Memories

I have the worst memory. If it isn't in my diary I generally forget to do it. Sometimes I forget to check my diary, like today when I completely forgot to pick up my middle daughter's prescription which she needed yesterday, whoops, bad mum alert! Not only do I have my diary, most days I write 'to do' lists as well. Here is an example from last Sunday-

They have to be pretty detailed as you can see and often feature what time I have to do the school run and other obvious stuff. Is this normal? I'd love to know how everyone else gets through the day.

Today I a treaty parcel from the lovely Char at t*rexes and tiaras (couldn't for the life of me do a link for some reason), a gorgeous little padded bag and the cutest panda brooch, both made by her own fair hands, and so well made I had to check! Thank you so much Char =)

Some of you wanted to see me wearing the furry hat that Helga sent me and I've finally got around to photographing it. I think it looks highly glamorous, especially with the feather clip.

Close up of the feathers, I have the same one in black. They were a present from a friend, originally from Dorothy Perkins I think.

Thank goodness for my youngest offspring, I couldn't manage a decent pic myself. Check out the family nose!

I hadn't dropped food down my top, it was a random bit of something that had caught on my chest-shelf!

I quite like the idea of wearing feathers on both sides like ears or something, I must have a bit of a thing for ears at the moment!

In other news I had my first Etsy sale today, a pair of my gloves will be winging their way to the US tomorrow morning wahey!!!

Treats!

My postman brought me a parcel from the glorious Helga today. Very much happiness, I love unexpected treats!
It was wrapped in a Cosmic Corner bag which is the best plastic bag ever! There was a scrummy strawberry card (thank you for not writing on the sweet koala envelope!), a brooch, a pottery necklace which I adore, some pineapple lumps (my new sweetie love),

a FANTASTIC furry hat and a badge.

Thank you so much! xxx

The next bit is for Alex -

This is Ottoline. If you haven't read Ottoline you really should =)

Here's a little teaser and an example of the beautiful ilustrations that are on each page -

I really must clean my camera lens but I'm frightened of hurting it!

Working in my pjs

So I finally did it. I've spent the last few days obsessing about setting up my Etsy shop, in fact I've spent the last few days setting up my Etsy shop, it isn't as quick as you'd imagine - easy but not quick! Today I informed the tax peeps that I am now self employed, that bit was really easy oddly.

Along the way I've discovered that making photo collages is really easy, I love Picnik to bits. Look!





But it's now done and bar a few more organizational and promotional bits and bobs I can get on with my life and maybe even some sewing!

I've also been terribly clever and put a link on my blog. Look - there it is on the right.

If by chance any of my readers would like something, give me a shout, I do mates rates, very good ones =)

PS
I had some lovely complimentary comments on my last post, thank you all. The camera somehow got rid of the lines and wrinkles and funny skin but I don't mind that at all!

Odd

Just lately I've had a hankering for headbands. Mostly to cover up my lack of hair, but actually my hair isn't so bad, the henna continues to repair the damage I've done, it is growing, my delightful little baldy patch is all but grown back and I now have a fringe I can live with. Anyway. I've been hoarding some beautiful sari silk yarn and decided to use some of my precious stash for a crocheted headband.
It doesn't exactly look right does it?

It was missing something.

Ears to be precise.

That's better.

Isn't it ridiculous that I look better in bear ears? Maybe I was a bear in a former life or something.

Hangs head in shame...

I've been such a hideously bad blogger lately, not only have I not been posting but I've barely commented on anyone elses. I am still reading though.

Just lately my life has got pretty people intense and as much as it is lovely to spend lots of time with family and friends, it means that when I go online I hide. Time for sewing has suffered badly too which can't last as from next week I will (all being well) be registered as self-employed! It's kind of a big deal as I really want it to work out, so I have to get on with setting up my Etsy shop and working out how to promote myself when I'm so shy and prefer to stay in the background.

The oldest offspring has returned from her season repping in Rhodes and is yet to find gainful employment, it is lovely to have her back though.

So consider this post to be a massive apology. I will leave you with a picture of me attempting to model a dress which is approximately two sizes too small for me!

Random object of the day #3 - Moel Arthur

Today I indulged in a spot of hill walking and found an abandoned tree.
My outfit, while probably not conventional walking gear fitted the bill perfectly

Butterfly scarf in hair - me made

black vest top - Primark

pink cardi - charity shop, it's got to go as it looks awful on me!

maxi skirt - me made from pintucked denim and vintage fabric, I cut down the dress I made a while ago as it just wasn't right

biker boots - Tesco

waterproof round waist - Ebay

I cut my fringe last night, my hair was just looking horrendous. I'm happy with the fringe but now I think I might have an inch or so cut off the bottom to get rid of some of the wispy longer layer of hair. I've been trying to resist as I have sworn off the scissors but I look like a Bay City Roller or something. Have to admit though, it looks better in the open air!

Mr Fuzzyfelt and myself in the bracken (oo-er)

I've been playing with Picnik, hours of fun!

A new coat and a thrifty make

I found this amazingly patterned jumper the other week and have been excited at the prospect of turning it into a coat. I think it has turned out well, although I would have preferred the stitching to be a darker blue but I couldn't find any.

My new hood feature - a knot at the end.

My plastic peg basket started falling to bits a while ago, I bandaged it up with parcel tape. It didn't last long and was threatening to dump my pegs everywhere so rather than going to the pound shop and buying another useless piece of flimsy plastic I decided to raid my huge fabric stash and make a peg bag. It took all of 15 minutes and will definitely outlive a basket. The total cost would have been about 10p.

Every little helps!

Random Object of the Day #2 - Liverpool

Not only are they lucky enough to have wheely bins in Liverpool but they have PURPLE wheely bins in Liverpool! We're supposed to be getting them soon, I hope ours are purple!

I'm wearing a boringly repeated outfit today, it seems to be my current favourite.

There was a vintage fair on today, unusually there were quite a few lovely things in my size but I managed to come away with only one item.

A beautiful 70s flutter sleeved maxi dress costing £18. It is really lovely in real life and only just misses maxi length on me. I didn't buy anything else because I didn't need to, I had found THE dress.

Pixie likes getting in on my photos doesn't she!

Look who I met yesterday!

The REAL Wallace and Gromit!
I don't know if any of you will be remotely excited by this but the set below was actually from the film, the Wallace and Gromit were real ones too.



Wallace was happy to pose with Lydia for a photo!

If anyone is anywhere near a Mersey ferry take the time to go to Spaceport at the Seacombe terminal, it's fab, especially the W+G exhibition.

Random object of the day #1

Ok, so this is just phase 1 of the overhaul, a new feature - random object of the day. It is basically giving my arms something to do while I have my photograph taken.
Today's Object is fake flowers made out of chocolate which I am 'amusingly' pretending to eat. They were a present from my Mum when she visited her sister in Portishead a couple of months ago.


Today's outfit -
long black Per Una skirt - dress agency
black and grey stripy off-shoulder top with sleeves so long I can knot them over my hands - Etsy
black linen tailored waistcoat - charity shop
black gladiators - Tesco
star necklace - Etsy


I don't appear to have the ability to crop pictures on my netbook despite looking very thoroughly for such a facility. I shall rectify this as soon as I am able. If anyone knows where there is a cropping facility on XP please let me know!

Thumbs up for an outfit post

Please excuse the dreadful quality of these pictures, they were taken on my phone which is a very decent phone but the camera leaves a lot to be desired.

It was my friend's divorce party on Saturday, here's what I wore -

green paisley dress made from vintage fabric, VERY short because it was too long at first and I cut too much off, I do it all the time!

Black opaques

dark green glittery Mary-Jane wedges (glittered by moi)

dark green rhinestone specs - 50p from the British Heart Foundation - BARGAIN!

thrifted necklace

cuff bangle - gift from Vix

bad hair but it WILL grow...eventually

Tomorrow I'm planning a little blog revamp so watch this space!

So this is what happens...

...when you ask a ten year old to 'give me a model type pose please'.

I finally made Lydia her own coat (she did want one, honest, it's not child abuse!). I think it turned out well, helped along greatly by the very beautifully striped Zara jumper I used for the bodice.

The back view - she wanted a short hood. I'm really into the bustle effect that a wide panel with extra seaming gives in the back.


Look at the girls, you wouldn't believe they have a penchant for eating raw mice and spend most of their time rolling around on the floor play-fighting and pulling out bits of each others fur would you? They look rather serene and above any of that uncouth nonsense!

I've been playing about with my hair again. Sometime last year I bought some henna from Lush but I ended up bleaching it and putting various colourful dyes on it instead. I just wasn't convinced the henna would cover my greys or make much of a difference to my natural mouse colour. Lately I've been thinking about how much I moan about my hairline receding and how much hair I lose with each wash and decided that I wasn't qualified to moan unless I'd at least tried to do something about it. After much searching I found a forum with tons of info on it and once reassured that greys would be covered and condition would vastly improve I bought this -

I mixed it with hot water to the consistency of, well, something really revolting, slapped it on my head and went about my business wrapped in cling film for 7 hours. I'm made up with the results, where it was purple it has gone an amazing bright/dark auburn and the roots, while fairly orange (it apparently darkens if you use it lots) at least do not have any greys. Also I'm very pleased to report that in the month or so since I did it my hair hasn't shed so much.

Here's a close up -

It is also considerably shinier.

I'm quite evangelical about it can you tell?

Regular outfit posts are scheduled to return as from tomorrow =O)

Sometimes I do silly things

Some years ago I bought a complete set of Golden Hands (a positively iconic craft partwork from 1970) for £10 from a charity shop. During a house move I stupidly decided I didn't need them. I've regretted it ever since.
Imagine my absolute glee today when I found the complete set in the Salvation Army for just £7.50!

Just look at that gorgeous maxi dress on the right, why can't you buy fabrics like that nowadays?
Another page has lovely crochet circles.
Each binder is packed with lovely (and occasionally not so lovely) things to make.

I'm a very happy bunny!

This post was brought to you by my lovely shiny new Compaq netbook.

Festival Chic!

So after battling the cold from hell last week, I went to two festivals this past weekend - possibly the only festival action I'll get this year boo hiss. Saturday's was a small local festival featuring some of my favourite Welsh bands (it's not all choirs and harps you know, head over to YouTube and search for Radio Luxembourg - now rebranded as Racehorses but they were better before - or Derwyddon Dr Gonzo as two prime examples if you are so inclined). I didn't take any pics, it was fairly uninspiring and badly organised. The highlights of the day were finding a very decent chippy and my friend Emma From Chesterfield (full title, that's where she lives you see) purchasing a piece of furniture she described as a 'chaise short' from a curious Chinese shop as she wanted to sit down - actually a telephone seat but definitely modelled on a chaise longue.

Sunday's was much better - superbly organised and as Mr Fuzzyfelt was the dj we had backstage privileges, which basically meant we looked at the bands' bums rather than their faces. It was held on the same site as this year's Radio 1 Big Weekend which was a pretty nice location.
I took the time to get familiar with the camera on my phone so I came away with a rather random collection of photos.

Derwyddon's bums (well some of them, there's so many people in the band I've lost count)

If your eyes worked in negative this is what you'd have seen looking out from the back of the stage - the grass looks just like a swimming pool and the trees like broccoli (eta CAULIFLOWER! The white stuff!) I think.

Looking out from my perch (a turntable carry box, we forgot the chairs!) across the field at the start of the afternoon -

Something I've never seen before and hope not to ever see again - next to the portaloos was a strange round object - can you see it? After much speculation and horror that it could be a porta-urinal it turned out it actually WAS! Practically in the middle of the field! The discreet option was too pee against a fence! It was most disconcerting to have to walk RIGHT past it to get off the field I can tell you.

Here's my outfit, Emma and I got roped in to stewarding for the last hour (which explains the very tired, very caffeined-up faces and rained-on frizzy hair!). We agreed to do it on account of the hi-vis vests. Don't we look important? We liked to think so and we took our duties very seriously indeed.

Three good things

As the perpetually positive Vix pointed out, there were way too many negatives in my last post and it doesn't make for happy reading or in fact a happy me. I promise to do better in future! There's certainly no negatives today.

For absolutely AGES now I've been wanting to make a colourful coat just for me and I've finally got around to it. It is a little brighter than the pic shows and the bodice is black flecked with purple rather than brown. It is completely perfect, fits me like a dream and I couldn't be happier with it. Hopefully you can see the fantastic little clasp I found for just £1.35, I think these will be featuring in lots of coats in the future - Abakhan had better not stop selling them!
Here's my latest cooking crush - Rice Krispie squares, very yummy indeed. Here's the recipe -

100g toffees
100g butter
100g marshmallows
200g rice krispies

Put the first three ingredients in a big pan, heat until thoroughly melted and allow to bubble for a minute. Take off the heat and stir in the rice krispies until they are completely coated. I add a few extra marshmallows at the end, that's the white and pink goop you can see in the picture. Pour (or more accurately, flob) the mixture into something that measures approx 8"x10", or that looks about the right size, press down well with the back of a wet spoon and pop in the fridge to cool. Cut into squares - it makes LOTS - and scoff happily.

And finally - I have noticed quite a few bloggers smiling in their pictures lately and it makes me feel happy, it definitely rubs off so please keep smiling, it makes the world a much happier place!

A real live outfit post!

A possibly ill-advised outfit post, look at my HAIR! I really should have fluffed it up or something, it is suffering from product overload as usual - I have practically no hair at all so I try and put tons of stuff on it to make it bigger. Also I really can't cope with short hair, I think I have set a short hair record this time, it must be two or three years now, my default is as long as it will grow (not very long!) and I'm hoping to get back there asap.
I've been needing some new sandals for a while, my silver gladiators are falling to bits and after a completely fruitless search I found these tonight in Tesco reduced from £15 to £7 which was enough to pay for sandals I don't love but are ok and do the job.

The reason for this rare outfit post is because this outfit is so ME. It's not glamorous, sophisticated, classy or any of those things I'm not. It is comfy and slouchy and slightly eccentric which suits me so much better.

I went for a last day of term lunch with a friend, the last time for a few weeks we'll be able to do anything without the offspring present so I did my version of dressing up and wore a black and silver mini dress, leggings, my gorgeous heeled silver boots topped with a thrifted black mac as it was a bit cold and a bit wet.

The dress I made from the same pattern as the green paisley, this time made in jersey, the centre front panel is black with dull silver circles, the rest is some really cheap jersey I picked up on the roll, several metres for about £3. I really must stop cutting my dresses so very short! I'm almost certain I don't look as dumpy in real life as I do in the pic as I had several compliments on the dress today.

The fluffy pink cardi I made out of some weird knitted fabric that is lovely and soft and warm that I couldn't resist.

A final thought - I really wish Shabby hadn't left Big Brother, it is boring, boring, boring now!