It’s been a while!

Wow, I had really hoped to be able to keep up with the blog a bit better than I have been since I returned to my day job back in July. One thing to add to the list of resolutions for 2015!

I’ve been pretty busy over the past five months, balancing the day job with my other job; researching family trees for clients as well as sorting out orders from the Etsy shop, not to mention the general day to day life – housework and the like!

I haven’t been sewing much in these past few months, other than for custom orders – like this set of three blue kangaroo finger puppets…

 

I’ve also managed to go over the 500 mark of likers on my Facebook page, had my most popular pin on Pinterest be repinned over 1100 times and been getting some lovely feedback from sales in the shop.

At work we got a new boss – a great guy who already worked in the office who was promoted. I made a few things for him – firstly a Mini-Me of him (much like the others I have made for people at work that you can see in a couple of other posts here and here.)

A mini boss complete with awesome Kokka robot fabric back, a laptop with “Very Important PMO work” on it and a tin of biscuits.

He then got his own office – and after a random conversation about cowboy films and saloons, a colleague and I decided to decorate his new office…

So along with a felt sheriff’s badge and a wanted poster of me and a saloon piano, I made a cactus, a tombstone and a desk tumbleweed. Thankfully he has a great sense of humour!

I also won second prize in the poetry section of the local arts festival this year. The theme was WWI – you can read the poem on my other blog here – Dear Mrs Sage.

My husband and I have also had a few nights out going to see some shows, like The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain and comedian Dave Gorman and we have more planned in 2015. We also went away for a nice romantic spa weekend away at the end of October to this lovely place – Tortworth Court in Gloucestershire.

And we finally got round to developing the disposable cameras from the tables at our wedding reception over three years ago. The majority of the shots were black or white nothingness, or dark and grainy, but there were some good ones like this one…

And I got a new tattoo – something I’ve been wanting to do for some time now and finally decided on a design and booked myself in to my local tattooist (who has a three/four month waiting list!) It is based on an Alphonse Mucha painting which was modified to fit in the area I wanted it on my left arm. It took two hours and hardly hurt at all – and I love it!

Then Christmas approached – with my work Christmas party which involved nice food, wine, a quiz (in which my table got disqualified in the first round…) and me laughing till I almost wet myself.

 

Sadly we lost my husband’s step-grandmother two weeks before Christmas, so we have her funeral to go to tomorrow. She was 91 and had been in hospital for about a month, so while it was not unexpected, we had hoped she would be around for one last Christmas, but sadly it was not to be. Despite this, we carried on with our Christmas preparations and had plenty of gifts under the tree. We managed to fit in a trip to my parents the weekend before Christmas and enjoyed spending some time with them. We had a quiet Christmas Day together, with Mini C being with his Mum before spending Boxing Day with us and opening his presents including a new bike. I realised that I needed to make Mini C a bigger stocking as the old one I made him was just too small, and out of the material that was left over I made a cat stocking for Sam!

My best present this year has been my new sewing machine – which I got to use today making a wrist rest. It works like a dream and is soooo much better than “The Beast” my old machine. Smooth and quiet and just so nice to work with!

So there we have it – pretty much the last five months or so wrapped up! I hope that you all had a great festive season and I wish you all the best for a great 2015!

It’s a boy!

Remember those blue legs I mentioned yesterday? The ones I started out making and then realised they wouldn’t go with the idea that was forming in my head? Well I decided to use them to make another doll, this time a boy (yes stereotypical blue for a boy… but stick with me.)

My stepson is rapidly growing out of his clothes. While trousers may fit round the waist they are woefully short in the leg, so I was handed a pair of barely worn jeans that he was too tall for, it was these that formed the basis of those infamous blue legs!

I decided to utilise the back pocket to use as a feature for this doll and chose some super soft grey fleece. (A brand new fleece scarf bought from a local charity shop.) Again I used my trusty old calico for the arms and the head, but this time I decided to use the bit I had been cutting around as it had some old iron on transfer from an embroidery my Mum had planned on doing years ago. It is a carnation design and quite pretty. I thought they might look like tattoos – a bit similar to the jacobean print material some folks are using to make tattooed men and lady dolls.

So here he is – complete with a jaunty little stripy scarf made out of a baby sock with a cute button detail. I decided to call him Quentin, sort of suits.

He is also for sale on my Etsy shop here.

Avast!

I have started to play around with making dolls and this is my first attempt – a lady pirate I call Jocasta O’Malley. She is a rum looking lady to be sure!
Made using fleece fabric, calico and stripy socks with ribbon and lace details. She also has some pretty nice tattoos!

Like a lot of things I make, sometimes I fall a bit in love with them and aren’t too keen on the idea of someone else owning them, but eventually I talk myself round and put them up in the shop!