The Most Average 'Before and After'.

Have you ever seen a more average-looking 'Before and After'?
This is the path down the side of our garage. It is a space we rarely even look at let alone venture into. A couple of weeks ago I decided it was time to give it a bit of a tidy up because the stepping stones were completely covered with leaves. Just as I was starting I thought to myself 'Hey! This would make a great average 'Before and After' for the blog we have been neglecting lately.' So here are the (average) pictures from my phone camera.

Before.

Half done.

After.

After from the other end.

The old shower frame still needs to be taken to the tip and the roof tiles were there to stop a previous neighbour's dog from getting into our yard.

Enjoy! ;)

Trash & Treasure

When I was in my twenties I used to visit at least one op-shop (thrift store) a week. I'd buy all  sorts of rubbish, useful stuff, stuff. I had a number of different collections on the go and wasn't afraid of starting a new one if I saw something I liked. I've collected anodised aluminium cups and ice buckets (and anything else), vintage drinking glasses, 80s toys or stationery, novelty and childrens' mugs, snow domes, records, anything Muppet's or Sesame Street, 'Big Eye' pictures and so on and so on. Usually each collection reaches a point where I feel like enough is enough and I stop. Sometimes I even cull to refine what I have.

My anodised aluminium collection as it was approximately 10 years ago...

... and my Muppet collection as it was about 10 years ago.

After a few years of 'collecting', moving house at least twice made me realise that maybe, I had too much stuff and maybe, if faced with a major trauma in my life, I could possibly turn into a full blown hoarder. I had to think carefully about what I really wanted to keep and which collections really made me happy. I stopped going to the op-shops as often and slowly stopped acquiring things... well, I've never completely stopped but I've cut back a lot.

This weekend I gave myself a rare 'thrifting' treat. Our neighbouring suburb had a 'Spring Fair'. I dragged my little family along and spent a total of $4.50 on four different items at the Trash & Treasure stall and I even have plans for each of those items. Somehow I've changed my thinking... (and my husband might have helped me along with the occasional raised eyebrow or rolling eyes). Anyway, here are my purchases.


Purchase 1 - Another tapestry to hopefully become part of my tapestry floor rug, after I take it out of the frame of course.

 

Purchase 2 - A Barbie wardrobe just like the one (I still have) from my childhood. This one will probably go on to another home but I couldn't leave it behind because on the back of one of the closed doors are some '80s 'Bobby and Kate' stickers. '80s stationery is quite sought after in some circles and I am pretty sentimental about it myself. I always keep my eyes open for bits and pieces but don't have a lot of luck.

Bobby & Kate  stickers inside the wardrobe.

Purchases 3 & 4 -  A couple of little ceramic items destined to become planters for my kitchen windowsill. I particularly like the simple floral design on the bowl.

My Spoonflower fabric arrived.

My Spoonflower fabric, based on the tutorial by Etsy designer Anda Corrie, arrived a couple of days ago. I ordered pieces of organic cotton knit, cotton voile and a regular cotton. Now to decided how to use these test pieces and what to draw next. I am very happy with the service and the quality. The print is a bit bigger than I imagined but I hadn't actually looked at the scale to see how it would turn out so that's my own fault. It's not an issue for this test run at all though. The tutorial made it all very easy and if you have been thinking about trying Spoonflower I would say 'go for it!'.

Spoonflower continued.

Following on from my bookmark entry about Spoonflower.com, I finally took the plunge and using the tutorial on their blog I've created the demo design and I've ordered my first fabric! Yes it is extremely heavily based on the tutorial but I'm counting this as my test run. Can't wait to see how it looks. I've chosen a couple of their different types of fabrics so I can compare them for later reference although you can order swatch samples before printing anything if you prefer. (Caroline, can you spot your nephews? The girls are all loosely based on your niece though.)

Sifting through bookmarks again - Spoonflower

Spoonflower is a place I have bookmarked many times. It is a place that seems to be eternally on my to-do list. It is a place where you can have your own designs printed on fabric and that is something I'd love to do one day. But what to print? They have tutorials to help you turn your ideas into files ready for printing with tips for how to get the best results and if you don't consider yourself much of a designer you can often buy other people's prints.

Spoonflower runs regular competitions based around a weekly theme. One of my favourites (which I obviously bookmarked) was a 'softies' theme. My favourite entry was probably this 'Fab Fox' by 'Happy Sew Lucky'. A super hero in y-fronts. (Click through to see some cute pictures on her own website if you are interested. I'm not quite sure what the protocol is around using other people's pictures if you are spruiking their websites... do you just go for it? Or do you email and ask permission? Is there a general consensus? Check our link to our Pinterest boards and I'll add a few 'pins' there.) Another cute entry was called 'Kawaii Kitchen' which I believe came in at number one. They could be some fun school holiday projects for kids who like to sew.

Monday Macrame Maybe?

I've ordered the bits and pieces to have a go at making these simple little bracelets from honestlywtf.com. I think I first saw them on Pinterest... maybe... but you all know what I'm like with bookmarks etc. A little bit of macrame on a Monday?

Update - I've actually made a couple and they are quite easy. Cheap and cheerful.

L-R - Present from my sister (from Pandora), present from my mother (unknown), and my two new handmade string bracelets.

Now to find some other coloured threads.

Bookmark(s) of the day 3

Pencil Sculptures - I never said these bookmarks were going to be recent or things you hadn't seen before.

Bookmark 3 - Pinned to Pinterest and then deleted from my bookmarks.


And two more for good luck. A tiny knitted record player and a tiny knitted ghost. I have absolutely no recollection of ever seeing these or bookmarking them.

Bookmarks 4 and 5 - The same as Bookmark 3.

Bookmarks

My computer desktop is completely covered with icons and shortcuts. At times they even spill over to the invisible second screen that my computer thinks it has. And I should know better. I've done my share of tech-support when I worked at the uni. I tell myself, hey... delete or relocate one icon a day and then you'll have it under control in no time. Yep... and that happens once.

My web bookmark situation is worse. I love to 'browse' the net with at least five or six tabs open at once. When I see something I want to get back to at a later time I just drag it to the bookmarks toolbar... and it stays there... and it stays there... and I tell myself that I should delete or sort a bookmark or two each day and then it will slowly get under control. Ha! That happens once. One step forward, sixteen steps back.

Last night, when complaining to the husband that I couldn't think of anything to blog about he said to me 'What about bookmarks? Surely you can write something about bookmarks?' Fair call. I figure I might as well try going through my bookmarks and if I don't think a link is worth posting about here on the blog then it isn't worth bookmarking... more or less. I'm going to try 'A Bookmark a Day... Keeps the Hard Drive Crash Away... ' or something like that. So here goes!

A Bookmark a Day... Day 1.

Tea Towel and Tapestry Furniture by Suzie Stanford

by Mark Robinson on March 15, 2010 on the198.com

Actually this relates to a project I'm working on at the moment. Some of you already know I am trying to collect tapestries to make a floor rug out of... a bit like this one at tomandemma.wordpress.com. I'll blog about that soon enough I hope.

One of the tapestries waiting to be part of my floor rug.

Bookmark 1 - Filed under 'Craft'.

Doing the things I do.

Sewing is something I like to do in my spare time. As I get older I'm actually starting to make more pieces that I am happy to wear outside of the house. I think that must be because of a combination of things - I'm slightly better at sewing, I'm better at choosing the patterns and fabrics I work with... or maybe it is just that I'm more realistic about these three things... or I have lower expectations. Either way, I'm not going to retire my sewing machine any time soon.

I came across Jenny Gordy of Wiksten via flickr some years ago. I think I originally came across her work via her friend Elly who I also discovered on flickr. Both ladies have a simple and lovely style about them and their work. Jenny designs clothes and has produced a few sewing patterns over recent years. Two of these I have used and I have another waiting for the warm weather to come back to our southern hemisphere.

The first Wiksten pattern I used a few years back was for a tulip skirt. The pattern came in the first issue of Stitch magazine which I picked up on ebay at the time. The skirt, in a light denim (or is it a chambray?) from Tessuti Fabrics in Sydney, has had a number of wears and is still going strong. There are plenty of other versions that people have posted on the net to give anyone thinking of sewing this skirt some inspiration. Contrasting buttons and topstitching are something I am thinking about if I ever get around to sewing another one.

My Wiksten tulip skirt - pattern from Stitched Magazine.

More recently I purchased another Wiksten pattern from Jenny's website. (She sells paper patterns or you can download and print them yourself at a cheaper price.) The Wiksten Tova shirt (named after Elly's daughter I think) always looks comfortable when I've seen it sewn up. A quick flickr or internet search will bring up plenty of finished versions to browse. This one of mine was meant to be a 'test run' made out of cheap gingham from Spotlight. It has turned out to be better than a test and is on high rotation in my wardrobe. I've already cut out two more versions for sewing. Both will have winter-friendly long sleeves rather than three-quarter sleeves and I am going to make one of them dress length. I'll let you know how they go.

My first version of the Wiksten Tova shirt