Category: Crafts

Day 56: Window Wanderland Ely

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Ely has joined the Window Wanderland revolution! As the sun went down on 23rd October 2020, the lights in 140 Ely homes & businesses went on, illuminating their window artwork.

Window Wanderland began in 2015 when Lucy Reeves Khan used her experience of isolation as a force for good, inspiring communities to transform their streets into unique ‘galleries’ for neighbours to enjoy together. Such a fun idea and Lucy can’t have known how much this kind of togetherness would be so desperately needed in 2020.

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Day 55: Somewhere in Ely

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Back in July, I read about a collaborative community arts project in our home city, called All Together Now. An invitation was extended to artists & makers to propose some “fun and unexpected things to happen in the city”. Intriguing! The focus was on encouraging local people to get creative during lockdown and involved in activities to be shared & enjoyed by locals and visitors.

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Day 46: Ely Borrow Bag

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I think by now we all know that plastic pollution is a huge world problem and the effects on the environment and marine life are horrific.

It’s hard to know what you can do as an individual and it’s easy to feel powerless. The way I feel is that while my family is four people in 7.6 billion, we can’t sit by and do nothing at all. In the words of David Attenborough following Blue Planet II, “…if we start doing those small steps that are easily achievable, we can, before long, really have an effect.”

I live in Ely which is home to around 20,000 people, and the city is on a mission to reduce the number of single-use plastic bags used in our shops. It’s something everyone can get involved in and I’ve made my small contribution 🙂

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Day 45: Gift Card Felt Envelope

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As children get older it becomes harder to know what to buy them as gifts. I have a group of friends whose children are the same age as our two, and the year when our eldest children were turning seven, the idea of a book voucher, or gift card, came up.

When I was young I loved getting book vouchers (back then they were actually vouchers, like paper money!) as the whole experience of browsing a bookshop was something I loved – and still do! Nowadays, book vouchers tend to come as a gift card and while it is a great present, it may be a less exciting prospect for a child than something big to unwrap 🙂

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Day 39: Bird Nibbles

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Back in 1979, the RSPB invited their junior members to count the birds that visited their garden at a set time. It encouraged children to get involved with nature and allowed the RSPB to work out the top 10 UK garden birds. Fast forward to 2018, and it’s gone from strength to strength with over half a million people expected to take part in the annual #BigGardenBirdwatch.

Our boys are rarely happier than when they’re playing outside, and as we like to encourage their love of nature we ordered this year’s RSPB birdwatch pack. Within it was a ‘recipe’ for bird cakes. Simple to make at home, we decided to make this our activity for day 39 of #100DaysNoTV.

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Day 38: Painted Pebbles

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As we head towards the end of 2017, it’s a time when many will reflect on the year gone by and look to the year ahead. It’s the busiest season of the year with so much going on every single day – we know that this time of year can be particularly daunting for people living with mental illness, in its many forms. Fortunately, there is help out there for anyone who needs support. 

On Day 38 of #100DaysNoTV we left some festive-themed painted pebbles around our little city of Ely. These are no ordinary pebbles; we hope they will help to spread the word about a wonderful community project, Talking FreELY.

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Day 37: Christmas Wreaths

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To get you in the Christmas mood, you’d find it hard to beat an afternoon making a wreath while sipping mulled wine, eating mince pies, all to the background singing of a live choir. On Day 37 of #100DaysNoTV, I joined a Mummas & More wreath-making workshop at Ely Cathedral! 🙂 

Christmas wreaths seem to have gained in popularity over recent years and we had our first ever wreath last year. It was a bit sorry looking; I bought it on a whim from a garden centre in mid-December, and it was definitely past its best! However, it planted a seed in my (not-very-creative) mind – I wanted to make one of my own the following year. I just had to figure out how!

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