Saying Farewell and a Workshop

On Friday I went to a farewell party as the founder of our small Miniatures group in The Netherlands is leaving for Sweden. There are only two members from downunder (one of which is me) and although we normally don't get to attend the meetings, we've always been treated as a member and often received a workshop kit in the mail and/or took part when either of us happened to be holidaying in The Netherlands.  It was great to see all the members together for once and even our Kiwi member joined in via Skype.

We presented Ria with a gift, which included a 'memory booklet' from the group, after which we were treated to delicious Swedish dishes. And a sign of the times (even Maccers is no longer the frontrunner!), when Ria showed us some pictures of her new house in Sweden, someone discovered Ikea Bedcovers!!!  Which resulted in a number of people saying: "I have those too, I have those too!"  Me included!  Funny that.

Anyway, we had a lovely night together and all too soon is was time for saying goodbye for real, although we haven't seen the last of Ria, she promised.



On Saturday I was lucky enough to be able to attend another workshop.  This time in Elst at Annelies' place.  Wim van Soest taught us how to make shopping bags with the use of real leather.  We had a great time and I'll be back for the next one, when we'll be making college shoes.  After my favorite start: coffee and cake, we worked seriously with only a break for lunch.  Afternoon tea was taken during the workshop as we were too busy to be distracted....

My two beautiful shopping bags - I am quite happy with the result

Annelies made a white one with a different, but effective, zipper

We had a great time and since it was quite a warm and sunny spring day we had lunch outside, very efficiently catered for by Peter, Annelies' husband.