Practical Stuff

I have had a busy few days decorating so no new makes to show at the moment. The hall, stairs and landing have been painted and today I did the ceilings. It all needed a good few coats as I changed the colour. The next job is doing all the doors cupboards and frames tomorrow, then I will need to choose a new stair carpet.  We have pulled up the laminate in the hall downstairs and bought tiles, my husband is going to lay those.  I am glad I got this started as I have always kept on top of the decorating of all the other rooms but the hallway has been left because I always feel we just pass through it. That said is also the first thing you see as you enter the house so a makeover was well over due.  This is a peak of the floor tiles...

I like the busyness of them as the rest of the décor is  plain, I will post some update photographs when it is all finished.  When I was working on the stairs my husband made me a platform that stretched between the ladder and the decorating bench at the top, it even had notches so that it fit into the rungs on the ladder and wouldn't move.  He was not thrilled about me working on it while he was at work but I really didn't want to get anyone in to do painting that I an do myself.  I also feel that it is a good use of my time when I have the summer off school so I always fit decorating jobs into school holidays.

Our water pump to the shower has decided to pack up, we have only had that one three years and now we are having to put up with slow trickle showers until a new one is sourced and fitted.  It turns out it may have been the wrong sort originally so that is why it didn't last, we replaced like for like with the original from when we moved in.  So who ever did the job in the first place must have installed the wrong pump.   There is always something around the house that needs replacing and that makes me think what hard work it must be for the people who own the holiday rentals like the one we just stayed in.  To keep things looking good with a constant stream of families passing through surely must mean a never ending list of repairs  and replacement items.

To keep me entertained while I have been busy I have been listening to more podcasts, the time just passes so easily. Maybe that makes decorating a flow activity though I am not sure I would want to do it five days a week,  just a thought.

My latest book is Other Words for Smoke by Sarah Maria Griffin, it was on the new books shelf at the library.  It is a YA book but I'll give it a go, I was drawn in by the bright cover.

Bye for now.

August...ing

I thought I would do a post like this early on in the month instead of leaving it until the last minute so here goes.

Making mainly bags at the moment, I have decided to set a certain amount to stock on each online shop then stop, leave them on for a fixed time then if nothing is really happening after a reasonable amount of time they will be used or gifted.  Here is yesterdays bag, which is more of a revamp as I made this one a while ago but it has been improved.

Baking gluten free, vegan scones for the second time this week, I just know they would taste so much better with regular flour as the GF stuff has a certain taste to it but I have to look after my tummy.

Watching  Keeping Faith, I have pretty much binge watched this, this week and I have really enjoyed it. The scenery is lovely and I found the story very engaging even if I did wonder what the hell she was doing standing by her sad husband, if you have been watching you will understand!

Reading currently Night Road by Kristin Hannah, now I am half way through this and it is not really my thing but a friend passed it on and said it was amazing.  Well I am not feeling it and my husband keeps on saying why are you still reading that book you don't like? Well I feel I should see it through as she enjoyed it and books are a very personal thing.  Who knows the last few chapters  may blow me away, fingers crossed.

Growing  more lovely flowers in the garden, quite a few of what have come up have been a surprise as I planted some mixed colour seeds.  It would be nice if they had specified what they all were as I am now finding I like certain ones but have no idea of the names.

Enjoying the summer break but wondering why it always leaves me uncertain if I am in the right job. Maybe it is having more time to think but I am just not sure if I want to do the same thing for the rest of my working years but have no clear plan what path to take. 

Listening to  more Rich Roll podcasts, the latest one was an interview with Dan Buettner founder of Blue zones you can have a look at the website here . He has travelled the world studying the longest lived citizens of various communities and what they have in common, it is really interesting and of course a lot of common sense.  Both the website and the podcast are worth look/listen.

Wondering what to grow next in my greenhouse or garden for late summer, any tips for autumn colour as I would really love to keep the colours going for as long as possible.  Budget plants being the theme, I have no time for expensive plants that give a week of colour and then they are gone, especially with our British weather.  A week of bad weather could see us inside all week with blooms been and gone, no I want to grow or plant value giving varieties to keep the garden looking well a little longer.

That's all for now have a good weekend. 

Making and Sorting

Do you ever start something and then wonder how  a simple job could have taken you so long? Well that is how I am feeling today.  I have a big folder with all sorts of house stuff in it, you know the kind where everyone puts things they don't want to lose. Well I am on my third folder and it had broke again so I have decided everyone is going to have their own as clearly we are trying to cram too much into one large one.  So I set about getting rid of papers no longer needed, organising and so on. Then I couldn't find my breakdown cover, I called them and it turns out that has expired and I was going to call to change the car details too. So another job of finding new  breakdown cover had pooped up!  It is all done now but I did notice the overhead cupboards are a bit untidy  so that is a job for tomorrow.

That aside, over on Minerva crafts today you can see the full post for my mock jumpsuit here . It has had a lot of wear already as it is really comfy and washes well.

This morning I completed another little bag, it would go really nice with my swan skirt but I have listed it.  The idea being I am supposed to be making them to stock etsy and folksy shops but I always like them. The real annoying thing for me is making things and then putting them away in cupboards to just wait around for the possibility of someone wanting them when I could be using them.  I have a feeling I would be a dreadful actual shop owner, the sight of full shelves with items fading but never used would make me sad.

While we were away last week I finished reading The familiars by Stacey Halls it was excellent. I like the fact that she used real people from history to build her story around and it was good to get stuck into a book after a few false starts. After I finished it I watched a little documentary about the Pendle witch trials as this was the central theme to the story.  Unfortunately I have since started 'Circe' and didn't like that, Enchantee, but that was my fault as it is YA fiction and I didn't realise when I ordered it and finally The Meryl Streep Movie club. The last one was in the holiday rental and I did persevere but it really wasn't for me.  Any suggestions for my next read are greatly appreciated.

Anglesey

Well some incredible has happened this week, we have actually been away on holiday in the UK and had sunshine almost everyday.  The only day it was overcast all day was Sunday, so we are very pleased.  More so because before we went away my husband said if we get another week of bad weather we are never booking anything again!  Oh dear, as we usually turn the weather as soon as we set off on the road.

We visited Anglesey Cemaes Bay and headed off to a different spot in the surrounding area each day.  It is beautiful and we will definitely be returning one day, we did lots of coastal walking up and down hills and saw some picturesque seaside towns.

Cemaes Bay itself is worth a visit, it is small and quiet but has everything you need, on the beach is St Patricks's bell, legend has it that St Patrick was shipwrecked at Ynys Badrig where he founded his first church and the bell has been erected in honour of that.

We had a walk up to the little church along the coastal path, it is small and well kept with information about the place inside.  It has an honesty box to support the upkeep and I think it is good that there are still places where this trust in visitors exists.  There are many places where even the toilets are locked.

This was our first day so the overcast one!

The next day we visited Breakwater country park, this was a wonderful place walks in different directions some of which were quite challenging.  There was an outdoor gallery and that was interesting to look at.

One of the views on our walk

I  took loads of these so I feel I may bore you with them, let me know if you want to see more and I will put them in another post.

We also visited Treardurr  Bay, this was much busier than where we stayed and with the baking sun you really could have been anywhere in Europe.  It has a lovely stretch of beach and was full of families enjoying the weather. 

 Amlwch was the nearest small town with a supermarket and used to be a port where copper was exported all over the world.

Beaurmaris  was beautiful with a pier and lots of pretty painted buildings, though I have to say we found that every where we went. There were certain parts of the beach where the dogs could go on so we let them have a little paddle but we are not sitting on the beach types, so not being able to access all of it was not a problem.

I don't know why but my dogs couldn't wait to get off here, it was as if they knew they were not on solid ground and no it wasn't too hot I checked with my hand.  We had plenty of rests, drinks sat under tables (the dogs not us!)  in the shade and we never stay out for a full day just a few hours here and there.

 Our house that we stayed in had a hot tub and before we left I made this bikini, the yellow straps are recycled from an old one but the rest is made from bits of scuba from a dress I made.  I just used an old bikini as a template.

Well that is all for now, my husband has more photos so I will share more in a different post if you are not already fed up of my holiday snaps. Back soon.

Basics

I have been meaning to replace a favourite black t-shirt for a while now, I made a three quarter length, thick t-shirt a while ago but it was no replacement for my go to short sleeved version.  The trouble with that is it was looking very worn and faded having had it for many years.  However I did like the fit and the sleeve length so I have used it as a pattern for not one but two t-shirts.  The first is a grey one and here I have tried to copy the neckline as best I could, I made the grey one as I needed something to go with my swan skirt from a few days ago.

I found that where I had gone around the neck with bias tape at the bottom was not lying exactly as I liked so I have added a little tab, if you look closely you can see it.  I think it makes it look a little more finished.  A trusty zig zag hem and a band on the sleeve turned and topstitched to the reverse.  it was quite a quick make with the only faffing being the neckline.

When stitching the black one I find a useful little video on youtube here about how to turn your bias binding so that a v neck lays nice and flat. I found this helpful and much neater than how I have done it before.  I have had to quickly take a photo on a hanger as it has now been worn and I just realised I had no image of it.  The fabric on this black one was more springy so I had to unpick one side of that v twice as I had pulled it a little, it is super comfy to wear though even if it was not such a great fabric to stitch.

A bright room with the sun shining through the window does not make for the best images.

Anyway that is two more basics done, and I did say that this year I was going to sew more of those items to balance my pattern heavy wardrobe.  Using the old t shirt as a guide worked a treat, I always favour actual clothes to patterns as a template.

Cutting two t-shirts  out together to speed up the process, and here is the original faded favourite...

As you can see no longer a great shade, it was from Matalan years ago, about three pound and I really have had my money out of it ;) Do you have any old favourites you can't let go of?

Skirt Week

Ok, so it is not officially skirt week if there is such a thing but I have been doing a lot of skirt sewing.  Three of which were for my friends daughter, another one for me and a few other bits but I will stick to the skirts for now.  I was asked a while ago if I would make these as the fabric had been spotted in a shop in York, time passed and then suddenly here we are and  both near our hols so my friend got the fabric over to me.  They are due to go on holiday to Florida so despite knowing about this job for months it ended up being a call with oops have you time to still do the skirts ready for the holiday.   Well of course, and I do things last minute all the time so that wasn't a problem.

The fabric is Harry Potter, Star wars  and some funky glasses, had I known beforehand how much she was paying for the Star Wars I would have told her to shop online, but too late the fabric was already bought.

Here is the first skirt, I didn't use a pattern as they brought me a skirt that fit her well and she liked so I took my ideas from that.  They are all circular ish  skirts, meaning not a full circle but that style.
She wanted them all to have the black elastic showing at the top and not a waistband and zip, though I personally prefer the latter.

Here is the next one, I have  told her to hang onto the original skirt that she brought with her even if she gets bored with it, just in case she wants more of the same thing later.  I could have made her a paper pattern but I don't generally have patterns of other peoples clothes about the place I have enough with my own sewing supplies.

I think this last one is my favourite, the fabric was a bit heavier than the other two and it turns out more reasonably priced.  It just shows how much they can tag on when there is a bit of a theme or film element to the design.

After sewing these I grabbed my swan fabric that was in the drawer and decided to make myself something similar.  Of course I wanted a waistband and zip and I  also lined my skirt.

It seems to me if you line a skirt you can wear it year round as tights don't grab and in the summer you don't feel as if your clothes are see through.  I think that can be an issue with light colours.

The perfect flower button from my odd button jar, a black zip as it is all I had but I don't mind.  Right now I am off to sew a bikini that should have been completed earlier this week before all the skirt sewing frenzy!

Blue Bird Dress

Summer sewing is still underway and this week I have a dress for a Minerva post.  The original pattern I was working from has taken a few adjustments as it felt a little like a painting smock without additional shaping.  I took the whole dress in  by quite a bit and added darts, I will provide more detail in the future post on Minerva crafts.

It is looking much better here with a bit of shaping, you can't see very clearly but it has pockets too.  I don't often opt for pockets but this time I did.   With a bit of thought I should have had a before photo.

I think that a fabric with a bit more drape would suit the pattern better, this fabric faired far better with structure.

So there you have it, nothing wrong with the pattern or the fabric just not the two together unless you are adding darts, that is just my opinion you may feel differently.

Yesterday I started reading this book...

When I came in from work I picked it up and couldn't put it down, I took this photo to show my friend and it turns out she has already bought it as a Christmas gift for someone!  Very organised.  It is historical fiction, a bit of fantasy, something different to start the holidays.

I have been sewing skirts all day and I will share these later, right now I'm off for  a cup of tea.