Fairtrade tea or coffee with friends, means you’ll be supporting Traidcraft you’ll be helping people to work their way out of poverty. ”
A Traidcraft Big Brew resource pack, which contains posters, invites, stickers and refreshments for 50 people, is available to buy from www.traidcraftshop.co.uk. Alternatively, a resource pack without refreshments can be downloaded for free at www.traidcraft.co.uk/bigbrew.
“Put the kettle on for fair trade.”
As yesterday was Pancake Day, I decided that making pancakes was far too dull, so I gathered the basic pancake ingredients and made a clafoutis instead. A clafoutis is a French dish which isn’t as fancy as the name suggests. It’s simply a batter poured over fruit and then baked. The dessert typically uses cherries (found out that when other kinds of fruit are used instead of cherries, the dish is actually called a flaugnarde!) but as my husband doesn’t like cherries, I use blueberries. Other soft fruits can also be used – plums or apricots would be delicious. Below is the super easy recipe for the blueberry clafoutis in my scribbling. I love eating it when it’s cooled with a dollop of creme fraiche. Enjoy!
Last week was half term, and rather than it simply being my normal working week, some friends and I had pre-booked a cosy cottage near the Cotswold town of Stow on the Wold. We walked, cooked and ate huge quantities of good food, drank wine, sat by open fires, and played games. Strolling around the quaint local Cotswold towns and villages, I photographed few of my favourite finds, old and new, including; a book shop in Stow, Jon Fox Antiques in Morton in the Marsh, an Earl Grey Iced Tea from the lovely Market Pantry cafe in Broadway and The Curiousity Shop filled to overflowing with vintage paraphernalia in Bourton on the Water. I will post about my vintage and charity shop buys later this week.
