eek!

I think my last picture heavy post may have killed my blog. I can't seem to view my own blog any more? Anyone else having problems?

***Edit - a new post seems to have fixed the problem. Phew. Perhaps that was all it needed - you know, like the classic IT fix 'turn it off, and turn it on again'. ***

Happy Halloween by the way :o)

Obidos and Lisbon

Whilst I was in Portugal, we went to a old town called Obidos (pronounced obby-dosh I think) - a walled citadel with a castle right at the top. All the houses were really olde rendered stone, the pavements were stone cobbles. I took lots of pictures - mainly colour palette inspiration:
Also took a few pictures of some street art in Lisbon:

Today's post is brought to you by the letter T

T is for Treasury. Woohoo! a second etsy treasury in a week, thanks for picking me Emma. (Emma, you have become my advertising and PR agent! ) As a result of this, 22 new people hearted me today, which is really niceT is for Tag - as In, I've been tagged, also by Emma (my new agent)
I need to tell you 7 things about me, so here goes:

1. Blue is my favourite colour, although if you looked in my wardrobe you won't find much in the way of blue clothes. You would however find lots of pinks (usually fuschia pink).

2. My favourite thing to eat in the entire world is tomatoes. I will never be bored of these.

3. I have had an idea for a children's book in my head for the last few years. I know the story - I just need to write it and get my act together to illustrate it.

4. My real name is not Monda, although these days I refer to myself as Monda more often than my real name. The name Monda comes from my childhood nickname.

5. I really enjoy going to bed - I love sleeping, duvets, pyjamas and being cosy. Despite my love of bed, I am more of a morning person as opposed to an evening person/night owl.

6. I can't look at a wool jumper in a shop, or even on a person without thinking of it as something I could felt and make into something else. I am totally obsessed!

7. I am allergic to lots of things - pollen, smoke, dust, perfume, deodorant, pets (my lovely cats!), and wool jumper dust (when I cut them up). Never a day goes by that I don't sneeze. Despite all this, I do wear deodorant and perfume, I do stroke my cats until my eyes are red and sore, and I love cutting up felted wool jumpers! (I definitely don't smoke though - yuk!)

rules ...link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog; share 7 facts about yourself on your blog; tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs; let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog...

I am now tagging Jodie, Lu, Lauren, Lucy, Famapa, Lara and Jo

T is also for Travel. I've just got back from a rather nice 4 day break in Portugal. It was warm and sunny each day we were there, very much unlike the UK it seems. I took lots of pictures of my travels, some of which I will share later this week. This is just a small flavour of my break:I have a big stack of emails waiting to be responded to, so please bear with me if you have emailed me and not had a response as yet - hopefully I will manage to catch up in the next couple of days.

random

Thanks to the lovely Emma, for letting me know that one of my little chicks has made it into an etsy treasury, Most exciting! and its a lovely treasury to be included in too:The title of this post is a bit, well random, but that's because I have a few random things to share.
A potato with eyes! I had to take this picture - this potato was destined not to become mashed potato:I also really liked this when I saw it. Bird prints in the sand. It has given me some ideas for an embroidery at some point in the future (when I have less craft fair pressure).

what is it?

A coral reef perhaps?
nope, it's a flock of upside down bird decorations!

what is it worth?

In the current financial climate, you can't help but think about what your work is worth. Ultimately, I suppose it is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

I cost my work based on cost of materials used and time taken (and my hourly rate is really only calculated at minimum wage - because if it was priced any higher then I'm pretty sure I wouldn't sell anything at all). I do also look at similar products on the market just to check that I am in the right kind of price bracket but this is when things become very difficult, because you want to price your products to sell without under valuing your self, but they shouldn't be so highly priced that no one will buy them.

Take this card for instance. I enjoyed making it. All in all it took me an hour - give or take a few minutes. I made it as a commission and sold it for £5.

£5 is quite a lot for a card - it is of course handmade - paper cut, hand stamped and machine stitched. Minimum wage is £5.73 per hour (for workers over 22), so the cost of the card does not cover minimum wage, let alone the cost of the materials - which would be minimal I'm sure, but the real value of this card should really be more like £6.50.
I wonder how easy it would be to make a living if I did this (crafting not card making) full time?

My ultimate goal would be to start slowly - working part time in order to pay my bills each month, until such a point comes where I could work for myself full time and have enough to pay my bills and live comfortably. It seems so ridiculous to even be thinking about this at the moment. I heard today that inflation is at an all time high of 5.2% this year, which is much higher than the national average annual pay rise - a meagre 3%.

Apologies for this gloomy sounding post - just spilling the contents of my head really.

On a much lighter and fluffier note - here are some birds I am currently sewing up:

Origin - The London Craft Fair

It was only a couple of days ago that I realised that it was that time of year again, so despite having a massive to do list, yesterday I went into the big smoke to Origin at Somerset House.
I always enjoy Origin (used to be Chelsea Craft Fair) - there are some really inspirational makers and crafts people exhibiting each year. This year, I particularly liked the work of Lucy Adamson (no website):Jane Moore: and Hanne Rysgaard:I did actually buy some of Lucy's and Hanne's work but will save the pics for another day as I didn't manage to get any decent pics today.
Origin is on for a further week (although with different exhibitors in week 2) if you fancy a visit. Somerset house is a really lovely location too - especially when the sun is shining as it was yesterday.

I did manage to get a couple of pics of some new stockings I have made however - I've had the purple sparkly jumper for some time and hadn't really found anything good to do with it, until nowThe green and pink one kind of reminds me of rhubarbIt's late, but I have a stack of bird decorations on my desk calling my name...

stocking up!

pardon the pun.
It's so hard to get decent photo's when there is no natural light, but I managed to snap this one when I got home from work today - it still needs some trimmings, but it's almost there.
I must mention at this point that this stocking is from a Betz White pattern - just before you go thinking that I'm really clever.
Just for comedy value, I tried it on for size - you'll be pleased to know that it was way too big for my foot - Mr Monda thought I was attempting to make an Inuit fancy dress costume :o)
I have 2 more stocking wips waiting for me on my desk which I would like to finish up before the weekend, so more pics to come...

trees and towers

Don't fall off your seats people - I am indeed blogging on a Monday. My recent form of weekend blogging may well just be behind me - I'm coming to the end of my manically busy period at work and I may just have a bit of energy left on week nights for making - which is a relief because i have a to do list as long as Mr Monda's arm - which is much longer than my arm, but really it could be as long as both our arms put together!

The lighting was shocking yesterday, but I did manage to get a snap of some of the tree's that I madeI've also made a start on some of these - pictures tomorrow perhaps if I can get them finished up tonight.

On a slightly different note, if you were in Vienna this weekend (unlike me) then you may well have seen this:A world record breaking LEGO tower - all 29.48 metres of it. Cool indeed (click on the pics for more detail)

multi-tasking

Today I have been multi-tasking. I have way too much going on in my head - and the best way for me to cope with this is obviously to do a little bit of everything all at the same time.

Here are a couple of jumper monsters which I have made for a commission (pre stuffing) - they are already on their way to their new home The spotty monster was commissioned as a baby gift for a friend - I'm not sure whether it is for the parents or the baby - but had to make sure it was baby friendly - so no buttons and nothing that can be chewed off. I was asked for an Indian theme as the baby was made in India! I decided to go for colours that reminded me of Indian spices - and a tag on the reverse - just so there is no confusionI've also been drawing up some Christmas card designs for gocco-ing and have drawn up a few Christmas themed hanging accessory designs tooThe first of which has already been made into this treeI have also been thinking about my upcoming fairs, and how I might display my items for sale. This 'tree' was purchased this week. It even revolves - how swanky!I'm now preparing a load of hanging Christmas tree accessories for hand sewing this evening whilst watching 'strictly' - oh yes - it is that time of year again. I love watching this - it makes me get goosebumps when someone has danced a really good dance. In another life, I like to think that I might have been a dancer.

the sofa and the studio

That title sounds like it should be a book or a film.
Apologies now to anyone who doesn't find this remotely interesting, but my new sofa arrived today. When it was installed (?) into the lounge it looked huge - much bigger than it had seemed in the sofa shop, and I looked at Mr Monda and said, 'what shall we do' and he said 'nothing we can do' and that solved the matterMuch to Mr Monda's annoyance we need to move the lounge around to fit the chair in which is currently residing in the hall. He is annoyed by this because in all my wisdom I told him that we needed the rearrange the lounge yesterday to accommodate our new sofa, when if fact we should have left it where the old one was as it would have fitted much better. Humble pie - I'll have an extra helping please! Of course we do now also need to decorate the lounge so that our new sofa has a stylish home to live in.

The studio cum spare room is going to be a big job. I need to spend a good few days in there to get it organised. This is a before pic for the sake of being able to look back when I have finished it It is actually much less messy than this now, although this is just a temporary fix. A trip to Ikea for good storage solutions is definitely on the cards very soon.

the weekend blogger?

I am becoming a weekend blogger - not really by choice and I don't think it was last forever, but weekends are the only time I seem to have to blog at the moment.

When I woke up this morning it was a really misty morning, and quite eerie outside - It was really quiet too. I popped outside with the camera and took lots of pictures of spider webs. I think I may have frightened the postman in my black PJ bottoms, blue hoodie and bright pink slippers, not to mention my bed head and unwashed face!
The spider webs were literally everywhere you look. They are probably always there at this time of year but we never see them unless they are fresh with morning dew, helped along by the mistat 8.30am I was reading some emails, and making a start on my blogger reading list - after this the plan for the day was to make a start on my 'to do' list, especially as the 2 fairs that I am taking part in are rapidly approaching.
At 9.10am I got a call from the shop where I purchased my sofa to tell me they were ready to deliver tomorrow (i.e.Sunday). I was really shocked for a couple of reasons - we were told it would take 7-10 days, but imagined this would be more like 3-4 weeks, as these type of things usually take longer than you are told they will take. It had only been 7 days since we bought it! Wow! I was also really shocked because we still had both of our old sofa's and hadn't arranged for them to be taken away yet. eek. My plans for the day were well and truly scuppered.

Today we have spent the day dismantling the sofa - we had to dismantle it as we live in a first floor flat, and the two of us had no chance in getting it out the door and down the steps - getting it in was a trauma.
We stripped off all the cushions - keeping a bit of the stuffing from the cushion pads for me to repurpose for my softies, then we sawed our biggest sofa in half right down the middle. Thankfully we didn't need to saw the smaller sofa - we managed to get it out the house in one piece. It's times like this we wish we had a house with big patio doors.
I had to move all my work, fabrics, sewing machine etc into the spare room (after dismantling my spare bed, which went to a new home today too). The spare room is now a makeshift studio (very makeshift, it needs a BIG sort out).

Dismantling, cleaning and moving furniture has taken us all day, and we are now sitting in the lounge on the floor, with all of our bones and muscles aching.
Mr Monda is also suffering from a cold, so is feeling extra knackered, but on the bright side, we achieved a lot today, and we will sleep very well tonight! (and I have a makeshift studio)

I took a break this evening to take this pic - a real contrast to the cold eerie misty morning of the start of the dayI'll be back tomorrow no doubt with pics of my makeshift studio and my new sofa, and perhaps some of the things I have made. There just isn't enough hours in the day sometimes is there.

S is for Sunday, softies, sofa's and singers!

I haven't blogged for an entire week. I'm suffering from the same thing I was suffering from this time last year. This is my busiest time of year work wise (day job) - I have deadlines to meet which are crucial to the success of the business - no pressure then. This means that all my energy and time is going into work and not a lot else. I'm not really moaning - just explaining my absence from my blog and from making.
Today, I have managed to steal some time, and have made a first draft 'to do' list, cut some patterns, and started to make some softie prototypes - my plan being to have 5-6 different softie designs in my shop at any one time, and something that people would recognise as being a monda creation.

This little bunny prototype was a reworking of something I made earlier this year. He will be hopping off elsewhere very soon. I do quite like him, although I think he needs to be a bit fatter (or I just need to allow properly for seam allowances when I cut patterns from my drawings!).

Now for something completely different. I think I have a bit of a problem, as I am just a little too excited by this:This weekend was the first time I have ever been to a shop and purchased a sofa in my life. All the sofa's I have owned so far have been second hand from family members.
I was initially planning to buy a red leather sofa, but after seeing them in the shops yesterday I just wasn't sure that my lounge was big enough for a red sofa, as it's quite a statement really.
I will need to make some new cushions for my sofa of course and I think I'll stick with reds, but maybe also throw a few browns into the mix too.

and finally a Sunday treat for you. Mr Monda has been listening to this today. He's a Yorkshireman and he identifies with this - a lot! I can't get it our of my head and will probably wake up with this in my head tomorrow. What do you think?

and the winner is...

I've been so swamped that I haven't had the time or energy to blog this week. I feel bad about this because blogging is something I really enjoy, but I fear if I had of blogged, it wouldn't have been worthy of a read anyway, as I would have just been moaning about feeling tired.

Anyway on to much better things. I know I promised that I was going to find a creative way to pick a winner of my 200th post giveaway, this creativity took the form of a shout to Mr Monda who was in the next room, to 'pick a number between 1 and 22'. Mr Monda picked no.13 - so Lucy Carlson, you are the winner of the Monda goodies - please email me (email address in my profile page) with your details and I will panic frantically to get something made and sent off to you :o)

Whilst I haven't been particularly creative myself this week, I have succumbed to a bit of creative indulgence. I am now the owner of these lovely specimens:
A new fabric stash - including some hand printed fabric from Lusummers
and this lovely little piece of textile art by Hens Teeth
Last and by no means least - a couple of pics of Stevie, who is doing really well. We have just started to let her go back outside and she's loving it. When she is inside - she likes to crawl into snug spots - like getting between the layers of this folded up quilt