sewing like crazy

I have been sewing like crazy trying to get stuff ready for the stall I have in a couple of weeks.

This is a pile of finished chicks:A chick in progress (along with 2 other chick wips not pictured):I also made thisit's a phone/ipod sock, but it went quite wrong when firstly the birds beak was too big and secondly when I burnt it on the iron, so this is very much a prototype

I've also taken pics of the felted blanket bundles, measured everything and stacked them all into envelopes to make sure they stay nice and clean (or so my cats don't try to sit on them)
If I have time tonight I'll pop them into my shop, otherwise it will be tomorrow. I need to go off and do more sewing to make sure I finish everything on todays list.

on my desk on a wednesday

well this is kind of cheating because this is not my desk - but it is my ironing board!I've finally got around to cutting up all the blankets I have felted - I have kept half of everything for my own crafty endeavours - and half of it is cut up and portioned into bundles ready to go into my shop - I just need to go off and measure each piece in the bundle. Each bundle will contain 5 colours.

In answer to a question by Lucy (which I couldn't respond to directly) I get wool blankets from all over the place - you have to be fairly lucky to find them in charity/thrift shops though as they tend to get snapped up pretty quickly - unless you make friends with the charity shop assistants. You can buy from ebay too - but then you have to pay pretty hefty postal charges. In a couple of days you will also be able to get blanket bundles from my esty shop :o)

After watching my bro running in the London Marathon on Sunday I was totally shattered and felt like I had actually been running a marathon! This is my bro at 24.5 miles (he looks really well doesn't he) I think the people at the vittel water stand (in the background) were really laughing and smiling because we were making such a massive noise cheering him on We trecked around London and watched and waited to see him. I spent the best part of 45 mins on my tip toes on the step of a pub doorway trying to see over the masses of people, and at another point I was standing on a 4 foot high wall clinging onto railings with one hand and waving madly with the other (not to mention a few screams thrown in for good measure).
Being a supporter is quite exhausting, but it was a really good day, and well worth going to cheer on the people doing the running - you could tell that they appreciated it.

This pic shows the masai warriors - apparently they thought it was easy - especially as they didn't have to worry about Lions chasing them as they do at home!

The most disturbing/funny thing I saw was a man running in a Borat thong and nothing else. For those who don't know what a borat thong is, here is a pic:
Crazy indeed!

My PIF recipients are...

Thanks to the random number generator - the 3 chosen numbers were: 1, 9 and 10
So this means the PIF recipients are:

• Dottydesigns
• Gina
• Lucy Locket-Pocket

Ladies, I promise to get your PIF gift to you at some point during the next year (as per the rules of PIF). Once you receive your PIF gift from me you must them pay it forward to 3 more people (within a year from when you received the gift from me). Please can you all email me with you addresses - I think you all have my email address (?)

a couple of pics to share with you. This is what happens when felt goes wrong:This is needle punched wool felt which I tried to wash in the washing machine - I had to forcibly stop the washing machine after 10 minutes when it broke up into little balls.

and something much nicer:Some new moo cards, and 2 books moo sticker books. I'm going to be stickering everything!

No more crafting for me this weekend. My crazy brother is running in the London Marathon tomorrow so I'll be spending all day in London trying to pick him out of a crowd of millions of runners whilst shouting a lot and waving my arms, like all good supporters should :o)

Pay It Forward

Some time ago (I forget when exactly) I put my name down for a Pay it forward (PIF) on Amy's blog, Lucykate Crafts
Yesterday a package arrived and inside was this lovely little hedgehog, as yet without a name:Amy's work is amazing - the quality is immaculate and the little details she adds really make her creations special, so I do feel very lucky to have been one of her PIF gift recipients. Thank you so much Amy.

The onus now falls to me to pay it forward to 3 more people. Thankfully as per PIF rules, I have a year in which to pay it forward which is great because I am really busy at the moment - although I do envisage I'll get my PIF gifts made well inside a year.

If you would like a PIF gift from me, all you need to do is leave me a comment on this post - along with a suggestion of a name for my new little hedgehog (that last bit about the name suggestion is not in the PIF rules, I'm just not feeling that creative today)

To make it as fair as possible, I'll pick the names of 3 people out of hat (albeit an electronic one) to select my PIF gift recipients. You have until 12 noon on Saturday (BST) to leave me a comment - quick, go do it now!

Monda
x

How to trade via etsy

I thought I'd share my recent trading experience with you. Having never traded before I was somewhat of a trading virgin - fortunately my trade partner was very patient with me and helped me learn about how to trade via etsy (just to be clear here, when I say trade, I mean swap).

It all started when Zsuszi found me on flickr. I love to see who links to me so I went to have a look at what she does, and I was quite taken by surprise because glass is not usually my thing but I love the colours and shapes of her glass work so popped into her etsy shop and bought this lovely hair pin:
Zsuzsi then convo'd me in etsy to see if I wanted to trade and of course i did!
This is how it works:

• contact the person you would like to trade with to ask if they want to trade with you (helps if you already know that there is a mutual appreciation of each others work)
• decide what you would like from that person and find out what they would like from you
• the value of your item(s) and their item(s) needs to match - or near enough match
• reserve the items they would like in your esty shop - by putting a note in the description/header saying something like 'reserved - only purchase if your name is Monda'. Your trade partner does the same in their shop.
  
• to make sure etsy get the fees, you and your trade partner need to purchase via the etsy shopping cart (we all like esty and we want them to get their fees - it's bad practice if you don't do this). You do not need to make an actual payment via the company that handles payments (no names mentioned) - although you can if you wish (bear in mind there is a fee there).
  
• trade completed - send off the goods as you would with any order via etsy, and leave feedback for your trade partner.

I hope this all makes sense to everyone who hasn't traded before, and for those who have traded via etsy - did I get this right?

This is what Zsuzsi wanted:And this is what I got in return:so all in all a very happy trading experience - I'm off now to leave some feedback for Zsuzsi :o)

so what happened to the snow?

I woke up this morning fairly early, and in my usual zombie fashion I made it to the bathroom with my eyes virtually closed. The bathroom however was just a bit brighter than usual - a very white light, we finally had some snow! I took some pics from my bedroom window because it looked so pretty:View from my bedroom window

snow on rosemary

Snow on spring buds

It was mighty cold too - but Mr Monda went out to throw some snowballs at me - I was comfortably ensconced behind the window in the house however laughing at the spectacle that was my 32 year old Mr Monda outside in his PJ bottoms, T-shirt and flip flops!

The sun started shining at lunch time and hasn't stopped and now all traces of the lovely snow are gone and it just looks like a dry and bright spring day again.

Apart from snow balls, making mix tapes and going to the supermarket, I have also been doing this:You can see more here

mixtape

I just found this great mix tape application on orange you lucky and I couldn't resist sharing it with you. I should have been going to the supermarket to do my weekly shop but I got totally stuck into this.
Here are a few tunes that monda loves. Enjoy.

recycling and repurposing

In my never ending quest (or maybe now I can admit it is an obsession) for thick wool felt I have found a compromise which is just perfect. I have purchased a fair few wool blankets over the last few weeks and washed them at very high temperatures in the machine, then dried them (some in the tumble dryer, some naturally) and then ironed them. The result is this:I will be selling some of this in my shop as I have way too much of it here for me at the moment. I much prefer the idea of recycling or repurposing old things into new things. Blankets become felt, felt becomes monsters/brooches/softies which then become a much loved (I hope) object.

Speaking of recycling/repurposing - here are a couple of pics of something I treated myself to recently. This mini quilt was made by Syko using linen from a dress which she had bought but never worn:Apart from obviously being a lovely piece of art, it has also made use of an old piece of clothing which for me just has much more appeal. This is the kind of thing people used to do in the days before the throw away society we now live in.

We are all becoming more conscious of what we need to do to save our planet. At home we recycle quite a lot of household waste, we recycle our garden waste too, and we're seriously considering getting a compost bin for the garden to put our veggie peelings and the like in. As a designer/crafter I hope I'm also doing my bit with using repurposed fabrics and findings where I can. I don't really want to quote one of the big supermarket chains here, but in this case it is appropriate and very true that 'every little helps'.

one of the best things I've seen in ages...

just a quick one today. I've got a lot to do because me and my sis have put our name down for a stall in her village May Day fair - so I need to start making lots lots more and I have just a month to do it. A month sounds like a long time but if you take away the time spent at work and the time spent sleeping then that really doesn't actually leave that much time. eek.

one of the best things I've seen in ages is this, it's called ABC3D.
I must have watched it 5 or 6 times so far and I'm still not bored of it. Enjoy:

and the secret project is...

This is what I have been working on/thinking about the last few weeks - one blog clearly was not enough for me, no siree, so I have another one - which really is more of a project and a play along project at that, with a fancy flickr group too.

Go and take a look (click on the image above).

shop update

4 brooches and 2 monsters are now in the shop:

shop update

just a quick note for those of you waiting, the shop update will happen tonight at around 8 o'clock. The sun is shining here (for a change) so i'm off out to make the most of it while it lasts!

home alone

Not the film with McCauley Culkin, but me, I am home alone with only my snoozing cats for company. Mr Monda is soaking up the sun (and plenty of beer at a guess) in Malaga on a stag do with his friends (not his stag do incidentally!). He called me to tell me that it's 27 degrees out there and really sunny. Doesn't really compare with our 10 degree rainy day does it. Still at least I don't have to feel guilty about spending time on the computer and sewing machine.
I can never really be bothered to cook for myself if I'm on my own though - so I end up eating easy food for one (like scrambled eggs). I love cooking but it doesn't really seem worth it for just one person.

I'm going to do a shop update tomorrow - with brooches and a new monster or two (depends how much I get done today).
This is one of my latest brooches - made using a pink felted jumper - I tried a closeup pic so you can see just how lovely this felted jumper is:
I also received the wool knitted felt which I ordered from Torbay Textiles:
It varies in thickness and feltyness and is quite nice. The only thing I would say this felt is that it is not sold in very big pieces which is a shame (9x15cm).
This is not so much of a problem though because I'm kind of hooked on felting old woolen jumpers now - I get excited when the washing machine has finished and i can check out what the jumper has become! Sad I know.

busy busy busy

I'm busy working on a few things at the moment.

This brightly coloured fabric collage/embroidery:I have a bird fixation at the moment.

More brooches - I've now used part of one of my fulled (fancy word for felting knitted wool) jumpers on the latest brooch I've made (sorry no pics yet, not enough natural light). This might be my new favourite material to work with, so soft, thick, easy to stitch, and it looks really good too.

Also been working on my secret project/idea which I will reveal next week.

a spring clean

I decided today that I needed to spring clean my wardrobe. 3 big bags (Yes 3!) are ready to be taken to the charity shop. The best thing about doing this job is that I found 5 old wool jumpers which I have washed on a very hot wash and have felted them up. They are destined to become monsters, or brooches or whatever pops into my head next I guess.

I finished up another brooch yesterday:I've got a couple more on the go and when they're done I'll pop them all into my shop (probably some time later this week).

This is how my Jamie Oliver pudding turned out. It was a resounding success here in the Monda household:I varied my recipe slightly. I bought taste the difference custard from Sainsbury's. This really is the best type to use as it has cream in it. I added a bit of vanilla extract.
Then cut open 4 hot cross buns and spread with marmalade (we had a homemade orange and cardamom which was perfect for the job).
Put buns in oven proof dish (marmalade side up) and then covered the whole thing with custard. I left this to stand for about 2 hours (which I think was they key as it soaked right into the hot cross buns). Finally in a 180 degree oven for 25-30 mins.

It was truly tasty, the custard thickens up (almost like an egg custard tart) and infuses with all the spices from the hot cross buns. The best things is - we still have half left over for tonight :o)