It's only bloomin' 6th April already! 

To celebrate the best month of the year I thought I'd create my very own Instagram Challenge. Mainly to encourage myself to post more thoughtful, engaging posts but also to celebrate a fabulous time of year, Springtime. A time for warmth, happiness, a burst of colour, new life, and longer days. Oh how I'm loving the longer days, the light nights are a breath of fresh air. Oh and April is a month filled with Birthdays and celebrations, woohoo!! Who else is an April baby?

I have purposely kept the challenge to two weeks long because I know a full month can be bloomin' overwhelming. I just knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with a 30 day challenge. Been there and failed. I think I only got to about Day 16 of #yarnlovechallenge back in February and then dropped in and out when I liked the sound of the prompt.

​Here's a few of my favourite images from #yarnlovechallenge...

• Share the prompt image below so your friends and followers can see you're taking part.
• Invite people to join in (optional).
• Follow the prompts each day starting on Tuesday 11th April.
• Tag your photo with #ATCCelebrateApril and give me a shout out using @apriltowriess so I know you're taking part
• Have fun - That's it! 

The 14 prompts I have listed are totally up to your interpretation. Take them literally or dream up something wacky. It’s up to you!

Have fun folks. I look forward to seeing your images and reading your thoughts.
April x

For anyone that knows me well knows that I love a good clear out, a clear house means a clear mind! And at this time of year, when Mr Sunshine starts to makes more of an appearance, what better time to have a big spring clean.

The more and more I try to juggle being a mum and wife, the day job and my wonderful creative business, the more I seek a work space of my own. Somewhere I can store all of my lovely yarns, workshop supplies, and inspiring books away from the hustle and bustle of day-to-day life.

At the moment my creative world appears all over the house, there are baskets and baskets of yarn everywhere. Whilst it's nice to have all of my things to hand, I'm beginning to feel bogged down by the shear amount. I need to de-clutter my home and my mind.

Inspired by the Mollie Makes Big Comic Relief Crafternoon I thought what better excuse to arrange a colourful sale event of my own. The Crochet Clinic Stash Buster Sale event was born. 

It felt so good to bring all of my stash together in one place and have a good sort out. Now that I am designing more of my own patterns its so important to keep track of what yarn brands, types and amounts I'm using so it was out with the old and in with the new. Ok, so I haven't bought any new yarn for a while but I do have a consistent range of go to yarns that I have been using so they've stayed and all of the acrylic DK yarn and fancy bits and bobs from my uni days were sorted, tidied up and offered out for sale at bargain prices to you lovely lot in my Stash Buster Sale. As well as yarn there were books, papercrafts and sewing goodies to be had.

On the day, I roped two of my favourite girlies into helping me and we lugged boxes and boxes of crafty goodies in to the entrance of Tesco Bulwell Extra for a fun filled day of colour and creativity. The event ran from 11am - 2pm on Sunday 19th March, 2017.

Not only was my stash up for grabs on the two large sale tables there was the opportunity to enter the raffle and take part in my kids craft activity too.

The raffle went down really well and there were eight lucky winners who took home prizes. I think my fabulous sister, Gemma wins the medal for most tickets sold on the day! Here she is deep in ticket selling mode...

Yarn is such a versatile material to work with, it comes in so many different textures, colours and fibres. I was keen to get the kids involved at this event and introduce them to the world of fibre arts. We're all familiar with knitting, crochet and weaving but what else can we use yarn for?

There are just far too many possibilities to consider so I headed off to Pinterest for inspiration. You can see a few of my favourite yarn based kids craft ideas here. In the end I opted to make paper plate dream catchers. It seemed the right choice of craft as the money we were raising could help make someones dreams come true.

What is a dream catcher? Dream catchers are arts and crafts of the Native American people and are usually decorated with beads and feathers. They are said to capture good spirits and allow the sleeper to have peaceful, beautiful dreams. This project just seemed perfect!

The girls and I mocked up a few samples for the event, probably more than we really needed but they were just so much fun to make! On the day we had a steady flow of mini crafters, I would like to introduce you to some of Bulwell's finest creatives...

Everyone that took part in our craft did such an amazing job. So much better than I could have ever imagined. Their designs were imaginative and the use of colour was to die for. Great job kids, I'm so proud of your well thought out designs, use of colour and pattern and I hope your dream catchers hang proudly above your beds to allow for wonderful dream filled sleep.

Hands up who's been following my beard adventures on Instagram?! After seeing the pom pom beard created by Lauren O'Farell from Deadly Knitshade for the Mollie Makes Big Crafternoon Magazine I was in love. I knew instantly I had to make one of my own. My initial thoughts were to have a mini photobooth area at my event for people to use my pom pom beard and other wacky handmade props to take selfies but I just couldn't let go. I have grown fond of my beard and I did not want to share!

As you can see here and over on Instagram I have shared my beard with a special select few...

Get your copy of Mollie Makes Magazine to get started on your very own pom pom beard.

I would like to thank everyone that made my fundraiser event a huge success. Thank you to everyone that purchased from my sale, everyone that entered my raffle, thank you to those that throw a pound or two into our buckets and a massive thank you to my very special helpers.

Gemma and Laura, I couldn't have done it all without you, you made the day fun and were super friendly, helpful sales girls. Thank you Dad for helping set up, taking photos and for donating all of the balloons to decorate the place. Thank you Sean for cutting out all of the paper plates for the kids crafts and for putting up with the mess at home whilst I prepared for the event. And finally thank you to Margaret for donating some of her stash to the sale to give you all an even more varied range of goodies to choose from.

hello@apriltowriess.co.ukThis event was a first for me and I feel it was a huge success. I hope to organise more family friendly events in the future as well as continue to build my monthly Crochet Clinic. Please let me know what you thought. What would you like to see next time? Would you like to get involved? Did you buy anything from the Stash Buster Sale?

Comment below or send an email to hello@apriltowriess.co.uk, I'd love to hear from you. If you're on social media and want to share your makes from your Stash Buster purchases please use hashtag #crochetaprilfundraiser, I can't wait to see the journey my stash has made!

​"I'm April and it's my mission to get people crocheting/crafting" 

April x