AWOL

I've been awol from my blog this week. A combination of things have kept me away, but nothing massively exciting I'm sad to say, just the usual everyday stuff. I'm feeling much better now - the thorat infection is now happily yesterdays news.
As well as my day job, I've been having a stab at some freelance design work, and it seems to be going ok - sadly no pics of finished designs allowed though - here's a sneaky peek
It's starting to feel quite spring like around these parts. In the last week daffodils have started sprouting in and around the local area. It's this time of year, every year, that I think 'I wish i'd planted some bulbs in the winter'. I popped into a local food place on the way home from work last night and picked up 2 bunches of daffs for the house. They stared out on the kitchen windowsill - until some of them made their way to these glass bottles, which until yesterday were covered in dust in the deepest darkest back of a cupboard, filled with out of date alchopop! A quick wash and spruce up, and voilà. Pretty. Please don't look too closely at the windows - yes they do need cleaning!
I've got a lot on my agenda for the weekend but decided to take it easy today. I've been pottering around, taking pics, doing a bit of baking and catching up on emails and the like. A spot of homemade afternoon tea was in order - salmon and cucumber, and cheddar and marmite sandwiches, followed by homemade scones with jam and clotted cream. Drool worthy and ever so indulgent for a lazy Saturday afternoon. Perfect
Last weekend, I saw my sis and my nephews. My sis is a pretty clever lady in the knitting dept - she knitted hats for both of her boys and they kindly let me do a photoshoot - quite a miracle for little ones, as they usually try to yank the hats off the minute you put them on. This was hilarious actually, because they both laughed a lot during the shoot (I sound like a pro!) and the result of that was some really great photos. This is one of my faves, it just makes you smile doesn't it. They are such lovely characterful boys
This is turning out to be a post of epic proportions. Note to self - blog more often to avoid writing massive posts. Will I learn? Probably not.

oh dear

Oh dear. I seem to have bought some more fabric - for no particular reason you understand, just because. I know I'm not alone with this bad habit of mine. Do you need a fix? Feast your eyes on this:
Oh dear. I went to the Doctor today and as I suspected, my throat infection is back again with a vengeance. The doctor felt my throat and exclaimed 'ooh swollen!'. Yes swollen indeed. When she looked in my mouth she exclaimed again 'red raw and I can see some ulcers too'. Tell me about it, I thought, but of course I was too polite to say this, she was a nice doctor after all. So I have a course of antibiotics, and a very sore and swollen throat. It hurts to swallow and to eat. Chocolate is especially painful, this is a terrible disaster. I hope these antibiotics take effect quickly.

I've been scrapblogging

I found this website today. It's basically virtual scrapbooking, and because it's virtual you can achieve results very quickly. All the images I used to create this page were free (although you can buy images too)You can also import your own pics from flickr, and export the finished designs back into flickr. The site is quite intuitive (no I didn't read any instructions). Some of the images/backgrounds and elements are really not my cup of tea but it is a good fun to do and a good creative waste of time :o)
I did another one - I was going for a different look, but somehow the colours turned out very similar. I have a leaning towards pinks - very true if you see my fabric stash. And there was me thinking that I wasn't a very girly girl!

cashmere kitty

from the monda studio (read 'spare room') comes the softest, warmest, strokiest cashmere grey kitty that ever there was. Grey kitty is currently on a train bound for my Folksy shop. The train is due in at the end of the week.

I was back at work today after having 2 weeks at home. Much was accomplished in those few weeks - some things which are secret projects, and some things which are mid way through. It just goes to show how much can be done in a day. That's not to say that I don't do a lot in a day at work, but it's just a different way of working - a completely different mindset and routine. I got home just before 6 this evening and was so tired I couldn't face doing anything creative which is a bit of a bummer given my recent daily creative flow.

I'll leave you with an inspiration pic I took for some of my secret work:

swap goodness

Thanks for all the nice comments on my last post - the doll is indeed Vicky the Viking. Vicky is apparently a boy - although with a girls name and a dress. This confused me massively as a child. Maybe is was just preparation for the real world :o)

I have received two lots of swap goodness in the last week, both from swaps organised by Katy. First is from Hoola Tallulah for the Russian doll swap from last year. This didn't take 8 months to get here, although you would be forgiven for thinking the post could be that bad - Tallulah was due to have her baby around the time of the swap so this package was somewhat delayed, but well worth the wait - look at all that beadwork, so pretty. The package also contained chocolate (mmm) and some great vintage print fabric pieces.

My second swap package was from Shari of sew make time! This was part of Katy's fat quarter swap. Shari sent me 3 fq's in bright vintage prints and some trim. I don't own many yellow fabrics so this was really a good addition to my stash - a perfect stash swapage indeed :o)
so that's the eye candy over, now check out this ear candy (can you say that, it sounds weird doesn't it). This is used on a TV ad for washing liquid in the UK and it's a lovely tune:
Lisa Mitchell - Neopolitan Dreams

such a headache!

Here is the doll that has caused me such a headache these last few days. I've never made a doll before. I didn't use a pattern and it was very much a case of trial and error - quite a few errors in fact! The thing I found most difficult was making the doll look like the character it is supposed to look like. I'm worried that it looks a bit like a character from Coraline. In itself this would not be a problem (I'm itching to see this film) but it wasn't quite the look I was going for :o)
Anyone want to make a stab at the name of this character? at least this way I'll know if it does actually look like the character!

miaow

From left to right, meet bushfire billy (on his way to Australia), Portia, and Caroline (now living with my mum in North Wales). Portia will be heading for one of my shops soon, along with a couple of other friends.

This last couple of days I have been tearing my hair out making a doll that was commissioned by a work colleague. It was the least enjoyable and most difficult thing I have made to date. The doll is one from a kids TV programme from when I was young. Initially I loved the idea (hence why I agreed to make it) but it really turned out just to be a complete nightmare and took the best part of 2 days to make. I'll post some pics tomorrow...

6th Picture

Kate from Paperleaf tagged me to:
'open the 6th picture folder on your computer, open the 6th photo and blog it. Write something about it. Then tag 6 more people to do the same'

Here is my pic:This was taken in 2002 in Berner Oberland, Switzerland, and the man in the pic is my Dad. On this day, we hiked up to the very top of a mountain (1955 m high) the only thing there was this hut - called the 'lobhorn hut'. The hut is manned for about 8 months of the year. They serve food here (amazing really for a wooden hut at the top of a mountain) and the hut also serves as accommodation for hardcore hikers (not me). The views were pretty spectacular - the mountains in the background are the Eiger and Jungfrau. I found the walk down much more enjoyable than the walk up mind you :o)

It was fun to revisit this pic after such a long time. I'm not going to pass this one along though as I've seen it in blogland for a long time so I'm sure most have done it already. If you haven't, then please play along, and show us all your random pictures from your photo archives.

love letters straight from my... sewing machine

On Friday last week, I followed this tutorial over on the Lucykate Crafts Blog , and made a valentines gift for Mr Monda. I'm not really one for the whole valentines thing - but I quite liked the idea of making an envelope for my handmade card. I like the way it turned out (there is also our postcode stitched on the bottom too - but I fuzzed it out in the photo)For true authenticity I dropped it on the doormat before the postman came. The rest of the mail was delivered shortly afterwards and Mr Monda collected it, saw the handmade letter and just laughed at the genius of at all - what a perfect response.

I have a mountain of work to do this week (my second week off work). I was planning to paint our spare room/studio, but I'm not sure that I will have time. I made a to do list at the beginning of last week and have not managed to do nearly as much as I had hoped as I keep getting distracted by other things which were not on the list, but still need doing.

I have lots of blog fodder for this week too. I may just have to blog every day this week in order to cram it all in.

on it's way to Aus

This little kitty is on it's way to Australia - for the toy society bushfire appeal. I hope he will find a nice friend to live with :o)

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.