Wednesday 31 July 2013

What's The Opposite Of Buyer's Remorse?



I kind-of collect plastic beads. I say kind-of because collecting would probably imply spending more than 50p-£1 a pop and making concerted effort to find them, that and it sounds a bit wanky. Anyway, I like the ones like the yellow and white you see here best - ovoid, fixed to their thread, and in strings about 19" long. It all started with the white ones which came from The Guildhall Market in Bath - there's an amazing jewellery stall there with all manner of sparkly wonders.

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Sadly I didn't warn Alice that I was trying to make art. What you can see of my hand is in focus though.

It's the kind of place that paralyses me with lustful indecision - I'd like to own ALL of the pretty, but I'm blinded to the merits of individual brooches, necklaces and earrings. Too much! Too much! As moley said in The Wind In The Willows :)

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The colours!

Anyway, in front of this stall on a little table is a box full of assorted plastic beads. They're mostly the long sort that you can knot - like twenties pearls - but there are various graduated round and oval ones. These are 50p each, and that's how I came to own the white ones.

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I was far too pleased with myself for this photo
I loved my first string of white beads - they went with everything - and was quite unhappy when they broke. They'd got tangled in my hair and camera strap on a rather hasty walk along the Cornish coast path and the fixing came off the back. My Dad decided that araldite wouldn't work and bodged them back together with a safety pin and I carried on wearing them, but far less often than before as I was sad about the loss. Over the next few years I kept looking out for a replacement in charity shops, and took the opportunity to look whenever I was in Bath but to no avail. I amassed quite a collection of other colours - more than you see in the photo above - but never did I find the elusive white.

And then one day it occurred to me to see what eBay might have, and lo there was a seller with a whole stash of eighties deadstock plastic necklaces. I ordered one straight away and it's an exact replacement of my broken favourite. Hurrah!
In fact I may have just bought another, in grey, oops.

Oh! And the title of this, and what I meant to talk about: I saw a pale grey necklace in Shop on Saturday, didn't buy it, and spent my idle moments on Sunday regretting it. Boo for browser's remorse.
This probably isn't a terribly interesting post but hopefully you've enjoyed the pictures? Here's one last one of the original white necklace in action in Cornwall - look how happy I am!

Elephants!
Elephants! Perfectly innocent.

Saturday 27 July 2013

Unseasonal Shots

Autumnal!

It's not that I'm wishing away the summer or anything (except that I kind of am - I'm really not made for this weather) but going through the old photos I've been uploading to Flickr is making me really nostalgic for autumn. Pretty leaves, big cardigans, boots, & cosiness.

17 . . . Plane

Saturday 20 July 2013

Toiling Over A Toile


My week in Cornwall was good and I've been busy back at work, catching up with friends, graduating (along with the boy), and being exhausted by the heat - but now I've found some time to sew.
This is my toile/muslin for New Look 6154 which I was lucky enough to pick up at the swap in Birmingham a month ago (it's been that long already! My studenty self still isn't quite used to working.) and I believe was kindly donated by Hannah of Made With Hugs And Kisses. I've got some navy cotton from Fabric Land to make a final version in and it'll hopefully be a work-wearable but summery skirt (my work has no dress code but I try to keep some level of decency & presentability) to go with my many patterned tops. My clothes buying habits in the past have veered heavily towards the patterned and colourful "frosting" - I could do with some "cake" to go with all that.
I've been making a size 18 since my hip measurement is 42 on a good day and the ease marked on the pattern pieces is something huge - the muslin seems alright so I'm carrying on. I'm adding a couple of inches to the length for comfort, cutting the back piece on the fold, and moving the zip to the side seam. Hopefully that will all turn out ok, I'm making notes as I go along which should help avoid any mistakes.

Next I'm going to trace out my lengthened pattern pieces (I'm trying brown paper as it's sturdy) and start cutting, wish me luck!

Tuesday 2 July 2013

25 Before 24 - July Update


Polruan, summer 2011

I'm in Cornwall! Hurrah! That's number 5 ticked off. Hopefully the weather is behaving and I'm sitting out in the garden of our holiday cottage with a nice cold cider. I thought this might be a good time for my first 25 Before 24 update.

25 Things

  1. Cycle to Bath
  2. Visit K at RHUL - Last bank holiday weekend I went on a Surrey-based adventure, photos to come when I'm less overwhelmed by the quantity!
  3. Go to a sewing meet - I went to Birmingham and it was great :)
  4. Make 5 items of clothing - Several uncompleted Sorbettos, muslined New Look 6154
  5. Go to Cornwall and/or somewhere warm - I'm there now!
  6. Learn some Perl/Ruby/C++/SQL
  7. Keep a list of things to cook and make 2 new ones per month - my beetroot went off before I had time to make risotto :(
  8. Read twelve or more books - Had a drought but taking "Camera Lucida" by Barthes to Cornwall
  9. Cut down my photo-uploading backlog - slow progress is being made
  10. Scrapbook - I've started
  11. Visit 5 new towns or cities - Dawlish/Teignmouth & Egham/Twickenham
  12. Keep job/get good/become independent - Not been fired yet!
  13. Go to a pop-up restaurant or supper club
  14. Finish things
  15. Mend/alter
  16. See cousins - Had brunch with one in London
  17. Go to a gig/film/... every month - I've seen Caitlin Rose, Public Service Broadcasting, & Sweet Baboo
  18. Walk lots - I can't walk to work but boy and I have had a few evening walks
  19. Visit new cafés/things - I've been to Bill's, a new-to-me Thai restaurant, and Harris & Hoole in Twickenham
  20. Do something creative every week - this has mostly come in the form of cooking recently, I might do a little food post some time soon
  21. Make an effort to go to things
  22. Learn to knit properly - I've been stalking "Learn To Knit Love To Knit" on Libraries West but no luck thus far, it's overdue at my nearest library :(
  23. Listen to the radio regularly - I've been stalking the DAB radios in Sainsbury's but haven't taken the plunge yet
  24. Use stashes - Visiting Birmingham didn't help with this, but I have some inspiration now
  25. Find a dentist & get teeth fixed
Not too bad for this early on but plenty of Getting On With It to do. Hopefully I'll have visited another new town by the time I'm back :)