Things I Love Thursday

© The Sawdust Secret – This was a book I loved a kid. Something about a boy who lives with this aunt and uncle or visits their lumber yard a lot. He calls the aunt’s friends ‘The Gingerbread Ladies’ because they are always giving him delicious home cooked cakes, biscuits and gingerbread. Things start to go missing and it turns out that enterprising thief is hiding the stuff in the sawdust bins. I’ve thought about it a lot of the years but just couldn’t recall what it was called. Google searches were no help until now. I’m so pleased that I have found the details of this again. It’s also reminded me that (a) just because it isn’t on the Internet yet doesn’t mean it will never be and (b) keep looking and trying for what you want. One day you might get it.

© Gifts where the thought really does count - I had so many really thoughtful gifts over the festive period. Ones where it is clear that the giver really knows you and has taken the time to organise something very appropriate. A very dear friend arrived at my house with a cute green bag. When I admired it she said it was a present for me. Looking inside I found a laptop lunchbox. She knew that I had wanted on for ages but would not buy one for myself. And she got the green bag for it made just for me! My sister bought me a load of sewing odds and ends including green trimmings(I love anything green) and cupcake shaped pincushion. My parents bought me two Icing t-shirts for my birthday and then made it a theme with a cupcake badge (handmade), charm and card. And big mention to Dear Heart who bought me an adjustable dress form so that I don’t have to keep trying to pin stuff around myself when sewing. I want to alter then necklines on the Icing t-shirts so they will probably be my first project with my new aid. I need to give the form a name and I’m thinking ‘Miss something’. The question is Miss what?

© Getting back into a routine - I didn’t party as much in the approach to Christmas as usual because (a) I am older and more sensible and (b) I was ill with horrible cold that robbed me of my appetite and the urge to anything except hide under a fleece on the sofa. However that’s not to say I didn’t do any celebrating at all over the festive period. When I wasn’t partying I seemed to fall into a state of hibernation. Hence I am thrilled to be feeling much more awake and getting on top of the organised chaos that is my house, my routine and my life. It also means that I’m back to blogging.

© Sequinned green berets – Dear Heart’s family bought me this fabulous knitted beret with sequins. I’m quite taken with wearing it around the house to (a) ward off the arctic temperatures we have been suffering and (b) because it makes doing anything much more fab.

© Lilies – Another present related one. Dear Heart’s mother sent me flowers for my birthday. They have been opening and look gorgeous. There was a stem of closed white lilies which have been slowly opening. They smell amazing – just the thing for January.

What I wore 8th – 14th November 2008

I’ve been really into brown boots for a couple of years, but I really want some long black boots. I’ve been looking at Bourgeois Boheme and I am definitely buying myself at least one pair from their as a Christmas gift to myself. Happily BoBo are going to be at the Christmas without Cruelty fayre so I am going to ask them bring some pairs along for me to try on. Here's this week's clothing list.

Saturday:
Allotment clothes
Mens jeans, long sleeved black t shirt, green Alice Cooper t-shirt, black DM boots (when I went out to serve mulled wine at the town firework display I added a fleece jacket, a waterproof jacket, a scarf and a hat).
Sunday:
Old jeans, long sleeved grey v neck t shirt, grey v neck rib jumper, green slippers.

Monday:
Turquoise vest, grey wrap dress, skinny jeans, brown boots.

Tuesday:
Green velvet jacket, grey skirt, white v neck t shirt, brown boots.

Wednesday:
Skinny jeans, grey pillow case top, grey shrug, spider necklace, black stretchy boots.

Thursday:
Emerald green cardigan, black and white floral skirt, black top, brown boots,green and black necklace.

Friday:
Brown boots, black leggings (worn as tights), grey knitted dress, Long black fitted jacket with green and bronze spider brooch, green and gold knitted scarf.

Things I Love Thursday

Having new goodies to test for The Beauty Bible

The prospect of a week off

Memories of serving mulled wine with one of my best friends at the town firework display

Twelve Bar Blues

Staying on track with NaMoWriMo

My sister

Amplification

Buying skull patterned fabric to reline my coat

Not having to pay for the fabric because I have a voucher for the fabric shop

Green tea

The way my hair looks - rock and roll!

Buying Christmas cake soap from Lush and then storing it away for the start of December. Hello instant Christmas!

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.

Advance planning

In previous years I've spent a bit of time every week wandering around the shops looking at clothes. I'd see what was new in, try on an item or two and plot what I might buy.

This year I'm trying to only buy things I really need and that I cannot make myself. I've been wearing the clothes I already own. As a result I've haven't been planing what I might wear because I know it's going to be something from my current wardrobe.

Tonight is the work meal and rather than planning what to wear well in advance I only started to give it any real thought last weekend. I think on reflection this has been a mistake. Apart from anything else my body shape has changed slightly as a result of more exercise and better diet. Alas this means I'm not as curvy as I used to be and so some of my slinkiest party wear doesn't look quite so hot.

I had a panic at lunch time and ran around the shops trying things on. However, I couldn't help but think that I could have replicated many of the effects I admired. What I need to do in future is have a look around a month before an event that I want to dress up. This will give me time to make alterations and additions.

I'm wearing a little black dress that I bought when I was 16. I hope it works out OK. I need to wear it with attitude! I'm considering adding a floor length net skirt for future years. I'm also very keen now on the idea of making some slim satin trousers in dark grey. I've heard satin can be difficult to sew with though.

Next week I will post pictures of my latest present bags. I'll also try and get my head straight and embrace the festive season!

P.s. This is post 100!

Vintage stuff

I'm completely thrilled to discover that a vintage fair is coming to town at the end of the month. After reading about such things in It's vintage, darling!, it will be marvellous to actually attend one. I doubt I'll actually buy anything though (although I do rather like the idea of a cloche hat).

I've become rather good at not buying things (particularly clothes). My purchases this year add up to tights, socks, flip flops (second hand) and boots. But part of the trick with this is not looking. Casual browsing of clothes, even when you have no intention of buying anything lead to spotting items that you might consider buying, even though you don't really need them.

I wandered into several charity shops last week. Partly because I wanted to try out some of the things from It's vintage, darling!, partly because I'm starting to think about Christmas presents (dear heart's music stand came from a charity shop and he was thrilled with it) and partly to visit the newly refurbished Heart Foundation shop.

I found myself seriously considering a pair of grey trousers for winter - this despite the day being sunny and my winter wardrobe not lacking grey trousers. If you don't look you can't want!
With Christmas on my mind, I'm planning on getting back on EBay and shifting some of the stuff taking up space in my study. I'll need to store the Christmas presents somewhere!

P.S. I visited Holland and Barrett midweek and they had Pure on the shelf. By Friday afternoon, there was only one tub left. It's obviously more popular round here than I ever realised.

A rod for my own back

Last year I attempted to start my own Christmas tradition. I've become concerned by the amount of waste that Christmas generated. So I decided to make drawstring bags (with cute little designs on them) for presents to go in. I used old curtains and all kinds of bits and pieces from my sewing cupboard. They looked absolutely gorgeous. I really wish I had taken a picture. I'd even done fabric gift tags with initials on them so they could be used as a glass charm after.

My big , forward thinking idea was that these would be used year after year for presents instead of paper. I put my initials, the date and 'please reuse me' on the back. I imagined looking back in years to come and remembering who had made various present bags and when they had first been introduced. I rather hope that some other family members might have come up with their own versions for this year (or re-use the ones I made last year).

However this means that I have got to produce around 20 bags for this year's gifts to go in. I'm going to make bags that fold over at the top this year with little ties rather than drawstrings. I suppose I'd better get to work on them tonight or I shall be burning the midnight oil and sewing when I should be enjoying mulled wine by the fire!