Tree Fall

The Day Today

Just to keep things confusing today , I'm going to be editing this post every hour - so for new entries don't forget to scroll down. Is this the best way of doing this? No idea. Possibly not :)

I'm already feeling torn! Should I sit out in the garden with my hot water and lemon, (in my gorgeous new mug) and read the magazine that's just arrived? Or should I head straight on up to my studio and get on with work?
And is it feasible to take and post pictures every hour?
(Oh and Kristy? D'ya see that blue plastic thing in the background? That's Bella's new sandpit - you see, brightly coloured plastic toys are just everywhere!).

10.00am

Sewing topsy turvey torso's, whilst downloading Craft Sanity's interview with the amazing Heidi Kenney and watching Big Brother.

11.00am

Torso sewn together and first dress made.

Choosing fabrics for other dresses. Instead of having a theme for my topsy turvy dolls, such as Red Riding Hood and the Wolf etc, I like to just think of them as best friends. So they have to look like they have different personalities and different tastes, but they don't have to be the opposite of eachother.

The dress pattern - drawn freehand on some coloured paper (very high tech!!).

And finishing off the biscuits I made yesterday (sorry Jim!!). If I have time I may make more later.

12.00pm

Two dresses ready to be fitted.

Started sewing the blocks for my latest commisioned quilt together.

And the view out of my studio window. This may not look like much but for 11 years I lived in a completely treeless, pretty ugly, built up part of Edinburgh, with a view of tenement flats opposite and nothing but the sound of buses and cars and shouting. Since moving to a village just outside Leeds, my view has become this, and I can't begin to tell you how much of a difference it has made to my life.

And finally, we have a slight problem here. The lead to my camera has broken so downloading photo's has suddenly become a bit of a nightmare. So do I continue trying to post in serial form? Other than Mary and Melanie (hi and thank you to you both!) is there anyone out there reading this as we go along or should I just give in and post it all in one go later? If anyone has an opinin please do let me know.

1.00pm

Finished piecing the quilt top blocks. I can't decide on a fabric for the border and I definately think it needs one, so I'm going to wait and hope that the couple of fabric orders I'm expecting arrive really soon.

This is my favourite block. I think I'm going to make a matching pillow using a similar block.

Another topsy turvy dress cut and machine sewn. It just needs the arms, body and skirt sewn together by hand now. I usually leave work like that to do in front of the tv in the evenings.

Thank you for the comments and hi to Mijk, Kristy, Melanie (again) and Rebecca! It feels really strange sitting here posting knowing that there are people out there reading it almost immediately. Usually I write a post in the evening and when I get up in the morning there are (hopefully) some comments there. So other than Kristy (who often seems to be up as late as I am!), I rarely get any immediate feed back. It's cool to feel like I'm not doing this on my own though!

As you can see though, I am now posting an hour behind! It's taking forever to upload photo's, but I'm going to keep going with it. It's actually kind of a stressful way to spend the day because I'm constantly looking at the clock, but it's kind of good fun too, so I shall just keep on going.

2.00pm

Cut and machine sewed another dress. There's going to be lots of hand sewing to do this weekend.

This jar of fabric scraps may not look like much.

But it's full of scraps from Caroline Zoob's actual studio.

I met her last month and was lucky enough to take home these beautiful, beautiful scraps of vintage fabrics. Since then I've been waiting for just the right project for them. And here it is.

A little pin cushion. Not quite finished but you get the idea.

It just needs a little bit of embellishment, but I'm pretty pleased with it overall. And it came together quite quickly once I knew what I wanted to do.

 

I'm off out into the garden now to sit in the last bit of sun and listen to a podcast whilst I sew some more topsy turvy torso's together.

Ok can everyone say BLAH!!!!! It's now just gone 5pm and the food poisoning that has had me floored all week has reared it's ugly (and I mean ugly) head again, leaving me feeling distinctly green and most definately unable to continue. ACK!!! I feel like I've failed, which is kind of dumb when I've managed to do a whole days work, I just haven't been able to keep up with posting photo's of it.
I am now going to go and lie down in a very dark room and wait for the world to stop spinning.

hello yellow

A couple of months ago everyone and everything was about the colour yellow. And I have to admit that it made me shudder. I found myself just shaking my head in disbelief as admired blogger after admired blogger waxed lyrical about the colour. I very simply did not get it. I do not like yellow. At. All.

Which is why I have these beautiful, beautiful roses in my kitchen.

And why I bought this vintage fabric the other day, with a big, big smile on my face.

And why I'm wearing my  favourite skirt today - and loving the fact that it's almost the same print as the fabric above.

And also why I was so pleased when I opened a package from my mom yesterday and found a beautiful embroidered envelope (full of our old hankies - more on that another day), that she had embroidered when she was a child.

And why when I finally sat down the other day to read my 4Homes magazine my heart started beating a little faster when I turned to this page.

(I know this is orange, but I don't like orange either and count it pretty much as yellow - kind of) And smiled when I saw this colour combination this morning.

So there you go. I have no idea when or how it happened, but apparently  I now like yellow. How could this be?
And how far behind a trend can I be??? 

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!

Still here

Thank you to everyone that's emailed me, I really appreciate it! Jim tells me I am actually still alive, so that's good news! I've been fighting the flu for the last week, hence the lack of posting and crafting and anything else that I enjoy (sniff). I do intend to get better this weekend though!  And yes, you are supposed to wash decongestants down with a glass of wine!
I will be back. Soon. I Promise.

Sad? Yes I am!

This is quite possibly the saddest post I could ever make. But I simply have to share the beauty that is my new and sparkly clean Dyson vacuum cleaner. This was a recent present from my in-laws and today was the first chance I've had to use it. And just before turning it on and sullying it I had to take a photo of just how clean it was!

Isn't it beautiful? Oh and believe me it works wonderfully too. For the last few years I have been suffering with an awful, heavy, ugly, yellow Hoover that Jim chose for absolutely no discernable reason as far as I can see.
But finally  I have this beauty! I now it's sad but it really does make me very happy!

Is it over yet?

Urgghh, I've had a horrible, horrible day today and it's been made even worse by the fact that I seem to have an absolute block on being able to work. Usually when that happens I put away the piece that's causing the problem and focus on some happy work, but I just couldn't do that today. Horrid day.

So to try and cheer myself up and to make up for the fact that I didn't post any thing for Valentines yesterday (gee you guys really go for Valentines day huh? It's never been very big over here), here's a picture of a cushion I made.

Still Unsure

Tomorrow I have an appointment to have all my hair cut off. The picture of me in the column is from a year ago and my hair is now twice as long and drives me up the wall. So I intend to have it cut to about 3 inches long. And I'm still a little unsure that I'm doing the right thing.

I'm also a little unsure about Bella's quilt. I have all 9 blocks made but I can't decide whether to add sashings or not. The four blocks in the photo I posted the other day look fine without sashing, but I'm a bit worried that the 9 blocks look too messy. Can't decide.

I am sure about this though.

The fabric for my new curtains.

Sick, sick, bang, bang

What a horrible, bite you in the ass, kind of day I've had today. It started with Bella waking up with a streaming cold and a very upset tummy. The cold meant that she couldn't get to sleep when I put her down for her first nap. Which in turn meant that I wasn't able to get into my work room or make a start on my Tie One On Apron. 
As a a slight compromise and so that I might actually get some work done, I strapped Bella into her low, bouncy chair, infront of a Baby Einstein dvd, and popped back upstairs to collect together some bits and pieces of hand sewing that I could do while she played in front of me. I was only gone a minute when there was a crash and a scream and I found Bella on her front, on the floor  with the chair on top of her. It's a very light chair and is only 2 inches off the floor so I thought that she'd just given herself a fright, but when I picked her up she had a black eye! Good God I have never felt so awful in my life! It's the first time she's ever hurt herself and it made me feel like a real piece of shit mother. I know that I can't watch her every second and I know that accidents happen, but my job is supposed to be to protect her, not give her a black eye!  And certainly not on a day when she already feels so awful. Bad Mommy!
Later, after lunch and only a half hour nap since breakfast (she's usually had at least 2 hours), I was just getting Bella ready for her next, much needed nap, when an almighty banging started up! Next door had the roofers in and it sounded like they were working right above Bella's room! The poor thing was so tired and bruised and covered in snot and there wasn't a chance in hell that she was going to be able to sleep.
And nor did she, save for the half hour that she drooled all over my chest, drifting fitfully in and out of sleep, only to be rudely awoken by the nastiest bout of diarrhoea I ever wish to deal with!
I did however manage to finish two key rings and paint my mantle piece, but neither were done it time to photograph them in the light and I can't bare to use the flash. So once again my craft blog (this is supposed to be a craft blog btw!) is sadly bereft of crafts!
Super day.

Weekend

Before I started actually blogging and only read other people's I would be really disappointed when there were no new posts, particularly at the weekend. Now I understand.
I had a hundred things that I wanted to achieve this weekend and I have so far achieved a grand total of 1 and a half!
I wanted to finish a couple of keyrings that I've been working on for three days now and post about them. I wanted to start work on a new quilt for my front room. I wanted to wallpaper the chimneybreast in the front room. I wanted to put away the christmas decorations. Make a start on a crewel pattern. Paint the mantle piece. Pack away the clothes that Bella's grown out of. Scan a load of books so that I could post about them. And perhaps make and eat some real food, instead of the junk we've been living on this week.
Of that list, I have succeeded in wallpapering the front room and sanding and priming the mantelpiece. That's it! Nothing else at all. Not even eat some real food. Infact our food consumption has been worse than ever!
The wallpaper does look bloody gorgeous though. And it wasn't too hard to hang, once I got my head around pattern repeats etc (I've only ever hung lining paper before and always badly).

Because we're a modern household (and not because Jim is lousy at diy and certainly not because I'm a control freak) Jim looked after Bella while I put up the paper. Unfortunately, Bella was teething horribly yesterday, so she couldn't nap and didn't want to play, so I had to do it all whilst she sat on Jim's lap and moaned and screetched. It did not lead to a relaxing time.

So that this isn't a photo free post here is the mantle after being sanded back, which I kinda like, however it's now primed with it's first coat of blue/green paint.