Tree Fall

My Day Today

Bella headed off to my mom's last night for a very short holiday (back tomorrow), so I had a full day of work today. Usually when I have a day like today I insist on getting out of bed as early as I can bare (bear? which one is it? why am I brain dead?) and often don't even take the time to shower. I just head straight in to my studio and pretty much stay there until Jim comes home and insists that I at least eat something.
However, I've been so tired lately and pretty stressed (as has been unfortunately evident in my posts) and have been desperate for a little time off. So as a compromise, (because who's got time to take time off!) I decided to at least allow myself a lie in and actually stayed in bed until 9.30!
Whilst lieing there I was thinking about WIP Friday (mainly about the fact that I had finally remembered it on the right day!) and Self Portrait Tuesday and all the other meme's that gives us the opportunity to record little specific snap shots of our lives. And I decided that that was what I wanted to do today. I wanted to record specific points of my working day. If for no other reason than to share with Jim when he gets home (he likes that kind of thing, bless).
I don't think this will be very interesting for anyone else, but I found it interesting to see how much I achieved as each hour passsed. I usually get a little crazy when I have the opportunity to work all day. The possibilities or necessities often seem endless which means I often end the day with very little achieved, just feeling completely overwhelmed. But because I wanted to take a photo on each hour, I really focused on what I was doing instead of flitting from one task to the next. It was actually a little like a blogging microcosm. As with most bloggers, blogging itself has led to an increase in my crafting as well as an improvement in the quality, because I want to have something good to post about at least every few days. Well todays little project was just a miniature version of that. I wanted there to be an obvious progression in my photos so I focused much better than I usually do.
The only down side is that the photo's are all a little dull! Sorry about that. I was limited by the lack of decent light today and by the fact that the setting and the subject was pretty much the same for each photo. Also, now that I look at the photo's I realise that it really doesn't look like I've achieved much today! Blah, after all that build up, I fear I am about to show you an incredibly dull day! Hey ho, it was fun at the time.

9.30am
My day started with a cup of hot water and a lemon slice (can't handle coffee first thing).

10am.
Here I am. Showered and dressed in peace. Luxury.

11am.
This is how I left my room last night. So I spent the first half an hour tidying up and playing with buttons!

12pm.
I finally convinced mysef to put away the buttons and do some work! I had a commission from a friend for a Princess and the Pea set the other day and wouldn't you know, instead of making less work for myself and using one of my existing sets, I decided that I had to make a special one for her. This is me starting the tote for the set.

The green index card that you can see on the right is what I use to record all the details of everything I make. Each item has an individual green index card with every detail noted on as I go along. I've found this to be absolutely invaluable. I find note books too restrictive. (I got the idea from the Kinsey Milhone books. I'm a geek).

1pm.
Just the straps and the front pocket to sew on to the tote.

2pm.
The tote is finished, but I'm unhappy with the actual Princess. I decided to try a new way of doing the hair and features and I'm just not liking it, so I'm just going to have to unpick it and start again. Blah.

3pm.
Started work on a commissioned quilt. I had already cut the blocks and fused on the applique, so I just need to machine zigzag stitch the edges before hand embroidering some extra details. I've been having a lot of fun with this one. It's been commissioned by a very good friend so I want it to be special. She's buying it for someone with mighty high (read awkward) standards, so it's got to be good.

That's Germany V Argentina on the television. I LOVE the World Cup and was particularly looking forward to this match! So pleased that Germany won! And that's my cat Marshall asleep on the bed.

4pm.
Started cutting out a Princess and the Pea dress. I'll hand sew it later this evening.

5pm.
Yay, back to playing with buttons! These little piles will become something new that I'm working on. More on that soon. Although I will say that it's given me a new reason to buy more vintage buttons! Uh huh.

6pm.
And here I am back where I started, except that's a cup of coffee as  I've still got a lot of work to do tonight. Jim's working late so I shall just park myself in this little corner and do my hand sewing in front of Big Brother. My mother was kind enough to send us home last night with a bag of food that included some ready meals, so I don't even have to cook! Yay. ( I do however have to kill the moron that is outside beeping their car horn over and over again!!!!).
The only downer is that if I want some wine (distinct possibility) I'm going to have to walk to the shop. Hmmmm, I guess it's a case of whether my laziness will outweigh my need for a nice cold glass of Zinfandel. We shall see.

So that's it. My day. Fun.

Various Miscellany

I apologise in advance for the lack of cohesion of this post. I keep waiting until the weather is good enough to take some new photo's and until I have more than five minutes to piece my thoughts together and until I actually have something to show you. And I think that that way lies disaster! Or at the very least, a very quiet blog indeed. So in the interests of keeping this thing rolling, I present a jumble of images and thoughts.
First off, I recieved this wonderful birthday present last week from Lesley .

I was so very touched when Lesley asked me for my address and then even more so when the postman dropped a lovely parcel through my letter box a few days later and I opened it to find this beautifully embroidered picture.
I love it and must say that when a friend of mine saw it she sighed and said 'you have so many lovely things' and she was purely looking at the wonderful work of my fellow bloggers. And I realised as we discussed it that it's only been since we have been stone broke that I've become the proud owner of such lovely things. Back in the day when I was still a recognised member of society and earnt my own money, if I wanted something I popped out to a store and bought something immediate and generic. If I wanted to change the look of a room I would pretty much be able to do it in one day, with one shopping trip. Which is all very well, but so little of what I bought was original and none of it was actually made for me! And I know I keep banging on about this, but I LOVE that I'm looking at real art, made by real people. And I also love the fact that my friends are a little jealous!
So a massive thank you to Lesley! We've all said it, but it's so worth saying again - the kindness and generosity of the blogging community is just amazing.

I meant to post this picture on Friday as part of  Fiona's WIP Fridays. But just didn't get around to it, so I guess this is now WIP Monday.

A couple of piles of mattresses, a couple of disgracefully tardy fruit patches and some princesses. And in the background the start of a new topsy turvy doll - assuming that the fabric works. I'm a little worried that it may be too stiff to facilitate the topsy turvyness.

I've been meaning to show you this book for a while now. I just haven't been able to work out how to crowbar it in to a post until today.

Trapunto has always made me a little nervous. It seemed to me to be rather complicated and something that I should just avoid. For those of you that aren't familiar with it, trapunto is not a type of car (as Jim has just suggested!) but a form of (usually) whole cloth quilting that results in a raised surface. The pattern on the quilt top is often something like a vine with leaves and fruits that is stuffed with cord or batting.
It's a nice effect but not something that has really caught my eye until I bought this book. As I've said, trapunto is usually used for vines etc, but this (slightly crazy) book uses it much more interestingly. Just look at these crazy toaster and breadbin covers!

Mmmm, beige towelling!
But dodgy fabrics aside, this book really did simplify the method for me and gave me some cool ideas that I want to try out. I really like the look of the tote on the front cover. And I don't know if you can see it, but that apron has little trapunto mushrooms on!  Lovely.

And finally (I think), I've been wanting to wait until they were all finished and ready to go in the shop before I posted new Coney Rabbits, but the speed I'm working at the moment means that that may never happen! So here's a peek at some of the new rabbits, with still more to come.

There are blue and green rabbits still in various stages of evolution that I'm hoping to have done this week and then I'll be updating the shop. I've also got at least one quilt to add to the shop and maybe a couple of other little pieces. But that could just be me mistaking my life for someone elses!

Corners of my Home

Nothing new here, but the first time it's all been in one corner together. The jug was a birthday present. The picture is by Keri  and is wonderful.

From first till last

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned  the fact that I made my first 'quilt' at the age of 22 and that I had no idea what to do  at all. It was, as far as I was concerned, a simple affair. You cut up the fabric, you sewed it back together and eventually (meaning never) you sewed a back on to it (sans batting). I literally did not know that there was supposed to be a quilt sandwich or that you then actually quilted it.
My lack of knowledge (and lack of talent!) aside, I really enjoyed the act of creating it and am relieved that I still have it, although up until a couple of days ago I don't think I'd had a proper look at it for at least 10 years.
But Paisley got me really thinking about it after she remarked that she'd like to see it. So I dug it out.

The first thing that hit me was just how big the thing is. I can't actually spread it out flat anywhere in my house!
Then there's the fact that there aren't even any actual blocks and that the pieces are all different sizes and shapes. It's all completely freeform.  Which is kind of cool.

This is my favourite bit. Which I can now  recognise  are pseudo nine patches, but I obviously didn't know anything about that at the time.

It seems absolutely crazy to me now that I just cut all the pieces freehand and measured nothing. How did I get it all to fit? Of course the lack of seam allowance will have helped with that!

Can you see that? There is totally no allowance there at all. I can't imagine how I thought it would stay together.
I just find it so strange now looking back at this and realising that I knew nothing at all. Except that I loved the fabrics and wanted them to be pieced together. Which I guess is enough.
This is my favourite of the fabrics. I think it may be from Hong Kong.

And in complete and total contrast, here is my most recent quilt.

This couldn't be more different. It's all about precision cutting and exact seams. It's completely structured. It just pretends to be freeform with the random choices of fabrics.

When I think about how different these two quilts are I find it both a relief and a little sad. It's such a relief to me that I've actually learnt how to do something properly. Believe me I have a long history of flying by the seat of my pants (there are some pieces of furniture out there that I'd recommend not sitting on!) and I now take great pleasure in the fact that I have proven to myself that I have the patience to do it properly. Although as I write this I realise that there is still so much for me to learn and that I know very litte - but at least I'm actually trying to get it right.
But I'm also a little sad that I now know the rules and often adhere to them. If I tried to make a quilt top like the first one these days, I might manage to not measure any of the fabrics, but I would want to use my rotary cutter and ruler. I think I'd have a hard time just going at it with a pair of scissors and a smile! And that's kind of a shame. And I think that's why as a rule I shy away from learning too much of the 'science' behind quilting.

I'm still much more about liking the way something looks rather than photocopying fabrics to see if their values are right. And I try not to worry too much about focus fabrics etc. And of course this could mean that I'll never be a great quilter, but that's ok because as much as I know that my first 'quilt' is all wrong I still love it. And I remember how much fun I had making it.

 

(bugger, I forgot it was WIP Friday. Must remember it next week!)

A Pox On Your House

In the space of a couple of days we have gone from this,

my beautiful girl eating her first ever piece of cake, which I must say she managed like a pro. Definately her father's daughter when it comes to cake!
To this,

my poor baby has chicken pox and is as miserable as sin. And you know what? After my post the other day about never having a sleepless night, Bella stayed up until 5am this morning and then woke again at 7am. The poor thing is feeling very poorly indeed and I am feeling horrible and helpless and useless. And I never again want to see my daughter look at me with such confusion as to why I won't  make the pain go away. I guess that will teach Jim and I to feel sorry for ourselves! It is just so wrong that I can't make her feel better.

On a much nicer note, here are a few books that I got for my birthday.

This book is wonderful! It's full of beautiful images of both modern and traditional rooms.

Sorry about the poor quality pictures, my scanner isn't working at the moment and the lighting wasn't very good. (and a poor workman always blames his tools!).

I also got this book.

Which is jam packed with fantastic photos! But I must warn you - alliteration is a dangerous thing in the wrong hands!

But this is my favourite one.

As it says, it's a recipe book, but it's oh so much more. It' s beautifully big and heavy and absolutely heaving with the best photo's ever.

If you've got all of Nigella's books and you want yet more, this is the book for you! It is personal and evocative and wonderful to actually read, with it's annecdotes and family photos. And it also has some fantastic looking recipes. Seriously, buy it!

Brown : Tuesday

I don't often eat chocolate. But when I do it's usually a Plain Chocolate Digestive. Yesterday Jim and I ate a whole packet for our dinner. Well, it did save on the washing up.
(sorry this is late)

100

I have a few different things that I want to post about so I'm just going to jump right in with pictures of the rather lovely birthday presents that I received last week. Actually no I'm not - the first thing I'm going to do is show you the beautiful card that I bought from Toni a few weeks ago. I've been meaning to post about it for over a week and owe the truly wonderful and beautiful (have you seen her gorgeous new hair cut?) Toni a very big apology for not yet thanking her!

These cards are not only beautiful, they also hold a special meaning to Toni. As she says here , the fabric used to make the cards is also being used to make the Wedding Quilt that she's making for her eldest son's wedding.
Gorgeous, full of meaning and practical - what more could you ask for in a card? Of course I won't actually be using it, oh no, I shall be keeping it all for myself!
Oh and how lovely is this ribbon?

Toni was super kind and included it with the card  as a little surprise! Love it! Thank you! (and I promise I will email you!)
Next I have to thank Molly for these beautiful ribbons.

One of my birthday presents from Jim was a pendant from Molly and she was sweet enough to add a little something extra! (possibly prompted by the envy ladened email that I sent her after she taunted me with her ribbon shop post a while ago!). Oh how wonderful is ribbon? I must confess that up until a year ago the wonderous attributes of a good piece of ribbon was somewhat beyond me. But now? Oh now, how I covet thee!
Thank you Molly and I'm so sorry that I haven't emailed you either :(  I absolutely LOVE my pendant though!

I've been wearing it every day and am so pleased with it. It is the perfect size and colour and exactly the type of jewellery that I love. It looks wonderful with a t shirt and jeans, but also when I look a little dressier. If Molly puts any more up for sale I highly recommend them - really, it's beautiful!

My main theme for presents this year was original pieces. I've never before been lucky enough to be exposed to so much wonderful, original work and I find it so exciting that I can actually own some myself. It gives me the greatest pleasure to look at my walls and see art that isn't from Ikea. Which is not a critiscim of Ikea, it's just that for the longest time that was the only art work I could afford. So I am relishing the fact that slowly but surely I am replacing every piece of generic, mass market art with the wonderful work of people that I honestly admire.
So as well as Toni's card and Molly's pendant I was also given (by 'given' read 'bought myself then got Jim to wrap and sign') this print by Emily .

It's her Isobel No. 19 print and it is absolutely stunning. It's soft and gentle and downright pretty. And I fantasize that Bella will one day wear a beautiful apple print dress with buttons in her hair.
See those cool notebooks too? Aren't they so cute? So cute.

Oh and look at this soap! This is quite literally the coolest soap ever!

Ever, ever, ever! Needless to say it shall never be opened. It is too wonderful to use. I got it in a fantastic little shop in York that I could have happily moved in to - in fact I asked if I could move in, but the women who worked there had first dibs on the room upstairs - most unfair! There were about ten different scents and each one had it's own amazing packaging. Oh I wanted each and every one of them. However I must confess that this is soap that can only be afforded once a year, so I shall have to wait until my next birthday for some more.

I so wish that this was an original vintage sugar jar, but unfortunatey it's not. It's still gorgeous though and what the hell, one day it will be vintage!
For some reason I've never really been given a lot of flowers in the past, but this year made up for it!

I think it may have been the first time I've ever been given roses, which frankly, does not do!

And here is my favourite. present. ever.

Really. My favourite present ever. Camilla's work just commands your attention. Without fail, every time I walk into the room I simply have to admire it again and it never fails to make me smile. And it really does make me crazily happy to have this in my home.
I also got  a couple of new books but I'll post about them next time. I don't want to bore everyone!
This was definately my favourite year for presents, which is good because the 'celebrations' pretty much sucked. So I'm sorry if this post seems a little show offy. I don't mean it to - I just want to make sure that when I look back that I remember it for how lucky I am to have received such bounty rather than anything else. Plus, ya know, I wanted you to see the great stuff!

This is also my 100th post and I want to thank everyone for giving me a reason too get to 100. Soooo, I will be sending every single person who comments a little something as a thank you. So if you've been lurking here's your chance to say hello and gain from it!!!

White Monday

Birthday flowers. For Colour Week .

Where are the damn pictures?

Thank you all so much for your wonderful, wonderful comments. They were the nicest birthday present that I could receive and each one really did bring a very large smile to my face. It is often hard to imagine, as I sit here in my teeny, tiny living room that there really is anyone out there that knows I am here.  I don't mean that in a sad way, just that when in reality you see one other adult for one afternoon a week (not including Jim in the evenings), you can become very insular and forget that other people know who you are.
Since having Bella, I've really struggled with whether people know I'm here. From the first moment that I was introduced as 'Bella's Mom' when she was 10 days old, I started to realise that 'Manda' may be in the process of being phased out. Even now, there are people that I only know as 'so and so's Mom' and people out there that know and recognise my daughter but have no idea who I am.
This is a part of motherhood that I had no idea about. Which is ludicrous when  Denise McGrory is only known to me as 'Mom' and I've heard her introduced as 'Manda's Mom' all my life! Somehow of course, that seems perfectly normal and acceptable to me.
It's seems strange to me that the things I feared about parenthood have proven to either not exist or to be wholly insignificant. And yet there are aspects that I never even knew existed that literally keep me awake at night. Like every other potential parent I was super scared of having a baby that never slept. But I can tell you now (and because this is my blog and I don't have to pretend to be modest about this and I don't have to see the look of hatred in your eyes I'm just going to say the truth proudly - because god damnit I am proud of this and never get to say so), Bella has not once, ever kept us up at night. By 12 weeks she was sleeping through the night for a minimum of 12 hours and up until then we woke her at 11pm and 4am to feed her. So I've never had to go without sleep.
Then there was the worry of being bored (she makes for the most interesting viewing ever), not loving her enough (the only worry there is whether I love her too much) and never going out again (well that one's kinda true, but frankly I'm too knackered to care whether we go out or not).
What I didn't know was that I would disappear. I have no problem with the fact that Bella would have to come first in my life, in fact I take a certain amount of comfort in finally having someone else to concentrate on. But I didn't realise that when I need to get on a train that people would automatically step in front of me, because having a baby and buggy obviously means that I'm not in a hurry or anything. I didn't know that people would tut at me when they walk into Bella's buggy. I didn't know that Health Visitors would act like not only do I now not have a brain, but that I have never had one. And most of all I didn't realise that my life and who I am would change so very much more than Jim's life. And how completely left behind I would feel.
And I guess that pretty much sums up what Jim and I are trying to work through. How do we go from always being in sync, to being in such totally different places? After 8 years we find ourselves having to carve out a whole new relationship and it's proving tough work.
But hopefully we'll get there. And hopefully I'm staying here. And either way, this blog and you, my real 'imaginary' friends are making the journey a hell of a lot more bearable. And I thank you so very much because at the moment you are all the only people that may actually know that I exist - which is kinda ironic since not one of you has ever met me!

36

Things have not been great around here lately. I'm not sure where I'm going to be soon and I'm not sure how much I really want to talk about it here. So I'm just going to apologise to everyone that has been kind enough to comment or email me recently. I promise that I will reply to all of you but until I do, please know that reading your comments has been a great help in the last week or so. Thank you!

                                                                        

On a completely different note - today is my 36 birthday. Yup, closer to 40 than to 30! Eeek. So here's my attempt at 36 things about me that you may or may not know.

1. My real name is Manda. It's not short for Amanda and is most definately never Mandy.
2. I  lived in Hong Kong (the best place ever!!!) during my teenage years.
3. I have 2 older brothers.
4. I've had 3 miscarriages.
5. I've been married twice.
6. I worked for Circus Oz when I was in my twenties.
7. My first husband introduced me to my second husband (whilst I was still married to him).
8. I used to have a grade one skinhead.
9. I used to have a pink mohican.
10. I have a daughter.
11. I kissed John Cusack (on the cheek).
12. I've met Ewan McGregor a couple of times.
13. I lived in London (Woolwich) between the ages 8 and 10.
14. I've been to twelve different schools.
15. I had an imaginary friend called Shane when I was growing up.
16. I called my pet dog Harrison (after Harrison Ford) even though she was a girl.
17. I had another dog called Dougal McFlugal.
18. I held Dougal whilst he was put to sleep - and it was one of the hardest things I've ever done.
19. I had Bella 6 weeks prematurely.
20. I was in labour for 26 hours and pushed for 4 hours.
21. I used to be a Banker.
22. I ran my own business in my twenties.
23. I bought my first property when I was 24.
24. I got married when I was 25.
25. I was divorced by the time I was 30 and remarried at 31.
26. I love to read crime novels.
27. I hated my childhoood.
28. I moved to Edinburgh by myself when I was 21 even though I had never even visited it before.
29. I had a cat called Oskar.
30. I used to have a pierced nipple (breast feeding put an end to that!).
31. My nose used to be pierced but the stud fell out in the night and by morning the hole was closed.
32. You can get from me to Kevin Bacon in six moves.
33. I can't drive a car.
34. Having Bella was absolutely the best thing I've ever done
35. I have an autoimmune disease.
36. I. Do. Not. Feel. 36!!!

                                                   

(oh and I just got all my hair cut off!).