An aMAZEing weekend!

Sorry about the rotten pun in this post's title but, unless you're new to my blog, you should be used to my penchant for them by now!

Well, I was down at A Maze of Memories on Saturday and I travelled down to Thame on Friday where I was met by the lovely Christina and we set off to Waddesdon Manor which was built by Baron Rothschild in the French chateau style. As my train journey was several hours long, we only had a few hours to enjoy our visit, so we didn't go into the house but, instead, walked around the grounds and gardens which was just the job after being sat down for so long.

It's a very grand house as you can see!

We were just in time to join the guided tour of the aviaries and were really impressed with the conservation work that is being done with a relatively small set up. I didn't manage to get any decent pictures but Christina sent me some of hers, including this one of a Bali Mynah bird which were, at one time, so endangered that there were only five left in the wild.

Between the aviaries was an art installation that was mesmerising to look at and completely intriguing as to how it was done. At first it looked like a curtain of water droplets pulsing down at intervals to form a sort of flat waterfall effect but, as we got nearer, we realised that there were random words forming in the water drops. We were both taken aback when, as we watched, the name "David" appeared for a moment (these moments do give me goosebumps) but then, even more so when the name "Paul" appeared a few moments later...which is the name of Christina's husband. It was quite strange as the words are apparently randomly taken from the internet and we didn't see any repetitions. Somehow, in all the mad clicking that I did, I managed to coincide a snap with a word on a couple of occasions....

 ...it's very hard to convey how clever this work was.

We managed to get someone to take a few pictures of the two of us on the steps with the magnificent house behind us....

....and this one shows the sheer scale with the fantastic fountain in the foreground....

...the patterning on the left tower, by the way,is formed from climbing plants trained into the latticework design!

We had a couple of cream teas to finish the afternoon and then spent a relaxing evening at Christina's ahead of the busyness of the following day. I made a new friend....

 ....meet Topsy - Christina's gorgeous house rabbit. She was just lovely and so gentle...with a very twitchy nose!

Next day we headed over to A Maze of Memories in Long Crendon where I was demonstrating as well as hosting make n take sessions. As you can see, it was very busy! Everyone was having a great time either working on their card project or watching me getting very colourful, inky fingers!

You can see more photos of the day and what everyone made by going to AMOM'sblog where Christina has posted lots of images http://s187244897.websitehome.co.uk/2014/10/11/thank-you-lindsay/ I didn't get chance to take a single photo!

Thank you to everyone who came along to the demo day and a big thank you to Christina for her hospitality and brilliant organisational skills. Thanks too to Alli, Carolyn and Libby for keeping me (and everyone else!) supplied with drinks...as well as the very naughty cakes which had been baked specially for the day.

It was a fantastic weekend and I look forward to my next trip there.

After a very long train journey home it was really late when I got back and I had to be up early on Sunday morning for Church duties followed by going to our sister Church in nearby Carleton where Lynne and I were performing as Mabel and Mary the sheep again in our harvest puppet performance. As my fridge, cupboards and (most importantly!) cat food supplies were just about non existent, I had to get some shopping on the walk home and hiking four heavy carrier bags back really did wear me out! So it was time to put my feet up for the evening and just relax at last!

This week I'm getting things made in readiness for my demonstration at Time 2 Craft in Chesterfield next Saturday, where I'll be focussing on mixed media techniques. Hope to see you there!