"Hang up your chairs to better sweep, Clear the floor to dance..."

It is a lovely feeling to clear the table and tidy up at the end of a long project. Apart from a few last minute finishing off jobs, yet another lost delivery (hint to van  drivers...use a map not satnav when looking for barns in the middle of nowhere) and a painfully slow internet, I'm all packed and ready to set up for BCTF on Saturday. Ok, we have run out of heating oil, I melted my printer, blew up the hoover and the power's due to go off at any minute but it still feels good to be able to say, "I'm ready... as ready as I'll ever be". The kettle is on the stove and I'm going to have a gallon of tea and maybe even make some scones for old times sake (before the power goes off!).On Friday I'll be heading back to North Yorkshire for the first time in over a year, hoping it feels more friendly than when I left it. It will also be the first time I've spent much time in Harrogate since I lived there when I first left home, for a rather disastrous foundation year at Harrogate School of Art. Sara is coming up to be my assistant so we are combining it with a kind of belated/early birthday treat and staying in the hotel that Agatha Christie stayed in when she went missing in 1926. Originally I was going to camp in the van on the showground but decided to make a holiday of it. I hope they let me in with a ruck sack as I seem to have mislaid all my monogrammed luggage and hatboxes.Preparing for this event has been an all consuming preoccupation since I first had to postpone taking part last year but, even if it's not a huge financial success, I do feel as though I've learnt so much from it already and it has certainly focused the way I work. No doubt I will come back next week with plenty of new ideas and information and it will certainly make a change from sitting here watching the woodpeckers and chatting to the cat. One of the things I've discovered is that many of the odd things I have needed can be found and supplied by small quirky, local shops and businesses and I've really made an effort to do this, particularly following the floods of 2015.Anyway, that's all for now. I'm currently multi tasking by sitting on hold to an EE call centre who are trying to work out why the internet keeps going off... they don't believe me when I tell them it's because the wire from Braithwaite keeps getting wet.  I will let you know how BCTF went next time I write and if  you're visiting the show don't forget I'll be on stand N27...also Good Luck to all the other amazing artists and crafts people taking part, I hope it's a big success.