making things

What gorgeous weather we've had this weekend!

I've spent a fair old bit of in my wellies in the garden (not that I need wellies in this sunshine, of course, but they make me feel like I'm *working*). I'm still trying to dig up the path to make my beautiful seating area - it's going to be a while before I'm sitting on anything other than an upturned bucket, and I'm having to rope in some help this week, but it's getting there!

Anyway, I took a brief break from all that back breaking work to make myself a cheery little new spring-like bag. The pink and white stripes is an old cotton duvet cover I found in a charity shop. The pink and black material is from a dress I bought second hand ages and ages ago, intending to make into a bag, but then I the bizarre idea that one day I might actually fit into it, so I've kept it.

This weekend I've finally accepted the reality that I'm never going to fit into it, and turned it into a bag.

And I'm rather pleased with it!

This week I've also been making soap again, using Rhonda's soap making tutorial. Sadly, I've broken my sugar thermometer, so had to guess with the temperatures, but as with cooking, I'm learning that stuff generally turns out alright in the end (even if I did have to remelt it and set it again). It's looking good so far.

(those brown bits are lavender flowers, in case you're wondering!). It's the first time I've used silicone moulds, given to me by a friend, and I'm really pleased with the way they worked out, so much easier to get the soap out than the glass dish I generally use!

Lots of thinking and plotting going on here this week, the weeks of learning the art of living cheerfully are rolling by at a rolicking pace, and I don't want to lose any of the opportunity to think about things, so I'm going to make sure I spend time with a notebook this week, planning and scheming.

First up on the plotting list is a weekend away by myself. Possibly at the seaside. What fun!

weekending

I've noticed recently that my weekend posts are starting to fall into a bit of a familiar pattern. Look, there's the new bunch of (reduced) flowers in the kitchen, the baked goodies (a very nice lemon sponge in this case), a view from out and about (some 'meringue shapes' from the window of the bakery - meringue snowmen at Christmas that have beaks added for easter, and icing sheets draped over to become ghosts at Halloween), some sewing (looking remarkably pink and flowery, don't know what came over me, in my defence it's made from two 50p cotton pillow cases, and there's plenty left over - not much of a defence I know), and a nice bit of sitting and reading - in the garden for the first time this year!

There's also been some mending (of the hoover in this case), some cleaning (er, hoovering), some sorting (of the drawer full of essential oils - or rather empty bottles), some socialising (at the Women's Institute, of course, and in the pub), and a fair bit of loafing around. I'm really rather coming to enjoy weekends like these, especially when the weeks in between are so busy.

2009: A review

Edited to add: I give up. I switched to the new blog editor, believing, as it said, it would make life easier. I've tried and tried to reformat this post, and every time it's ended up with either huge spaces, or no spaces, or a mixture, and photos in the middle, to the left, and generally all over the place. So I'm going to apologise for the higgledy-piggledy-ness of this post, and move on, perhaps with a new template, perhaps with the old editor, perhaps with a new blog hosting thing. We'll see. That's all.

Well, here we are at the beginning of 2010! I love the new year, the possibilities seem endless, the year stretches ahead, and I tend to do lots of plotting and scheming and planning and dreaming of all the lovely things that will happen in the coming months. 

Being stuck in the house without being on holiday, I've already done a fair bit of plotting. And I will share some of it on here this week. However, I think it's time for a little look back at 2009 first, don't you? 

Oh, I've had such fun this evening trawling through my photos of this year, laughing at the endless blurry pictures of all kinds of birds in the garden, many, many attempts to get an interesting end-of-phd photo, pictures of grass, and sky, and failed baking fiascos that never made it as far as this little blog... 

So, 2009 brought this little foray into Blogland, where I've felt very welcome and at home, ambling awestruck around other people's blogs, and trying to find my feet and put a little bit of my world out there into the big internet world. The idea was to document what happened in my little garden, and to encourage me, well, to encourage me to spend more time in the garden, and less time staring at the computer screen (no, I'm not sure I can work that one out either). 

As always, to my surprise, I planted things and they grew! 

And by the summer, our little garden was overflowing with flowers and cheeriness. We even managed to grow some food! In a rather haphazard, stick-things-in-and-see-what-happens kind of a way. I think 2010 will bring a little bit more strategic planning for the garden (just a little bit, mind you, since I do so enjoy the stick-it-in variety of gardening!)

2009 is also the year I had a go at a few new things - mostly small cheery things which seem to run along a theme of doing-rather-than-buying, like making soap:

making clothes:

making jam:

and er, eating flowers:

There's also been quite a lot of sewing, especially since April, which was when I decided to make all of the presents I gave people for the whole year. Hmm - we'll have a review this coming April on how well that's gone... 

According to my photo archive, 2009 also involved a lot of baking, and sitting around drinking tea and eating the results of the baking: 

In fact, a fair amount of sitting around in general: 

I've also found a new appreciation for being at home this year, which is good, as I've been at home an awful lot. We've been slowly (very slowly) sorting out various bits of the house, boring things like putting in a shower, and a bathroom carpet, and more cheery things like sewing glamourous stripey curtains for by the bed:

and just looking at the sunshine on the living room floor (does that count as a project?? Probably not!)

And finally (for now, since this is getting ever so long, and I really should be doing something else), I've enjoyed watching the seasons change, the sunshine:

the autumn leaves:

and the snow, yes, snow, which is quite rare round here, and so Very Exciting:

So, I think that pretty much sums up the year - learning new things, having a go, growing a bit, watching to see what happens, a fair bit of work, and quite a lot of hanging around. 

Sounds like a good plan for 2010 too, don't you think?? 

Inspiration

Today, we went to the town centre, one of Peter's bands was singing wintery songs. Before they started, I wandered into the gallery, and there was a cheery sale of handmade, Christmassy, crafty cheeriness. I didn't buy anything, but I did sneak a few photos, for a bit of inspiration...

Considering I'm meant to be making all (most??) of my presents this year, I'm probably leaving it a bit late for the relaxed, cheery preparations I was imagining...

Still, I know what everyone's having (I think!), it's just a case of, er, getting on with it. Funnily enough, when it's housework that needs doing, crafty things seem far more interesting. When it's crafty things that need doing, there always seems to be something else that needs doing first.

Anyway, the first Christmassy project is started - hooray! There's going to have to be several on the go at the same time, some of which I'll be able to show you, some of which will have to wait...

So now I'm all inspired by the pretty, Christmassy loveliness I saw today at the gallery, and keep imagining even more lovely things to make. Self discipline was never one of my strong points, but I'm trying to add things to the end of the list, rather than the top. But there might be just a couple of changes of plan, a few small extra things... We'll see...

An update

So much for regular blogging once the PhD was finished! The past two weeks just whizzed by in a flurry of full time work (which doesn't suit me at all), socialising, and a bit of sewing.

The problem with sewing and blogging at the minute is that many of the things I'm sewing are destined to be presents for family, some of who pop in here from time to time. And I don't want to give anything away! So it's all got to be timed, and there's so much waiting...

Actually, if I'm completely honest, there's not that much waiting at all, because I haven't even started on Christmas presents yet. Everything's planned, I know what I'm making, it's just the making part that's not happened yet. There's still time, I think! But it'll be a fairly full on few weeks of sewing. The best kind of full on weeks.

One present I have finished recently is for one of my gorgeous nephews, who turned two recently. I pinched the idea from Handmade Home, which sadly I do not own a copy of (yet!), but there's so many fab pictures of projects from the book around on the internet. I looked at a few of these treasure bags, and scouted around the house for things to make it from, then had a go. I think it turned out rather well :) So far I think it's been mostly used to carry toy cars...

I'm easing my guilt about using the idea without buying the book by promising myself that I WILL buy it, very soon, and possibly copies for everyone else too :)

Since I've got nothing much else of my own to show you at the minute, I thought I'd show you what someone else has been up to instead. I went to visit my family last weekend, and was very much appreciating the way that many of us seem to have found some kind of creativity in the last few years. My mum makes cards, and sells them to her friends. My sister is making all sorts (remember the patchwork skirt??), and has recently started having a go at corsetry.

My auntie has been sewing longer than all of us, and has made quite a few gorgeous patchwork quilts, most of which I don't have pictures of (must change that soon!). This was one of the first she made.

It's slightly shakey as the owner of the quilt, my 12 year old cousin, is hiding under it, squirming around and giggling while I was trying to take the picture. Look at those colours! It's the most colourful quilt I've seen, there's so many things to see, and it's so cosy to sit under.

Most recently, my auntie has started making boxes. These are made from sturdy cardboard and fabric, the first couple were done from a template, but now she makes her own designs. This is the most recent one - again, marvellously colourful and jolly :)

The first one's being used to hold sewing bits and bobs, and there's one been made specifically to hold a piece of telescope (very technical description there).

Aren't they fab??

I'm off work today. I was off yesterday too, but felt so rotten I couldn't do anything other than sleep. Today I feel better, not well enough to go to work, but maybe good enough to wander around with a camera taking a few pictures. I might even knit a few rows, or sew a bit, and maybe I'll even make it back in with another blog post before the day's out. We'll see.

Commemorative peg bag

I had this idea. There's a llama and alpaca farm up the road, and I know they spin the fleece into wool, and I thought it'd be lovely to knit some gloves or scarves or jumpers from local alpaca wool...

So we went for a very soggy morning out there at the weekend.

Apparently alpacas don't produce lanolin like sheep do, so they get a bit soggy in the cold and wet weather. They were looking rather bedraggled! And sadly, at £11 a ball, I won't be buying any alpaca wool any time soon... I really must investigate local sheep's wool soon too.

Anyway, aside from the alpacas, it's been a busy but rather mellow weekend. I'm working full time for two weeks now, so I wanted to get a bit of sewing and resting in before all that started.

I found some fabulous old sheets in a charity shop on Saturday. I just couldn't resist them. I bought them with a specific project in mind, but now I've got them I almost can't bear to cut them up! I can think of several gorgeous things I'd love to make with them. Hmm. Watch this space to see what they end up as...

And now, for some sunflowers - the very thing for a rainy November weekend. Bizarrely, the sunflower seeds we planted a few weeks ago and then thoroughly ignored them, watering them only when they were so shrivelled it was embarrassing, have now started flowering!

And carrying on with the sunflower theme... here's the result of all the pondering about the wedding present to make for my boss.

It's a commemorative wedding peg bag, in the colours of the wedding, with their names and the date of the wedding embroidered on the front :)

They actually really liked it! Well, they fell about laughing, at any rate :) The only commemorative wedding peg bag they, and possibly anyone else, had ever received :)

So a success, I reckon. I'm rather impressed with myself for thinking of it! And I think it turned out rather well :)

A bit of sewing

I've been sewing! Oh, how I've missed it. This is Patch, my second one, and he's so cheery I almost can't bear to give him away. This one is for my friend's two year old daughter, and I'm just trying to work out the best way to stick him in the post.

The pattern came from an article from an old magazine that Peter cut out years ago and stuck to a piece of card. We have no idea what the magazine was, or when it's from, but I'm so glad he cut it out all those years ago. Patch is really easy to make, even for someone as impatient as me... I didn't use old tights as stuff though - but only cos I didn't have enough!

Anyway, he was very cheery to sew, and I'm enjoying having him hanging round in the kitchen. He's adding an element of cosiness at the minute, as our boiler was condemned today, just as it's starting to turn properly cold.

It's 20 odd years old, makes rather a racket, but was working pretty much perfectly, as far as this morning. Sadly, the man who came to do the annual service didn't quite agree...

There's been rather a lot of cursing about the obsolescence of boiler parts. Apparently, the part we need is small, relatively inexpensive, but they just don't make it any more, and because of this we 'have' to have the entire system replaced, at a cost of several thousand pounds.

Well, we don't always believe what we're told in this house... so there's been lots of tapping of keyboards and phoning of friends as we've searched for a better solution. Questions have been asked that others might consider a little bit extreme - Can we find this obsolete part anywhere? (possibly) Can we manage without central heating? (yes) Is it warm enough with plug in heaters? (yes) Could we possibly, possibly justify a cheery solid fuel stove?? (Probably not, but doesn't stop me dreaming about one!) Do we have enough blankets? (undoubtedly yes, but that's not a reason not to acquire a few more!) Shall I start knitting hats? (ooh, yes!)

So. A fair bit of pondering going on here. This is one of the disadvantages of a 'simple' life - sometimes it doesn't seem very simple...

Both of us grew up without central heating, and we've never heated the house up like a greenhouse and walked around in shorts and t shirts. This house is old, 110 years old, and has lived through plenty of those years without radiators. The walls are thick - but filled with rubble rather than cavity wall insulation. Fortunately we have double glazing, and thick curtains. So we won't freeze, but it would be handy to take the chill off the house and not let the damp set in... So for now, we've got four small plug in radiators, and that's working nicely today. Not sure the washing's going to dry very quickly though, and we don't have a tumble dryer. Mind you, doing less washing sounds rather appealing!

If we both worked full time, we might have just agreed to buy a new boiler straight away. But we don't, and we didn't. So this is going to require a bit of creativity. I'm up for the challenge.

A little bit of gardening and sewing

Well, it's about time for a couple of garden pictures, I think. This was meant to be a gardening blog, after all! I spotted these tomatoes on the way back from (another!) run this morning... The plant's toppled over though, so I'll have to get out there and tie it up soon. 

The roses are putting forth a bit of last minute enthusiasm in the front garden...

And the cabbages are, well, soldiering on, despite being eaten mostly to death by some little beasties. We do occasionally get small leaves if we get out there quick enough... 

And as a little break from writing last night, a friend came over for some sewing and a nice chat. As it happened, it turned into crochet, cake, chocolate and strawberries. And very nice it was too :) 

A home made birthday

Last night's birthday preparations went well, and this morning was very cheery :) I was just so impressed with my crumpets that we had for breakfast - so simple to make, and exceptionally tasty. Although I might put a little less salt in next time, and make them a bit thinner. 

The idea for heart shaped crumpets came from Rhonda's blog. I spent ages yesterday looking for the picture I remembered, and eventually found it, but haven't saved the link. I will find it. I got the recipe from the Essentially England website. 

One of the other things I made was a birthday banner. Of course, these photos are completely inadequate, but you get the idea! I've seen a few floating around on various blogs, and there were some in the Chatsworth shop when we went last week, but I just had to make my own. It started off hung above the bed, and now it's in the kitchen. I think it's going to be brought out for quite a few future birthdays in this house.