Moo Cards and stickers

I finally gave in after looking at them many times and ordered some moo cards from moo.com. For those who don't know these are long thin cards about half the size of a business card and usable in the same way as you get to put text on the backs.

However it is the fronts that are interesting as you get to pick what is printed on them either from their extensive design collection or download your own artwork/photographs. You buy them in sets of 100 and if you wish every card can be different.

I chose to download some of my photos and a few images from elsewhere. It was interesting to find images that cropped well for the un-usual format. I also ordered a box of stickers for Small as much as for me and those are square so I did swap out a few images for others that worked better. I ended up with around thirty images so have around three copies of most of them.

The finished product is very nice and I will certainly consider ordering more particularly once I have a few more pics of costumes I've made and so on.

If anyone fancies some I think I have a card with my order for a discount on a first order.

half term

Well I failed on the daily posts this week.

I claim half term and various visiting grandparents, I always knew I was unlikely to manage the whole month but it was good to try.

IKEA outdoor furniture

We popped to IKEA today for a few bits and they were having a range of things on 50% off for the bank holiday which included folding outdoor furniture. We got a bench and a couple of chairs to go with a table we already have. They will be useful for events but we may also keep them up at the allotment once we have a tent as it would be nice to have somewhere to sit.

They also had so great led lanterns on half price and a plant stand I am very tempted by so there may be a revisit tomorrow.

Copper Inchies

These are for another swap on ATCs for all. Inchies are one inch square bits of art, in this case embossed stamping on inked card.

Took a bag of random bits and a big bag of clothes to the charity shop. The clothes were mainly tailored jackets and ladies suits that belonged to a friend of my partners parents. Lovely clothes but too small for me. I think she was quite a small lady by the look of things but I was lucky enough to inherit her stash, fabric, some haberdashery and some clothes. I am gradually getting rid of that which I can't use. I also washed a bunch more as they smelt rather musty before I take them up too.

Convertble Dress

I've been coming across this idea on and off for awhile and today I came across not one but two tutorials.

The idea is a skirt with long straps attached which can be wrapped in various ways to give different looks, I think it needs to be a stretch fabric, certainly all the ones I've seen have been. It very much reminds me of the wrap sling I have for Treestump and wearing the two together might end up with accidentally getting undressed when you meant to take the sling off! On the other hand I can see it could be good for breastfeeding if you wore it the right way.

The two tutorials are on Burda Style and rostitchery, both used a circle skirt but you could do it with a straighter tube skirt. Personally the more flare the better, with a circle skirt it has a real Marilyn Monroe look. I would very much like to have a try and do have a nice piece of jersey somewhere though it might be a little heavy as it looks like it would work best in something very drapey. As it is meant to only take an hour or so it sounds like a perfect project to fit round a small baby,

I missed a couple of days posting though I have done a couple on my food blog but hey I still think I'm doing quite well on the post a day thing. Less well on the decluttering it's easier to ignore things because often starting makes things worse mess wise before it gets better and while I want more space I don't want to give up what we have managed so far.

Frogs and silhouettes

Today we released the frogs onto the allotment, can I count that as decluttering? We did remember to take the recycling and vegs for compost too which we often don't.

We set the frogs up with a shallow tray with water and some stones in the long grass at the edge of the plot, the next plot down is kept as semi woodland and we plan to put a proper pond in at that end so I am hopeful they will survive and like it there. I know frogs are living on other plots so we can but hope.

I may try making some paper cut silhouettes following these instructions particularly as my aunt sent me some great pictures of my sisters little boy and he'd make a great subject, as would mine of course.

Making Bags and recycling jeans

Todays decluttered item - listed a bunch of small baby clothes and some curtains on Freecycle.

That said I think I've ordered more stuff this week than I've got rid of though some of that was strawberry plants so they will go straight up to the allotment. The rest was cooking stuff, which I will post about on my cooking blog later and my first order to the new Clothkits.

Anyway on to bags, I have several pairs of Jeans waiting to be made into bags like this or this. I picked them over time from charity shops as I don't wear jeans having never found them comfortable. I am however tempted to send a pair to be made into sandals instead. This great sounding company Recycleyourjeans does just that for the princely sum of £45, a price I think very reasonable for what are effectively custom made sandals. I could just go with them using one of the pairs they get from stock clearance as none of the ones I have are that special fabric wise, I picked them more for interesting pockets. I really wish hadn't cut up the purplely ones I had now.

They also do ready made sandals in other fabrics including hemp as well as more normal things like leather and best of all they are made here in the UK not thousands of miles away and they will custom fit where needed!

However onto making bags from scratch something my friend Julie is keen to have a go at. She recently got a couple of lovely books on the subject that she let me have a peek at and the more complicated of the two I am really tempted to get a copy of. However as she has found out getting the hardware for many bags is not easy so this bunch of ten patterns on the Better Homes and Gardens website seems worth looking at as they mostly seem to use standard sewing items. Of course that means most are fairly basic totes and similar but they have a nice variety. I particularly like the Designer Style bag shown here. The quilted one after it is very summery in look too.

There are lots of other interesting articles elsewhere on the site ranging from fun cupcakes to room makeovers though I don't think many houses in the UK would have room to have a permanently set up area just to wrap presents as in this picture, though using a kitchen unit on wheels with the slide out drawer/shelves that are becoming more common to store things like sewing machines seems a much more workable idea both from this article.

Stuff and Nonsense

Well I did two posts yesterday, had I been sensible I'd have posted about Clothkits today but I was too excited. I even emailed them to say so and got a lovely email back from the lady who runs it. I plan to buy a hat for Small and a doll plus clothing for me at least. There are more items in the pipeline so I will be checking the site regularly.

It might seems strange that someone like me who can pattern draft pretty much any garment I want should be excited about a company that does sewing kits most of which are deliberately easy to make but the thing I always liked about them was the designs printed on the fabric and that hasn't changed plus some times it's nice for someone else to have done the planning for you and the advantage over ready to wear is you can adjust the fit easily so it's the best of both worlds unfortunately I'd be kidding myself to believe I fit a 16 in the hips which is what the skirts go up to but I have small people to dress too.

Item uncluttered today - box of fimo thrown, I probably could have revived it with much work and addition of the softener stuff but frankly it was mostly from the dawn of time and I was never going to do it.

CLOTHKITS IS BACK.

I am sillyly excited about this ! I grew up with clothkits, we didn't actually get that much from them because we couldn't afford it but I devoured every catalogue and cherished the bits I did get. I never did get a doll though however much I wanted one we could never afford it. They probably weren't that expensive but for much of my childhood we lived on a very limited income and I was very capable of making things truly from scratch so I expect mum didn't really see the need. (edit Mum says she never knew I wanted one which was probably true, I probably tried to save for one myself)

However when I heard they had stop trading a few years back I was very sad and when I found the new website I found myself strangely emotional about it.

In case you didn't grow up with them, Clothkits sold pre-printed fabric you made up into clothes, they were very distinctively printed in a style that I suppose was quite hippy and wearing them probably labled you middle class but they were so fun and colourful. They have a gallery with pictures of some of the original outfits on the website so go and have a look.

The new range is printed and designed in this country though obviously the cotton isn't grown here. Hum maybe they should considered changing to hemp that grows here.

I think one of the reasons I like Gudrun Sjoden , which is where I get most things I don't make myself, apart from her clothes fitting me is they are colourful and have two colour stripy tops that remind me of Clothkits. Gudrun Sjoden also have a pretty good ecological policy, one I think is practical without being to preachy and OTT.

Making books

I have made books for roleplay and the like in the past but they have been very simple things. Today I came across a swap on ATCSforall to make longstitch books and realised I had no idea what that meant.

After some investigation I discover that it is a varied technique but basically it is when you stitch together the book with long stitches down the length of the spine going in and out of the spine so the threads are visible on the outside. The picture above is nabbed from wikipedia. I do like the look of this style of book so may have a go at making some notebooks or journals this way.

I also found several blogs dedicated to bookmaking which I think I will be visiting again. My Handmade Books has a whole bunch of interesting posts including this one about longstitch. Sarah at Little paper bird has some very interesting books and is very fond of accordion books by the look of it, she lives over here and has had books in art galleries !.

There is even aboutbookbinding.com which has several free online books though as yet I havent' had time to look at them properly.

What I hadn't given much thought to was books as art which is strange as I've made art books and want to try altered books but I suppose books are so much part of my life they are like bowls or something else mundane I know they both CAN be art but I needed reminding every now and then. When you look at the stuff being made by someone like Deckle Edged Bindery on Etsy then you can start to appreciate a book can be so much more than just a rectangle that fits on a bookshelf next to other similar sized objects. Though normal books do have the advantage of being efficient to store on bookshelves and we have enough problems finding room for those we have without wishing them all into interesting shapes!

Paperfaerie makes some interesting sculptural pieces out of old books, at this point it is getting away from books you can use but never the less they were books once and that is an important part of how they look.

Smells and Bpal

Today's decluttered item - a pair of shoes and a pair of slippers, now to little for Small. Taken to school for their play area which is being made over as a shoe shop. It was a garden centre, they change it every few weeks.

Smells are hugely evocative, of all the senses I think smell can effect you most. Certainly when it comes to bringing back memories smell can be very powerful. Also your sense of smell can change over time, particularly when pregnant. I was fairly lucky not to go off food smells but perfume of any kind has been off the agenda until now.

As it happened a few months before I got pregnant this time I encountered and got hooked on Bpal (Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab ) who make wonderful perfume oils many of which are so unlikely you think there is no way they are going to smell like they describe them but they do. I have one that smells of dead roses and another that smells of burnt gunpowder and smoke which happens to be one of my favorate smells probably from running re-enactment cannons and pyros for several years..

They come up with such wonderful ideas to base ranges on too. They have several Neil Gaiman ranges and the newest ones are steampunk based. Then every full moon they do limited edition oils as well . To go with them they do t-shirts and perfume lockets, when they have the clockwork one back in I am going to have real difficulty resisting it.

ATC's and paper clothes

Today's Decluttered Item - Tidied the storage container cupboard and chucked several containers and lids that no longer had partners.

I have done two mosaic ATCs that I am happy with though I noticed when scanning one has lost a tile. The first is styled on the various mosaic tables and so forth I've seen, the sort with a shape done in square pre made mosaic tiles then surrounded by randomly broken larger tiles. The second is more experimental. I cut up a picture of a face and stuck it back down in the right order but deliberately a little out of sinc then put a mosaic frame round it like a portrait, I like the effect, as it is going to a swap at ATCsfor all.com I hope others do to.

I have also been playing with my new paper fashions set as mentioned previously. I did a quick ATC of a mandarin jacket on a tailors dummy, which I like but I think it needs a bit extra somehow, possibly some nice paper as a background or similar I'm not sure.

The person and bag are currently loose but may become a card and the other clothes are also loose as mostly I have just been playing at adapting the basic shapes that the stencil gives you following ideas from the book such as the pleated skirt which is two skirts one on top the other, with slits cut in the top one. I think it is very effective. I was thinking of a washing line for them though I have got glue on the pleated skirt so that may become something where I can put something in front of it like a bag. The various items come with tags to allow you to glue them on to other pieces like the dummy. Skirts etc have a tab at the top so you can join them to tops where as tops have fold over tabs like a paperdoll. The kit has lots of different shapes which you can then extend even more by cutting up and adapting, for instance the mandarin top started as the rollneck top.

Decluttering

I am going to attempt to declutter at least one thing per day. Today I cleared part of the desk, got rid of a bunch of paperwork and decluttered two chocolate boxes by dividing the remaining chocolates into ones I can eat and ones I can't ie those with gluten in or coffee. The boxes can then be thrown as there was only a few in each box.

This should mean there is now room on the desk for my scanner so I can scan ATC's and the like rather than taking photos which are warped one way or another.

Bits and pieces

Went to Hobby Craft today, mostly to get more needles so the large rip in the marque canvas could be fixed, it got ripped over the Easter weekend when we had high winds and a roleplaying event. Well not me as Treestump was days old but the group I play with did.

Picked up said needles and some felt to try out an idea, also got a new smaller quilting ruler and larger cutting mat which will help with the ATCs, some ink pads for people to do fake brands (roleplaying again) and a book called paper fashions by Klutz. It's really for kids but i think I will use it for card making and the like. It has three really varied stencils to do all sorts of clothing and a couple of manikins, lots of ideas on how to adapt them and some paper, mini clothes hangers and a few beads etc to glam things up, it even has glue so you only need some scissors to get going with it. It's really quite a nice little book, would make a great present, I'd have been over the moon with it as a kid.

V & A nappy covers

Yes I mean it the V&A are selling nappy covers, they are of course ones with pretty vintage designs on them but I still find it slightly weird but in a good way.

I do love some of the things they come up with for the shop. If you think about it having a range of items that are relevant to their collections, useful and not just random tourist tat isn't easy so I take my hat off to them.

Also well as the standard mugs and William Morris noteboooks they also have blackbird clothespegs, a peacock teacosy, some wonderfully bright deakchairs and even a kit so you can graffiti a train !

Finally you have got to go look at the venetian blind t-shirt.

What a difference a Day makes

Yesterday they were tadpoles with legs who at most sat on the top of the weed and poked their noses above water.

Today three of them are frogs with short stubby tails who's favoured pastime is climbing the walls of the tank. Good job it has a lid or they would be out by now. I think the fourth is a day or so behind the rest.

My current view

Treestump firmly asleep on my arm. He's in a sling on my front but his head is hanging out and it's too hot tuck him under so he is supported on my left arm as I type! Talk about lack of chin, wonder where he gets that? Oh yes that will be me!

Education and tadpoles

No post yesterday, in my defence the day was manic. The weather here has gone from fairly cold and wet to full summer sun the last couple of days which while nice has been a bit of a system shock. Add to that the baby's eight week check and the doctor running so late we had to leave before getting his jabs and were still late for picking up Small. Then baby being grumpy all evening meant blogging wasn't foremost on my mind.

On the up side I know what I was going to talk about. Those who know me will know a couple of things about me, firstly I am chronically dyslexic though with much help over the years it generally isn't obvious and secondly our family tends to the higher end of the intelligence curve plus I have a lot of teachers in my family. All this adds up to me being very concerned about getting the right schooling for Small, if he is dyslexic, gifted or both he is unlikely to be average which is what our schooling system often seems to be geared for. I looked at state and public (for those not in the UK this means private, paid for schooling!) and even home schooling. The last was never first option as I know he benefits from being with other kids and I benefit from adult interaction.

We finally decided that our closest state school was worth trying. All the local state schools have a high level of immigrant pupils, often newly over here which has good and bad points. On the plus side it is wonderful for him to socialise with such a wide range of people but the downside is something like half his class didn't speak English at the beginning of the year. Obviously all the schools here have to put a lot of time and energy into getting their language skills up to speed and this school manages to get the overall English ability to above national average by the end of the year, no mean feat. However you can't help worry that is at the cost of teaching the kids who don't need help. His school however has a gifted kids scheme too and he has been very happy there. They have him and another girl doing separate maths lessons as they are ahead of the rest and he is learning to read rapidly, not something I was confident I could teach. If needed once he can read I think I could teach most other things.

They give stickers out most days for all sorts of things but recently he came back with one saying head teachers award because he had filled in all the missing numbers on a snakes and ladders board which went up to 100, which was wonderful but we always knew he was good at maths. The thing that really got me in the last few days was walking back from school he sang the whole of the alphabet song correctly. That is something I still struggle with and I couldn't say the alphabet at all till I was a teenager!

I can't fault his teacher she is wonderful and even if he has problems later on which all my family have at some point she will have given him a great start. We try to support her as much as possible be that supplying boxes or fabric I have spare to make things with or tadpoles.. because mum had hundreds in her pond.

We kept some at home and took some to school. Ours had a couple of accidents so we ended up with only four, school were more successful in keeping theirs alive however we have been feeding ours more fish food and being only four they have more space and it is really interesting to see the difference. The tadpoles at school are still tadpole shaped, small and black where as ours are frogs with a tail! Ours have grown much faster than the on line articles on keeping them said they would.

All I can say is even with a camera with a good macro setting taking photos of them is hard. They move fast, hide well and getting the camera to focus on them not the glass is fun!! The white smudges on the picture above are flakes of fish food on the surface of the water.

Quilting Ruler Problem

Yesterday's posts were on my cooking blog.

I love quilting rulers, and rotary cutters. I did plenty of patchwork before I even heard of them and when I did I thought they were just another fad, something to get more money out of me .. how wrong I was. They make cutting strips accurately SO easy it is silly.

In case anyone is thinking what is she on about. They are transparent rules marked up in two directions for accurate measurements. Two directions you say how is that? Well instead of being long and thin they come in various shapes, such as the one above, and you can measure across them so say you want a strip 10" by 2" you take your ruler and lay it on the fabric so you can see the edge of your fabric under the 2" line then you cut along the edge and you have a 2" strip you can then cut to length.

They may look expensive at first glance but they are well worth it. I have a couple of fairly large ones for fabric use but now I have a problem.

What problem is that?

Well you know those ATCs I've been going on about well the same rulers are really good for measuring them out and the tiny mosic squares I've been cutting but the rulers I have are 12" square and 6" by 24" which is overkill and don't balance well on a laptray! So I now need smaller ones too!

More free images from Lisa Vollrath

To celebrate the American mothers day she is doing another run of free downloads which can be found here. We had our Mothers day a while back but that doesn't mean the images aren't worth downloading as there is always next year and anyway they are usable for other things.

There will be one a day put up until the 11th and if you like vintage images are well worth checking out

More Rainbows

Well I finally finished my rainbow ATCs to go along with Dominic's ones. Three for the swap and one for the host, I think I will let them chose which is which. I actually found that such a simple subject was quite hard to do well and I still not one hundred percent happy with all of them but I can't think how to improve them either. I really need to set the scanner up as the camera warps them. They should go in the post directly after the bank holiday and if I'm lucky I will have time to do the mosaic cards for a second swap the same person is hosting. If not they will have to be sent separately.

The check pattern one is made from woven strips of cut up magazine and I do like the look. When Small saw it he asked if the pieces moved hence the sliding block puzzle. It does work though it sticks rather so you have to be gentle but I think I know how to make it better next time and I think I will need to make at least one more for Small.

The other two are mainly paint and pen and based on Small saying rain and sun make a rainbow when he did his.. hum seems like he is my muse, well I could do worse.

That reminds me of a story about my brother when he was at art school. They had a project to do something in the style of a young child so he came home and got our little sister to draw him something for which he got a high grade. Afterwards he admitted to his teacher what he had done and they said that was perfectly acceptable and a good way to do it.. perhaps they would have said differently of he was doing fine arts not graphic design but then they may not have set that challenge in the first place.

A post a Day in May

Jenny B over at Allsorts is doing a post a day in May and she is inviting people to join in. What could be sillier to commit to with a baby under 2 months? On the other hand I sit next to the computer to feed him and it doesn't have to be anything specific..Having something to mark the days isn't a bad thing, I know from experience I can lose days when I'm at home all the time. I have also decided the post could be here or on my food blog. I'm a day late starting of course though the last entry on my food blog was posted on the first even if th time stamp says otherwise, I just started writing it before and left the stamp as it was because it was about things in April.

Rainbows and Butterflies

I've signed up for a few more swaps on ATCsforAll after receiving some lovely ATCS back on the first one.

One of the current swaps is a rainbow one open to all able to hold a crayon. When I told Dominic this he was quite keen and did me three to send and has done several more since to send to people like his grand parents. He seems to like the size of the cards.

Two of the cards are of rainbows, the third is rain and sun cos they make a rainbow! That one also has a boy in a red jacket running to school, two schools and his house all with smoking chimneys!







I'm trying to do three more for me to enter though I'm having difficulty getting them to look as I want. Funny how simple subjects can be the hardest at times.



Another swap I've entered is for inchies, these are inch square pieces of art, well I couldn't pass that idea up could I? The first inchie swap is for butterflies. I need to get these in the post but they are done along with a few extra for the swap host.

Choas Crochet

I've finished my freeform crochet for the month long CAL on Ravelry. It was great fun. Each day we had a different stitch to do and a way to randomly generate a number of stitches. Everyone's came out looking very different from each other. If you are Ravelry look for the NatCroMo Freeform Game CAL to see the various versions.

If you aren't on Ravelry consider joining if you like knitting or crochet but otherwise Kaet has a few bits on her blog and also the instructions if you fancy a play. Now I just want to find something else similar to do.

Doing this taught me quite a lot about the possibilities for things you can do with crochet. Things like the yellow stagasourous spine at the top were not so much a stitch as how far can you go with adding more and more wraps to the stitch each time. Many stitches I had to look up on the internet, you tube is wonderful for such things, but that was half the fun. The last stitch is probably the one that took longest, it is the big mass of purple at the bottom. 23 separate spirals to make a fringe, great fun though and I will certainly consider using that again on a scarf or something.

The question now is what do I do with it?? Partly because it was done over Treestump's birth I don't want to just throw it into a bag and forget it but what else do i do with it? Answers on a postcard.. or in a comment if you must :)

First ever ATCs

My first ever ATCs.
I made these for a swap on ATCs for all because it struck my fancy and gave me something to do while waiting for Treestump to turn up. I am trying to be strict with myself and only sign up for swaps AFTER I have made the items for the swap, if I don't get to be on the swap I figure I liked the subject so don't mind keeping the result.

They are 3d decoupage or paper toile as they called it. This technique is something I have done several times over the years but keeping it small enough for an ATC and not so think it looked silly (or went over the swap 1cm limit) was probably the hardest thing. Left to myself I tend to do lots of layers, on these I did about 5 which was plenty really.

They are all versions of Holly Hobby as the swap is for Holly Hobby, owls or mushrooms. Both two figure cards are done with form pads but the rocking chair one I did with multiple layers of card because the chair was so thin I couldn't cut foam thin enough.

New Baby

I just realised I hadn't posted about the new arrival. He finally turned up on the 12th March, once things started they went very fast and he turned up in just over four hours. He weighed in at 3.8kg (8lb 6) and is fine and healthy. I am feeling much better as the SPD seems to have gone almost instantly.

We are going to call him by the on-line nickname of Treestump for many reasons including it was suggested by his big brother (as a serious name but he is four and also suggested stormtrooper and pom-pom) and he was a few days late so his skin was dry and cracked like bark.

Freeform crochet and ATC making

Well still waiting on the baby but I did find a freeform CAL (crochet along) on Ravelry which sounded fun and do able. It goes all month and each day the lass running it posts up a stitch to be used, a change like change hook size or yarn or something and a way of generating a random number (so far things like roll a die (D6), the number of posts done on ravelry adding digits together, the hour at the time you do the crochet etc.)

Nine days in (today's hasn't gone up yet) and already they all look extremely different, some like mine are still basically flat but some are defiantly not, one looks like a pointed hat for instance. It partly depends if you worked in the round or not and things like that are up to the person doing it. Also the amount of each stitch can vary a lot. Probably the biggest so far being the filet stitch which was do the number of stitchs equal to the page you are on in your current book, magazine etc.

The weird looking thing at the top of this post is my attempt. It is fun, doesn't take much time each day and I have already done several stitches I haven't tried yet. I could do with getting a stitch library type book though of course the internet will supply most things when kicked enough ! I hope it's small enough I can keep it up all month.

If you want to see more you can look it up on Ravelry on the party for crochet month group if you are a member. If not it is also on Kaet's weblog so you can follow along there, however if you do knitting or crochet I suggest joining Ravelry there is loads of useful stuff there.

As to ATCs I finally got round to making one. It's done in 3d Decorparge which I've done before, the first time as a kid with bits of card as spacers. I've now got foam pads and recently got some 1mm ones so I could do small versions.. I have pre-printed ones designed for cards but this one was an image I printed from the web. If am going to try and do a couple more in which case I might see if there is a space on a swap on ATC's for all. However I have given myself a rule not to join any more swaps unless I have already made the items for the swaps on the principle then I can't let people down and if I like the subject enough to want to do the swap I will not mind keeping what I've made if the swap fills before I get on it.

These two may only be little projects but it's more than I've managed for a while so I'm chuffed.

I've been tagged

While I'm waiting for the baby which if the midwife is right should hopefully be pretty soon now I thought I'd do this meme as I have been tagged by TeaRose over at Needle and clay, her blog is mostly about artdolls which is a great subject with such a variety of styles.

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.


So here goes.

1) I find it very hard to work at a clear desk I need to have things I have to do out and visible or my brain forgets them. It doesn't matter how good a filing system I have I still forget. This has not gone down well with some work colleagues who see a messy desk as unprofessional but in my defence I can always find what I need that way.

2) I won a hour long challenge to see who could make bobbin lace the fastest as a teenager, the organisers wanted to have it as a world record but the guiness book of records said it was to minority a subject. I was making Honiton lace which is pretty much the finest lace ever made.

3) I can mentally judge spaces very accurately. I always know if something will fit in a gap and can work out exactly where each of the the various tents a group has need to go when we have a very limited pitching space, including guy ropes etc.

4) If you give me two fabrics dyed the same colour, one synthetic and one natural I will be able to tell you which is which. There is just something different I'm not sure I can even explain why but it has something to do with depth and purity of colour.

5) I am chronically dyslexic but I have had the advantage of some very good teaching on how to get round it ..mostly from my mum who was a teacher when we were young.

6) I read cookery books much the same way other people read novels. Mrs Beeton is one of the best but many older books are very interesting because they cover much more than just recipes. I am not so fond of modern books with a big picture on each page, I'd rather have lots of different written recipes which is odd as I'm a very visual person in most areas.

I always find tagging people hard and please don't feel you have to do this, I've only done a couple as I don't like to tag people I don't know.

Julie at Julie made this
Richard at Richard's comments

Valentine's Day printables and what's not going on

Firstly a quick linky to Lisa Vollrath's Valentine's Countdown freebees. I like her work and she does the occasional free run like this so go have a look.

As to what I've been up to, not much. The physio confirmed that I have SPD and I have a lot of trouble with any amount of standing and walking. She has given me a very good support belt which helps when stood but it isn't easy to sit in. I have just worked out my kneeling chair does allow me to sit in it with out the belt runching up however which is a bonus as long as I don't stay still so long my knees go to sleep. Last time I just had lack of energy due to it being hot (he was born in August).. I'd rather that version of pregnancy !

I have done a few bits of sewing since last update. I made an empire line dress for an event as I had nothing to wear. I need to take some pics but am quite please with it considering I don't normally like myself in any unboned costumes but then I normally just feel fat and my bump is so frontal it can't be mistaken for fat.. I am going to try and sort some reasonable photos of said bump this week.. which is another ab-normal thing for me I normally avoid personal photos. According to himself it is because i like the Earth Mother look. Not if the pain and lack of movement is part of the package !!

I have also done some recovering of chair cushions for the in-laws.. when I say chair cushions these are for conservatory chairs so quite large shaped cushion covers which are linked together. They came out very well though I again forgot to take pics.. Still have the back cushion for the matching sofa to make because the interior cushion for that fell apart so we are discussing replacement options given I can't get the stuff the original is made of.

I am hoping to get some basic but biggish stuff done in the next couple of weeks like curtains for the back room, and Smalls bedroom which has had a re-vamp and he now has a cabin bed with a den under it. Plus himself wants kit for the next roleplay event which will probably be a joint effort.

I also want to do some polymer clay stuff as I haven't done any in a while and I can sit to do that.. just need to get everything in one place and sorted so it can be easily used, thereby limiting me moving about and therefore giving up.

Finally I am doing a couple of thread orders to Empress mills and Barnyards in the next couple of days if anyone reading this is local (ie so you save on the postage) and hasn't read my LJ then shout if you want anything. We are pretty much out of black thread which is just not a good thing!

Little and often

For the last few weeks I've been struggling with not being able to do much due to pain when I stand too long, walk much or pick things up etc. Being 7 months pregnant some is to be expected but this is much more than I had with the previous one. I have an appointment with the physio tomorrow so hope they can help some but I have to assume I'm going to be very limited the next two months.

I have already accepted I'm not going to get the decorating done out the back before the birth as I hoped, especially as Jon started a new job today which means he is commuting to Oxford every day. However it would be too easy just not to do anything which would be bad. With that in mind I am going to try and follow the small stuff ideas on Home sanctuary.. every day she is posting one small thing to do to help improve your home in each day. Hopefully that will give me ideas of achievable things to do rather than looking at the house and feeling I'm unable to sort it.

Christmas decorations

Look we have a room that looks grown up and everything.. The tree ended up in front of the french doors as they don't really need opening much this time of year. You can see the end of the settle collected from mum. The table is not the new one as that is still propped against the wall till we finish sorting a few more things out.

The top picture is Jake one of our cats on the settle looking towards the tree. The cushion is the one my gran had on it when I was little and the cover mum had made has shredded so that is the original cover, not bad for something that has got to be over 20 years old and possibly a lot older.


It even still looks reasonable a day later for Christmas dinner. This side of the room is more sorted and clear than it has been for a long time. I can't in all honestly say the whole area is or that I got as far as I wanted to but I had to be realistic about how much physical work i could do currently so things like painting the walls has been put on hold for now, however I quite like bare plaster especally when it as well done as this is, the plaster we had in I can't fault..

The other side of the room is less organised Ill show you a picture at the bottom, However to be fair it isn't as bad as it looks. Against the wall is the octagonal table top with a cloth over it, in front of that is a sideboard with some stuff in front of it and the the table base, which has a couple of boxes piles on top. There is also some building supplies that haven't yet been used In front of all that is two more dining chairs and a rocking chair with some stuff on them mostly opened presents which haven't found homes yet. So with that out the way here is the picture.. I hope to find homes for some of this before new year as we are having a party then.

50 metres does Nikki twice !

Herself suggested the title and as it is about her who am I to argue?

50 metres to do what you may be asking? Well I could just leave you to make up your own ideas and if I tell you it involved Jon wrapping her in gaffer tape it may or may not help your mental images, probably depending who you are and how well you know the people in question.

50 metres is two rolls of tape which is what she brought with her, in fact we used three rolls and more would probably have been a good idea, though by that point she was commenting it was rather hot and restricting, of course the corset underneath the gaffer tape probably didn't help that feeling.

So what were we doing? Well at one point we discussed the relative pros and cons of bondage tape though we never got on to talking about a friend who found out he was allergic to the glue on masking tape when he was mummified in it but honestly the real reason is actually suitable for this blog.

We were making her a personalised tailors dummy. Nikki has been making some lovely outfits for herself but she has no-one nearby to help fit them and while it is lovely to have her visit so I can help it isn't always easy for her to find the time and money to do that as we don't live close. Now she has her own personal copy of her torso to do her fitting on which hopefully will make her outfits even more stunning.

For anyone who doesn't know you can make a dummy by dressing in an old t-shirt you don't mind destroying with the appropriate underwear beneath, in this case a corset as she is making period outfits. Then get someone to wrap you in gaffer tape (duck tape), you need to get a good layer so when you cut the t-shirt and tape combination off it holds it shape plus try and keep it fairly flat. We added a bit of scrap fabric to extend the neck as well so she can fit collars and the full slope of her shoulder if wanted. Then you stuff it well and stick it on a pole. One personal tailors dummy. I don't have any pictures of it finished as we only did the taping, Nikki is doing the stuffing at home, I'll see if she will do a picture later.

The shape we got shows how useful a personalised dummy can be. Nikki has a very sway back, honestly that is her real shape, while she has a corset under it she wasn't wearing any form of bustle so the back of a bodice is never going to fit her well without either someone else to help or a dummy like this because she just isn't a standard shape in that regard, just like most of us aren't a standard size one way or another.

First few crochet things.

I have completed a few simple items since Julie showed me the basics and have decided yarn stashes could easily become just as bad as fabric ones.

So far I have done a scarf come collar but need to find my button box to finish it. Two hats for my youngest nephews for Christmas and a scarf for small also for Christmas as he saw me making the first one and wanted it for himself. Instead he is getting a rainbow scarf.

I used this pattern for the hats but the two scarfs were just done on the fly. I looked up how to do button holes in a book from the library. The scarf/collar is dc (UK) and the rainbow scarf is htc with one line of dc at the end to mirror the starting chain as it didn't look quite right otherwise.

The hats are significantly different sizes due to the amount of increases done on them and I'm not sure which are best so I have left off weaving in the ends till I can find out how they fit as they were quick enough I think I can unravel them and re-do them while we are all at my mums.

I like this crochet stuff it works up quickly and is easy. Well so far not having done anything involving much pattern! I want to try some lace patterns and some miniature stuff come the new year I think but before that possibly a couple more basic bits to add to christmas presents.

Needlefelted Bears

Realised I never posted these two who went to new homes as part of a miniatures swap. They got blue bows round their necks before they were sent off.

Needle felted from alpaca leg wool which felted well though it did need trimming as it was quite fuzzy even when well felted. Both natural colours supplied by a local breeder who gave me enough to ee going for a good long time!

There are some wonderful mini bear makers out there and they include crochet ones too so when I'm a bit better that that I may try one of those. The Thread Artist Guild members make bears by knitting, crochet and needle felting and have some wonderful examples posted every month on their Yahoo group which I'm a member of.

Crochet

The re-organisation of the back is sort of on hold though we have got a lot more room there. The on hold is because I have been having pains which i think are related to doing to much but just in case they signal more serious things I'm taking it really easy the next few days.

On the bright side Julie came round at the weekend and apart from seeing her and Dave for the evening which was great in itself she also ran me through the basics of crochet. As I hoped having someone actually show me sorted out the issues I was having with turning rows and the like and I've since done another sample to prove I remembered it all.. Now onto making something worth keeping.

Progress on tidying

Progress has been slow this last week as we have all been down with colds. However I have done some things.. I get a bunch of tester pots and have been trying out paint colours so I can paint as areas get cleared. As the room is almost a T shape and the light levels vary from very brightly lit by natural light to pretty much no natural light at all colours look very different in different areas. I have narrowed it down to two, one twice the price of the other but it's coverage is MUCH better. I have been trying them on pieces of card as they can be moved about but now I'm going to use up the rest of the test pots on the actual walls in a couple of different places to see if the more expensive one is worth the money, if I have to do one coat not three it probably is both because you actually use less paint and because of the time saving.

The other main thing that is an improvement is the table has stayed clear enough we have been able to have your evening meal all together at the table before the small one goes to bed which is something we've been wanting to do for a while.

Other sorting has been done but in other rooms rather than this one, though we are definetly at the looks worse before it gets better stage.

Spaceships and progress out back.

The picture at the top is a spaceship the small one made recently. We were told firmly we had to save rubbish to make things from and indeed we were happy to do so for the school as the teacher had asked but himself decided he needed first pick to build something at home which he had great fun with. Since then it has sat ignored on the table so I took a picture and took it apart so the parts can be re-used to make something else.

So on to progress with the re-organisation. The area to be sorted is too big to be cleared of everything as suggested so I am doing it in stages. I have started to clear the wooden floor area though the building supplies are still there.. however as those are to finished the heating and therefore destined to go under the floor which of course will be out of sight. There is no point making Jon's life more difficult by moving it farther away at this point. However the pile of fabric that was there has been moved and sorted into keep and not keep. I am part way through washing it all as it is very musty due to being a small part of a lot of fabric I inherited in a round about sort of way (see earlier posts) and had been stored in a barn for a while.

I have also got two huge boxes of sewing pattern which I have sorted into keep and give away and got several friends to take what they want. One more friend to look through them ( and anyone else who reads this and is local is welcome to) then I'll see if there is any interest in ebay for the rest.

I did however do some tidying in another part of the room. The dresser had become a complete mess as any small items without a home had been dumped there so I cleared it and got out some of my Denby which is now on display.. It makes me feel like I'm getting somewhere.

In reply to the questions here.

I haven't got appropriately labelled boxes because typically I managed to recycle all the appropriately sized boxes just before we started but I'm working on that. I agree it's a good idea however.

I haven't set a specific time each day but I am trying to do a bit each day and see how much energy etc I have,

I don't want to get containers because a) we have quite a few, they are just full not nessacaraly of stuff we want to keep and b) I want to get the shelving sorted first so they are the right size.

I feel both overwhelmed and excited at the same time.

Planning the attack

Questions from orgjunkie.com

1. What do I want the purpose of my room or area to be?
It should be a combined living and dining area,with the area near the kitchen having the dining table and the rest general living space which will free up the front room to be a more secluded, more adult sitting room.

2. What do I need in or near the room to serve that purpose?
Dining table, the current one needs to move probably to the attic as it has always been my work table and is very good fr that purpose, then my gran's hexagonal one has to come down from Mum's house.
Sofa, TV and most importantly probably shelving and other storage.

3. What can I remove from the room?
Some of the sewing stuff. Longer term this includes the sewing machine but it needs to stay till the workshop is ready so will probably take the place ear marked for a computer desk for now. There is less to chuck in this room than you might expect as it is where the stuff we actually want ends up because if it is put away we can't get to it as putting away currently means a storage unit!

4. What problems do I see with the room?
The area near the back door because it easily becomes a throw hole. This is where I plan to put a desk but for now will probably have to store the sewing machine instead. Getting the storage right so it works for what we want to store.

5. What organizational tools might solve those problems?
Lots of storage of the right size! Having a plan.

6. What habits need to change to solve the organizational problems?
Us all being squirrels. Ok that might not change but we need to stop being such perfectionists we need to realise the area is good enough to use and the last bits that need doing can be done around using the room rather than constantly waiting.. that is helped by Jon having realised he can do the heating from the void under the floor. Plus being realistic about what we are going to use and when, sometimes it's better to get rid of something and buy a new one later if we need it I know this in my head, my heart and the recycler in me finds that harder to accept.

7. What kind of a budget do I have to create the organized room of my dreams?
Most of the budget has been spent already on the remodling. Apart from paint and paper we have most of what we need as to start with we are going to reuse things we have at least until we get the new table and so forth in and see how everything sits..

8. What kind of a timeline is necessary to organize the room?
Next few weeks, end of the month at the latest as we need to get the furniture from mum's and get ready for christmas. Even though we don't decorate for christmas till the last minute I want to get everything out and go through it before the shops have run out of anything I might want otherwise I'll buy stuff I already have!

9. What is my plan of action? (very much an overview at the moment.)

Clear the wooden floored area and go through the random piles so i at least know what is there, work out what is staying and what is going.

Get one of the boys to finish stripping the ceiling paper (there was a big leak so the ceiling needs re-papering), once that is done I can get on with painting. I'm not doing the ceiling myself as I'm 5 months pregnant and my balance is suspect.

Once that area is sorted moving items of furniture around, which includes things currently in here and ones that need to come in from elsewhere. Then the other part of the room can be sorted and rearranged.

Organising the back

Those of you who have been to my house know the back part well, even those who haven't have seen parts of it in pictures as that is where we normally sew. It has been a bit of a dump.. no strike that a huge dump. For ages as there is no organised storage everything is temporary partly because we were planning to take the floor up in the last bit to finish the underfloor heating. Those who know us know we have too much stuff so not having places to store stuff is fatal however big a house you have.

Well the news is Jon has started on the heating again and has decided he hates taking floors up so much he has worked out how to do it from underneath. This means we can get on with sorting the rest and it also means we can keep the original floorboards and sand them back. Those floor boards are in pretty good nick though we do need to patch in a few where he has removed the hearth from the no longer used chimney, leaving it would have been visible and coursed a cold patch.

For those who don't know the layout of downstairs is as follows. The front door is at the side of the house and you come into a hall with the stairs in front of you. To the right is a sitting room which goes across the whole of the front of the house. To your left is a door into the kitchen and straight ahead is a door which goes into what is now a tiny second hall with the utility room under the stairs off it and another door into the back of the house. The whole of the back of the house is open plan and is a bit like a horseshoe ie from the middle of the house you can enter into two areas (one the kitchen) with a wall between them, both of which open up into a large area across the whole of the back of the house. A huge amount of work had to be done to get the house like this including knocking about the whole area, new doors, windows, putting in beams to allow walls to be taken out, raising ceilings, redoing floors, including putting in underfloor heating and so forth. The main work was done a while now and the kitchen was finished the beginning of this year at which point we ran out of steam.

Now however we are getting on with things again all be it slowly at times. I am determined to get the back sorted and for it to become our main living area before Christmas hits and before it gets much colder so we don't have to huddle round the wood stove in the front room. Also mum is retiring at the beginning of next year so we HAVE to go and collect my gran's dining table which we said we would take and some other furniture as she is downsizing big time and can't store it any more.

To help spur me on I have decided to sign up to The 30 day Organizational Challenge. There are prizes and everything though most I'd either not get or would find out if they would send to friends in the states. The real prize would be to get the area sorted. Basically the idea is to pick a room, cupboard whatever that needs sorting and spend the month gradually doing it.

So what is it like currently? Well a few pictures in a mo. It is actually slightly better than it was at the beginning of the month as we tidied on, around and under the table as we had friends round for Saturday dinner. Currently it is a mix of building materials, sewing equipment and random tat. It all needs decorating as well.


Looking from the utility room into the area that needs the heating put in. As Jon is working under the floor now I can sort this bit. I think we are leaving sanding the floor till the spring but the rest needs painting and so forth before I can furnish it.

You can see right through the back area, to the right of the window the house goes back farther and believe it or not there is another window back there plus a back door at right angles to the window, or rather a boarded up space for a door as we need to get it fitted still.
Looking back into the same area. Much of the building supplies, mostly boards against the wall, will disappear under the floor shortly. The white pile in the for ground is hiding my industrial sewing machine. That needs to stay for now but hopefully come the new year I will be able to move it to a workshop a friend of ours is planning to get at the end of the road which he is happy for me to share.


This is the area round the corner, the other half of the main back area next to the kitchen. It is slightly better than the rest but not much. The floor in this part is concrete with the heating pipes screed into it. We plan to cover it with reclaimed wooden flooring but again that will have to wait till the spring I think as we need to be able to clear the room completely which will mean furniture outside in the day at least. You might just be able to see the fabric I have bought for curtains in the corner next to the french doors.

I think that is enough for one post I will post my plan for the month tomorrow.

Ravelry

Ok it might sound mad to join something about knitting and crochet when I don't do either but I would really quite like to try again.. well crochet anyway, knitting I can do but am not so sure it's worth my time as I found it boring last time. That said it was about 20 years ago and things have changed ! Maybe it's a nesting instinct or something.

So got my membership through today and will see how it goes.

I will have to catch up with either Julie or my mum so they can help me get started as I seem to have a bit of a mental block trying to use a book. Should consider going to Knitwits again as well that might help.