Hello lovely people it’s time for an update on Stitch'n'Shenanigans adventures with our latest show with The Sussex Guild at the Rother college in the wonderful village of Midhurst West Sussex.
It all started a bit fraught with unforeseen circumstances preventing us from setting up on the Friday. Along came Saturday morning with everyone packed into the van, we arrived at a very wet and windswept Midhurst college at 8am. With lots of jaunts from the van we soon had the stand and the creatures into the hall ready to build the stand for the 10am opening........ Phew so far so good.
Before you could say Christmas Mice the stand was up and ready for Sarah's special touch to make it comfortable for the Stitch'n'Shenanigans creatures to awaken from their transit slumber and take up their positions in preparation for the day’s proceedings.
With a few minutes to spare we were there and waiting for the doors to open to greet the waiting public. No sooner had we opened than Oliver Hare our latest addition who only appeared on Thursday was whisked away in a covert adoption ready for a Christmas surprise.
After Oliver was safely and suitably prepared for his journey we settled down to meeting lots of really nice people who soon fell under the spells being cast by Merlin our other new addition to the Stitch'n'Shenanigans family. As he mesmerised and entertained, he beguiled Sue who was Stitch'n'Shenanigans first customer at our first show for The Sussex Guild in Horsham where she adopted Claudius the crow who as we were informed has been misbehaving and causing Sue sleepless nights!! We are hoping that Merlin will work his magic on Claudius to restore peace and harmony in the house.
While all this was going on there was a whispered conversation regarding another surprise adoption, Sarah sorted the necessary adoption paperwork for the Dowager Dachshund and Walter Hare to be released to their new loving parents but apparently The Dowager will be soon heading to a new family of her own.
After all this frantic activity things settled down into a nice steady pace before meeting a very nice lady who regaled us with stories of the mouse that comes into her living room for a warm up as well as when she was younger a badger that came into the kitchen for his tea each night and would then peer at her from the kitchen doorway.
As Saturday drew to close we headed off home be greeted by the Stitch'n'Shenanigans quality controller Cleo with Felix and Tiger the sleeping partners of Stitch'n'Shenanigans who had all been incredibly busy undertaking a hard days sleeping whilst waiting for supper to be served before sniffing it and sauntering off in disgust. That was Saturday completed and we headed off to try convince ourselves that we would be able to stay awake later than 8pm zzzzzzzzzzzz.
After failing miserably at staying awake we rose sharp on Sunday morning to be greeted by a cold grey day but with luckily no rain, without further ado we packed everything needed to see us through the day and trundled off to Midhurst to tidy the stand and make alterations to the display with 10am fast approaching.
Just after 10am we were greeted by Sarah who had adopted Hugo and Octavia at our Michelham Priory show she proudly showed us the latest photographs of Hugo and Octavia with her entourage of mice to keep the dapper hare and delectable crow company. Whilst telling us of her planned journey back home to New Zealand for Christmas and also the lack of room she has for her growing collection when she spotted Rupert Hare and Monsieur Pierre Mouse you could almost hear the crackle of love as both of them gleefully jumped into her arms to tell her that the alarm clock needs moving to make room for them as Edwin our large Hare who is the cousin twice removed of Reggie the Rogue arranged the adoption paperwork, Watch this space for updates of their adventures as Sarah has promised pictures of the gang and their shenanigans.
Shortly after this Edwin and Daisy hare started to bounce and jump around on the steps as we tried to calm them they both leapt down and ran to Louise who had caught their eye, before you could say "Get Down Shep" they had jumped into Louise’s arms and were busy making Hares eyes at her!! As we attempted to extricate our two normally well behaved Hares from a startled Louise it was plain to see that that the mischievous two had captured her heart especially as we learned of the goings on of Bungo and Odd her two Koalas who are companions and providers of many a tale to be told.
Not wishing to stand in the way of such a perfect pairing we prepared the adoption forms so as Edwin and Daisy were able to head on to their new address where they have full run of the house.
With all this excitement the day was flying through and as we were heading to the final part of the afternoon Nic from Emsworth appeared and promptly fell head over heels for Bryony Badger and Ivor the Christmas mouse,as the adoption wheels kicked into motion we were introduced to the exploits of the tattooed 'Pompy Pigeon' (which is a tale for another day)
This helped to bring the proceedings for the weekend to a close and with all the Administration completed it was time to settle the creatures into their travel suits before closing the stand to a very enjoyable Sussex Guild show which was extremely well attended by all on a dark wet weekend.
Phew thats all for Stitch'n'Shenanigans its now time to get the stand ready as I will be at The Little Grey Sheep open days on friday the 7th untill Sunday the 9th of December for the final Stitch'n'Shenanigans show of the year.
(Psst there is a rumour that Reggie maybe putting in a special gueast appearance at the Little Grey Sheep)