David and I have completed a tie-bag kit, which is now listed on our Etsy and Folksy pages! These kits contain all the materials and instructions you need to make your very own tie-bag! We both love creating our items from recycled and reclaimed materials, so making a kit to encourage others to do the same is exciting. Hopefully these will be enjoyed by other people as much!

I was asked recently to make a large bowl as a gift from a friend. As it happened I knew the person who would be receiving my bowl and so I designed it to represent her family woodland in Sussex where I have had the pleasure of spending many happy weekends camping with Laura and her sister Emma over the years. Apparently she was very happy with the bowl which was good news and I so enjoyed painting it too!

This weekend I visited Harlow Carr RHS Garden near Harrogate with Dr Allan Hall. We had a pleasant walk through the woodland and the gardens and ended up in the the alpine greenhouse. It was there that we started talking about the beautiful spiral shapes formed by the leaves of plants such as houseleek and seed cones like those from fir trees. This has a name (of course). Phyllotaxis, from the Greek: leaf (phyllo) arrangement (taxis). These formations are amazingly exact mathematical patterns. I have been taking photographs of plants and seeds especially those with spiral and lattice-like patterns and thinking that they would be stimulating subjects for my bowls.

On Sunday, Mark and I went off to the local car boot sale at Weatherby looking for materials for the business (we found some excellent copper wire and some nice ties for Laura's bags). I usually meet someone interesting and clever at these events and on Sunday I got talking to a lady from Shri Lanka, Deidree Morrow, director of DeeSpice. She makes and markets a range of wonderful chutneys and sauces. I tasted a couple, they are very spicy but as Deidree pointed out, in Shri Lanka her products would be considered tame. I loved (and bought) her Mango Chutney. We also really liked the labels on their products which are bright and attractive. She sells her products from her webpage too by mail order.

Laura has made some beautiful new Fascinators including this one which I really love, "Pink Frayed Fascinator". The antique button in the centre is charming and you will never find another like this one, it is quite unique! The other new fascinators are lovely too so take a look when you have a moment on either of our web shops.

I have a couple of new bowls on the etsy and folksy web shops too. A customer from our folksy site received her bowl wrote back to say "....I have recently bought your "Harrogate Stray" bowl and I love it, but what attracted me to it was the painting, I think the way you decorate them is fantastic..." Well, thank you and we really appreciate your comments. My new bowls are part of a series which could be great to use to decorate your home over the Christmas celebrations. They are full of shining rainbow colours and stars and glitteriness!

This morning I have been out and about in Harrogate distributing leaflets for the FLARE Artists and Makers Craft Fairs which are coming up in November. Once again I met some excellent people with small, unique and quirky businesses. Still Gorgeous is run by Claire Whitaker and is Harrogate's first shop selling top end childrenswear, previously worn but in beautiful condition. It is the recyclers dream outlet! You can go in to buy an incredible selection of kids togs or take along some to sell to the shop.

I usually pop in to Leng's Green Grocers when I'm at Cold Bath Lane in Harrogate. It is by far the best in town. They have excellent locally sourced fruit and vegetables, much of it organically grown, reasonably priced and always good quality. Usefully they also have milk and eggs and other basics. Pete Scholfield has a web-site where you can shop on-line which is probably good too, personally I prefer to visit his friendly shop and today I bought some fresh beetroot, I just have to decide what to make with it now.

The Cold Bath Lane of Harrogate area is teeming with brilliant shops. I Like eggcup and blanket Interiors which have a great selection of home goods and gifts. Our friends at 3rd Edge Hairdressing recommended I visited Dragon Embroidery who produce bespoke printed and embroidered teeshirts, badges and the link. Brian at Dragon Embroidery is hopefully going to make us some embroidered ameliagreenheart teeshirts and sweatshirts which we can wear at craft fairs and markets and will probably offer them for sale too.

Time seems to fly by....This past weekend I was working on two commissions for work and the beginning of the week has been absorbed with thinking about new ideas and products for our web shops.
One of the commissions was for a house number sign for a 'Wendy House' in Weatherby. The client gave me a few pointers and left me to have a go. She collected it yesterday and later sent me a text message "....we put up 3a and it looks great! The colours are perfect and we love the design you chose. Thanks very much!" It was lovely to have some cheery feedback.

The second commission was for a large bowl. I so enjoyed making this one and when the purchaser has collected (hopefully pleased with it) and given it to its intended recipient I will share a photograph here on the blog. Actually I will miss it and would like to make another for me!

We should have some new 'seasonal' gifts available in our shops on etsy and folksy later and we will update the blog when they are available. I'm having a rainbow moment...so all the new designs are with rainbow coloured stars and inspite of myself they also seen to be a bit glittery but I actually love them and we hope you will too!

Feedback from people is interesting. The smallest comment can sometimes seem so negative even when it is almost certainly not meant to. One comment I received about my bowls was about the roughness of the finish. I suppose it is the tactile nature of them that I love the most and it is quite hard to get that across in a photograph. Of course being at craft fairs makes that part easy because people pick the bowls up and seem to actively enjoy the textures and odd shapes. It's the same with Laura's Tie bags...once you feel the luxurious silk of the (ex gentleman's tie) fabric they are hard to resist! The point is that feedback is always a good thing. I especially like it when people say something like "this is good...but it would be even better if you..."

I have also been visiting galleries, homes, gifts and craft shops in Harrogate distributing leaflets to promote the up-coming FLARE Artist and Makers Craft Fairs in November. Along the way I have been meeting interesting and wonderfully creative people. It has been a pleasure.

At Sutcliffe Galleries in Harrogate I was blown away by some extraordinary 'pictures' in 3 dimensions by Jon Mittan. His work is still life of vegetables in very classical style but presented as 3D photographs. The work has to be seen to be fully appreciated and I would heartily recommend a visit to gallery to get the full effect. Sutcliffe Galleries also has some beautiful paintings, Raku pottery and jewellery by local artists and it is very friendly place to visit.

On my travels leafleting I also met Garry Faulkner who has literally just opened his new shop Home and Garden in Montpellier Mews. The store is filled with an exquisite selection of goods, decorations and accessories for making a home really special. There are all sorts of unusual and tasteful objects any of which I would love to have in my home. It would be the perfect place to find a modest wedding present or a 'moving in' gift. I will definitely be returning to browse.

This morning I met a remarkable lady who runs a beautiful boutique gift shop called The Stalls in Bower Street, Harrogate. Her shop sells a lovely range of handmade and crafted gifts, all modestly and reasonably priced. There are felt bags, jewellery, photographs, cosmetics, cushions...lots of incredibly original things. All worth the short detour from the main shopping area (The Stalls can be found just behind the bus station). Natasha Harris was the perfect person for me to meet today, very positive and kind and encouraging. I felt elated, which sounds a bit over the top I agree, but chatting to her about her business and how she collaborates with local artists made me feel good about what Laura and I are trying to achieve.