red, white and blue

I'm really loving this red white and blue combo. I made this cushion last night - a very quick (read 'slap dash') affair where nothing was measured. I just cut, pinned and stitched my way along merrily. The back of the the cushion is some lovely soft cotton - our much loved old duvet and pillow case set. The duvet was so well loved, it had one little worn patch which was forming a hole, so my fabric stash got a boost and subsequently this cushion got a back. I'm toying with the idea of some red buttons to finish it off - or perhaps a little appliqué. What do you think? I have another 3 to make this week, and will choose slightly different fabrics each time.

My little valentines envelope and Amy's tutorial were featured on scrapscene recently. How nice!

Springing

Things are definitely springing around these parts. Yesterday we had a day out with my nephews here. It was a great day, mostly sunny with a bit of a chilly wind occasionally. The boys were very brave and fed the sheep and the goats from their hands, and on the subject of goats, I'm amazed how much goats cheese smells like goats! I suppose it makes sense really.
We saw a lamb being born, something I've never witnessed before. It all happened very quickly, and within a matter of minutes the lamb was up on it's feet getting some milk from it's mother - amazing really.

Today has been a glorious sunny day. Sadly I was at work - I do occasionally have to work at the weekends. Mr Monda captured some of the spring goodness whilst I was stuck indoors. We have a huge cherry tree right outside our house - in the last week it has just started to blossomThis next pic is of the new growth of a great little tree that grows in our front garden - a house warming present from my mum. It is commonly called a 'flamingo tree' and less commonly called salix hakuro nishiki. It has amazing foliage - which is sometimes cream, sometimes pink and sometimes pale green. The branches are always a reddy colour like flamingo legs, I guess.

The cats were also out enjoying the nice weather today, so they also got papped

There was just enough light left when I got home to take some inspiration pics for my latest little project I'm making cushions, but I do also fancy having a go at a strips and bricks quilt like the one featured in the April edition of sew hip magazine:Of course, all I need to whip this up is an extra few hours in each day. sigh.

self maintanance

In the last few weeks, I have had quite a few trips to the doctor and hospital. This year I turned 33, and it has occurred to me that I really need to start taking care of myself.
I get run down easily, which in a way surprises me a little, as I do eat very well and try to get my vitamins and minerals from healthy foods but I know my big downfall is that I just don't get enough exercise, and I need to remedy this. I don't think I'm lazy but I'm just not compelled to exercise - I wish I was. I don't know what my plan is yet, but I know I need a plan.

What I have been compelled to do however is have a smear test. The thought of going through this process is not a nice one, but with the recent press coverage of Jade Goody - who is dying of cervical cancer - it really brings home the importance of being tested. Life is for living, and I want to do this, and not ever have to regret that I didn't because I hadn't been for a slightly embarrassing and mildly uncomfortable test every couple of years.
I also have PCOS - quite common, apparently 1 in 5 women have this, but I don't want it, because I'd quite like to have children and it's just a bit harder if you have PCOS. So I've had all manner of blood tests and ultrasound examinations to try and get a picture of how bad this is, and how best to treat it. Of course, healthy eating and exercise will help.
I have to say that I feel better, albeit mentally for the moment, for treating myself to an MOT. I don't need to spend any more time with all these things in the back of my mind - leaving more room for creative expression, in whatever form that may take. Today, it's a photo. Enjoy

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.