Saturday 21 April 2012

Birthday day out


For my birthday, back in the Easter Holidays, Amelia and I took a little jaunt to the Lake District to catch the World of Wool exhibition at Rheged.  Rheged is a strange beast, kind of a glorified service station, with shops selling lovely little things by local and national designer/maker types (including the lovely Julia Smith Ceramics), a soft play centre and outdoor play area (a lovely surprise on arrival) and a few different coffee bars.  There's some office/meeting space and also a huge exhibition space on the top floor.  It looks a bit hobbity from the outside, too.


As well as having been keen on visiting the exhibition for a while, we also had some friends in town from overseas with their new baby, so it was definitely worth the trip!

After an hour or so in the soft play, making friends and riding foam horses, Amelia seemed to enjoy it too. 



Amelia doing incredibly well not to touch the lovely tactile display

I didn't get to take photos of everything, what with the child wrangling and the don't touch policy, but my favourite part of the exhibition were the handmade houses with stories of the inhabitants.  I love the idea of building a whole new world out of just needles, yarn and imagination.  There's a pun about spinning a good yarn in there, I'm sure, but let's just gloss over that...

Some well known names like Emily Peacock and Donna Wilson were on display, alongside more local and less well known exhibitors.  Sadly the exhibition finished last week so I can't tell you all to go and see it.  Unfortunately, since I got my iPad and traded in my laptop, blogging has become more of a challenge, so hopefully someone can improve the blogger app soon and I'll get back to more frequent blogging. 

I loved the handmade brochure and had to buy one as a souvenir - it is even handbound with local wool.  Just perfect!