weddings and rain

I've been absent for a few days because our friends were getting married this weekend and it involved a few nights away from home. We set off on our 5 and a half hour car journey on Friday afternoon to the far away distant lands of the north. The north of England in all it's grim and grey glory!
I actually don't think it is 'grim up north' as is so often called - I have quite a liking for northern people and places. I studied in Carlisle (for those without vast UK knowledge, this is about as far north of England as you can get before reaching Scotland) and many of my friends are nothern too. Mr Monda is also from the north, so we really felt quite at home and had a really nice time catching up with friends of old.
This is one of the best pics I took of the bride and groom - just one of those 'catching the moment' pics really - the poor things were totally covered in confetti and glitterWe drove back home today, and I must say, it's nice to be home. There is nothing quite like your own bed is there.
Thankfully we managed to get home missing most of the torrential rain. As I type this the rain is now washing down my road like a river - it has burst the drains and is pooling at the kerbs.

I popped my head out the door to take some pictures - this is the rain reflecting off the flash and in this pic, if you look closely, you can see the splashes bouncing back upI'm off to cram in a bit of sewing now while there is still a few hours left in the weekend :o)

jumper monsters on national television!

Listen to the cheeky lady from the ITV, saying 'Don't you just love these - whatever they are!'
Dur! everyone knows they are my jumper monsters!

Did I mention that I'm exhibiting/selling at Reveal again in November? Hopefully my sis will also be doing it with me this time.

bank holidays are great

I've had quite a nice bank holiday Monday today. I didn't go to work for start - always a good start, but I did go shopping for a few bits and pieces for a wedding I'm going to next weekend. The best thing about this shopping is that I managed to use up the vouchers I had been given to buy a new bag, a bracelet, a pair of peep toe shoes and 2 tops, and if all that wasn't good enough already, it was a quick and painless shopping trip too - sometimes when you are looking for something specific you can never find it, but today everything just magically appeared to me in every shop I went into.

This speedy shopping trip also meant that I had the chance to make one of the 4 cushions I had planned to make. This cushion was measured very accurately (cough cough) but I'm pleased to say that the cushion does actually fit inside and I am quite pleased with it.Just another 3 to go - I think I will change the design slightly on each one though - to try and reproduce this when I didn't measure anything properly would mean I'd need to turn a minor miracle.

housekeeping

I've been doing some blog housekeeping - i needed to update a few things, but I've also messed up some of the HTML and things are not quite right - my images crash into my borders on the right hand side and I'm trying to fix it, but knowing absolutely nothing about HTML makes it quite difficult.

It might be something to do with the image size so I'm testing a few pics here:







**EDIT** OK I played with the HTML for what seemed like hours, and I found a work around - not really a solution but will do for now.
I've also updated my blog reading list - it is massive!

oh, and the cat in the picture is mellie - our other baby cat, who is thankfully very well - and on the cat front, Stevie seems to really be improving day by day - she's full of naughty cat character, and she's lovely!

scrap bag

look at this scrap bag goodness. My scrap bag is growing out of all control, so I've been thinking of ways that I can truly be economical and use up all of scraps.
This little collection of birds were formally scraps - I will make quite a few of these in the run up to Christmas to sell at my fairs and in my shopI've also been experimenting and making pom poms, which will also become part of some more Christmas themed items I'm working on
I couldn't not share this pic of some lovely fabric I have purchased recently. This will become cushions - hopefully I'll get to make a start on these this weekend. Here is some lovely inspiration on flickr

a small shop update

just a quicky to say that these 3 original mixed media collages went into my shop this evening.

russian dolls, peas and plugs

My swap partner tallulah has now received the russian doll that I made in the recent swaparoo organised by the lovely Katy, so I am safe to show some pics.
I have to say, despite never making anything like this before I actually really enjoyed it. Here she is is all her blue glory:
I had a lot of comments in my last post (thanks) about pea pods and what to do with them. My curiosity got the better of me, and I had to google recipes which use pea pods - I found a couple which I think I would want to make. I may well try this pea pod soup recipe, but I am more drawn to this pea pod curry recipe. Pea pod wine on the other hand really doesn't appeal to me at all.

I have made a couple of purchases of late, and feel it only fair to show my wares and plug these etsy sellers.
This oakleaf keyring by iron oak forgeThese lovely hair grips are from a UK seller called creamroseand this cheeky monkey needs a post all to himself, so that will happen later this week
This afternoon we will be in the garden giving our new tent a test run. Mr Monda put it up in the garden last week whilst watching the DVD of 'how to pitch your new tent' - but we need to do it without the DVD, as we won't be able to take that when we go camping in a few weeks time. I haven't been camping for at least 20 years (when I was in the girl guides) so this will be an interesting experiment. I will be glamping (glam camping) however - I have a blow up mattress and will be taking a duvet and pillows!

chicken and peas

a new chick which I made for a commission - this was made using one of my recent bargain ebay purchases of a (now felted) wool jumper.
She was sent on her way to her new home in a little monda printed paper bag:
Don't you just love to eat peas straight from the pods?
I had to take a picture of these empty pea pods (after the peas had been consumed by me) because they just look so green and shiny and lushIt's such a shame you can't really do anything with pea pods - at least I don't think you can do anything with them - unless anyone knows any bizarre recipes for pea pod soup or pea pod jam or something. No? never mind then.

paper love

Want to see what's been keeping me busy this weekend?
You can see these pieces in their full glory over here. As you know, I have this fascination with 'the old' (ephemera, not people) and although this is not too old, the inspiration for these pieces started with this book of stamps from 1978. I was just 2 at the time
Take a look at the postage costs (above and below). I'm sure we would all write letters to each other more often if postage was indeed this inexpensive. I wonder if this was expensive in 1978?

these are a few of my favourite things

first up, this old ledger that I plan to be printing onto this very weekend:and this little piece of brilliance by Feist and Sesame street. I could just watch this over and over and over...

letterpress inspires decorating

I'm collecting these:They are part of my grand plan for some wall art for my lounge.
We've decided that we need to decorate our lounge which also means decorating and reordering our spare room (craft work is currently taking place on the dining room table so needs to relocate before decorating can take place).

I've been searching for some inspiration in the colours that we've decided on. Brown and blue:This lovely quilt was made by because I'm me, found on flickr

Regarding my last post - just in case some of you thought I might be feeling down (like silverpebble did), I'm really not - I just had a really busy week. I didn't realise that saying I was in a black hole might have also meant I was having a bad time. All is A-OK in the monda camp :o)

a black hole of a week

It seems that I have fallen into a black hole this week, which may explain my blog absence over the last week too.
A run down of my week since my last blog:

Tuesday - went to work, then out with friends for a 30th birthday celebration (not mine sadly). Went to the bank but could not get any money because paypal had taken over £1000 out of my account for the fraudulent transactions they themselves had alerted me to! Made angry call to unsympathetic paypal customer services rep. Bought and downloaded an internet security package and virus software as a result.

Wednesday - Went to work. Had a haircut - about 6 inches cut off - went from quite long hair to quite short hair. Took picture of stevie in carrier bag:Thursday - went to work, stayed in the office till quite late, got home and crashed out.

Friday - went to work. Mr Monda went for a Job interview and got offered the job on the same day. Friends coming to visit so had a frenzied clean and tidy of house. Friends brought amazing macaroons in swanky packaging:Went out for a meal with friends, had a few drinks, played scrabble and had a late night.

Saturday - lazy morning with friends, brunch, supermarket, making pirate outfits for nephews 3rd birthday party, wrapping presents for nephews third birthday, making food for nephews 3rd birthday party

Sunday - got up early, dressed up as pirates and went to nephews 3rd birthday party:Got home late (9.15pm) checked emails, seen that I had been featured in an etsy treasury, along with my sister. I don't think that I've ever been in a treasury before :o) very exciting indeed!Also at some point this week - although I don't remember which day, I had a dream where I went to visit a fellow blogger at her house, and we made biscuits together (what on earth does this symbolise I wonder...?). I remember being amazed at all the various luxury ingredients she had in her cupboard. I think I must have had this dream because Gina often blogs about the tasty looking food and cakes that she makes.

I'm going through quite a busy spell at work at the moment, and working a few more hours too - but I need to start making plans for my winter craft fairs/exhibitions, so this week I will definitely be doing a bit more in the way of making, and less in the way of going out.

One last thing for today. Does anyone know where I can buy water based block printing ink?
(Preferably in the UK).