A working day

I work Tuesday to Friday in an office.  It gets me down greatly - I hate being away from my home, my family and from the things I'd rather be doing - like housework and creating.  But there are little things that lift my spirits.  My lunchbox is one such thing...

Isn't it a thing of beauty perched there on my desk at 8am this morning?!  It was a Christmas present from my sister - it keeps things cold, it keeps things hot, it seperates into two individual containers, you can even stick it in the microwave.  Plus it looks utterly groovy clutched in my mittened hand on the walk through the city!

Sometimes for my breakfast I like to have a lemoncurd sandwich (don't knock it until you've tried it!)  But sandwiches are square whereas my lunchbox is round.  So what to do?  Well, it is valentine's week...

Yum yum!  A pink, lemon flavoured heart-shaped start to the day!

By lunchtime though the effects start to wear off and some more fun stuff is needed.  I work just on the edge of the city in a pretty deprived area, there isn't much in the way of fun to be had, but the area does have its charm if you look hard enough...

This mosaic is one of a few outside a local restaurant...

There are hundreds of random alleyways with names in London, this is one my favourites (favourite names not alleyways, I don't have favourite alleyways...)

My little walk takes me to the only charity shop in the area...

It can be a bit hit and miss but today...a hit!  A patterned cotton skirt ready to be washed and given a new life as fabric to create something lovely...

I am so pleased with this - the fabric is lovely quality and I love the springy/tropical pattern, just what I needed to find today to cheer me up!

And a cute little tin...

...destined to be part of a gift for somebody.

A successful lunch break.

Then after a long afternoon of work and a long commute home there's just enough time for an enjoyable hour sifting through fabric scraps...

And look I even managed to piece together the first part of my "wonky scraps" cushion! 

Yes I am feeling very pleased with myself today, it has been productive.  I like productive!

xx

Crochet daisies

It's -3 here today.  Our shed window is looking rather frosty...

But inside daisies are blooming...

I've been working on flowers, this time for the Coming Up Roses toilet roll cover for my sister.  I thought a Coming Up Daisies version might look nice!  I will do two versions then decide which she might prefer.

I am enjoying the crochet flowers, they're very quick and easy for the most part and it's nice being at home with time to practice and take photos.  It's back to work tomorrow so I will be crocheting flowers on the train in the dark instead - of all my crafty obsessions crochet is by far the most portable, which is perfect for a busy working crafty mummy like me.

Keeping with the flowery theme I also made a nice little shopping bag, this one is for me, yay!  I am so generous...

Made with hemp fabric (the cream bit) and an old green cotton given to me by my mother-in-law's mother-in-law.  I was going to top-stitch the top edge but have decided I like it as it is.

It's lined with yet more flowers...

 Old curtain fabric put to better use here I think!

Right, I have a three-year-old desperate to try out making salt dough this afternoon so duty calls...!

A trip to Spitalfields Antiques Market

I regularly take a walk along to Spitalfields Market during my lunch hour on the days that I work. I like to walk along Brick Lane and through the old streets of East London. I took my camera yesterday to try and capture it.

Here I go off up Brick Lane...

There are lots of interesting buildings to look at along the way...

Walking along this road is like walking through a Dickens novel...

I like to look up, there are lots of surprises if you look up!

Hurrah! Here I am at the entrance to the market. The big yellow sign kept getting in my way, but I took the picture anyway as the sign is pointing the way to the antiques market so it seemed only fitting...

Must not buy pies, must not buy pies....

Lots of stalls selling weird and wonderful things...

I love this enamel stuff, I have bought a bread bin from this stall before, a bit like the one here but mine is green...

On the way back to the office I look down rather than up...

And this is what I treated myself to...

Wooden printer's letters. for my bookshelves! All four for a fiver. I like the fact that A, B, C and D can be displayed the right way round as they don't have to be mirror images for printing.

I love a walk to the antiques market, it sets me up for the afternoon. Just wish I had more money to spend there!

Preschool fun

With hubby being at home over the past few months my days with Lillia have had an extra guest. This has been lovely for all of us as every weekend has been like a bank holiday with the three of us enjoying days out, picnics and lots of time together.

Hubby is now back at work so on my days off it's just me and the little one, just the two of us. I hadn't realised how much I had missed it. The challenges and rewards of looking after a pre-schooler, safe in the knowledge of course that come 6 o'clock the cavalry will arrive home from work, are truly great.

We started off yesterday with some potato painting. I LOVE cutting potatoes into shapes, though goodness knows I hate peeling and chopping them for dinner, weird.
It quickly descended into hand painting though...

And the best thing about potato printing? Aside from the mess and the masterpieces of course - the off-cuts...

No waste! Just chips...

Yum!

And the wonderful concentration of a three-year-old at work...

Day 219: Bags

I don't know why I am obsessed with making bags. Perhaps for the same reasons I am obsessed with buying them.

During my week of creativity last week I made two bags. The first with my favoured grey ikea fabric and upcycled vintage duvet. I really love the soft washed out look of these two fabrics together...

I used the same pattern as for my previous pleated bag so of course it is reversible...

It came out well and I was pleased that I made the whole thing without once referring to the pattern, something must be sticking in that busy mind of mine!

Secondly, I made a mustard coloured bag using some upcycled cushion covers I found in a charity shop in Shoreditch and some paisley brown fabric (splendid in its granny-ness!) from Hobbycraft.

I am very hard to please, especially when it comes to pleasing myself, but I have to say I am rather pleased with how this one came out...

(Er...please ignore general clutter and background mess in above photo!)

I appliqued (at least I think that's what I did, applique remains a total mystery to me..) some "bubbles" of the lining fabric onto the outside...

And I somehow managed to achieve my original aim of having a split in the sides up to the handles...

Then I added a strip of the lining fabric inside the thin-ish handles so that they matched nicely...


Ta da! Very pleased. I have been using it today - I took it on the train, through the city and into work, out at lunchtime and fiddled about with it in the office in the guise of retreiving pens/books/phones etc.

Alas, nobody suddenly dropped everything they were doing to yell, "My goodness but where did you get that fabulous bag!?"

So I couldn't then say "Yah, I made it myself actually.." and await the admiration.

Never mind, it's still a fabulous bag ;)

Day 207: Experimental upcycling

I love fabric. I really do. I love shiny tiles and pretty fabric.

*sigh*

But, at risk of sounding like an ageing hippy, I, like, totally love the environment too. Far out, man.

So I have started to think more carefully about my materials. I like to browse charity shops, I am forever gathering old china to break up for mosaics. Recently I have started to find some old clothes and fabrics too, which I have been taking home, washing and airing. But the best bit is when I begin to cut them up; suddenly a fuddy old skirt turns into a lovely red cord fabric, or an old boob-tube is suddenly a lovely lining fabric, or a vintage duvet makes over four metres of quality printed fabric.

I really enjoying turning something old and unwanted into something new and..well, lets face it, a bit wonky, but loved all the same.

Over the last few days I have made a little pouch thing...

Here's the inside...It is made from an old cord skirt and the aforementioned boob-tube. I cut it free hand and made it up as I went along. Really bad idea. It is all very wonky and the only reason it has that lovely wide band around the top is to hide the fact I stretched the fabric too much whilst doing the top-stitching, which caused the edges to curl.

Next up some hand sewing! I cannot just sit and watch television. I find it utterly impssible. Don't get me wrong, I love the telly (I'm watching Who Do You Think You Are as I type) but I cannot watch it without my hands being occupied. On Saturday night I was watching a film so I decided to hand sew a little pouch...

This fabric is just plain old cotton. Well ok, plain old gorgeous yummy cotton. The pink is Cath Kidston and the blue is from Hobbycraft.

Maybe I shall use it to keep sweets in.