What's in a picture?

I can't believe that we fly out 3 weeks tomorrow.  That's if we get our passports back on time - apparently we are a security risk because we've applied from outside the country and we have to have extensive security checks done.  Well, I never ... it's all a bit embarrassing really ...

Can you believe it's already nearly the end of term 2?  Or that it's Christmas Day 6 months today?  Time goes scarily fast!  Forget what I said about it being Christmas Day soon-ish - there's enough other stuff to worry about for now :)

Dad sent us a card today - very cute - we all love penguins.  It's amazing the differing perspectives that were offered on the card:

I said you can tell it's a girl because she has to carry her luggage herself
My hubby said you can tell it's a girl because she has so much stuff

... and Little Man said 'you can tell it's a girl because she has a pink spotty bag' - a boy after my own heart, you can never have too pretty a bag (just take a look at all my floral Cath Kidston bags hogging my wardrobe space!)  Also, his reply is not so scathing or cynical.   It's great to see I'm training him well, and that he has good taste :)

A little corner ...

This is my favourite corner of the lounge room.  It's my unofficial front room studio :)  It's really the lamp table, but I think it looks more interesting now I've commandeered it!

A pile of crochet, a Playmobil duel and a glass of wine - what more could you ask for?  :)

Welcome to my world ...

A cute Acute

It's day 48 of my countdown (which means 32 days until we leave!!)

... resting on another project I'm going to share with you soon ,..

This week has had its challenges :)  I had to do my favourite task of bookkeeping - yay!  Then Little Man slipped on a honky nut at school and gave himself concussion when a sandstone block wall stopped his fall :(  He's feeling much better today, but I have been worried about him.  I made him a little bed next to ours on the day it happened so we could keep an eye on him as he slept, and that's how I found my Acute toy tucked under a pile of books ...

It made me smile which is why I'm sharing it here.  The fabric is supposed to be inspirational.  The pattern calls for you to cut a slit in the front of the body piece so that it can be stuffed, then the hole is sewn up and the head sewn on over the top so you don't see the sewing.

Unfortunately, I got muddled with which side I wanted to be the front.

Can you see it?

Yes, that's right - it says 'Let your light shine' ... right over the little Acute's bottom!

That's pretty cute!  (This pattern is the 'Acute' pattern by Melly & Me if you want to look it up).  Let's get more Acutes hiding under books!

RIP Rik Mayall

We've been watching YouTube videos of Rik Mayall as Captain Flash-heart tonight.  My hubby and I have been so sad at the news that Rik Mayall died today :(  He was part of our childhood.  I remember mum letting us watch 'The Young Ones' when dad went out, and Rik was always my favourite.  He was just so awful!  I was only 12 when the series first appeared on the telly ...

Image from www.cracked.com

Then he appeared in one of my favourite films ever 'Drop Dead Fred'.  Now we don't get to see him anymore.

But he will always live on in many people's memory as that spotty student who wrote terrible awesome poetry.

Like this one:

"Pollution
All around
Sometimes up
And sometimes down
But always around.
Pollution, are you coming to my town?
Or am I coming to yours?
We're on different buses, pollution
But we're both using petrol
Bombs."

And 'The Young Ones' must have been good if dear Cliff Richard felt lead to do a song with them, again one of my favourite quotes (and concept of the 'freedom moped'!) from the song:

Rick:      "Hey kids, stop snogging and pay attention to me. 'Cos if
            you're a wild-eyed loner standing at the gates of Oblivion,
            hitch a ride with us. 'Cos we're on the last freedom moped out
            of Nowhere City, and we haven't even told our parents what
            time we'll be back ! So put on your dancing trousers, and get
            down to the utter King of Rock and Roll, CLIFF RICHARD !!!"           
RIP Rik, you will be missed.

Planned Splice Skirt

My calendar tells me it's day 43 of the countdown!  (Happy dance!!)

I've been doing the books again for the past couple of days, and no matter how much I tried I just could not make it interesting enough to blog about!

It was finished today, and I believed I had done enough boring stuff to warrant giving myself  a shot of dress-making to recover :)   Last week I ventured into Spotlight with the sole purpose of buying fabric to make another splice skirt, and to add to the sweetness there was 40% off dress and quilting fabric - yay!  I did really well, only buying one extra I didn't need for my project - some quilting fabric with owls on to share with my little Friday, sanity-keeping sewing group. 

So, today I cut out my splice layers, and two other skirts which are using the same pattern but being one layer to make a plain bias cut skirt.

Did I say plain?  Check out this fabric I'm using for one of them ...

  It's fantabulous!  It might be the inspiration I need to get painting again.

A little light

Whilst out and about in Guildford today I wandered into one of the many vintage shops and found this treasure - a pyramid made from tin, to put your tealights in!

Isn't it wonderful?

I was attracted to the love heart at the top ...

Little Man looked at it, turned the main lights off to view it in all its glory, then asked me "do you know what it reminds me of?" to which we replied in unison "Christmas!".  I love it when kids are a chip off the old block! :)

What the rabbit saw ...

I have looked at my calendar and can confidently say that it is day 38 of my countdown :)

Today I went back to my creative roots and did a bit of sketching.  It was inspired by my morning visit to the bunny.  We have a reverse 'food chain' triangle at our house - at the top is the rabbit, then it's the cat who has been charged by the rabbit, then it's the dog, who is scared of both.  The cat isn't actually ours, he's from next door and likes to visit.

This morning I was peering in at the bunny, wishing it a very happy day and giving it carrot tops, when I looked round to see the dog at my shoulder and the cat sitting on a rock looking in before it turned round and showed the rabbit its bottom.  It must be cat language for something, he's only trying it on because the bunny was in the hutch ...

Anyway, it made me smile and I thought of how it would look to the rabbit ... see ... inspiration can be anywhere!

PS  I really want to say thanks to Chris, Janet and Sally (and my dad!) for their lovely comments last month - I'm sorry I didn't get round to commenting to you individually, but I love it that you took the time to chat with  me :) xx  THANK YOU xx

Late reflections on Me-Made-May 2014

Here's how we spent WA Day today:

I also took the time to make a list of everything I wore in the Me-Made-May 2014 Challenge.  I challenged myself to wear 3-4 items of me-made clothes and/or accessories, which meant a minimum of 13 items and I managed 14, which I'm very happy with thank you very much :)

What did I learn from my challenge?

That I would love a wardrobe consisting solely of Anna dresses, splice skirts and Plantain tops.

I would like to make more knit items, especially running gear, more Plantain tops and swimsuits.

Fluffy scarves are my feel good item for winter :)

If you find something that fits well, you love the fabric and it's easy to make lots of the item, you can be wearing the items for years to come.

It really is worth finding an item that fits well, is in a lovely, unique, comfy fabric - and to take the time to ensure it fits all your idiosyncracies! (In my case, big top and no waist!)

Hexagons still rock my world! :)

Hexagon bag for my last Me-Made-May item - made using vintage fabrics and info from 'Sew' by Cath Kidston

And here's the other side :)

And ... it's day 36 of my blogging challenge - I know this for sure, as I've put it all down on a calendar, no more excuses for muddles!

No clue what day it is today in my blogging challenge - got myself in a total muddle there!

I've spent part of today trying to put right a dress I made a couple of months ago, which went very wrong and looked totally awful.  Think I'm getting there, but if it takes much longer, I'll end up putting it in the bin!  If it turns out OK I will blog about it.  Who knows.

Anyway ... I decided today that although I LOVE sewing and dress-making, it was about time I did something else creative.  I have a bee in my bonnet at the moment about fabric printing, indeed today I received an email informing me that my self-designed printed fabric is on its way from Spoonflower now: I will definitely blog about that!  Fabric design is something I've been thinking about for a while, so today I played about with some leaves for a design.  I used oil pastels and the old, but tried and true method of leave rubbing.  I quite like it.  This is only a corner of the whole design though. 

I could truly imagine a lovely dress made out of this (there we go with the sewing again ...)