My creative space

There are two projects lying about in my creative space right now.

There is this one which is a very nearly finished foldaway shopping bag ...



And there is this one which is a partway there bucket hat for me. I think I must have a big head as store-bought hats are always too tight around my head. This one is looking quite promising.



There was enough fabric leftover from one of my recent summer tops to make this hat. I have a lovely red polka dot fabric which I think would work great as a lining for the hat.

Find other creative spaces here.

Have a creative day, friends.

Gifts for the teacher

It's the end of another academic year. You might recall that at the end of the last academic year, Dinoboy asked me to make 3 zipaway totes for his teachers which were blogged about here, here and here.

Thankfully, this year we have just the one teacher to appreciate and since this teacher had been working with Dinoboy all year on his literacy skills, I thought she might like a journal jar ... as well as a bag of course! Here is the basket Dinoboy and I put together for her.



There is a pretty notebook tucked away behind the bag and the jar. The jar contains over 40 strips of paper. Each strip has a statement or a question on it. The idea is that Miss R (Dinoboy's teacher) would randomly select a strip of paper, stick it on a page in her pretty notebook and write a journal entry relating to what was written on the strip. The strips were geared towards teaching - so there are questions like: "who was your favourite junior school teacher and why?" or "Is anyone in your family and teacher and how have they inspired you to become a teacher?" or "When did you first become a teacher and why?" According to Dinoboy, Miss R really likes the journal jar.

As is traditional (for me and Dinoboy anyway), I made Miss R a bag. It's a foldaway shopping tote. We popped into The Cotton Patch and Dinoboy helped pick the fabrics (apparently, Miss R really likes purple).



The concept of this is very much like my foldaway shopping bag. This is a simple, lined tote with a squared off bottom. I used black 1 inch webbing for handles and the handles tuck into the bag before folding the bag up. The flap and poppers are done exactly like the foldaway shopping bag and I incorporated a bit of black piping too.



I really like this fabric combination and I think I might just have to make myself a bag with these fabrics (I actually have just about enough leftover fabric to make myself a bag).

I like the journal jar idea a lot. Dinoboy and I have discussed making a journal jar up for him to use over the summer vacation. He can pick a random strip whenever he fancies and write about it in a notebook. This way, he'll get some writing practise over the summer which will stand him in good stead when the new academic year starts again in the fall. He's decided I can make up either questions like: "who's your favourite tv character and why?" or "write about something fun you did today" or maybe even single words like "Pirate" or "Jungle" and he'll use that as a theme for a story.

School finished really early today so I treated Dinoboy to a nice lunch and we did a spot of shopping - actually I did a spot of shopping. Dinoboy just trailed along contemplating what he could spend his meagre pocket money on.

I'm going to get myself a cup of tea now and plan what bag I want to make for myself over the weekend. What are your plans for the weekend?

Have a great weekend, friends.

Yet another Pendrell

I love the Pendrell pattern from Sewaholic. I like the ones I have made so far (two others not including this one) and I wear them a lot. They're comfy and pretty. I picked fabrics which do not require ironing after laundering which is always a big win in my books.

This is the latest one I've made. I like the fun ditsy dot fabric print. I found this fabric in one of the local Asian fabric shops near my area. There is a major road in our city which has many Asian fabric shops on it. I've lived in our area for over 10 years and had never ventured down there for a look. Recently, a friend and I decided to go check out the fabric shops on that road and found a couple of really good ones. This fabric is a thin matte satin of some sort - definitely a polyester. It's got a thinner handle than a microfibre and is very lightweight.



I tried to make the cap sleeves smaller but they ended up looking rather like clamshells sticking out from my shoulder. Not a good look. So I folded them in half and stitched them down so they're now a slightly poufy frill. It seemed to work and I was happy not to have to try unpicking the sleeves. What a nightmare that would have been!



Work is starting to get to that crazy time of the year again. In about 3 weeks time, thousands of students here in the UK will get their high school exam results. Adminstrators like myself who work in universities across the country will be trying to match results to course requirements and trying to get as many students as possible onto our courses. A stressful time for the students and for us too. I might not get much spare time to sew or get crafty - so please excuse the sparse postings in the coming month or so.

Have a great day, friends.

A few more cards

I made 4 more cards over the past 2 nights. These two lovelies were made using Penny Black stamps with card, paper and cut-outs from my card-making stash. I borrowed the kids' felt tip pens to colour the pictures in.



I really like this cute stamp called Birthday Gretel by CC Designs. It makes a really nice card for little girls. Missy Moo likes Gretel a lot.



Here's another Birthday Gretel in progress.



It's a nice, bright and sunny Sunday here in Birmingham. I've just cut out my third Pendrell top which I hope to get started on today. What are your plans for today?

Whatever your plans, I hope you're having a fab weekend, friends.

Resolution still going strong.

Back in March, I shared about my New Year's resolution to make more with the stuff I have accummulated over the past couple of years. The idea was to use up my accumulated stash of card blanks, coloured cards and paper, scraps of wrapping paper, my small collection of stamps and punches, bits and bobs which come free with crafting magazines and make my own greeting cards for friends and family.

Halfway through the year, I am happy to report that I am still making my own cards. I spent a couple of happy evenings during the past week making up these new cards as my stash of handmade cards had dwindled significantly.



This little Kokeshi chipboard cutout and the matching sheet of paper came from a magazine I bought in January. Seriously cute.



This stash of cards should cover my needs right up to October or even November I reckon. Then I think I might make a start on some Christmas cards.

Hope you're having a great week so far, friends.

The outcome of the Hottie Challenge

Not so long ago, I took part in a challenge to make a hottie cover (ie hotwater bottle cover) for a charity. Fellow blogger, Curlypops, started a new challenge over at her blog in aid of the Margaret Pratt Foundation Heart Lung Transplant Trust in Australia. It seemed a fun thing to do for a worthy cause so I jumped in.



My blog posts about my hottie are here, here and here.

I posted my hottie to Australia in the hopes that it would arrive on time and it did. Whew! Thank you international post fairies!

If you are in the vicinity, here's your invite to the exhibition of all the hotties. It's being held at the Open Drawer Gallery and the address is 1158 Toorak Road, Camberwell (Hartwell), Melbourne.



The exhibition runs from 1st July to 24th July and features all the hotties including those from the challenge Curlypops organised. The exhibition opened last night and you can read about it here.

The hotties look amazing all hung up in one space like that. (I'm so excited to see mine hanging up there too!!) A big thank you to Cam of Curlypops for organising the challenge. Well done, Cam!