The Little Red Squirrel

Happy World Book Day! And a question...

2012-03-01T10:45:00.000Z

Happy March 1st and World Book Day to you all!

I am going to get some serious reading done today in honour of the celebration of books, I'm currently throughly stuck into "The Little Stranger" by Sarah Waters and I can't wait to see what happens next :)

However, this blog is mostly all about sewing, right? So I thought, what better way to tie in sewing and books than a little bit of 1950s book print fabric!

I love this fabric! Some of the titles of the books read "Shakespeare", "War and Peace" and "Romeo and Juliet"

How beautiful is that? And it's perfect for a book worm like me! :) However, I'm now rather at odds as to what to use this fabric for. That's where you lovely people come in!

In an ideal world I would love to use this fabric for a 1950s style shirtwaist dress, but I'm not sure whether or not I have the yardage. This fabric is quite narrow, at a guestimate 30/35 inches, but over 4 metres in length, so maybe a shirtwaist dress with a narrow skirt wouldn't be out of the question? How you seen any patterns that might be suitable?

If you think you have seen any patterns or looks that this fabric would be suitable for then please get in touch, I'd love to know what you think. I really want to use it for something special, it's just so unique and pretty I want to get as much wear out of it as possible!

I can't wait to hear any suggestions you have :)

Katie xxx

February - The Best Bits

2012-02-29T23:16:00.000Z

Sources, Clockwise from Top Left
1. Scout Bow Tie from A Beautiful Mess, 2. Cupid's Arrow Sweater from Elegant Musings,
3. DIY Shoes from Cassie Stephens, 4. Sunday Pictorial Beret from By Gum, By Golly,
5. Wiggle Dress from Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing

Once again it's been a great month at The Little Red Squirrel, I've had more page views than ever before and have some lovely new readers too, so welcome! I hope you are enjoying what you see here as much as I enjoy putting it all together :)

Highlights of this blogging month for me are:

*I'd just like to say... growing up is optional*

*My first ever tutorial: A Perfectly Personal Valentine*

*Organising the first UFO/Stash Busting Project Monthly Round Up*

And now an update on my two current projects:

24 Things Before 25 - Update

I visited the Pottery Painting Cafe in Brighton and made egg cups!

I created and post my very own tutorial, and I can't wait to do some more :)

UFO/Stash Busting Project - Update

I finally completed my Swing Dress, one of my oldest UFOs.

I finished the epic challenge that was knitting my own dressing gown, and I love it so much!

Thank you so much for reading my blog this month, it's been a good one, and hopefully March will be even better :) Onwards and upwards!

Katie xxx

Wednesday Wonderfuls #59

2012-02-29T15:56:00.000Z

Hello lovely readers! A happy Wednesday and also a very happy Leap Day to you all! I wonder if any of you ladies reading are thinking about getting down on one knee today, hmmm? :)

Can you believe February is practically over? I can't, this year is zipping by very fast, I'm finding it hard to keep track! March is coming, and hopefully with it a bit of sunshine and slightly warmer weather. Also, did you know that tomorrow is National World Book Day here in the UK? It's all about getting children into reading, it's brilliant :) I used to love celebrating this day at school as a child, so I thought that in it's honour I would share some of my all time favourite books...

Images Sources, Clockwise from Top Left
1. The Lord of the Rings, 2. Les Liaisons Dangereues, 3. South Riding, 4. Shakespeare's Sonnets,
5. Dracula, 6. The Crimson Petal and the White, 7. Beauty, 8. Jane Eyre

I intend to see in March with a good book, are you reading anything thrilling at the moment? But whether you're a book worm or not, let's welcome in the new month on a high note, let's have some fabulous Wednesday Wonderfuls!

I love picked up new and nifty sewing techniques, and here's a great one from House of Marmalade: How to cut silk on the straight grain. A method well worth knowing, methinks!
If you've ever fancied creating your own unique fabric then this tutorial is definitely for you! How to hand stamp fabric, a DIY tutorial from A Beautiful Mess.
And yet another tutorial from A Beautiful Mess, this time how to colour chalkboard paint. Am I the only one who can't get enough of this beautiful blog?!
The amazing Tilly interviewed the amazing Sarai of Colette Patterns for a very inspirational "Day in the Life", fascinating reading :)
Tasha of By Gum, By Golly is at it again with another beautiful knit, a stripy version of the sunday pictorial beret. All I can say is I want one...
And I just had to link to this, it's too beautiful not to. Strawberry Moth's wedding has been featured on the 100 layer cake blog, and it may be the prettiest wedding I have ever seen, swoon!

And there you have it! I hope you have a great leap day and do something special with this extra day of February :) Bring on March for more adventures!

Katie x

UFO/Stash Busting Project, Monthly Round Up - February!

2012-02-28T14:56:00.000Z

Welcome to the first ever Monthly Round Up of the UFO/Stash Busting Project! I had the pleasure this week of sorting through all the projects that were submitted for February's Round Up and there are some absolute beauties, let me tell you. I'm so thrilled that I finally get to share them with all of you.

So without further ado let me introduce you to some fabulous Stash Busting super stars!

First up we have the lovely Nicole of Nicole Needles - Adventures in Sewing, with a project that is just perfect for all those scraps of fabric you may have in your stash: a Wrist PinCushion! I love the fabric, I need one of these in my life! And it would also make a great gift for a fellow sewing enthusiast :)

Nicole's Wrist Pin Cushion

Susan of Snippa managed to complete two UFOs recently, and very lovely they are too! I think that both this Work Blouse and this Grey Shift Dress are very chic and sophisticated, well done Susan!

Susan's work blouse and grey shift dress

Now, Lynne from Sewing Cafe is constantly wowing me with her stunning creations (Wonder Woman Outfit anyone?!) and her UFO/Stash Busting this month is no different! Lynne has three projects to offer up, a stunning blouse (which she is also entering into the Eva Dress Competition), a beautifully tailored jacket and a knitted sweater too, just for good measure. Why, yes Lynne, I'll take one of each please, if you're asking :)

Lynne's blouse, jacket and sweater

Anyone who knows me well will know about my love of lingerie and all things undergarment-wise, so I was blown away when Sabrina submitted her stunning Corset and Petticoat for the Monthly Round Up. Prepare to swoon at the beauty of these now completed UFOs, they're simply gorgeous!

Sabrina's Corset and Petticoat

Of course Stash Busting can be quite hard from the to time, so I'm happy to include this post from Liz Makes it about Stash Busting. You may not have made much headway yet Liz, but when you do I'm sure you'll create something beautiful :)

Liz Makes It

I'm sure that you all know the fabulous Sarah from Rhinestones and Telephones, and have been keeping up with the Sew Colette sew along that she has been hosting with Erin of Miss Crayola Creepy. So far they have tackled the Meringue skirt and have almost finished with the Pastille dress, it's a gorgeous sew along so do check it out if you haven't already. Anyways, it turns out that Sarah's Meringue Skirt was made of items all found in her stash, so I'm happy to include it here, and isn't it pretty? :)

Sarah's Meringue Skirt

Following on nicely from the Sew Colette sew along is Alyssa from Hems to Dolls who actually took part in the sew along and created a lovely checked version of the Meringue Skirt. But that's not all Alyssa has been up to, she's also created the cutest little Peggy Skirt. Lucky little girl who gets to wear that!

Alyssa's Meringue and Peggy Skirts

Many of you will know of Cassie Stephens from the adorably gorgeous belts she sells on etsy (I own three of her belts, I know, it's getting to be an addiction!) but she also has time for a bit of Stash Busting. I love a good revamp of an outfit, and Cassie has done just that by taking an old dress and giving it some new life with a few embroidered cowgirls! Yeehaw!

Cassie's Embroidered Cowgirls Dress

Wendy from The Butterfly Balcony has also been busy this month completing three different UFO/Stash Busting Projects. My favourite would have to be the unfinished sweater that she turned into a knitting bag, how clever is that? She also completed a very pretty Colette Set which counts as a UFO and a Stash Buster, so gold star to you Wendy!

Wendy's Knitting Bag and Colette Set

And last, but by no means least we have two lovely projects from the equally lovely Leah, who blogs over at Struggle Sews A Straight Line. This pretty dress and this Renfrew top were both made from fabrics that Leah rescued from a hoarder, so I think she get's extra points for that! You look great Leah, plus you did a person a good turn, so big yay!!

Leah's dress and top

And that's the lot! Phew!

I don't know about you, but I think that that is a pretty impressive show of UFO and Stash Busting! I'm so happy that so many of you decided to get involved and have chosen to share your beautiful projects, you should all be very proud, I certainly am of all of you!

February was a great month for UFO and Stash Busting, but if you weren't ready to be included this month then never fear, there will be another Round Up at the end of next month! Get busting those stashes people, I can't wait to see what you create next month :)

Katie xxx

The Most Glamourous Dressing Gown in the World!

2012-02-27T13:27:00.000Z

Project: Knitted Dressing Gown

Pattern: Dressing Gown from "Beads, Buttons and Lace" by Jennie Atkinson

Stash Buster? this one's a long overdue UFO

Items From Stash: what felt like a million balls of yarn!

Date Started: June 2011

Date Finished: February 2012

New Techniques Used: none

Wear Again? I never want to take it off!

To say that I am head over heels in love with this dressing gown would be an understatement! I feel ridiculously glamourous in it, I never want to take it off, I may become a recluse just so that I can wear this dressing gown all day swan about :)

I'm not going to lie, there were times during this project when I wanted to throw in the towel, it was just so epic and huge and I felt like it would never end! Plus it was far from portable and seeing as I am constantly travelling at the moment being able to actually work on this project in comfort was a challenge in itself! But now that it's finished and I have my gorgeous new dressing gown all those problems seem to melt away in how gorgeous it is and how snuggly it is to wear... :)

One thing I would say about this pattern is that it is not for the faint of heart, I would consider myself to be quite an experienced knitter and this dressing gown still nearly beat me with it's vast size. It's also not a cheap project, as Rowan yarn is quite pricey and you can see that I used a fair bit of it! The pattern also didn't give the correct amount of yarn so I ended up having to buy about 3 extra balls, which was a little bit irritating. But hey, it was worth it in the end :)

I'm so thrilled that I have finally completed this UFO, starting my UFO/Stash Busting Project was worth it just to give me the incentive to complete this epic challenge! I hope you like it as much as I do!

Katie xxx

I'd just like to say...

2012-02-25T10:55:00.001Z

...happiness is a choice.

Image source

Sometimes you just have a grey day. Even when the weather has started to pick up and it's nearly the end of the working week you can get hit with a bought of the blues.

I love my job and I feel incredibly lucky to be able to make a living through performing, but at the same time the constant travelling, having to live out of a suitcase and the unsociable hours (unsociable to anyone who doesn't work in the theatre that is!) can take it's toll on a person. I am a nester and I enjoy being at home close to the ones I love, surrounded by the pretty things that I like in the home I have carefully created. It's so hard being away from home when you have always been a home girl, not to mention the severe sewing-machine withdrawal I am constantly suffering! Basically this week was a bit of a tough one, leaving me feeling a bit sad and lacklustre and very homesick.

I'm naturally quite an upbeat person so I find grey days quite difficult, it's odd to suddenly feel so down without really having much of a reason to be.

This blog is a happy place where I like to share happy things, but I think it's ok to acknowledge that sometimes being happy takes a bit of work. And the only one who you need to do that work is you. Of course I'm not talking about serious depression, that's something else entirely, but sometimes when we're feeling a little down in the dumps and glum for no reason all it takes is a little bit of effort on our part to help ourselves feel better. It's a mantra that I like to live by and it's certainly been helping me out of my personal funk over the last few days!

So for all of you who might like to try and make a grey day seem a little brighter, here are a few ways that I try to help myself out of the blues. These things may not work for you the way they do for me, I'm by not means trying to dictate the way to happiness, but I thought I'd share them just in case they might be of use to even just one of you...

Happiness comes in all shapes and sizes :)

Do something for you

something that you know will make you smile. Go crazy and splash out on those shoes you have be mooning over for months (yes, that was me...!), or pick up a copy of that book you've been wanting to read. Even if it's something really small like treating yourself to your favourite hot drink on your way to work, doing something just for yourself once in a while can be the best way to feel better when you're down. Treating yourself to something nice isn't a crime!

Do something for someone else

give yourself that warm inner glow you get when you know you've helped someone else get happy :) I love to make things and I can't explain how thrilling it is to make something for another person and see how much joy they get from receiving something that has been made specifically for them. It's like magic :) Find your own way to show your love and spread it around!

Make plans

this is a big one for me. I find that I appreciate each day a lot more if I have something on the horizon to look forward to. I love having a diary and filling it to the brim with plans, whether they are to do with posts for my blog, days out with my friends or my lovely mum or even trips away with my Sweetheart. Making plans helps me see the bigger picture and that whatever I'm moping about in the meantime doesn't really count in the grand scheme of things.

Make time for yourself

sometimes I think we forget that quality time with ourselves is just as important as quality time with those we love. I think it's important to make time for just you in your daily routine. For me, blogging is the time that I get for myself, my little corner of the blogosphere, and I love having such a personal and creative outlet in my life. Giving myself that personal time each day means that I'm much happier to spend time with others afterwards, I genuinely think it improves my mood in all things! Even if it's just an hour here and there, time to take a bath or finish a book or watch a silly film, give yourself some me time, you deserve it.

The small things count

don't underestimate the power of small things in your life. The smallest action can determine the difference between a grey day and a day filled with sunshine. Small things that lift my spirits immensely are a hot shower, red lipstick, a spritz of perfume, a good breakfast and wearing a favourite dress. They may not mean much (if anything) to another, but to me these small things always help me start my day on the up. Changing the small things to make yourself happy will eventually make it easier for you to change the big things.

Happiness is not always the easiest thing to feel but I do believe (in my case at least) that very often happiness is a choice. Like most things in life you have to put a bit of work in to be able to reap the rewards of happiness, but then again, also like most things in life, I think that with being happy, practice makes perfect!

And even if sometimes it's hard, I'll choose happiness over the grey day every time.

Katie xxx

Last Call for the UFO/Stash Busting Monthly Round Up!

2012-02-24T14:36:00.000Z

Hello lovely readers, I hope you are all enjoying your Fridays :)

This is just a quick note to say that today is the last day that I'm accepting project submissions for this month's Round Up for the UFO/Stash Busting Project. You have until the end of today to send me a link to your gorgeous projects otherwise you're just going to have to wait until next month! :)

Thank you to everyone who has gotten involved so far, it's been so lovely to get in touch with you all and your projects are beautiful. I can't wait to piece the post together properly, it's going to be a good one!

Bye for now!

Katie xxx

Wednesday Wonderfuls #58

2012-02-22T23:03:00.000Z

Hello there lovely readers! Happy Wednesday to you all :) I hope you've all been having a marvellous week so far, all your lovely comments on my Knitted Dressing Gown completely made mine! I'm so glad you all like it, for those of you who were interested this is the pattern, it's from a book called "Beads, Buttons and Lace", and as for the yardage, it's about 2448 yards of yarn! Eek! But like I said, thank you for all the lovely comments, I've been grinning from ear to ear all week :)

Now is it just me or are we more than ready for a bit of spring time? I know it's still only February and the weather probably won't be picking up for a while, but I'm so ready to break out my Spring and Summer frocks and shoes, I can't even tell you! I just want to frolic about in pretty pastels and heels, is that a crime? I've been feeding my need for Springtime by collecting pretty pictures, here are a few of my favourites...

Sources, Clockwise from top left:
1. Zooey Deschanel, 2. Yellow Shoe, 3. Pink Bag, 4. Dita Von Teese,
5. Zooey Deschanel, 6. Green Shoe, 7. Anna Friel

I'll take one of each please!

And as if that wasn't enough, allow me to bring some sunshine to your lives with a fabulous selection of my picks from the Blogosphere, bring on the Wonderfuls!

I can't get my head around how amazing this refashioned dress is over at The Old Life, take a look, it will completely blow your mind!
I am seriously thinking of signing up for the Dessert of the Month cross stitch patterns from The Frosted Pumpkin, I love desserts, I love cross stitch and the patterns are ridiculously cute. You can't really go wrong!
You may know that I want to make my first quilt this year and so I was thrilled when Casey of Elegant Musings wrote this post asking for advice. If you too are a quilting beginner then read through some of the comments on this post, they are so helpful! They led me to the Diary of a Quilter, and now I'm addicted!
Anyone else a fan of the costume from Glorious 39? Well in this post the lovely Wendy of The Butterfly Balcony shows you how to recreate these styles and the types of patterns you can use to do so. A brilliant post!
I want every single item on this favourite kitchen tools guide from Shutterbean. Oh to have my own Kitchen Aid mixer!
There have been some beautiful finished projects on the blogs this week, my personal favourites are these green silk pyjamas over at Tickety Boo Tupney and Tilly's gorgeous Thinking in Shapes Skirt.
And finally I think you are all going to love these DIY shoes by Cassie, I mean, who doesn't want pencil or crayon shoes?! I'll take one pair of each please :)

Hopefully those Wonderfuls have brought some light to what has been a bit of a grey day, and hopefully it will be getting sunny soon!

Have a great week :)

Katie xxx

Hurray for Pancake Day!

2012-02-21T10:00:00.000Z

I love holidays that involve food, although, mind you, that basically means all holidays doesn't it? :) But pancake day has always had a special place in my heart - I love a good pancake!

Usually my mum whips up the family pancakes - she can flip a pancake like a pro! - but this year I decided to have a go myself and I have to say I think I did pretty well...

I used this recipe for Smashed Raspberry Chocolate Chunk Pancakes (although I substituted raspberries for strawberries) from my all time favourite food blog, Joy the Baker. If you read my blog regularly you will know that Joy's recipes often end up in my Wednesday Wonderfuls posts, I just love the treats she creates! These pancakes were completely fool proof, and if I, as a pancake novice, could cook them up with no problems at all, then I'm sure they'll work for anyone!

And if chocolately/raspberry treats aren't really your thing then never fear, Joy is a bit of a self-proclaimed pancake addict and so has a whole variety of other pancake recipes to tempt you (seriously, the girl is amazing!). Here are my picks of the rest:

Gingerbread Pancakes

Oatmeal Cookie Pancakes

Wholewheat Banana Walnut Pancakes

or just good old-fashioned Buttermilk Pancakes

Happy Pancake Day!

Katie xxx

What's on my sewing (well, knitting!) table...

2012-02-20T18:41:00.000Z

Hello there lovely readers, Happy Monday to you all!

Let me start by saying a big thank you to everyone who has contacted me about getting involved in the UFO/Stash Busting Project Monthly Round Up, it's so exciting that so many of you want to be included! Check out this post if you want to be featured in the Round Up, the final date for submissions is February 24th, so you still have time. If you've already gotten in touch then I will be contacting you soon, I can't wait to start taking a look at what you've all Stash Busted so far :)

Talking of Stash Busting and completing UFOs, I have been tackling a rather mammoth project recently and I wanted to show you my progress so far. I'm not quite sure what possessed me to knit my own dressing gown, but the second I saw this pattern I fell in love and I knew that my life wouldn't be complete without it. I started it last year whilst on the European tour of Hair and I've finally finished the main body of the dressing gown and now I just have to knit up the trim. Take a look...

Dressing Gown Front

Dressing Gown Back

I know, pretty epic right? :)

You can see from the above images that I haven't yet completed the trim for the left front of the dressing gown, but the trim seems to grow pretty fast so hopefully it won't be too long now! I also need to add the same trim to the cuffs and add a crocheted belt, but then I will finally be done, I just want to be able to wear this a few times before the weather turns!

Here are a few close ups to show the details, forgive me for showing this dressing gown off, I feel that it deserves it after the amount of time it has taken to knit it up!

I must admit, she is a beauty, isn't she? I'm completely smitten with this project, I just can't wait to finally finish and swan around the house in my new dressing gown! She's almost too glamourous to only be worn indoors, just look at the curve of the train...

**swoon!**

Hopefully I'll finish this project in the coming week, wish me luck!

Katie xxx

Calling all UFO/Stash Busters!!!

2012-02-17T16:17:00.000Z

Hello there lovely readers, it's time for some more talk about my UFO/Stash Busting Project!

Since my initial post things have been going well. I have been working hard on organising my stash and have already completed a couple of UFO/Busters myself, but what I'm really interested in is how is the Project going for you?

So I'm going to put together the:

UFO/Stash Busting Project Monthly Round Up!

A number of you showed an interest in joining me on my Project, some of you have even been lovely enough to add my badge to your blogs, so I want to see what you've been up to! I want to put together a feature for everyone taking part in the Project at the end of each month so we can all bask in the glory of our progress. Plus it's always fun to see all the lovely things that other people have created :)

If you have created something beautiful this month then it's time to show it off! But also don;t feel pressured into having to submit something every month, take part in as many or as few Monthly Round Ups as is convenient for you. This also means that you can take part in the UFO/Stash Busting Project whenever you want, as I know that some of you may only have fabrics in your stash the are for a particular season, so feel free to join in whenever suits you best :)

Here's what you need to do if you want to be included:

**If you have a blog send me a link to a post (or posts!) about any UFOs or Stash Busting Projects you have completed this month. Pictures are a must, we all want to see the lovelies you have created!**

**If you don't have a blog, never fear, you can still be included too! Drop me an e-mail we'll find a way to get some pictures of your creations up on the blog if you want to share them :)**

**Obviously completed projects are preferred but if you've got a fascinating work in progress to share then that's great too. Also if you've created any tutorials to use up your stash then I would love to include those too!**

**The closing date for all submissions is February 24th so I have time to put the post together before the end of the month (obviously this would normally be slightly later, but February is an annoyingly short month!)**

So, if you feel like being included then please do drop me a line! Either leave me a comment on this post or email me at

misskatie.littleredsquirrel@gmail.com

I can't wait to see what you've been up to!

Katie xxx

Eggcellent Egg Cups!

2012-02-17T10:00:00.002Z

I'm sorry for the terrible title, I just couldn't resist! You may remember that on my recent trip to Brighton I visited the Pottery Painting Cafe and spent a lovely time painting a couple of egg cups for me and my Sweetheart (I know, how can I stand such a crazy rock and roll lifestyle!). Well on a recent trip home the finished cups were waiting for me, I am so thrilled with how they turned out!

Here they are when I had finished painting them:

And here they are after being glazed and fired, all pretty and shiny!

A "K" for me and an "E" for my Sweetheart :)

I'm crazy happy with how they turned out, aren't they cute? I would recommend the Pottery Painting Cafe to anyone in the Brighton area, it's great fun and you get a gorgeous keepsake afterwards. I'm totally in love with these egg cups, I can't wait to enjoy some eggs and soldiers with our new fancy china wear!

Katie xxx

Wednesday Wonderfuls #57

2012-02-15T23:54:00.000Z

Hello there and welcome to this week's Wednesday Wonderfuls!

I've had a lovely week, what with Valentine's Day preparations and the actual day, plus I went out to Bill's in Covent Garden with my lovely mum (now my favourite cafe!), and I got the chance to hang out with some gorgeous puppies, so life has been good!

I hope you've all had great weeks too, but allow me to add some more joy to your lives with this week's Wednesday Wonderfuls!

A few thoughts on thrifting from the lovely Casey of Elegant Musings.
Fancy trying your hand at some painting? Well you cannot fail to be inspired by this gorgeous piece by Cassie Stephens over at her blog. Seriously, this is one if the cutest paintings I have ever seen, I want one!
I am a huge fan of Joan from Mad Men, so you can imagine how excited I was to see Gertie's version of Joan's rose appliqué dress. This is another technique I am itching to try!
Another great tutorial from A Beautiful Mess, this time for a scout inspired bow tie. Don't you think this looks just like something Florence Welch would wear? :)
I loved this piece about wearing what you love over at Tuppence Ha'penny Vintage, I agree wholeheartedly with every word.
Finally, you really should check out this interview by Kat of Rock and Roll Bride with Megan of Princess Lasertron. Both of these ladies are gorgeous, stylish, savvy business women with many gems of advice to share, both of their blogs are a joy to read :)

Yet again another fab selection of Wonderfuls this week, I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Katie xxx

My Valentine's Day

2012-02-15T18:20:00.000Z

In pictures! With the help of my trusty instagram app :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day, filled with lovely love and yummy treats (the treats are always an integral part of any holiday for me!). I had a gorgeous time with my Sweetheart, we spent some proper quality time together munching sweets and sharing presents (he bought me the most beautiful wicker and bakelite bag, swoon!) and we treated ourselves to the Marks and Spencers dine in for two deal so we didn't have to worry too much about cooking. And it was worth it, the food was divine! We also watched Midnight in Paris and it blew both of us away, seriously, if you haven't already, watch it now! It was a very special day spent with my very special someone :)

Katie xxx

The Swing Dress - Finally Completed!

2012-02-14T13:23:00.000Z

Project: Swing Dress (originally part of Casey's Swing Dress Sew Along)

Pattern: 1940s "Swing" Dress pattern from Sense and Sensibility Patterns

Stash Buster? yes, and it was a UFO too!

Items From Stash: Floral fabric, swing dress pattern

Date Started: January 2011

Date Finished: February 2012

New Techniques Used: none

Wear Again? Definitely :)

I cannot believe this dress is finally finished!!! Seriously, I am so excited that I can finally wear it out, I've been working on it for over a year in total! This dress has been my longest ever UFO, it's the main reason I started my Stash Busting/UFO Challenge, I needed the incentive to finish this dress! And here it is in all it's glory :)

I struggled so much with this pattern originally, I just couldn't get my head around it, but this time around it all came together beautifully and I really enjoyed the construction process. The final look is something a lot more sophisticated and grown up than what I usually wear, and I like it! I have already received an abundance of compliments on this dress after wearing it out a few times, it seems to be a big hit with everyone. My Sweetheart went as far as saying it was his favourite of all the outfits I have ever made, so I think I'll probably be wearing it quite a bit in the future!

I want to dedicate the completion of this dress (finally, hallelujah!) to two very special ladies in the blogging world. Firstly Casey for hosting the Sew Along for this dress, as her posts were amazing and informative and if you ever want to sew this dress then you really should follow every scrap of her advice. And secondly the lovely Tasha who gave me some sewing advice for this dress way back at the start of the sew along which finally helped everything become clear when I restarted the project, so thank you!

I hope you like the dress as much as I do!

Katie xxx

A Peek in my Wardrobe: Beaded Cardigans

2012-02-10T15:55:00.000Z

Quite a few of you expressed some love for the beaded cardigan I was wearing in my Brighton Adventures post, so I thought I dedicate a post to my little collection of them. Beaded cardigans are definitely one of my biggest loves at the moment!

Because I knit most (if not all!) of my sweaters, if I'm ever going to buy one they have to seriously impress me, they have to have that special something. And I have to be honest, cashmere beaded cardigans don't have to do all that much to impress me, they make me swoon! :)

I bought my lovely powder blue cardigan at a Vintage Fair in London and I can't get enough of it! It's only when you own a piece of vintage cashmere that you really appreciate the quality of good knitwear! It's so warm and fluffy, and I love the unusual colour combination :)

This little cream number I found on my recent trip to Brighton at Beyond Retro. It was actually on one of the display mannequins, but there was no way that I was going to leave this beauty behind! It's covered in iridescent sequins as well as white and pearl beads, adding that extra bit of sparkle.

This pink beauty came all the way from America to be with me, and it's the most recent addition to my collection. I fell in love with it when I saw it on etsy and so I decided to treat myself. And it was worth it, because the beading is flawless, something really special for this kind of sweater!

I love these cardigans, because even on a grey day I can throw on of these over a skirt or dress and feel pretty. They add a bit of girlie glamour to even the most bleak of times!

I hope you've enjoyed this little peek into my wardrobe, perhaps you'll now feel the need to invest in some beaded cashmere. I warn you though, it's very addictive! Proceed with caution!

Katie xxx

Wednesday Wonderfuls #56

2012-02-08T23:46:00.000Z

Hello and welcome to a special Valentine's Day addition of the Wednesday Wonderfuls!

First up, thank you so much for all your comments on my Perfectly Personal Valentine DIY Tutorial, I hope that many of you can use it! And as it was my first ever tutorial I'm extra happy that it went down so well :)

Sources, Clockwise from Top Left:
1. Egg in a basket from Petite Kitchenesse, 2. Sandwiches from Rattlebridge Farm,
3. Scrabble Valentine from 320 Sycamore, 4. Heart Pies from Martha Stewart,
5. Cupcake from Creature Comforts, 6. Heart Wreath from Cassie Stephens.

Can you tell from my pictures that the way to my heart is through my stomach?! Take note my Sweetheart! :)

There have been tons of great Valentine's Day inspired posts recently, here are my picks of the bunch:

The lovely Maxine of Little Miss Delicious has released a gorgeous collection of Valentine's jewellery, subtle enough with it's theme to be able to be worn all year round. What lovely gifts they would make!
These business card sized Valentines from Scathingly Brilliant are adorable! Download them for yourself and maybe send them to all your gal pals :)
Cassie shows us how to make Valentine's Day decorations, I included her gorgeous heart wreath in the pictures above.
If you're looking for something sweet to wear on Valentine's Day then look no further than this embellished sweater DIY from Casey, it's so pretty and looks quite simple to do too!
I love these sparkling heart pins over at Pretty Little Things. Make your own, I'd wear one everyday :)

I hope those Wonderfuls have left you feeling inspired for Valentine's Day, I can't wait to spend a lovely day with my Sweetheart :) Have some fun showing that special someone that you care, even if it is all a bit lovey dovey and silly!

Katie xxx

DIY Tutorial - A Perfectly Personal Valentine

2012-02-07T23:50:00.000Z

I know that some people don't like Valentine's Day and how commercial it has become, but personally I have always been a sucker for this holiday, I can't help it! As it's only one week to go until Valentine's Day, I'm going to show you how to make a really personal Valentine for your special someone. Go on, avoid the commercial side of this holiday by giving something handmade and heartfelt to the one you love!

What you will need for this project:

I also used a pencil, pins, an embroidery needle, scissors and pinking shears. This really is such a simple project, so let's get started...

1. Cover your chosen photograph with the tracing paper and trace the main details using a pencil (you can tape the paper down if you wish but I prefer to leave it loose so I can easily view the picture underneath for reference!)

2. Secure some scrap fabric tightly in your embroidery hoop and pin your traced reference on top of it.

3. Using three strands of embroidery floss thread your needle and sew along the lines of your tracing paper reference. I mostly used split stitch, but get creative, there are heaps of different embroidery stitches you can try!

4. Once you have finished your stitchery gentling tear away the tracing paper from behind your design. Go carefully so as not to disturb the stitches!

To finish I pinked the edges of my embroidery in the shape of a heart before sewing it to a larger felt heart with a simple running stitch. I also added a felt pocket on the back of the heart to hold a handwritten Valentine message.

And there you have it, a Perfectly Personal Valentine to be treasured forever! And wouldn't this make a sweet gift outside of Valentine's Day? Maybe using the portrait of a pet or a friend? The possibilities are endless!

I hope you've enjoyed this DIY tutorial, if you have any questions then please get in touch!

Katie xxx

What's on my sewing table...

2012-02-06T23:59:00.001Z

Hello blogosphere! What a productive couple of days I've had!

I want to share my UFO/Stash Busting sewing with you, but first up I just want to say a huge thank you for all of the comments on my last "I'd just like to say..." post, "...growing up is optional". It was obviously a topic that affects a lot of you and it was so lovely to read all your thoughts on the subject. Thank you, I loved writing the article so I'm really happy that so many of you liked reading it :)

The last couple of days have been packed full of sewing, mostly because I have been away from my sewing machine for two weeks (shock horror!) and was suffering major withdrawal, and also we have been inundated with snow so staying indoors seemed like a good idea! And I'm happy to be able to announce that one of my longest UFOs is almost completely finished!

My Swing Dress!

I started this Swing Dress as a part of the marvellous Casey's Swing Dress Sew Along which began in January 2011, so this dress has been a work in progress for over a year! I started well with the dress but I stumbled when it came to sewing the shoulder yokes, and I just couldn't get past them, they were the banes of my life! I couldn't get my head around the construction of these shoulder yokes, it felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall, so it was easier for this dress to end up on the UFO pile.

The shoulder yokes that nearly beat me. Not so tricky now!

However, when I started this project again the shoulder yokes seemed so much more simple than before, I could't believe I had struggled with them so much! Maybe it's because I now have a year's worth of sewing under my belt, but everything with this dress has come together beautifully this time around, I cannot wait for it to be fully finished :)

This dress was the inspiration for my UFO/Stash Busting Project, I needed the incentive to finally finish it, and now I have it! All that's left to do is sew in the zipper and complete the hem, then I can finally swing about in my Swing Dress.

Don't worry, as soon as it's finished I'll post some pictures :)

Katie xxx

I'd Just Like To Say...

2012-02-04T10:00:00.001Z

... growing up is optional.

Some of the prettiness I love (Clockwise from Top Left)
1. My Pin Up Embroidery Skirt, 2. Bunny Slippers, 3. Petticoats,
4. Pink Bowling Shoes, 5. Adorable Pyjama Pattern

I like pretty things.

I really do.

Anyone who knows me well will know that I don't really go in for the whole jeans and t-shirt look. I enjoy dressing up, wearing pretty dresses and feeling fancy, and I'm pretty much always overdressed for events. I can't help it, I just love pretty things and I love to wear them. One of the reasons that I love reading blogs so much is that I get to experience the worlds of other people who like pretty things as much as I do, it makes me feel like I'm not the only overdressed and slightly out of place person in the world!

Sometimes as I wander through a world of people wearing beige and black I wonder whether one day I will suddenly change and conform. I throughly admire the style of Georgia Rose of the Velevettes, she is so secure in her look and what she loves to wear, but I totally understand how she feels when she asks:

" I wonder, when will it get weird that my favourite outfit is a giraffe-print minidress with patent t-bar flats? ...What is the half-life of rainbow glittery oxfords?"

Georgia Rose's Kitten Around Dress from the Velvettes

I sometimes feel, and I'm sure I'm not the only one, that one day it may be quite hard for me to be taken seriously because of the way I dress. At the moment, working as a performer, the way I look is important but I'm not judged by what I wear off stage as long as I look right on stage. However, I know that one day I may decide that the hectic, uncertain, forever-travelling-around-and-never-settling actor's life isn't right for me anymore, and what will happen to my wardrobe then? Will I be taken seriously as a business woman, as a wife and mother (one day!) or just a grown up if I continue my love affair with pretty dresses bows and glitter?

But do you know what happens when I start to worry about these things? I stop. And do you know why? Because I am constantly inspired by the amount of individual and stylish women that choose to share their beautiful lives with me everyday. I just have to take a peak at my feed reader and my worries just disappear.

Solanah from Vixen Vintage and Cassie from Cassie Stephens

You ladies are incredible. You are mothers, wives, business women, strong women and above all beautiful, inspiring women. You make me realise that there isn't an age that I'll reach and then I'll suddenly lose my love of beautiful things and wearing them. You show me that whatever labels we may collect in life (wife/mother/grown-up etc.) we never stop being ourselves and there's no reason to stop showing that to the world.

Twila Jean from twilajean.com and Brittany from Va Voom Vintage

Of course our preferences change as we grow older - I no longer want to wear the hot pink parachute pants I lived in when I was eleven, and one day I may no longer have a fondness for beaded cardigans - but my point is that whatever I wear, however I change and grow, I'm still going to be me and I'm still going to like pretty things. And if one day I decide that my carefully selected, loved and cared for wardrobe is no longer for me, I know that there will be others who will gladly take it off my hands and love it just as much as I did.

Elsie from A Beautiful Mess and Casey from Elegant Musings

I like pretty things.

I really do.

And that's not changing any time soon!

Katie xxx

Brighton Adventures!

2012-02-03T10:00:00.002Z

Last week I was lucky enough to be able to spend my day off with my wonderful Sweetheart in the wonderful town of Brighton. I had never been to Brighton before, and nothing could quite prepare me for the treats in store!

I was probably most excited excited about visiting the Pottery Painting Cafe, something I had been looking forward to for a long time, and it didn't disappoint. I had a wonderful time painting a cute pair of matching egg cups for me and my Sweetheart (who was incredibly patient in dealing with my perfectionist tendencies!) it was so relaxing. They will be glazed and baked at the cafe before being posted on to me later, I can't wait to see how they turn out!

We also paid a visit to the fabulous Choccy Woccy Doo Dah, and my goodness I have never seen anything like it! The cakes in the window display were ridiculous, I couldn't believe that these beautiful sculptures were made of chocolate! After browsing in their shop and resisting the urge to buy everything in sight we took a stroll around the corner to their cafe where we both rather indulged ourselves. We both chose ice-cream sundaes, my Sweetheart opting for a berry filled concoction whilst I picked a chocolate filled monster. They were amazing. I think that afterwards I was in serious risk of slipping into an ice-cream coma.

Other highlights of my day include cupcakes from the Angel Food Bakery, browsing through the delights of Snoopers Paradise and Beyond Retro, a delicious meal at Bill's (seriously, one of the best meals I have EVER had!) and just wandering about the Laines and taking in the sights. I am well and truly smitten with Brighton, there's so much still to see and do, I'll definitely be taking another trip there soon. Any suggestions for other places to go?

As you can see, my Brighton Adventure left me grinning from ear to ear :)

Bye for now!

Katie xxx

Wednesday Wonderfuls #55

2012-02-01T23:59:00.001Z

Hello Blogosphere, Happy Wednesday!

This week has been really quite lovely with some serious adventures going on in my part of the world, more an that very soon! I've also been surrounded with some beautiful food as you can see from some of my pictures below, a couple of Instagram shots from this week.

And now here are my picks from the blogosphere this week...

Boo Boo Kitty Couture has a lot to answer for this week for introducing me to the shoe brand Swedish Hasbeens. I now want to spend all the money I have on these shoes, view them at your peril!
I'm very excited about this exhibition that is coming to the V & A, thanks to Natasha Bailie for sharing!
A gorgeous example of something stunning created through recycling old clothes from Marmalade Kiss.
I cannot tell you how much I am in love with Gertie's wiggle dress. I can't wait for her book to come out!!
This plush doll twin from A Beautiful Mess is just too cute.
A great simple pom pom tutorial from Elisa McLaughlin, I really want to try this!

Well that's it from me for another week of Wonderfuls, but never fear, next week there will be more!

Katie xxx

January - The Best Bits

2012-01-31T22:01:00.000Z

Sources, Clockwise from Top Left
1. Instagram Calendar Tutorial from A Beautiful Mess, 2. 1880s Bustle Dress from Wearing History,
3. Chocolate and Beetroot Cake from Joy the Baker, 4. Pirate Dress from Cassie Stephens

This has been a great month in the world of The Little Red Squirrel, I feel like I've started 2012 with a bang!

*The blog got a make over*

*I vowed to do 24 special things before I turn 25*

*I celebrated my 1st blogiversary!*

*I started my UFO/Stash Busting Project*

And now for an update on the progress of my two big projects:

24 Things Before 25 - Update

Had my first special family day with my gorgeous mum

I started my UFO/Stash Busting Project

I started the great purge of 2012 and visited the Pottery Painting cafe in Brighton (more on these very soon!)

I started an amazing e-course at A Beautiful Mess, seriously, it's incredible!

UFO/Stash Busting Project - Update

I completed my 1950s knitted shrug, both a UFO and a Stash Buster (thank you for all your lovely comments by the way! I'm so thrilled you like it!)

I have started work again on one of my oldest UFOs, let's just say it may have thought that it defeated me, but I'm back with a sewing vengeance!

I hope that your Januarys were filled with adventures, I can't wait to see what February has in store!

Katie xxx

Sweet as Sugar Shrug

2012-01-30T09:35:00.000Z

Project: Knitted 1950s Shrug

Pattern: Vintage knit Bolero 1953, from this lovely shop

Stash Buster? oh yes!

Items From Stash: Beach Filo yarn from Linz, Austria

Date Started: July 2011

Date Finished: January 2012

New Techniques Used: crochet edging

Wear Again? Yes, yes, yes!

My first completed project of 2011 and also the first project for my Stash Busting/UFO Project! Whoop whoop! I bought the yarn for this shrug (or bolero, whatever you want to call it!) when I was touring Europe last year. I had lost my favourite old cream shrug, bought years ago from Monsoon, between venues and in my pining stage I desperately wanted a replacement. I had already earmarked the knitting pattern online, so when I past a yarn shop with a sale in Linz it felt like fate! Of course I then found the original shrug , screwed up at the bottom of a pocket in my suitcase and the project fell by the wayside. Over all it has taken me nearly 7 months to complete, crazy for a knitting project this small and simple!

Front View

I restarted this shrug at the end of last year with the Stash Busting Project still forming in my mind, but it really started to come together properly in the last couple of weeks. Despite the amount of time it appeared to take it is a relatively simple pattern and I would recommend it. The highlight of this project is definitely the crochet edging, it was so much fun! Crochet it weirdly addictive, I cannot wait to learn to do it properly. Soon my friends, soon :)

Back View

I have already worn this shrug out on multiple occasions and have received some lovely comments, it's clearly a hit, particularly the shape of the back. The one slight flaw is that I didn't check the colour lots of all my wool (silly, silly mistake!) and you can see the slight difference of shades of yarn in the above picture. However this won't deter me from wearing the shrug, I like it too much :)

The Complete Outfit!

Outfit Details:

Shrug: Made and Stash Busted by me!

Top: Topshop (an ancient buy!)

Skirt: Vintage Exchange, altered by me

Tights: shop in Edinburgh

Boots: Miss L Fire

Happy Stash Busting!

Katie xx

The UFO/Stash Busting Project! Why not join me?

2012-01-27T13:47:00.001Z

Hello there lovely readers! I am so excited about this post it's not even true, this is something I've been planning for a while and I cannot wait to get started!

One of the typical problems that most home sewers face (myself in particular!) is the ever growing stash. When you love making clothes it's so easy to get over excited by fabric stores and buy things that you don't really need or fabrics that you don't have a project in mind for. And there's nothing wrong with this of course, we all deserve a little treat now and then, but I've started to look at my stash and feel a bit guilty.

I have piles of beautiful fabric, heaps of unused vintage sewing patterns, and, being a knitter, I also have an obscene amount of left over wool, all of which are just crying out to be turned into something beautiful. I also have a selection of UFO projects, both sewing and knitting, that for some reason or other have fallen by the wayside over the past year. I could have almost doubled the amount of clothes I created last year if I had finished some of these UFOs! My sewing space has become overrun, so much so that something has to be done and pronto, or pretty soon I'll have no space to do any actual sewing!

And so the UFO/Stash Busting Project was born!

This year I have decided to tackle my stash head on and also finish all the UFOs that I've been meaning to work on for months. The main idea of this project is to take note of all the fabric, patterns, wool etc. that I have stored up simply make use of them. I will also gather together all my UFOs and either complete them or turn them into something new and exciting.

Now I'm the type of person was needs to set myself some guidelines when it comes to big projects, so here they are for your viewing pleasure!

UFO/Stash Busting Project Guidelines:

Projects must use at least one item from the stash, for example one pattern or one piece of fabric. A combination of items can of course be used too!
New elements may be bought but they must be used with an item from the stash. For example I can buy fabric and notions for a particular pattern in the stash, but I can't just buy fabric all willy nilly!
For every new project I start a UFO project must be completed. I added this because I know that personally I get carried away with new projects rather than finishing older ones. This way I'm giving myself a bit of structure and discipline!
I will find and/or create projects that use leftovers from the stash. I find very often that I have pieces of material and balls of wool leftover when I have finished a project, that aren't enough to make an item of clothing on their own. I want to find ways of using these leftovers to make useful and beautiful things.

Excited? I sure am! If you are, perhaps you fancy joining me? As always this kind of a project is so much more fun if you're not going it alone! If you feel like taking part then add this badge to your blog and add the following url to link back here:

http://misskatie-littleredsquirrel.blogspot.com/search/label/UFO%2FStash%20Busting%20Project

Don't forget to let me know if you do want to take part, I'd love to see how your stash busting goes! If enough people want to get involved I'd love to start a group where we could all share our projects and ideas, think of the stash busting we could achieve together!

I really am so excited to get started, I've already lined up some projects to finish and I can't wait to try out some of my leftovers project ideas. And don't worry, I will of course be sharing everything that I do right here on my blog!

Bye for now!

Wednesday Wonderfuls #54

2012-01-25T10:58:00.001Z

Hello there and a very happy Wednesday to you all! If you're having anything the like weather I've been having for the past few days you will definitely be needing some Wonderfuls to cheer you up, I know I do!

One thing that I have been loving this week (let's be honest, I love it any week!) is Pinterest. I'm a fully fledged Pinterest addict. Nothing makes me happier than collecting images and seeing them all beautifully grouped together on their little boards, it's the crack cocaine of the blogging world! For your viewing pleasure I have collected a few of my current favourite pins (together with links to wonderful people who pinned them and also their original sources), sp please enjoy the visual spectacle!

Sources, Clockwise from Top Left
1. Claire Donovan from here, 2. Elsie Larson from here, 3. Casey from here,
4. Cassie Stephens from here, 5. Vanessa from here

Now isn't that almost too much gorgeousness to handle?! I really am loving Pinterest, if you have an account do leave me a link to your page, I love browsing through what other people collect! And if you don't currently have one then join up, you'll love it! And why not follow me while you're at it? Click the button in my right side bar to do just that :)

And now for the Wonderfuls I have been collecting from around the blogosphere this week...

First up we have a cute turban tutorial from A Beautiful Mess, plus Elsie also gives you some great tips for sewing with stretch fabrics.
I loved this article from the Velvettes this week about whether or not some clothes have an age limit (cue pictures of an adorable kitten covered frock). Personally I don't think I'll ever stop dressing up :)
Like smoothies, love this.
I will never get tired of these pictures. Thank you to Voluptuous Vixen for posting some I haven't seen before!
This week Wendy of the Butterfly Balcony changed a piece of UFO knitting (5 years old!) into a sweet knitting bag. I love that although it didn't turn into the tank top it was intended to be this UFO had a happy ending :)
And finally we have what looks like the perfect Valentine's Day cake from Joy the Baker. And you don't even have to mention to your Sweetheart that it has vegetables in it...

I hope that these Wonderfuls will tide you over for another week! Enjoy yourselves and if you are in the UK don't let the weather get you down too much!

Bye for now!

The Perfect Girlie London Day

2012-01-20T16:08:00.000Z

On one of my recent visits home I had a practically perfect day out in London with my wonderful mother. It has been a while since we've had some real quality time, just the two of us, so this day out was the perfect fix, just what the doctor ordered!

We started our day with a visit to What Katie Did where I was treated to a sort-of-belated Christmas present (I did in fact receive my present in Christmas day but the items didn't fit properly!) of a stunningly beautiful set of retro inspired lingerie. The whole experience was amazing, the ladies of WKD were so helpful and friendly and I was treated like a film star during my fitting. I will definitely be visiting there again, I'm a convert to vintage style lingerie!

Next up I treated my mum to afternoon tea at Bea's of Bloomsbury at St. Pauls. The venue itself was really special, our table had a view of the cathedral which looked beautiful in the wintery sunshine, but the food itself was what really stole the show. We each had a selection of sandwiches on beautiful crusty bread, a cupcake (we had chocolate peanut butter and a red velvet), scones with clotted cream and jam, homemade vanilla marshmallows, lemon and pistachio biscotti, a brownie, a blondie, a coconut meringue and an individually wrapped salted caramel. Heaven on a platter! And I also had a pot of some of the most delicious peppermint tea I have ever tasted. It was d divine. I was a bit horrified at the amount of food I was able to put away, particularly as I had intended to eat much healthier this new year, but to be honest I don't regret it. I know for a fact that my mother and I would have been happy to eat it all again, although perhaps with a bit of rest time in between to aid digestion! It was a wonderful experience, brilliant conversation over fabulous food, I couldn't have been happier. I can't recommend Bea's of Bloomsbury highly enough (beautiful food, great service and very reasonably priced!), I know that I will be back there very soon and I intend to bring lots of friends too!

We ended our girlie day of fun with a trip to Haymarket cinema (one of the most beautiful cinemas I know!) for a showing of The Artist, something that I have wanted to see for quite some time. It was a beautiful film, I won't write too much about it in case you haven't seen it, but let me just say that the dog is a scene stealer and they couldn't have asked for better faces for silent film from both their leading performers! Seriously, they were both so gorgeous it almost made my eyes hurt :)

We returned home exhausted but happy, filled with food and carrying lovely purchases (plus extra cupcakes for my Dad and my Sweetheart, how nice we are!), it was a perfect day and I was in perfect company. I have always been close to my Mum, she has been my constant friend and my rock over the years, she is always there for me and asks for nothing in return. It makes me incredibly happy to be able to show her, even in a smallish way, how much she means to me. It has been difficult for me to spend quality time with my family recently because of my hectic touring schedule, but being away from them has made me realise just how much I need and love them. This is why I added "Orgainse some special family days" to my list of 24 things before I'm 25. This has been my first of these days, spent with the most wonderful woman I know, and I intend to have many more with my whole beautiful family. 2012 is the year for the ones I love :)

Wednesday Wonderfuls #53

2012-01-18T23:57:00.002Z

Happy Wednesday everyone!

First of all I want to say a big hello and welcome to my new readers, it's great to have you here! Also thank you all for your comments on my latest "I'd Just Like To Say" article, it has clearly struck a chord with a great many of you and I have loved reading your thoughts on the subject! This week has been particularly great in my little part of the world, so many lovely things have been happening, some quite small and others rather bigger, and I'm just loving my life right now! 2012 has started well :)

Allow me to spread some love over to you as well my lovely readers with some fabulous Wednesday Wonderfuls!

I need to have these banana oatmeal chocolate chip cookies in my life, they just look ridiculously good!
Any of you who have blogs of your own may find this article from A Beautiful Mess all about organising your inspiration pretty interesting. As always it's brilliantly well written and full of usefully pointers!
Give your 2012 some sparkle with 10 ways to a more charmed life over at A Girl, A Style. Some great advice for everyone here :)
Sustainable fashion has been heavily on my mid recently so I loved this interview by So Zo... all about Cleaning Up the Fashion Industry.
The lovely Cassie Stephens mentioned my Pin Up Embroidery at her blog! You have to check out her embroidered pirate dress, it's just gorgeous!

I hope that the rest of your weeks are filled with adventures, fun and baked alaska hot chocolates!

Bye for now!

I'd Just Like To Say...

2012-01-13T23:58:00.001Z

... we are all under pressure and I think I've found a culprit.

It’s a situation that I’m sure every woman has been in at some point in her life, and if you work with a large group of women (as I do!), particularly those with quite a lot of a time on their hands (yes, that’s me again), then it tends to happen with an alarming frequency. I am talking about the group activity of sharing your most recent clothes purchases.

Performing in a tour, although you are working almost everyday of the week, means that quite frequently you are only needed in the theatre during the evenings, which in turn means that very often you have three or fours days a week to fill with activities before you are needed at work later. Combine this with the fact that you are often in a new city that you want to explore together with a large group of female colleagues and the result is very often shopping. A lot of shopping. So every couple of days, when we arrive at work, we have the almost ritualistic process of the group share. Although I don’t ever have anything to share in these sessions, what with always making my own clothes rather than shopping on the high street, I do enjoy how close it brings us as a group and it’s always fun to have a good chat and a giggle. However, every so often a type of conversations crops up and I find myself biting my tongue. Take last week for instance.

The clothes sharing session was particularly intense and exciting because there was a night out planned after the show that evening and so everyone was piecing together their prospective outfits. However, in amongst the flurry of new dresses and plastic shopping bags a voice piped up:

“Is it really wrong to wear this dress tonight? I wore it before on a night out and I just think that wearing it again would be wrong.”

This particular girl’s logic was that she had worn the dress in question in front of our group before and she was worried that if she wore it again she would be judged. Basically she was worried that we, her friends, would view her as cheap or trashy just for wearing the same outfit more than once.

Now I know that my opinions with regards to disposable fashion are a little bit biased, as since taking the decision to make all of my own clothes and buy only second hand I have really started to appreciate the amount that a person can consume and the detrimental effects that this constant need for MORE has on the environment. In our society we are now brought up thinking that we can have whatever we want whenever we want it, regardless of the effect that our wants may have on the world around us and the people in it. This has bred a generation of people whose need to be on-trend (or perhaps rather on-fad) without wanting to pay designer prices causes them to constantly refill their wardrobes with cut priced items from shops like Primark, the hardly worn cast offs of which will most probably end up as landfill. I see the effects of this kind of shopping all the time amongst my friends. For example, over a period of just two weeks I witnessed a friend of mine purchase a pair of moccasin boots and wear them intermittently before they started looking a little worse for wear and finally ended up unwearable as they had holes in the toes and one of the soles actually fell off. The only epitaph that was offered as they were thrown into the bin was “Well, they were only £20 from Primark”. But regardless of my feelings towards disposable fashion in general, last week’s conversation with the girl about her dress seemed to bring something else that I find just as worrying to light:

Is the availability and popularity of fast fashion causing people to feel pressurised into keeping up and creating a feeling of failure if they can’t?

It’s seems to me that high street fashion has created a vicious cycle that one can be very easily sucked into. We are tempted in by seemingly brilliant money saving offers - “It’s only £20!” or “2 for the price of 1!” - so we stock up on everything from jeggings to dresses which of course gives us that happy post-shopping glow. However within just a few weeks a new style may start to emerge, suddenly it’s studs instead of feathers or skinny jeans rather than flared so we head back to the shops to fill our wardrobes once more, convincing ourselves that it’s ok because the prices are “so cheap”. However, when you add up the total of all these purchases long term, you suddenly find yourself not really looking at bargains at all. Bargain after bargain after bargain and you can’t call it a bargain anymore. And what have you got to show for the hard earned cash spent? A wardrobe full to bursting with panic purchases and items that will probably fall apart after a good wash, of which you probably only ever wear about 20% regularly. With such a negative and terrifying relationship with shopping and our wardrobes no wonder people are feeling so under pressure when it come to what they wear.

The thing is, I know just how the girl with the dress feels, because just over a year ago I was in a very similar situation with own my clothes purchases. I was a serial shopper, my wardrobe was filled with things that I never wore and the guilt of seeing those clothes there used to drive me crazy. I’d look at them thinking, “why did I buy you? You could be petrol in my car or a new book but instead you hang there taunting me with the fact that you don’t suit me or fit me and I’ll probably never wear you again!” I really had no sense of style other than the one that was dictated to me by whatever was trendy at the time and, in spite of owning enough outfits to clothe a small country, I constantly felt that I had nothing to wear. These things are probably why I found letting go of high street fashion so refreshing and freeing, I was no longer trapped in the cycle of fast fashion and I could finally discover my own style and really start discovering myself again. I think this is why we have such an intense relationship with our clothes, they are the outwards expression of what you have inside, they are the personality that you choose to show the world, like a form of protective armor. Every time I get dressed I feel as though my clothes, like my hair style or my make up, can hide any insecurities I may have and I’m ready to face the world. Can you imagine how hard life becomes when your clothes are one of things adding to that list of insecurities? So much so that you don’t even want to wear the same outfit twice?

What do we do in these situations? Clearly something has to change just for the sake of personal sanity! Now, I’m not saying that everyone should make the choice that I made in giving up new clothes because I know that my way of going about things isn’t for everyone, nor am I trying to sell it as the “perfect lifestyle” (believe me, it’s not!), but if you are finding yourself in a similar situation to me a year ago and want to do something about it then I want to let you know that you have options.

Firstly, look at the way you buy new clothes.

I don’t want to come across as someone who despises shopping, nothing could be further from the truth! I know how it feels when you make the perfect purchase, how much that can change a person’s confidence for the better and how much happiness it can bring, but not all purchases are like that. But what if they could be? Next time you go shopping on the high street make a pact that you won’t just buy something you like, buy something that you LOVE. Don’t be afraid to take your time, you don’t have to buy something as soon as you see it, try walking away and waiting for a few days to make sure that the bond is strong and true before you part with your money. If you buy something you love you will love to wear it, therefore it won’t hang around your wardrobe looking lost when you quickly lose interest.

Support small businesses and up and coming designers.

I think that this is the best alternative to the high street if you really want to buy new rather than second hand. I love showing support to small businesses who invest a lot of time and effort into the clothes they make, because you know that you are going to be paying for quality and longevity in a garment. This is not a cheap alternative, you are paying for what you get, but I would rather pay more for one beautiful dress that I cannot live without than a wardrobe full of things I’ll never wear. Plus with a lot of smaller businesses the garments that they make are often produced in limited amounts, so there’s much less chance of someone showing up in the same outfit as you!

Buy second hand.

I love collecting vintage pieces from fairs and I love to browse ebay and etsy, but quite often this comes with a high price tag so I tend to save these purchases for one or two every few months. Again I’m talking about quality, not quantity, because it’s in these special vintage outfits that you can really see the quality of how clothes used to be made (cue my old lady voice, “they just don’t make them like this anymore!”). Some of my vintage clothes are over 60 years old and are still in practically mint condition, I wonder whether a Primark jumper would be able to say the same in 2070? Buy quality vintage and strive to keep it that way. The garment will last longer for you and then the chances are that you will be able to pass it on to someone else later in the big circle of life of fashion! But there are also more inexpensive options to second hand clothes. If you want a cheaper fix a la Primark without having to actually go there (because let’s be honest, who in their right mind would want to?!) then you cannot go wrong with a charity shop or car boot sale. And the best thing about these kinds of garments is that if they’re not perfect then you can make them so! Some of my favourite and most worn garments started their lives as huge charity shop dresses or horrendous blouses before I got my hands on them and revamped them. I find breathing new life into an outfit that others may have thought was unwearable is one of the most satisfying things I have ever done, plus I know I’m being environmentally friendly at the same time.

Why not try your hand at making something?

It’s really not as hard as it may seem and the best thing is that if you do make mistakes you will just get better with practice, it’s all about the learning curve. Believe me there are few things more pleasing than walking down the street in something you have made yourself, knowing that it fits you well and that no one else will ever own a garment like it. Plus, after all the time you invest in the clothes during the creation process you are certain to take care of them therefore guaranteeing that they will last. Go on, try it, I dare you!

These solution may not seem easy and that’s because, well, they’re not really. Changing the way you live your life isn’t always easy, that’s almost the point. It’s hard work to begin with, but I think you’d be surprised at how quickly these ideas take root and then everything wardrobe wise starts to fall into place. This kind of a wardrobe may take time and it doesn’t always work out as the cheapest option (which I know is a controversial thing to say in a recession) but I would always rather invest in something that lasts than just buy clothes for the sake of it. It’s time for us to reclaim our own sense of style and the whole shopping experience. Let’s start the wardrobe revolution!

And as for the girl with the worn-once-before dress, I gave her my honest opinion on the subject: she looked stunning in it, which would not change regardless of how many times she wore it, and anyone who thought otherwise was probably a bit of an idiot.

Wednesday Wonderfuls #52

2012-01-11T09:20:00.000Z

A very happy Wednesday to you all!

Today is quite a special day because I have been writing these Wednesday Wonderfuls posts for a whole year, how time flies! I hope that you are all still enjoying them because I do love writing them :)

Speaking of things that I love, this week I have developed a new love for the TV programme New Girl (I know it's old news to my American readers but it has just started airing here in the UK). I find it both very silly and very amusing, and also, as I'm a very visual person, I love the way it has been shot and the colour palette that has been used. Just look at this shot from the Christmas episode...

Aesthetically pleasing, no? :)

But without further ado let's get down to some Wednesday Wonderfuls goodness, a particularly good haul for my anniversary post, if I do say so myself...

Feeling stitchy introduced me to couching this week, how adorable is this kind of embellishment? I will definitely be giving this a try, it just looks so cute!
This finished project took my breath away this week, can you imagine having made something so beautiful yourself?!
It's no secret that I'm a big fan of the blog Scathingly Brilliant, I share her links here all the time, but did you know that she also has a shop? This prints were just too sweet not to share them with you all, enjoy!
Another beautiful finished project, this time a coat from Did You Make That, isn't it just stunning? I understand that creating it wasn't all smooth sailing, but my goodness the results are worth it!
And to finish let me tempt your sweet tooth with a selection of cakey-type posts that caught my eye this week. Katie Cakes shared some cupcake push pops that I've gone crazy over, A Beautiful Mess shared some cupcake mixology (i.e. different way to make a simple cake more fancy!), and Joy posted a gorgeous recipe for some sinful looking smashed raspberry and chocolate chunk pancakes, swoon!

And that's it for this week's Wonderfuls! To see all of the last year's worth of Wednesday Wonderfuls look here, believe me there are some treasure to be found :)

Bye for now, but never fear, there will be yet more Wonderfuls next week!

Your help needed! What is the best way to reply to comments?

2012-01-07T09:45:00.001Z

Image from mybeautybunny.com

One thing that I really want to get right on my blog this year is how to go about answering the comments that you lovely people post here.

I adore reading your comments, every time I get a new one I still get a little thrill just as I did when my first ever comment was posted, and I really want to answer them in the way that you lovely people deserve. When I first started blogging I would reply to each and every comment that was posted in the comments section of the blog post that it was written on. This seemed like a good idea in theory until I realised that the only way that the author of the comment would be able to see my reply would be for them to constantly revisit that same post, which is a bit of a fuss to be honest. Plus who can remember exactly which comments they have left on which blog post?!

I then started to reply to comments via e-mail as this seemed like the best way to make sure that the author of the original comment received my message, but this again was not a perfect solution to the comment-answering problem. I find that many people who comment on my blog are simply offering support or lovely comments of admiration (which is so sweet of you, you can't even understand!) but very rarely am I asked specific questions. Because of this I feel a little odd sending e-mails in reply to these comments as I'm basically just writing variations of "Thank you so much!" which although is meant honestly and truly from my heart I worry that it may look a little hollow in an e-mail. Plus do you think that messages such as this would be irritating to receive?

This is a problem I would really like to solve as keeping in touch with my readers and commenters is very important to me, you guys brighten up my day! I just want to do right by you :)

So, as always when I face a tricky problem, I turn to you, my fabulous readers!

How would you prefer to get a reply to a comment?

Would you love an e-mail just expressing thanks, or do you not expect a reply unless you have asked a direct question? Perhaps you know of a better solution to this problem than the other methods I have tried, if so then please share your knowledge! I'd love to know what you think, so come on, get in touch! And I'll do my best to reply in the best possible way :)

(P.S. This was my 200th blog post! eeeeeeeeeeee!)

The Little Red Squirrel - 1st Blogiversary!

2012-01-06T13:55:00.000Z

I cannot quite believe it but I have been blogging for one year today! Also today marks the end of one year in which I have bought no new clothes, a whole year of either making my own clothes or just buying things second hand. Can you believe it?!

I want to take a moment to take a look at all the sewing I have done this year, so please indulge me. I just love how all of these projects look when they're all grouped together, it makes me crazy happy :)

1. The "Party Dress Book" Dress, 2. The Crepe Sew Along Dress, 3. My Birthday Dress
4. The 1960s style tunic, 5. My Christmas Dress

1. The Briar Rose Sweater, 2. Fair Isle Sweater, 3. Green and Lacy, 4. Enchanting in Black and White

1. The Pin Up Embroidery Skirt, 2. The Red Pencil Skirt, 3. The Wonderland Circular Skirt,
4. The Pendrell Blouse, 5. The 1960s top with Peter Pan collar,

1. Shirt to Skirt Revamp, 2. 1950s style dress Revamp, 3. Red Blouse Revamp,
4. Floral Skirt Revamp, 5. Cream Floral Dress Revamp

Towards the end of last year I started getting a bit down about the amount of sewing/knitting projects I had completed in my first year of this challenge, I wished I had been able to achieve more. However, when I look at the photos above I feel incredibly proud of the outfits I have created, and I realise that for me it's about quality not quantity. I may not have completed hundreds of projects, but those that I have are now staples in my wardrobe and I love wearing them.

I started this blog a year ago as a serial shopper who spent a ridiculous amount of money on clothes that just sat in my wardrobe which was bursting at the seams and yet I still felt as if I had nothing to wear. Now, I have developed my own sense of style which I know is completely unique - no one else will ever been seen walking down the street in the same outfit as me! - and the thought of choosing what to wear each day excites me. Choosing to make all my own clothes started as a challenge but it's so much more than that to me now, it's a way of life.

So what happens now? Well, basically I intend to carry on the way I have started! For me this is just the beginning. A year of living the make-not-buy lifestyle has not only shown me that I CAN do this, but it also shown me how rewarding living in this way can be. This year I am going to take the foundation that I have created last year and add to it a little more structure. Hopefully this will improve my sewing productivity so that this time next year I will be proudly looking back over about twice as many projects, all still top quality of course :)

All that remains for me to say is a huge thank you to all of you, my wonderful, beautiful readers, who have stopped by my blog and shown your support for the past year. I never thought I would have more than one regular reader and now here I am with 163 followers, it blows me away! Thank you so much for dropping by and hopefully I'll continue to give you something worth reading this year too!

This is going to be a good year for sewing, I can't wait to get started, but right now I think that my blogiversary deserves some blogiversary cake... :)

Wednesday Wonderfuls #51

2012-01-04T18:55:00.000Z

It's the first Wednesday Wonderfuls of 2012!! Woo hoo!!

One thing that I am loving this week - and yes I know I'm a little late to the party, but better late than never! - is Pan Am. I watched most of the first season this week with my Sweetheart and I have to say I'm addicted. I will be very sad if the show does get cancelled, I mean the costumes are just swoon-worthy! I literally want every single outfit, even their stewardess uniforms and their fabulous underwear.

All images taken from imdb

What an amazing Halloween costume a Pan Am girl would be.... :)

But it's not just my television programmes that have been spectacular this week, the blogosphere has been filled with wonderfuls, so here are my picks of the week for your viewing pleasure!

The lovely ladies at the Coletterie have grouped together their five favourite snippets (sewing related tips from their newsletter) of 2011, it's a great read. I particularly appreciated the tips on creating a usable fabric stash.
This is a great post about crediting pictures from Vixen Vintage. Always remember to give credit where it's due!
I have admired Vanilla and Lace's camera bag tutorial for a long time and this week she posted an update, so now it's even better than before. I think I feel a project coming on...
Talking of amazing projects you really have to check out this Instagram Calendar tutorial over at A Beautiful Mess, it's so adorable. It would make a great gift, plus if you like pugs you just have to see some of the pictures used in this tutorial, talk about cute!

What a great selection of goodies to start the New Year! I hope you're having a fab 2012 so far, I certainly am :)

Bye for now!

My Crafty Christmas - concluded

2012-01-03T13:34:00.001Z

So here I am on the other side of my Crafty Christmas adventure, and I survived! And actually I think that choosing to make my Christmas presents although difficult and demanding was amazing and I will definitely be doing something similar in the future. I felt so proud when my loved ones unwrapped gifts that I had make myself and spent so much time on, and judging from their reactions they really appreciated the gesture :)

I finished all of the projects that I had planned to in the time that I gave myself plus I had time to do lots of festive home cooking with my mum which just added that special extra something to the day, it was brilliant.

Let's face it, I'm definitely a homemade convert, I'm already thinking of ideas for next year...!

24 Things Before I'm 25

2012-01-02T23:09:00.001Z

This year instead of my regular New Year's resolutions I have put together a rather fabulous list of 24 things to do before I'm 25. I cannot wait to get started as I love that feeling of pride and satisfaction when you check a item off a list because it's been completed. Sad but true :) I intend to share each one of these experiences with you here on this blog, so let's get to the fun bit, the list!

1. Learn to Crochet - this is something I've wanted to learn to do all this year but things (for example making Christmas gifts!) kept getting in the way, so it's first on the list :) I will learn to crochet!

2. Learn to use my camera properly - I am the proud owner of a very beautiful and very fancy DSLR camera, but I haven't really got a clue as to how to use it. This will change.

3. Design a new blog header - you may have noticed the changes to my blog layout, this year I want to give the whole look of this blog an overhaul, and I thought I might as well start with making my own header (although as I'm not too good with computers it may take a while...!)

4. Take one of the e-course at A Beautiful Mess - these are amazing, I want to take most of them, but I think I'll start with the blog love e-course for bloggers

5. Go and see Florence and the Machine live - tickets booked, cannot wait!

6. Cook my first roast - Roast dinners have always been my favourite so I thought it was about time that I learnt to cook one of my own!

7. Start my UFO/Stash busting project - I am very excited about this! More details will follow at a later date... :)

8. Make a thread holder - I've always wanted one, so why not make one?

9. Paint a picture - I drew quite a lot when I was younger, I took art at GCSE level, and I'd really like to get back into that side of my creativity. Plus I'd love to be able to hang my own artwork in my home :)

10. Cook Eggs Benedict from scratch - my favourite breakfast/brunch meal, and as yet I can't even poach an egg!

11. Go for tea at the Dorcester - a little dream of mine :)

12. Make a dress from an Eva Dress Pattern - these may be the most beautiful dress patterns in the world, plus they're quite ridiculously fancy, both things that work in their favour as far as I'm concerned!

13. Go to the pottery painting cafe in Brighton - I just want to go and paint some pottery, is that wrong?

14. Make Gertie's Bombshell dress - I joined the online course for this dress months ago and still haven't really gotten started so this year I'm going to change that.

15. Have the great purge of 2012 - something I do every year, sort through everything I own to see what I'm going to keep and what I'm giving away, it's a great start to the year, I can't wait!

16. Create and post my own tutorial - as soon as I come up with something worth posting about!

17. Cook at least one recipe from each of my cook books - I have a rather huge selection of cook books and yet most of them I haven't used at all, so this year I want to help them do what they were born to do and hopefully get a bit better at cooking along the way!

18. Make a quilt - I have always loved quilts so I thought it was about time to give this craft a go.

19. Have a blog photo shoot - I cannot explain how exciting/scary the thought of this is to me...

20. Read all my coffee table books - much like my cook book obsession I also own a large number of glossy coffee table books, mostly about fashion and designers and I'm going to read each one from cover to cover.

21. Make a jewellery holder - self explanatory really!

22. Write an "I'd just like to say" article every two weeks - I wrote one of these at the end of last year and loved it, but once again Christmas preparations prevented me from having the time to write more. This is definitely something I want to rectify this year!

23. Complete the list of different sewing techniques - I'm going to take the basic list from Curves, Patterns and Pins and add a few fancy things from some of my sewing books, I can't wait to start learning some new sewing tricks :)

24. Organise some special family days - a very special one for me, being away from home has made me really treasure my time with my family, so I want to make the most of it and organise some really fun and exciting things to do

And that's it! Follow my progress through this list on this blog, I have a feeling it's going to be a great year :) Hurrah for 2012!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T19:23:00.000Z

Well here we go, the first blog post of 2012! I hope you all had a marvellous New Year's Eve, I had a great time with my Sweetheart in Dublin town, and I wore my "Party Dress Book" Dress, which went down a treat!

I can't count the amount of nice comments I received on this outfit and I also had some great conversations about sewing which was brilliant, a lovely way to spend the last hours of 2011 and see in the New Year.

I nearly always make New Year's resolutions, I love writing a to-do list and that feeling of satisfaction when you tick things off it :) Well this year is a little bit different, because I've shamelessly pinched an idea from the incredible blog A Beautiful Mess (seriously, it's a brilliant blog, if you haven't read it then DO) and I have written a list of 24 things to do before I'm 25, which I will be sharing with you in detail tomorrow. Basically this year I'm going to be really committing to this blog and I have some really exciting challenges ahead of me, I cannot wait!

For now, Happy New Year and I hope you got in as much partying and happy times as you could over the festive season :)

Colette Fall Palette Challenge 2011 - 1960s top and tunic

2011-12-29T16:54:00.001Z

You may or may not remember that way back when in September I vowed to take part in the Colette Fall Palette Challenge. I got as far as making a mood board and selecting my colours (see the post here), but then there was a slight problem with my sharing my finished projects with you. Because there weren't any! For various reasons, including the theft of my sewing machine, I found myself unable to complete any of my planned items for my Palette Challenge, however this all changed a few weeks ago! I have finally completed two of those projects and I can finally share them with you now...

So take a look at my new 1960s style top and tunic!

Usually I'm draw to the looks of the 40s and 50s but I found the pattern for this ensemble tucked away at the back of a vintage shop near my home and brought is home for next to nothing with a whole bunch of others. It did feel very strange to wear such a short skirt after so long in never wearing anything above the knee, but as soon as I got used to it I must admit I enjoyed it!

This outfit uses three of the colours from my Fall Palette Mood Board, grey, cream and red (although I had the red items already!) and I love how they all work together. I'm totally in love with this dress fabric, which is covered in black and white pictures which have their names underneath them in french, I bought it at Ray Stitch and I cannot get enough of it! I also made a bow belt, once again using Tilly's tutorial, and I think it really sets off the whole look.

The top is my first ever attempt at using a stretch knit fabric! It's made with a beautifully soft t-shirt fabric that I picked up in Manchester months ago and it's so snuggly and comfortable. It was surprisingly easy to work with and the finished top is something that I know I will wear again and again and again, in fact several of my friends have expressed an interest in having one for themselves, so who knows, you may be seeing more of this top in the future! The original pattern had a high necked pussy bow look which I altered to add the peter pan collar - a favourite look of mine! - and I also added some fabric covered buttons to the cuffs and collar for a nice extra detail.

And yes, the observant readers amongst you may notice that the boots I'm wearing are the very boots that I featured on my mood board for colour inspiration! I love my Miss L Fire boots, they are heavenly to prance about in :) Although this isn't my usual look I really enjoy it and I'm sure I will be taking this outfit out on the town again soon!

Top - Handmade by me

Dress - Handmade by me

Belt - Handmade by me using this tutorial

Hat - Knitted by me using this pattern

Gloves - a gift from my Sweetheart

Bag - won in a competition by the wonderful Emma of Lady Jardin

Boots - Miss L Fire

All photos taken by my Sweetheart

Wednesday Wonderfuls #50

2011-12-28T12:02:00.000Z

Hello my lovely readers and a very happy Wednesday to you all!

Dita and I sending you love!

I have always enjoyed the few days between Christmas and New Year, they have always been a time to relax and enjoy the festive feelings that still remain after Christmas before welcoming in the New Year filled with hope and promise. It's an exciting time where you can look back over how much everything has changed since last year and think about all the incredible things that could happen to you in the next. In January this blog will be celebrating it's first anniversary and I really can't believe how quickly that time has gone by! I really didn't think that anyone would be interested in what I have to write about and now I have over 160 followers and I'm so thankful for each and everyone of you!

This is my last Wednesday Wonderfuls post of 2012 and I wanted to take this moment to thank you all for your support during 2011. The fact that you take the time to stop by my little piece of the blogosphere to read my ramblings and to leave gorgeous comments really does mean the world to me :) Writing this blog makes me very happy and hopefully I spread a bit of that happiness around for you all too!

Anyway, let's get on with the matter at hand, the Wednesday Wonderfuls!

If you're still in a Christmassy mood and don't feel like letting go quite yet, then try these cupcakes from Joy the Baker, guaranteed to make you feel all warm and fuzzy from the inside out!
If you've ever thought about making your own Photo Christmas Card then this post from Craftyminx may be a big help. She has created some amazing cards over the years and here she gives you the low down on everything you may need to think about during the creative process. Maybe keep these things in mid for next year!
Another Christmas-type post, and yes I know that Christmas is over now this year but this peppermint packaging tutorial over at Strawberry Moth was just too cute and pretty not to share. This is definitely how I'm going to go with packaging next year...
I'm getting serious house envy after seeing another post from A Beautiful Mess, this time of her stunning kitchen *swoon swoon swoon*.
If you one of those old fashioned type (like myself!) who will always prefer a letter to an email of a text then why not send out written thank you cards this year? Heart Handmade UK has rounded up a great variety of free printable thank you cards, so it doesn't have to cost a fortune, so why not show the ones you love that you care in a really personal way :)
Lots of people have been looking back over their posts of 2011 and sharing their favourites, none so useful as this year in tutorials from the Coletterie. It's packed with useful tutorials, tips and tricks, check it out!

That's it from me for today and that's also it from the Wednesday Wonderfuls this year! But don't worry because they will be back again next year with bells on :)

Bye for now!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-26T20:06:00.001Z

Happy Boxing day to you all! I hope you've all had a wonderful festive season, opened lots of presents, ate lots of Christmassy food and spent lots of time with the ones you loved. I had a great time yesterday and also today, and saw both my family and my Sweetheart's family, it really was pretty much perfect :)

Anyways I just wanted to drop in and show you the outfit that I was wearing, you may remember from this post that I was planning to make the perfect Christmas dress based on one of my favourite of Chuck's dresses from "Pushing Daisies", and I did! I finished it at the eleventh hour on Christmas Eve, and the perfectionist in me can see quite a few things that I'd like to tweak to make it just right, but all in all I love it and I couldn't help but feel festive in it! Also it has a horsehair braid hem, how cool is that!

I also fixed myself a fancy hairdo trying out my new Christmas snood, a gift from my fabulous mother, she's knows how to pick a brilliant present!

Unfortunately I was unable to complete my New Year's dress (my own version of Gertie's Bombshell Dress) because I've been so busy with Christmas preparations. I guess I'll have to save it for a Valentine's outfit or something! But hey, I don't really care what I'll be wearing because my lovely Sweetheart will be welcoming in the New Year with me in Dublin so I'll be grinning from ear to ear regardless of what dress I end up wearing!

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all enjoy the run up to the New Year, I can't wait!

Bye for now!

Wednesday Wonderfuls #49

2011-12-22T00:33:00.000Z

Only four more sleeps until Christmas! My goodness me I'm excited!

You may have noticed that posts have become a little sparse here recently. As I'm sure is the case with many of you, I have become completely swept away with Christmas preparations, not that I'm complaining because I love this time of year, but it has made blogging a little bit difficult! I do have a couple more blog updates to post before Christmas, but I'm going to be focusing most of my time on spending time with my beautiful family and my Sweetheart, so I wanted to take this last Wednesday Wonderfuls post before Christmas to wish you the very best of the season, I hope you have exciting plans for this festive time of year :)

Anyways, let's have some lovely Wonderfuls to get us in the mood for Christmas, I can't wait!!

Fancy using up your odds and ends of yarn for a last minute Christmas gift? Try making one of these knitted felted rings, a free pattern from Tiny Owl Knits. They are so sweet, I'd like to make a whole bunch of them :)
Here's another project for your left over yarn, I know this one's been going around the blogosphere for a while but I love it so much that I really had to share it myself :) utterly ridiculous but utterly adorable, crochet apple covers!
Here's something I'd love to give a go in the New Year, a stunning walk in wardrobe! It's going to be a while before I have space for one of these of my very own, but a girl can dream...!
And finally here's a treat that I think everyone will enjoy (both the making and the eating!), hot chocolate spoons! What a simple and fun gift, if you have time left before Christmas you really should give these a go, I wish I could!

Right, let's all finish getting ready for Christmas so that we can enjoy this magical time without any stress! Who's with me?

That's it from me today, but I'll be back soon! :)

Wednesday Wonderfuls #48

2011-12-14T23:36:00.000Z

Hello there lovely readers, and a very happy Wednesday to you all!

It's been a really fabulous week so far for me as I'm on holiday, 10 blissful days at home with my gorgeous Sweetheart and my beautiful family. So far I've had a brilliant time, baking, putting up Christmas decorations, wrapping presents and making cards, vintage shopping, visiting craft fairs, going to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park and seeing the amazing musical, "Matilda". It's so nice to have a big stretch of time to just enjoy myself and not think about work, plus I've got a whole load of sewing done, updates soon to follow!

Anyways, let me spread my joy around the blogging masses with some Wednesday Wonderfuls, and this week has been a particularly good one in my opinion!

Still looking for a good homemade Christmas present idea? Check out this messenger bag tutorial, it's great, anyone would be very lucky to get one as a gift!
Or how about a lovely Christmas decoration tutorial? Look no further than the Evil Dressmaker and this gorgeous ice skating boot decoration, it's so sweet :)
Fancy a bit of homemade booze for your holiday season? Well you can't go wrong with homemade amaretto, which is actually my Sweetheart's favourite tipple. I guess I know what I'm going to be doing some time soon!
Have you ever read one of those articles about capsule wardrobes that always seem so popular at the start of a new year? Well Zoe gave them a piece of her mind brilliantly this week, do check out her article, it is, as always fantastically written :)
Now this is a video that you should really watch in the lead up to Christmas, it's all about how to pipe icing! If you're a fan of gingerbread like me then I'm sure you'll find a use for it!
Tasha is once again showing us the knitting ropes this week with a post all about stranded knitting. It has made my fingers itch with the need for new knitting projects!
And finally, let me share with you the perfect Christmas dessert over at Joy the Baker, a chocolate peppermint roll with chocolate ganache. Be still my beating heart. Excuse me, I need to get baking...

What a great week of posts! I hope you've enjoyed them, I'll be back again soon with some more yummies :)

Bye for now!

Wednesday Wonderfuls #47

2011-12-07T23:46:00.000Z

Hello there lovely readers, happy Wednesday to you all!

It's fairly short one from me today as I am all tuckered out, it's sleepy time in the land of the Little Red Squirrel!

But regardless of how tired I am Wednesday Wonderfuls wait for no man, so let's get started!

Ever fancied making a jumper but don't want to go to the hassle of knitting? Gertie shows you how!
Have any of you been checking out the wedding posts over at Strawberry Moth? They are so beautiful, this one featuring the bridesmaids was just too gorgeous not to share!
This week I have started following a new blog, Curves, Patterns and Pins, and I'm loving it, particularly her check techniques posts. She has a whole list of sewing techniques that she's slowly working her way through, it makes for great reading. Maybe I'll follow in her footsteps and give some of the techniques a go myself :)
Still not sure what to give your loved ones for Christmas? Why not try this homemade limoncello recipe, it looks good to me!

Sorry about this hastily written post, I'm going home after tomorrow night's show for 10 days of loveliness and holiday-Christmassy fun, I can't wait! But I really must dash, I have a lot of packing to do!

Bye for now!

Edinburgh Adventures in Pictures - Part 2, My time with Harriet

2011-12-06T16:14:00.001Z

One of the best things about my time in Edinburgh was that I had a visit from one of my favourite gal pals in all the world, the beautiful Harriet!

Harriet and I met at school years ago and out of all my old school chums she is definitely the one I keep in touch with the most, but due to both of us leading such hectic lives (seriously, it's impossible to get hold of this girl, she's been in Sri Lanka, Kenya, you name it she's probably been there!) it had been quite a while since we saw each other last, so my goodness we were thrilled to be able to spend some quality time together!

We had a lovely old time in Edinburgh, we went for a gorgeous lunch at The Cellar Door, which I highly recommend if you're ever in the area, where I had my first taste of haggis and was very pleased with myself. We also made a cheeky trip to Bibi's Bakery to pick up some yummies for girlie time later (yes I know, my addiction to cupcakes may not be all that healthy!). She watched the show and afterwards we went to the pub and sipped on some large glasses of Crabbies alcoholic ginger beer before heading back to my digs and having a proper girlie sleepover, it was absolute bliss! The next day we had a divine breakfast at a little bistro down the road from where I was staying, where we both gorged ourselves on eggs, muffins, orange juice and hot chocolate or coffee (can you tell that a lot of our relationship is based on our mutual love of all food?!). And of course the only time we stopped talking during her visit was to eat or sleep, it was brilliant!

Harriet is the type of friend that when I see her I can't believe I let so much time go by between each of our visits and yet every time I see her our relationship hasn't changed. She probably knows more about me than most people in my life, the good and the bad, but she never judges me. I can talk to her about pretty much anything. She is an incredible person, she has lived half way across the world before to teach children english, she has dug wells for people who need water, she is currently kicking arse at her amazing PhD and yet she doesn't seem to think that there is anything all that special about herself. And that just makes me love her even more :)

I will always admire her for being so damn gorgeous and not realising it, and of course for our mutual obsessions with Johnny Depp, Richard Coyle and Terry Pratchett novels. She gets me, for all my quirky little habits and oddities, and I think that someone like that is worth holding on to. Plus she loves cakes and baked goods almost as much as I do!

Thanks for an amazing time in Edinburgh Harriet, you, as always, rock my socks off :)

See how big my smile is? That's how happy I was to see her!

Happy Tuesday my lovely readers! Now go and tell your best friends that you love them!

And yes, just to embarrass you, it's you eating cake! mwahaha! love you :)

Edinburgh Adventures in Pictures - Part 1

2011-12-05T23:54:00.002Z

My time in Edinburgh really was perfect, it was such a beautiful place, I cannot wait to get back there (I'm already thinking about a second visit!). Anyways, I want to share some of the beauty of Edinburgh with you with some of these pictures, just looking through them makes me want to go back there right away!

Pretty, pretty places...

One of my favourite places in Edinburgh would have to be the Grassmarket, walking down these streets you cannot fail to feel cool :) It is stuffed with gorgeous shops, I could spend hours wandering around the Grassmarket, browsing and probably spending an obscene amount of money...

The Grassmarket is also the home of the amazing vintage shop, Armstrong & Son, thank you so much to Debi for introducing this shop to me, it was brilliant! (And yes, I may have spent an obscene amount of money here...)

Just take a look at some of the vintage goodness that was stuffed into this cave of wonders...

Plus, if you didn't already think that Edinburgh was amazing, it also has a castle. Oh yeah...

Basically, Edinburgh is awesome. I wish I could have stayed there for longer than two weeks, I can't wait to get back :)

Oxford Adventures in Pictures - Part 2

2011-12-03T11:18:00.001Z

One of the things I am determined to get done before Christmas is to get up to date with all my pictures from Oxford and Edinburgh, so expect a couple of these picture heavy posts over the next few days! Luckily quite a few of your seemed to really enjoy my previous Oxford post so I'm hoping you'll forgive the sudden surge of pictures...!

Unlike my first set of Oxford pictures which were very architecturally heavy, these are very person heavy, don't say that I don't give you variety!

My new friend at the Natural History Museum

And of course it wouldn't be Oxford if we didn't take a trip out on the river, even though it was pretty darn cold! My Sweetheart showed off his impressive rowing skills to my parents...

And then later my mum had a go, and she was surprisingly good at it too!

Another of my favourite moments of my time in Oxford was the mini fireworks night that we had at my Sweetheart's parents' house. We were about a week early for actual Bonfire Night, but that didn't stop us having all kinds of fun with fireworks, roasted marshmallows and, of course, sparklers!

My Sweetheart and I had a great time pretending to be Harry Potter...

And that concludes my very silly picture post, next time I will bring you Edinburgh!

Bye for now!

Happy First of Decemeber!

2011-12-01T10:52:00.000Z

It's the day when I finally allow myself to publicly express my love of the Christmas season! Yes, I know I've been making presents and posting about them since October, but from December 1st I really allow myself to indulge in some good old festive yumminess :)

I wanted to spread a bit of festive cheer around the blogosphere today with some music that I was introduced to yesterday in my dressing room, it's pretty much perfect for getting you into the Christmas way of thinking. If you haven't heard these songs yet you are in for a treat, and if you have you'll know just how fun they are. Allow me to introduce you to the magic of "Straight No Chaser"and their versions of The 12 Days of Christmas and The Christmas Can-Can!

Yay for Christmas! :)

Wednesday Wonderfuls #46

2011-11-30T11:27:00.000Z

Hello there my lovely readers and a very happy Wednesday to you all!

Firstly I want to thank you all so much for your wonder comments on my first "I'd just like to say post". This is something I've been thinking about adding to the blog for a long time but I wasn't sure how it would be taken by all of you, my fabulous readers, but you have been so supportive I couldn't have hoped for anything more! This is definitely a feature I will be continuing with great gusto so here's to the next one, hopefully it will spark up as much discussion as the first one!

Secondly I have now moved venue, the show is now gracing the Alhambra stage in Bradford, which is a big relief to me after all the nasty things that happened in Sunderland (please don't hate me if Sunderland is your hometown and you love it, I just had some very stressful and bad experiences there!). I am also staying just outside of Bradford in some beautiful cottages with other members of the cast which is so picturesque and peaceful that I couldn't be happier, hopefully I'll get lots of time for crafting and blogging :)

Anyway, enough about me, let's get on with the task at home, the Wednesday Wonderfuls!

This beaded scallop collar tutorial that I found over at Depict this is just stunning, everyone should have one for the festive season!
Talking about collars, the Evil Dressmaker has created a vast selection of detachable collars for you to try out, I would like one of each please!
The lovely Jane Brocket has written an equally lovely review about one of my favourite cupcake stores, The Hummingbird Bakery, if you haven't payed then a visit you really should! I miss London and all it's bakery goodness...
For a fantastic selection of non mainstream Christmas presents check out the Very Merry Indie Christmas over at Scathingly Brilliant, I dare you not to want all of these goodies!
One of the reasons I started my "Make-Not-Buy Challenge" was my fear of how my consuming was affecting the environment, and "So Zo..." wrote about this subject this week in her amazing article. She puts her points forward so well, you really should check out her blog!
These shoe clips would make gorgeous Christmas presents for all your girlie chums, plus you could make a selection for yourself too :)
Do you want to get in a festive mood? Try looking through this gorgeous post filled with Christmas decor inspiration, let's all fill our homes with Christmas cheer!

Well I'm feeling Christmassy after all that! I'm going to go off and continue with my presents now, but never fear, I'll be back very soon with more posty goodness :)

Bye for now!

I'd Just Like To Say...

2011-11-25T20:51:00.001Z

*** For quite a long time I've wanted to add some opinion pieces to this blog, I loved writing articles at school and have really missed it, so I have decided to start posting an opinion piece every other Friday. These will always be about something relating to the craft/fashion world and I hope you enjoy them, please leave feedback as to whether you like the idea! So here is my first opinion piece on this blog, the first ever "I'd Just Like To Say..."***

... why is picking on other women suddenly feminist?

Kirstie Allsopp (Source)

Recently I have read a few rather biting articles online about TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp. I know that there are others around the blogosphere who won’t share my opinion, but I am quite a big fan of Kirstie. I have always enjoyed her no nonsense, blunt turn of phrase, and I’ve enjoyed watching her even more since she started all her homemade/handmade programs.

For my international readers and those of you who haven’t caught these programs, over the past three years Kirstie Allsopp has released a string of different crafting type shows, ranging from learning new crafts herself, to bringing crafts into the lives of others and, most recently, taking the skills she has learnt and entering her handmade offerings in various competitive events (“Kirstie’s Handmade Britain”).

I know that there are mixed opinions out there about some of the crafts that Kirstie tackles on these shows, as to how useful or stylish they may actually be, but as far as I’m concerned she’s a woman who enjoys making something from nothing, a woman after my own heart, and for that she has my respect and admiration. She’s like all of us who choose to blog about our crafting exploits, sharing our love of creating with the world, although of course she does so on a much more public platform. I think it’s these similarities that caused me to feel a bit disgruntled after reading the recent articles of Liz Jones and Janet Street Porter. Although their comments were directed at Kirstie, I couldn’t help but sense the general negativity that was being sent towards women who craft as a whole. I hope you’ll indulge me as I felt a real urge to put my opinions on this subject forward.

Liz Jones - who declares “I want a life, not a homemade beeswax candle” - takes a very dim view on people like myself, i.e. people who enjoy crafts and baking, calling us “passive aggressive nightmares” who seek praise for our “icing-sugar-dusted self-flagellation”. And here was me thinking that I just enjoyed making and eating cakes! She makes some really quite petulant comments about private education, polka dot aprons (shock horror!) oh and also did you know that most women who indulge in home crafting have high-earning husbands who all have affairs and get drunk? I know, me neither, I must inform my Sweetheart...

Lorraine Pascale (Source)

I honestly don’t know where all this negativity comes from, other than that Liz Jones has some hidden issues that she is trying to deal with by getting at crafty folk in general, with particular venom being aimed at Kirstie Allsopp, Lorraine Pascale and Nigella Lawson (and I own cook books by both of the latter, so I suppose I’m well and truly doomed in Liz’s eyes!). She goes on to say that women like her “who care about personal grooming (say, the female cat of The Only Way is Essex) get a lot of flak from these rotund baking types with their blue striped milk jugs” (even the milk jugs are getting blamed! Poor old milk jugs...)

Nigella Lawson (Source)

Well, firstly, rotund? How rude. But more to the point, I have watched all of the above women in their various programs and not once have I heard any of them make reference to anything other than the task at hand, which is most probably just making a cake of some kind. I have never been watching Lorraine or Nigella whip up a sponge to then hear them berating anyone who chooses to fake tan and wear hair extensions a la TOWIE, and to be honest if they did I probably wouldn’t watch them or buy their books. After all, if a woman decides that dressing in that way makes her feel happy and confident then that is entirely her own choice and nothing to do with anyone else. I personally would look ridiculous with a fake tan (I would pretty much be the same colour as my hair all over!) but that doesn’t mean that I look down on anyone who does just because I choose not to. And anyway, who says that the cast of TOWIE can’t get their crafty on once in while? The way you look or your “personal grooming” habits do not determine what you choose to do with your personal life.

I can honestly say, hand on heart, that I don’t feel that crafting or cooking shows like Kirstie’s Handmade Britain or the Great British Bake Off are designed in order to make the viewer feel some how inferior or less of a woman if they don’t take part in these types of activities too. Surely if you’re not interested in the subject matter you just wouldn’t watch the show!

Janet Street Porter is known for her biting remarks and her strong feministic viewpoint, but I think that in her recent article she’s rather missed the point a bit. She berates Kirstie Allsopp for her “empire” which sells us weak minded members of the public the “dangerous myth” that “women will be happy and fulfilled if they spend every spare moment busily making jam, repainting furniture and sewing cushions”. Now, forgive me for saying so, but that doesn’t sound half bad to me, not really all that dangerous but actually quite fun. Of course that may be just me... She then goes on to ask, in my opinion, an unbelievable question: “If she’s (Kirstie’s) such a relationship expert, how come her chap (and the father of her two children) hasn’t popped the question?” Excuse me, but in an article in which you put someone down for being “pre-feminist” are you going to then to make an argument based on the fact that the woman in question is not married? Now who’s giving an archaic point of view to the female public.

This is my point. Why should any of us feel that our way of living our own lives is in any way inferior or superior to another’s? I was once asked by an acquaintance if I ever felt guilty about knitting because I was playing up to a female stereotype that was anti-feminist. At the time I was quite taken aback and didn’t know how to reply, but given my chance again I would say that the most feminist weapon in my artillery is my right to choose. I choose to sew, to make my own clothes, to bake cakes, to knit because it makes me happy. Crafting and making things brings me a lot of joy which in turn, whilst trying not to sound too cliche, allows me to give more joy to others. People may look at the way I live my life and think “I would NEVER do that. Not in a million years. Not if you PAID me” and that’s an opinion that they have every right to have, but the point is I don’t feel that in doing the things that make me happy I’m pressurizing others into living the same way. Maybe I’m naive but I really do think that when Lorraine Pascale, Nigella Lawson and Kirstie Allsopp started their shows they wanted to take something that they loved, something that they had a passion for and pass it on to a wider audience. That’s it, no strings attached, no hidden agenda. And yes, they capitalize on their passions and loves, but surely that’s something to be admired, after all who wouldn’t do the thing they adored for a living if they could?

I am a woman who believes in women’s rights, and I believe in a woman’s right to choose to live in whatever way that makes her happy and fulfilled (as long as that life doesn’t involve mass murder or something like that...). I promise you that I won’t judge you if you look like you’ve stepped off the set of TOWIE (quite a few of my good friends do and my goodness they are beautiful!) and I trust that you’ll look beyond my second hand, handmade attire and maybe we could be friends. I'll bring cake :)

Now if you’ll excuse me I have a sudden urge to run and buy myself a nice blue striped milk jug...

( For those who are interested Liz Jones' article can be found here and Janet Street Porter's can be found here)

Wednesday Wonderfuls #45

2011-11-23T23:39:00.000Z

Well, what a week it's been! It's been a tough old time in Sunderland, I'm not going to lie, what with my terrible car mis-adventure together with other members of my cast paying visits to the local hospital and various others suffering physically with injuries, so goodness knows I need a bit of a lift!

I have decided to start this week off positively and hopefully if I put some happy energy into the world it will come right back to me (or something like that...!). I have a lot of things to be thankful for and happy about after all...

This week I poached my first egg ever. And it wasn't a complete disgrace. Result!

I know she wouldn't win a beauty competition but still...

I am well on my way to finishing my Christmas projects (see this post)

I have a box of Charbonnel et Walker pink champagne truffles just waiting to be nommed up

I'm greatly enjoying Kirstie's Handmade Britain, it gives me a real midweek lift :)

I am now the proud owner of a jug shaped like a cow, and the owner of a jug shaped like a cow can never truly be unhappy...

Moooooooo!

So things haven't been going badly so far! Plus I have all of you lovely readers and that of course makes me crazy happy like a kitten on speed :) So allow me to spread a bit of love and happiness across the blogosphere for you all, let's bring on the Wonderfuls!

It's definitely getting colder here in the UK winter is starting to properly set in, so why not try this yummy winter warmer from Joy the Baker, Beef and Sweet Potato Stew? It looks so good...
Joy is also releasing a cook book soon, I cannot wait! I love her recipes so I will most definitely be getting this as soon as it comes out :)
If you're a fan of Dita you'll love this post. No less than 4 videos of the queen of burlesque, covering everything from Beauty to Love.
I'm getting wanderlust again (or maybe I just want to go home!) and now I want to pay York a visit after reading this gorgeous post. I dare you not to want to pay it a visit after reading!
And finally I just had to include this post from Sewaholic all about how your partner feels about your sewing. I loved the post and the comments are also a great read, and this article also really made me realise how lucky I am that my Sweetheart supports me so much in my hobbies. It means such a lot when the ones you love understand you and your crazy creative needs :)

I hope you've enjoyed the Wednesday Wonderfuls of this week, let's all go out and have a fantastic time now, and get rid of any nastiness with the power of positive thinking!

Until next time, bye for now!

My readers are beautiful

2011-11-21T19:31:00.001Z

Thank you all so much for your comments on my post about the theft or my sewing machine. I was really overwhelmed by the amount of people who offered advice on purchasing a replacement and others who just wanted to offer their support. You all just take my breath away with how generous you are with your time and your words, I can't begin to thank you enough. You are stunningly beautiful people and you have really made me remember that for every one idiot who breaks into a car and ruins your day there are a hundred who can brighten it up again :)

After reading each one of your comments I decided to take the advice that most of your put forward and to stick with what I know, so I went out today and bought another Janome sewing machine, the same model as the one that was stolen. I loved that machine so much that I didn't see the point in forking out more for a fancier machine just because it was computerised, so I stuck with a good old manual :) I can't wait to get some time at home so I can set her up and try her out, I'm sure it will be the start of a beautiful sewing relationship! Also the amount of people recommending their vintage machines has seen me trawling through ebay to find some treasure, so watch this space, maybe there'll be a new addition to this sewing family some time soon... :)

In other news I have written another post on the Crafty Christmas blog, so check out what I have been spending my time doing sans sewing machine. There's some finished bits up there that I'm really proud of, and really pleased that they're done in time for Christmas :)

Anyway, that's quite enough rambling from me for one day, I'll be back soon with some more blogosphere treats for you.

Bye for now!

A Really Horrible Day

2011-11-19T09:04:00.001Z

Hello lovely readers, you find me this morning in a slightly subdued mood after the events that took up most of my day yesterday.

I woke up yesterday to find that one of the rear windows of my car had been smashed and whoever had done this had proceeded to empty the car of anything valuable (and even not so valuable) that they could get their nasty little hands on. And the worst thing of all is that my sewing machine was being stored in the car.

Now I know that considering the circumstances I got off lucky, the car wasn't taken and no one got physically hurt, thank goodness, but the whole thing has left me feeling a bit sick and pretty darn angry. I feel so outraged that whoever did this really wouldn't think about the effect that their actions would have on others and even more so that they will probably get away scot-free. And of course now I find myself, for the first time in about 10 years, without a sewing machine. It's funny really, because I know that my poor old machine was just that, a machine, but I find that I was much more emotionally attached to it than I thought I would be. And to be honest it's no surprise really. I learnt to sew on that machine, it gave me my independence from high street fashion and therefore helped me find my own unique style, and sewing on it, particularly during the last year, has been a source of great joy and pleasure in my life. The idea of whoever has their hands on it now treating it as anything other than the delicate piece of machinery it is breaks my heart a little. I'm sure that many of you who sew regularly on one particular machine will understand.

Now I don't what to get all woe-is-me and down on this blog, I've always tried to make it into a warm and happy space filled with things I care about, but I wanted to let you know about all this because now I am in need of your help my lovely readers.

Having owned the same machine for about 10 years I find myself hopelessly out of the loop when it comes to looking at sewing machines and what specifications I may want on a new model. Obviously I would like to replace my machine as soon as is possible, but I don't want to commit myself to buying without knowing my options first. Basically, do any of you have any tips when it comes to buying a new machine? The model pictured above is my old machine (the Janome Excel 5024) and you can see more details about her here. Do you use a similar model that you yourself cannot live without? Maybe you think that my original was a great model so I should just replace it exactly? Or perhaps you work on something a lot more fancy and would recommend it wholeheartedly? Perhaps after all this nastiness I should treat myself to an upgrade...

If you have any help or advice to give I would be so grateful, so please get in touch and let me know your thoughts. For now I'll say goodbye and let's hope that today is a better day :)