my never ending birthday

Thanks for my many birthday wishes. We had a nice day walking in London and wandering around the various shops tiring ourselves out thoroughly before going to the theatre. I really enjoyed seeing the Lion King - the costumes were really amazing. The man who was sitting next to me in the theatre had a sneezing problem however, either that, or a horrible cold. He sneezed the whole way through the show - nice!

I had lots of lovely pressies: What you cannot see here is the Mario game I got for my nintendo DS (very addictive), some new underwear, and a crochet lesson class. The crochet lesson was a pressie from my sister, and is much needed after my pathetic attempt of trying to learn from my mum recently - she is left handed, and I am right handed so I found it all a bit tricky.

I'm off out tonight with some friends for another birthday celebration - that would be the third this week (I know, I'm like the Queen with all these birthday celebrations). The first was on Saturday here - many cocktails were consumed, and a slightly sore head was sported the following day :o)

flowers for my birthday

1. linen flower..., 2. Bird and the Flower, 3. Pot of paper flowers, 4. ATC230 Summer 1, 5. Greetings card, 6. Spring Flowers - detail, 7. air - sketch, 8. Swap quilt from moogsmum, 9. love and flowers

It's my birthday today. I've picked some of my favourite flowers from flickr to share with you.
I have a couple of weeks off work now. At the moment I am still in my bed (at 11.20 am!) under my nice warm duvet (well if you can't do this on your birthday, when can you?) but I am shortly getting up to go into London to browse the shops, eat some nice food and go to the theatre to see the Lion King.

Make a toy, make a difference

You cannot have escaped the awful news of the bushfires which have caused over 100 deaths in Victoria, Australia over the last 3 days. Whole towns have been destroyed, homes have burnt down, people have lost their lives, family members and friends. The worst thing about this whole tragedy is that the police think that the fires were probably started deliberately - how disgusting.
Do you want to do your little bit to help? Then please visit the toy society website. If you can make a softie/plushie/toy and send it to them, they will ensure that our toys get to those children who have nothing but the clothes they stand up in. A small, but important gesture that I'm sure will be appreciated. I'm making my monster today.

when the snow came...

I saw paw prints on the doorstepStevie had her first snow experienceStevie caught the snow flakes in her mouth and ate them!Mr Monda made a miniature snowmanLots of nice things about today:
the sound of fresh snow crunching under your boots
leaving work early (me)
being told not to go to work by your boss (Mr Monda)
a makeshift bird table being constructed in the back garden
throwing snowballs - but not really trying to hit the other person. laughing, a lot.
hot soup
rosy cheeks
warm gloves and scarf - fresh from the radiator
miniature snowmen

What was good about your day?

hello February, it's so nice to see you

It is mighty chilly here in the south of the UK. North of where we are it is snowing, and it is heading our way apparently. I love the snow - it doesn't really snow much here but I'm looking forward to seeing the smattering that we are forecast to get.

Despite the imminent snow, I have changed my wintry blog header from this:to this:I felt a change was needed - I've also made a few small changes to the rest of the blog too - an early spring clean if you will.

I've got a few commissions on at the moment - mainly for cards, but also for a softie, so I'm trying to work on these today. I've had quite a short weekend as I was at work yesterday. I do have 2 weeks off work coming up and aside from painting the spare room/studio I hope to have plenty of time to get back into making, designing and doing - something which I've done far to little of this year. My kitties and House projects are waiting patiently for me on my desk.
This is one of the cards I've made today. I enjoyed making this one - a birthday card for a little boy who will be one in a couple of weeks.Can I also take this opportunity to say 'goodbye January' and 'hello February'. Nothing against you really per say really January, but your February neighbour is just much more my cup of tea.

no words to describe this

my friend sent me this link a day or two ago. Apart from the amazing photography, you cannot help but be moved by the words. Check out the whole website - you can leave comments when you get to the end.

new toy

My new toy has arrived. As usual I didn't read the instructions, I just put the battery and memory card in and started taking pics. My new toy is a Nikon D40 digital SLR, and I really do need to read the manual, but with such willing subjects, how could resist the urge to snap away?Have you spotted a theme here?
I do like the soft brushed cottons which I have used to make this little kitty (it's still unfinished btw - paws and tail need to be sewn on) but it is much more difficult to hand sew compared to my fabric of choice - felted jumpers.
I've also worked up some kitties in paper - they are awaiting backgrounds and eventually framing

hello kitty

this kitty wip is the fruit of last weekends labour. It has moved on since this pic, and I'm quite excited about the resulting work that has arisen - no pics yet though, light doesn't permit sadly. I'm waiting for my new camera to arrive - so will experiment and take some pics of my kitties later this week.

tatty bye for now

Treasury Thursday

Woot Woot!

This week I have been featured in 2 Etsy treasuries. The pink theme seems to be carrying on as these are both pink treasuries. It's lovely to be included, especially as I have all but ignored my etsy shop in 2009. I must remedy that soon
I also receive a blog award from Woo of The devil makes work
I received the award for 'generally being lovely'. How nice, thanks for passing on the award Woo. I'm not going to pass it along to anyone however because I'm just being a bit of a rebel. I really do appreciate awards and that someone thinks I am award worthy, but I just like to break the rules too. I never passed on chain letters as a kid, and those emails from people telling me to 'forward this email on to 10 friends and an angel will send you a bunch of flowers' drive me bonkers. Instead I will send you to look at a couple of photography blogs I enjoy: My funny eye and How we say hello
The latter is a blog of great pics and guessing games - very good fun. Go on, have a look...

The great escape...

I saw this on the TV this evening. I loved fuzzy felt when I was a kid and I like the idea behind this too:



I feel I also need to clear up a little misunderstanding from my last post. Mr Monda didn't actually make the handmade bear, although he was very happy for people to believe this! He purchased it for me from a handmade stall at a Christmas market. Perhaps I need to have a softie making workshop with him - he's a very creative chap actually (he is a designer), but his sewing skills are not really that honed.

I've been to see the doctor this week. I have a yucky viral infection in my throat - it feels like there is something stuck in there. I'm also quite snotty and bunged up too. This has been simmering under the surface for some time and has finally surfaced. Antiseptic throat spray and vitamins are the remedy advised by the Doctor.

Something not advised by the doctor but highly recommended by me however (if you live in the UK), is treating your self to a Graze!I have mine delivered to work twice a week on a Tuesday and a Thursday (they get delivered by royal mail with your daily post), and these little boxes do a lot to cheer me up, as well as filling me up with healthy foods to graze on. My first box arrived this week and contained fresh pineapple slices, lemon salted almonds and a mix called 'aye carumba' which is cajun spiced seeds with goji berries and apricots. Take a look at the graze website - you can basically tell them what you would like to have delivered in your box by rating various foods, you can also tell them what you don't want too (I said no to everything with Chilli's in). I have no idea what will come in my box tomorrow but having a little pressie to yourself twice a week is great fun. The team behind Graze are concious of the environment too - all the packaging used is recycled, and the inks used in printing are vegetable based. At the moment, you can get a half price trial box for just £1.49. Try it, I bet you'll like it!

Blue Monday?

Today is Blue Monday - the most depressing day of the year apparently.

It is very easy to get bogged down in January isn't it. To say that I am feeling quite lack lustre at the moment is an understatement. I'm really trying hard not to get bogged down though, and I think planning and doing is the way forward. Well that's the theory anyway.

This Blue Monday makes me feel much happier:

I don't feel blue when I look at some of my recent purchases - I feel perfectly pink!
Some pink papers which I picked up at a newly opened craft shop in my local village, and some Laura Ashley fabric - a metre off cut for £1.75 - bargain!and how can you feel blue when you see this? This is a handmade bear which was a christmas gift from Mr Monda.

not such a blue Monday after all really!

looking back

Amongst the many things I like about blogging, one thing I'm particularly thankful for is having a record of what I have been doing, thinking and feeling. Yesterday I looked back to January last year, to do just that. A couple of things struck me:
I blogged quite a lot (probably more than I have of late),
I was quite productive on the creative front (more than I have been of late), and
I was struck by the January blues (yep - same as this year).
Having the January blues is not really a problem though is it, if it happens every year and it only lasts a few weeks. I'm Looking forward to February though :o)

One thing I did last year in January was started a little house embroidery - one of my most viewed and favourited (is that a real word?) pics on flickr. It amounted to absolutely nothing but was fun to do.
Without even meaning to - I've started another one, but this one has a destiny. Wip pic:
I consulted the random number generator, which picked Kate from paperleaf as the recipient of my little give away of those cool printed habitat tea towels. Kate, can you email me your snail mail address please and I'll get them in the post to you.

My mum is here, and she's going to teach me to crochet tonight. Wish me luck, I think I might need it.

making do

This weekend we did our first supermarket shop since Christmas. We had been putting if off through a combination of laziness and using up the odds and sods of food bought for the Christmas period. As a result, meals this last week were odd combinations of food and dishes devised of what I could find in the fridge, freezer and cupboards - just like in the old days, we were making do.
Speaking of the 'old days' Did anyone see Victorian Farm last week on BBC2? It's a 6 part documentary on 3 people who are living the life of Victorian farmers for a year. Last week (the first episode) was about learning to plough a field with horse drawn plough, making cider by crushing apples with a stone wheel, pickling and potting foraged food, and decorating and furnishing an old run down farm cottage. It really had me hooked and made me think quite a bit about how wasteful we are, and how we have such a throw away culture these days. With this is mind, today I made some Banana and Chocolate muffins (based on this recipe - I just used muffin cases instead on loaf tins) because I had 3 bananas in the fruit bowl which were very over ripe. I might have thrown these away if I hadn't watched Victorian farm earlier in the week.
These muffins are really tasty, come highly recommended by Mr Monda, and something I will be making again if my bananas get too ripe.

There's also still a couple of days left if you're interested in my give away - just drop a comment in my previous post.

a slow start and a telegramme!

Thanks for all the lovely comments and congratulatory wishes on my last post - I agree with all of your comments, a very nice way to start the new year.

I'm having a slow blogging start to 2009. This last week I have felt a bit bleugh - not really sick, but not feeling well either - somewhere in between. I don't think there is a name for this limbo state is there? Sick+Well=Sill perhaps? Under the weather is probably a better description. Speaking of weather it has been mighty chilly here, when I left work on Tuesday evening it was -3 brrrrr. I don't mind the cold so much really - I like to see frost lined branches on trees and feel the crispy grass crunching under my boots. Last night we had a freezing fog - everything looked totally eerie and creepy, it's amazing how certain weather can just make thinks look so different. I had to take a picture:We took our Christmas decorations down on twelfth night as per the tradition. No matter how many times we go through this, I am still surprised every year at how bare things look without decorations, and I almost feel the need to have something new to put in place of the decorations. Are you feeling bare without your decorations? Would you like something nice to fill that big empty void the decorations have left? Yes you say? great, you've come to the right place.
I've been in only 2 shops since Christmas to look at the sale items - I can't bear fighting with crazy ladies in clothes shops grabbing at all the bargains, so I went to Habitat where it was nice and calm. Last year Habitat commissioned Telegramme to design a range of home wares, some of which appeared in the sale. I picked out a couple of cotton tea towels with great prints, and because they were in the sale, I picked up a couple more to give away to my bloggy buddies.
If you would like this small gift from me to you, then please just drop me a comment in this post, anytime before Tuesday 13th Jan, I'll pick the winner at random.
I'm not sure what I'll do with mine as yet. The cotton is very good quality though - oh the possibilities!

a new year

2009 already, hasn't the last year just flown by. Happy New Year!
I'm very glad that I blogged to remember a few milestones of 2008. So much happened over the Christmas period, it would be hard to try and mention it all in this one post - one very memorable thing to happen on 31st December, was that Mr Monda asked me to marry him. It has only taken 12 years to reach this point, so obviously it took me a while to decide whether or not he was the right one for me. Eventually after a few seconds of decision making, I said yes. This proposal was not done on a whim mind you, he was well prepared - I received a plywood postable ring in the mail, and a little message asking me to be his 'proper missus'. Now, who said romance was dead?I'm not sure this ring will stand the test of time however, so I have been checking some designs by Chris Parry, as I really like his work.

Back at work tomorrow and back into something of a routine, which in a way will be nice, but I'd be lying if I said that I wouldn't just like just a bit more time off - at least to to adjust to those early mornings again.