Sunday 31 July 2011

Coming soon!

Been a bit quiet on the blogging front but I promise there are things on the way!!!

A tutorial type thing on how to use fabric dye - well I know it says on the packet how to do it but I got some quite unexpected results! Perhaps it should be a tutorial on how NOT to use fabric dye ha ha ha!

Got a few garments cut and ready to sew up, a few things I still haven't photographed due to naughty laziness and the thought that I might actually coerce a friend into modelling for me....

Also will have some more crochet delights and a couple of mystery items that will be blogged at some point after August 15th as they are birthday presents and I don't want to give the game away!

Might also do a gift wrapping post, if you know me personally you'll probably have received a substandard gift with wrapping so good you couldn't care less about the actual contents! This is something I like to do through boredom and random urges to show off.....well everyone does it.....

So stay tuned, I haven't forgotten about blogging, hopefully the posts coming up will make up for it :)

For some reason Blogger isn't letting me add pictures at the moment, is anyone else experiencing this?

Saturday 16 July 2011

Rainy Saturday afternoons....

....Are meant for baking!
 Today's recipes for weight gain and diabetes are - 


* Carrot Tea-cake*

First time I have made carrot cake and it won't be the last! 
The cake is lovely and moist and the cream cheese frosting sets it off wonderfully.
I got the recipe from Martha Stewart's website - Check it out!!
 

* Chocolate Orange Cookies *

Proper American style squidgy delicious cookies!
These will not last long!
So much better than ones you buy from the supermarkets and way better than the ones made from a box of cookie mix, really quick and simple to make so no excuses not to make your own!
I got the recipe from a great new blog I discovered a few days ago called Eat Cake For Dinner - not that I need any more encouragement ha ha ha!
The recipe can be found here - the only changes I made was to substitute orange rind for orange flavouring as that was all I had to hand. Check out the other recipes on the blog, every last one of them look mouth wateringly tasty, I simply HAVE to make the Neapolitan whoopie pies!



Hope everyone else is having a great Saturday whatever the weather!

Saturday 9 July 2011

Inspiration of the week 9/7/11

Obviously you all have seen inspiration posts many times before so I'll just give the briefest bit of info on this - here is a bunch of pictures and links to stuff that got my attention this week!
Will be a bit of a mixture of things as I'm not exclusively into any particular area of creativity, feel free to comment on my choices or give any suggestions for similar things!
Please note that these images were not taken by / are not owned by me, if I have used an image that belongs to you and you are not happy with its use please let me know and I will remove it.

Here goes....
This is the image that started it all off! Click to enlarge it to appreciate it in it's full glory!
It is a 1:12 scale themed dollhouse display and I wish I saw it when it was on sale!
Absolutely amazing details and colours, I love, love, LOVE the purple glitter on the top of the pumpkin and ummm basically just want one!
For those of you out there with patience and talent there is a tutorial on how to make this HERE

I would really love to have the talent to make something like this, perhaps I could have a go in secret and not tell anyone if it turns out super rubbish ha ha ha!
The genius lady behind this also has an etsy store - the link on the tutorial doesn't seem to work but once I get hold of it I will add it to this post.

***

Going along with the fairy tale magical theme, the film Legend directed by Ridley Scott is amazing! Featuring a young Tom Cruise, unicorns, a Tim Curry devil/demon and enough glitter to fill your entire house with! There is even glitter everywhere in hell!

If you haven't seen it then you should! Seriously beautiful set designs and did I mention loads of glitter?!!

***
Saw some beautiful dresses from the Paris Couture week, Valentino as usual had a load of stunners but the real treat for me was the Elie Saab dresses. I wish I could afford the beautiful flowing fabrics used to make his gorgeous romantic fairytale gowns!


 If money was no object hey?!

***

Last but not least a tutorial from Martha Stewart for fabric pumpkins.
Don't they look awesome?
The tutorial can be found HERE.

I realise that my inspiration this week has been a little unseasonal but the weather has been pretty unseasonal too! Thundered for over three hours yesterday complete with a torrential downpour... English summers.... don't know whether to laugh or cry!

As I said above, let me know what your inspiration was this week and if any of my inspiration has in turn inspired you!


Wednesday 6 July 2011

Sorry for the absence!

Well the blogging went a bit downhill didn't it?!
The reason for this is that I have a new job! I now work repairing and altering work-wear at a local company and I enjoy it so much! It might not sound like the most exciting job in the world but being sat at a sewing machine all day is great. Although the work isn't the same as making clothes, it is all good expeience and I am well and truely a mistress of zips - I can whack in one of those bad boys faster than the speed of light ha ha ha! I also feel that by using an industrial machine I have so much more control over my domestic to the point that my domestic seems snail paced now.
The hours are a huge bonus point, 7am - 3.30pm Monday to Thursday, 7am - 2.30pm Friday..... No weekends! No evenings! No bank holidays! I am spoilt!
I get to work with loads of really nice people both in the sewing room and those who work in other parts of the building too. Even the company is a nice one, 200 years old, still family run and loads of niceties from easter eggs to a birthday card put in the post for you. We even got bought ice-creams last week and everyone stopped work to enjoy them despite it not being anyones tea break or lunch break or second tea break, shame about the weather that day but the gesture was really nice :)

So my apologies for the lack of posting, understandably the routine has been difficult to get into, I am not used to getting up at 5.30am so the first few weeks I was asleep on the sofa by about 6pm! This week I have been doing my best not to nap, so far so good! Next week I will be trying to do a bit more during my afternoon/evening, this week has been a stay awake but not do too much kind of week, one step at a time in routine establishment works better than all at once.

I do have some things to photograph and post about including something I made for myself to wear on a night out, perhaps with a dodgy tutorial to go with it.
I was also thinking about doing a weekly inspiration post sort of thing with some of the things that my incessant internet trawling has dug up, might get a bit random though - you have been warned!