November...ing

 November and  already part the way through, that came around fast so it is an 'ing post .

Making a skirt with little bird houses all over it, I have a bit of a thing for fabric with birds on so this is another one for my collection.  It was completed in the week but I am moving tow of the pleats ever  so slightly as I feel it will hang better, it is lined with white lining as that is all I had and has a zip and button at the side.   I don't know how it happened but  cut the lining pieces out of the good fabric!  I was laughing away listening to a ted talk and thought oh no!  I only just had enough fabric to cut out the main skirt then, luckily it is a short version, I have never done that before.

I like the shape of this, it is cotton though so we will see how it holds up to being worn all day, it may get a little crumpled.

I have also bought some Christmas fabric to make some festive masks, just a bit and I've not started yet as it has only just arrived.

The snowmen are quite a bit bigger than I thought so I may rethink that one.

Reading 'When God was a Rabbit' by Sarah Winman, I have enjoyed this book it is an entertaining read,  one of those books that makes you reminisce on your own childhood.  Still nothing is living up to the Elena Ferrante novels but I'm sure there will be something in time.  I have just a few pages to go then I will be on to something new.   I feel a  bit guilty that I haven't read much non fiction lately but I know that is foolish as there  are no rules as to what we should be reading!

Riding our bikes, we managed to get out twice last week and this week we did a good ride of twenty miles yesterday with some big hills.  We did use our motors on those, one bit in particular was Jawbone hill in Oughtibridge and it is really steep you can read about it over here Jawbone hill so we were glad of the motors at that point, I only use it on the hills I struggle with and I think we are out exercising and there is no way we would be able to do some of the routes we do without them.  So that said I am not feeling guilty about that, I am not an experienced cyclist so this is getting us out and I am sure I am getting better.  At first I went really slow down hill on the roads as I was nervous but I feel more confident now. 

 Watching Undercover, the drama series, well I say watching rather watched now as we viewed the last episode of series two last night.  I really enjoyed this and they managed to do a second series that was completely different from the first but still followed the story on from the last one, it was well done and worth watching.   It is a Belgian, Dutch-language crime drama and is on Netflix, you need to watch series one if you are going to give it a go so you understand the plot. 

Lengthening  my bedroom curtains, now I have a large and rather cold bay window in my bedroom despite being double glazed, it also has a cold wall below it I think the cavity wall insulation does not go in that bit for some reason.  Anyway I have two pairs of curtains up there as it it wide and last year I double lined them with thermal backing.  The wall below is still cool though, and liking the curtains I thought of a solution.  I bought a heavily discounted pair of curtains in a solid colour and I have added a colour block to the bottom of my existing ones.  I am happy with it, my husband thought  it was odd but I think it's a design feature and from what I have seen you can get some curtains with colour blocked bands at the bottom.  It has saved me buying two very large new pairs and wasting the ones I like.

  I know some people just have a flat pole going across the wall in front of it but you lose part of the room when it is closed that way.  There was a piece left of the curtain fabric that has also covered a foam base cushion for the caravan, a piece that extends the bed, so that was another little job done.

Baking homemade GF crumpets form the Jack Monroe site, these were very time consuming so I am not sure I would make them again in a hurry.  What with the rising and then waiting for them to cook and turn over, as you can only do a few at a time in a pan.  They tasted good but as I say too lengthy a process.  The recipe is for regular ones on the site, I decided to make both kinds so I could eat them as well so that did also add to the time. 

Feeling thankful for all that I have at this time when so many are struggling, health, family and everything else. Remembering to stop and appreciate things and not let the little day to day events steal my joy.

Thank you for stopping by and have a lovely week. 

Kitchen Make-over

 Well I have achieved my main goal for this week so even if we didn't get to go any where at least my kitchen looks a bit fresher.  I bought this paint a while ago after much searching online for just the right one, it was difficult because people seem to have varied results with all of the cupboard paints.  I have used Wilko furniture in the past for my other projects but a lot of people were not happy with that on actual kitchen units.  I eventually decided on the Johnstone's cupboard paint as it had a lot of good reviews and people had also posted pictures to go with them.

I opted for just painting the doors and leaving all the frames in the wood effect, I thought this would  not only make it look a bit different from all the many grey kitchens that I am sure are out there but also give us options.  The first option being that if the paint does not hold up too well then we can still just change the doors without having to go for a complete new kitchen or even if just our tastes change in a few years we could just redo the doors again in another shade.

That was the first one I took last night when just finished, I changed the handles a little while ago and I have to say they look much better now with the grey.

A daylight shot of the grey, I am wondering whether I should go for a lighter flooring now or is that just a bad idea in winter with three dogs?

I may now make a blind for the window just to finish it off, we don't usually have anything up there as I took the last one down and it was never closed.  It could just finish off the room though.

I did two coats with a good  four hours in between, you wash the cupboards down with sugar soap then paint, no other prep.  So time will tell if that was enough, some people have suggested you can give the whole lot a coat of clear matt varnish over the top for extra protection while others say that slightly alters the shade.  I am very happy with the shade so I think I will leave it alone for now.

We have been optimistic and booked a holiday in the caravan for next summer, we enjoyed Anglesey so much last year we thought we would go there again.  That is when they eventually let us northerners out!  There were quite a few nice sites dotted around that looked interesting so when things are looking up we will have to try a few.

So that's all for now, take care.

Jersey Dresses

 I have finally got a few shots of my new dress makes, one of them was only completed yesterday but the grey one was finished a few weeks ago.  I decided if I waited for a bright day now I would probably be in for a long wait so we took a few while out on our walk yesterday then a couple of the latest make today.

The grey dress is a lovely soft jersey from minerva and the code is Cotswald11-C should you wish to have a look for that.  It is lovely and warm so just the right kind of thing for this time of year.   I used a patteren I traced off from the tilly stretch book when I had it from the library.  The dress is the Freya, I also made the top version of this a while ago in red and the fit is very good.

It is a high neck and long sleeves on my version but in the book version you can do a-line and also a frill detail to the front.  I didn't think that this pattern fabric required that frill detail so I chose to leave that part out. Also wow I look pale in that photograph!

 Coat back on here because it was too  cold to stand around without it!

The next dress is made from an Art gallery fabrics jersey, again from minerva code K-17403,  I have decided it might be nice to start and add these numbers in as I have found I sometimes see a fabric and then when I go back and look for it I can't find it as there are just so many.  That happens even when I know exactly what I am looking for.   I chose to use a simple sew pattern and this was passed on to me from Jo at Three stories High, thank you very much. It is the Alexa midi dress.   We went out for a meal today to soothe ourselves as we lost out on our holiday, I intended to get some nice shots in the gardens near the restaurant but the rain had other plans so more indoor shots today of the cherry dress as I am calling it.

It is quite hard to see on here but there is darting to the front and back and also under bust, the only thing I omitted was the back zip  as it was jersey it didn't need one Oh and also I did away with the back v as I thought it was impractical for a day dress but for evening it would look great.

There is also  a small vent to the back it would have been longer on the  longer version of course but I  did take quite a bit off the length as originally it was too long for me. 

So I have managed to document a bit of my sewing this week and I will try to keep that up at least this week as I am sure a s soon as we go back to school things will get busy really quickly again.   I have another project to make up but I am still in the deciding process with that one, there a some curtains that need altering for someone, a couple of my own mending jobs and of course the kitchen revamp.   hopefully some of this will be completed!

I am still enjoying Spinning Silver and think everyone should go off and read some grown up fairy tale style fiction for the season.  Also watching a good drama series at the moment called The Alienist, (that being about a psychologist and a murder case not aliens)  set in New York in the late 19th century. 

There are still some winter flowers growing in  my greenhouse and they really need to go out but to be honest my gardening enthusiasm feels like it has gone into hibernation now until next spring.  I will go and rescue what is in there, have a tidy up and let things wait now. I know all you hardy gardeners will be growing right through the winter but I like to garden in the sunshine myself. 

Well that's all for now, keep busy.