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).

feeling hot hot hot!

Well I don't know about where anyone else is, but it is flippin' hot here in the south of the UK. Far be it for me to complain about this heat but I'm complaining! It's just not a nice kind of heat - it is humid and stuffy, and generally quite uncomfortable - especially at night time. Stevie is now out of her cage and can roam the house - a relief for her and us. We cannot unfortunately open the windows more that a couple of inches (in case she escapes) so the house is like a sauna, and me and Mr Monda are like a couple of wilting lettucesThis is not me or Mr Monda - just a very weird pic i found on google images

It's been too hot to be making anything this last weekend - so there's nothing much to show here. I am thinking cold thoughts though, and have signed up to do a craft fair in Oxford in November. It's called handm@de and you can read all about it here - and sign up too if you fancy it (there are still a few places left). It will be in Oxford town hall - a very cool old building and a great space for what promises to be a great craft fair
As I type, it has now started to rain, and the rain is accompanied by thunder and lightening. There's nothing like a good storm to clear the air.

what do you do when...

What do you do when someone asks you to make a card with a classic car on it?
Well it's not really my thing I have to say, so I tried to make it like my kind of thing, and I'm fairly happy with the result. This card is to celebrate 25 years with the company I work for, but for the sake of a not completely exposing myself to all and sundry on here (and I'll explain why in a moment) I've blurred out the company nameI used some of my new (old) stamps on the card. A recent purchase from the days when things cost half a pence, and pence were expressed as 'd' - Some time before decimalisation, which Google has reliably informed me was 1971. These were used by a shop I assume.The reason I am a bit apprehensive about showing where I work (although I know some of my regular readers already know this), is because I'm paranoid about having my personal details stolen. Just this week, someone hacked into my paypal account and made 3 payments to themselves totalling $2000! I was quite stunned by this and I have no idea how someone could have found out my paypal password in order to do this. As a result of this, email addresses and passwords have all been changed, but I remain wary.

swapsies

It seems like ages ago that I signed up to do the Russian doll swap over on I'm a ginger monkey.
I think I have to hold my hands up this time to not being the best swap buddy to my partner Tallulah (sick cats mainly blamed for my lack of making time) and I was massively relieved when she emailed to apologise that her swap would be late, because then I didn't have to feel so bad about being late too - so we had a mutual 'lets be late with our swaps' agreement. I am pleased to say however that I have now beavered away and made my first ever Russian doll, and secretly I am a bit pleased with it. I've never made one before, didn't check out any others on flickr first (honestly), I just drew a picture and away I went.

I'll post pics of the little lady once she has been received, but for now, some little peeks:I forgot to mention, on the Stevie front that all went OK at the RVC on Friday. Her bloods are only just outside of the normal range now, and her pelvis is healing well, although another week in the cage is advised and we've really had to follow this advice, to make sure she does recover from her pelvis injury. Her kidneys are still enlarged and the ultrasound didn't show much difference, so we have to go back again in 3 weeks for another check up and more tests. She's becoming a bit of caged beast though - she hates the cage and she's trashing it on a daily basis out of sheer boredom and frustration - she empties the entire contents of the (thankfully clean) litter tray into her bed, and pulls up her blankets and knocks over her food dish. Like a mini rock star really! Still I guess this all shows improvement, which is good news :o)

In with the old

Lately, I have become more and more fascinated with 'old' things. I think this is because I'm increasingly enjoying using more recycled and repurposed materials in my work, both because it's better for the environment and because I think something just has more appeal when it has some history in it.

I'm also finding that I want to do more in the way of printing and drawing. I love working with fabric, but miss working with paper and ink and paint. I sometimes think i could and should have done a graphic design course at university. Anything remotely typographical inspires me, and I've found quite a lot of inspiration from HensTeeth and LuSummers of late.
This has definitely informed some of my recent purchases.
Old envelopes and picture postcards:I like these for the fact that they were from a day when people did a actually write letters (does anyone still do this) and also because way back when, people were taught to write properly - and mostly with a fountain pen or pencil - old tools of the trade so to speak.
I especially like that this one has also been used as a shopping list. Bird seed and Bovril - nice combo!Any idea what this is?A hand written recipe book which has been passed between 4 or 5 generations, with each generation adding their own recipes. From what I can tell, it started in 1874. There are some truly bizarre recipes in there by todays standards. Anyone fancy a potted pigs head?I was intending to use this to cut up and collage and print onto, but i'm just not sure I can bring myself to do it. Maybe I will photocopy and scan some of the pages for my work - I'll need to think about this a bit more I think.

taking a breath

I've just sat down after a really busy week at work and an equally busy week at home and I'm thoroughly shattered.
I've been working on a commission for wedding invitations each evening this week, and I've finally finished printing, embellishing, folding and inserting. It was quite a long process from start to finish, and I have to say that the final designs are not really something I would have chosen to do, but I was working to my clients brief so had to go with what they wanted. I'm very happy with the quality of the finished cards however - no pics of the cards as the names of the clients are on the front and I'm sure they wouldn't want them splashed all over my blog.

I'm sitting here now on my sofa with a little baby Stevie next to me - sleeping away quietly. We have been a bit naughty and let her come out of the cage for the last few days. She's quite immobile so she either sits on the sofa, or sleeps on the end of the bed in our spare/work room with Mr Monda who works at home at the moment.

Here's a couple of pics of her. Firstly last weekend: and then just yesterday: - she's looking a lot better I have to say (albeit still a bit grumpy). She's eating really well, and toilet functions are all normal. She is sleeping quite a lot but when she is awake she is quite bright and she wants to walk around the house and find hiding places in all the usual spots (under the bed, or tucked under the dining table).
I'm hoping that our trip to the RVC tomorrow will tell us what our senses have been telling us all week - that our little Stevie is slowly improving.

I have the day off work tomorrow (for the vet trip), and I can sleep in a little longer than I usually do on a work day - how nice!

Jumper Monsters

Thanks to Mr Monda for this fab animation :o)

a near miss and a grumpy cat in a cage

Yesterday, on the way back from picking up Stevie we had a real fright. The weather was horrible - torrential rain which made the driving conditions appalling. On one of the smaller roads nearer to my house, a lorry veered across the road right in front of us and I had to put the car into the hedgerow and slam on the brakes in order to avoid it hitting us. It missed us by about an inch. Then it started slowly moving backwards in the direction of the car so I just put my foot on the accelerator and sped off. I think the driver had lost control or something - it was all very weird. I was quite shaken and more than anything I just wanted to get poor Stevie home, so I didn't stop.

Stevie is home and we are both very happy about this. She on the other hand is less than happy to be in her cage. When we put her in she constantly miaowed and was pushing her paws through the bars and biting the cage. We had to cover the cage with towels and blankets on all but one side to get her to calm down. She doesn't want us to stroke her at the moment - she keeps pulling her head away from us. I think she just feels a bit grumpy with us.
She is eating well and drinking a lot (classic symptom of kidney damage) and she has to stay in her cage for the next week.
We'll be back at the RVC next friday for more blood tests and a further ultrasound as her kidneys are still showing as being abnormal (perhaps due to being saturated by the drip) and the RVC hope that a week off the drip will show signs of improvement. She's not quite out of the woods yet, but she's well enough to be at home, albeit a bit grumpy.

In this pic you can see one of her many shaven patches. She has lost quite a bit of weight and where is is shaven you can see that there really is nothing of her. And this was when she was desperately trying to get out of the cage:The vet we saw at the RVC yesterday was great. He said he was sorry not be to working next friday when we go back in as he would like to see her again - they gave us some written notes on her treatment to date, and at the end of the notes, he added that she is a 'very sweet cat'. I feel that she has been really well looked after by the RVC, and I'm happy she was there getting treatment for the last 9 days. I won't mention how much this has cost us to date but lets just say, I'll need to sell a heck of a lot of monsters over the next few months to counteract this!

Radley

I had an email today from Radley, announcing their Autumn/Winter collection. Hello Radley, I think you'll find it still is Summer. Of course, you might be forgiven however for showing me winter things because they are rather nice!
Also today, the vet told us that Stevie could come home tomorrow. We're going to collect her in the afternoon - I'm really, really chuffed about this :o)