It's 11.47am on Saturday & I'm sitting down to write a blog post. I woke at 5.50am, got up & had breakfast then fiddled with my phone for about an hour (no wonder my data download bill was so high in November!), then I crawled back into bed to warm my cold feet on Mr Golightly's lovely warm calves, and slept until 8.15, when I crawled back out, threw on clothes & helped Mr Golightly load the industrial overlocker (which we acquired at the same time as the industrial sewing machine) into Mr Jared's van. Mr Jared does upholstery school with me, and he's very good.
Anyway, I've got one of the seat covers I foolishly offered to make in June for Miss Alix in London still to make. That's a hell of a sentence, isn't it? I had a bit of a mental block with the second one, didn't seem to matter what I did I couldn't get it to fit. Anyway, I skipped out of the work Christmas Party to come home & get it fixed, which I did... and now I have one left to make.
I've made a Christmas doorstop for the lovely lady at the Beautician, along with cutting out a bunch of dollies, which I'm trying to make for the children of people I work with, and I'm going to spend all of tomorrow making them.
And since then, Gentle Readers, I've had a nap, a night's sleep, an excellent roast beef dinner at MBF's house, scrambled eggs & bacon for breakfast with two excellent cups of coffee (thank you Bilgola Deli) and have finished both the last seat cushion cover (yay!) and three dollies.
I realised when I was about to make the fourth one that the work christmas party is not on until the 23rd, and although I don't have to go, I am on holidays & can drop off the dollies then, which means I can also make enough for all the children - I got up to identifying seven (Jackson, Joshua, Zoe, Abbey, Chloe, Charlie & Charlie's sibling) and my bosses two kids who are a fair bit older... and then I went... phew. I can't do all this tonight, so next week (when I've got some time off) I can throw myself into it.
Here's some pictures of the effort so far:
Notice they're all a bit... odd? Some are odder than others, which is all good. They're all made form the same pattern but with different scraps from the scrap box. Nothing new was cut up to make these guys... except maybe some rik-rak. I like. I'm thinking of offering for sale, maybe if I open my shop again next year. Price indicators, anyone?
Ciao!
Yes, Remaining Gentle Readers, I am up at 3.09am blogging, but as usual, there are sound reasons for this (you know I can justify just about anything, don't you?)... I've had a very sore throat since returning from Bali, probably thanks to the four-year-old screamer on the plane who kept everybody else from sleeping - poor little mite, his cough sounded like he could do with cutting down to 60 a day, no, really - so I trotted off to the Doctor today, and have been dosed up with antibiotics and antihistamines. In addition to the hayfever and sinusitis, I have something called 'glue ear', which my lovely Ma tells me is what little kids get, and yes, I am too old to have grommets.
Apparently.
Anyway, these antibiotics have some interesting side-effects, one of which is the inducement (is that a word?) of heartburn. I've done heartburn. I don't want to do it anymore. I spent months taking Nexium, sleeping upright, not eating after 7.30pm (very boring if you want to go out for dinner & have more than one course!), keeping the pack of chewable quickeze by the bed, in the handbag, in the desk drawer, and I don't want to do it any more. Did I just say that? Oh. Well, it is 3.14am.
The other factor could well be that I made an amazing thing for dinner (and note the date and time, Remaining Gentle Readers, because I am going to talk about cooking here), with sausages, sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn and a jar of Butter Chicken sauce. The rest I leave to your imagination, but suffice it to say, I ate too much of this culinary marvel, and the combination of greed and antibiotics has me up at 3.16am.
I have spent some quality time this morning reading other blogs, including the lovely FlickettySplits, who is now in Bahrain, working on her jetlag and in training for the Bahrain Marathon, the end result of which will be me being mentioned in her will, and the arrival of lots of fabric on her demise, which we both think will be part way through afore-mentioned Bahrain Marathon.
What else is there for me to tell you? I am working on some stuffed christmas trees for the lovely Kerry, who is my beautician, to put in her window (and I mean 'stuffed with fibrefill, not 'rooted'*), and the lovely lady who runs one of the nicer homewares shops in our small town has said she will look at my handmade wares (once I get over being sick) with a view to selling them in her shop.
What's driving this? When we went to the Southern Highlands we saw a rather nice shop selling some nifty things, but the prices were unbelievable - a doorstop for $80. Matryoshka dollies stuffed* with fibrefill and with a bell inside, for $21 (each) and felt badges for $25. Now, Remaining Gentle Readers, I know what you're thinking. If they're in a shop, they must be good, right? This comes right back to the argument about handmade funky versus mass-produced funky, and the reasoning behind paying exorbitant amounts of money for funky stuff if it's in a shop versus on, say, Etsy, or MadeIt, or some other online store.
Anyway, I figure if somebody can stuff* a Matryoshka doll with fibrefill & a bell & sell it for $21, I can sell a set of three dollies stuffed* with lavender for $15. So, all you readers with money and more sense, go to my shop and buy from me. It's much better value!
Now. It's 3.32am. I am going to attempt to return to my bed and sleep. If I seem a little tetchy next time, you'll know why!
*stuffed - insert filling
*rooted - had the dick
*had the dick - had the bomb
*had the bomb - knackered
*knackered - bought the farm
Well, Remaining Gentle Readers, I'm a bit bemused by the numbers of Gentle Readers popping in and out... 20, 21, 20... it's a bit difficult for poor little me, trying to keep track of who's in, who's out, who's up who & who's on top, as they say down here...
However, enough of that. We popped down to Bowral yesterday, to check out the beautiful tulips, and it was the 50th anniversary of Tulip Time, so well worth seeing.
Magnificent! Also, we found a new shop, whose name I will not mention here, where they were selling one, yes, one, Russian Doll softie, with a bell in it, stuffed with fibre-fill, for $21.00. I need to put my prices up, honestly.
More later, gotta nerd now! Ciao!
Doncha just love it when Christmas gives you an opportunity to make things you love but are 'too old' for? I just made some great christmas decorations for my friend Deb's kids, and my husband's niece & nephew, and I thought I'd make a Christmas Garland a la Allsorts blog - mine isn't quite as glamorous has hers, but it's going to be cute in the office, and in keeping with my 'handmade' pledge... can anybody tell me how to get the photos to wrap round the text? It's driving me nuts! And now I'm off to make a doorstop; I just found a great pattern here & I'll post a picture when they're done - I'm making three - one for Nellie, one for me & one for my mother, who currently has a great big lump of 'coffee rock' keeping her sewing room door open. I'm sure we can make something more glamorous...
