I love art, I love to look at it, I love to read about it and most of all I love to create it. Over the years I have turned to creative pursuits to relax, to make gifts for family and friends, to help fundraise for charities and to meet new friends who share similar interests. Arts and crafts are the perfect way to relax whilst at the same time stimulating the brain cells.

At Layston I have met others who share my passion for creativity and for that I am very happy. Throughout my adult life most of my crafting has been done alone at my dining table, a mostly solitary pursuit but now it’s a group activity, a chance to share stories and drink tea whilst learning from each other. It’s marvellous.

For a while now our crafting has had a Christmas theme to it, we made cards and decorations for the home, sipped mulled wine, and ate mince pies. Not a bad way to spend your time. Now that the new year has begun, we are looking for new projects and ideas. This week we got the paints out and a spent a leisurely couple of hours painting, discussing upcoming events and the things that we could make for them.

Valentine’s Day is only a few weeks away, so we are going to look at making table decorations for the Valentine’s lunch. It is lovely to see the things that we have created being used around the home, it makes me proud to have contributed.