at the seaside

This week I can mostly be found enjoying some of the summer sunshine and getting a good dose of much needed vitamin D at the English seaside.

We spent the whole day on the beach today. We built the biggest and most impressive sand castle(s), dipped our toes in the warm shallows (Mr Monda even swam in the sea), had a BBQ dinner of burgers and sausages in bread rolls with lots of ketchup and mustard, followed by a dessert of split bananas stuffed with chocolate buttons (cooked in foil over the embers). Lovely.

summer floral

Doesn't this look pretty:

This is a snapshot of my fave designs in the latest spoonflower comp.

I have to say, I really did have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this strict colour palette, and churned out many many designs before I reached one I was really happy with.
This is my final design:

I spent quite a while making new brushes in illustrator for the flower heads, and I was really pleased with them. Imagine my frustration then when my laptop battery wigged out and I hadn't saved it. Agh!
Thankfully, I had exported a portion of the design as a jpeg, but I have lost my custom brushes and almost can't bring myself to recreate them (and I'm not sure I could replicate them exactly anyway).
I've ordered a FQ of this and can't wait for it to arrive - it's been too long since I've seen my designs printed onto fabric.

Lesson to me: Save your work as you go along - seems so simple doesn't it.

all stitched up

They're finished. Phew! what a lot of work, but well worth it. They're going to go off to their recipients in the post now

past influences present

One of the things I'm noticing a lot more these days, is how print, illustration and pattern has been used in days gone by. As with most fashion styles, what goes around comes around, and it's easy to see how designers and makers now are influenced by past trends (me included).

my weekend finds:
I love the pattern on this plate

I can't find much out about when it was made - looks 60's/70's.

This book is also from the 60's

I'm loving the folksy patten on the top/smock the punch wears, and only bought the book because I like the illustrations.

This book was from the turn of the previous century. I can't find a date in it but it has a sticker pasted on the back which dates 1910 and would be consistent with the art deco pattern on the front

I wonder, when in the future people look back to the fashion and popular styles of today, what might be typical of this period in time?

granny's garden

The granny stripe is coming along slowly but surely. It's double size so each row is long . I've done 36 rows thus far and I'm guessing I'll need at least another 144 before it's complete. I'm only picking it up a couple of times a week at the moment, because there is so much other stuff to do in the evenings - like watering the garden and inspecting my crops - I'm making myself sound like a farmer here aren't I - far from it but I am growing more than I ever have before.
We have already eaten some home grown courgettes (zucchini), sugar snap peas, strawberries and we have lettuce and herbs coming out of our ears.

The tomato plants are like triffids, and have tiny little green tomatoes on them now and my indoor (greenhouse) cucumbers have tiny little fruits on them too. My outdoor cucumbers still need to grow before they can fruit and I'm on my second planting of carrots as the slugs demolished my last lot of seedlings - I guess they'll be ready in a couple of months now

It's frankly amazing how much something can grow in the space of a day. One day, it seems there is nothing, and the next day there is a fruit.

The rest of the garden is blooming too

Can you see the little spider hanging onto the lavender flower?

As an aside, does anyone remember playing granny's garden on the old BBC computers? This was my first exposure to a computer in secondary school (I must have been about 12). How times change.

en masse

I'm busying myself with my save the date cards for our wedding. Lots of printing, tearing, sewing and stitching going on en masse here:

There are still mop buttons to be hand sewn on to each one and the backing stitched on.

Very briefly, I spotted this pretty shadow at the weekend:

It was cast by the sun reflecting off the neighbours motorbike wing mirror into my kitchen windowsill and onto my wall. I almost wanted to get the paint out and just paint it in so it's there all the time.

Rightio, it's back to those cards for me - need to finish them by tomorrow - a self imposed deadline, but it's good to have one.

birdy

These stitched collages have been sitting on my desk for weeks waiting to go into my shop. They were on my desk as wips for many many (many) weeks beforehand, but as you can see they are complete now. You can find them here 

They are both made using layers of old envelopes, maps, journals, magazines and books and have been machine stitched

summer florals

Today I've been fooling around with some summer florals. Yellow is a colour I tend to avoid as a rule, but I'm seeing a few pretty yellows out there at the moment and find I'm much more inclined towards it:

boot sale booty

On sunday, my weekly boot fair adventure seemed like such a chore in the 29 degree heat. We wanted to do it quickly so me and Mr Monda decided to split up and do an isle each, meeting at the end of each isle to report that everything seemed to be pretty 'guff-a-loo-lah' (my new favourite phrase). It seemed like a waste of a perfectly good sunny morning until we spied these little beauties in the last isle:

I think it was a mum and daughter sales team, and the mum (who was probably in her 80's) was driving a hard bargain with me, probably because she didn't really want to let them go. She wouldn't take less than £5 for them so I put them down and was about to walk away when she asked me what I wanted to pay for them. £3 I said, £4 she said, and then we settled on £3.50.
It seems quite silly that these pretty little china cups (and a saucer) can make me feel so happy, but they do, so I'll have that. I know after the wedding, I won't be able to part with some of the pretties I have collected. I think we're going to need a bigger house.

sail away

I don't want to sound like a stuck record or anything, so I'll just shut up and show you my latest entry for the nautical themed spoonflower contest:

Click on image to enlarge

I had a dream

I remember my dreams quite vividly - and I do quite enjoy how my head invents the things it does.

My wedding is on my mind a lot at the moment. I've been collecting vintage china for quite a while now and almost have enough for the wedding - I just need a few more bits and bobs which I'm sure I'll pick up at boot fairs over the coming months, anyway I digress. I had a dream that I should draw some of my china, so I did:

I think I might pop up to that London tomorrow and visit the wemake summer fair. It will be nice to just be a visitor for change without the mad panic of having to get everything made, labelled and set up.

Summer Sale

It looks summer is finally here, and the shops are celebrating with a sale (any excuse).
The CK Sale starts today:

and if CK is not your cup of tea, the Habitat Sale also started this week:

I've already browsed the CK online store and didn't buy anything (I know, self restraint!). I'll be popping into my local habitat today for a spot of window shopping also.

busy bee, that's me

I'm just popping in quickly today - I have lots to do, which to be fair does include an interlude to watch the footy (come on England!) but I will crochet at the same time some it's not a complete waste of a hour and a half. I do hope we win - it would be so disappointing to be going home at this stage.

This is a little something I've been working on today - I'm thinking home furnishings - wallpaper, cushions, curtains etc. What would you call this colour? Looks like a muddy aubergine to me, or maybe mocha? I love it nonetheless:

Yesterday I made some rhubarb and vanilla jam. It only cost me the price of a bag a sugar, a vanilla pod and a lemon as the rhubarb was free from my sisters allotment - bonus. The jars I used were also recycled.
It's such an easy recipe, so I'm going to illustrate it and I'll pop it on here later in the week.
Enjoy the sunny day, whatever it is you might be doing.

weekend visitors

This weekend we had a couple of visitors in the form of my nephews. Look at the little suitcases! They are such little dudes.

 

We kept them pretty busy, we made wooden spoon puppets, played football, went to the park, watched wallace and grommit, ate pizza and picked strawberries. It was a jam packed weekend, but one of the best things we did, was to make t-shirts.
We had one pack of iron on crayons (£1) and two t-shirts (75p each) all from Asda.
We drew our designs onto tracing paper, then coloured them in using the crayons. When they designs were done, I ironed them onto the t-shirts, and voila.
This one was designed and coloured by my 4 year old nephew (i love it):

and this one was drawn my me but coloued in by my 2 year old nephew:

This was the best fun and the boys loved their new t-shirts, and for £2.50 - what a bargain!

save the date

I'm playing with my save the date cards, which are not cards at all but tags. I'm going for a vintage and handmade feel - which will echo the style of the wedding itself.
This is the first attempt - it needs tweaking but I'm pretty happy with it: