monkey music

we've been looking for a new stereo/hifi for a while now. We wanted one that we could plug our i-pods into as well as play CD's and listen to the radio, and finally today we found the perfect specimen so promptly purchased it.
Our backs were only turned for a second when this happened:now you can't really blame him (he's called buttons btw - a monkee maker creation) because on closer inspection he is listening to something pretty cool:
Thank goodness it's Friday today. It's been quite an exhausting week at work this week, and I'm looking forward to not having to get up early tomorrow.

I must make a start on a few things this weekend. I need to get cracking with the valentines swap, start a birthday present for my mum, finish some cards which are mid way through progress, and start a stack of new ones - valentines and birthdays and a couple of requests for personalised ones for work colleagues, and if i can fit it in, I'm also going to Windsor to see the queen to browse the shops and eat a tasty wagamama

book envy anyone?

Today, I finally received 2 books which were supposed to be christmas presents but they fell off father Christmas's sleigh. They arrived just as I was leaving for work so I stashed them away in my work bag and had a quick peek at them during my break today. I'll be engrossed in them most the evening I'm sure.

This is one of the finished cards I have been making: I still have a fair few on the go which I also wanted to finish tonight but its already late so maybe they will have to wait until tomorrow.

I also just have to mention one of the kindest and nicest blog buddies I know.
I put in an order at the weekend with paper and string for some new felt and some other bits and bobs. They arrived very promptly yesterday, in lovely packaging (as per usual), along with a surprise gift for me of a little pile of linen. It always overwhelms me when people are so generous like this, especially when they are blog buddies you've never met before. So a public mention of gratitude is fitting I think - thanks Sarah :o)

Wednesday = Torchwood. Did anyone else find Torchwood a bit too far fetched and overly indulgent last week?

Question: Why are you looking so sad?

Answer: Because everyone is leaving :o(
Here are a stack of sad 'things' I have made for cards. We have quite a lot of people leaving us at work at the moment - one of the perils of seasonal working. This is a stack of toppers (not quite finished though) for leaving cards I am making for my card shop at work (card shop sounds a bit fancy doesn't it. My card shop is a little basket on my desk!)

still a WIP

I had half a day off work yesterday with the intention of working on my latest fabric collage piece but as we all know things don't always go according to plan - I ended up reading and sleeping.

I have made a bit more progress on the fabric collage though, here are a few pics:

today is a good day

This is a rare non craft related blog post today.

Last night I had a really good sleep - well at least 6 hours which is much better than what was becoming the pattern of not dropping off the sleep until 3am and having to get up for work just a few hours later. Maybe the Nytol herbal sleeping tablets are actually working.

So, I was feeling in a pretty good mood today on arrival at work. I then had one of those days where everything goes to crap. I managed the crap, stressful as it was, and was glad when I could come home.

Before Christmas Mr Monda took redundancy from his job and has been at home since the start of January. We're not really worried about him being at home because he is a talented designer and he will be snapped up soon enough but he's in a position where he can be choosy about what he goes for next. Anyway, the thing that is nice for me is that he is actually at home when I get in from work (which never ever happened when he had a job - he often didn't get home till 7.30 most evenings). Today he was waiting with a gift for me of a pair of new shoes - which he paid for and which I had wanted for a while. Nice.Stevie promptly took up residence in the shoe box where she has been for the last few hours:they are puma shoes - and it actually looks like I have bought a baby puma

Today is also good because the long awaited new series of torchwood starts tonight.
If you miss it, you can catch it on BBCiplayer which is really fab. I love all this new technology, especially when it means you can watch television shows on your computer.

BBC have also been running a series called Elephant Diaries. It's about elephants that have been orphaned, mainly because poachers have killed their parents (for ivory). The orphaned elephants are looked after until they are old enough to be put back into the wild. It's heart wrenching and heart warming at the same time. If you missed it you can catch it again on iplayer here (each show is about 25 mins).

Now to answer a few questions from comments on my last blog post:
dottydesigns, I bought my linen on etsy from Namolio
Picciolo - thanks for de-lurking :o) As you have probably seen, a much better sleep last night, so I would recommend Nytol Herbal (I never got around to the hot chocolate as we ran out of milk!) and also a good book might help too. I'm currently enjoying this one

insomnia

as faithless once said 'I can't get no sleep' (are you singing that now too?)
I've had quite a few nights of late where I have been unable to sleep until around 3am despite desperately wanting to sleep. I'm definitely an 8 hours a night girl and I really can't seem to do this right now. I've tried listening to music, reading, listening to the dulcet tones of Paul Mckenna, sleeping in the spare room, sleeping on the sofa, rubbing badger sleep balm onto all available pulse points and countless other known remedies. Tonight I'm going to try hot chocolate and herbal remedy sleeping tablets (and a read thrown in for good measure).

I've decided not to do any sewing tonight as it seems to stimulate my brain and I go to bed with a head bursting full of ideas.
I made a start on this yesterday. I find it really hard to photograph red without it looking totally shocking so apologies for the pic. This WIP is my next mini picture:

feeling brighter

my cold seems to be abating at last and generally I feel a bit brighter. Thanks for all the lovely comments from everyone - I can't reply to comments from everyone directly (I think we are too security conscious and have a 'no reply' setting to our blogs comments - I know I do, and I don't know how to remove it).

Firstly I want to say 'hello' to Julia who has found my blog - you know who you are Ju and I'm saying no more about it.

So, lots of good things to report today:
my limby monsters have finally made their way into my esty shop:
my fabric stash has arrived - its all linen in varying weights, colours and sizes:
and I've already used some of the green linen for my tree in this:I think I might frame this one and keep it, but there will be more in varying designs on the way for my shop.

my new print from TskTsk arrived too:
and the other thing I was going to show you were these really lovely pouches:I bought one for my mobile phone and one for my i-pod. You can of course find these on etsy here

If you're up for a valentines themed swap then get yourself over to Lucy Locket before 8pm tomorrow evening and join in I'm off to get my hands on my new fabric...

what cures a serious dose of the January blues?

This is a real question, and one I wish I knew the answer to because quite frankly I'm fed up of feeling like I do right now.
I have been feeling 'under the weather' (a big fat cloud) for a few weeks and I'm also run down because I haven't been able to shake of my cold and mouth ulcers either.
I was not at work last week and really did nothing but sleep late and veg out - which I think was fine but it didn't make me feel any better - proof that rest and relaxation is a myth.
I know I'll snap out of this soon enough, and I do try to stay upbeat and positive but even making the effort to do this is hard right now, so today I have given up and I am having a moan. phew.

Now onto better things. A few of my latest crafty thoughts and ideas:
I am going to do an embroidery course at the local college. It won't start until October sadly, and I'm not doing it for the qualification - but more so I can hone my existing skills, learn new techniques/skills, and focus myself to achieve something very tangible.

I've decided that I just don't have enough time for making due to the day job. I've got a few days holiday stored up, so starting next week for a month, I'm going to try to take one day a week off work to dedicate to me, doing things I want to do and making things I want to make (like new cushions for my sofa).

I've been doing a bit of drawing and whilst I love my monsters, there is more to Monda than monsters. This is a WIP and something that needs more time and love before it is finished:
In my attempt at curing my blues, I have also ordered myself a stash of fabric, a TskTsk print, and something else which I'll show as soon as it arrives. Shopping therapy indeed.

I also found this pic on the camera which Mr Monda must have taken whilst I was at work today. How can you not smile at this? Stevie in the sink:

tiny terrier

last night I made a really small dog from my 'cute book' which I got for christmas. I'm pleased because it does resemble the picture in the book but this was one fiddly little project and the legs were quite hard to stuff too - the pencil is just to give you an idea of size. I've no idea what to do with it but it was a fun little distraction for a hour or so
All traces of Christmas were removed from the house today, back in the loft for another year, and also my festive blog banner has gone too.

festive version:
non festive version:

I'm off to make the evening meal now - we're still using up all the things that were slung in the freezer over christmas - so we have some pigs in blankets tonight!

not quite perfection

having not quite perfected this long armed, long legged monster design, I decided to make another one, this time with jersey cotton fabrics for the arms and legs I like this better than mark 1, and the arms are a bit lower down and I think it looks a bit better for it - it more resembles the original sketch where the arms should be longer than the legs I like long arms and I think I'm going to add some hands to the next one I make.

The Christmas tree and decs will come down tomorrow, so I wanted to take some pics before I did this. This is just me messing around with no flash whilst moving the camera. I took loads of these shots but this is one of my faves - I like the shapes the lights make and also that you can see a slightly ghostly christmas tree decoration blending into the background too

new year is weird

I actually don't like this bit of limbo we're in right now. There's all the build up and hype before Christmas, then the big day, then it's downhill with a big bump and no one is sure if it's still christmas time but everyone still has decorations up and shops still play christmas songs. It feels weird.

It's fair to say that I haven't had that much Christmas spirit this time and this makes me feel a bit sad because I love christmas time. Perhaps it would help if it snowed. We were supposed to have some snow here today which I was really excited about - I'm a snow kind of person - I'd rather go to Iceland than to Hawaii on holiday, but alas no snow arrived.

Today I made this little guy - here he is posing by the sewing machine that was instrumental in his creation
He didn't quite turn out as I had planned but he has some nice elements and has given me a few ideas for some more things to try. He'll probably make it over to my etsy shop in a day or two.

I'm off into London tomorrow to spend some money! I was given quite a few vouchers and some money for Christmas. I have no idea what I'm going to buy but I'm sure I'll find something to take my fancy - as often turns out when you're not looking to buy anything special.

the last one of the year

Musings:
It's the last day of 2007. I find it quite I scary thing that the year has passed so quickly, and if I stop to think about what I have achieved it seems like I have just wasted a year (of course this is probably not true, but what I mean is that I don't know how many landmark things happened in 2007 for me personally).
Some years, lots of things can happen, and I think 2008 might be one of those year for me. I know I will move house (need something bigger) and I might get married (might) and I might have a baby (might) and I might give up my day job and be a full time designer (might) but as none of these things happened in 2007 perhaps I'm just going to cram it all into 2008.

It would be good to revisit this page on the last day of 2008 to see if any of those things actually did happen.

No resolutions here:
because I really think you can resolve to do something at anytime of the year (why wait until the beginning of a year to decide to do something?). The things I mentioned above, well they are my dreams for the future and I guess they'll happen when they happen be it this year or in a few years time.

Anyway, back to the here and now, and I thought I'd share one of my christmas pressies - 'the cute book' was on my pressie list. I really love this and will be making some of the cute things in it soonI went to my sisters on Christmas day and took a pic of her fireplace with the nice garland I mentioned a few posts ago - as I said, the original pic didn't do it justice - perhaps you just need a nice fireplace for it to look good (!?)Both me and Mr Monda have spent the last few days full of a cold. Sneezing, coughing, blowing noses and worst of all, not being able to taste anything! I hope I'm feeling much better tomorrow because I'm making a new years day lunch for my Sister and the gang - my first chance to use my extending dining table!
We're not going out tonight - first time in many many years, but we really just wanted to stay in this year - we have the Simpsons movie on DVD and an evening meal of Ham, Bubble & Squeak and Pickles. Will probably be the best new year we've ever had!

Happy Happy Christmas

Just popping by quickly to say Happy Christmas to everyone out there who reads my little blog.

and before the madness of Christmas day happens, this is the view into Mr Monda's christmas stocking. Some of you might spot something rather familiar in there...
and some proof that cats also like christmas:

I'm back at work for a couple of days on the 27th and 28th December but I have a whole week off after that and I'll be getting straight back into the blog and making some new softies (already have a few ideas up my sleeve!)

Have a great Christmas time.

Monda
x

Where have I been?

I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, but have been rushing around like a mad thing trying to get stuff done. I haven't even had chance to catch up with any blog reading let along blog posting and the only semi creative thing I have done in the last week is table decorations for the Christmas ball and taking up a pair of jeans.

The Christmas ball was fab - I don't really drink an awful lot, but on this occasion as it had been a long time in the planning and by way of a celebration of my efforts I had a drink (well quite a few). Needless to say I had a great time. The following day we were trying to do some food shopping but due to the after effects of the night before I wasn't managing very well - all I can say is it's a good job that out local sainsburys supermarket has a starbucks in it - I had to go there for a much needed drink and chocolate cornflake square in order to perk me up a bit.

After the inlaws had left on sunday we packed our bags for a spa break getaway for Mr Monda's birthday. The spa (which I have been to a few times in the past) is great and we had a nice relaxing time. In this pic, you can see the dessert that Mr Monda had after his evening meal. 4 desserts on one plate - this is what dreams are made of! I stopped in to see my sister on the way back from the spa today and she had some really nice christmas decorations - she bought them online here
I have to say the pics really don't do them justice, she has this simple yet effective felt garland hanging on her fireplace and it looks great
I finally got my car back today - all fixed and looking lovely - they cleaned it inside and out too. Such a relief and so much nicer than the courtesy car I was given. This makes me very happy indeed.

This week is already zooming by at great speed. I have some christmas pressies still in the making so I must crack on with those now.

Christmas card freebie winner

in a very non technical, cut up a post it note draw, the winner is monkee maker! MM - the cards will be in the post for you tomorrow.

Christmas seems to be taking up way too much time effort and energy this year. I love christmas time but I feel a bit bah-humbug at the minute - probably because I still feel a bit poorly - I dragged myself into work for the last 2 days, but today I admitted defeat and stayed at home. I have the Christmas ball on Friday so I need to feel better for then.

This weekend, Mr Monda's parents are coming to visit, which is fine, they're nice people as in-laws go, but I've still go some last minute christmas gifts to buy and it has to be this weekend as next weekend I'll be seeing my family for the christmas present swap, so I guess I'm going to have to excuse myself and pop off to the shops.
Mr Monda's birthday is on Monday (how inconvenient, just before christmas) so I need to be prepared for this too - and I'm not quite prepared yet, so a shopping trip tomorrow after work is needed.
I haven't made anything for what seems like ages. I'd like to say that I'd made these Christmas decorations: but alas no, I bought them from a lovely local shop that sells all kinds of oldy worldy stuff.

I had a second secret santa last night (another work night out) and got the best presents - a monkey mug, some charlie and lola plasters, a pencil with a Russian doll on the top, and some deco tape. Of course I don't know who bought this for me, but it's someone who knows me pretty well
I love Lauren Child's Charlie and Lola illustrations - she is very clever indeed.