Myself, Lisa and Emma went to Ragley Hall to visit Kirstie Allsopp's 'The Handmade Fair', I've wanted to go for the past couple of years and we finally managed to get tickets! Sunday was hosted by 'Sewing Bee' judge Patrick Grant and we had a little fan girl moment when we saw him!
We had a couple of workshops booked and a ticket to see Mollie Makes, but we arrived late and ended up missing our block printing class. We didn't really mind so we had a wander around the amazing shopping tent. It was super busy and full of lovely crafty shops. There was homeware, hand painted trinkets, knitting/crochet kits, lots of handmade jewellery, art, fabrics and some more familiar shops like Belle & Boo.
I bought my own calligraphy pen with ink, pom pom trim and a heart stamper with pretty coloured ink pads. There were so many gorgeous things I wanted and it was very hard stopping myself from buying much more!
We chose to do the modern calligraphy workshop run by Lauren Cooper of 'Oh Wonder Calligraphy'. She was absolutely lovely and such a good teacher taking us through all the basics, from holding the pen to what paper to use. It was definitely the highlight of the day and I've got ink stained fingers as a reminder! It was really fun to do and surprisingly relaxing.
Outside the shopping tent were some open studios, I was really excited to see and chat with 'de Winton Paper co', but unfortunately they weren't around when we arrived. We did spend a long time admiring their work which was laid out on the table and I'm so inspired!
There were lots of delicious smelling food stalls around the perimeter of the fair, from paella to Nutella crepes, but we decided on some stone baked pizza,which was scrummy! I wish there were as many craft stalls as there were food ones!
