Thank you to those who collected one of our pumpkin Halloween craft packs, we hope you enjoyed them as much as we did! Our next craft pack will be Christmas themed, with three different festive decorations to try.
As always, our craft packs are free but we do welcome donations.
Things to do in November at Mrs Smith’s Cottage
We have some exciting workshops and events planned throughout November and December at the cottage:
On Sunday7 November we’re being taken over by the Framework Knitters Museum, followed by a talk from Julian from the museum on Monday 8 November who will be talking about the history of Framework Knitting.
Sunday 21 November is traditionally ‘Stir up Sunday’, the last Sunday before advent. Join our Learning Officer Sally on Facebook live at 1pm, who will be making a Christmas pudding with her mum!
On Friday 19 November we’re delighted to be hosting a new exhibition, ‘Life on the Land: Lincolnshire’s Farming Experience’. Created by Matthew Bayly and funded by the University of Lincoln, this is an interesting and honest look at the everyday life of farming communities, using the memories and experiences of those involved.
Entry to the exhibition is included with our standard admission charge.
Thanks to all those who attended our Cottage Garden Fete on the 4th and 5th September – we had a fantastic weekend filled with music, dancing and traditional family games, and the sun kept shining!
Another big thank you to all those who came along to our Macmillan Coffee Afternoon – we were delighted to hold the event again!
An update from Nicki, our Artist-in-Residence
Hundreds of people turned out for Cliff Carnival’s FlagFest event at The Venue on Saturday 11 September. The event was the culmination of a joint project between Mrs Smith’s Cottage resident artist Nicki Jarvis and Katie Gordon, director of Cliff Carnival. Inspired by the concept of ‘Giving Thanks’ for the kindness of others during Covid, eight festival flags had been created by local volunteers. The imagery and text for the flags was developed at a workshop in August and the flags really added to the atmosphere of community fun and creativity while people enjoyed a variety of music and performance events as well as stalls and refreshments. The flags will now be available for Cliff Parishes to borrow, to enhance local community events and we look forward to hosting them at Mrs Smith’s Cottage in the near future.
Developing the Datestones
The last few carved ceramic tiles are currently being glazed and fired by Nicki, before being transformed into a community artwork for Navenby. Thank you to everyone who took part in the clay workshops, all the work looks amazing. Nicki’s next step for this project will be to explore the best places for the series of 15 site-specific carved datestones that she aims to install across Navenby by early next year. We will be discussing the proposed locations with local house and business owners to ensure they are happy with the proposals, as well as posting a project outline on the Mrs Smith’s Cottage website so everyone can find out more about these plans.
Upcoming Events in October
There’s lots to look forward to at Mrs Smith’s Cottage in October:
Friday 15th October will be the second session of our pre-school group, NavenBEES – join the NavenBEES group on Facebook!
We have some fantastic workshops lined up for October half term – on Tuesday 26th October artist Nadya Monfrinoli will be teaching techniques such as lino cutting and stamp making in her Block Printing workshop, between 10am and 1pm. It’s great fun for all of the family, and all materials are provided!
Nadya will be returning on Wednesday 27th October for a Book Making workshop – explore different paper folding and simple book binding techniques! If you attended the Block Printing workshop, you can use this paper you created, or use blank paper to be filled in at home.
Newsletter – September 2021
Our unique gift shop is free to visit!
Pop into our gift shop anytime we’re open and see some beautiful new items, such as this magnet made by Artist in Residence, Nicki!
Mrs Smith’s Cottage Garden Fete
On Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th September we’ll be hosting a garden-sized village fete to celebrate our reopening! Join us at this free event and enjoy family friendly traditional games and entertainment – pop along between 12pm to 4pm.
Things to do in September at Mrs Smith’s Cottage
As well as our Garden Fete, there’s lots more planned for September! On Friday the 10th September our Learning Officer Sally will be giving a talk exploring the history of the Cottage and its residents – a great chance to see unique objects from our collection store and learn more about rural life and the life of the cottage. 7pm to around 8:30pm – please book on our website:mrssmithscottage.com
The 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th September are Heritage Open Days! To celebrate, we will be exploring the Hidden Voices from Navenby by using clips from our Oral History collection.
On the 25th September we shall be hosting a Macmillan Coffee Afternoon for Macmillan Cancer support at the cottage. Pop in for some cake between 12pm to 3:30pm, don’t forget to bring some change!
We’d love to hear from you!
To keep up to date with everything that’s happening at the cottage, follow us on social media – we’re on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. We always enjoy reading your reviews on Google and TripAdvisor!
Mascot Competition
Help us to create a mascot for our new monthly PreSchool Group at the cottage!
All you need to do is draw us a bumble bee.
Send your final artwork to us on social media (facebook, twitter, or instagram) or by email to: [email protected]
Deadline for entries is Wednesday 1st of September, with the winner announced on Monday 6th of September.
This competition is open to all under 10s, and the winner will be decided by the Mrs Smith’s Cottage team.
Newsletter – August 2021
Thank you!
Thank you to all who attended our July events such as the Tom Lane history talk, the Wildflower walk and our Navenby memories day. We look forward to welcoming you to more events at the cottage, check out our website where you can sign up to events.
Remember to book your visit online
Remember to book online to visit the cottage, we are open every Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday from 12pm to 4pm. Last entry is at 3.30pm. If you have a large group get in touch with us and we can arrange a special visit for you!
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