If you are in to arts and crafts and would like to visit a few shows, events and exhibitions but don’t know where they are held, then search no more as we have done a bit of the hard work for you.

Scouring the web, we have found some of our favourite organised art and craft events that you can take part in this winter. Whether its food and flowers, or cushions and bags, there are a wide range of events and exhibitions around the UK that you and your friends can take part in.

UK ART AND CRAFTS EVENTS 2010

2^nd – 3^rd October – Craft Gift & Food Show – Capesthorne Hall, Macclesfield

3^rd October – Cushion Crazy – Farncombe Estate Adult Learning Centre, Worcestershire

8^th – 10^th October – Craft & Gift Fayre – Lady Green Garden Centre, Ince Blundell, Merseyside

15^th 17^th October – Bags Galore! Make Four in a Weekend – Farncombe Estate Adult Learning Centre, Worcestershire

16^th – 17^th October – Indoor Craft & Gift Fayre – Haydock Park Racecourse

21^st October – Christmas Scene Stamping – High Legh Garden Centre, Knutsford

30^th – 31^st October – Christmas Craft, Food & Country Gift Fayre – Beale Park, Berkshire

4^th – 7^th November – Crafts for Christmas – NEC, Birmingham

If you wish to find an art and craft show in your area, visit ICHF.co.uk, Craft-Fair.co.uk or Britevents.com which lists all of the latest craft shows across the UK and how you can take part.

The Ulster Weavers Team!

The very first annual National Wear A Tea Cosy On Your Head Day is here and we at Ulster Weavers couldn’t wait to celebrate.

Kitted out in our fancy head gear, the whole team at the Ulster Weavers office in Holywood, Northern Ireland had to wear one of our tea cosies today and everyone was up for some fun and joined in.

The day saw our directors, marketing team, design and sales team walk round with chickens, bunny rabbits, spotty pigs, hedgehogs, owls, dogs and strawberries on their head, all taken from our wide range of tea cosy collections featured on the Ulsterweavers.com website.

And as we at Ulster Weavers are renowned for our tea cosies and many other home textile products, we couldn’t wait for this special festive day to begin. In fact we became so excited; we started looking for other special events and national days involving home textiles & products which we have put into our calendar so we don’t forget.

These are our favourite dates that we will be sure to celebrate.

January 27^th: National Chocolate Cake Day

May 9^th: National Wear Your Apron Day

June 3^rd: National Cuppa Day

September 12^th: International Plastic Bag Free Day

October 10^th-17^th: National Knitting Week

The National Wear A Tea Cosy On Your Head Day is part of a charity event to raise money for the White Stuff Foundation – a newly launched foundation which supports over 60 local children’s charities in the UK. Today, the event has seen as Flash Mob Tea Dance outside the White Stuff shop on Church Street in Kingston, which will see members of the local community wearing a tea cosy and dancing as a group.

You should also visit the WhiteStuff.com website to see a good few celebs take part in this fantastic good cause by wearing tea cosies on their head.

So your baby has gone to university. You’ve packed them off with all their clothes, stocked their fridge with plenty of food and left them a bit of money to keep them in pocket until the end of the month when you know you’ll be getting a phone call asking for a top up as the funds are running low.

However, you have realised that since their departure, your washing basket is pretty empty, you have food in the fridge when you get home from work and you can actually watch the programmes you want to watch each night rather than the Play Station or Sweet Sixteen. Fantastic!

Despite all this free time on your hands you will still worry about your little one. Whether they are eating okay, getting enough sleep or arriving at their lectures on time rather than overlying in bed.

And when it comes to cooking, well that’s another kettle of fish, as far as your concerned they can’t even boil an egg. While we are in no way trying to worry you, we thought we would share some funny student cooking disasters that we have heard and discovered from around the UK.

Boiling a Potato

What is it about potatoes? There are a million and one simple ways to cut and peel them, but trying to actually get your child to do it is near enough impossible. To give you an idea of the problems students are facing with potatoes, one girl didn’t know how to boil a potato so she just put it whole in the pan and it boiled dry three times; taking it out of the pan, scraping off the burnt bits and then trying it again!

Metal in the microwave

Readymade meals are the way forward for many students and microwaves are a god sent. However, for some reason they seem to think anything can be cooked in the microwave, including metal. One kid put a whole slab of butter in the microwave still in its wrapper and started a fire in the kitchen.

Minstrels in the oven

Yes believe it or not but this is a true experience. One guy decided to test out a trick he’d seen on television with chocolate Minstrels. Popped them in the oven to melt just the chocolate inside the Minstrel, disappeared to check his emails, totally forgot about them and set the oven on fire. The Minstrels came like rock solid charcoal. Tip: Never experiment with fire!

Orange on the cornflakes

This student was still clearly half asleep as they poured a whole load of orange juice over their breakfast cereal, and only realised after they experienced the tangy taste in their mouth.

Soup in the tin

This super lazy student couldn’t be bothered with the fact that when you eat you have to wash up, so would boil his soup in a pan of water while still in the tin. One day, he forgot about the soup leaving the water to boil away and the can exploded leaving soup all over the ceiling and work surfaces.

If all else fails in the cooking department we think that dinner reservations and take outs are the way forward for a while, until the money runs out and beans on toast are the ideal breakfast/lunch/dinner for any student to live on.

Olive Sandwiches tea towel by Ulster Weavers

To make sure that your big kid is fully prepared with all the cutlery, crockery and kitchen textiles, make sure that you visit Ulsterweavers.com. The home textiles website has some fantastic accessories for the kitchen to choose from, including aprons, tea towels, tea cosies, oven gloves and much more. This adorable Olive Sandwiches tea towel design from Ulster Weavers certainly says it all for the student life!

The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning by MacMillan Cancer Support is back by storm with the big event set to take place this Friday. (Friday 24^th September 2010)

The fundraising event is calling out to all UK citizens – or anyone in the world for that matter – to hold a coffee morning, where donations on the day are made to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Last year the big event saw 43,000 people register to hold their very own coffee morning, raising a massive £7.9 million. And this year, the team need your help to raise over £8 million to help change the lives of people affected by cancer.

The coffee mornings started when a local fundraising committee decided to hold a coffee meeting where people would come together to mix and mingle as well as donate the cost of their coffee to Macmillan in the process.

The idea was eventually taken up nationally becoming the first National World’s Biggest Coffee Morning. Since it started, the coffee mornings have raised a total of £60 million for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Tea Pot Shaped Tea Cosy from Ulster Weavers

As the years have rolled on, many people have come up with some fantastic ideas for their coffee morning. From quizzes to karaoke finished with tea, coffee and scrumptious cakes, many people have created a fantastic atmosphere in their local communities as well as offices in a bid to raise money for cancer patients.

In fact, there have been numerous record attempts to create the biggest and best coffee morning, including the Highest Coffee Morning (on a jet fighter in 2004) to the Most Distant Coffee Morning (in Antarctica in 2002) and the World’s Deepest Coffee Morning (down Poldark Mine in Cornwall in 2002).

The whole idea behind the coffee morning is about having fun with friends and family for a good cause. There are a wide range of activities that you can bring along to your coffee morning which will certainly keep your guests happy, and here are a few ideas from home textiles company, Ulster Weavers to get you started.

• Throw a Mad Hatters Tea Party for all your guests. With plenty of tea pots, tea cosies, mugs and lots of cakes, you can create hopping mad surprise for everyone. See our recent post on how to throw your own Mad Hatters Tea Party by clicking here.
• Why not host a raffle or competition where people can win kitchen accessories for the home, such as tea cosies, mugs or tea towels for their home.
• You could even have a paint your own mug/cup competition which will see your guests paint their design on a blank canvas mug and then finish off the morning with a nice cup of coffee and a cake afterwards. To get some inspiration about organising a pot painting event, visit our Paint Your Own Pottery post by clicking here.
• Why not have all your guests bring their own homemade brownies, cakes, scones to sell at the coffee morning. Getting everyone involved makes everyone feel they have done their part in raising money for cancer.
• You could even have a knitted tea cosy competition which sees your guests knit their own tea cosy for the event. The tea cosies can then be sold off at the coffee morning or put into a raffle. To get some inspiration for your tea cosy visit our blog post on homemade knitted tea cosies by clicking here or view our fantastic collection of tea cosies at UlsterWeavers.com.

Alternatively you can visit the Macmillan website at www.coffee.macmillan.org.uk where you will find lots of

Flower Pot Shaped Cafetiere Cosy from Ulster Weavers

 inspiration from previous coffee mornings as well as some fantastic desserts for you try out. And if you are not able to host your own party, but wish to take part in a coffee morning in your area, simply visit the Macmillan site, enter your postcode, and all your local coffee mornings will be listed.

If you are thinking of hosting your very own Macmillan coffee morning then make sure you visit the site today to register your coffee morning so fellow supporters can join you in this fantastic fundraising event for Macmillan Cancer Support.

The famous Arthur Guinness

Starting at 17.59 on September 23^rd 2010 the whole world will celebrate the remarkable life and legacy of Arthur Guinness!

2009 saw a global celebration of Arthur’s Day with a variation of fantastic celebrations and live music events all around the world and this Thursday we are about to do it all again.

In Ireland the celebrations are set to be on a national scale. With amazing artists and acts performing at events in Cork, Galway and Dublin, along with 100’s of bands playing in local pubs throughout Ireland, the event is set to take the nation by storm.

Everyone can be a part of this unique worldwide celebration wherever you all in the world. The dedicated Guinness.com website has all the information about the celebration of Arthur’s Day and how you can get tickets which are now on sale for the wide range of shows taking place across the country. They have even included a Pub Locator on the website to help you find the nearest pub in your area that is celebrating Arthur Guinness Day.

The celebration only started in 2009 to mark Guinness’s 250^th birthday. Due to its success, the team at Guinness decided to continue the celebrations for 2010. Last year the special day saw Tom Jones, Kasabian, Estelle, Dizzee Rascal, Razorlight and David Gray raise their glasses and musical notes to mark this celebratory occasion.

Get into the celebrations by making your very own Guinness Pie for you and your family to share this Thursday. We at Ulster Weavers have been scouring the web to locate the best Guinness Pie out there and we think we have found it!

Happy Arthur Guinness Day on Thursday everyone, have a piece on us!

To view the full Guiness Recipe click here.

Autumn Salad Dish by Jenny Bristow

Jenny Bristow, Irish born and international chef, has kindly sent Ulster Weavers a delightful autumn salad dish which we couldn’t wait to share.

The Autumn Salad of Roasted Squash, Green Beans, Rocket in a Coconut and Lime Dressing dish is full of flavour and colours, as well as being a fantastically healthy dish that is sure to go down a treat with your guests.

Jenny Bristow, said, “Our season of squash is becoming longer and longer with an array of colourful vegetables from early autumn right through to the early winter months from pumpkins, acorn and butternut squash which fill our supermarket shelves.”

And this isn’t the first fantastic recipe that the Ulster Weavers team have received from Jenny Bristow. Featured on our dedicated blog you can view the Irish French Toast recipe by clicking the link.

To view more recipes of Jenny’s visit her dedicated website at JennyBristow.com.

Autumn Salad of Roasted Squash, Green Beans, Rocket in a Coconut and Lime Dressing

Ingredients

1kg squash – pumpkin, butternut or acorn squash (cut into slices and roasted)

2-3 spring onions – finely sliced

110g/4oz green beans – steamed

1 chilli – finely chopped

1 inch root ginger – grated

1 red or yellow pepper – cut into slices

 1-2 potatoes – steamed and cut into slices

To Serve

Rocket leaves

Flat leaf parsley

100m/¼ pt coconut milk

100ml/¼ pt yogurt

 1 lime – juice and rind

 Method

Prepare all the vegetables – peel the squash and slice into ribbon strips and either steam, boil or roast in the oven with a little oil.

Steam the green beans for 2 minutes, slice the pepper, chop the chilli, grate the ginger, peel, slice and steam the potatoes for 6-7 minutes until soft but firm.

Mix all the vegetables together in a bowl and toss with coconut milk, yogurt, lime juice and chopped chilli. 

 Serve with rocket and flat leaf parsley.

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Hookers Linen Tea Towel by Ulster Weavers

If you are looking to spruce up your kitchen this autumn then why not take a look at the fantastic Hookers Orchard

 Collection by Ulster Weavers today. The stunning collection features a double oven glove, calendar tea towel, tea cosy, pott mitt, PVC, shoulder and packable bag, gauntlet, linen tea towel, PVC or cotton apron.

Kids love crafts. Getting messy and creative is a sure way to keep your little one’s entertained while the big kids have gone back to school.

A fantastic way to get them out and about and active in the garden is to get them making crafts and garden accessories for your garden or as a gift to their grandparents. This gets their imagination going and allows them to feel more involved in garden projects as well as learning about the garden and the outdoors.

Instead of placing your child in front of the television when they are bored, invest a bit of your time into their day by teaching them different crafts for the garden. Whether its painting a plant pot or planting a flower bed let them feel proud to have created something to show off to family and friends in your garden.

To give you a few little ideas of what you can create with your kids in the garden, here are a few suggestions from Ulster Weavers; a sure way to keep your children super happy.

Bird Table

If you have a bit of time and a few bits of wood, why not get your child involved in making a bird table for the garden. Get them to help you paint the bird table and decide where to put it in the garden. Make sure that they are aware of the dangers of nails and hammers and that the wood is carefully sanded down in order to prevent splinters.

Flower Pot Friend

Why not get them to make your very own garden friend/gnome. You can easily create a gnome or flower pot man out of simple garden accessories such as flower pots, pieces of wood as well as decorative garden paints to add a smiley face to your garden friend.

Garden Stepping Stones

If you have room for garden stepping stones in your garden then why not get your little ones to paint their very own stepping stone. That way you will always have those special memories of your children and their mark on your garden. You can even get your children’s children to add their stepping stone to the garden in many years to come.

Paint a Plant Pot

Very easy and lots of fun. Buy a few different plant pots and get your little one’s painting in the garden. Get them thinking creatively and encourage them to think of inspiration from the great outdoors. You can really go to town when painting plant pots using finishing accessories such as buttons to complete the design.  Make sure you get the little one to wear childrens aprons so they don’t get their clothes too messy. You could even get them to choose their very own flower from the garden centre which they can plant in their decorative plant pot and look after each day.

Britain was actually the first country to coin the ‘tea towel.’ In the 18th Century (1870 approx) Great Britain’s tea towel was a special linen drying cloth that the lady of the house would use to dry expensive pieces of China.

With its delicate weave, linen was considered the fabric of choice as it would not scratch pieces of fine China or glasses. During the 18th Century, British servants were charged with hand hemming and hand embroidering the tea towels. Each tea towel was embroidered with care with many of the tea towels becoming the subject of family heirlooms.

Linen was considered the best use of soft fabric; however it did require a lot of handheld care. Water temperatures could not be that warm (between 50-90) so all linen had to be hung out to dry from the sunlight. When the tea towel was just a bit damp, it needed to be ironed on the reverse side.

It is highly known that British people love their tea and pride themselves on how they serve it. At tea parties the table was amazingly dressed with the finest of linens and the most beautiful crystals and China, complete with matching napkins and tea towels.

Dry and clean tea towels were often used as a tea cosy (the tea towel was wrapped around the teapot in insulate and keep the pot warm), as well as a basket warmer. The tea towel was wrapped around or laid on top of a serving basket or bowl to keep fresh tea scones, tea cakes or muffins hot.

Ireland also is in line with the British when it comes to the tea towel and drinking cups of tea. In fact, they serve and drink tea as much as they do in England. 1794 was the year of yarn prohibition which turned Ireland like the British, to become excellent weavers with fine weaving a long and time honoured tradition.

Tea towels were massed produced by the Industrial Revolution with companies nowadays creating tea towels and other kitchen textile products displaying a variation of pictures, images, trends and styles etc.

 Tea towels are also seen as wall hangings or in encased frames as well as pictures on a wall.

It’s happened to the best of us at some point. You’ve chilled out all day, done pretty much nothing until mother comes home after a hard day at work to find you haven’t lifted a finger and the potatoes aren’t on the boil for dinner.

Or maybe you’re the one who has come home after a busy day to find the whole household wondering where you have been and why their dinner isn’t on the table.

Now while you may turn it on its head and ask them what they have been doing all day, you know that your lot are a little crafty and having practiced for years and knowing which buttons to press, they will have a list of little excuses to why your dinner wasn’t on the table and why they didn’t even get round to lifting the meat out the freezer.

To give you a heads up on what excuses you could potentially face (or potentially use) here are the most common excuses USED for not cooking the dinner!

1. “I don’t know how to cook; I am not good at all. You are so much better.”
2. “I just don’t feel like cooking or eating tonight.”
3. “I am on a diet and can’t be in the kitchen.”
4. “I got home from work and felt far too tired to cook.”
5. “I got home too late to start cooking.”
6. “I didn’t know where everyone was so I just thought I would wait until everyone got in.”
7. “We all ate a big snack earlier and aren’t really that hungry anymore.”
8. “I asked what people wanted and everyone said they didn’t know so I thought I would wait to get a second opinion.”
9. “Everyone wanted something different and I only have one pair of hands.”
10. “The kitchen isn’t really big enough for the meal I had planned.”
11. “I had an idea for a really extravagant meal but you didn’t have the ingredients in so I couldn’t make it.”
12. “There is nothing in the cupboards for me to cook.”
13. “I fancy a takeaway.”
14. “I am not cooking for us anymore, I am worried about global warming.”
15. “I have had so so much homework to do when I have come in from school I just didn’t have the time and I really don’t want to fail.”
16. “I didn’t want to start cooking and then waste all the food if no one was eating. I was thinking of you really and all the money you spend on food.”

Irish French Toast Recipe

Ulster Weavers are pleased to share their delightful Irish French Toast Recipe courtesy of Irish born and international chef Jenny Bristow. The recipe comes complete with two tasty filling options for you to choose from, all dependent on whether you are craving a sweet or savoury snack.

The Irish French Toast with Plum or Cranberries recipe is Jenny’s favourite. She said, “I love this combination – the tartness of the plum or cranberry sauce -filled French toast.”

She also has 12 best selling cookery books and reached the Sunday Times No.1 bestselling author.

And now Jenny Bristow fans can visit the superstar chef’s new look website which features all her amazing recipes as well as her up and coming television shows, cookery books and latest news in the world of cooking. For more information visit the Jenny Bristow website here.

Victoria Apron by Ulster Weavers

If you are a dab hand in the kitchen or fancy being a chef in the making, then why not kit out your kitchen with a fantastic kitchen textiles collection from Ulster Weavers.

The Irish based home textiles company have some fantastic collections on offer including the Victoria range, a traditional floral design with a fresh, modern twist. The stylist apron and spotty frills will add a quirky edge to your kitchen coordinates.

And if you are not into the floral frills and prefer a classic style then why not take a look at the Plain Dyed collection, a simple, traditional yet tasteful style for all types of kitchens. With six colours to choose from you can either colour co-ordinate or mix and match a variation of styles to spruce up your home.

For more information and to view all of the stunning collections visit UlsterWeavers.com today.