Coletterie mood board

Lots of work from the new agency means few (or no) blog posts. I have been off for two weeks for Easter but that has been mainly catching up with little Finley who is growing so fast, and is now attempting to crawl (although not that sucessfully yet) housework and gardening, plus sewing.

I am getting into altering patterns and sewing better fits, although my only finished article so far was a sorbetto top that first wear the cat managed to pull lots of threads on, so it is now filed neatly in the bin :( I have spent a lot of time researching altering methods and patterns though and I am now ready to plan out what I intend to make. Inspired by Coletterie I am making my 'mood board' here as my attempts in photoshop didnt work out too good.

My up and coming colour palette is based on fabric I have already bought for couple of projects and what is already in my wardrobe. Most of my summer clothes are dark blue, turquise or white, so I am adding a bit of red (to coincide with the Queens Jubilee this year).

I bought the Burda Sailor Pants pattern and my first pair fit beautifully so I now want to make a pair in red to go with the Sailor top that I have always wanted.

I may go with their newish version featured in the Burdastyle mag instead though.



I didnt realise until I was looking for something completly different that I actually had a pattern for a sailor top, tucked in the back of my stash of very old Make It Easy part work mags from the '80's




To make a bit of mix and match in the wardrobe, and because my much loved white denim skirt is starting to fall to bits, I want to make Simplicity 2499 veiw A in white denim. I have also bought Simplicity 4026 which I would love to make view A because I am in love with this top from Tess Designs.

I will need to do a muslin though as the pattern is really sized for knits only.

On to dresses. I started the Colette Handbook sew-a-long but realised that most of the patterns wouldnt suit my bodyshape. I was desperate to make a 1950's full skirt dress though but couldnt find a vintage one on ebay that I liked. Inspiration suddenly struck, why not use the top of the Colette Truffle but add the full skirt to it! I am halfway through a muslin, if it doesn't work I am going for Vogue 1172

as I found some beautiful light blue with darker blue poppies fabric in the thrift shop that is just right.

And the two items I already have sitting in my queue all ready to be started on. Two vintage dresses.

This in a lovely drapy type fabric.


And this in a soft cotton print.

We are off to Centre Parcs with Laura, Wayne, Wayne's parents and little Finley for 4 days as of tomorrow so only a bit of cross stitch is going with me.

Password

Its so long since I logged on that blogger dashboard has been being particularly rotten about letting me in and its just taken me a quazzillion attempts to get passed the guys on security even though I had both my pass and my security badge! Anyway here finally.

TBH not a great deal worthy of note has been going on to put on the blog. For the past five or six weeks I have been ill, first with the sickness bug that was going round and then with a cold which has now developed into a particularly nasty cough. In fact this morning the coughing fit I had was so bad it reminded me so much of the hooping cough I had as a child.

So although I have bought patterns and fabric to make a few items, although I have been to craft show, Kate's demo day and had a couple of short trips to Hobbycraft, I havent actually produced any craftiness.

I've also done family stuff but not felt that well enough to enjoy it one hundred percent.

And I have signed on with a new agency who are now finding me so much work that I am virtually doing full time at the moment. The money isnt quite as good as it was with KTT but then with no work from them since September and none looking KTT's money drops to zero making anyone with vacancies look better paid!!

Finley continues to grow at a rate of notts,

I really miss him now I am doing so much work. I would much rather be playing with my grandson than teaching other peoples offspring but only one more week and I will get some time off with him and Laura.

Finished, nearly finished, getting started

I seem to have quite a few projects on the go and very little finished. I have managed to compete my Meringue skirt though and I am really chuffed with the result!

It fits, there are no obvious biggie mistakes and it even looks ok with the blouse tucked in (although I will end up wearing it outside as it covers up more of my sticky out belly rolls LOL)

So how did it go?

I had to alter the pattern to take it in at the hips so ended up cutting out a sizw 18, scaling down at the hips to a size 14 and using the size 14 scallops.

I followed the tutorial on the Colette blog to include a waist band but made mine 1.5" wide instead of 1"

The skirt went together beautifully. The cordroy hangs perfectly and I love the little bit of quilteing facing on the scallops (I think facing with cordroy would have been too bulky.

I used my mums vintage pair of cutting shears to finish off the seams

I didnt have any problems with the zip using the tutorial in the book, and wonder why everyone in net land looks at zip setting with trepidation.

Things I didnt like or went a bit astray:-

I still think the waistband is too narrow and next time would make it much wider, maybe as much as 2.5".

I dont like it sitting just below my waistline and would try to find some way of altering it to sit on my natural waistband if I could

Why did the book recommend to buy so much material? Even with the longer length, the biggest size, the extra waistband and about 6 " of the edges of my fabric unusable because the embroidery didnt go to the selves, I still have enough fabric to make another skirt up. Whats that all about?

I've lost a few pound since I made my muslin so it could maybe manage being taken in a tiny bit more, in fact in this photo I have actually pinned the waistband tighter so that it sits a bit higher and is more snug.


Overall?

I'm still not sold on the scallop detail, I think they are a tad young for me, but I would certainly make the skirt again without the scallops. I wouldn't mind it in a different length either. More importantly I learnt alot from the first project and from joining in the sew-along (I love all the different versions).

I still have my Project Life to update although to be totally honest not a great deal has been going on to record in the later parts of January.

Last week it was Ollie's 30th birthday so we were all booked in for a family meal to celebrate at the local Beefeater. I was a bit sceptical about the venue as we have been there many times over the years and have yet to have a decent meal or time there.


In one of the early times we went, Kelly was only about 6 or 7, she went out to play in the outdoor playground while we finished off and paid for the meal, but within minutes she was back in again having stubbed her toe on a sticking out paving slab. I took her to the ladies to administer mummy type first aid, stuck her foot up on the sink, started to take off her sock and then realised it was going to be too bad an injury for me to deal with (being a squeimish person who doesnt DO blood). I left her in the loo and went to get someone with a stronger constitution to help with the admolishment to Kelly that she wasnt to move. I then promptly fainted in the middle of the dinning room!!!

Of course no one knew who I was, what was wrong or that Kelly was still in the powder room. Martin was outside supervising Laura on the swings . The staff dialed for an ambulance. I came to enough to mutter Kelly, ladies, get help, and then went out like a light again. Someone did look in the toilets but the sink was behind the door and they didnt see poor Kez awaiting for her mummy to return.

Thankfully Martin returned as someone from the golf course finally recognised me and went to tell him, the ambulance turned up just after I had recovered enough to go hide in the car, and the paramedics ended up dressing Kelly's toe (which was fine, she just lost a toe nail).

Anyway since then every meal we have had there has been wrought with poor food and/or rude staff/rotten service but Ollie thought that since the Beefeater by them in Croydon was ok, this woud be too.

Unfortunately he was wrong!

The tone of the evening was set when mearly seconds after I took off my coat and Martin went to the bar, a guy (presumably the duty manager) came up and in a very rude tone told Kelly that we needed to be seated on time since they had booked our table out again at half 8 (we were booked for half 6). As it was 6.25 and only 4 members of our 12 strong party had arrived so far, we were not impressed, less so when Ollie said we would sit as soon as the others turned up and he replied that he was just letting us know as our table needed to be emptied for the next group - like it was our fault he had booked the table out again!! On our own I am sure we would have walked out at that point but with no way of letting Ol's sister know where we had gone, we stayed (and I think we were too flabbergasted to move)

Having told us to get a shift on before we had even started we decided to sit down before Loke. aura and Wayne arrived. So when they did, we all had our drinks already. Now I am probably one of the few awkward people who CAN tell the difference between Pepsi and Coke, and I dont like Pepsi. Ordinarily if the pub doesnt do Coke I have a fanta or a sprite, but the Beefeater, although doing Pepsi on tap, do also sell bottled Coke, so I had one which I made last all the meal. When they arrived, Laura and Wayne asked for a coke (generic term not Coke Cola) and were not offered Pepsi but simply given bottled Coke. Martin who was driving also asked for coke after his one beer and he too was given a bottle with no other suggestions made to him. Laura and Wayne had another round, same thing! At the bill we were in for a big shock, it seems they were charging £2.30 per bottle of 33ml Coke!!!!!!!!! Again we were gobsmacked and it added a total of nearly £10 to Laura and Wayne's final bill, simply for 2 coke drinks each.

Sevice was slow, and the food was poor. My steak was so tough I actually made my gums hurt chewing it, Laura's steak wasnt tough but she had asked for medium and it was overcooked for even well done, and poor Sebastian's pizza would have done a great job making chipboard covers for one of my albums!!!!

BUT the company was great and totally made up for the short comings in the meal and service. There was lots of chatting and plenty of laughing and we did have a good time, so thanks kids and I hope Ollie had a great birthday week.



Aside from that, we have been suffering a bit from winter blues. Mum and Dad have both had really bad colds, with mum ending up on antibiotics, Finley is still suffering from his teeth which still have not put in an appearance. Martin's new car is being delayed as it is having to come from Belgium, there are none in the country atm. I have signed up (hopefully, references were a bit problematic) to a new agency.

I have plenty to look forward to next week though, Friday we are off to the annual pantomime trip at Whitstable Playhouse, and Saturday I am going to the Hobbycraft and Stitches show at Bluewater.

Meringue skirt, 1st Muslin

So after all the alterations and redrawings of my Colette meringue skirt pattern, I finally got a start on my first ever muslin. This was a very new experience. Doing domestic science (sewing and cooking) at school way back in the late 60's no one ever told any of us that you could actually alter a pattern or garment for a better fit. How to make bias binding they did in spades, but alterations were never mentioned aside from in the pattern there was often a line saying 'alteration line, make adjustments here' and only usually refered to lengthening or shortening.

So if alterations didnt exist you can bet your bottom dollar that we were never told to make a mock up muslin before starting.

Anyway, I spent a bit of time on ebay looking for some cheap fabric to make a wearable muslin, after all if you are going to all the trouble of fitting and adjusting, you might as well end up with something for all your hard work. Eager now to get started, and looking at all the muslins being posted for the Sew-along I hunted around in my stash and found a bit of red polycotton that in a previous life was probably a sheet or a table cloth. OK not a wearable muslin but enough to get me started.

And another first for me, I actually sewed along the seam allowance line instead of the 3/8 inch mark I usually sew along (worried about fit again).

I did have a few problems. I had read on another blog that it was important to mark the front and the back as they are slightly different. With my tailors chalk I marked a big F on the front piece. I sewed my seam, I pressed my skirt with my steam iron, I looked for the big chalked F. It had gone, washed away by the steam. And not knowing front from back did cause difficulties when it came to the waist band.

Talking of waist bands, I had followed the tutorial for adding one to the letter, so how come when I came to sew it onto my skirt it was too short? I still havent fathomed it out, my only thought is that when you extend the dart back onto the waistband the dart widens out as it is extended and instead it should be drawn straight up. This still isnt right as you need to cut and join the band on the angle in order to get the curve. In the end I moved the cut bit back to add back a bit and recut out the band. It seemed to work.

With bated breath I tried it on.





It was TOO BIG!!!!!!!!

I carefully measured myself again. I looked at the size chart. Then I looked at the finished garment size. I puzzled.

I have now concluded its not the size chart in the back of the book I should be going by, but the finished garment size because there is obviously a great deal of ease in these Colette patterns (that sounds good but I have no idea what it means) and by cutting out a size 18 and NOT altering it, it might just be the correct size.

Oh and I havent altered the length as that seems to be ok.

Project Life - take 2

I was gaily going along with my Project Life page but I wasnt very happy with my journalling cards. I had collected together a variety of bits that would work from all the digi stuff on my hard drive and going free on line but when I put them into photoshop and tried to match colours it just wasnt working for me.

I had intended using the K&Co 6x6 pads and then print out cards to go with the papers but I wasnt really happy with the results. I then remembered I had been saving some Websters Pages (6x6 and 12x12) for that extra special LO (as you do).

I am much happier with the end result, and when I looked in my diary I found I did have enough photos to cover all of week 1 (I thought I would have to do a whole month for each double LO but its not worked out like that, and I may be able to even do a title page for each month.




Mind this page has still taken me ages, but hopefully now I know what I want to achieve it will get faster as time goes by.

In other news:
I sent an email to another agency in the hope of being signed up and getting a bit of work

Martin ordered his new car on Tuesday. He has one of those deals where you pay off the finance for 3 years at the end of which you decide to pay off the rest in a lump sum, give the car back or carry on paying the same monthly amount and have a new car. He decided to upgrade to a 5 door pergeot in red to replace his 3 door blue model but nothing else has changed in the three years he has had his.

Sew-a-long

I've never done a sew-a-long before, but in a determined effort to lean better sewing and fitting I am going to attempt all the five patterns in the Colette sewing handbook. I had altered my pattern and went out to buy material.

I had intended buying some cheap stuff to make a 'wearable' muslin (I think most of the stuff I have ever made myself have been wearable muslins really lol) but the only fabric I found that was even half suitable, they didnt have enough on the roll to complete the project. In the end I managed to get some beautiful chocolate coloured cordroy fabric with embroidery and hand sewn sequins on it. So now I have to make sure I get the fit right from an old sheet.

Anyway while waiting for the fabric to arrive I discovered that Sarah over on Rhinestones and Telephones is arranging a sew-a-long for all the items from the book, in order!

Today she posts about measuring and altering the pattern pieces and on a second check already I discover I may have been too heavy handed in my waist alteration, and also that I do need to do the hip alteration. I was also wondering about the length alteration but she has covered that too, so I will be back playing with my pattern bits before cutting out my muslin.

Project Life - my way. Work in progress

I am steaming on with my plan to do Project Life without actually buying in any new resouces. I guess what I am realling doing is a sort of Project 12 with a PL twist.

I was led to the blog of one of the PL designers, one of the ideas she discussed was how she compoimented her PL kit by using 6x6 pads of co-ordinating papers as backgrounds. Wow, what a brilliant idea, because the previous evening I had played in photoshop to try and make all the digi elements I had collected together from various places into one cohesive kit with a single colour pallette. It hadnt really happened to me. I had two K and Co very old pads lurking in my stash, and strangely many of the sheets from Brenda Walter Juliana pad and Tim Coffey Poppy pad do actually work together rather well.

I am using a sheet of 12x12 core'dinations Great White CS to stick my individual elements onto because this allows me to use up the odd selection of 12x12 page protectors I already have and also gives me a bit more freedom and selection over placement within the page.



Luckily enough being a visual learner, I dont have to worry too much about keeping notes, as the photo usually is enough to bring back enough to journal about, plus I am back to keeping up my blog again. I think if I enjoy the January pages and think the system will work for me, I will print out a stash of journalling cards and cut up the pad to make filler cards but I want to see what the finished article is like before I do that, so at the moment progress is slow, but much quicker than a heap of LO's would be.

Mum's birthday

Yesterday was my mum's birthday. A present for once was easy as she had decided money would be in order so that she could buy some new clothes.

We had intended to all go over to her's in the afternoon carrying our gifts and Laura was to order some fancy cupcakes for the occasion as a surprise added treat. She got another surprise though when Kelly and Ollie invited them up to Croydon for lunch, so we had to tell her of our plan and they then agreed to go to Laura's on their way back from Kelly and Ollie's instead.

I made this card for her, a scraplift from one of Bev's LOTV cards but using one of my own stamps. I was rather pleased with how well it turned out.



As it turned out although the cakes looked amazing, they were actually quite naff, Wayne and I couldnt eat ours at all, so next time we are getting Kelly to make them for us!!



In the evening I had been invited along to the leaving do of one of the girls who works for Martin. It was only to Weatherspoons but for once the food was really nice, so I got a steak supper and some pleasant company for a couple of hours. The only down side was that yet again the stupid Sky plus box refused to record for me, and I missed episode 2 of Sherlock. I dont watch much telly so when it does this is it really annoying as the programs I do want to watch are carefully selected. So this morning Martin gave Sky a bit of a rocket.

Sky is being a right pain at the moment, there is a BT Open line being picked up by my software, which is not not secure and even though I have blocked it, every time whoever is using it logs on, it cuts across my broadband width and kills my connection. I have to constantly repair my IP addy just to keep connected and it is driving me potty!!

Christmas dress

Since I mentioned the dress I made for Christmas day in my post yesterday I thought I would put a photo of it on my blog.

I learnt to sew at school, my first sewing machine lesson when I was 7 - they dont do that any more which is a shame because I did actually learn a fair bit, even if I was nearly a whole term cutting out and redoing hand made bias binding! I used to make all the girlies clothes when they were small but have not made anything worthwhile since the '80's.

I discovered Casey's blog about a year ago, envied the way she looked and her wonderful sewing talent. From there I found the Colettiere blog, and lurked quite a while but never managed to get hold of any of the patterns. In fact I found I was actually more in tune with the patterns on Wearing History (look at the wonderful details on some of those clothes!) but want to hone my skills before paying out so much for the patterns.

I ordered my Colette sewing book in November but it took ages to come, and I had been admiring the Danielle dress on Burdastyle for quite some time.

I had bought some red crushed velvet from Hobbycraft way back when I first saw it but finally thought I would have a go for Christmas.

The Burdastyle pattern was a free download but only went up to a size 16 so I had to hunt the web to find out how to grade the pattern for a larger size. My only mistake was that I didnt bother with the most important step, measuring myself, taking the assumption that since I had been trying on dresses in the shops at size 20 then that must be the size I was.
In actual fact I think that I must be nearer a Burda style size 18 once the full bust adjustment has been made (this is the reason I have to buy larger sizes off the peg, as shop made dresses do not take into account thos larger busted ladies with narrow shoulders and small(er) bodies and the reason I want/need to start making my own clothes. I did manage to get the fba spot on though even if the rest of the dress is obviously too big, despite me taking in a full 2 inches on the side seams after the final fitting.

Meringue skirt

With my birthday money I purchased a copy of The Colette sewing handbook. My intention is to get good at the basics including altering and fitting and then start buying a few 1940's/50's vintage dress patterns as the styles are far better suited to my body shape than todays fashions.

I have had a go at grading up two patterns I already had and had a small degree of success (my Christmas dress I graded up too big, and the other dress I have made needs me to sort out how to grade the bottom half to match the top when the measurements of my body dont match the pattern top and bottom. But at least I have started the learning curve.

The first pattern in the book is the meringue skirt. The patterns in the book go up to size 18 which measure 2 inches too small on the waist for me and 4 inches too wide on the hips, so while I am still searching for a suitable fabric I thought this afternoon I would have a bash at altering the pattern peices.

It turns out to be quite a monumental task. With the help of the book it would seem I have to

• cut out and trace the pattern so that I can preserve the original pattern pieces that come with the book
• use the slash and pivot method of altering to make the waist bigger (I have decided to leave the hips for now as it is an A line skirt and should take the difference, no idea if this is right but for now ...)
• slash and lenghten pattern as I dont like just above knee length and want it a bit longer.
• change the waist from a simple facing to a waist band which is a whole lot more of altering and redrawing a la tutorial on Colettes blog.
• redraw the whole pattern out again as by now its probably going to have more cellotape than paper holding it all together

And thats before I even get near to a bit of fabric. Phew!

Its a steep learning curve and very labour intensive but hopefully worth the effort when I finally get a wardrobe full of clothes that I actually like and which fit.

366 - no go

I'm still having no luck with Photo 366, I am beginning to think I must either have a total lack of imagination or perhaps its because I really dont want to be recording stuff that really has no meaning or connection for me.

The next prompts have been

Day 4 Pretty. I probably could have come up with something for this one except I didnt remember to check the prompt until the following day.

Day 5 excitement, well the most exciting thing that happened all day was the christmas tree which I had put outside ready for collection next week, blowing down the road in the gale. I had to go collect it, but it was certainly too cold and windy to stop to take a photo

Day 6 Frost. Well our temps on the SE coast didnt get below 3 degrees last night and with the sea wind speeds there was no hope of any frost. Some people baked cup cakes and took photos of the frosting but we are still wading through the Christmas cake and diets start next week. Someone did take a photo of their fridge freezer .. but I dont really want a photo of ours.

However I do have better hopes for Snap 2012, another photography challenge on UKScrappers. It is going to have weekly themes, this weeks being cold, so I have started with a photo of myself wearing my new Fedora ready to go out and brave the winter clime.

Project Life - my way

This year the trend in scrapping seems to be towards Becky Higgin's Project Life. It seems everywhere you look people are getting ready to do some quick scrapping using journalling cards and background papers, cut to 6x4 sizes and then with the addition of photos, all put together like jigsaws, in 12x12 page protectors that have been divided up into 6x4 pockets.

Now I was a bit curious and went over to Becky's site to read the blog and watch the video's all about it. I really wasnt impressed and couldnt see the point in it all. It didnt seem to be much up from sticking your photos into a slip album and adding a couple of lines underneat to say when it they were taken and who of. I guess that since my family and friends rarely look at my scrapbook albums (and I have over 20 very full to bursting 12x12 albums plus some mini books) that the whole point of the game for me is not so much the telling of the stories, although the stories are there if anyone should care to look, but the actual pleasure I get from planning, cutting, sticking and seeing a page come together. I couldnt see that I would get anything out of doign Project Life.

Somehow though the hype catches you up. All over UKScrappers people are posting about where to get the kits, which page protectors to get, who did it last year and lots of other enthusiastic stuff. So I took another look, and I was rather taken by the pages done by Laura. I found myself looking online for divided page protectors, but with everyone else and their wife already ahead of me it wasnt an easy task.

Could I use the stack of 12x12 pp's and my sewing machine to make some divided pockets? I dont sew very well in a straight line at the best of times and on slippery plastic? The conclusion was ...no!

Then I had a brainwave!!

Why use divided page protectors at all? Why not just use the pp's as they were and simply divide the page itself up?

YES!!

It was a simple task with a pencil, a ruler and a set square to drawer 6 6x4 inch rectangles onto a sheet of white 12x12 card stock.

I especially liked the layouts Laura has done that when joined together they made up into a bigger layout, now it would be simple to do that because I was really working on a 12x12 anyway.

The next thing I did was to go through all the zillions of digi kits on my hard drive. Choosing one was really hard but I finally settled on Wild Sorbet by Micelle Coleman, alongside some wonderful Karma cards I also found on her blog My Second Mile, and coupled with some Jessica Sprague journal blocks that I had got free from one of her classes, I soon printed out my first few home made Project cards.

So now all I want is a few photos (still not managed to get enthusiastic about the Project 366 yet). Watch this space and lets see it it works!

366

Once more UKscrappers are running their 365/6 photograph challenge, an attempt to get us all using our cameras more. Each day a prompt goes up on the blog site and we all have a go at interpreting it with an every day occurance photo.

I got bored with it last year but as I hadnt been using my camera much in the last 3 months - or blogging either, and want to get back to doing both, I thought I would give it another shot. So here we are, day 3 and already I have failed miserably!!

Day 1 prompt word was CELEBRATE with the question 'How are you celebrating New Year. The web site was abound with photos of champagne and fluted glasses, streamers, fireworks. I was totally stumped though because we simply didnt celebrate. For 2 reasons, firstly in the last three years any effort we have made has just fallen flat (last year's golf club event) but more importantly because Morrisons do not recognise bank holidays and because Martin had lost his banked day, he was in the middle of working a 7 day straight. By ten I was in bed reading and he was on the settee snoring, and on New Years Day he was back in the garage by 8.30 and I was playing home alone. Not only that I had some sort of virus that had left me feeling totally exhausted for 5 days. Urgo? No day 1 photo

Day 2 was the word NEW, interpret how you wish. Mmm, well I had had some new toys for Christmas and they were all lovely and what I wanted but nothing really stood out apart from my new PC game that refused to install on my laptop because of incompatible graphic card issues. The other things had been books and tools for scrapping and sewing, great pressies but nothing I really wanted to take a photo of. So Day 2, no photo.

On to Day 3, today. Today the prompt is UGLY - just when I was starting to feel more positive and ready to start the new year properly. I simply refuse to even think about ugly in my present mood. Hence Day 3... no photo!!!

Today I am under instructions from Wayne to take Laura out and make her spend some money on new clothes and boots. Its blowing a hoolie and the rain is lashing down and we have to wait for the Sky engineers but if I can get her as far as one shop I will ... watch this space!!!

Clearing the decks of news for new year's blogging

Well the year has got off to the start I expected, early night last night as Martin had to get up for work today, broken by a 3 oclock Happy New Year text from one of my daughters which I am positive she sent well before midnight but which took 3 hours to get to me. Martin was gone by the time I woke up so now I am home alone until tea time.

I thought it would be a good chance to put down as much as I can remember about December since I seem to have got out of the habit of blogging. And since I cant remember when I did what it will probably be a bit of a disjointed post but hopefully it will let me get a heas start on properly blogging again in January.

WORK

I had an interview in a school in Ashford that wanted 1:1 KS2 teachers for 2 days a week and for 2 hours a day for £25 an hour. However yet again that I didnt have enough experience in KS2 SEN. In fact the only reason they interviewed me was because I had mentioned that the girls were dyslexic and assumed I would have experience there.

So with no work, it has left me with plenty of time to spend with Laura and little Finley, and for us to try and hunt out some Christmas spirit.

CHRISTMAS SPIRIT

CAROLS

At the start of the month we took mum to Canterbury Catherdral to join in Chaucer school's christmas concert, something Wayne and I have been doing for the last 4 years but in the past it has been to see Laura singing in the choir. This year Laura got to join in from the audience rather than the back of the Cathedral and we all got to sing together. It was shorter than normal and there were less people performing (most of the staff being out on maternity leave) but we still enjoyed it and despite the windy cold weather, walked back to the car with warm fuzzy christmassy feelings.

After that though it became a bit harder to find 'Christmas'. We visited several shopping centres but it did seem as if no one could be bothered with the tinsel and christmas songs this year. In most of the towns we were hard pushed to even tell it was December at all with the lack of effort the shops had put into displaying and most of our local high streets had only put half their lights and trees up. Undeterred we kept trying though.

FESTIVAL

Laura and I left Finley with Wayne and went to the Christmas Dicken's Festival, going on a Saturday instead of a Sunday this time round. We got confused by the signs and ended up at Rochester airport park and ride which was a bit scary as we ddnt know our way around from there. I am glad we did though because its a long time since I have seen the festival so well attended.

For some stupid reason the council had decided we must all walk on the left. Whoever came up with such an unworkable idea needed to be shot. We were totally gridlocked in the middle of the highstreet because you were not allowed to swing out to the right to get around the market stalls and there were so many people attempting to cross the crowds to get to the correct side of the street that in the end no one could move. On previous years we all managed to dodge and weave our way through, there was a great sense of camaradie as we all tried to avoid each other, but this year all that happened was that stuards raised everyones tempers and we all stood in frozen lines, moaning about the absurdity of it all. In the end Laura and I got pretty good at nipping down side streets but it did mean me missed many of the little shops and boutiques that make the day.,

We did get to see and hear the bell ringers though and really enjoyed the show as we sipped our mulled cider and spiced wine.


We finally managed to fight our way though the crowds to get to the German Christmas Market held in the grounds of the Castle - even here the council had interfered and made it one way in, one way out. The problem was the way out was down three sets of very steep steps, meaning parents with buggies, prams and pushchairs all had to carry them down, causing more conjestion. People had to queue back into the stalls just to get to the stairs. There was total chaos and no hope of actually seeing what was on the stalls. I felt sorry for Laura as it was her first time and it really was nothing like it had been like in previous years, all atmosphere lost and too crowded to actually see anything or join in.

She did seem to enjoy herself though, and the parade was good. I managed to fall over a wall in the dark as we all made our way to the Catherdral grounds to sing carols, and we did have to leave a bit early to avoid the crowds, not that it helped as we managed to get lost in the back streets in the dark and then had to wait ages for the bus for the P&R to get through the traffiarc.

I did have fun though and hope Laura will go again next year.

BLUEWATERS

Still seeking some christmas spirit, Laura decided we needed a trip to Bluewater to see their christmas display. In other years this has been absolutely magical, with all the lake lit up, huge reindeer all over the place and an ice-ring, winter wonderland and german market outside the main building. Yet again we were sorely disappointed, as they had moved the display into their new arena which takes up about a quarter of the space of the outside area. The theme was Christmas in New York and basically consisited of the ice-ring, a few christmas trees with fake snow at their bases, and a few stands charging exorbatant fees (£2 for one slide down the very small snow slide?????). No atmosphere, no christmas music, no german market or magical decorations. To make matters worse it was on the top floor and the lift was out of order. We walked to the next lift and walked back but we did see people with buggies attempting the stairs in a very dangerous mannor. As well as this let down, Bluewaters itself was not really decorated at all, I know there are regulations in just how much they can do because of fire risks but in the past there had been swags and garlands over the railings and stairs, but not this year. We left very disheartened.

CHURCH

We did finally find some Christmas spirit, we had been looking online at all the local churches to find a Christingle Service we could take Finley to, but they were either all late Christmas eve (the family were all going to Laura's for the evening) or simply weren't happening this year, but All Saints where I had got married, were holding Carol's around the Yew Tree on the Wednesday before Christmas. Laura and I went along and it was totally wonderful. At first I thought it was going to just be a few of us, but I glanced around when we started and was amazed to see people stretching right back from the church to the lych gate. We sang about 16 carols accompanied by Whitstable Brass Band, and then went into the new church hall for mince pies and mulled wine. We both really enjoyed it. I saw a couple of my old parents and one even recognised me and said hello back.

Two more tags

I have to admit I really shouldnt be playing tags with Sir Tim as I have quite a few other projects that really aught to take priority (such as the bits for decorating the home made hamper I am making or the dress I am supposed to be making to wear on Christmas Day), but since I woke up at 5:30 am and couldnt get to sleep, I thought what the heck.

Since I can list the amount of Ranger products I have on the fingers of my hands (11 distress inks, no re-inkers, 2 distress stains, 5 alcohol ink colours, 7 distress stickle colours and a few nearly empty ordinary stickle colours) once again I was into improvisation on a grand scale.

Tag 2


This one was fairly easy. I simply used a sheet music background stamp (same one used on tag 1) and then rubbed white acrylic paint across it using a damp baby wipe. I t left a nice chalky effect and a similar texture to the one Tim created. I stamped the Hero Arts christmas sentiment (in Tea dye distress ink) across it first and heat embossed with clear embossing powder so that it was resistant to the paint.

The Holly was part of a larger Papermania stamp and at last, I had the right products to colour it in with!!

No canvas material so I cut the deer on my cricut out of some gold paper I had in my stock. It wouldnt take the ink even when I tried distress stain so its not got that lovely 3D colour effect Tim got, but he's still pretty neat.

Iwas tempted to cut a chunk off the artificial christmas tree for the wreath but settled on punching out a kerzillion small holly leaves and glueing them all in place.

I was being a bit lazy when it came to the trim a the bottom and decided to simply go with the bit of ribbon.

Tag 3


Sometimes not having all the resources actually makes these tags way simpler. No stamp or embossing folder like Sir T I simply used lots of Hero Arts sentiments, putting them all together on a large block and then inking each different colours.

A generous spray of glimmer mist gave a pretty good background

I hand cut the holly leaves (attacking them with both walnut stain and peeled paint distress stains) and the scroll, and used candy cane stickle for the berries (I didnt have any red alcohol inks, and although I could have used my promarkers to colour some gems I couldnt see the point when stickles do the job equally as well.)

Tim's tag time!!

Woo its that time of year again already.

Sir Tim insists that his tags are not to sell goodies but to fire our creativity and imaginations. Well the stunning tag he has started us all on this morning certainly fired something as the only 'ingredient' I actually owned in the whole mess of things required to make it, was the new iced spruce distress ink!!

So here is my attempt, and how I made it.



I dont own any core co'ordination cardstock so I cut my tag by hand out of some blue bazill. The only snow embossing folder I own is Snow dots, so I spent quite a bit of time attempting to make an embossing folder by cutting snowflakes out of thick card with my little bug. Unfortunately my mats have seen better days and couldnt hold the card still enough to do the intricate designs so after an hour I had to resort to the snow dots embossing folder after all.

I still used the embossing tecnique that Tim highlights on his blog although I dont have a ranger pad and the embossing powder I used was white opaque Stamp 'n stuff. I couldnt sand the paper so juts rubbed some Stamping up rouge ink over the top, followed by the Iced spruce.

For the pine cones I used a free svg from Paper Scissors Ink for a 3d rolled rose. It seemed to work, despite being on my last glue gun stick and having to use a cocktail stick to poke it Reeves acylic paint (no paint daubbers) to add the snow effect and some star dust stickles (right product, wrong colour).


For the Noel, I hunted and hunted for a font I liked (another hour lost to the net) finally settling on Laurenscript. I welded the letters to a scroll I found lurking in my hard drive using SCUT 2. I cut two layers out of cardstock and another layer out of silver glitter paper (tip Tim, even easier than your tip for avoiding glitter).



For the banner I stamped an Artimio music background stamp onto some white copy paper, rubbed over with vintage photo distressing ink and cut out by eye. I spent another hour or so hunting through my hard drive and the net to find the right leaves to cut out, but apart from the larger ones, I ended up using a punch and a holly scroll svg.

These too were all dry painted with white acylic and then given a dusting of decorart glamour dust A couple of beads from my bead box (and I thought the tag needed a little red to lift it a bit, and voila!!

Not for the life of a star

Hello Little Blog. Long time no see.

I have one huge heap of christmas cards waiting here to be photographed but every time I remember it needs doing, the light has gone but I will get them recorded on them eventually.

So still no supply work, not since the start of September so I have trundled along and signed on the dole (sorry JSA) in order to get my NI stamp paid and a little bit of money coming in to keep us from spending all our savings to survive.

It has meant that I have got to spend nearly every day with Finley. He is 4 months now and is becoming very aware, can role from front to back (and nearly the other way) and chatters away, is as happy as a sandboy provided we feed him on time and is sooooo cute.

Thats not just my opinion, it is official as he has been accepted to several baby modelling agencies including the top dog Elizabeth Smith. Laura hasnt actually registered him with any thinking it might just be a bit of fun, but yesterday she got a call for Finley to go do a casting for a shoot for Johnson and Johnson's baby wipes, even though she hadnt stumped up the hundred and so registration fee (a freebie to see if he likes it said the lady).

Which is why today saw Laura Finley and I travelling all the way to Clapham to go find out all about it. Laura drove and a heck of a drive through London traffic it was. Finley was adorable and slept all the way. We parked in Clapham Sainsbury and walked (following Laura's GPS LOL) to the casting studio. There we had to strip Finn down to his nappy and then Laura had to cuddle him in and at the same time get him to face the camera for his photo's, then we were asked if he would go to sleep in a bit so they could get some sleeping photos. Well of course he had just slept all the way up in the car and was clearly not in the mood for more sleeping. neither would he eat with all that was going on around him.

We were there for about 20 mins, and in that time a steady stream of babies of ages from around 2 months to 6 months were coming in, undressing, having 3 or 4 quick photos taken and then leaving.

Laura and I didnt say anything to each other until we were back outside but both of us had come to the same conclusion. All we wanted to do was get out of there and go someplace nice to simply play with Finley. It was too much like a fodder farm, although the people were friendly it seemed no thought for the babies comfort was really going on and it was just for the parents. We didnt enjoy it one bit.

So Laura decided the high life of a model is not for little Finn, we packed him back in the car, and drove to Croyden to see Auntie Kelly and Uncle Olli instead.

Life's little trials

There seems to be zilch in the way of supply teaching and zilch in the way of jobs to apply for, so I have been attempting to run a 'save-on-the-spending campaign. Last month it seemed to work ok, but this week has been a bit of a 'mare as those little life's trails have come along to try us.

On Sunday Martin had tickets to watch Spurs play QPR, and drove up, as he has in the past, to park in his favourite secret parking spot near the ground. As he parked the car, he somehow managed to clip the tyre against the kerb. there was that horrid sound driver's know so well, of a tyre blowing out, and that was £55 down the drain for a new tyre.

Yesterday I did a small food shop (well not that small, it came to around £60 but I didnt seem to get many items) and as I unpacked the stuff and filled the freezer something clicked in my brain that all was not well. Things already in the freezer seemed a little soft. Had someone left the door open? I left it for a bit and waited to see if that was the case, but when I returned an hour later, things seemed to be even more drippy. The light was on in the fridge part so it wasnt the plug.

In a kind of stick your head in the sand moment, I decided it just hadnt had enough time to refreeze so I left it a bit longer .. and a bit longer... but at 9 o'clock, although the fan had consistantly been coming on and going off, it was obvious things were not going to improve. The food hadnt totally defrosted (aside from the icelollies which had dripped all down the drawers, but no ice was forming.

So I emptied what could be saved into bags and took it all down to put in my mum's chest freezer until Martin could sort it out. I came back with lots of freezer blocks from mum and put them round strategic items in the fridge, and went to bed. I had however left one small tomato on the shelf in the freezer and left the freezer on. This morning, strangely, that tommy is frozen solid.

I hope it had only put itself onto auto defrost as it is only about 15 months old and I really do not want the hassle.

On a less trying note, Mum is moving much better on her knee and seems to be improving, and Finley is still off all his meds, enjoying the bottle feeding (at regular 4 hour intervals) is smiling his way through life and even managed to sleep from 9 pm until 6 am for the first time last night.

More cards to share. All these are scraplifts of cards I have seen either on Thinking Inking (thankyou for sharing Debbie) or Jennie Maguire's blog.

Bandana's away

Our Finley has not been a healthy happy chappie, and from birth has kept both Laura and I busy coping with his silent acid reflux. We spent yet another day at the health centre Monday signing up for his third batch of medication This has kept me away from blog land for quite a while, but I have still found time for a bit of crafting.

Yesterday I was appalled to discover the price of a baby bandana was £8, and was made from no more than enough material to cover a place mat!! So I came home and from an old towel, left over of a fat quarter, and a pattern downloaded from Tracy aka Mad Quilter in a matter of minutes I had run up a little bib.

Here is Finley modelling it, and despite also now having a viral cold he managed to smile as he did.

Crafting away

I have been doing lots of bits and bobs of crafting but blogger has been refusing to let me share my goodies online. I am kicking bloggers backside, so lets see how far we get today.

The week before last my Uncle Charlie died suddenly (age 81) from a massive anurism, so I needed to go out and buy something suitable for the funeral wear. As I parked the car I noticed that the building which had housed PC World was now The Range. All thoughts of black dresses were abandoned as I rushed to the back of the warehouse to find the craft goodies. I was a tad dissapointed as there didnt seem to be a big selection and what was there was mostly christmas stuff, but I did get a First Edition 8x8 pad, Up, up and Away by Mindy Terasawa with a mind to making an 8x8 album for Finley's baby pictures which are beginning to stack up.

When I got home I ordered some free prints from a couple of online printing services, its a long time since I have had photos printed instead of getting them done myself and I was pleased with the results. I also scoured the net for some 8x8 sketches but there are not that many about. Pagemaps have a few, but not many, and thats about it, so if anyone has a secret part of the net where they know there are some hiding? Preferably with some examples too?

I decided I would back all the pages on white co-ordinations paper and make the pages double LO's to give some continuity to the book.

When I was at Debden some of the girls put up a bring and buy stall to share round some of the goodies they no longer wanted. One of the things I missed out on was a book 'Kick it up' by Greta Hammond and Angela Wigginton. It gives ideas on how to take ordinary looking LO's to the next level. I really liked the look of it, and when I got home I ordered a copy from Amazon not realising it had to be shipped from America. It eventually arrived a month and a bit later, but already it has been so worth it.

I started this LO at Debenham. It was done, but it didnt grab me.


I left it laying about but when the book came I went back to it and added.


I think adding the blue and yellow title and journalling makes the colours in the photo pop more. I also kicked this LO up a bit, it had been a bit bland so I added the white ric-rac and the title down the side of the page. I am really enjoying the book and its giving me lots of ideas but most of all its making me go back and take another look at LO's I would usually say were finished but perhaps feel a bit let down by.

Of course I am still making all my own embellishements. He was fun.
And the flower making was demonstrated to Kelly and I when we went to Ally Pally. We bought loads of twine, and so far this is the only one I have made LOL


Another LO recieving the kick it up treatment, adding the white ricrac and the side title after I had first called it finished.


I also finished another of the classes from ATDML's long ago cybercrop.


I dont usually do mini albums but I recently discovered a neat little trick in Picasa where you can use templates to collage lots of photos onto one page.

I used it to put all our Portugal holiday together and was doing really well playing with some past kits from Kate Hatfield, it was a lovely sunny day so I decided to take some bits outside to play with. I was keeping every page very similar so I was bulk making the journaling which made it quite easy to sit in the garden playing.

When I came in though I had managed somehow to loose a whole page. A completed page at that, and despite much repeated seaching of the garden it still hasnt turned up which means I now have to start that page again, which has kind of kerbed my enthusiasm in finishing it, but I am sure I will get round to it soon.