anyone interested in a Southern Craft Circle? (or cup of tea at least)

[jeangenie]

for us poor sods who can't join in with the midlands laydees...

RantingHousewife and me are up for it. Anyone else? I am in London, RH is 40 mins from here. Are you nearby? Wanna come and play too? We'll drink tea or coffee and try to persaude MeridianAriel to send us some baked goodies, or put in a guest appearance, or something. If you can bake please do not keep that fact a secret. (I cannot)We may even talk about or do some crafts...

[MadamePlatypus]

This sounds fun, but where in London are you? I have only just found the craft bit of mumsnet, but I have a bit of crafting record that I am quite proud of - I have been doing the same needlepoint sunflower for 12 years! I have made a few other things in that time too (albeit not very expertly), and I love reading craft blogs like angry chicken.

[jeangenie]

Hi MP

I am in SE London and would be happy to host. But if folk don't want to come to me we can meet up centrally...
12 year old sunflower sounds great - you'll be in good company - my first quilt took me 21 years!

I like angrychicken too

have you checked out the Mumsnetters blogs? there is a list of them somewhere...

[Yorky]

Just posted on the midland thread then saw this one!
I like making cakes, but don't like driving in London!
If anyone can get to the wilds of Oxfordshire I'd be glad to see you, if not I'm portable!

[jeangenie]

would be great to have you along Yorky - you can get to me easily from victoria if that's any use? Otherwise we can go central or up to you if it suits everyone else better

(hurrah - cakes!!!)

[Tillyboo]

I'm with Yorky - bake mean fairy cakes but hopeless driving in London - just too scared I'm afraid !

I can get to Oxfordshire or anywhere along the M40'ish

I posted on the Reading local MN thread for any local crafters but no takers as yet, surely I can't be the only one ?

[jeangenie]

well, I am prepared to leave London as long as I don't have to do any baking my oven is kapput at the moment anyway so it is an impossibility ...

[lucykate]

i'll keep my eye on this, i'm in the midlands. but am further south than the others so i can potentially go to both!

[jeangenie]

oh LK would be lovely to have you down south - you would get to compare baking too you lucky old thing

[Dingle]

Just lurking from the "depths of Kent!!!"

[Dior]

Message withdrawn

[jeangenie]

Dior, Dingle - would be lovely to have you along (how is your cake making?)

[Dior]

Message withdrawn

[seeker]

I am in Kent - anyone in striking distance of Faversham?

[Dingle]

Seeker...I am just outside Chatham!!! Not that far really!!

[rantinghousewife]

Oh we have quite a large contigent already, am all excited now. It doesn't matter to me whereabouts in london or just outside that area, I can get to most places by train.

[jeangenie]

great to see so many of us down South - ok, so someone with a better command of local English geography than I have (get me outside of London and I haven't a clue ) better work out where is best for everyone and then we'll hatch a cunning plan

(from my rudimentary understanding of the home counties it sounds like we are spread to all corners so either we meet in London and people come in by train, so we go somewhere easily accessible from M25 [and a station for RH] - does that make any sense?)

[jeangenie]

I meant OR we go someplace easily accessible from M25 - obviously

[rantinghousewife]

Sounds good to me.
I can bake but, I am not as good a MeridianAriel (I know this, I have seen her blog), so if you want to take a risk , I am willing to rustle up a few cakes.

[jeangenie]

anyone's cakes are going to be better than mine! however I am not actually a cake junkie, at the moment it sounds like we may be able to think about running a cake stall (sell a few to pay for our coffees perhaps!)

if we are going to someone's house it would be nice if anyone who can bake brought something small along I guess - however if we are meeting in, for example, McDonalds they might throw us out if we tried to eat our own food

so, is anyone close to M25 and willing to host or could someone suggest somewhere, as I said, I know nothing of outside London so can't suggest anything if that's where we are headed...

[lucykate]

i make a mean nigella's chocolate cloud cake, but travelling down to london on the train with that, might just get there with crumbs left

i haven't checked a map, but the suggestion for the midlands is ikea in nottingham,

how central is the ikea at milton keynes for everyone down south?

if not, london, a visit to either loop or vv rouleaux?

[rantinghousewife]

Milton Keynes is quite difficult for me to get to from here (dh has the car during the week), I pretty much know my way around London, (have lived in Islington, New Cross and Harringey) and I know roughly where Loop is. But my knowledge of West London (apart from Portobello Road and Ken market) is not so good.
I'm open to suggestions.

[jeangenie]

I've been to loop (nice, but small) but never VV Rouleaux and would LOVE to visit it. OOOh, this is sounding exciting...
no idea where Milton Keynes is but no doubt can drive there...(picking up RH at some station along the way if necessary?)

if we are doing a weekday I will need to bring DD2 (2.5)

[Tillyboo]

I am just off junction 11 of the M4 at Reading if that's any good ?

I won't have a house for a few weeks, well, I have a house but it's covered in wet plaster and no sofa's at the moment !

The building work and re-decoration should be finished in a couple of weeks so I'm happy to host in the future if that's any good ?

[jeangenie]

is near reading handy for anyone? TillyB is there a good local cafe or somewhere we could park ourselves? any nice local crafty type shops to browse? (have never been to reading!)

[Tillyboo]

Hi Jeanjeanie - I'll have a think & get back to you later if that's ok, got to dash to garage soon (major warning light popped up on dash last night, Eek !), then we are off to the dentist ....