This Year....

I have liked:

*The weather (almost properly seasonal all year round, bar the wet July)
*Getting married
*Getting a fab new job
*Growing loads of herbs and veg on my balcony
*Going on a nice, long holiday
*Winning two Spoonflower competitions
*New audiobooks
*New books generally
*Taking lots of photos (over 1000 of the buggers)
*Going to the cinema
*Losing weight
*Learning to sew my own clothes
*Learning to sew lots of stuff generally
*Making Husband nearly as Harry Potter obsessed as I am
*Blogging 261 times, my highest record yet
*Collecting "granny china", as my sisters call it
*Discovering Pinterest
*Getting a Wacom
*Blogging calendar pages every week


I have not liked:

*Clients who do not pay on time
*Having to juggle money around - see above
*Noisy, drunken neighbours
*Husband being ill for past 6 months
*Bloody selfish people

I am happy that:

*My "Liked" list is much longer than my "Not Liked". Generally, life is pretty good and I am very grateful for that.




Happy New Year, everyone!

End of Week 52

A bit late with this one. But, surprisingly, there's another one to go. Who knew a year could have 53 weeks?

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

In a quiet half hour before the monster turkey needs to come out of the oven and everything else needs to go in; when the table has been set, the candles have been lit and the Xmas playlist is getting its last airing, I thought I just pop in here and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. And also to thank you for coming along here and listening to me ramble on about any number of things. Cheers!

Burning of the Clocks

Last night was The Burning of the Clocks, an annual parade held in Brighton to celebrate the winter solstice. I was so glad it was on, as they had to cancel last year's parade due to the snow and ice. Husband has never seen it and I'm always going on about it, so we made our way down to the pier and waited for the lanterns to pass us:











I loved this Day of the Dead themed section, although this awesome skull was an inflatable rather than a paper lantern like the others. I'll let it off, it was HUGE! We didn't hang around for the bonfire, but had a walk past the Pavilion and the lit-up ice rink outside it before heading to GBK for a festive venison burger.



I posted about the 2008 Burning of the Clocks parade here. Although I went in 2006, I didn't blog about it, 2005 was before I had this blog, and I didn't go in 2007 as it was too foggy to drive down!

Edit: You can see more photos from The Argus here and a view from the inside here.

Lovely, Lovely Spoonflower

For 24 hours late last month, Spoonflower were offering free postage - even for international orders. I couldn't pass that up, could I? I used the Spoondollars I won back in the spring, and ordered me a whole load of FREE loveliness:




This mushroom fabric is by Heidikenney. It's made from cut-out paper mushers. Awesome.


Green Button fabric by Jesseesuem.


Cute as a Button fabric by Craftylittlemia.

These four pink and orange lovelies are by the uber-talented Bora.



And this one is my winning 50s design. So nice to see it in the flesh, so to speak. I got a yard of that one, but, as with the others, I've no idea what I'm going to make with them yet! Many purses, I expect, and maybe even a proper go at patchwork and quilting. I do need some plain colours, though. Quite possibly all those patterns would knock you for six if they were all put together without something inbetween!

End of Week 51

Sunset, 3.55pm Today

Sunset, 3.28pm Today

Repurposing

At the moment I am very much into making/repurposing things from items I already have (watch out those to whom I have given Xmas pressies, this includes you). So, in the spirit of recycling and saving much needed moolah, I've been hacking away at some of my clothes from last winter.

I bought two knitted dresses last year, one in grey, one in purple. They are both now waaayy too big (hurrah!) so something really needed to be done with them. The purple dress I simply cut in half and have been left with a skirt and a shrug. The shrug I haven't finished faffing about with yet, but the skirt is here:





I just gathered the top edge and stitched it on to an elastic waistband. I may reconsider this, as it means I pretty much always have to wear a belt with it to hide the elastic (which is white), so I may take it off and make a casing for it instead. I'll see how it works for a while yet.

The grey dress I loved, so I decided to keep it as is but take it in to fit better:

Before:


In progress:


After:

(Apologies for the quality of the photos; half were taken by night and the others were taken in appalling winter light.)

Cool, huh? I do like getting something for nothing and clothes for free is always doubly good.

I also have my Celebratory Party Dress to share, but, again, I need daylight to take some decent pictures so I'll keep you posted.

Cream of Tomato Soup

An awesome shopping bag from M&S, and only 55p.

End of Week 50

I find this one very interesting as it's the only one with a brown/purple colour scheme. I wonder if Dust was/were just going his/her/their own way, or if he/she/they deliberately broke the rules or maybe had no idea what the rules were...?

Captured: America in Color from 1939-1943

I found a link on Twitter earlier this week to these amazing photos taken in colour by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information in the USA between 1939-1943. They're just stunning; the colours so saturated. You often think of the depression/war time - especially in this country - of being so drab, but these photos are so fresh and modern-looking that some of them look as though they could've been taken yesterday. Below are some of my favourites; you can check out the full gallery here.

I love her pinny.

 

Woo!

Thank you to everyone who voted for my Spoonflower design this week; I won! Doesn't it look fab in real life?



Thank you so much.

I think I'll use the odd Spoonflower competition as a kind of artistic therapy to keep me sane over the next year when I'm just working on the one project!

Jingle Jingle

This is HILARIOUS. Made my morning.

Journeying

I'm very much enjoying my journey to work at the moment. Usually, I have my iPod on, listening to some audiobook or other and not really seeing what's around me, but recently I've just felt like staring out of the window. The landscape and the weather have changed around us so much over the last week; inches and inches of snow, heavy rain washing it all away like it had never been, and now thick, hard frost. The trees were hanging on to their leaves for as long as possible, but they're all pretty much naked now. And the light is so beautiful; cold yet bright is my favourite weather and the sunsets at the end of those kind of days are just glorious.

So here are a few glimpses of today's journey; taken on my phone camera out of the window, not really focused in any way, literally just snaps. (I must apologise for the bird poo on the window, though. Seagulls: bah.) I always sit on the top deck at the front. I can get quite tetchy if someone is in "my" seat.












Still a few remnants of snow on the green at the Old Village, now with a topping of frost.





Fabulous skies; it was a shame to be indoors all afternoon, really. I'm very much looking forward to working from home in a few weeks time and being able to take a late afternoon walk and soak up all the cold air and gorgeous colours.

End of Week 49

Hehee. Love this one. I wonder what it is that the top penguin can see coming?

Go Vote! Go Now!

Voting for 12 Days of Christmas Fabric is now open over at Spoonflower. Go here, click on the ones you like to vote, then save your votes. You have until Tuesday with the winners announced next Thursday. Go!




(Just for you, Jan!)

Today's Snow...

....is considerably heavier than yesterday's. My poor herbs!



I braved the icy pavements this morning to get a few crafty supplies for Xmas pressies, wrapping paper and cards, not to mention some actual FOOD as we had nothing in bar some frozen broccoli and three eggs. Feels good to tick a few things off the Xmas list, though, even if I was completely shattered by lunchtime and fed up of the crowds panic-buying in the supermarket. This afternoon is comprised of tidying up, a bit o'sewing and much lounging about. A perfect day off, I think!

The Advent of Advent

So it's December and I feel incredibly behind with everything, even though there are over three weeks to get organised, which is plenty of time. Honestly, just chillax, Emma. At least the weather is seasonal, although I expect it'll tire itself out in a few days and we'll have a wet Xmas instead! My library is closed today, so I'm off to a nearer one this afternoon BUT I'm now in my last few weeks of library work. The meeting went very well last Thursday, the new illo project is on and I start on 4th January. It is a full, FULL time job, though (hurrah!), so I've handed in my library notice. I'll stay on the casual list, though, in case they need help on the odd day and I'm going so stir crazy at home by myself that I'll just jump at the chance to get away from my desk! I'm very excited about the project and very much looking forward to getting started and being a proper, full time illustrator again. Plus, actually having some money would be nice, too!

So, if the snow wasn't Christmassy enough, it is now OK to play my Xmas Playlist without recriminations, I need to get myself an Advent candle, and I must crack on with writing my promo Xmas cards to send out ASAP. Go Christmas, go!