DIY City magazine - London Issue

Last year I was contacted by Sara Millis of ‘Sara’s Texture Crafts’ to see if I would like to be included in the DIY City Magazine – London Summer 2009 Issue. After supplying some copy and images I forgot all about it until earlier this week when an email arrived saying that the issue had been launched! Click here for the DIY City homepage where you can view the pdf of the whole of the London issue, or see if there is a guide to a city near you. Or click here to download the pdf of the whole London issue magazine, it has over 100 pages of people, areas and craft supply shops, there are definitely lots of places that I want to visit!

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featured!

A big thank-you today to the lovely Tizzalicious for featuring me on her blog at the weekend as her ‘Cute craftster of the week’! What a wonderful surprise. Check out her wonderful shops, which you can get to from here.

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sunshine

This morning the doorbell rang before I was dressed, but I didn't mind answering the door in my pj's because look what the postman brought! I fell in love with this tea towel a little while ago and could resist it no longer, although it is not destined to be a tea towel in our house - it is far too nice. I am going to make a wooden frame for it and hang it on the wall in our kitchen as the colours match perfectly, and what a cheery message to look at every day. Sorry my feet are in the photo and I probably should have ironed it first, but never mind. If any of you are wondering where I got it from, I ordered it from the Soma Gallery in Bristol (it took only two days to arrive!) and it is by pintuck.

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Hooray, some more fabric boxes are underway at last! The box framework for these two is all done, and I have my eye on some lovely purple felt for the next one.

I’ve also just listed this new notebook here, it is one of the smallest size that I do, just right for popping in your bag.

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Morrissey!

The Morrissey concert at Brixton Academy in London last night was great! We ended up driving as lots of the trains were down for maintainence which was actually much quicker, although we did end up parking in quite a dodgy looking area. But all was well, we got in quickly and there wasn’t too much of a wait. We were standing in the stalls right in the centre not far from the stage so we had a good view, and his performance was one of the best I have seen. It was well worth the wait, this concert was originally supposed to be in May but got postponed because Morrissey was ill. Stuart got a really nice official tshirt and I got a cheaper one outside, which I proudly wore to work today!

The rest of the weekend was busy too, the sanding and painting got done over the two days, which meant that our gorgeous new dresser(!!!) could be put into its new home. I just need some time to fill it up now! And the three of us had a lovely meal out on Saturday to celebrate Holly’s good school report, where we discovered that she is quite good at balancing a spoon on her nose! We also did some successful holiday shopping where Holly and I both got new bikinis that were wonderful bargains.

I’m a bit weary tonight after last nights excitement so I’m still not sure if I’ll manage to start on the new fabric boxes I have planned. Especially since so far I have spent over two hours podding/blanching/shelling/cooking all of these broad beans from our allotment as I can’t wait to eat them! : )

And relax.

Friday’s are always good but this one is especially welcome after a super-busy few days at work. I’m looking forward to our weekend which is planned to include: going out for dinner tomorrow to celebrate Holly’s great school report, a run, some sanding and painting, and then on Sunday we are off to see Morrissey at Brixton Academy.

But tonight I now have some unexpected time (I was going out with a friend but it got postponed) so maybe a film and some sewing will be the new plan. These pictures show Holly’s quilt so far, I have sewn together the bulk of the top and just need to add the edging.

I’ve also been trying to cut out the pieces for some new fabric boxes as I only have a couple left, but so far that hasn’t happened. I have listed the little notebook shown at the top of this post though, here.

Happy weekend everyone!

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1000!!

woohoo!! Today I reached 1000 hearts for my etsy shop, what an amazing number. Thanks to everyone who has hearted picciolo, it means a lot. xxx

Above is the last original piece of my 'together' series, just listed here. This turquoise denim is one of my favourites and I love using it with these bright greens, they look really zingy together.

A quick quilt update: The top is all done apart from the edging, I cut out and pinned all the pieces last night and will hopefully get some time later to start sewing them.

And thanks to Crutchfieldpottery for including my leaf notebook in this lovely treasury.

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clouds

Driving home from a lovely weekend with friends, this is me map reading! Lots of beautiful countryside and clouds... And a recent purchase from myetsyshop of some wonderful cloud fabric : )

*** I will be away on Saturday 11th July. Orders placed will not be held up, they will be acknowledged on Sunday and posted on Monday.***

Keyring trial

I have started experimenting with a new keyring design, this one is a work in progress that I am not entirely happy with but it has been a good starting point. The pictures aren't great as I missed the best of the light, but hey, they are better then nothing. Sometimes I find I have to just start making something, even if I know it isn’t quite right, so that I can work through what it needs to make it right. So this is stage one, hopefully I will be more happy with stage two!

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summer showers

It’s been a wet couple of day here and I’ve got soaked a few times on my bike going to and from work. I don’t really mind when I’m coming home, but I do think that it is the reason why I now seem to have a summer cold, hopefully it won’t last long. Time at the moment seems to be filled with home things, but I have just listed the first of a brand new size notebook in my etsy shop. This one is larger, it is approximately 17.5 x 25.0 cm and is just waiting to be filled with all your notes. : )

dust

It's a lovely sunny sunday evening and I am certainly ready for a sit down with my needle and sewing. Not yet though, and I'm not sure I'll be able to keep my eyes open for long! Here are some of the things we have been up to this weekend, my brain isn't working properly enough to put much more than a list: - spent a lot of saturday at Holly's school summer fair, we were helping on the cake and ice-lolly stall (yes we did help out even more by buying and eating some!) - Knocked the plaster off two walls on our landing, filling the whole house with dust despite all the doors being closed - ripped out the first of three door frames and put in a new one (this part was stuart not me) - did my four mile run - and my newest little notebook made it into a treasury, thanks woowootwo! : )

new skirt

Do you remember this post from a couple of weeks ago where I showed you some new bargain fabric that I was intending on making into a skirt? Well here it is! All done and finished and I've even worn it a few times already, I've just been rubbish at taking photos. (Holly took these!)

It is a very simple skirt with a gathered waistband, so it wasn't too hard to make although there were a couple of constraints that the fabric itself threw up. One of these was the pattern repeat, I wanted the back seam to match up so the width of my skirt had to fit in with this but luckily it was in a workable place so that was ok. The other one was that because the pattern on this fabric was a border, I had to work from the bottom up and do the hem first rather than last otherwise I would have ended up cutting off a lot of the pattern.

I am pleased with how this turned out, and as I didn't need to cut the fabric into lots of pieces, it means that when I'm bored of it I can cut it up and make it into something else! Not bad for a total cost of around £2.00!

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