Busy days

It has been a very hectic week around here. Work has reached almost fever pitch, and I've just been told that not only do I need to tapdance for this performance I'm in, but I have to sing. Sing!?! They pulled it on me when it's too late to back out. Lousy sods.

I've been making a few things on weekends. My hubby purchased me a PDA because there's so much going on lately that I was forgetting a lot of important stuff. He also decided I should make a new pencil case in which to store 'Poida' (the PDA), and hence, after much swearing and unpicking it appeared.

I ended up using these instructions that helped an awful lot.

I've been working through the beads my Mum made, and created this necklace. I'm rather proud of it and wish it was for me!

One day I'll take time to take pictures properly because this set up does not work for jewelery. The beads on the bottom are my mother's creations plus a silver leaf charm.

I've also got some delicious new fabrics to work with. Can you tell I love butterflies?

Finding the happy

I've been recalcitrant again with posting - this hasn't meant that I wasn't reading and (sometimes) commenting, but life got busy once more.

A belated welcome to the beautiful Isabella, gorgeous daughter of Ellia! I am the lucky winner of the guessing competition Ellia ran, I was pretty close with the weight and length of the lil one. This has spurred me into action with posting again, I must say.

Life has been crazy busy here lately. I'm in a play in which I have to learn how to tapdance (a hilarious sight, I can tell you!), I'm directing the school's musical, my spiritual group is growing in leaps and bounds and I'm attending craft classes locally every fortnight. I'm also on a mission to "bring back the happy", something that I've needed for so long. In fact, to help with this mission, I made a journal cover that I was shown in a meditation. It's the one on the right.


I have never been a pink girl, but this image came up so clear that I had to make it. It stores my positive reviews of the day. It's easy for me to dislike myself, but I have been shown that it is possible to focus on the positive things I do.

There are heaps of other projects that I have made in the last few weeks. Unfortunately, the light is fading here, and my other photos were terrible! I've made three journal covers and I'm enjoying embroidery ever so much. I've also been making jewellery for my Mum out of the beads she made. There are some interesting pieces to work with there! Anyway, I hope that I will update again soon so I don't feel so neglectful!

P.s. I'm definately listing winning the competition a positive for today!

A Gift!

The lovely gal from BrownPants sent out brooches for commenters who commented on her birthday, and I was the lucky recipient of one of these cute lil works.

I feel so lucky! Thankyou BrownPants! I'm going to wear it to school tomorrow. Dress code be damned!

Faeries

It's no mystery to anyone I know irl that I love dressing up. I love the fae. This is a shot of my bridesmaids and I from my actual wedding day:



As you can see, my wings are quite expansive. So much so, that when we went into the roughest pub in town on my hen's night, I had to wear someone else's wings so I wouldn't knock anyone out! (Let me tell you, those wings created quite the stir!) Plus, my dress there? That's green. How many people do you know get married in green?!

So. Imagine my boss coming to me, asking if I wanted to dress up like a green fairy (note the change in spelling if you will) for a charity event. Now, there was a little bit of squealing and jumping up and down in agreement. No mention of the date. This event is happening on Friday. The day before St Patrick's Day.

Here's where I get a little...tense. Without going too much into my spiritual beliefs, St Patrick's Day makes me sad to the roots of my pagan soul. I generally wear black in mourning on St Patrick's Day for my pagan ancestors and really think about religious persecution and what it meant then; and now. It's a day of reflection for me.

I didn't realise the date you see. I was too dense to make the connection. The commitment was made too quickly. So we're going to be green fairies on Friday for a good cause. We're all wearing similar clothing and wings and such. (However, I cannot wear my wedding wings - I would poke some child's eye out!) I will raise money for cancer, but I will not celebrate. To other people it's not spiritual, it's not political, it's a chance to be green and drunk. I'll play the part, then return to my home for a bit of quiet meditative time.

My skirt looks good, I must say.

Friday night meanderings throughout cyberspace can inspire crafty lust within my heart. Unfortunately, due to our cash flow problems at the moment, I cannot afford to buy anything, but I found NEET magazine through a link on Modamuse, and well...I lust.

I love everything at 'Made with love by Hannah', especially the schwarzwalder and the matryoshka skirts.

I also like the mushroom necklace at bythebeardofzeus as well as the pirateship!

I love a lot of the tees at supermaggie, especially this, this, and this.

Le sigh. Well, off to watch 'Love Actually' - that never fails to put a smile on my face!

We recently gave birth...to our first pumpkin! It was an unexpected pregnancy - the vine just sprang up under our stairs. (Even after dutiful years of planting organic seeds and getting nothing!) Considering our over mothering probably killed previous attempts, we adopted a lax approach to our new little one, letting the vine roam where it wanted. And now it's here! Hopefully it will make some delicious soup (0r baked goodness)! (We're a family of cannibals it seems...)

Here is the bag I made this weekend, a plastic coated one! It's pretty cool, though my machine is not a fan of sewing so many layers including 4 layers of plastic. I learnt about walking foots and why they are important. I didn't even know such things existed! It was easier with the generic walking foot, though I hope I can get one that fits my Bernette 60. So far my searches have proved otherwise, but I still hold out hope.

Real Life Interuptus

Work has once again drawn me into it's clutches. Like a villainous puppeteer, it forces me to dance to the tune of sacrifice and humility. On one hand, it can play out gloriously. On the other it can leave this poor, misshapen puppet feeling the tension in her neck returning.

However! There is still inspiration out there, and here are a few ideas that have been playing backstage in the moments of silence.

The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation - how did I not know about this before? It's not a new idea to be kind to people, but here this site makes it organised and enticing for do-gooders like myself. I want to instigate a project with my school (or at least one class) based on these principles. I have vague plans of making some of Dottie's art dolls as a mini RAK for people I know.

The local fabric shop are holding some more classes soon, one starting this weekend. I will soon be the proud creator of a plastic coated handbag. (Imagine a material bag, sandwiched between two layers of plastic). I'm hoping it turns out well and I can give it to my Mum for Mother's Day.

My best friend (and Maid of Honour at our wedding last year) is pregnant! There will be many more baby crafts about, let me tell you.

Now if only the puppeteer would stop putting me into plays where teenagers hit each other in the name of 'playing around'. I did not sign up for a Punch and Judy show.