Bloomin’ Lovely

18/12/2025

This week saw the last two sessions of my 12-week horticultural activities programmes for people with cancer. We ended with a relaxed workshop making natural Christmas bunting and miniature wreaths ♻️🎄

There were cakes and chocolate aplenty and the alcohol-free mulled wine was flowing! 🍷🍰 Anyone would think we were having a party! 🤭🤫

I’ve absolutely loved running these programmes in Shrewsbury and Oswestry. Once again I’m humbled by the strength and resilience of each participant, turning up week after week amongst a whole host of treatments, appointments and daily struggles. Community was built, firm friendships were made and support was given when it was most needed. I was merely the facilitator, they did the hard work. For me, this is more than just a job 🫶

Lingen Davies Cancer Support

13/12/2025

We made Christmas stars out of willow🌟 🌟🌟and they were ace 🤩

Willow can be tough on the fingers and thumbs when you’re weaving it in and out, but my Horticultural Activities groups did so well to create their own beautiful willow stars this week. Each participant was able to take home their own unique star 💫 🏡

08/12/2025

Well that was fun and exhausting in equal measure! 🤪😮‍💨

Thanks to all of the customers who bought my willow products 🧺 or to those who just came up to chat with me about weaving😊

Turns out that there are a LOT of budding weavers out there! 👀 I can’t recall the exact amount of times that people came up to me and said “I’ve always wanted to have a go at this”, but I heard it a lot 😅

Thanks also to the Condover Christmas Fair team for a wonderful, well-organised fair once again🎄👏

04/12/2025

If you are in need of a star this Christmas, I’m your girl! ⭐️🌟✨💫🤩

I’ve got big ones and small ones, ones that hang on trees, ones that dangle from bunting, stars on sticks (wands) and traditional scandi stars 😅 All made by my own fair (and slightly sore) hands 🤲

I’ll be selling my starry goods, alongside my other willow craft (think handbags, small baskets, bird feeders, Christmas angels, dragonflies and baubles) at Condover Hall Christmas Fair this Sunday (7th Dec) 🎄⭐️

It’s the Christmassy-est fair you will ever go to, with live music 🎵 and enough mulled wine to sink a ship 🍷

03/12/2025

3 Christmas wreath workshops in 2 days? Oh go on then! 😅🤪😮‍💨

I ran 2 out of the 3 workshops for my Horticultural Activities programmes that I’ve been delivering in Oswestry and Shrewsbury this Autumn/Winter time 🌱 The third one was a charity fund-raising workshop I ran in memory of Tracey Betteridge; a wonderful lady who had participated in my Spring Horticultural Activities programme, who sadly lost her life to cancer in September.

It was so lovely to see participants return from my Spring programme who clearly wanted some more horticultural fun with me 😁, alongside some of the Men’s Shedders who couldn’t resist a festive afternoon in good company 🎄

We raised £410 for Lingen Davies Cancer Support 🙌 which I was really pleased about as it’s nice to give back to a charity that is offering so much support to people with cancer right now 👏🙏

28/11/2025

It’s the last weekend to come and see our wonderful Weave Only A Trace exhibition in Ironbridge 🧺👀

The exhibition is made up of the work of 12 local basketry artists alongside a pop up Christmas shop which has handmade weaved products by the 12 artists themselves ✨🎄

This is the last time we will be exhibiting in 2025 so please come along and support us 🙏 There is a great cafe downstairs too! ☕️🍽️

27/11/2025

I got back to my roots today at The OT Show where I immersed myself in everything Occupational Therapy 💚🙌

I enjoyed a lecture by Katie Tait, CEO of Horatio’s Garden charity. She covered everything from hospital garden design, to therapeutic benefits and approaches, to what makes a hospital garden a success. Horatio’s Garden has been a real success story and does an amazing job of increasing the visibility of horticultural and nature-based therapies within NHS settings.

I dropped in at the RCOT stand to steal some free pens and chat about their new online platform. We discussed the possibility for a nature-based OT section to sit alongside all the other specialist sections, and they were keen as mustard 🙌

I even managed to sniff out a weaving opportunity with the Elizabeth Casson Trust 😂 They were recruiting 100 OTs to help them loom weave a rug which will be displayed at the OT history exhibition next year.

All in all, it was a day well spent. I rekindled my love for OT, added several hours to my CPD folder 📖 and now have enough free pens to last me approximately 10 years 🖊️🖊️🖊️🙌

25/11/2025

It’s been a big day of teaching willow craft today at the exhibition in Ironbridge. This morning’s willow angel workshop went well with everyone adding their own creative touch to the wings, head and halo 😇

This afternoon I ran a willow Christmas tree workshop with a group of people with learning disabilities and dementia🎄I reduced the complexity of the weave and introduced some softer materials such as yarn and ribbons. These are easier on the hands and fingers and allowed me to incorporate a bit of colour and sparkle 😁 And why not! It’s almost Christmas after all! ✨🎄✨

20/11/2025

Our Weave Only A Trace exhibition is now open in Ironbridge until 30th November 🙌

I’m really pleased that my work is being displayed there along side 11 other talented basketry artists’ work. There are so many beautiful handmade pieces to come and see 👀 🧺

I had a great day there today stewarding and running a willow dragonfly workshop for beginner weavers 😊

I’ll also be there all day on Saturday for our Opening Event and next Tuesday to run Christmas Angel workshops (please book yourself a place on the Weave Only A Trace website). It would be great to see you there!

06/11/2025

After a break for half term, we got our hands back in to the soil this week on my Lingen Davies Cancer Support horticultural activities programmes 🤲

We did bit of seed sowing and potting on of winter seedlings such as winter salads, broad beans and kale 🌱

We made seed snails and pots using a whole host of recycled materials, proving that you don’t need all the fancy, expensive and often non-recycable pots that the garden centres offer 🪴

25/10/2025

We had a lot of fun decorating these pumpkins this week during my Lingen Davies Cancer Support horticultural activities programmes 🎃🎃🎃🎃

Ok we didn’t carve scary faces into them but we did adorn them with garden flowers and foliage 🌼🍃This meant that everyone went home with a lovely seasonal table arrangement 🍁🍂

23/10/2025

Not long now until our next exhibition in Ironbridge, Shropshire 🤗

My indigo collection of basketry will be displayed there alongside 11 other basketry artist’s work 🧺🧺 It’s well worth a visit! Plus you can get yourself booked onto a workshop if you fancy having a go at weaving yourself 👀

All workshops are aimed at beginners, so take a look at the website and book yourself a place: https://www.weaveonlyatrace.co.uk

The exhibition will run from 18-30th November at the Footprint Gallery, with an Opening Event on the 22nd.

​Weave Only A Trace exhibition: A collective of Shropshire-based and visiting artist-makers, who work with willow, wood and natural fibres.