after the owls

i was faced with a quandry.

what can i possibly make now? i've done the owl thing, where on earth can i go from here?

last night i was sitting at the table eating beef stew, moaning to nick about my lack of inspiration, whinging about how i want to make stuff, i just don't know what.

i said 'i want to make something Christmassy'

he said 'how about a nativity'

'how about a nativity!' i said back as if it were my idea.

i raced into the sewing room, shut the door, put mistletoe and wine on my ipod and got to work.

ok so i haven't finished yet. by no means, still have animals and gifts from the wise men and the star etc to do yet, but recording my progress on here is so encouraging for me, and really spurs me on to do more.

so here's Mary

(i tried to give her that post-pregnancy bump to be more real)

here's Joseph

(looking a little like a young father christmas in this pic, but doesn't in real life)

and here they are together with Jesus

i've added nifty little buttons to the back,

so you can wind round some string and they can be hung on a tree or on your wall or to a...i don't know. it's up to the owner. i think we are going to hang ours on our tree (which i have persuaded nick to get in just over a week YIPPEE!).

so there you go. a little november nativity.

twit twoooooo

i have had a little addiction of late. i think we all get them from time to time. mine is concerning owls.

it came from a very productive trip to a fabric shop and me sitting in my sewing room surrounded by beautiful felt, despairing cos i had all this material and couldn't think of one thing to make. i was doodling on some paper, on the verge of tears (ridiculous i know but little things can make me very emotional these days) and i drew an OWL. then i thought 'hang on', this might look a little bit sweet if it was made out of felt!

and so an owl was born.

after a little while, this descended into a whole clan of owls.

they are made purely from felt with buttons for eyes. the inside of their wings and their backs are the same colour as their tummies. you can see one of the guys showing off his wings here-

i actually had a real giggle taking photos of these owls. they make me laugh, and especially the one on the picture above at the far back right who's fallen over-that's Larry, he's a real joker!

here he is again in his natural habitat.

i like to think that if owls weren't massively strong and could rip your face off, i would have one as a pet.

running for rahab

so recently i got the chance to design the logo for this which Beebs-an usher at our wedding and a LOVELY person- is involved with.

haha, he asked me to try to 'encapsulate the joys of childhood' in the logo, doubt i did that but it was fun to try! he wanted someone running in it, and you should know that i absolutely hate drawing people, mainly because i haven't found a good way to draw them yet that fits in with the type of lettering that i like to do.

so i stuck with what i'm comfortable with and just put little feet on the N...much easier!

if you go down to the woods today you're sure of a big surprise...

it would be silly of me to only put up pictures of things that i made that i'm a bit pleased with.

also it would be impractical since there are far too many disasters and not enough successes and it would take me forever to wait til i make something vaguely good.

hence... (i love using words like 'hence' in these things because i would never ever use them in real life with real people)... hence i have this perfect example of the kind of rubbish i produce

haha!

this guy does make me laugh! i wanted to make a teddy. simple yes? nope! the legs are far too short, the arms are all bumpy and creased and his body is just ridiculous.

this was actually the most flattering photo i had of him, i'm too embarrassed to put up the more detailed ones.

he is the muscliest bear you'll ever see, his chest is bursting and far too defined- he just looks wrong!! no child would want this, although as my kind husband pointed out, when you think back to the first teddy you had it was probably really weird looking too.

a hero of a desk

i have this new desk which i adore because

> it's red

> it's dinky

> it makes me feel grown up

so to celebrate the new addition to our spare room i made a cushion!!!

it has been far far too long since i have faffed on the old sewing machine, largely due to not having a place where i can put it but now it has a new permanent home!

back to the cushion, i know it's just a cushion. not worthy of a whole post, but to me it's not just a cushion, this is representative of a BRIGHT FUTURE of many more sewn delights!

so here it is, and i am proud of it because i actually had to be NEAT.

there is no room for shoddiness in home accessories and i had to step up to the task and actually use PINS and whatnot- it was pretty different to my normal slap dash methods which is why it took a whole afternoon.

hopefully i will increase my efficiency soon and make more than one thing in a day.

dippers

so i recently did a logo for a kids club that my sister helen is running at her church. it's called dippers and involves sewing, beads, drawing, painting, football, gardening and jenga. sounds the best club in the world right?!

weddddddding

well i have gone and got married.

won't say much about it except that i LOVED the day and i LOVE being married!!

but let's focus on what's actually important-

bunting

me and my bestest friend hannah (marvellous sewer and model-maker) spent months and months making metres and metres of the stuff to fill the hall we had the reception in.

everyone warned us that it was a grim, painstaking, impossible task but we said "pfffff" to that and did it anyway

usually a story such as this would end up with me and hannah severely regretting not heeding the given advice, and we would all learn a lesson from the experience.

in this case however that did not happen.

we ADORED making it, it was a real treat to come home from uni and sneak in a little bit of sewing!!

this is what it looked like on the day

and in case you're thinking, "but that's so far away", this is it close up in our overflowing-with-bunting flat

so the moral of the story is

always make bunting whenever possible-it brings joy to your life