Well, Christmas has been and gone, it was nice and quiet, only the 4 of us on Christmas day, Archie woke up at 6.30am but had no idea it was a special day so when told to go back to sleep for a bit - he did, then at about 8.30 we shouted him through to our room and he got into our bed and then my other half came round to my side of the bed and knelt down, produced this small square box and asked me to marry him! I was gobsmacked, it was soooooo unexpected.
Archie didn't start opening any presents until after 11am but then he opened everyones, it turns out he likes presents. Emily didn't have a clue what was going on and stuck to her usual sleeping most of the morning routine and then discovered she had a load of new pink things that she could put in her mouth!
I got to open my present from the secret santa on the UK Craft Forum which was a lovely and unusual bracelet....
On boxing day we started talking weddings, we've decided to wait until 2012 when Emily will be old enough to be a part of it all, so I decided that will give me enough time to learn to sew so that I can make my own wedding dress. Now I've always said that I can't sew for toffee after once trying to take up a pair of trousers (I have stupidly short legs - about 26 inches) and ended up with one leg longer than the other and wonky hems. Soooo I joined a new forum - The Sewing Forum which is ace and full of lovely helpful people and have been trawling the net for free patterns, ideas and funky fabrics so that I can make stuff to learn and practice. A fantastic lady on the sewing forum was looking for ideas/new homes for loads of silk fabric she had ended up with and she very kindly sent me some bright pink, bright orange and pale pink silks, once this arrived I was eager to start making something so a trip to Dunelm Mill and £40 later I had fabric shears, needles thread, another fabric, interlining and was ready to go - the only thing I didn't have was a sewing machine. My future mother-in-law has said I can have hers but we haven't seen her yet. Unable to contain myself anymore I decided to make a bag after finding this tutorial and here is my first sewing effort....
The flowers that were printed onto the fabric were crying out for some seed bead embellishment and I really enjoyed that bit.
I also loved working with the silk, it was like cutting paper so felt more familar than cutting the other fabric and then it behaved itself very well when I was sewing it, it folded nicely and gave crisp lines. There was something very theraputic and calming about hand sewing - apart from when the thread got tangled, and when I stuck the needle into the back of my thumb, or when one of the cats knocked my box of pins off the arm of the sofa before I had the chance to put the lid back on. So now I've been seeking out fabric stalls in the markets in Barnsley and Leeds and I seem to be looking at everything sussing out how it's made.
That doesn't mean I've given up on the jewellery though, quite the opposite. I'll be making my own jewellery for the wedding and I got a book out of the library on making tiara's. I got some exciting news the other day too as I sent an email to a beading magazine months ago and it got printed so I got a £25 gift voucher for Beads Unlimited and so have just bought a load of stuff from there. I also made my mum an unusual bracelet for Christmas that I was quite pleased with. It's made from coils of coloured wire and flourite chips.
oh and had a go at making fimo beads to make this bracelet for my chocoholic friend
I had a good jewellery day yesterday, finished off two orders and then made myself a new ring using a slightly new style to my other rings and a torque necklace which is another new style for me, still need to get photos though and my other half tidied all my craft things away before Christmas and now I can't find my camera anywhere.
I'm off to get some lunch now before the Archie monster gets home from nursery and I'll take some photos of my new makes on my phone
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Hi Nicola, it's nice to see you back on the blog - I wondered where you'd gone but I can see you've been busy - very nice, too.
ReplyDeleteYou shouldn't be shy about your bracelet being printed in "Beadtrends" magazine. It's a very classy magazine and I saw your work in it - it's lovely.
Keep at it !!
Jean