Bad luck

Bad things come in 3s right? Wrong. 4 or more in our case. Frankly it’s less than amusing.

1) Boiler dies just in time for the cold snap.

2) Laptop power pack inexplicably dies – replacement only half works. Discover lots of randomly installed programs which are slowing up the computer while trying to repair… hmmm.

3) Moomin is up for 6 hours in the night being sick. Baby puke is no fun. Our hearts are almost broken for our little bubs – he’s so weak and skinny – where did his fat little belly go? Such a trooper though.

4) I have a houseful of sheets, clothing, blankets and pyjamas covered in vomit. Our washing machine is not a spring chicken any more and has temperamental moments. Once everything is washed, we have no way of drying things – no working radiators, a mother of a storm outside so no chance of hanging it on the line. I make 4 trips to the launderette over 2 days.

5) While making use of the remaining 2 minutes of laptop’s battery before it dies I am making an important online purchase (alphabet ice cube trays, hah!), drop my debit card onto the floor where it makes a one in a million stunt by slipping down the 3mm gap in the floorboards. GAAAAAARRRGHHHHH!

Before all this happened, however, I did manage to get some sewing done. This, for the littlest nephew:

And this, which was meant to be for the BIL but ended up, handily, more my size…

EDIT: The inevitable happened… Husby and I were up all last night talking to God on the great white telephone… Yeuch. Well, done and done for now, at least we got it over with in one night! The Moomin is now finding it hilarious that we are too weak to stop him drawing on a) our knees b) the footstool and c) his playmat with a bright green pen.

Ways To Keep Warm…

Ways to keep warm when your boiler has died…

…an endless stream of cups of tea (though decaf/herbal, otherwise they will be peeling me off the walls)

…leggings/tights under trousers, a couple of jumpers and scarves and hats indoors

…THERMAL UNDERWEAR! Ahhhhhh

…Hot curries, hell yeah

…Dancing with a toddler

…Killing zombies on the Xbox with Husby – the rise in heartrate alone is enough to keep the chills off

………………….um, sex. Functional and fun, ha!

 

Mojo’s gone…

Meh.

Husby gave his lurgy to me. Thanks lover.

I’m just about over it but the mojo has wandered off somewhere to stare at fluff and shiny things.

The last thing I made was this:

BUT I HAVE SO MUCH STILL TO DO!

I am rallying the troops (in my miiiind) and gathering together all the things I need to do this final sewing push: interfacing, bag rings, corduroy, black jersey… I even wandered around a fabric shop for 20 minutes and bought NOTHING. I have no creative inspiration!

But I still have these things to complete…

For nieces and nephews – 2 sock monkeys OR 2 car cosies - what an awesome creation by My Little Gems. And I could make them to match the crayon rolls I’ve already made – natch.

For MIL – a purse/wallet to match her bag.

For SIL – a skirt

For sis – a corduroy bag using this pattern:

“The Hobo Bag” from J. Caroline Creative

For BIL – a hat and a scarf refashioned from one of Husby’s old woolly jumpers.

For BIL’s girlfriend – one of these “Penelope Bags” from artsycraftybabe:

For the Moomin:

For the littlest nephew – a taggie animal and taggie blanket.

Then………………..

Some of these notebooks  by Little Birdie Secrets for various people:

A whole load of chilli and red pepper relish, mmmmmm.

Cookies, fudge, chocolates and marzipan balls, mmmmmm, mmmmmm.

Biscotti and Ossa dei Morti, mmmmmmm, mmmmmmm, mmmmmmmmm!

And, my favourite, for my zombie-loving friend Jack, one of these, inspired by the brilliant Chezlin:

So not much to do then! Ahahahahahahahahahaah <crazed and manic laughter resulting in a passed-out Skippy>

To be continued.

Mojo

Mojo’s back!

Husby has been ill and spent yesterday in bed. I had a day planned of sewing, sorting out lots of odd jobs that have been annoying me and making a start on my chutney making (hey, it’s exciting to me…), but no – the man had man-flu so I was in sole charge of the moomin and got nothing done all day (apart from lots of playing, a trip to the library and splashing in puddles ). Bizarrely I had some energy left once the moomin was tucked up in bed so shut myself in the spare room and got to work…

These are for my mum’s birthday – they match the colours in her bedroom. Sooooooo easy (and cheeeeeap!): tester squares for about 25p each from a remnants shop, set of cushions for £1 from a bootsale, a white sheet for the backing, simple pillowcase fold and DONE! Very quick, very satisfying.

Next…

This is for my oldest nephew for Christmas. The fabric was from a duvet set I found at a bootsale for £2 (and which will make several more crayon rolls with tons of polka dots leftover for polka dotted lovely things…?), crayons out of a mahoosive box I bought cheap from amazon. It’s a little shoddy as I didn’t take that much care about important things like measuring and squaring up… BUT it worked and I will do better next time.

And finally, introducing…. Frederique! (I have no idea why I named her this, it just came to me… She just seems a little…slutty? I mean, look at the way she posed for her photo, and the crooked grin and coy eyes… I really need to get out more. Or get some therapy.)

My first sock monkey. Lots of fun. I almost started this post by saying I’d spent the afternoon stuffing a monkey but I didn’t want you to get the wrong idea…

3 more handmade presents down. Bring it ooooooon!

Ideas & Inspiration

Found the pattern I’m going to use for my rainbow quilt (ETA sometime 2054…) which will make my coloured squares (well, triangles now) go twice as far. It’s simple and clean and should detract a little from the fact that I’m not going to be able to get a perfectly flowing transition of colours. Thank you Cluck Cluck Sew, you have inspired me once again. I just wish I could pull my finger out and get down to work more often…

And how about this for a refashion/recycling project?

I’m astounded at the amount of people who react almost negatively when I tell them I make some of the moomin’s clothes – they kind of crinkle their noses and say “but you can get kids’ clothes for next to nothing…” which, obviously, is not even near the point. After gawping at them for being so uninspired, I tend to point out the following things:

1) Hmm, next to nothing… How about clothes for NOTHING? Better. And those ‘next-to-nothing’ clothes are often made by children themselves, or people in sweatshops being paid, you guessed it, next to nothing. I’m not prepared to support that kind of industry.

2) Most shops only offer ‘girly’ or ‘boy’ colours/designs which drives me insane, especially when the moomin could be wearing his dad’s old downsized Bruce Lee T-shirt and looking totally awesome and unique.

3) I can’t afford most of the beautiful and wonderful children’s clothes out there, but they can inspire me to try to emulate them and make something similar for my boy.

4) I enjoy it. Husby thinks it’s cool. And I hope that as he gets older, the moomin will enjoy and be proud of wearing things his old mama has made.

Have you ever been to A Beach Cottage? Such a beautiful place. She can turn any thrift into something utterly charming and graceful and stylish. I’m not tidy enough to show you my house but one day I’d love it if it looked half as good as this place…

Ok, lazy link post over, just one last shout out to the lovely Dana at Made who never ceases to amaze me (still waiting with baited breath for the ’shortie’ tutorial by the way…)

Duct tape and Babywearing

I spent an hour yesterday fooling around with Husby and a few rolls of duct tape… Haha, no, not what you think…

Ta da! A Skippy Bust! It’s a little lumpy in places (but then, who isn’t?) but it should do a good job. I have a shirt I want to resize and a coupla dresses in mind which will be a whole lot easier with this dudette (I’ve secretly named her Jemima – is that weird?). There are a ton of tutorials and guides on how to make a duct tape body form so I’m not going to add to them – go see your friend Mr G. Oogle and ask him instead.

I also finished the first of my mei-tais (which, if I manage to sell them, will emerge under a distinctly different name…) and I’m pretty proud of the neatness of it. I was asked by a mum I know to make some for her online baby shop, Tots and Rockers. If nothing comes of it then I’ll definitely be putting them in my etsy shop (which is so far non existent but one day…) so I’m just glad that I’ve managed to make something shop-worthy!

(Moomin is looking rather glum here, due to low blood sugar, painful molars and a predisposition lately to be a total grumpuss, but the moment I tied on the mei tai he was stroking the backpiece asking to go “up, up!” – no better recommendation…)

Moomin is almost growing out of his mei-tai, or at least it’s getting harder to catch him to put him in it. I’m thinking of making a ring sling instead, to use for hip carries when he gets too tired to walk out and and about. This, unfortunately, means going fabric shopping, mwahahahahaaaa….

Speaking of which, have you read How To: Buy Fabric on A Dress A Day? Hilarious, and perfectly true, I just wish I had the finances.

And speaking of dresses, here are just a few that are in my To-Do list…

#1 – The Convertible/Infinity Dress, as seen here on Rostitchery:

#2 – The Hope Wrap Dress at Confessions of a Fabricaholic:

#3 – Cowl Neck Dress at Burda Style

 

Some totally random things jumbled together to form a kind of post

Succinct title eh?

Yup, that’s about how I’m feeling at the moment. We’re on our 3rd household cold of the season; the moomin is busy brewing premolars, lateral incisors and even perhaps some canines (I know, what a combo); as lovely as autumn is, it is a sudden reminder of just how cold our house gets in the winter months; and there’s the long, long stretch of work, work, until the anticlimactic and all-too-brief respite of Christmas.

Yes, Scrooge it up, I hate Christmas. Firstly, I’m an atheist, so feel vaguely guilty that I even celebrate it, but I’m too callous to refuse free presents and nice food. I know, religion aside, it’s a chance for family and friends to get together and celebrate, and that’s a lovely idea, it’s just it never really makes it into practice for me and mine…

My dream is to just have a few days where Husby, the moomin and I can just bask in the fact that the world is closed and there’s nothing to do except snuggle and appreciate each other. Isn’t that what Christmas is really about?

But no, we’ll be rushing around as usual, making the round trip from relative to relative, feeling guilty for not seeing so-and-so and regretting even saying yes to meeting up with thing-a-me-bob. Tempers will fray, the moomin will get tired and annoyed at being paraded in front of various family members who he’s only met once before… Ah Christmas…

Random thought number 2: The many ways in which I’d like to teach a lesson to the arse-wipe who nearly ran me and the moomin down on our way out of the supermarket this morning. There was a massive gap in the traffic so I crossed, carrying the moomin, and this utter twat-brain revved his engine angrily and sped up towards me. I put out my hand to say “STOP!”, to which he replied with another rev. So…(and I don’t feel proud at all of this – ok, yeah I do, he totally deserved it)… I flipped him off. I know it was childish and rude of me but he was pointlessly threatening the life of my child and being an arse. But I don’t think a simple middle finger deserved the outrageous torrent of abuse that he screamed out the window as he passed: “I’m going to pay you a visit you f*&$ing c*&%!”

Oh my. Such rage. And “pay me a visit”? WFT? What is he, a Soprano? Although it made me pretty angry it also made me laugh. I mean, it’s really not my fault he was born with a penis he has to find with a magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers

Mooooving on swiftly…

I am perhaps 2% further in my homemade Christmas quest. I made a batch of this today – beautiful, rich, plum chutney. It took me 20 minutes and I now have 2 happy little jars sitting in my cupboard maturing unti they are wrapped lovingly in fabric scraps and given off to family members. Next on the list is biscotti for my mum:

And finally somehow getting myself into a sewing frame of mind again so I can make a start on the gazillion projects I have to do. Oh, and OD on sudafed and win the lottery.

 

Rainbow Love

I’m excited. I’m prety sure these good intentions will not get put into practice for a long while, but the inspiration is there, so for now I’m just going to bask in the beauty of these colours, that will one day hopefully become the most wonderful rainbow quilt ever…

It’s a tester strip, with squares of each colour measuring about 5″sq and it cost me £1 from a remnants sale. I’m not sure how to arrange the colours – I’d love it to be a flowing wave of colours but as I only have 1 square of each colour I can’t think how to lay it out… This will only be my second quilt so I’m a bit of a novice (with ideas above my station).

I also got these tester squares which I’m going to make into cushions for my mum for…£1 for the lot!

And this, which I’m not sure what to make of… I’m not even sure I like it but it was 50p. Any suggestions?

And finally, the colour combos for the 2 mei-tais that are currently my WIP:

Now I’m just waiting for the massive pack of crayons to arrive so I can get started on those crayon rolls, and my new Burda magazine to be delivered so I can think about making myself some spanky (or should that be spankable?) new trousers…..

Red

Got these at the bootsale this morning: a pair of dark red linen trousers (50p!) and a red and white polka dot duvet set with some nice, but not sickeningly cutesy animal details (£2!):

(excuse the shoddy photo, it was off my phone – camera is having a bad day)

Not sure what I’m going to make with the trousers, just couldn’t pass up cheap linen… As for the spots, I have a plan… a homemade Christmas plan…. I reckon it would turn quite nicely into one (or two) of these:

(Tute by UK Lass in the US)

Good for nieces, nephews and general sproggery.

Right. Fanfare please… or a drumroll, or even just an anticipatory intake of breath…

I have finally sorted out my workspace. Feast thine eyes:

Yeah, I know, awe inspiring isn’t it. The cupboard to the left is going to house all my fabrics and bits and bobs, but I ain’t showing you how I lobbed everything into it so I could take a neat and tidy picture. You’ll have to wait, probably another year, until I get around to organising the inside. There’s just one problem with the whole setup… There is only ONE plug in the whole room, and it happens to be on the opposite side to where my desk is. So move the desk. Yes, thank you little voice, but this corner happens to be the only place the desk will go, coupled with the fact that the daylight which accompanies its position will prevent me from going blind like I nearly did sewing in the dark in the garage studio. So – MASSIVE extension cable required methinks.

Anyway, it’s all very exciting, and I have a lot of WIPs going on:

-a fabric dollhouse for the Moomin

-the afore mentioned crayon rolls for nephew and niece #1s

-several sock monkeys for assorted little people

-2 mei-tais

-a vest top for me

-a pair of trousers for the Moomin that kept me up last night thinking about where to put the elastic – gah!

-another (un-needed but so fun to make) t-shirt for the Moomin

-and even perhaps (because he won’t stop bitching about it) something for Husby, heh heh. He wants a hoodie. I told him I would cut up 2 of his old ones (that are strategically dotted with paint, honestly, every single time that man heads into his studio I ask, “You’re not going to paint in that top are you?” and he replies, “No, no, I’ll put my painting one on when I get in there…” Then when he emerges, sheepish, he tries to hide the latest splodge – once on a BRAND NEW jumper! Jeeeez…) – are you still with me after that tangent? I’ll start again. I suggested that I cut up 2 of his old painty ones to make 1 new one, but apparently refashioning isn’t good enough. He wants a new hoodie, made from a pattern (ha, pattern, me, yeah right). Ugh. What next, the moon on a frickin’ stick?! Do you know how much fabric a MAN hoodie will take? I’m tempted to make it so hideous he never asks me to make him anything again.

AND FINALLY…

Please, please, please, do a good thing and check out Made4Aid because it’s a fantastic cause and it might just make you feel a little gooey inside.

Made4Aid is a non-profit organisation which raises money for various charities by selling handmade art and craft items and materials which have been donated by creative people just like you. Currently proceeds are going to support relief work in refugee camps in Darfur.

So donate, buy, blog, link, do a good thing.

 

Hive of activity!

This week has been unusually productive!

I’m up 2 Christmas presents (a Zara shirt for my brother from a bootsale for £3.50 and a free packet of scoobie plastic things for one of the childminding kids) so woop woop for that. I’ve also, finally, sold my business on (at a very slight loss but hey ho, at least we’re almost breaking even…)! Very very chuffed indeed.

Today I had a huge baking urge so made a batch each of brocolli and cheese muffins, and corn muffins, and a banana, raisin and honey loaf. I bartered with my father-in-law and traded dinner for him cutting our lawn with his industrial, petrol-powered strimmer thing. All good.

I also… maybe… got myself a new job. Or the potential of one. I won’t go into the details but it involved me being a pedantic, flippant, precocious fool and lucking into a situation where things could be looking up for us, money-wise. Life is very strange sometimes.

Next on the list is sorting out the spare room so I have somewhere to work, write and sew, then the making can continue!

Oh, also, less productively, managed to accumulate these 2nd hand books over the last week or two. I don’t know how it happened, honestly. Husby says this house gathers books like it does dust… Oops.

Ha. Totally worth it.