jenya-buckle-my-shoe

back to normal...

2012-01-06T08:45:00.000-08:00

what a lovely Christmas we have had! It's pretty much back to normal now though, which is actually quite exciting because i must design some new things for the shop! Since Christmas finished i have thought of lots of lovely Christmas decorations to make and sell which is a bit annoying-i have a whole year to wait before i can try them out!! If anyone has any ideas of what i could make for now-i'm listening!

yesterday i fancied making some stuff for bella not the shop though.

First things first, a new headband-

Secondly, a teeny weeny rucksack!!

here they are in action- hence the blurriness!

and the little monkey insisted on wearing them both for breakfast!!

a waste of time...

2011-12-16T08:00:00.000-08:00

Last week i had a real hankering to do some painting, it's been so long since i've done any! so i painted a lion, giraffe and elephant for Bella's room. The less said about the elephant the better, i completely hate it, so that'll be painted over some time soon! but i liked my giraffe and lion, here they are!

But there is a sliiight problem, i have nowhere to put them!!! As soon as i went into B's room to put them up i realised that i had greatly overestimated the wall space! The only walls free to put pictures on already have pictures on! and to be honest i am not ready to take the current pictures down yet.

especially these sewn street pictures, they took forever to make-

i think i will only take them down when Bella is old enough to say 'Mum i'm sick of these pictures!'

so what do i do with the poor giraffe and lion?!!?

they're not really suitable for the other rooms in the house...hmmm i will stuff them away somewhere till i figure out where they should live!

It's my faaaaavourite time of the year!!

2011-11-27T05:45:00.001-08:00

i had a stall at church last night, i couldn't be there but my mum very kindly ran it for me. i did however get to set it up myself which was very exciting!

Some pictures from it here, if you see anything you like there's plenty more where that came from if you wanted to request anything!

also.....christmas is here!! spent the afternoon putting up the tree.

all our decorations smell a little bit funny! not just 'been stuck in a box for a year' funny, they smell like we've been rubbing them in bella's dirty nappies! which of course we haven't been doing! i've drenched them all with Febreze and will give them a day or two to air and then hoooopefully they will smell less offensive!

here's a photo, thankfully you can't smell it or you might just pass out!!

big rings

2011-11-02T03:14:00.000-07:00

i love rings, i would love to be one of those people who always co-ordinates and always thinks about what they're wearing and chooses rings to compliment their outfits. But i'm not, i always forget to put rings on. But when i occasionally remember to wear a ring, it makes me feel really nice!

and i especially love big rings. i know big rings aren't everybody's cup of tea but for those of you who like them, take a look at the new rings in my shop

because they're made of felt they're pretty practical! little hands can pull them off you and drop them on the floor and they will not break!! Bella loves these rings, i've had to be very careful to keep them well away from her because soon she would claim them as her own and there's no getting them back then! i've lost one other felt ring to her already.

Also, if you would like one in a variation of these (different colours or smaller...or bigger!!) then just let me know, i would love to make you a custom order!

Xx

hurray!

2011-10-11T06:44:00.000-07:00

i have a new etsy shop! at the moment there's not loads in there but i'm gonna keep adding to it so watch this space! please do take a look around jenyabucklemyshoe!

Xx

ooh just a quickie...

2011-10-06T12:57:00.000-07:00

i recently illustrated a christian chocolate advent calendar for the company Nick works for, it arrived this week and i am very excited!

Excuse the bad photos-i couldn't wait til the daylight to take pictures!

If you want to buy it, go here, it's fairtrade chocolate too-yum yum!

2nd time's a charm!

2011-10-06T12:42:00.000-07:00

I crocheted this hat for Bella-didn't follow a pattern as i am the world's worst pattern follower so i just crocheted a circle and kept holding it round Bella's head to check it was fitting.

And then i made a flower for it-

oh boy it was MASSIVE!! it was as big as her head! she looks pretty shocked hey?!

so i had to re-assess and make a slightly smaller flower!

Much improved i think!

sorry....

2011-10-02T14:14:00.000-07:00

i have been a bad blogger of late- apologies!

but i just want to show you a dress i made for bella, out of soft brown material with pink lining.

i'm pretty pleased since it's the first item of clothing i've made where i have completely made up the pattern myself, there's something very satisfying and liberating about designing your own pattern.

but i have to say, measuring your child before making a dress for her is a great idea and i wish i had done that instead of ending up with a skintight dress that i had completely undo in order to add side panels to make it fit!

here she is wearing it as she steals the lid of the laundry bin-cheeky monkey!

things that i've been doing lately

2011-07-30T08:26:00.000-07:00

ages ago i made a patchworky, embroidered blanket for the end of our bed but to my shame i never measured it or anything and when i put it on the bed ready to swell with pride i was majorly disappointed to see that it didn't quite fit across it! so i cut it up to make cushions out of it like so:

and so then i was left with a big empty space at the bottom of our bed again so i made this patchwork blanket and that also didn't really fit very very well but i just made a massively chunky border around it so it hangs down quite nicely- i was not prepared to lose another blanket to cushions!

i apologise if the quality of the photos isn't great, my iPhoto isn't working properly!

i also recently had a poorly spell and had to stay on the sofa for days on end so aswell as learning to crochet, i embroidered this cushion:

now i don't know a lot about embroidery, i made up my own 'technique' so i am probably doing it all wrong but i sure do love it and is most probably a million times faster than KNITTING a cushion, i am the worst knitter ever! well that's it for now, just thought i'd catch you up on what's been happening in my house!!

seventeen months too late but...

2011-07-21T08:25:00.000-07:00

you may remember that a while ago i made some farmyard animals for bella- here and here. i get bored very quickly and move on to other things before i've finished but this does not mean i have finished completely with that project. today, over a year later, i felt like adding to the brood so while bella was sleeping:

i made a cow!!

and its tail has wire in it so it can be positioned any which way you like! ooh it was nice to make this today, felt quite exciting sketching it out and building it out of fabric! you never know i might make another animal very soon, i'm so in the zone!

some new friends for bella

2011-07-19T13:25:00.000-07:00

one of bella's best things is to go through people's purses and wallets (it's a good life skill!) so i've made her a little wallet that is full of old cards that people don't want anymore.

the only words bella can say are dada and duck. she just loves ducks and can recognise them anywhere, even the tiny pictures of rubber ducks on her wet wipes packet. but anyway, i wanted to help her recognise other animals to so i drew some little animals...

and have printed them out on little cards so she can put them in her wallet! here she is playing with them-they are a big hit with her!

messy dressy

2011-04-20T05:40:00.000-07:00

when i was pregnant my bestie hannah gave me a book all about making children's clothes. to be honest, that was the reason i so desperately wanted a girl. you can't really make lovely pretty girly clothes for a little boy can you? (unless you're very mean!) so i promised myself that if i had a baby girl i would make clothes for her.

nearly one year after i had Bella, i finally got round to doing it!

here is my little dress! i got the rough pattern from the book but tweaked it a bit by making it generally scruffier (not on purpose!), adding little pockets etc.

look, it has lining and everything! la-di-da!!

and here's bella now-i had a tough job trying to get a photo where she wasn't lifting the dress up over her head!

we needed some coat hooks for the hall so...

2011-03-22T04:32:00.000-07:00

funny wooden box with hooks-

check!

rubber gloves for my sensitive skin-

check!

paint it all up in nice colours-

check!

hang it on the wall-

check!

simples!

this is it.

2011-03-02T00:44:00.000-08:00

the moment has arrived.

i have finally finished the longest project i have ever done.

yes. it is a wall hanging.

it may not look much to you but it's taken me months to complete, everything on the patchwork squares is hand embroidered, like this:

and if you know me at all you will know that i only ever really make things that give me instant gratification, the concept of taking lots of time over something is alien to me, so please understand that this is a big achievement!

i like it and what's nice is that if i get bored with it on the wall, i can use it as a blanket or throw-ahhhh the possibilities!

hello dolly!

2011-03-01T03:13:00.000-08:00

boy do we have a lot to catch up on! i have been a busy bee recently, but haven't had chance to update my blog. here's the first of a few projects i've been up to...

let me introduce you to Meg. i've been dying to make a doll since bella was born and on saturday, i finally got round to it!

here she is and i have to say, she is a big hit with bella, i have to be very careful when she plays with her though because she is made of felt (the doll, not bella!) and too much baby dribble can make felt shrivel horribly. (i found that out the hard way!)

some little button/collar/pocket detail here! she is 100% hand stitched- no machining involved, which almost killed me! but it does mean that she has that homey feel that i love!

i want to make lots more dolls, preferably to sell so watch this space!

p.s. sweet accessories for Meg coming sooooooon!!!

3 little birds

2011-01-10T03:48:00.000-08:00

i woke up the other morning convinced that i needed to put some pictures up in bella's room-poor thing has a very plain, dull room. so i drew these little birds and framed them!

man i love computers-they make colouring in so much easier!

a little peek into my windows

2010-12-18T12:00:00.000-08:00

don't you just love windows? i do!! when i say 'i love windows' i mean 'i love sneakily looking through windows in other people's cosy houses'-i am very nosey! i wanted to do some drawings of windows but i'm just not subtle enough to be able to sketch other people's windows without them getting really narked with me!!

so i drew some pictures of windows from the inside-i certainly can't get in trouble for that!!

we have quite a few windows, so lots to choose from. and we have no clear window sills in our house-they've got all sorts of junk on them-messy looking but interesting to sketch!

so here they are...

so i drew them and then scanned them in so that i could add textures and colours- i totally loved doing it, it's really therepeutic!

anyway, here it is hanging in a cheapo frame that we spray painted a nice colour!!

little bit wonky but it is a welcome addition to our otherwise bare kitchen!

bella has a blanket!

2010-12-13T05:31:00.000-08:00

now i know that i said i was going to be back soon with the next picture in bella's hey diddle diddle series but the thing is...i am a bit bored with that for the moment, i will finish it, but there are other things that i want to do right now!!!

I made a patchwork quilt for bella-it's been something i've been meaning to do for aaaages but just never got round to it. anyway, here it is, posing with my lovely baby!

i actually finished it a week and a half ago, but silly me, i decided to give quilting a go. took me a whole evening to quilt the whole thing and then a whole 2 evenings to un-quilt it as it looked rubbish.

you would think i learned my lesson but sadly i decided to give quilting another go and again, spent the evening doing it. the next 2 evenings were then spent un-quilting it again.

i decided not to proceed with any more quilting- some blankets are just not meant to be quilted.

hello cow!

2010-11-29T12:29:00.000-08:00

here i am again-phew, twice in a week, i bet you're sick of me!

after a brilliant suggestion from my friend phil i've done the cow, but took pictures at different stages as a kind of tutorial (not that i expect anyone to want to make one)...

ok, so first we have some drawings i did, trying to figure out what a cow actually looks like, then when i had the finished idea i cut it out...

er and then i pinned it to my fabric and cut it out. don't have a photo of that! didn't do any legs or tail or udders cos i sewed them on later.

next i cut out some fabric to fit round my canvas-you can marvel at how straight my edges are...not!

then i cut out the moon and pinned it on like so

and THEN i sewed on the cow and the moon properly!

i added some lacy details to the cow and sewed the writing on, then stapled the fabric to the canvas.

and then my faaaavourite part- i slapped some paint on! although i got a bit too paint-happy, it's a little bit too dark for my liking...hmmm.

but it's too late now, if i can be bothered i might start again one day, but for now the cow is DONE and i'll be back another day with the laughing dog!

hey diddle diddle

2010-11-23T01:07:00.000-08:00

i can only apologise for my shabby effort to keep up with my blog!

last time i posted i didn't have a baby and now i do! she's called Bella Primrose and she's pretty sweet and nearly 7 months old which means i haven't updated this for over 7 months...oops!

anyway, i mention bella because she doesn't like the sound of the sewing machine and so i haven't really made anything since she's been around which is why i haven't blogged-there's been nothing to write about!

but i have been sewing a little something bit by bit, little by little whenever i got a moment to spare. i wanted to make some artwork for bella's room, and i thought i could do different canvases telling the rhyme 'hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle' bla bla bla...so first canvas is that line i just said-the next one will be the cow jumping over the moon....do you see where i'm going with this?

anyway, have finally finished the first one...it is pretty scruffy cos i hand-sewed it and i am completely awful at hand sewing. anyway, here it is!!

i have a love-hate relationship with this cos it took soooo long to do cos i could only do a tiny bit at a time, and i hate time-consuming projects. on the other hand it's really the first proper project i've done since bella and it felt so good to use the creative part of my brain again as opposed to the changing nappies part! (if there is such a part!) so goodbye to the cat and the fiddle, they are finished and hopefully we'll be saying hello to the jumping cow very soon!

i felt like chicken today

2010-02-08T03:59:00.000-08:00

oooh i can tell that this farmyard mobile is going to be my new addiction!!!!

such fun to make animals!!

this morning i've made a chicken and once again i've given it an overly-decorated bottom- i couldn't resist!!

this little piggie

2010-02-07T09:41:00.000-08:00

oh it's been

too long

for this i am truly sorry!!

it has been 3 whole months-a quarter of a year- since i blogged and boy it is good to be back!!!

most of you will know that i'm having a baby in april, and this has inspired me to make something nice for the little baboon...the thing is we don't know whether it's a boy or girl due to the fact that our baby crossed its legs in the scan so the technician, try as he might, couldn't tell...

this puts me in a predicament, what can i make for our tiny one?! i've decided that i simply MUST have bunting in the baby's room so i will make 2 different versions-one with cars and roads etc on in manly colours, and one with nice flowers and other things that girls like. but i really can't bear to make 2 of anything else, there is simply not enough time in the world.

so i've decided to make a farmyard mobile, seeing as nick is a farmer boy and our child will inevitably see and hear an awful lot about farms, regardless of whether it's a he or she.

here is my first contribution to the mobile-

a pig

i've actually fallen in love with this pig this afternoon, in particular its little bottom!!

here's a close up

how can you not love a patchworky bottom?!

after the owls

2009-11-07T05:30:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-04T03:19:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-15T02:14:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-09-22T14:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-09T03:53:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-06T04:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-22T08:34:00.000-07:00

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

oops

2009-05-26T04:37:00.000-07:00

i forgot, as soon as i burned it onto a dvd i deleted it! so it will not be put on here!

the end of a lot of art.

2009-05-26T02:47:00.000-07:00

yes yes yes i have finally finished uni!! apart from the odd trip in for external examiners and stuff i am DONE!!!

this is my star mobile, i laser cut the lyrics of a song called 'underneath the stars' out of the the stars. can't wait to bring them home and hang them up in my new flat!

my russian dolls. not my favourite piece to be honest but there you go!

building blocks! am a bit annoyed that i took the photo from this side as the pictures on the other side of the blocks are much better.

my 'he loves me not' paper flowers!

my sad little memory book.

the exhibition is all set up now, ready to rock! none of my work is framed cos it's all objects so it's all laid out on this little...well, imagine a tiny little stage and then imagine a few little things arranged on it and there's my exhibition space! my snow globe unfortunately broke while i was takin it to uni last week so that's not there, it's in the bin. i'll get marked down for that no doubt, but there was nothing i could do! i'm going to try to upload the people watching video i made, it's not very good but i might as well.

i've been doin some work!

2009-05-08T13:01:00.000-07:00

well today i decided to take photos of some works in progress as it's dreadfully dismal when i'm shut up in my room. taking photos makes me feel like i'm getting somewhere when in fact i'm not. for my final exhibition (which i am dreaading) i am doing a visual soundtrack, so have chosen 10 songs that are just brilliant to work to. music in the background is essential to my creative process. but this last year of my degree my creative process has been dire, as i can't seem to do anything right. so to try and shift my creative block i thought i'd pay homage to the tunes that have never before let me down, and create art as a response to the songs themselves.

so there you have a long-winded way of saying that i'm doing 10 pieces, one for each song.

i have a pillow case (for a song about not being able to sleep)

some trial flowers (for a song about token gestures)

a memory book (recognising a relationship that the singer says has been sadly forgotten)

some building blocks (for a song that describes the things that life is built up of)

i've decided that painting cubes is not the career for me. i like mixing the colours but it's far too fussy for me. i think it requires patience which is something i wish i had! and that's just the background colour, i still have all the pictures and words to paint on- pants!!

none of these are remotely finished. and in addition to these 4 i have a star mobile, a calendar, a set of russian dolls, a gigantic 'dear john' letter, a snow globe and a hmmmmmmnmnmnmnmnnnn not quite sure what to do for the last one. it's to do with people watching. have taken a gazillion pictures of people from the same spot in starbucks (that was a particularly taxing day i can tell you) but just don't know how to quite use them. i need inspiration.

that's enough blogging, it's been a lovely lovely distraction!

cards

2009-04-05T10:23:00.000-07:00

here we have some greetings cards i made. we've got this stall on tuesday where our course makes stuff to sell. i completely forgot about this as it's kind of extra-curricular (if that's the right term and spelling) so i just printed out some stuff i already had, and slipped them in some cellophane to make them look more professional than they actually are!

a scruffy little poster

2009-04-05T10:15:00.000-07:00

a poster advertising our final exhibition, was just kind of doodling on the back of my sketchbook-quite a lazy effort really!

stockings

2009-04-05T06:09:00.000-07:00

these are 2 of the pieces i did for a tights company in london-they wanted some pictures for their catalogue to show the different lengths of tights-had to do 45 in total and i never want to draw a pair of legs again!!

the glorious hand-in!

2008-12-12T06:46:00.000-08:00

this is my dissertation! oooh i am sooo majorly relieved to get this done, it had become the bane of my life! i made a fabric book to put it in, so i put the words behind flaps and in pockets and stuff. it is extremely scruffy and i burnt the front with an iron but it's FINISHED and words cannot describe the delight!!!

liverpool's biggest big draw

2008-10-23T16:23:00.000-07:00

2 pages i did for an e-book meant to encourage children to draw and things. i originally had lots more decoration on the edges but had to take that off cos the way they put it on the page meant that i couldn't have anything at the edges. i had SO much grief with the word 'people'-i just couldn't think of any symbols that weren't arms and feet etc. i'm not incredibly pleased with these pieces, maybe cos i'm not used to having to work in black and white i dunno. but the way it's laid out had to be changed so much due to how it would print out and so it's not really like i really wanted...oh well!! it's done now and i get paid for it!

tinkering

2008-10-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

this is a project i did quite a bit ago where the title of the article was 'how to tinker'. not massively relevant to the article but all these little bits took a long flippin time to draw and i'm quite attached to it!!

insect

2008-10-18T04:06:00.000-07:00

this is a book i made called insect. it's not in the right order whatsoever though.

we originally had a list of words and had to choose 5 of these words, and illustrate each of the words 2 different ways...anyway i chose the words

insect

crimson

smooth

delicate

integrity

and i wrote a story linking them all together...and this is the result!!

amelia's magazine

2008-10-18T01:26:00.000-07:00

a brief we were given at uni-

a double page spread in amelia's magazine called positive future-this is in regard to the green roofs initiative