Happy Birthday Dad

This is the present bag I made for my Dad's birthday. It's his birthday today so I'm not spoiling the surprise. I tend to find it quite difficult to work out what to buy for him as he seems to want for nothing (which can only mean he's very content?). Here are the back and front views of the closed bag.

Here is the open bag. It contains a couple of pairs of trousers (a sort of cross between jogging bottoms and pyjamas). Just the thing for wearing on the days he works from home. In the smaller pocket is a Starbucks - for the days he has to leave the small town in the country he resides in and venture into big smoke.

I usually make up present bags for specific people or occassions. However, I've had a little time recently and made up these two that I have no immediate use for.

There's this drawstring bag with three hearts.

And this little yellow bag which has turned out to be exactly the right size for a CD.

I'm thinking of putting them on Etsy. It's a bit scary though. The first few sales on Ebay were a little worrying but once one has picked up the form and knows the procedures it's OK. Selling sometjhing you've made yourself is putting your work (your art?) up for public discussion. It's good to do thing that frighten you though so I'll give it a go in the near future.

Are you getting enough?

Sleep that is. Every time I look at a newspaper or magazine there seems to be an article on sleep. The quality of my sleep seems to go in cycles and it has little to do with how tired I am. Sometimes I go to sleep as soon as I go to bed, sleep deeply all night and wake up just before the alarm. Sometimes I can't get to sleep and have disturbing dreams when I do . Then there are the nights when sleep doesn't leave me feeling at all refreshed (often rather disturbed in fact!).

One thing the articles all go on about is that you need a routine (no long lie-ins at weekends) and you need to start winding down before you go to bed. This weekend I made an effort to get up at 8.30 a.m. on both days. OK so it's not 5.30 a.m. as it is during the week but it's not that much later. I certainly felt tired by about 8pm on each evening and going to bed around ten was not too much of a struggle. I read a few pages as I usually do but couldn't manage more than that because my eyes were closing. I woke up this morning before the alarm feeling refreshed and cheerful.

You need (so one article suggested) 1 hour of sleep for every 2 hours you are awake. I shall keep this little formula in my head over the next few weeks and see how well it applies over time. It worked out fine for this weekend. It's also a useful reminder that tiredness is often about dehydration, low blood sugar and boredom as much as a need for actual sleep.

If anyone does like the idea of getting up at the same time every day (which if you work full time is probably going to be very early) Steve Pavlina wrote this great piece on it. It's true that early rising does give you more time. I got lots done this weekend. I've got a few days off at the end of the week and I intend to get up early and make a good start on the day. Of course it's much easier to get up of bed when Dear Heart has already turned on lights and the radio and crashed his way around the bedroom before departing for work!

Froth on the Cappuccino

I'm having one of those great weeks where you keep discovering new things. I can't walk around the library without finding armfuls of stuff I want to read. I love discovering new authors. I've also found a load of new blogs that I've added to my bookmarks. It's tricky to know if a blog will be a continuing pleasure. sometimes bloggers cease to blog or they begin to write about topics that you're not very interested in. We'll have to wait and see.

One of the books I picked up to enjoy was Froth on the Cappuccino: how small pleasures can save your life by Maeve Haran. I've read this kind of book before. It's the same kind of thing as Wear More Cashmere: 151 Luxurious Ways to Pamper Your Inner Princess. What marred my enjoyment was the way in places the book seemed to encourage wastefulness (e.g. clutter so that you can declutter and then clutter again). Where green suggestions were made they were often followed by very non-green ideas. For example, a piece on the joys of recycling was followed by one on the joys of takeaway coffee in a styrofoam or cardboard cup with plastic lid. the section on 'buying yourself flowers' did mention fake flowers, but cold have gone further by suggesting that you buy them during the winter when real flowers are imported or grown in hot houses. Just because supermarkets sell cheap flowers doesn't make it right to buy them.

Maybe I'm taking it a little too seriously.

My photos

I just find it so hard to believe we are midway through January. Time to start blogging again on a regular basis!

Once again January is an alcohol free zone for me and Dear Heart. I've been taking the opportunity to set in place routines that I want to follow over the year and have been trying to spend more time working through my sewing to do pile. After a few weeks break over Christmas I'm now walking again on Saturday mornings. However bits of the trail have been rather soggy. Last week part was even flooded, luckily it was just before my turn around point. I'm now wearing wellingtons when I walk on this particular trail.




I'm making good progress on my fabric sewing to do pile and once that's sorted I'm going to start making gift bags to use up my fabric stash. Here are some pictures of present bags I made around Christmas.

Jingle bells and let it snow bags used snowflake sequins that were a table decoration (and destined for the bin) at a party and a bell from a long ago eaten chocolate reindeer.

I was also quite pleased with these gift tags made from magazine cuttings and fabric scraps. I couldn't find (until it was too late) where I'd put the Christmas cards from the previous year to make tags from.

and more Christmas bags...

Just for variety a few birthday bags

Here is the apple pie I made for our Thanksgiving themed dinner in December. I veganised Linda McCartney's recipe that uses cream cheese. I was delicious and there was enough left over for me to enjoy some for lunch the following week. One the subject of food, my lovely sister bought me a stick blender a a Christmas present. She didn't think it was a particularly great thing to give me but shrugged as it was on my list. I love my stick blender. No more batch blending of soup which resulted in soup dripped all over the work surface. Dear Heart will eat almost any soup as long as it is blended. He claimed the simply lovely carrot soup (from the garden of Vegan) that I made last weekend was the best soup I had ever made. Pretty high praise for a few carrots, some stock, dill and soya milk. I did make home made bread to go with it as well. the really easy bread recipe takes so little time and it's so nice to have fresh hot bread with home made soup.

That's all for now but more photos soon of some sewing projects I'm working on.

The trials of technology

I've got a number of photographs that I want to share and have planned an entry including them as they also illustrate what I've been up to lately. Alas every time I've sat down with my computer to sort it out something crops up. It's either a Norton update and scan, or a a software upgrade or not being able to find pictures that I'd edited on Picasa or blogger refusing to let me log in. Then the machine runs very slowly and I always seem to think that 9 p.m. is a good time to start doing these things.

I shall have to make a rule (similar to one I have for new sewing projects i.e. not after 7 p.m.). If all goes well tonight might indeed be the night that I get my pictures online. Watch this space!

Clothing I bought in 2007

1. 1 pair tights - following boot sole crisis - new


2. 2 pair socks (came as a two pack) - for the moonwalk with lovely padded bottoms - new


3. Gold shoes (for hen party) - second hand


4. Thongs (sandal type things, not knickers) - secondhand


5. Boots - from Bourgeois Boheme - new


6. Necklace - From the Vintage Fair - new


7. Jeans - From Oxfam. Old ones had actually worn out. - secondhand


8. Sequined dress - Christmas party dress crisis - new


9. Black velvet dress - Further panic over Christmas party - new

I didn't think I'd actually bought that much, but listed here it seems like lots. Also the ratio of new to secondhand was 2:1. I'm going to try and make it less then 9 items this year. However, I must confess I bought a new dress today. This is a further consequence of Christmas party panic. I saw the dress prior to Christmas and when I saw the price was much reduced bought it.

I'm going to buy less in 2008. Surely I must have everything I need...