a bit of everything

I'm an erratic blogger at the moment. I have plenty to blog about but can't seem to find the time (or energy) to do it, which kind of defeats the point a bit. So this post is a mish mash, a bit of everything that happened during my last week.

I received a huge bunch of flowers at work on Tuesday - they are very pretty, and were an early birthday gift from Mr Monda:

My birthday was on Wednesday. I had a really nice day - I took the day off work, slept in and pottered about in my PJ's, opening cards and pressies. My sis and nephew surprised me with a visit too. At the time I was in the bathroom and I had no idea they were standing outside waiting for me. I'm pleased to say that I wasn't naked when I came out of the bathroom (more for my nephews sake) but they did catch me singing the ever so catchy advert theme tune 'moonpig.com'! We all went out to lunch, and then in the afternoon I went to the cinema with Mr Monda to watch 'The Wolfman'. A good film, but I found myself hiding in my scarf at times - there were a few jumpy moments.
I had some great cards:

 

  

  

 

I especially like the hand drawn card from my nephews, which is me apparently in the new jumper they had bought for me :o)

My sis made me this very pretty hat (from an original 1920's pattern). Yes, that is me, looking very tired in the pic:

 

 

 I also have some matching wristlets and a scarf on the way too. So in all in, a nice way to celebrate 34 years.

We don't really celebrate valentines day as a rule - it's all very commercial and the sentiment seems to get lost somewhat in all the fluff and red roses. You shouldn't need a special day to to say 'I love you', but any occasion that warrants a handmade card gets my vote. This is the one I made for Mr Monda this year:

and this is the one he gave me:

We often behave like a pair of monkeys so this was quite apt.
Brunch today was scrambled egg on toast - the ever so classy tomato ketchup heart is a regular feature for our Sunday breakfast/brunch meal

My mum also celebrates her birthday this coming week - I finally got my butt in gear and finished the trio of crocheted scarves for her - I hope she likes them, and if not, well they do go quite nicely with my cord jacket don't they!

vintage treasures

I've collected a few more vintage treasures recently - all of which I bought with a (sort of) purpose. I'm finding myself really drawn to and fascinated by anything that has a bit of history - old postage stamps, knitting/sewing patterns, postcards, doilies...

These postcards were sent in 1928 and 1931, to Dear Little Bobbo - I wonder who Bobbo was?
I was really drawn to the illustrations. The illustrator of both postcards was Mabel Lucie Attwell - you can read more about her here

I'm pleased we've moved out of January into February. I'm feeling a little more inspired with my creative work but not finding an awful lot of time for it. My thoughts are quite occupied with ideas for the BIG day, which is still a year away yet! I've started another blog where I can scrapbook ideas and thoughts.

on photography, part II

Last weekend, I was making a couple of new brooches. One was a gift, but I wanted to photograph it anyway to have a record and visual memory. It was late afternoon when I did this, so the light was not really at it's best. The pics below show my process of what it took to get a like for like (ish) image.
Fist pic - taken inside on my desk with my standard desk lamp. way too dark, and way too yellow
Second pic - taken outdoors. Way too cold and way too blue
Third pic - taken indoors with small photography lamps (a recent acquisition). Much more true to life but still not quite right (maybe I'm being too self critical). As you can see by the pic below, this one was taken on the dining table (please avert your eyes from the minging wallpaper - believe me, this was not the worst decoration in the house when we moved in, and is hence the last room to get decorated). I think the result would have been better with a white covering on the wall and table to reflect the light around instead of soaking it up.
This morning I've taken a couple of pics inside as it's a nice bright morning. These have come out ok too (I think). I especially like the jelly beans.It's a hard thing this photography malarky.

btw, thanks for all your recent comments and well wishes, I'm feeling much less bleugh than I have been. I won't be sad to see the back of January though, bring on February, a whole better month entirely.

on photography

Occasionally I take a picture that I'm very happy with, but for every one great moment, atmosphere, story or occasion I capture, there are countless more that are badly framed, badly lit, or I find myself unable to capture the beauty that I can see with my naked eye. I could happily spend a good few hours on flickr soaking up the wealth of interesting images, colours, textures, moments...

The following few photos were take by my dad, who has taken photos both professionally and personally for many years. When I look at these they evoke quite an emotion in me - I really think he really has captured the moment in each of these pics. I think they are amazing. I wonder if I would enjoy them so much if they had been taken by anyone other than my dad? What do you think?My conclusion: Photography is a skill not to be underestimated.
I'm also on the look out for a photographer to capture the moment on 29th January 2011 - the BIG day, I think they call it!

and the bleugh goes on...

Not the most upbeat post from me today I'm sad to say. I have a really stinky cold - my nose is red and sore, I'm coughing and sneezing, my nose is bunged up so I can only breath through my mouth, and the worst, worst, worst thing is that I cannot taste anything. I do question the point of eating if you can't taste anything - it's just no fun.
I realise that I need my vitamins a plenty at the moment however, so today I made a fruit smoothie containing almost every piece of fruit I could find in the house, and I've made a big pan and vegetable soup for tea tonight - to feed the cold, as they say.
I haven't been feeling terribly creative at all this weekend - I've just put a few ideas into the mental sketchbook.
Something I have been picking up and putting down sporadically is a little bit of hooking - a pressie for my mum's birthday in February:On the topic of hooking, if I was to make a new years resolution (which I'm not by the way) then I'm quite determined to increase my hooking skills this year - I want to make a ripple blanket, and maybe have a go at amigurumi too - not least to make use of the really cool book I got from my sister for Christmas:

just getting on with it

I find January to be such a bleugh month. Christmas is such a nice time with so much happening and then January rears it's ugly head and sends you right back to normalville. I don't feel very motivated to do anything - my day job, the housework, cooking, making... Thankfully I just know that this is a symptom of January, and that it won't last.
I've been indulging in some much needed retail therapy to get me through such tough times (a tad too dramatic perhaps?). I've been spending the Amazon vouchers I recieved at Christmas time on some lovely new books with pretty pictures to inspire me. We have also bought ourselves a new mattress - not a luxury but a necessity - we've had our old one for over 10 years and a sign of this is the countless nights of late I've ended up sleeping on the sofa because it is more comfortable than the bed! Buying a mattress is a mine field though, there is so much choice these days. I'm not ashamed to admit I was fished in by the Silent night hippo and chick - they just appealed to meOf course we have had a little bit of excitement in the form of a snow covered UK this last week I do like snow, but driving to work on snowy icy roads is a bit scary. I also realised that I don't own appropriate snow footware, so shopped around on line for a new pair of wellies. The wellies have not arrived yet so I hope we get a bit more snow so I can test drive them properly!

A little bit of creativity this weekend came in the form of this doggy Birthday card. I do like a spotty dog!

Jme

Do you actually like trawling through the January (December) sale racks in the shops?, No me neither. As a young whipper snapper, I LOVED to go and grab a bargain but these days I just can't be bothered with it - it's too much like hard work and frankly other things are more important.
Just before Christmas I discovered the new online Jamie Oliver shop Jme. Wow - this totally appeals to me. I didn't buy anything at the time, but just oggled at all the lovely homewares/kitchen items I'd like to have in my dream house. The branding is very nice too, very craft/graphic/homemade style.At the weekend I accidentally stumbled upon the Jme shop again, and luckily they are having a sale. This is the kind of sale shopping I do like - shopping from the comfort of my sofa! I placed an order on Sunday and it arrived today - well packaged, and the quality of everything I bought was outstanding. I really cannot recommend it highly enough.I bought some Christmas cards, tags, tissue paper, cooks and gardeners crackers and a tea towel - I went mad and of course will be squireling away most of this for next Christmas! The calendar is lovely - printed on really high quality card stock, and is really nice to look at too (it's just £5).
They've added some more items to the sale pages since I shopped so it's definitely worth taking a look. There is also free postage if you spend over £35.

The best thing of the day: seeing a few snowflakes falling, and knowing there is more on the way.
The worst thing of the day: finding out the fridge door had been left open all day when I got home from work tonight, and smelling the stinky (but tasty, but stinky) Camembert that has been lurking in the fridge.

chrimbo limbo

I heard the phrase 'Chrimbo Limbo' on the radio yesterday and I quite liked it - Chrimbo Limbo is a phrase used to describe the redundant time between Christmas and new year. I'm not really feeling the Chrimbo Limbo feeling however as I just haven't had chance to stop over the last week.
We spent Christmas day and Boxing day with my sis, her hubby and her boys. The boys are a joy, both full of the magic of christmas, hyperactive because they'd eaten too many sweets, and had so many presents they didn't know what to play with first. This is how Christmas should be in my book. We had a great time.
I had lots of great pressies too - will share some pics at a later date though.
We were then home for a day before heading up to North Wales to see my parents - the nice thing was that that whole family was there, and everyone knows how difficult it is to get an entire family in one room these days, especially when they are spread out across the country. It's worth making the effort though - building the memory bank for a time when inevitably there won't be the opportunity for everyone to be together. It snowed up there yesterday so I snuck out into the garden to take some pics. The little robin here was looking right at me:
Aside from making Christmas cakes to give as gifts, mince pies to give as gifts and infused vodka to give as gifts I haven't done any Christmas cooking - I think it will be my turn next year. I'm presently busy making a non too festive cauliflower curry, recipe here

I spotted this little festive new year garland idea today over on the purl bee and thought I would share. I sadly won't have the time to make one, but I'll keep it in the bank for a later date!It's fair to say that I won't blog again between now and the new year, so would just like to wish everyone a very happy and prosperous new year, and say thanks to my supportive and lovely blog buddies - if you're reading this, then that means you.

2009, over and out.

here comes the snow

As I sit here and type, we have quite a snow flurry coming down - there are no cars on the road outside so the snow is undisturbed - just a crisp, cold, white covering as far as the eye can see. I love the snow, and it certainly feels quite festive in the approach to Christmas.

I've had a lovely day today. It's Mr Monda's b'day so we both took the day off work just to have a lie in, and a potter about, a trip to the cinema and something nice to eat. We wrapped a few pressies and wrote a few Christmas cards and just generally had a nice relaxing day.
We also bought these 2 Christmas singles today, because we are feeling festive:




I don't watch the X-factor, and I do quite like the idea of having a non X-factor number one. I haven't purchased rage against the machine just yet (I already have it actually) but I might. It's currently in the number one spot on iTunes :o)

Lastly, I used the random number generator which picked Claire Hurd as the recipient of my little giveaway. Claire, I'll pop your goodies in the post soon.
Now I'm just hoping the snow might stay around long enough to snow my car in so I can't possibly get out to go to work tomorrow. I would LOVE to stay at home and build a snowman instead.

sneaking up on us

Every year I promise myself to to be more organised at Christmas time, and every year I feel like I'm so behind with things. This feeling is probably not helped by the horrible lurgy I had last week - a full on cold with headache, sore and aching body, sneezing, tickly cough, chesty cough, blocked nose, running nose and plenty of mucus. nice. It really wiped me out for a good week but I'm back on the way up now thankfully.

My Handmade Christmas flickr group is filling up very nicely. I've picked out a few of my faves to share with you. If you've made some Christmas themed goodies, I'd love to see them in the group pool.
1. all hanging!, 2. Crocheted flower ornament, 3. christmas ball, 4. hello pear, 5. Untitled, 6. Snowflake Crochet Pillow, 7. Christmas Star Stocking - Detail, 8. robin, 9. Felt Gingerbread Biscuits // Star group

Now, because Christmas is all about giving, I've put together a little freebie. It's just a small package, but contains some nice bits, including one of these:If you'd like to partake, please leave me a comment on this blog post by midday on Thursday 17th Dec, and I'll draw the recipient randomly. The freebie will only arrive before Christmas if you live in the UK though (although feel free to enter if you live outside of the UK).

just flown in...

18 birds have just flown into my etsy shop - they are sold in packs of 3 as pictured below:

Christmas future, but no ghosts, I promise

If you're looking for something to do for the next couple of weekends, you could always pop over to the very lovely town of Henley on Thames for a spot of handmade Christmas shopping.

For the geographically challenged amongst you, you can take a peek into the new and ever so exciting Handmade Christmas flickr group and post a pic or two, or just feast on the festive eye candy. I know, I know, I'm so good to you.and lastly, if you fancy a pre Christmas treat for yourself, then you must buy this book : the pictures alone do it for me, but the recipes also look fab. On Sunday I'll be making a Delia Christmas cake.

crazy sewing

I'm finishing my last few bits to take to Handm@de Oxford on Sunday. I'm really looking forward to it, despite all the frantic last minute stress of making.
I've really been a hive of production this last few weeks (nothing like a deadline to get you going is there) so if you do come along on Sunday, I'll be the one looking extra tired. I wonder if everyone at the fair has had a crazy last minute making frenzy? Perhaps we'll all be looking extra tired.

This week I've made some phone/ipod cosies. They were pretty popular last year. This year, they feature my freehand machine embroidered birds:My wares will also be sporting new cards - I had a moo delivery this week:I also received another delivery this week - all the way from Dallas. I'm going to make a Christmas garland out of these delicate crocheted snowflakes:I wish I had made them, but I just don't have the time to learn at the moment. If you want to be lazy like me, you can purchase them from etsy here.

Rightio, I'm back off to sew a few more Christmas decorations whilst Mr Monda is busy making the dinner - how nice.

red and white

I know it's only 20th November but Christmas has been happening here for the last few weeks. The rest of this post is brought to you by the colours red and white:Still madly preparing for handm@de Oxford on 29th Nov. Will you be coming along?

a little bit of black and white was also quite intrigued by the arrival of the tree:

I'm still here, and have WIP

Looks like I went dark for a while there. I'm still here - just busy preparing for my upcoming craft fair and showcase so been spending less time with hands on the keyboard and more time with a needle in my hands.
Today, I've been sewing some festive red and white Christmas decorations: and a few more of these cheeky little monsters: