Monday 30 November 2009

Frock 31: Yay for floral for Frocktober

Hey there,

Just updating you that finally "PHEW", I completed my month of making a dress a day for Frocktober. Darlings, you see here I did make a dress for every day of October. But I didn't really have the time to make it *within* the month of October... so here is the 31st dress!

Yay!




I'm trying the new blogger post layout thingie too, so please forgive me if I've got crazy with the image size etc, just testing! Beta darlings beta!

This dress was for the wedding on Saturday, it was ace, a beautiful darling wedding. Great friends and great foods and great wine and really ace conversation with everyone. I loved it. Totally my speed of wedding. I felt really happy to be there!

I woke up with an insy winsy hangover, from 2 other parties as you know, but was determined to wear something new! I've made this a few times before (floral green, a refashion, and another awards night dress) and it's always a bit different. As you know Sydney-siders it was quite hot on Saturday, so I knew I wanted it sleeveless. But I let Husbie choose the fabric, and I would never have picked this to work. He loves orange, so I can see why he liked it, but it was totes see through. It was perfect for the weather, but I had to line it. WHICH my darlings, wasn't that hard! Yay!

LUCKILY during my last trip to the op shop, the dreamboat shop assistant gave me all this white light material for lining as a bonus cause I bought so much other fabric. She said 'You should do lining', and I was like 'Oh Ok'... and totally didn't plan on using it. LUCKY! It's really nice light white with stripes, so feels quite nice on and I didn't get too sweaty-betty.

I put an orange button on just for my Husbie too:



It's my new technique instead of using metal closures on the top of zippies. Usually you can just get away with the zip (and most modern things don't use clasps etc) but I wanna use up all those stash buttons (in the 1000s and 1000s darlings) instead of buy more clasps. Reusing stuff is so much better, especially lost buttons.

Recently I have a few requests from friends for frocks, so I think I might start on a gallon of Christmas style fun party dresses. I love this style, so perhaps I'll tweak this and make some variations on it with some other stash fabric as it was maybe 3 hours to finish off... that's good!

Hope you all had a good weekend too, and thank you for your great comments on my fun bright party dresses from last week! Yay!

xoxo

Sunday 29 November 2009

Spring Cleaning!

Credit where credit is due... so the awards go to...

For "best notes on how to make a STRETCHY 3 column blog template" (after deleting my old one whilst fiddling around today, but my old one wasn't stretchy anyways) the award goes to ... Compender! Thank you sir!

And for the best notes on removing borders on my images... the winner is ... Blog U! Yay winnahz!

And then I realised my heading still had a border and I hate that shizz, so I googled again... and the winner is Sneaky Momma!

Yippee. Now I can relax for a bit (Husbie's helping me with a new banner right now) cause I wanted to clear my page up a bit. Not sure about you, but I tend to look at my page a LOT, I like using my links and viewing my blog list, and using the front end (as opposed to google reader or whatever) so it was time for a change. I still like 3 columns, so sorry if you don't! As I went stretchy instead of normal, I'll be able to post larger photos here and I think that will work better within the text. Blah Blah Blah! I'm no designer!

How funny is my dog today:


We went down to somewhere in the Sutherland Shire. Yep, and it was FUNNY! It was kinda the only dog beach and it was really fun for the dogs to splash around. Our doggie darling even did doggie paddling quite well (her first time!) xoxo

Frock 30: My purps awards dress complete!

Check out my majorly oversized bow for my awards dress:


This is probably the best shot of the purple fabric, but later in the night (with loads of great drunkie faces) it still looked good, as the purple bits had metallic threads through it that caught the light. Very nice!

When I sat down the skirt was really mini, and the bow sort of draped over it! I was very happy with it, and how cute are my friends? You know my red dress of course, but my friend's ultramarine dress is actually by Marc Jacobs, not me! Hee hee! Great colours though!

So my party season has officially begun after this awards night. We had another farewell fun party on Friday (just wore a fun vintage frock to that one) and then yesterday we went to a wedding and luckily I wasn't that hungover from my 2 nights of parties so I made a gorgeous floral dress that I'll tell you about later today. My husbie took photos at the wedding so I'll go through those later.

We're going to the beach today with Doggie Darling and a friend, and hopefully it's a proper dog beach that I've finally found! I'm looking forward to reading the paper and lying around with loads of suncream on.

Hope your weekend is fun!

Saturday 28 November 2009

Frock 29: The Awards Dress in Red!

Hey guys!

My friends took all the photos on our awards night, so I haven't got a photo of me yet, but I crawled through some news sites and found my darling red frock that I made for my friend!


She looked SO cute! Those boys are pretty cute too!

So this was the art deco sleeved one I posted about here, And I cut it short, and skillfully hemmed it with a blind stitch on my machine. I did consider using bias tape, like you darlings suggested, but ran outta time. I was still making my gigantic bow as we were leaving the house and I stuck the final safety pins in whilst sitting in the taxi on the way there!

LOL!

It was so much fun though! So I guess with this other red dress and my purps dress I've made 31 frocks for October finally... will post them soon... it's funny that Frocktober really went for two months for me! It's such a busy time of year to do a dress a day, it worked back in June or July when I did the garment a day cause it was a little bit quieter in my life... but October and November are the busiest months as we plan for the end of year for work, and socially it's crazy because of the warmer weather here.

We're going to a friend's wedding today, and I invested all my energy in making the awards dresses that I haven't planned anything to wear... Oh dear, will have to check the stash today and make a quickie dress. It's a garden wedding, so doesn't have to be too posh, but I'd like to wear something new!

xoxo

Wednesday 25 November 2009

Crazy Purps Awards Dress: Part 2

Whoa.

It's almost finished!


Today I added the sleeves, added the skirt lining and adjusted the bust (with some dodgy vertical darts) and fixed all the bodice lining to the actual dress. Oh and did the zippy! I only had a short zipper (second hand stash damn you!) so have accommodated it, and I'll show you that later.

But let's talk SLEEVES!


I wasn't sure of what to do yesterday, but I had a think away from the sewing room today (i.e in the lift at work) and thought how the box-y look was cute and that I could mirror the width of the sleeve cuff to match the waist band etc, so I cut two strips of fabric and lining, cut a rectangle minus one long side and turned it inside out and then attached the open side to the dress bodice as you'd usually attach a sleeve, but folding the ends over underneath.

I think it comes out kinda Japanese! And with this fabric it makes me think I'm going to move my bow...


I still have enough fabric and lining to make the bow and even though I've hemmed it quite short, I think it needs that extra ironic tizz, and I thought I'd make a belt sash, like a kimono style, but with a massive bow! I could attached it around the waist at the front or at the back.

That way it's a huge laugh at the awards night, but then I still have a nice dress to wear at other occasions (and then I don't have to wear an oversized bow to normal places!)... what do you think?

I also really love the neckline and sleeves now, so the thought of attaching a stupid bow and hiding my nice lining handiwork makes be cringe.

The only yuk bit is that I top stitched the waistband to incorporate the lining, and it kinda turned crafty on me... so if I create a belt to wrap around, that would hide the crafty bit. But maybe you don't think the waistband looks that bad? I think I'm very picky of my work!

YAY! Ok, so just googling some handstitching blind hem techniques now so I don't hem it in a geeky crafty way either!

Tuesday 24 November 2009

Crazy Purps Awards Dress: Part 1

Today has been so busy (AGAIN) so thought I'd pause just when there was still some light outside to show you the Great Purple Dress Adventure I've been having today! I'm going ok for time, I guess, but now I'm leaving the armholes for a while because I'm still unsure about the big extravagant bow I have planned...



So the bodice is going really well, and the fabric is stiff so doesn't move around so much... I think I did well for the lining as the two fabrics aren't puckering, they're sewing together nice and flat and both materials are taking the warmish iron well (no scary burnt iron or melty marks). Phew!

Here's the lining bits for you (I told you that it was stash purple lining, so you can see the faded sun marks in these shots pretty well) (Tip: Don't store you fabric in sunlit rooms. My fabric isn't even getting direct sun!)



Yay, understitching the lining is also THE best thing. I've overlooked it a few times just because of time issues, but since it's Tuesday and the Awards is Thursday, I still have a few hours up my sleeve.

While I was resizing the photos for this post, I attached the skirt and tried it in. It fitted really nicely but I did notice that I may have to restitch the sides of the skirt cause the overlocker didn't really serge the fabrics well enough.

What do you think of the fabric and the colour? Tizzy? That's what I'm going for, but is it tizzy ENOUGH? Like I said yesterday, I'm worried that it's now not ironic enough! Perhaps I should do massive sleeves in the shape of a bow instead of one big bow on one sleeve? Thoughts?

xoxo

Monday 23 November 2009

Two weeks left of my day job...

My day job, as I've mentioned before, is funny, fast, early mornings, and full of fun colleagues who are more of the BFF variety than just office pals. I'm very lucky to work with them every day. I talk a LOT and sometimes I laugh so much that my ear starts hurting and then my head pops off from laughing too much! Very lucky gal!

There's 2 more weeks or so left of our 2009, so we're all having a great time, it's like school muck up day every day and there's the real feeling exams are over! Phew! BUT it's pretty sad at the same time. AND I'm making some dresses at the moment for the industry's awards night and it's all very exciting for us gals in the office cause we get to get tizzed up in OUR way... Doggie Darling is helping me go through the patterns today for MY PURPLE DRESS!


I haven't got a good photo of the material yet, but it's purple black and I have these terribly high op shop heels to go with it. I just need to settle on the style:


I'm leaning toward the Vogue Yves Saint Laruent black dress at the moment, it's a fitted bodice, a waist (with belt area) and skirt that I can crop short. And whilst it's got this 'bias attached collar' and sleeves, I'll ditch the sleeves and play around with that crazy collar to get it right. I'm thinking a big fuckoff bow, or something shoulder-ish that seems in fash now. This is all hoping that I have extra material, cause I think I have just over 2 metres, so for a short arse like me that's enough for a dress... but not sure on the 'accessory' collar thing! I chose these two patterns because they need lining, and I've got heaps of op shopped purple lining to use for it, so it should all be cool!

Just a quick question though, how does one usually choose lining? Are their rules on this type of thing? I've chosen this purple shiny stuff because it was in my stash, and I noticed that it keeps changing colours because of the sun, so I better use it soon. That's probably not the ideal reason of choosing a lining fabric. It is shiny and makes a noise... that's kinda like lining too right?

Nonetheless, I'll also make it pretty short and mini in the skirt, because it is the music industry night of nights after all. So a little leg won't hurt anybody.

Talk soon, and hopefully with photos of this crazy fabric. I am worried it may not be ironic enough, but we'll see!

Sunday 22 November 2009

Better Red Than Dead - Step #2

Oh hai, me again with Red Dress Number 2!


This one is from a gabardine type material (I have no idea what that means mind you... I went to Lincraft on Friday and they only had 2 type of reds suitable for this kind of dress. The red you saw before, and this red. It's a total budget store in Alexandria, so avoid it if you like variety) and I cleverly (yes, I am clever here) made an art deco type sleeve and I just adore it!


I like both of them so much, so I hope my darling friend likes them too!

So now that I've built these two frocks (without zips and hem line mind you) I'll show them to my friend and get her exact fit. AND THEN I'LL START MY FREAKING PURPLE DRESS!

Yep, I haven't been able to tell you yet, but I got this WEIRD purple material at the Remnants Warehouse the other day, and thought 'If I go to that awards night, I'll make my dress from this weird shizz'... and I found out this week I get to go. So I'm aiming to make a normal bodice/dress bit but add a kickarse shoulder accessory thing, like a big bow or big tuffs of material or something weird. More soon!

xoxo

Better Red Than Dead - Step #1

Or perhaps the bookstore is called Better Read Than Dead... and go there if you like Inner West (of Syds) Street Art! A few people have told me to go buy a terrific book there and I looked the other day and sure enough my knitted street pole was featured! Along with A LOT of other blog peeps. I'll buy it soon and talk about it then...

But! Here is my first darling red dress (for my friend):


The details, of course: Some sort of drill red fabric, lined with the same thing, cap sleeves designed by me. But pretty much it's a vintage early 80s prom dress thing that they want you to make in velour and bad silver trim:


Those sleeves are just very LONG semi circles, I cut 4 (or 2 on folded fabric) and overlocked the curvy side. Then when it came to sewing up the rest of the lining (it was one of those patterns that you sew across front to front and lining to lining at the shoulder seams), I just tucked them in and top stitched:


Top stitching wasn't the BEST aesthetic option, because you can see it on the surface, buy my overheated sweat shop brain couldn't work out how to sew it up inside and I knew I'd hand stitch it forever and a day and it won't be finished in time.

YAY! I haven't put the zip in or adjusted the length yet, cause wanna fit it with the darling girl on Tuesday!

That's why it's called a sweat shop right?

Hey!

We're in the sewing room today, and it's still HOT and it's a total sweat shop sauna in here. Don't have time to go outside to see if it really is that 41 degrees Celsius as predicted or if it's because I have the iron on really really hot cause I'm sewing a storm.

I've got 2 of the red dresses on the go, from a gabardine type material and some other stiff shiny red drill. They're for my friend to try out and if she likes them she might WEAR IT ON TV. Not getting too excited, because whilst that would be just fabulous for me, my friend doesn't really like being on TV. So it's all like, whatever honey, low key and just normal expectations around here.

So far the dresses are like this one, but red, and I'm making different 'sleeves' for them... A round subtle cap sleeve and an art deco-esque layered sleeve... that I'm attaching now to the bodice sleeve. FINGERS FREAKING CROSSED THEY WORK.

Doggie is still hot, but asleep on the fabric remnants now.


Thankfully she stopped wanting cuddles (way too hot dude) and has stopped sniffing around.

Talk soon darlings...

Saturday 21 November 2009

Hot Dog!

It's a hot day here today. Fingers crossed it's not hot in a bushfires kinda way anywhere.

We've got a few errands to run today around the house, so trying to keep cool. My red materials are blowing in the not so cool breeze to get dry (probably is dry already!) and we're looking after our darling:


That's the tip we got from our friends! Wet teatowels and towels around the house for her to get under and lie on.

We're going to the beach later as well, first time this summer for us. We're not HUGE beach go-ers. I've lived in Sydney now for almost 4 years, and always thought I'd be visiting the beach, but no. I really really really like Clovelly Beach, because of all the cement! I don't like the sand much.

ANYWAYS, my red dress story is that I'm going to make at least 3 dresses for my friend for a large occasion next week... then she can choose the best of the 3 that would suit the night most appropriately. YAYZ or take all 3 of them if they're all good! Hee Hee!

Thursday 19 November 2009

A pillow case close to my heart

I can't really say much, because I'm close to tears with love! But I finished my scraps pillow, which was some weird stash fabric sewn into a rectangle and I just collected up all my overlocker mess bits, threads and spare triangles of fabric (there's always triangles!) and stuffed them in there with some couch foam we found on the street:









ARGH too cute!

Stash fabric is some weird hippie tie dye stuff, I think a throw or something... contents of course is all those from the messy overlocker and things that are way too small to do anything with... AND the darling cover material is a giant pillowslip of IKEA fabric (I'm sure you've all seen it before!) that's really tough, and the buttons are all stash buttons but without partners so perfect for a mismatch Dog Bed.

Love it!

Dining out for lunch on a hot date...

... with my dog.

She's big enough now for a bit of out and about learning without getting in a tiz! She's 9 months old now!

I tried to load a photo here but the free internetz is just a little slow, but we're out at a lovely cafe, she with water bowl, me with cuppa tea. And SHE JUST SAT DOWN, she's always excited about stuff, so for her to be sitting and chilling just a bit (she's checking out some goths from the goth shop across the road) is really amazing.

Anyways, I'm updating my etsy, slowly and just wanted to share this site:

More Cloth - a easy and colour way to shop for fabric on etsy! I'm thinking of sending this out when I do custom orders for custies, as it could be a good way to know what exact colour to make for people.

I found it via the Dust Team Forums... do you know there's a "street team" for most countries and if you sell on etsy you can sign up and be a member of the Down Under Street Team (aka DUST)? I'm not a serial pest there, as I have no extra time in my day, but if I did sewing full time I'd spend more time there, as heaps of people discuss what they're making and how they make it and how to do business better etc... so it's really very helpful if you're thinking of doing creating full time (not just sewing mind you) cause it's a little community for you to engage with.

I might bust a move now, the connection here is just way too slow (aren't I all lardy dah with my speedy access at home now?) and I want to investigate the op shops down the road. I have a "special project" in mind, and it involves a red dress. It might take me a few experiments to get it right, and it's for something pretty big. I want to make something very original too, so once I sketch it out (in my mind) I might report back.

WHOA secret squirrel til then.

x

Just loaded this photo back home:



x

Wednesday 18 November 2009

Mrs Tailor at (hobby) work...

Hey darlings,

Just a quick post today as I've got to dash out for tea with my work pals.

Everyone's putting their orders in at the moment, and I just hemmed up my taxi driver's work shirts! See:



You know how I have to get to work so freaking early? Well we get a cab charge at my job and I kinda avoided catching cabs cause I'd either NOT feel like talking, or feel weird that time of the morning with a cabbie, then the cabs just never turned up for a while and my Husbie got annoyed with them too! I gave up and just usually drove to work myself.

BUT, Husbie had the car away from home for a week recently and so I called the cab company and after a day or two got THE BEST taxi man in Sydney (I'd had him a few times, but he was all booked out with regular bookings... daily early morning workers like me) but he'd had a person change jobs recently and so now I'm in the roster. I'm officially the VIP passenger of the best taxi man in Syds.

Yippee! And he asked me to do some tailoring for him so hobby money for me! Yay! I've got a few dresses and a couple of skirts for the girls at work to finish off tomorrow, so just call me Mrs Tailor!

xoxo

Tuesday 17 November 2009

Pausing and Reflecting





Some snap shots of things that I'm chucking up into my Veronica Darling etsy store! It's a day of pausing and reflecting for me. You know when you hear yourself repeat little tags or pep talk things, to "Pause and Reflect" is one of my sayings at work. It comes out every now and again in busy times. Or what about "Creating a conversation"? I think I used that one today in an email. Why didn't I just write "let's talk"? It has to be jargonised and 'creating' sounds like I'm being bright and creative.

EEP!

A few things I paused and reflected on today:

Why everyone at work was asking me about Wordpress and what I thought about blogging. Does this mean I should change my junky page? Should I start over at wordpress?

All the clock noises through hack today. It was about your biological clock and all the ticking made me Pause and Reflect on when to have a baby. I'm 31 now. I'm very short. I think I'm 22. I would look weird having a baby. Like a 12 year old who is pregnant. I still have baby teeth, how can I have a baby?

How my Husbie has nice relatives and how I accidently called them when I set up skype on my new computer and they were really sweet.

I can't believe I can love a dog so much. She is just so cute and friendly and funny and soft and cute and pretty and little and sleepy (at the moment) and crazy (earlier).




Hope Tuesday was darling for you, best wishes to you if you need a little weekend already. xoxo

Monday 16 November 2009

Frock 28: Stretchy Stash & a DESIGN


Hey sweets,

Just happily made this darling frocko for Frocktober! Almost there! I also donated 50 bucks ($10 from all the dresses I sold and another ten bucks for darling Crafty Llama - but couldn't work out how to donate in your name til it was too late DUR ME) to the Frocktober Peeps, and I think you can still get in there too if you fancy (or aren't going crazy for Movember!)!

And my film strips of the stretch knit new dress:



What I'm MOST proud of here is that I totes designed it myself! I had been using some Built By Wendy suggestions for stretch knit fabric, and as I've said before I'd cut one using her pattern piece, but the use the fabric pieces I'd cut to alter the sleeves (making them cap) or lowering the neckline etc etc etc.

So I thought it best that I create my own pieces and learn a bit about drafting for knits! Yay!




Hee hee! I'm totally just making it up as I go! The material I've used was just from my stash, it's ribbed and had a few dirty marks on it, as it was from the op shop, but I just cut around or sewed over them with the overlocker. As I've done with my knitting recently (and learnt to sew really) my mantra is to just give it a go, and follow the instructions. If you're using stash or opshopped fabric/wool you can't go wrong, it only costs a few bucks!

Fruity Frippery for your baby head

Phew! It's a hot one today! I just got home and poor little Doggie Darling was underneath our bikes in the backyard, so obviously the coolest part of the house. She's not really understanding the heat that much and forgets that water is really good and cools you down. She drinks for about 15 minutes and then doesn't drink anything for the rest of the day!

Anyways this is the darling little beanie I made over the weekend!



There are so many babies around, so I'm going crazy for them. I joined Raverly recently and saw this pattern for free up online! How cute is the little leafy bit of the tomato. Gosh it was tricky at times, but I've decided I must be a natural knitter because this was the first time I did circular knitting!

The hat was too small for a needle connected to the wire thing, so I looked up on my fave 'How To' page to find out how to use those double pointed needles and voila voila voila. I also have never done a cord thing before (the tip bit of the stem) and I'm not too pleased with that, but hey! You don't see the inside of it! How cute is Doggie Darling:


Oh, and this was all stash wool, the red wool I think was second hand. Very proud!

Also, if the sun goes away I'm going to take more fashion photos!


There was just enough light yesterday to take this yesterday, but I'm waiting for more cloud cover today to take the rest of them. I need to restock my etsy!

That's my banana tree in the background! It's grown so much this year!

Saturday 14 November 2009

Bitty Baby Boots

Gosh it's a beautiful day here at my house! We've just LOL-ed about in the old fashioned 'LOL' way and done not much at all but talked, laughed and lounged (Husbie with Doggie Darling on the couch!)


Cute to BOOT!

And speaking of 'boot', here's my finished booties:


A little lopsided, and a little weird in some areas (Hey! I'm trying out continental and it totally IS quicker, but working on my tension peeps!) but together with vintage buttons, which kinda match, I think they're worthy of a little present to some darling little baby who isn't alive yet! I know the song is 'All my friends are getting married' ... but in my case 'All my friends are having babies' ... so there's plenty of future baby feet to make these boots!

I thoroughly recommend the pattern, as I've followed a few vintage ones in my time, and they're still not finished... so YAY, go to ravelry now and look up Saartje's Bootees cause they're ace and easy for beginners like me.

Now it's way too sunny and hot for knitting, so we're going to go shopping for books now!

Thursday 12 November 2009

Dress 27: Pastels!

Hey darlings. I've been a bit busy AGAIN but ticking off a few things here and there. TICK!

Mostly my day job happenings... big TICK as the year winds up. There's only 3 major weeks left and then I won't know what's hit me.

Today proved that I can be productive with white wine. VERY productive! Why did I stop drinking in October then? I should have kept at it, been a fatty boom bah and screamed through my Frocks for the Frocktober Challenge.

Anyways, happy to report this frocko turned out quite well!


Sorry for the inside shots, but it's late and husbie is out at a work function. But it seriously does look really pretty on, and it's the weirdest mix of pastel 80s colours, that just works!


I've tried to make each dress (3 from 1 remember?) just a little different, and this one has no sleeves or frill and I've tied it at the front, kinda greek style:


But I'm rather proud of my construction (although these pictures highlight the snags and rumpled bits I'm afraid) because I taught myself about lining.

Friends, I'll be honest. I cut corners. I only have stash fabric, and rarely go to the 'real' shops for material and haberdash. Even the other day in the op shop, the shopkeeper was insisting I take whites and light cottons that she'd got and I was like 'why?' and she was LINING DARLING, LINING. Even if you just line the bust bit or whatever.

So it's with strange delight I announce that for the first and proper time, I've made up some lining, that's not only the bust bit, but the ENTIRE FREAKING DRESS. And it was only because this fabric was slightly sheer.


So I'm heaps proud, of course, but I can't even begin to explain how I did it. I think I worked it out halfway through construction that the fabric was a bit see through. Then I decided that I'd make it for myself, so used a white fabric from some holiday trip. I think it was supposed to be a sari. But it was really light and flowy like the dress material. Then I put together the whole thing, but didn't sew any side seams or armhole bits. And then I roughly measured out the bodice bit (it has gathers/darts/tucks you see) and then attached the lining to the neckline first, ironed it all flat then used bias tape for the armholes and overlocked the whole sideseams from lining through to dress fabric.

Voila:


I also attached just a bit to the zipper, like 5 inches or so. Sorry about my explanation, I'm just a terror at these things, and my terminology is through the roof.

Yayz, I'd never thought I'd like pastel colours, but I like this!

Tuesday 10 November 2009

Itty Bitty Booty for Bunnies

I'm in a bit of a blurry (hurry blur anyone?) and sorry about the computer camera pic, it's not as good quality but at least you can see it!


This is my first ravelry thing! I signed up (and totes became friends with you Kat) to ravelry and it's all revelry in raverly so far. It's like facebook for crafty wanna bees. Like me!

I'm not much of a knitter, and totally CANNOT crochet to save all the souls ever, but I love 'JOINING IN' don't I? And mostly, as discovered, I love new projects and challenges and best of all making things.

What a darling little booty? The pattern was free to download, and seriously the easiest pattern and quickest pattern I've ever followed for knitting (um, my vintage knitting books are still bookmarked with tiny needles and tiny bits of garments for babies hanging off them from months ago) and I'm SHOCKED that I'm posting this now because I thought it'd take me at least 5 days sitting on the couch! It took only 2 days of couch sitting. YAY!

I'm SERIOUSLY over this layout for this blog, and doing some spring cleaning at the moment (ie googling) but I'm in the blurry because Husbie's flying in from Melbs and gotta dash with Doggie Darling to meet him at the airport!

Love to you all!

xoxo

Monday 9 November 2009

"Bend and Stretch...

Reach for the stars!"

Was this song about yoga?

My friend stopped over at mine today to discuss an alteration on a newly acquired vintage frock (I'm THE tailor around town at the moment darlings) and then was on her way to yoga... and said 'You should come too!'

I have been a few times, and was rather good in my days of living in the country (I took my mother's spot whilst she travelled the world) but I've only been a few times here in Syds.

Now darlings, please please please don't be mad at me. ... the yoga place used to be 5 minutes away from my house... now it's 1 minute away. As in IT'S RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET. And I've only been twice. Maybe three times.

To make it worse, there's 5 dollar yoga at 12noon and 1.15pm EVERY day. That's the time I get home from work.

Talk about my motivation going to the downward dogs!

Instead of making an excuse, I said to my friend "I'll just go put on my stripey blue n white Aerobic Oz Style jocks" and we trotted over.

Thank you darling K-L! Here are some Yoga Lols for you!





Photos all from where do you think?

In knitting news, I'll hopefully have a finished bootie! ONE REAL BOOTIE for a baby, care of some inane googling today:

More on continental knitting via Knitting Help - I'm getting better at it... just doing casting on/off and knit ... purl sent me crazy on the weekend

Some other techniques discussing continental on Knitty.com

And I joined ravelry, where I found the little itty bitty bootie pattern for free. Once I've made two I'll just have to choose from the five hundred friends of mine who are pregs at the moment. EVERYone is pregs these days!

Dongmen Lu Fabric Market

Happy Wednesday! Time to get some fabric inspiration from the Dongmen Lu Fabric Market here in Shanghai! Can't believe how quickly 201...