This Kitty was a big 'un!

When we went to a boat jumble in Ipswich a couple of weeks back we'd no idea that we'd be unleashing a monster!! After the jumble we took a walk around the Quay and noticed an old Thames Barge with a sign up advertising boat trips. I was duly instructed by a very keen Mr LFCC to ring them first thing on the Monday morning and book a trip. Who was I to argue?

So this morning we got up disgustingly early and I made us a packed lunch, and off we drove to play boats.  We got there a little early and were poised to leap (not very gracefully, to be fair) onboard as soon as the gangplank was popped into position.  Our boat for the morning was an 1895 Thames Barge called "Kitty" and she was absolutely gorgeous. Her crew were so lovely and welcoming, and our gracious hostess, Annie, is as mad for crafting (possibly even more so!) than yours truly, while our skipper, Kevin, was as laid back and calm as Mr LFCC!

There weren't nearly as many people onboard for our trip as there would usually be so we were told that once we were out of the quayside we could have the sails up which we were really excited about!
We pootled on into the mahoosive lock (scary deep) and were sung to by the lock keeper... obviously... why wouldn't he sing to us??! Outstanding!

Then we moved into open water.  It was really shocking how many of the yachts and sailing boats decided to try and out run Kitty and cut directly accross in front of her with no kind of concern for life nor limb.  Everyone who wanted to was allowed a try at steering her though, and despite this no other boats were crushed. Is it wrong to admit we were ever so slightly disappointed? lol!  You could tell the narrowboaters amongst us as everyone steered in the opposite direction to where we wanted to go but it transpires that these girls wheels should be turned in the direction you actually want to head. 

We turned around after an hour and the sails powered our gentle gaunt back towards the lock again.  I think everyone else was as reluctant to get off as we were and there was rather a lot of talk of going back out for the afternoon cruise too!

Still, we disembarked and headed back to the car for the drive back to our own girl but shortly after leaving the town centre I spotted a little sign with that all important VW logo on and we had to investigate! Turns out there'd been a VW festival there all weekend which didn't finish until teatime today so we mosied on in for a look around. There were some stunning vans there that folks have obviously spent a fortune on but the ones I loved were the ones that looked absolutely buggered (but had serious engines hiding beneath the battered exterior in many cases).

A perfect day out for Mr LFCC and me, then home to fuss the Poopy as it's his 4th birthday today!

From this...

To this...

Hope you've had as lovely a weekend as we have! Did you do something cool that you'll remember??

(Bookings for "Kitty" can be made here!)

Going round and round on the carousel

We went to the Crick boat show today and really enjoyed walking around. There are always so many dogs there which is something we love but we don't take our Poops as it's a two hour drive each way for us to get from our patch of riverbank in Cambridgeshire to this village in Northampton.

We found some good bits and pieces and it was worth the drive, but the best bit was the old fashioned carousel we saw just inside the gates! I have visions of using the photos I snapped on my phone on some great textile designs and perhaps a few prints for the wall of the boat...

I love capturing stuff like this - the colours are so vivid that they work well transformed to sepia or black and white too, giving a whole load of options for including them in all kinds of creations.

We pootled off after taking these photos and my eagle eyes spotted a tiny sign for a tea shop and as Mr LFCC was getting peckish in we went. It turned out to be a tiny farm shop and petting zoo as well as tea shop so after a bite to eat we went to fuss the critters.  This was my first experience up close and personal with lambs and goats and I loved every second, falling particularly in love with one of the lambs who I shall remember as "Albert". He looked like an Albert. Definately. ! :o)
Mr LFCC was despatched to get baby bottles of milk from the farm shop and I had a gorgeous time with them all fighting over the bottles. Such a lovely happy feeling, fussing them all!

Then we made a slight detour from our drive home and stopped at a vintage style shopping court yard where we browsed some gorgeous stuff, caving only to an old cut glass perfume bottle which is looking so cute in our almost finished new bathroom onboard! The final detour was a visit to my mum for a hug on the way home!

All in all, it's been a pretty perfect day. I'm now roasting potatoes in duck fat, and a large joint of topside beef from the farm shop we found today. The sun is starting to sink over the riverbank and all is well with the world. What more could a floaty girl ask for?  What makes your perfect day? Have you been doing lots of Jubilee partying or staying home and making the most of time with your family??

If you love your vintage distressed...

Despite the heat I figured I'd play nice and share the blog I've discovered which is choc full of my favourite vintage distressed style creations!

Have a peek!

http://saray-viola.blogspot.co.uk/

 

You can't beat messing around with boats!

Just wanted to share a few snaps of our recent cruise down the Great Ouse, and from our own little patch of riverbank...

Work in progress onboard... with essential antique shopping!

Those of you who keep up with LFCC on Facebook will know that we were recently craned out of the water and dry docked for two weeks for our regular maintenance work... Every few years a narrow boat has to come out and have her bottom checked for pitting and stuff to be sure that her sacrificial anodes are doing what they should.  For those not in the know, there is a lot of electricity floating around the water in marinas as the boats are all hooked up to 240v shore power and there are loads of scaffold poles dug in to support jettys or walkways. For steel hulls this can be disastrous unless you have these sacrifial anodes to kind of suck up this surplus electricity and get eaten away instead of your hull.  That little whitish block you can see on the bottom front edge of the hull is what's left of the anode on that side. As you can see, its all worn away so it's been doing it's job!

In addition to this important update, we have to scrape back all the crud that sticks to the hull, industrial jet wash it, and then reblack it with a bitumin type paint to protect it from all those bumps and scratches that would leave it prone to rust and decay.  This is normally done every two to three years - it's an expensive job and very hard work so that's plenty often enough, trust me!



Of course, there was still a Joseph Poopy (full grown German Shepherd) and Kevn and N'Eville (the kitties) onboard throughout the works... All of whom decided to help with the fresh paint.... sigh...

In addition to this vital maintenance work we scheduled some extra chores this year; a new bathroom!  We originally built our bathroom with just a basic porta potti as this was the easiest and cheapest solution. With fitting out the entire boat from scratch ourselves whilst working full time there was a limit to what we could achieve both in terms of time and energy and of money...
But emptying a toilet every few days is a tough job. You'd be amazed how heavy that little tank gets and poor Mr LFCC had to do it as I physically couldn't lift it! He was very gracious about such a crappy job (if you'll pardon the poor pun!) but enough was enough...

As I'd been in hospital for two weeks and only home for one week when we were scheduled to be craned out I was working more in a supervisory role which I hated but I did make a lot of tea and sandwhiches for Mr LFCC while he worked!
He gutted the existing bathroom, bit by bit - taking it back to the original studwalls I built myself.

You can see the battoning and sprayfoam insulation which keeps us toasty warm when it's cold out! You might notice that there are two radiators too! Slightly odd, but in a boat one thing that is an issue is humidity, and things can easily get damp if you're not careful. If you have one source of heat in your bathroom but it's covered in two adult sized bath towels it's not going to allow much warmth to penetrate the room and neither towel is going to get dry, so we have one gorgeous towel rail and one radiator. Cunning eh?

The next thing to do was to cut a dirty great hole through the steel to put in the one way vent for the waste for our sea toilet. If you're in flowing water you can use these without any chemicals and it's a much greener way of living.  I wouldn't want to eat fish out of the water here though I must admit!

The plumbing work was then installed with the new macerator which is essential for this kind of loo.

We rearranged the layout of the bathroom as it was the one room we weren't 100% happy with from the original fit out.  I wanted to give it a bit of real vintage hotel luxury chic style too so on days when I'm not feeling too good I can go in there and have a bit of a pampering session...  With this in mind Mr LFCC picked the most gorgeous black marble walling and I hunted the antique shop for vintage finds to dress it.  I've given some gorgeous old pieces a new lease of life with a new purpose so  look out for the pictures of the installation work and the end result for our beautiful new old bathroom!  It's rather a mixure but I love it.  Have you embraced some vintage pieces in your home? Do you love hunting the antique shop for things to give a bit of soul to a new world?? I'm really lucky to have a huge antique shop just a few miles down the road with a massive range of goodies to choose from including things that are priced to shop guilt free! I always thought that antique shopping was for the rich but it turns out that that's not necessarily the case.  The only problem is the chaps in the antique shop know Mr LFCC too as one of them lives on a boat in our "old" marina so there's no sneaking anything really naughty out as I'll get discovered! What's really lovely is they know the kind of things I look for now and will actually direct me to pieces they think will suit my work!

I'd love to see photos of your vintage finds if you'd like to share them or how you've incorporated them into your favourite place to be? You can post them on the wall on our FB page or drop me an email! thelittlefloatingcraftco@gmail.com is the place to send them!

So my next bathroom installation will be the finished room - hopefully - just the new wooden counter tops to install now!

xxx

I miss my buns!

For many years I was known as the one who made the cakes... I carried on baking after I got sick and even got into doing cake commissions for special occassions which was something I loved so much even though I found it incredibly nerve wracking.  To be entrusted with the focal point of someone's celebration is a really big deal and like with any commission, you can never be one hundred percent sure that the image in your head that you're looking to create is really anything like the one in the head of the person paying the bill!
These days as it's too risky for me to commit to doing a special occassion cake in case I end up in hospital and ruin the party so I just take the time to look back at the buns from history, and the few I still get to make for family celebrations.  What really makes me laugh is that of all the beauties I've created over the years, the cake that gets looked at from all over the internerd is a kiddie one based on Mr Tumble. I wasn't happy with the finished result as the head wouldn't go on the figure right, but I was told by the lovely lady who ordered it (my friend, and once-upon-a-time boss!) that her little man absolutely loved it and THAT'S what counts, no matter what I think!  Anyways, thought I'd share some of my buns while I dream... enjoy! XXX

First ever fondant roses!

Garden themed cornet cuppies for 5th birthday!

Pirate Cat King birthday cake topper!

The march of the penguins, made with a broken wrist!

Our friend,Gus, and his Harley for the bike club party

Vintage floral cuppies for Mamma LFCC

The infamous Mr Tumble cake (don't look at his neck!)

Golden wedding anniversary for garden/book fans!

Welcome onboard cake for the teenager!

This also had piped shag pile carpet when it was done!

Simple but effective!

Just so pretty - love the florals!

Lemon drizzle - my fave flavour!

Another "mum" cake - but not mine!

A real chocolate chocolate brown labradoodle!

VDub rules!

BIG bike club birthday - painted free hand!

Mamma LFCC's vintage tea party cake

18th birthday buns - ladybirds were a MUST!

Share the love and win!!

Hey lovely floaty people! As it transpires that even sharing  picture on FB will be likely to get our page deleted by the governers, instead to enter our giveaway just please leave me a comment on this blog as to what you fancy winning and why and you'll be entered into the draw when we hit 2600 likers.
If you choose to tell your friends about the blog and the LFCC facebook page at www.facebook.com/littlefloatingcraftco that's fab but not necessary for your entry to count and should be considered completely your choice and unrelated to this giveaway! Ok... sorted....

So what's up for grabs?  Well, you can take your pic of any LFCC creations up to a value of £15. That could be a piece of jewellery, a textile creation, or perhaps something created just for you. And if the thing you choose is priced at less than £15 then keep choosing til you hit that figure! As per the voucher above though, this does include P&P!

I really appreciate all the support of my floaty crew so please do get involved in this opportunity for me to give something back!

xxx