get up and go

when I found this picture on pinterest it had palette written all over it:

 and of course, it was destined to be used in a pattern:

These last couple of days, it seems my get up and go has got up and gone.
The effort required to do anything seems just too much. It's a weird feeling of being drained of energy or enthusiasm for everything. I'm hoping this is just a blah few days and it will quickly pass because I'd really like to start feeling like my good old self again very soon.

Henley Arts Trail in pictures

Here are just a few pictures of what is on offer at venue 12 (Woodclyffe Hall in Wargrave) of the Henley Arts Trail. There are over 20 artists participating at this venue along the arts trail. The quality of the work is really high and there are many disciplines covered, so something for everyone.
Click on the individual pictures for a more detailed view:

The above pics are just a small sample of what is on offer. I didn't manage to get decent pictures of everything sadly.

Lastly, a couple of pictures of my softies and accessories:

Tomorrow is the last day of the event (venue 12 is open from 11am-6pm).

lavender village

I've been doing a bit of sewing this week - a few new bits and bobs for my upcoming fairs.
Yesterday, I made a little village of lavender bag houses:

I bought some lavender a few weeks back and it's been smelling lovely in my work room ever since. I sewed up some little bags (they almost looked like teabags) full of lavender which I then inserted into the houses along with some stuffing. The materials I have used are a combination of new are recycled fabrics - some old pillowcases, one of my husbands old shirts (I have many of these in my stash waiting to be cut up) and an old duvet cover along with some of my vintage and recycled buttons from my stash.
Today I'm packing up my wares for the Henley Arts Trail. Come along and say hello if you're in the area. I'll be at venue 12 in Wargrave (see link above for details).

Henley Arts Trail

This coming weekend I will be showing and selling my softies and accessories, along with other talented artists and makers at venue 12 of the Henley Arts Trail, Woodclyffe Hall in Wargrave. If you are in the Oxfordshire/Buckinghamshire/Berkshire area this bank holiday weekend, it's definitely worth coming along to see some of the talent on show.

There are 23 venues in all, packed full of original art work to buy. The link to the website above gives full details and addresses of each venue.

The Seychelles

Looked something like this:

 beach art we made from found objects

This last week (and a bit), me and the Mr have been away on our (slightly delayed) honeymoon, or maxi-moon as we've been calling it - as we had a mini-moon in February just after we got married.
It was a very relaxing week where we did very little but lounge around in the sun, swim in the sea, eat nice food and drink nice drinks. It seems we managed to get back just before the Icelandic ash cloud put a halt to flights (again). Phew.

Tammis Keefe

I thought I'd blog a bit of what is inspiring me today. I really love these Mid Century Tammis Keefe tribute (repro) prints by Michael Miller fabrics:

They'd be great printed on a textured bark cloth wouldn't they.
There is a really good Tammis Keefe write up and lots more pictures on the True up blog from the launch at the Fall Quilt Market in October last year. Go and have a look.

a little birdy

This little birdy was a recent commission:

I do love sewing with paper. It's a lot less forgiving than fabric so you really don't have much of an opportunity to dither because the paper will rip or get an hole in it. I don't get on my sewing machine enough at the minute - I think I need to remedy that. 

(p)inspiration

I'm absolutely loving Pinterest for the wealth of inspiring web eye candy that I can pin to my virtual boards. I'd read lots of praise about it but steered clear of it for a while as I didn't want to get into something that might just become one of those fads I got bored of quickly (a bit like facebook). How wrong I was and how on earth did I manage before I found this?
I often pin pictures which I think will make good palettes, like these:

I have used this palette to create a couple of alternative colour ways for my monster mash design:

monster mash

This was a really fun to do.

As you probably know, I do like my monsters:

mostly...

Inspired by the paper cut design I did a few weeks ago, I've been working on a couple of greetings card designs with a similar feel:

I think the sentiment is 'mostly' sweet. 'Mostly' is a bit of a disclaimer, for all the times when the person in question isn't being quite lovely. Of course, I wouldn't know about that though.

helpnessless blues

Today I'm enjoying a bit of Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes:

fab

Do you remember fab ice lolly's? I think they are still available. I don't actually remember eating one but I'm pretty sure I did when I was small. We used to have a ice cream man (in a van) who came around once a week. The ice cream of choice when I was little was a screwball. A screwball was basically a plastic cone with a bubble gum ball in the bottom topped with soft ice cream and luminous red sauce, which was usually eaten with a little coloured plastic spoon/scoop.
This is my ice cream themed fabric design in the latest spoonflower contest:

A little ironic really that it features mint choc chip ice cream as It's not a favourite of mine at all.
If you like it and you'd like to vote (I'd be extremely grateful, and offer you all the virtual mint choc ice cream you can eat) then you can do so by clicking here.

Also, late to the party I know, I am now pinning. Pinterest is a is really great way of bookmarking all the loveliness to be found on the internet:

You can have a look at what I'm pinning here, and of course follow my pins if you so fancy.

Lamb - Gorecki

Today, I am very much liking Gorecki by Lamb, performed live on 6music this week. You will too, I promise:

For Sale

I'm just a little bit excited to announce that you can now buy my Flippers and Kippers fabric collection from spoonflower here, or by clicking on the image above.

If that wasn't enough excitement for one day, I have also released a couple of individual fabrics for sale too:

Excuse me a while will you. I'm just going for a little sit down.

Fréya Eté

A few days ago I stumbled across a new (to me) etsy shop which I just love. How could I not have found this shop before?
Fréya Eté is London based. She describes herself as an artist and poet and she creates the most lovely prints, wedding and birth gifts (which can be personalised) and greetings cards.
I've picked out a few of my favourite prints from her etsy shop. She also has a website here

paper cutting part 2

The gift I made for my friends who got married on Friday:

Alex and Tim's wedding was very lovely and quite different to any wedding I've ever attended. Very informal and laid back, almost more of a social gathering than a wedding.
They loved the gift I made for them. I framed it in this white gloss frame from habitat, which worked really well. You can't really see it well from the picture on the website but the frame has two pieces of glass to sandwich the contents between, so it almost looked as if it was floating.

a trio of baby squirrels

I was watering my plants in my garden last night when I heard some rustling in the tree above my head. I guessed that it would be a squirrel as I often feed the squirrels and they are really quite used to seeing us and coming into the garden to feed, even when we are just a couple of metres away.
I was quite surprised that it wasn't the squirrel I usually see, but a little baby squirrel, swiftly followed by another one, and then another one. The mummy squirrel was keeping an eye on them from the neighbouring tree. The babies were so playful - just hopping around, jumping for branch to branch and chasing each other around the trunk of the tree. They weren't half as nimble as the mummy squirrel - they looked a bit clumsy and unsure of themselves - I think this was the first time they had been down the tree into the garden. It was such a lovely sight to see.
Worryingly, they didn't seem at all bothered by me and Mr Monda (and the cats) just a couple of metres away from them. I quickly went inside to grab the camera. Sadly I didn't manage to get a picture of all three together - they were too quick:

2 babies  - the third was on the other side of the trunk

It's times like this when I wish I had a zoom lens. It would have made for fantastic pictures.
We were not the only ones interested in the baby squirrels:

Stevie couldn't believe it either

"What? I didn't even see any baby squirrels"

paper cutting

Paper cutting is something I've really wanted to do for a while - like most things it's just a case of finding the time to do it. My friends are getting married this week so I decided to make them a commemorative paper cut as a wedding gift.

I'm very happy with how it is coming along but have learnt a few things along the way for the next time I do this:
Paper cutting is not as easy as it looks.
I actually used quite a thick paper (thin card) as I didn't want to accidentally tear it - doing this is tougher on the fingers as you need to press harder with the scalpel.
I drew my design faintly with a hard pencil and then begun the cutting process on the right side of the design.  In hindsight (which is such a wonderful thing) I should have drawn my design backwards, or scanned it and reversed the design as the results on the reverse of the cut seem cleaner, and there is less of a need to be so meticulous with a rubber to get rid of any remaining pencil marks.
I used one scalpel and should have used two. Towards the end of my cutting the blade was not as keen and the cuts not as clean.

All this said, I did actually enjoy this, and I know my next attempt will be a much slicker version of the first. I'll show some pics of the final design in a day or two.

Project 1p - the power of the swap

Are you getting married? Do you need a wedding dress? Would you be willing to swap something you own to become the new owner of this wedding dress? Have you heard about project 1p?

Project 1p was started on 1st January 2011 by a guy called Luke. This project is basically this. Over the 365 days of 2011, Luke is trying to turn 1p into something of greater value.
You can read more about this story and the progress so far here, and of course offer to swap something with Luke. Currently he has a brand new wedding dress which he'd like to swap for something else.
Not bad considering Luke stared out with just 1p.