UK lass in US

Busy procrastinating

2012-01-26T14:55:00.000-08:00

I'm busy procrastinating. I have a couple of projects that I want to get done, but it just seems too, well, awkward to finish them right now. It never seems to be the right time to work on them. The truth, though, is that they are not particularly complicated and I could probably find the time. So what is the hold up? I think that it might be that they all involve zippers...Now I have put in zippers before - and they have never given me any issues. I wouldn't even say that I am 'scared' of zippers. Yet projects with zippers always seem to need those extra few days of psyching myself up beforehand. No, I don't know why, either.So while I have been avoiding those projects, I've been fiddling about with a couple of procrastination projects for my daughter's room instead:I wonder if the Union flag will change if Scotland votes itself out of the U.K.? It will look a bit plain without the blue of St Andrew's Cross.The cushion is normal size - it's the toy dog that is giant.

Translation of the day:
UK English: spotted dick = a steamed suet pudding containing dried fruit in US English
This one only came to mind as my husband has just bought his boss a badge saying 'I heart spotted dick'. That probably gives you a good idea of the standard of my husband's humour - and why I usually leave him in the car when I go to the import store for food...

Fabric design DIY

2012-01-12T10:23:00.000-08:00

So much for my resolution that 2012 would be a more productive year craft-wise. All I've done so far is sew up the edges of a cushion cover. My offspring have been more productive than their mum: they've been working on a sewing kit received at Christmas. The constant tying of knots and untangling of threads has been my contribution. My son has been off school with the lurgy all this week, though, so it turns out that we still have a few more days of health issues to deal with.

I did get to play around on the computer while he napped and put together a little fabric design, though. Double-deckers, (old-style) minis and black cabs: I entered it into this week's cityscape contest at Spoonflower. I know it's not a cityscape, but all they asked for was something inspired by a city, so I picked London. It could have just as easily been several British cities, mind. Even my school bus was a double-decker bus. I still remember an elderly neighbour taking me on my first bus ride into the town centre on a double-decker, letting me sit at the front on the top deck, much to my delight.

I'm sure that you've all heard of Spoonflower by now. You upload a design and they professionally print it onto fabric for you. It's something that I thought that I'd be champing at the bit to try, but I didn't actually get around to testing them out until towards the end of last year.

My verdict? I was impressed. I picked quilting cotton for the fabric and was expecting that heavy stiff stuff that you find on the cheaper racks of the fabric store. Instead it is lightweight and reasonably drapey. It's not the softest quilting fabric that I have felt, but it was much better than I expected. As for the colour reproduction, this was the design on my PC: and this was how the swatch looked:Actually, that was how the swatch looked with some white paper behind it. Like I said, it was fairly lightweight fabric, so the white areas were slightly transparent. This is how the swatch looked with a dark background behind it:Plus, thanks to a few people buying a yard or two of that design, I have some 'Spoondollars' to put towards my next purchase...

Translation of the day:
UK English: the lurgy = undetermined mild illness in US English
As in, I hope that I do not catch the dreaded lurgy. It's similar to the American term 'cooties', but adults will say 'lurgy', too - and it doesn't have to be infectious.

As for my son, his body is obviously fighting something off, as he's had a fever all week, but not much in the way of other symptoms - except for general moping and listlessness. A nap during the day was big departure from the norm for him...

Up and down

2012-01-03T20:28:00.000-08:00

The handmade Christmas presents did get finished on time, even the knitted ones. The late start did mean that I didn't find the colour yarn that I wanted for the hot water bottle cover, but mum didn't seem to mind. It's another version of the one that I had made before.Also on the list: One replacement pair of knit mitts for my mother-in-law, who was missing the pair that she had lost;some beeswax candles made by the kids for their teachers, along with some British chocs from the import store in a handmade drawstring bag;and a little bag of sewing projects that I put together to go with a beginner's sewing kit for a couple of nieces.I put together the booklet using some projects from PurlBee.com, along with some basic stitch instructions. I cut out the felt pieces ready for them and collected together all the notions needed, so all they have to do is the sewing. I also got them a commercial sewing project kit, which had holes pre-punched in the felt, so these projects would be the next step. Hopefully.Christmas already seems like it was so long ago. It was a mixed one: my parents were over, so I got to celebrate it British-style, for once, even having the traditional dinner on the day itself. Then one of our dogs stopped on his walk and refused to go on.

Much of the remainder of the day was spent at the Emergency Vet's office, quietly weeping, as I was told that he had heart failure, with possibly not much time to go. We had to leave him overnight... Yet when we took him to another vet for a follow-up ultrasound a day or so later, she disagreed completely with the diagnosis. So, two large vet bills later, it looks as though our elderly dog is healthy after all. Hopefully.

It feels like the last week of 2011 was a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions. A worrying lump on my son's neck is not worrisome now the doc has taken a look. Our Boxing Day family party went well, but that evening was the start of a few days of sickness for me. We had some lovely day trips and a stroll around the Christmas lights; but there was also a little girl not happy about having eye drops for pink-eye. Still, my parents said that they did enjoy their visit and all the worries seem to be sorted (By the way, if you are going to get ill, I heartily recommend doing it when your mum is in town. I had forgotten what it was like to be able to crawl back into bed for a morning, instead of still having to run around after the kids as usual...).

All's well that ends well.

In hindsight, it was a good Christmas.

Translation of the day:
UK English: Boxing Day = the day after Christmas Day (December 26th) in US English. It's a public holiday in Britain and several other Commonwealth countries
UK English: skint = broke, penniless in US English
As in, many more Christmas Day trips to the Emergency Vet and we will soon be skint...

Take care all. Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2012.

No cushions were completed

2011-12-21T21:55:00.000-08:00

Could we just quietly forget that I made any mention of those cushions? I decided to knit a Christmas present and, given my snail-like knitting pace, everything else was put on to the backburner. Still managed to find the time to make some more decorations, mind. Actually, the poor tree can barely be seen under all the handmade decorations...My daughter and I made 27 of these stars, after seeing these ornaments. It was my first time using Crayola's Model Magic. It does roll out fairly smoothly, but the thing that surprised me most was how it dried. I had been expecting something similar to clay, but it dries more like solid rubber. It is a little flexible, gives to the touch, then returns to the shape that it dried in.Next up, some clothespins, a bit of paint and a pom pom were put to use to make a squad of these guard peg dolls. I had seen some similar Civil War peg dolls, but it was the British soldiers that won me over. Like I said, the tree is covered.That was the wee artificial tree that I put up at Thankgiving, covered in handmade decorations (since moving to California I need a little constant visual reminder that it is actually supposed to be winter). This is the 'proper' tree we picked out this week. This picture was taken after I had taken some of the handmade decorations off. You would have thought that that would be enough decorations, but I'm itching to make some Borax snowflakes with the kids, too...

Well, I had better get going. My parents arrive tomorrow (yay!) and I've got tidying to do (boo). I've been ill all week and have no energy (ugh), but I'm going to have to try to find some space in my son's room for his sister to sleep. I seem to remember that his carpet might be blue, but I have a few layers of his stuff to clear to be certain...

At least the Christmas shopping and -almost- all of the Christmas making is done. I do hope that you enjoy the holiday break. I'll be back some time in the New Year, I expect. Take care all,

Motivation needed

2011-11-22T10:13:00.000-08:00

You would be forgiven for thinking that I had given up blogging. Goodness, my posts have been few and far between lately. I have been busy, but that's not much of excuse when the reality is that I have 4 cushion covers that only need about an hour's work in total to be finished and they have been that way for over a week now. So, I'm telling you that in the hope that public accountabilty will shame me into finishing the bloomin' things by Sunday. This Sunday.

For some reason Christmas decorating seems to be exempt from my procrastinations skills. I'm chomping at the bit to put up the decorations. My husband (aka Scrooge...) does not share my enthusiasm, so I'm having to wait until Thanksgiving is passed. Luckily he has yet to notice the yarn trees and snow globes have already been snuck out...... and that I've already started putting the kids to work on adding to our homemade ornament collection. Here's our little button trees inspired by these, to go with our button wreaths and button garlands.
October 11th was the tenth anniversary of my moving to the USA. I think that I might have lived in the US too long: I almost called the cushions 'pillows', even though they are not going on a bed. It seems that I've now lived here so long that I have to stop and pause to remember which is American English and which is British English. I will never call trousers pants, mind.

A bit late for a KCWC post?

2011-10-29T19:31:00.000-07:00

I never did round up the end of KCWC, did I? Like I said, we needed the Halloween costumes ready earlier than expected: my in-laws had invited us to a ranch place and there were going to be some early Halloween festivities going on. Little Red Riding Hood was pretty much finished when I last blogged, but the Big Bad Wolf was just a mask.I improvised the pattern. To be honest, I don't want to sew 'fur' ever again: it sheds everywhere. I still keep coming across the odd tumbleweed of fake fur gently roaming across the hardwood floors...The poor kid roasted at his school's Fall Festival last week with all that fur on. Still it should be good for trick or treating on Monday, going by the cool evenings we've been having lately.That's the tail. Hopefully people will be able to tell what animal he is supposed to be when he's next to his sister.As for the KCWC round up, I did end up attempting a pattern for once.The pattern is Sailboat Pants by oliver + s. It is a well-designed pattern and I liked the little details, but I did have to alter it to fit my slim-hipped lass. Still, I managed to squeak these trousers out of a half yard of twill that I had in the stash.As for the trip away, it was nice. My kids didn't win the pumpkin carving contests (possibly because they didn't get much in the way of help from their parents) BUT my daughter did win $60 at bingo...

KCWC catch up

2011-10-14T18:55:00.000-07:00

Well, it ended up taking a week or so for my sewing machine to come out of its summer hibernation: I hurt my back. I suffered several days of walking around looking like I was trying to do the robot. This, of course, had to coincide with our new hamster making a bid for freedom in the middle of the night. Luckily she chose my bedroom, as I was the only one still awake. Still, I'm sure that you can imagine that someone with a rigid back trying to catch a small lively rodent that is under the bed rates pretty highly on the ridiculous-looking scale...

Luckily I regained my mobility in time for the Kids Clothes Week Challenge. Unluckily my mother-in-law decided that she was going to stay at the start of the challenge week, scuppering my plans for the first couple of days. Plus I found out that my kids would need their Halloween costumes earlier than planned. So, plans scrapped, here's day one's effort: a hand sewn felt wolf mask. My theory is that sewing while entertaining a guest is not anti-social if it is hand sewing...

Not strictly an item of kids' clothing, but oh well. I might as well confess now: the next couple of days were filled with Halloween costume making, too. A late evening sewing session after soccer practices produced a little red hooded cloak for a Little Red Riding Hood:She then needed something to go under the cloak, though, so I came up with this little dress:Please do not look too closely. I do not believe in spending too much time on costumes that will only get a couple of wears, so I've been sewing these with the pedal to the floor...
I've just been making up the patterns for all these as I go along, but I do plan on attempting a proper pattern tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Translation of the Day:
UK English: scupper = to defeat, ruin or thwart in US English
As in, the lack of discipline displayed really scuppered England's hopes in the Rugby World Cup. Oh England, I had such high hopes for you...

I'm a failure

2011-09-22T20:46:00.000-07:00

Thank you ever so much for the advice on which frock to wear to the wedding. I did wear the patterned dress - and felt much more comfy wearing it thanks to your lovely comments. There are no pictures, sorry: my husband never thinks to record the historic occasion of my wearing a dress. I am in several of the official photographs, mind... pulling some awful expressions... Oh well.

Anyway, I have come to the conclusion that I am a failure. No, not because I haven't blogged in weeks (months?). I pretty much always do that each summer. Partly because my days are filled with creating memories for the kids, and partly because they start to wind each other up something awful by the end of the long break and need supervision if we are to avoid things coming to blows...

No, I think that I am a failure at being a girl.

The facts:

1. Someone suggested that I wear my hair up at the wedding and I realised that I would have no clue how to do that. A ponytail is about my limit.

2. I only wear make up on occasions where I feel that it will be more noticeble that I am not wearing make up - such as a wedding.

3. I am convinced that I look like a racoon when I apply make up, but photos of the event make it look like I am not wearing any.

4. Oh, and the make up that I have is so old that the applicator sponge / brush things started to disintegrate on me when I tried to use them.

5. By make up, I pretty much just mean eye shadow.

6. I wear jeans and t-shirts almost daily, unless it is summer. In summer I switch the jeans for shorts.

7. I know how many times I have worn a dress in the almost 10 years that I have been married (8 times).

8. 'Styling' my hair consists of my straightening it every morning... and that's it.

9. My beauty routine is: wash face with soap and water.

10. I have no idea how to conceal the dark circles under my eyes caused by staying up for online rugby games with a 1.30am kick-off (who on earth chose New Zealand to be the hosts for the World Cup, anyway??)

That all seems pretty pathetic for a woman in her mid-thirties.

Now, I don't plan on wearing make up daily or anything like that, but I have been thinking that it might be time for things to be a little bit more girly over here. So far progress has been limited to buying a denim skirt (ok, it has attached shorts underneath, but that's just practical when you have kids) and wearing it several times this summer - with wedge sandals! Ooh, I also bought a dress... that I, um, chopped the bottom off to make it into a top... but it's quite a feminine knotted top... That counts, right?

Still, I have a few ideas (ah, Pinterest... http://pinterest.com/uklassinus/clothes/) for sewing a few shirts and maybe dresses for myself. I just hope that you don't mind if I'm asking you lot for styling tips every now and then.

It's time for my sewing machine to come out of its summer hibernation.

Now something that I am far too excited about is that I have finally got a craft space. Don't go envisioning one of those beautifully styled craft rooms. I live in a Californian home with no basement or spare room and kids that are best kept in separate bedrooms. My craft space is a secretary desk from Ikea (I wonder if I would love their furniture so much if I didn't get to put it together?):

Open the top and I have a sewing surface - much better than the corner of the dining table, methinks!The notions and whatnot have their space, too:

All that was left was to find a spot for the fabric that was stuck on the shelves in my bedroom. Out came two low boxes to go under the window and my fabric hoarding habit is helpfully hidden from general view... I'm a happy girl.

Translation of the day:

UK English: rugger (informal) = rugby in US English.

If you have never watched rugby, it is a form of football, played with an oval ball, but is a much better version than what Americans call football: not so much stopping and starting for starters. There's a World Cup going on right now and America are fielding a team, but TV coverage in this country is pitiful. So go on, check out the American team on cable. Maybe if the ratings are good enough they might want to screen some of the games of the other teams, like, oh, England, next World Cup...

Advice needed

2011-07-30T10:18:00.001-07:00

I'm going to a wedding tomorrow and I don't know what to wear. Most of the friends that I have made here were already married with kids when I met them, so I have only been to a couple of weddings since living here. I have noticed that the dress code seems a little different from back home. Back home there are lots of pastel suits, floral dresses and hats. I've seen more cocktail style dresses here. I've also seen way too much cleavage and leg on a couple of guests, but I'm thinking they were probably the exception to the rule and that prostitute style attire is not usually acceptable, even in California...

So, here's the dilemma: I own two dresses, both bought when I was a few pounds lighter, but I haven't had much luck finding anything else. The wedding is at 6pm, so it's an evening wedding. The invite was in the style of a carnival poster, though, so I have no idea what to expect. The groom has full-sleeve tattoos and judging by his facebook pics, his bride looks fun-loving, so I don't think they will worry much.

Which do you think? Which is better for a wedding? Actually, I'd probably settle for whichever makes me look better. The black / cream dress feels more formal and wedding-like, but I feel a little bosomy in it. On a related note, I'm also wishing that I hadn't eaten like a pig on my visit home, but restraint goes out the window when faced with good British food that I've been missing...

My parents' internet connection is REALLY slow...

2011-07-19T15:24:00.000-07:00

This time I did disappear off to foreign climes - I went home to England for a visit. All internet stuff got put on hold, mainly because my parents have a ridiculously slow connection (it reminded me of my uni days, when loading a page would take 10 minutes or more). Still, I'd have probably not been replying to e-mails, anyway. I was too busy having a great time: seeing family and school friends, sightseeing to keep the American husband happy and enjoying feeling completely at home. Plus I loved seeing all the wildflowers that were along the hedgerows - presumably a result of less spraying? I've never seen so many poppies.I'm back in the States now, though. Jet-lagged and homesick. I'll try to answer e-mails etc. soon, but there's a mountain of laundry to climb and work being done on the house, so bear with me. Meanwhile, hopefully your connection is faster than my parents, as I'm about to bore you with holiday pics:

Take care all.

Satisfying sewing

2011-06-26T22:54:00.000-07:00

I've been doing lots of the boring type of sewing lately: mending jeans (I should probably accept that my favourite pair might need to be laid to rest soon. That's a traumatic moment for me, especially as I have not been having much luck in finding a suitable replacement. Jeans that are not tight at the knees are apparently not in style right now and all I've found so far is a pair of wide leg jeans that I'm convinced that I am too short for. The search continues...); raising hems (like I said, I'm short) and alterations (I make all of a couple of things for myself and suddenly I'm convinced that I can take things apart at the seams to improve the fit. This might well end in tears, especially as I'm now wondering if I could make those flares a little less wide...). Anyway, it was rather nice to return to the more satisfying type of sewing that is making something from scratch:I picked the fabric out for this one as soon as I cobbled together my first shirt. This one is a little narrower and I also added back darts to give it a little more shape.I skipped the buttons this time, but might add some decorative frog closures, if I can find some smaller ones than the ones in my local fabric store.

The sleeves are 3/4 length, but this was the only photo of them unrolled that I could find where I wasn't pulling a daft face. My son has a knack for taking ages to take a picture, then taking it the minute that I start to say something. His giggling at the results is leading me to believe that that might not be wholly unintentional...Translation of the Day:

Here's one that came up in conversation with my husband the other day:

UK English: hen night = bachelorette party in US English

UK English: stag night = bachelor party in US English

Summer

2011-06-22T10:12:00.000-07:00

Warning: long pauses between blogging may be about to occur

2 broken needles and a bent needle...

2011-06-16T09:06:00.000-07:00

2 projects, 2 broken needles and a bent needle - that has to be a new record, even for me. I should probably start at the beginning, though: I am not dead. I'm sorry for disappearing on you. I didn't get whisked off to some exotic clime, with no internet access. My only excuse is that months and months of poor sleep just suddenly caught up with me. Then my daughter became ill and added further to the sleep deprivation. Ugh.Still, the end of the school year was fast approaching so it was time to drag out the sewing machine again. Bags, again. Well, I find totes useful and I thought it safest to keep to something that my sleep deprived brain knew. That didn't stop the sewing machine needle massacre from occuring, mind.

I wouldn't have minded if I was breaking needles on the sewing through 10 layers of fabric parts, but they were snapping on the easy bits - and I was using heavy duty needles, too. My sewing machine just kept having funny spells. At one point even the spikey metal thing that holds the bobbin case started sliding out forward. I couldn't see how it was supposed to be kept in place, so I just pushed it back and then everything went ok. It's probably time that I took the machine in for a service. It's been having too many funny spells lately. I'm just scared after hearing horror stories of machines coming back from being serviced and never working the same again...

Anyway, back to the bags. For my daughter's Kindergarten teacher, the red / pink apples above, reversible to these orange flowers: I liked this orange flower print a lot.Then, for my son's Second Grade teacher, yet more apples (they must get so sick of apples, but I don't seem to be able to stop myself...)
Reversible to this:
Hopefully they'll like them, along with the other little bits and pieces we got them. My kids drew cards / little books / letters to add their thanks, but I don't think that it will be until they are adults that they really realise how lucky they were to have such great teachers.

Well, I'm off to the store to make the most of my last day of being able to run errands without the kids in tow. The summer holidays have crept up way too fast. Still, I'm trying to get prepared - I'm already writing lists of ideas. Now, if I could just persuade my kids to sleep in for once...

KCWC round up

2011-05-16T11:26:00.000-07:00

One of the more productive weeks of my year is now over, leaving me wondering why I am not this productive during the rest of the year. It turns out that a shameless procrastinator like me could probably benefit from having a few deadlines in her life again.
Day 1:Day 2: Day 3:Day 4:Days 5 & 6:For those of you thinking, 'but aren't there SEVEN days in a week?', why yes, there are, but my day 7 was spent doing the laundry and then cheering on the Blue Knight:(Medieval Times was not as cheesy as I thought it would be - needless to say, the kids loved it...

So, you could say that I failed in the challenge.

Still, I thought that the week of sewing didn't go too badly:
:: Items of clothes made: 5

:: Fabric bought: only the grey plaid for my son's top, the rest was from the stash

:: Patterns used: none (I'm not getting very far in my resolution to attempt more bought patterns...)

:: Needles broken: one

:: Seam ripper used: about six times?

:: Blood drawn: only the once and it wasn't mine (my husband should have learnt by now that if he kicks over my box of pins, he should look before putting his foot down...)

:: Pins lost: probably hundreds...

:: Loads of laundry needing to be done on day 7: surprisingly, only 2

:: Rooms that now need tidying: let's not go there, shall we?

To be honest, the week didn't go as planned at all. When I signed up, I looked at the calendar and thought that that should be the perfect week for it. Instead, my brother-in-law got into that car accident (he's fine - just a broken hand, but he has a toddler, an 8 year old and a disabled wife to take care of and now needs a new car) and my mother-in-law came into town. So I never knew which days I might be hiding my pins and scissors while babysitting a toddler or which days we'd be having an impromptu family get together. Plus my son then got the 'flu.

So, instead of a week of finally attempting some patterns, I fell back on simple quick things that would usually get finished that same day. Still, I kind of like the way that simple looks.

KCWC day 6: something for the lad

2011-05-15T19:01:00.000-07:00

My lad lives in t-shirts and shorts, so he misses out a little when it comes to handmade clothes. It's cheaper to find a t-shirt on clearance than to buy the fabric to make one - and a wee bit easier. He probably thinks that's no bad thing, but I still wanted to make him something this week. So here's a top for the summer evenings:I made up the pattern. He chose the fabric... which shed bits of thread everywhere, so I ended up binding the seam edges in bias tape. The hood is the only bit lined, as I didn't want it to be too warm.The sleeve wasn't the only part that I got the seam ripper out for, either. I thought that I might save some time by machine sewing a part that I would normally hand sew. Of course, it didn't save any time, as I didn't like the way that it looked. So, I ended up ripping that out and sewing it by hand after all.

Still, I'm happy, he's happy and even my grouchy husband made mention that he wouldn't mind one. I won't use that fabric again, though, unless I find our lint brush...

KCWC days 4 & 5: blogger, are you back?

2011-05-14T07:37:00.000-07:00

I've finally got my last post back, but not the comments, so we'll see if Blogger is really back up and running.Day 4: Falling back on what I already know, here's a smocked top to replace the one she outgrew. Such an easy top - the hardest part is the ironing. I wonder if those thin oven gloves that I've seen advertised would protect my fingers when ironing fiddly stuff?Day 5: Friday the 13th. My son was off school with the 'flu, plus I was babysitting my toddler nephew, so my hour of sewing didn't come about 'til after the kids' bedtime. It might have been a better idea for me just to have had an early night instead... The seam ripper came out for the one sleeve - I redrafted it twice in the end. That serves me right for thinking "sleeves really are not as hard as I thought they were" earlier in the week. Hopefully I'll get it finished today - I'm finally making something for the boy.
Take care,

KCWC day 3 - scraps

2011-05-11T19:41:00.000-07:00

Another quickie - a wee skirt made out of strips of fabric scraps. Then I ended up adding details like topstitching on each side of the joins and lining it. So, it wasn't quite as quick as I had first imagined it, but still, a quick project nonetheless...and it is, um, bright enough to suit a six year old's taste...Hmm, what to do next? I fear that babysitting my brother-in-law's kids is going to be robbing me of valuable sewing time...

KCWC day 2 - a workout for the seam ripper

2011-05-10T18:59:00.000-07:00

Day 2 of Kids' Clothes Week Challenge: Bit of a busy day, so today's effort was something easy that I've made many times before: a peasant blouse, as modelled by little Miss Fidget:Not that my sewing machine was wanting to cooperate. It was having one of those days, where it tried to chew things up at every opportunity.One light and airy top for summer. Now I'm off to find something to make tomorrow.

Take care.

It has a silver lining

2011-05-09T19:01:00.000-07:00

Kids' Clothes Week Challenge has begun! The making of this little short-sleeved dress for my daughter was greatly aided by my not being needed to volunteer in my son's class this morning, as it is a State testing week. I did still help out in my daughter's class in the afternoon, mind, and believe me, those kindergartners were full of beans today. So don't expect much in the way of photos - she was not in the mood for standing still...
I made up the pattern. It's just a fairly simple fully-lined dress, with a zipper /button loop fastening and a wee pocket.Like I said, she wasn't wanting to stand still today. She is still wearing it, though, which I take to be her stamp of approval.She lost her first tooth last week. There was much agonising over whether she wanted to give her first tooth to the tooth fairy - and what will the fairy be doing with her tooth, anyway? By much agonising, I do mean a discussion that lasted well over 3 hours... A new little tooth bag helped her decide. Then her brother lost a tooth that same day, so there was a little bit of hurried sewing going on in order to finish them both by bedtime. I used this idea, but didn't have the tutorial to hand, so it's my own dimensions and stitching etc. Meanwhile, my offspring were doing a little crafting of their own: bookmarks for their teachers, for the final day of teacher appreciation week. My son did the embroidery, while my daughter made a woven one, the end of which you can see below (it was a struggle to find a decent picture from the handful I took at the last minute the evening before).Hopefully I'll be keeping up with the KCWC each day, but my mother-in-law is in town and we're down to one car, since my brother-in-law broke his hand and his car in an accident yesterday. There's still the aftermath of watching his kids to clean up (he had a long wait at the ER), plus family dinners and the like are being planned. We'll see.
Ok, I had better go - it's time I put the kids to bed. Take care, all.

I'm still not ready for summer

2011-05-03T19:47:00.001-07:00

Easter, two children on Spring break, day trips to zoos and gardens, a daughter turning 6 (cake turned out a little too sweet - her brother's last month must have just been a fluke...) and a visiting mother-in-law... I didn't have much time for blogging last week. I apparently also disappointed several Americans by NOT watching the Royal wedding (it was AT 3AM California time! I did have a gander at the photos on the newspaper's website in the morning, of course. I want some of that Union flag bunting - is there any left? Mainly to annoy my American husband by hanging it about the house...)I did squeeze in a little sewing time, though. 2nd attempt at sewing something for me: It started out as the summer blouse from Weekend Sewing, but to be honest, the only thing that I kept the same from the original pattern were the shoulder seams. I moved the bust darts up, lowered the neckline, changed the neckline, changed the construction of the neckline, moved the side seams in, added button loops and buttons, shortened the sleeves (I might be unrolling them and making them a cuffed 3/4 length sleeve yet - I haven't made my mind up)... Ok, I think that might be it for the alterations. Still, I'm happy with it. I made this version out of some fabric that I'd be willing to have for a pyjama top if it all went pear-shaped, but I've already worn this one in public without attracting any noticeable public ridicule... I've got the fabric picked out for my next version.Translation of the day:
(A bit of a rude one this week, but this came up during my friend's visit to the US last week...)

UK English: shag (slang) = sexual intercourse in US English

US English: shag = some sort of swing dance

You can imagine that she was quite surprised to hear her parent's American neighbours declare that they were tired out from too much shagging....

Too much fabric?

2011-04-21T20:34:00.000-07:00

I was putting away some fabric recently when I realised that there was no more room on the shelf. Oh dear. I started entertaining thoughts along the lines of how I really should use up some of my stash before buying any more fabric. Then I received an e-mail from Timeless Treasures Fabrics, offering to send me some fabric for my next blog project.

It was clearly a sign from above that you really can not ever have too much fabric...The blue floral seemed perfect for this little chap: a wee bunny.

Hand sewn from a pattern that I made up, with a little scrap yarn pom-pom for a tail.

As for this fabric, it was too good a match for my kitchen to pass up the chance to replace my ragged old potholders (I was going to show a picture of the old ones, but was too embarrassed by the scorch marks and stains to go through with it...).

I suppose they are a bit more like oven gloves than pot holders, as I added a pockets to put my hands in - it helps.

Now all I have to do is repaint the kitchen to cover up all the patches resulting from new windows and ripping out a breakfast bar... I'm still procrastinating. Well, my mother-in-law is coming to town soon, so it would be foolish to start it now, wouldn't it?...

Translation of the day:

(Completely off-topic, but Americans do keep asking me if I have been invited to the Royal wedding. I have the horrible feeling that I might be seen on tv buying rather a lot of chocolate thanks to a local film crew asking the owners of the British imports store about the upcoming nuptials).

UK English: hen-night = bachelorette party in US English

UK English: stag night = bachelor party in US English

UK English: frock = dress in US English

UK English: trouble and strife (rhyming slang) = wife in US English

UK English: pot and pan (rhyming slang) = old man = husband in US English

Here's the website for Timeless Treasures fabric: www.ttfabrics.com and their blog: http://sewtimeless.net/

Learning about the natives

2011-04-15T08:37:00.000-07:00

My son's class has been learning about Native Americans and this week they were given a creative project to do at home. They could make a model shelter or a poster or a necklace representing a certain tribe etc. I think that he did a great job on his hairpipe choker.I had thought that we might have an unfair advantage over some of the other kids in his class, as my husband's grandmother was Native American and we had a few of her beads etc. as well as necklaces on hand to use for inspiration.That was until I dropped him off at school this morning and saw some of his classmate's projects. Wow. Especially the one model tipi, made out of actual skins as far as I could tell. Half of the models wouldn't have looked out of place in a museum display.

It can be a little confusing living over here. There are words used in schools that differ slightly from those used back home, so I'll find myself double-checking what an assignment meant exactly. Other things just seem completely different from back home, though. I think that we live in a down-to-earth non-competitive neighbourhood, yet I would say that several of the kids in his class had quite a bit of help from parents.

So now I am wondering how much help I should have given. I'm still leaning towards the amount that I gave, which was talking him through the construction of his dad's choker and helping him whenever the needle was not wanting to go through.

I'm also wondering how much effort should be going into these projects. Some of the dioramas even had little figures and fake plants etc. For starters, where are they even getting all these model supplies? Should we be spending the money and time to achieve authentic looking details? Again, I'm still pretty much leaning towards using what we have on hand or buying just a few cheap everyday things.

My mum didn't really help me on projects such as these (she is not artistic) and I usually had to make do with what scraps were around the house - but then so did most of my classmates. If we had made a model tipi, it would have probably been made with twigs and a cut up cereal box. Macaroni and beads would have been used for a necklace. Maybe it's just a sign of the times, but I really thought how much luckier my kids were that they had a mum with craft supplies about the house. Yet it turns out that their classmates seem to have even more at their disposal.

How much help do you give your kids with school projects? What is expected when it comes to craft projects like this?

Time flies

2011-04-10T08:28:00.001-07:00

(Sorry about the weird spacing - blogger seems to have a mind of its own right now)Goodness, I didn't think that it was almost a month since my last post. Thank you for the suggestions for things to do in San Francisco and Sacramento. I carefully copied them down, then left the piece of paper at home next to the computer, along with the map. It's been one of those months. Still, I muddled by from memory.

So what have I been up to?

:: Entertain my visiting parents ✔

:: Visit San Francisco ✔

I'm striking the phrase 'what harm can it do?' from my vocabulary, after using it to suggest to my grouchy husband that the kids take a 5 minute break at the park behind city hall. Before I had even finished the sentence my daughter ran up, clutching her bloodied face. Her tooth had cut right through her lip... Not a public restroom in sight. I'm sorry if you were standing next to our bloodstained group on the bus back to our hotel.

:: Visit Sacramento ✔

:: Bake birthday cake ✔

Yes, that is a rise you see there. I might have finally cracked it. It wasn't just using British ingredients from the import store, either - there's American sugar in that cake. Still, I think that Martha Stewart can rest easy, knowing that her job is safe for the now...

:: Celebrate son's 8th Birthday ✔

:: Something green for St Patrick's Day ✔

Bit of a last-minute-on-the-night-before effort here. They still had to wear their non-green school uniforms, but I didn't want to run the risk of them getting pinched.:: File taxes ✔

Although my brother-in-law showed up the day after with a form to do with my late grandmother-in-law's estate, so it looks like an amendment is in order.

:: School talent show ✔

:: Yet another car repair ✔

My husband thinks it is funny that, when I am driving his new-to-us automatic, I keep waving my hand out trying to find a non-existent gear stick... and turning on the windscreen washer when trying to find drive...

:: Cushion cover for my daughter's room ___

Still working on that one. Sharing the driving up North robbed me of precious crocheting time...

:: Paint rooms ___

Nope. I have been rearranging furniture and cleaning, though. Unfortunately grouchy husband has flatly refused to let me switch the dining room and living room furniture over. Back to the drawing board. Or find some other big, burly bloke to help me with the heavy lifting...

Hopefully I'll be posting again soon, but I had better get going. I have to find a place for the fridge, dining room table and the contents of the under the kitchen sink cabinet before grouchy husband gets home...

Ignore the dark circles

2011-03-12T21:11:00.001-08:00

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to finally attempt sewing some clothes for me (for now why don't we just quietly ignore the resolution about cleaning the garage, ok?). I had originally planned to wait until I was in the shape that I was in, ooh, 9 years ago, but that was starting to look like a very long wait. It's been very much a three steps forward, one step back, one step forward, two steps back type of thing. Excessive chocolate consumption probably hasn't helped...

This is the 'muslin' version for a schoolhouse tunic, using some cheap fabric that I had inherited. The fabric is too heavy and thick - completely the wrong fabric for this pattern really, but I just wanted to have a practice first.

I had the theory that I should probably follow a pattern for my first attempt at adult clothes, but now I'm not so sure. My measurements seemed to be a good fit for this pattern, but I ended up altering it in several places. It would have probably have been more forgiving in a lighter weight fabric, but I ended up taking some of the width off the bodice, adding a hint of waist shaping, plus angling the back bodice, so that it followed the curve of the back better.

As for the length, it didn't seem quite so short until I saw the pictures taken from that angle...
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So, for the Translation of the Day, a word suggested by Jackie seems appropriate:

UK English: tart = a prostitute or promiscuous woman in US English. (It can also be applied to a man these days)

UK English: get tarted up = to dress and get made up in a provocative fashion in US English. nb. it can also be used for just improving the appearance of something, though. You could tart up a room ready for a party. Or I might say that I was getting tarted up for a night out, just because I was wearing make up and smarter clothes, even if they were not provocative.

UK English: slapper = a promiscuous woman or tramp in US English (slightly more extreme than tart)

UK English: slag = a prostitute or promiscuous woman in US English (slightly more extreme than slapper)

UK English: slag off = to bad mouth someone verbally in US English (usually to their face) .

As in, does this dress make me look like a tart? I get tarted up so rarely, that it might just be that I am not used to not wearing jeans. Still, I wouldn't want people to think that I am sort of slapper.

Luckily the pictures are small enough that you can't see all the grey hairs that I could see in the bigger version. One of the problems with living in LA County is that I think that I will be the only person around here under 70 that can't be bothered to dye my greys.

Ooh, while on the subject of California, does anyone have any recommendations for things to see in San Francisco and Sacramento? We'll only be there for a day or so each. Ok, I had better run if I'm to squeeze in a swim today. Take care,

Crossing the divide

2011-03-05T11:28:00.000-08:00

It is possible that I might never get around to answering e-mails or reading blogs ever again: I have discovered the watch instantly feature on Netflix. I truly thought that it would only be the dregs on offer, too. So, having just finished reading North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell and seeing mention on Goodreads that the BBC had done a mini series, I was very surprised - and happy - to discover that I could watch it online immediately.

I don't know if hearing English accents and seeing places that I recognise makes me more or less homesick. Most likely more so. I do feel sorry for Richard Armitage, the actor who played Mr. Thornton, though. I imagine that any girlfriend of his that has seen that series must be constantly pestering him to scowl a bit and put on that accent...
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I might have been neglecting my inbox, but watching the series did help me finally get around to making a wee baby blanket for a nephew that will be soon putting in an entrance to this world (Ravelry link here). Ok, ok, so you all know that I don't crochet that fast. I *might* have watched the series twice...
Plus it took me about 15 bloomin' attempts at various patterns to find a zig-zag that worked for me. I cobbled this one out of this pattern, skipping the lengthwise stripes and seaming - then adding in some horizontal stripes instead. The usual avoidance of pale baby colours took place - my hope is that the baby blankets that I give are the ones that get use, as the mum won't be dreading that it gets vomited on or what have you...
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You know, I don't think that I would have predicted that when I was in my early thirties that I'd have been spending an evening watching a period drama while crocheting a baby blanket. Anyone looking at a list of my likes would probably think that I had some sort of split personality. I like to read so-called 'gritty' murder mysteries; watch action movies and rugby; listen to rock, golden oldies and the like; I like to ski and to swim; I like putting together furniture and DIY; I have often been treated as one of the lads by male friends - and am therefore cynical about romance and all that, avoiding chick flicks with a groan. Yet you'll also find me spending quiet time at home sewing, knitting, crocheting and drawing; reading the odd Gaskell or Austen or Dickens; listening to classical music when I clean; crying at Out of Africa (ah, that bit when she gets on her knees to beg for the land for the tribe...tch).
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When looking for a YouTube clip, I noticed that rather a lot of the comments tended to be along the lines of admiration for the aforementioned Armitage, so this seemed like a good time for these translations:

Translation of the Day:
UK English: dishy = good looking or attractive in US English
UK English: fit = good looking or attractive in US English
UK English: tidy = good looking or attractive in US English
UK English: fancy = be attracted to someone or have a crush on someone in US English
UK English: totty = attractive person that you are considering as a sexual object in US English
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Take care all,

some corner of a foreign field that is for ever England

2011-02-28T18:36:00.001-08:00

When England played the USA during the football World Cup (that's soccer to those Americans amongst you) I might well have put England t-shirts on my offspring and encouraged them to cheer for England. My American husband was not impressed by this, but when you have dual nationality offspring that are growing up with American accents, playing baseball instead of rugby and telling you that you have spelt a word wrong when you use the British spelling, sometimes you feel that you need to tip the balance back a little in your homeland's favour (yes, favour with a 'u'... - it's NOT wrong...).

So when my husband asked if I was also going to make a pillow with some American soldiers on, I said no.

Still, he should just be glad that I am finally getting around to covering the old and tatty pillows that are lying around the house. This one is for my son. I've already thought up another British pillow to go with it, but who knows when I'll get around to making it.

I've been feeling all mopey so far this year. I'm not sure why, but it is about time that I got over it. I'm thinking that some sewing is in order - along with blatant procrastination of sorting out our tax paperwork...

Translation of the day:

UK English: tatty = rather worn out or shabby in US English

What did the big tomato say to the dawdling little tomato?

2011-02-16T10:37:00.000-08:00

Ketchup.

I feel like I am a long way from catching up, though. We seem to have spent most of 2011 taking the cars in repeatedly for repair. Rather annoyingly most of the repairs were on the car that we were looking to replace. Was one more week of health that much to ask of it?? Still, we now have a new (to us, not new new) car... and that's when the computer decided to have a funny spell...

A wee school project meant that my son and I did get to squeeze in a little crafting time. After writing a report on an animal, he then had to do a creative project about his animal, such as a mask, a diorama (still not sure what that is), a puppet, a picture, a sculpture etc. After a quick web search for inspiration, my son proceeded to ignore all of my subtle attempts to steer him in any direction and decided that he wanted to make a wood and string puppet.

Ok. Well, this is what we came up with. I did the drilling. He did all of the painting etc. All the knots were a little fiddly, though, so I ended up doing a lot of the actual assembly.

That's when I decided that we should try another project, where he is the one doing ALL of the work. So a hand puppet it was.

He has done a little bit of embroidery before, but I thought that he did a really good job with his first attempt at sewing. The stitching is a little wonky - and he decided to draw the mouth and eyes on, rather than embroider it - but still. Oh, hopefully you can tell that his animal was a lion.

Valentine's day came and went, so more of our broken crayons disappeared into the oven. .

I used an ice cube tray this time - melting the crayons first, then pouring them into the mould. It worked ok, but I preferred using the oven-safe cupcake mould (that a certain husband threw out by mistake...).

A pebble baby vest was a quick knit. My version (ravelry link) was a little smaller than the pattern's stated size, but that's a good thing, as the wee baby that I knitted it for is a teeny tiny 2 pounder.

That's about it on the crafting front. It's been weeks since I last dragged my poor sewing machine out. There's not even going to be a translation of the day today - I've run out of time. My daughter has lost her glasses, homework needs to be started and I haven't even begun making the promised stew for dinner yet. Hopefully I'll remember to plug the slow cooker in this time...

Take care all.

Weaving in loose ends

2011-02-05T18:03:00.000-08:00

Normally winter is knitting season for me, but I haven't had much on my needles this winter. It's possible that I have finally decided that someone living in California only needs so many hand warmers and scarves. Nah, that's not it. I don't know. I just haven't been inspired by any of the yarn found locally. I have a couple of cardigans that I'd like to attempt, but I haven't been able to find anything suitable (the shutting down of 2 local yarn stores hasn't helped).

Then I went to a home goods store and saw a rather nice crocheted cushion. I picked it up, put it down, picked it up, put it back, went home without it, regretted it, returned, then sulked because someone else had since bought it. It still took one of my dear offspring accidentally cutting one of our pillow covers while doing their homework AND seeing these before I got out the needles, mind. I would have loved to use cream coloured yarn like that, but that would not last 2 minutes in this house, so practical 'taupe' it was.

I actually knitted a swatch for once, then came up with a quick pattern for a snug fit. I think that the back is called a buttoned envelope closure.

The best part is that I prefer it to that crocheted one I saw in the store...

February already? Really? I'm trying to make progress on my resolutions. In terms of getting more organised, my garage is still a state, but I've almost got the google reader thing loaded up with blogs to read. I've set up a Facebook page for this blog, mainly so that I can have a visual bookmark system. For example, if I want to find the entry for an outfit that I have made, I can go to the clothes photo album and when I click on the photo there's a link to the page in the photo caption.

I haven't got very far with adding the photos yet, though... I did want to add the blog feed to the page, too, but it keeps telling me that it can not find it.

While on the subject of Facebook, I'm here. If you do want to add me as a friend, let me know in the message section that you're a crafter, so that I know why you want to add me - I've had a few weird friend requests that seem to have come out of nowhere. Hmm, where else? Ah, I have a profile on Ravelry - a little bit neglected during my knitting slump, and Goodreads - a book review sharing site.

Oh, and I almost forgot Pinterest. It turns out that my old 'bookmarking' system of marking things 'unread' on Bloglines had a fatal flaw - when they sold the site all my 'bookmarks' disappeared. I know it serves me right for being too lazy to actually bookmark the pages, but I liked to skim the images. Pinterest has come to the rescue as a visual bookmark alternative.

I think that's all of my online profiles tidied up into one post. Meanwhile, here's another picture for those of you who are sick of winter: 'January in California'

(personally I didn't think that it was quite warm enough to warrant a dip in the ocean, but I was wearing short-sleeves).

Translation of the day:

UK English: football = soccer in US English

UK English: American football = football in US English

But my favourite form of football is rugby football.

UK English: hooker = a position on a rugby team (so you usually do not need to worry if Uncle Fred was a hooker during his school days...)

America may be watching the Superbowl this weekend, but it's all about the 6 Nations rugby tournament for me. Take care all.

Bloomin' blooming

2011-01-27T17:12:00.000-08:00

I keep seeing posts from people yearning to see some Spring colour, so hopefully this will help. Yes, our daffs are already blooming. Of course a winter person like me is not happy about this - there's already been several days of short-sleeves weather, so I know that shorts weather might be sneaking around the corner soon... pah.
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Blogging more frequently was blatantly not one of my New Year's Resolutions. I'm only quickly saying hello now, as my computer gamer husband has some time off and I'm unlikely to get computer time any time soon. I'm not ignoring you.
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Take care all - hopefully I'll be back soon...

Travel Sewing Case

2011-01-18T18:26:00.000-08:00

I made up a tutorial for this little travel sewing case for SewMamaSew, so please pop over there if you're interested in making one for yourself.

It's a compact little case for holding the basics when you're on the road: a spool of thread, thimble, mini tape measure, folding scissors, needles and pins etc.It turns out that hand sewing with rough dry winter skin on your hands is a real pain, as the thread keeps catching on the skin. So you might want to dig out some moisturiser before tackling this project...
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Speaking of travel, we had a rather nice weekend away this week. I got my snow fix early this year. Lots of sledging, lots of sunshine - perfect.

Today's Translation of the Day comes courtesy of the book that my father-in-law was reading this weekend:

UK English: bottle (noun) = courage, nerve or confidence in US English

UK English: bottle it (verb) = to lose courage in US English

Did he have the bottle to go sledging down that steep slope?

No, I thought that he would, but then he bottled it.

My daughter has a lot of bottle. Well, she certainly throws herself into things heads first, anyway...

Take care all,

A bed for the mouse-with-no-name

2011-01-04T19:42:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to you all! I hope that you enjoyed your break.

Thankfully the kids did like their gifts. They have had lots of play. One of the smallest gifts turned out to be a big favourite, though. We steer clear of getting teddies for my daughter, even though she is always convinced that there's room for one more in her vast collection. Father Christmas was the one that caved and got her a wee mouse. He's still the Mouse-with-no-name, but she's been taking him all about the place.

He does have the disadvantage of being too small for cuddling at night, though. I took pity on him left out in the cold on her nightstand, so I knocked him out his own little matchbox bed, complete with mattress, pillow and sheet. Much better. The only problem is that she now thinks that some of the other teddies could do with their own bed, too...

Christmas was a little quiet compared to ones back home: no big family gatherings, complete with dopey quizzes, games and playing cards for pennies until the early hours of the morning, for starters. We had the traditional Christmas roast dinner a day late on Boxing Day. I don't know how others make it look so easy. It tasted perfect, but my kitchen was a tip afterwards and the smoke alarm went off (I added Yorkshire puddings to the menu, and spilled some of the batter onto the bottom of the oven. Smoke ensued...). Still, Martha Stewart can rest easy, knowing that her job is safe for the now.
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The rain kept us cooped up indoors for much of our break, but we managed to fill the days. I'm a few pounds heavier, thanks to having very little help when it came to eating the Christmas cake. The local paper published an editorial full of suggestions for recycling fruitcake (doorstop, dumbbell, pothole-filler... etc) - maybe I should have sent them some to sample...

I had no trouble finding takers for the gingerbread cookies, though.

I did try to explain to the kids that it is more humane to eat the head first.

So, New Year's Resolutions? Apart from losing the extra pounds left by the Christmas cake (Ok, and maybe even a few of the extra pounds that have appeared in the last 10 years, too...)? Well, I was off to a running start, by finally making 50 tooth bags for my daughter's Kindergarten:

Then my momentum ground to a halt when I realised that 'sort out the garage' was next on the list... I get a whole year for these, right?

Translation of the Day:

UK English: tip = an untidy place in US English

Happy Christmas

2010-12-23T21:02:00.000-08:00

I thought that I had better wish you and yours a Happy Christmas now, what with with it being the day before Christmas Eve and I have still yet to ice the Christmas cake and finish my son's present (and see the Christmas lights, finish tidying the house, do the laundry, etc. etc.).

The problem with sewing presents for the kids is that once school is out, all sewing must done after bedtime if I want to keep it a surprise, so it's been a few late nights this week. I have the feeling that once I've had a decent night's sleep, I'll look at the stitching in horror, but still... Anyway, I had a chance to snap a few pics in today's gloomy light while the kids were out. I've got a few more arrow loops and what have you to add, but you can get the general idea:

The back wall folds down (kind of like the fabric dollhouse), so that you can access the inside better.

As for my daughter, I made her a wee puppet theatre:

I got to play around with the power tools for this one, but it was still just a simple project. Her room has lots of red and white stuff, so the polka dot curtains were an easy choice.

Best of all, it doesn't take up too much room..

My feed reader chose this week to lose half of my feeds, so my blog reading has ground to a halt. I might just try google reader at this point, as I'm not too keen on the new interface being offered anyway. Who one earth picks the week before Christmas to mess around with my stuff, anyway??? Hopefully I'll find my old feeds in the New Year - plus all the ones it kept refusing to find throughout the years. Do drop me a comment if it's been a while since I stopped by your blog. I've lost so many blogs thanks to that bloomin' feed reader...

Time to go and finish the castle. I hope that you all enjoy your holiday. Ours will be fairly quiet by British standards, but we'll be seeing the in-laws and I'll do my best not to mope about and feel homesick. I miss my family and friends a lot at this time of year. Still, I will be subjecting my family to my version of the traditional Christmas dinner, even though it will be on Boxing Day. It's not as good as mum's but I refuse to go without it. I've got some Christmas crackers so they won't escape the paper hat wearing, even if we are on the other side of the world...

Translation of the day:

UK English: Boxing Day = public holiday on the day after Christmas (December 26th). So we have 2 days of family parties over there.

'Tis the season #5: beeswax sheet candles tutorial

2010-12-16T19:38:00.000-08:00

My house looks like a bomb has hit it, but I'm almost ready for Christmas now. Parcels are on their way to England, there's one present left to buy, just a couple of handmade presents to put the finishing touches to and the Christmas cake is made (but not yet iced). I no longer feel like striking the people that had already sent me Christmas cards in the first week of December off my Christmas card list...

For teacher gifts, my kids made these beeswax candles. They are ever so easy, if you want to give it a try.

You need:

- beeswax sheets (I bought mine here, but you can find them at some craft stores, candle supply stores or some health food stores)

- wick (I used 1/0 square waxed wick)

The sheets that we used were 16" x 8". To make 2" tall votive candles, I cut them into 16" x 2" strips. Next I warmed them up slightly with a hairdryer, to make them a little more pliable, as my husband is still trying to maintain Arctic-like conditions in our house. Then I handed them over to my 5 year old.

First lay the wick across one end of the strip of wax. We leave extra wick hanging out of both sides, so that we can choose whichever side is neater to be the top of the candle. Gently bend the wax around the wick and push it down to secure the wick in place:

Roll the wax around the wick fairly firmly, keeping the edges even. Try to keep the roll as round as possible - you can push the wax in a little to reshape it as you go, but do this before the last roll, so that you do not ruin the honeycomb texture of the sheet.

When you get to the end, press the end edge of the strip down firmly against the candle to secure it. Chose which end is to be the top of the candle and trim the wick to 1/4" at the top and trim the excess wick off the bottom. You're all done.

A bit of ribbon, some French-seamed drawstring bags, a wee box of English chocolates from the Import store and homemade cards for the teachers and we were done. Then I put in some money to the class gift of a gift card or two, as our teachers need a lot more spoiling than that...

I don't go too crazy over trying to make handmade gifts for Christmas - I'm never too sure if people appreciate them or not. I tend to only make gifts either when I can't find what I am looking for in a store or when I think that I can make a better version than what I have seen in stores. Still, not everyone escapes with a store-bought gift. I've made a couple more reversible totes:

and attempted a gathered clutch using this tutorial.

You can only see half of the gathers in this picture - I should have angled it the other way - but, while the tutorial was fine, this was one of those projects that just did not go as planned. My sewing machine starting having funny spells with the tension. I should probably confess that I gave it a slight tap in frustration. That's when the light went out and it stopped working. Oh, the guilt - and the horror... After a few minutes of praying and apologising to my machine, followed by begging it to work again, I noticed that I had kicked the plug out of the socket...

It was one of those days. Earlier in the day an elderly chap had rolled his car into the back of mine while I was stopped at the traffic light (rather worryingly he mentioned that that 'kept happening lately' - and his driver license does not expire for another 5 years, when he's in his 90s....). Still, after unpicking a few seams and re-threading the machine, I got a gathered clutch finished and it does what it was intended to do: hold a bar of chocolate...

Ok, I had better get going and finish the kid's presents. I promise that I'll be nicer to my sewing machine, too.

Translation of the day:

UK English: Christmas cake = a rich, dark, MOIST fruitcake, covered with marzipan and royal icing, eaten at Christmas. It is nothing like the dry re-gifted fruitcake of American jokes, but my American in-laws still refuse to try it, so I usually get about half the cake to myself. That's not a bad thing - one of the advantages of living over here...

'Tis the season #4: Not too Tutu tutorial

2010-12-09T21:21:00.001-08:00

Do you remember this tutu? The not-so-flouncy-as-a-knotted-tutu version of a tutu? Well, the daughters of those lasses that asked for a tutorial may well have packed their bags and disappeared off to college by now, but I made some more tutus this week, so I have finally got around to writing down the instructions for you...

For approx. a 2 - 6 year old child: here goes...

You will need:

- to ask yourself why on earth you are not just making the really easy knotted version instead

- no, seriously...

- 1 ½ yards white tulle

- 2 yards of coloured tulle

- a strip of fabric for the waistband measuring 26" by 4"

- elastic for the waistband

- scissors, needle and thread

- safety pin

- iron

1. Fold the strip of waistband fabric in half lengthwise (along line A in diagram) and iron in the crease

2. Fold the bottom edge (D) up to that crease (line A) and iron in the crease (line B)

3. Fold the top edge (E) down to line A and iron in the crease (line C)

You have now made your waistband. Set it aside.

4. This is the fiddly part that will have you wishing that you had just made a knotted version instead. Fold the white tulle in half lengthwise, then fold each half into thirds, accordion style, as shown:

See, tulle is really annoying to fold. Now the knotted version is starting to look rather appealing, isn't it? Still, the fiddly part is over now.

5. Pin along the top edge, then sew 2 lines of basting stitches between ¼" and ½" from the top edge.

6. Knot the two threads together at one end, then ease the tulle along the basting threads towards the knot, gathering it together, until the top edge measures 24". Knot the other end of the two threads to secure it and set aside.

7. Cut the coloured tulle in half lengthwise, discard one half, then fold the other half into thirds lengthwise.

8. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for the coloured tulle.

9. Lay the white tulle over the coloured tulle, lining up the top gathered edges and overlapping the side ends by an inch or two (so that when the waistband is later joined, the edges of the tulle are staggered). Open the waistband fabric up and lay it right side down on top of the tulle, lining up top edge E with the top edge of the tulle and pin. There should be a slight overhang at either end. Starting an inch or two in (X) from the side edge of the tulle (S), sew along crease C until you are an inch or two from the other edge of the tulle (Y)

10. As you would with bias tape, fold the waistband up (along crease C) over the edge of the tulle, refold at crease (crease B) and pin it to the side with the coloured tulle.

11. Join the two side edges, so that the waistband forms a circle, overlapping the edges of the tulle and the waistband by an inch or two, and pin so that the the top edges of the tulle are secured within the waistband.

12. Hand stitch the outside of the waistband (along crease B) to the side with the coloured tulle and along the overlap of the waistband, leaving a 2" gap for the elastic.

13. Hook a safety pin to one end of the elastic and slide it through the waistband. Holding the ends of the elastic together, pull until the waist of the tutu is the desired size, then sew the ends of the elastic together.

14. Hand stitch the 2" gap closed.

15. Wonder why one earth you didn't just do the no-sew knotted version...

Still, it adds a certain je ne sais quoi to the school uniform... Don't tell my daughter, but she's getting one identical to the red one up top. This purple one is destined for a 2 year old, so the waist is a little smaller.

Scrooge has let me put the Christmas tree up at last. I've found myself making a few more ornaments, even though I really do not have the time. I can't remember where I first saw the yarn-wrapped cone trees idea, but I found the cones that I had squirreled away months ago and dug out the yarn scraps basket:

Then I came across this felt dove ornament tutorial and out came the felt scraps basket. A few other felt strips ornaments were added into the mix:

That is the point when I realised that I had better hurry up if I plan on presents making it back to England in time for Christmas. Hopefully it will be a productive weekend...

Ok, off to bed - it's time I got some kip.

Translation of the day:

UK English: kip = sleep in US English

'Tis the season #3: Button garland tutorial

2010-11-27T19:06:00.000-08:00

I hope that those who celebrate it had a happy Thanksgiving. We had a lovely meal at someone else's house, which made me extra thankful, as our dining room is currently decorated with random test patches of colour. We've since picked the colour that we want, just still haven't found the motivation to actually start painting yet...

I have been knitting, though. Now, some of my friends and family know that I have a blog, but I'm pretty sure that none of them actually follow it, so hopefully these posts won't be ruining any surprises. This one is for a lass who I always associate with this colour green, so I couldn't pass up this soft and cosy yarn. I used my pattern found here, casting on 300 stitches for this one (Ravely page here).

My kids had the week off school, so it seemed like the perfect time for our annual forced child labour event: Christmas decoration making. We've got enough homemade decorations to fill the tree now. I liked their button wreaths so much that I had them churn out a few more for me:

It turns out that I have rather a lot of buttons around here, as I had enough left over to make this wee garland:

Not a very Christmas-y staged photo, but the Scrooge of the house hadn't let me put up the Christmas decorations at that point...

If you're interested in making your own button garland, you'll need:

buttons

sequins (5mm or 8mm)

teeny rocaille (seed) 10/0 beads

fishing line or thread

26 gauge floral wire (optional) - I used the floral wire, so that I can shape the garland if needed.

1. Cut 3 strands of the floral wire slightly longer than the desired length for the garland, then braid them together loosely, tying off the ends.

2. Tie a length of the fishing line to the wire braid, then thread on each button / sequin combo tightly as follows: thread the fishing line through a space in the wire braid, then through a button hole, then through the sequin hole, then pass it through the bead and thread it back through the sequin, then thread it through the other button hole and down through the wire braid:

Hopefully this doodle is clear enough for you to work out what on earth I am talking about.

3. Repeat step 2 until your garland reaches the desired length.

The sequins really catch the light. nb. Those seed beads are very fiddly, so this probably isn't a project for young 'uns. I think that I'm going to be finding mislaid beads around the house for many months to come...

Translations of the Day:

UK English: parky = cool, cold, chilly in US English

UK English: nippy = cool, cold, chilly in US English

UK English: Baltic = cold, chilly in US English

I'm wearing my ski jacket indoors as Scrooge is also controlling the thermostat, so those are the first British words that came to mind...

As in, although it's pretty mild outside, it's a wee bit parky in here. It's rather nippy first thing and bloomin' Baltic by night....

(sorry about all the gloomy pictures - the weather has been rather murky this week).

'Tis the season #2: Chocolate biscuit gateau

2010-11-11T18:47:00.000-08:00

A few of you asked me for this recipe, so here goes: This one was taught to me by a friend when we were teenagers and most of our culinary efforts leaned towards the dessert end of the spectrum. I heard mention that someone successfully sued a company for making them overweight, so I had better add the disclaimer that large quantities of this gateau will most likely add to your waistline...

Now, hopefully you're remembering that what the English call biscuits are called cookies by the Americans, or this recipe could take an unplanned turn...

You will need:

8oz / 225g plain chocolate

8oz / 225g butter

1oz / 25g caster sugar

2 beaten eggs

8oz / 225g digestive biscuits

For those of you saying, 'huh?', today's Translation of the Day:

UK English: Caster sugar = superfine sugar / baker's sugar in US English

UK English: Digestive biscuits, or sweetmeal biscuits are a semi-sweet biscuit. The internet suggests substituting graham crackers - I haven't tried that, but I imagine that would be ok in this recipe, even though they taste different. You can find digestives in the US at import stores like Cost Plus World Market and also at specialty British import stores, though.

Recipe:

Grease a 6" cake tin (with a detachable base).

Break up the digestive biscuits into small pieces and put to the side.

Break up the chocolate and put it in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water to melt.

Melt the butter gently in another pan.

Beat the eggs with the caster sugar, then add the melted butter, pouring it in a steady stream while beating continuously.

Now blend in the melted chocolate.

Folded the biscuit pieces into the chocolate mixture.

Turn the chocolate mixture into the cake tin and chill over night in the fridge.

To serve, stand the cake tin on a smaller can and push the tin carefully down onto the table, leaving the base with the gateau on the can. Slide the gateau onto a serving plate.

Done.

Maya had a post about being brave, which made me feel a little guilty about hiding behind my sunglasses on my blog. So here's a slightly blurry picture from a few weeks back, when I was testing the camera's self-timer. Split ends, no make-up as usual and weird lighting making it look like my nose is uneven, but this is me...

I really should get my hair cut.

Take care.

'Tis the season #1: Granny in a Flap Hat tutorial

2010-11-05T20:50:00.000-07:00

50 days left until Christmas! Time to concentrate on giving, methinks. In the upcoming weeks I plan on sharing some of the things that I'll be giving as gifts this year and I also want to share a few gifts with you, such as a couple of tutorials etc. I won't get all ambitious, as I do have 3 and a half rooms to paint in the upcoming weeks, so keep your expectations low...

First up, do you remember this hat?
I've been meaning to write up the pattern for it since, um, last April. I was noting down the pattern as I was teaching a friend how to crochet it. We worked on it while we were at the park with our kids each week. Then her lad inconsiderately knocked his head badly and was barred from the park for a couple of months. He's fine, but my pattern writing ground to a halt.
With winter rapidly approaching, I thought that it might be time to finish it. So I made another hat. Meanwhile the temperature soared to 100 degrees. In November. Can it really be a coincidence that every time I make this hat we have a heat wave?Sunglasses indoors = cover for the awful dark circles under my eyes. These hats do look less daft when worn with winter clothes...I am a slow crocheter and I can make one of these in an evening, so they are quick work.
To make a child size hat, use smaller hooks as follows: I instead of J, J instead of K, K instead of L). Ravelry link here.
.
YOU WILL NEED:
scraps of yarn: worsted or bulky
US size J 10 hook (6.00mm)
US size K 10.5 hook (6.50mm)
US size L 11 hook (8.00mm)
Yarn needle to weave in any loose ends
.
ABBREVIATIONS USED (nb. I'm using the American stitch terms):
ch = chain
sc = single crochet
dc = double crochet
cl = cluster
sp = space
yo = yarn over
rep = repeat
join = join with slip stitch
.
PATTERN STITCHES:
beg cl = first cluster stitch of a row: ch 2, then, keeping last loop of each dc on hook, 2 dc in sp, yo and draw through all loops on hook to make cluster
.
cl = keeping last loop of each dc on hook, 3dc in sp, yo and draw through all loops on hook to make cluster

,
THE PATTERN:
Using hook J
Ch 6, join to form ring (I use magic adjustable ring for this)
.
Round 1. In ring: beg cl, *ch 3, cl, rep from *5 times, ch 3, join in top beg cl [6 clusters]
.
Round 2. In ch 3 sp of previous round: beg cl, ch 3, cl, ch 3, *in next sp cl, ch 3, cl, ch 3, rep from * 5 times, join in top beg cl [12 clusters]
.
Round 3. In ch 3 sp: beg cl, ch 3, cl, ch 3, *in next sp cl, ch3; in next sp cl, ch 3; in next sp cl, ch 3, cl, ch 3, rep from * until end of round and join in top beg cl =16 clusters
.
Round 4. In ch 3 sp: ch 2, 2 dc, ch 1, *in next sp 3 dc, ch 1, rep from * 15 times
.
Change to K hook
Round 5. In ch 1 sp: ch 2, 2 dc, 1 ch, * 3 dc, 1 ch, rep from * 15 times
.
Rounds 6 - 8. rep round 5
.
Change to L hook
Rounds 9 - 14. rep round 5
.
EAR FLAP (worked back and forth in rows):
Row 1: ch 2, 2 dc in sp, ch 1, 3 dc in next sp, ch 1, 3 dc in next sp, turn
.
Row 2: ch 3, 3 dc in sp, ch 1, 3 dc in next sp, ch 1, 1 dc in last dc of previous row, turn
.
Row 3: ch 3, 3dc in middle sp, ch 1, 1 dc in last dc of previous row
.
2nd EAR FLAP:
Join yarn 5 sp along brim from 1st ear flap and make in same way as 1st ear flap
.
EDGING:
sc around edge of hat, including along the edges of the ear flaps. When reach tip of ear flaps: ch 2, 2 dc in sp, ch 1, 2 dc in next sp, ch 2 and rejoin edge, continue to sc around rest of hat
.
BRAIDS:
Cut 6 1 yard strips of yarn, thread them through the base of the ear flaps and braid together, securing the ends with a knot.
.
Repeat on other side. Done.
.
Let me know if I've made any mistakes. I haven't been getting enough sleep and it's been a while since I've followed a crochet pattern, so I'm a little rusty on the abbreviations.
.
No translation of the day today: it's past my bedtime...

Shiver me timbers!

2010-10-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

Yep, it's that time of year again: When seams and hems look awful, because I am not going to spend ages on something that is only for one night. That doesn't stop my kids from demanding extra details that they've seen in the flyers from the costume stores, mind. They don't get everything they ask for, though. Pirates can wear bandannas instead of tricorn hats, for starters....

I'm hoping that you could tell that they are going to be pirates for this year's Halloween...

Their cousin is, too. She's getting a black shirt, sash and red / white spotted jagged edge skirt, as per her hand-drawn design:

I finished these a week ago. I'm a little worried to find that I haven't been procrastinating as usual.

Actually, I've been going around humming Christmas carols. I've even made a Christmas decoration or two. I think it might be my coping mechanism for California's pathetic attempt at Autumn. I've seen one tree so far that has realised that it should be shedding some leaves...

So, I'm skipping Autumn and moving on straight to Christmas.

While almost on the subject of shopping (don't worry, I'm only at the thinking stage for actual Christmas presents), I was happy to see that Bread and Buttons had decided to open up her etsy shop again. She is a lovely lady and finds the cutest fabrics. These pictures taken on a gloomy day do not do justice to these hair clips and bands that I have bought for my daughter:

Arrrggghhh, it's late! Time to weigh anchor. Take care all.

I miss my settee

2010-10-24T08:17:00.000-07:00

Some gifts for a friend that is a teacher and world traveller: Mary Jane slippers (pattern by the little house by the sea). Please note: any funny angles in the picture are a result of my having inherited my mum's weird shaped feet - the pattern is fine.

Bag based upon the construction of this bag, but I changed the pattern to make it bigger, changed the shape and, well, changed the construction a bit, too. Picture taken by my son.

I've been fantasizing about the days before kids. Nope, not because I could be a world traveller, too. I've been thinking back fondly to the days when I could come home from work and just collapse on the sofa when I was ill. I've been feeling rough for over a week now, but my kids don't even let me have a lie-in on weekends. 5am. Maybe when they are teenagers they might be more willing to stay in bed of a morning...

I had better get going: I've got a busy day ahead of me. No sofa.

Nick?

2010-10-09T20:21:00.000-07:00

This last week I've been putting together yearbook pages for my kids' football (soccer) teams, trying to sort out my soon-to-be-closed Bloglines account and taking Halloween costume requests. My niece even gave me a hand drawn design to follow for her costume...

I realised that I never got around to showing last year's costumes, though. That was the year that I shamelessly used my subtle powers of persuasion to steer my kids towards something that required very little work on my part.

So, a thief and a policewoman it was. For the thief we already had a stripey shirt, dark trousers and hat, so all that I needed to make was the mask. As for the policewoman, we already had the trousers, pretend police badge, toy handcuffs etc. and the shirt was one of her brother's old ones. All I did was sew a patch on the sleeves. Easy-peasy.

I used an iron-on transfer and some cheap cotton to make a swag bag and evidence bag for them to collect their treats in. I don't think that anyone noticed the bags, but it did make me feel slightly less lazy...

Translation of the day:

UK English: nick = to steal in US English

UK English: nick = to arrest in US English

UK English: nick = a prison or police station in US English

So, if you nick something you might be nicked and end up in the nick. Got that?

UK English: it's a fair cop = light-hearted way to admit that you were caught doing something wrong

UK English: old bill / bobbies / constables / the filth / peelers / the plod / rashers / rozzers = the police in US English.

nb. I should probably mention that some of these terms are less complimentary than others...

My son had to write a piece about Halloween for school this week and he mentioned my making a costume for him as if it was a given - that he had not even considered it being any other way. It's funny how each year I think that it will probably be the last year before they start asking for store-bought costumes like their friends have, yet each year they prove me wrong. When one of my son's friends showed up in one of those muscled Batman suits, I was sure that my son would look at the Batman suit that I made him with complete disdain, but he loved it. Still does, actually - I keep catching him squeezing into it every now and again...

Ok, I had better run: it's probably about time that I got started on this year's costumes...

Day 4 & 5: I should probably be doing the housework...

2010-09-24T19:07:00.000-07:00

Please excuse the creases on this one. I finished sewing the sleeves at the park, while the offspring played with their friends, then only had 10 minutes before football (soccer) practice to iron it, find my son's football shorts and take a picture while there was still light. The ironing didn't happen, but I did get some pictures and my son didn't go to his practice half naked...

This is another pattern that I came up with. Just a plain top with wee gathered sleeves and buttons up the back. I stayed away from my machine's evil fabric-eating button-holer function and did sewn button loops instead.

I had pictured it with jeans, but it was hot hot hot today, so shorts it was. How is it that I was cold in jeans and a cardi at yesterday's 2 football practices, but was toasty in shorts and a t-shirt at tonight's? This weather is nutty.

Anyway, it all went together fairly easily. I did burn myself on the iron at one point, but that seems to happen rather regularly lately. I came up with a solution for those times when you're short on time and don't want stand with a burn under cold water for ages, though (disclaimer: I have little to no medical knowledge and you should probably ignore any medical advice from me): I sellotaped a frozen broccoli stalk onto my burnt thumb. That way I could continue to sew while treating it, even if I looked a little daft. I think it worked: no blister!

Translation of the day

UK English: sellotape = transparent adhesive tape = scotch tape in US English.

Scotch and Sellotape are both brand names that have been adopted as the generic name to cover pretty much all clear sticky tapes. Although I seem to remember Blue Peter would valiantly avoid using any such brand names...

KCWC day 3 - it's darker in real life

2010-09-23T10:36:00.000-07:00

It's a much deeper and darker red, but these photos will have to do. Day 3 of the challenge was a quickie: another peasant blouse, made of corduroy this time. It was back-to-school night for my son's class.

My kids have never shown any sign of struggling in school - quite the opposite - but somehow I still feel worried when the teachers outline all that they are supposed to achieve by the end of the year.

More school clothes

2010-09-21T10:38:00.000-07:00

Here's the pinafore. Yes, the British do also call some aprons a pinafore (or pinny), but a pinafore dress like this will also be called a pinafore. I have heard them called gymslips, mainly by my mum's generation, and tunics.

I'm not too sure why Americans call them jumpers. My own theory is they wanted to cause utter confusion. How else can you explain giving pretty much every item of clothing the name of a completely different item of clothing? Trousers = pants, pants = panties, waistcoat = vest, vest = tank top, tank top = sweater vest, braces = suspenders, suspenders = garter belt, pinafore = jumper, jumper = sweater etc. etc. Do you see what I mean? Utterly confusing.

As a side note: I really should try to remember to stop referring to my son's 'sweater' as his 'jumper' in front of his friends...

Anyway, here's another outfit for my daughter to wear to school. No doubt it would look much better with a white shirt underneath, but I refuse to put my kids in white if I can help it (I don't have much success with stain removal). I made up a pattern based on the bodice of this dress and the construction of this dress, with a couple of pleats and a belt added into the mix .

I really didn't like sewing with this gabardine fabric, though. This was the only fabric that the first fabric shop had in stock that would pass as a suitable colour and weight for her uniform. I eventually found some twill in the next place, which I used for yesterday's skirt. The twill was much easier to use and not as slippy - and easier to photograph. This one catches the light and looks several shades lighter in all of the pictures. Still, it turned out ok. It's fully lined with cotton, which helps hold the shape.

She should just be glad that she doesn't have to wear a shirt and tie like I had to...

Translation of the day:

UK English: shirt = a top with a collar and a buttoned opening all the way down the front = dress shirt or button-down in US English

UK English: dress shirt = formal shirt worn for morning dress or black or white tie events

US English: shirt = pretty much any top that isn't a jacket or a sweater. Dress shirts, t-shirts, polo tops, vest tops (tank tops), henleys, you name it, will all be referred to as just shirts.

It took some investigation to translate the school's uniform requirement (apparently a 'scooter' is a skirt with shorts hidden underneath), but I eventually worked out that a 'shirt with collar' meant that my kids could wear a polo shirt to school...

Kids' Clothes Week #2

2010-09-20T10:43:00.000-07:00

Elsie Marley is hosting another Kids' Clothes Week Challenge and my kids need clothes, so here goes:

First up is this skirt for school. We only found out the week before school started that my daughter got into the same school as her brother (thank goodness!), which didn't leave us much time for uniform shopping. It's a State school, but they have to wear uniforms, which I love. The only problem being that there was not much left in the stores one week before the start of term and what was left was usually way too big for my apparently petite daughter. 10 stores later (and a large pile of over sized clothes to return), all we had was some shirts, a skirt and a pair of shorts.

So, here's a pleated skirt to put off doing the laundry for another day each week.

It was going together really well. The top stitching was looking good, the seams were French seams, the hem was straight. I couldn't believe that a pattern that I was putting together as I went along was going so smoothly...

So it goes without saying that the so-called one-stop-button-holer on my machine tried to eat the skirt. With the aid of my seam ripper and a bit of satin stitching around the button hole, I think that I managed to save it - just please don't look too close at the button hole...

nb. Her school shirts are shorter than this one.

Next up, a pinafore.

Translation of the day:

UK English: pinafore = jumper in US English

UK English: jumper = sweater in US English

(I've mentioned these before, but even I still have trouble keeping the clothing terms straight...)

UK English: State school = school offered to all children by the government = public school in US English

UK English: public school = a fee-paying school.

According to wikipedia: "Public" is used here in a somewhat archaic sense, meaning that they are open to any member of the public, distinguished from religious schools which are open only to members of that religion. Personally I think that the English use the term just to confuse everyone.

The dogs

2010-09-16T17:59:00.000-07:00

We were away from home for quite a bit of the summer, so I had decided that it was finally time to pull out a cross-stitch pattern that I had bought a few years ago and take it on the road. I did like curling up in a chair of an evening, stitching away - tuning out the kids running around with their American cousins, letting the calm wash over me. But... I think that I enjoy crafting more when I've put some creative thought into it. When you know that, as long as you can keep count, the result is going to look exactly like the picture on the packet, it just doesn't seem the same.

I think that I enjoy the anticipation of the moment when a project is done - the moment when you hold up your work and decide whether it turned out as you were hoping or not.

Still, I've always had a weakness for black and white and this pattern reminded me of my dogs:

They're getting on in years now. We had few nervous days waiting for biopsy results for one of them this summer - luckily the news was good, as the operation would have been expensive and I could tell that my heartless husband was considering the other option, as he started making comments about how the dog 'had led a good long life', even as I was looking at him with a 'how could you?' expression on my face...

Good grief, not MORE holiday photos...

2010-09-06T08:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my kids woke up at some ungodly hour, even by their early-riser standards. The first day of school. The first day of Kindergarten for my wee daughter. Off they went, as calm as can be, wearing backpacks that dwarfed them. Even a winter-loving person like me is wondering where summer disappeared off to at such a swift rate.

Still, I think that we made the most of it.

We saw boats, rented boats and took boat tours.

We saw lots of mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, arachnids and insects up close.

We encountered history long gone, being relived, and frozen in time.

I really enjoyed nosing around the ghost town. My husband was far too fascinated by the outhouses, mind.We went to free concerts at the park, free movies at the park, free movies at the beach, cheap movies at the drive-in and a ridiculously expensive movie at the cinema.

Hmm, the windscreen could do with a clean...

There were lakes, rivers, waterfalls, paddling pools, wading pools, swimming pools and an ocean.

There were loud moments (he got a home run from that hit)...

quiet moments...

and lazy moments.

Summer, I feel bad for dreading you. Oh, and thank you for not being as hot as previous years, too...

Maybe it's time to invest in an American cookbook

2010-08-12T13:53:00.001-07:00

Summer is flying by this year. I turned another year older. My husband forgot. The weather has been mild. The bill for having my car's AC fixed has been paid. Most of my summer to-do list remains undone. I'm wondering why I had held the illusion that things would get done on the house when my offspring are running around the place. My parents are visiting soon. The list of things that need to be done before they arrive should probably be started on soon. Please do not mention back to school lists...

As for sewing, 3 pairs of capris have been shortened into shorts (I'm too short to get away with capris) and my kids finally have aprons. No, I have no justification for putting off such an easy project for so long, especially as I already had the pattern that I had put together for my nieces' aprons, um, a couple of years ago.

Reversible to this:

with soft twill straps:

They were judged by my offspring to be worth cleaning their rooms for. Their rooms aren't tidy any more.

We made chocolate biscuit gateau when the oven wasn't working

and chocolate chip cookies and bran parkin cookies when we finally had the oven fixed.

Now I just need to add 'find out why my biscuits are not turning out the way they used to' to my to-do list. They taste ok, but they don't flatten like they used to and have a different texture. Grrr, I find baking over here so frustrating. I'm about ready to hang up my apron for good...

Translation of the day:

UK English: biscuit = cookie in US English

Just a reminder, in case you thought that I was putting American style biscuits in chocolate.

The post where I bore you with holiday photos

2010-07-28T08:17:00.001-07:00

You could be forgiven for thinking that it was just the usual leisurely posting around here, but I have been away. We camped near Yosemite and spent a couple of days exploring the park, then stayed another few days by the Kern River. Yosemite is ridiculously stunning. If they could just lower the temperature by 20 degrees for wimps like me that can't take the heat, it would be perfect.

First attempt at zipper pouches. They came in useful for bribing, I mean rewarding my offspring. My kids get far too excited about the prospect of something new, no matter how boring it might be. I'm dreading the day that they start to compare rewards with their friends and wonder why the tooth fairy has been somewhat more generous to others...

Translation of the Day:

UK English: holiday = vacation in US English

Stretch

2010-07-08T09:57:00.000-07:00

Yet another summer top for her to tear about the playground in. I went out of my comfort zone and made this one out of some elastic-y fabric. I think it's some sort of stretchy suiting fabric. Well, it's about time that I got over my fear, even if an overlocker (or serger or whatever you call it) looks to be a distant dream. I practiced by hemming a couple of t-shirts first (have I shrunk or are t-shirts nowadays about 3 inches longer than they used to be? I really hope it's the t-shirts that are different. I don't have height to spare...).

I even used my bias tape-making metal thing on this one.

Despite the pout, she likes it. I'll be adding another line of stitching to the hem, once she gets home from summer preschool. Hopefully I'll do a better job than I did on the t-shirt that I'm currently wearing. Unfortunately twin needles for stretch fabric seem to be scarce in these here parts.

As for my son, here's some pyjamas shorts that I knocked out, mainly because his teacher sprang a 'come to school in your PJs' day on us at the end of term. Those days always seem to be timed to coincide with the moment that their pyjamas collection looks the most raggedy. I'm guessing that he's had yet another growth spurt, as his PJs all suddenly looked like capris and he's now above the chest height of his vertically challenged mum...

A couple of hours of peace

2010-07-01T10:22:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back I spotted some monk's cloth* in the fabric store. I never knew what it was called, but I did recognise it from some embroidery that I did, well, decades ago, while I was in primary school. I think that this peach one was supposed to be a place mat:While this one was a pencil case (complete with an ink stain):

I bought quarter of a yard of the monk's cloth, thinking that it might buy me quarter of an hour or so of peace from my son. I was wrong. Just a scrap of it has already bought me a couple of hours of peace. He keeps asking if he can do some more stitching. Ok, he is bored while his sister is at summer preschool and the alternative is tidying his room, but still...

Monk's cloth unravels, so I did a zigzag stitch around the edge (the unraveling bits in the photos are outside the zigzag line) and put it through the wash (to preshrink it). I gave him a blunt yarn needle to use and I think that the thread is No. 5 Perle cotton (it looked like it would be easier for him to thread than the 6 strand stuff). All it took was a couple of demonstrations of the different stitches, then off he went.

The only thing that I would hear from him before he reached the end of a row was the odd cry for help if the thread got all tangled.

To be honest, I had low expectations of his skill and interest level, but I think that he would easily handle more complicated stitches. Still, some cross stitch, threaded running stitch and back stitch seemed a good place for a beginner to start.

I'm going to sew some fabric on the back and make a bookmark out of it.

Now I just need to think of some more stitches for his next project.

Translation of the day:

UK English: primary school / junior school= elementary school in US English

The school I attended from age 4 'til age 11, which was, ahem, decades ago.

*PS. Look's like Monk's cloth is aka Binca in the UK - thanks!

School's out

2010-06-22T15:25:00.000-07:00

Yep, already. With the possibility of a plastic bag ban looming here in California, I'm hoping that the teachers didn't mind getting tote bags for their end of year gifts. Plus some English chocolates - I figure that if my kids drive me to chocolate most days (ok, every day), their poor teachers could probably do with some too...

Teachers must get really sick of apples, but I had a wee bit of the apple fabric and just couldn't seem to stop myself. This one was for one of my son's First Grade teachers:

Reversible to this, if she wants to avoid the apples:

This one is for the substitute that filled in for his teacher who went on maternity leave:

Spotty this time:

This one was for my daughter's preschool teacher:

Reversible to this:

I'm sorry for the poor pictures. I didn't remember to take any until it was already late evening, so the lighting was dim and I didn't bother ironing after flipping the bags. The grass, though, would have looked just as bad earlier in the day....

Hopefully I won't be disappearing on you like last summer, but it's taken me almost a week to post this. Summer preschool, baseball practices, baseball games, swimming lessons, World Cup football (I'm sure that England are adding to my grey hairs), family barbeques and a wee picnic on Father's day have already helped the first week zip by. My air conditioning was fixed today (yet more grey hairs). My oven is still broken (but no one seems to be missing my baking particularly). I think that I'm just about ready for summer now.

Flower power

2010-06-05T15:38:00.001-07:00

Sewing machine.... ✔
Fabric, matching thread, button, lining fabric.... ✔
2 ancient zippers... ✔
Screwdriver... ✔
Pliers... ✔
Permanent marker... ✔
First Aid kit... ✔
.

It was one of those projects. It started innocently enough. Despite my good intentions to use up more of my stash before doing any more fabric shopping, I found myself in need of cheering up beyond the powers of chocolate and the next thing that I knew I was at the 'good' fabric shop. I was behaving myself, keeping to the cheap rows, but then I caught sight of this blue floral fabric (Lil' Plain Jane by Michael Miller) by the door and had to have it. Far too many others had thought the same thing, as there was barely any left on the bolt (and no other bolts to be found - believe me, I stalked all the other customers, checking their trolleys. Yes, I am that person at the fabric store...).

So here's the pattern I put together. The fabric was half an inch (just half a bloomin' inch!) too narrow to be able to make the back in two pieces with the flowers matching up, but three pieces could be squeezed out. This is my first attempt at a proper zipper (using this tutorial) and a sewn button loop (using this tutorial). The full lining is plain white and most likely there is an easier way of putting in a lining in a zippered dress, but for some reason I forgot about internet search engines and just made up my own way. The topstitching shows up on all the flowers, too.

Sewing the zipper went well: it turns out that my sewing machine came with a zipper foot - who knew? But ancient zipper #1 decided to wait until it was sewn in before the metal zip bit broke into two pieces. No, I don't know how or why, either. So, that's where pliers, screwdriver and permanent marker came in handy - removing the zip bit off ancient zipper #2, then bending it into place on the installed zip, then colouring it to match. I thought that that was this project's swear words allocation used up.

Until I burnt my hand on the iron. Please ignore the creases in the pictures...

Translation of the day:

UK English: trolley = shopping cart in US English

UK English: tram = trolley in US English

UK English: off one's trolley = crazy / insane / silly in US English

UK English: tick = ✔ = check in US English

Thrifty

2010-05-24T10:41:00.000-07:00

Yep, another summer top for my daughter. What can I say? It only takes slightly over half a yard of fabric to make one of these for her - even Walmart doesn't sell tops this cheap, I'll bet. Although I am paying myself less than sweatshop rates for my labour....

You can't really make out the gathers in this patterned fabric, but I liked the way that it went with the printed twill tape - and my daughter likes the bunnies on the printed twill tape.

It's a good time to be saving some money: the air-conditioning on my car has come a cropper. Here's hoping for cool weather 'til I can get it fixed. I'm a winter person. I can't take the California heat in a car without a/c...

Translation of the day:

UK English: come a cropper = to fail utterly in US English

UK English: skint = broke / poor in US English

As in, I'm going to be skint for a while thanks to this expensive car repair... pah.

Kids' Clothes Week continued

2010-05-14T13:52:00.000-07:00

I managed to get more things finished during Kids' Clothes Week than I thought I would, which is certainly not the norm around here (despite being a mum for over 7 years, I still catch myself feeling surprised that having 2 children around the place can often turn a 5 minute task into a 2 hour long one).
This dress is made from a pattern in this book (ISBN: 978-4-529-04526-1). The local police helped me find the sewing time for this one, as we had a reverse 911 call letting us know that there was a felony suspect on the run in our area and that we should stay indoors with the windows and doors locked. With the way that my windows were rattling and shaking every time that the helicopters circled, I'm not sure that locking them was much of a hindrance, but still...

I think that I'd have done a better job at lining up the tartan (plaid) if my hands hadn't been shaking and if I hadn't been jumping up every 5 minutes to listen to the breaking news update / peek out the windows with a baseball bat in hand. To be honest, I gave up caring about alignment after a couple of attempts at pinning. Looking back, I should have just cut the bottom part on the diagonal.

The sewing was a welcome distraction that day. Apparently some of the SWAT action was only 8 doors up from my house. Whew.

This one was a quick and easy sew. I used a similar method to the smocked top and dress that I've made in the past, but did a gathered panel on the front instead of the smocking.

It should do well for the hot summer days that we get around here.

This one was another quick and easy sew, using the pattern that I put together a while back. Do you remember my mentioning last year that I had a peasant top cut out and ready to sew? I'm ashamed to say that this is that top. In my defense, I had lost an arm panel, so had to spend, oh, all of 5 minutes, looking through a scraps bin for more of the same fabric...

You might also remember that there seems to be an earthquake every time that I make one of these tops. I thought that I had got away with it this time, but then the news let me know that there had been a 3.9-magnitude earthquake a little further up the coast, that I hadn't felt. Hmm. 3 tops, 3 earthquakes...

Today is the last day of the challenge, but I'm not sure that I'll get to squeeze in any sewing time today. It looks like I have a fun day ahead of me: standing over my kids while they clean their rooms. That's another 5 minute task that they like to turn into a 2 hour long one...

Kids' Clothes Week

2010-05-10T18:47:00.000-07:00

I have a backlog of things to show you, a husband who has the ridiculous notion that I should be cleaning the house right now and, ok, I really should be giving the floor a sweep right now. Still, it's Kids' Clothes Week over at Elsie Marley, so I'm squeezing in a quickie post.

Kids' Clothes Week was badly needed around here: I tend to plan to make my kids some clothes, so I don't buy any, but then I don't get around to actually putting aside the time to make some. Luckily Meg has given me some motivation, as my daughter's belly was starting to peek out from under a few too many too-small shirts...

So, here's today's effort: a plain long-sleeved top, based a little upon the pictures that I've seen of the Summer Blouse in Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing. I made up a wee pattern and put a little bit of printed twill tape on it to add a little interest.

She wanted the sleeves rolled up, like my shirt sleeves were..

Thank you for all the sweet comments about the embroidery. I was asked if I planned on sharing any of the embroidery drawings - is that something that any of you would be interested in? I keep planning on researching pdf writers and working out how to put pdfs on blogger. If anyone can recommend a pdf writer, please let me know. It would make sharing things a lot simpler.

I'm off to sweep the floor, then. Take care..

Puddle jumping

2010-04-21T20:59:00.001-07:00

It's taken a while for me to get around to embroidering some doodles that I made a while back. They are for my daughter's bare bedroom walls once I get around to popping them in frames.

I only drew blood twice, which has to be some sort of record for me. I'm still stabbing myself with the needle as frequently as before, but apparently the wounds are shallower. I'm taking that to be an improvement in my embroidery skills...

My husband and I went to an awards ceremony in Sacramento this last weekend. I have now worn a dress 7 times since my wedding day. That's less than once a year. I probably should be making more of an effort to embrace my feminine side. Or my husband should be making more of an effort to take me out to fancier places...

It also marked our first night away from our kids (well, that'll teach me to live on the other side of the Atlantic from free babysitting, I mean, my parents). I was surprised that I was a little apprehensive about it. I had always thought that I would skip out of the house gleefully when this day finally came, but, since becoming a parent, my mind keeps wandering through wild worst case scenarios, which would have never crossed my mind before.

Still, I was looking forward to the first morning in seven years when I would not be woken up by my early-rising son. As it turns out, I was woken instead by some hotel guests at 4am. Oh well. The food was good. We did return to find our children happy and healthy - they were spoiled rotten in our absence. I think that they're hoping that we'll go away for longer next time.

Translation of the day:

UK English: lie in = 'staying in bed longer than you usually would' in US English

My kids like to be up with the lark, so I haven't had a bloomin' lie in in bloomin' ages...

No bears were harmed in the making of...

2010-04-14T08:16:00.001-07:00

From spotting some black furry stuff in the offcuts bin, to gathering some felt scraps, to wondering whether the turning hole should have been a smidgen bigger, to swearing never to use metallic embroidery thread again, to... a wee soldier in a bearskin.

I do like how hand sewing can feel a little like doodling in slow motion.

I'm just scribbling this off while I can - my husband is having his friend work on the computer again. Not even a new pc is enough to stop him disappearing off to work with our computer under his arm. Hmm, so what else is new? Another baby blanket, with a blue border this time, for my husband's work mate's baby who is in NICU (SCBU).

A hat for my son (wearing his dad's sunglasses) made partly from this pattern. I say partly, as I lost my copy of the pattern half-way, so I just improvised the bottom half.

See that white stuff? Yep, that's snow! Finally got to go to the local mountains and play in the snow - and wear our new hats (I haven't written down the crochet hat pattern yet, but will do soon). Skied for the first time since my honeymoon.

As for now, it's back to normal. My parents have gone home, the kids are back in school and, just when I finally have a few spare minutes to catch up my e-mail etc., my husband is disappearing off with the pc again. Mothers, warn your daughters not to ever marry a computer gamer...

Happy Easter

2010-04-03T09:50:00.000-07:00

We're busy enjoying having my parents over here for a visit. Even had a couple of possible sightings of the Easter Bunny on a walk yesterday.

Egg dyeing was less successful than planned - next time I'll do a more thorough search on the internet for how to do this. I ended up just swirling half of them in food colouring...

I'm starting to feel slightly guilty that my dad is out raking the lawn while I sit here typing this, so I had better get going. I hope that you all have a lovely Easter. I'll be back soon.

Take care.

Itty-bitty

2010-03-26T10:11:00.000-07:00

A wee goodbye gift for my son's teacher who starts her maternity leave today. I didn't know that today was her last day until yesterday, so it was a little last minute: just some simple booties made from this pattern (here's the ravelry link) wrapped in a drawstring bag with French seams.

These booties are itty-bitty. How itty-bitty? This itty-bitty:

Just a bit bigger than a spool. How quickly you forget how small newborn feet are.

She's getting a gift from the class, too, at a baby shower at school today, so this is just a token gift to say thank you, along with a note and a card from my son, who apparently realises that some babies are more troublesome than others...

I had better run. I finally finish my taxes only to realise that I have visitors coming next week and this house looks like a bomb went off in it. Ah, the joys of having children...

PS. Thank you for all the sweet comments about my photo. Now I feel like a bit of a fraud for putting up one of the few good photos that I have ever had taken. I even briefly considered putting up one of the more usual awful looking ones, to prove my point, but luckily that moment of madness passed before I put anything so terrible on the internet for all to see...

Hi

2010-03-19T16:44:00.000-07:00

When a blogger put a picture up of herself recently, I thought to myself how it is nice to see the person behind the blog - and then felt guilty as I have been avoiding putting up my own picture. I'm usually behind the camera and when I do get trapped in front of a lens, the results usually further my belief that I'm not photogenic (yes, I am that person at the back ruining the family photos). It took some searching to find, well, any recent pictures of me, let alone a good one, but here you go. This is me.
I'll still be avoiding showing my kids' faces, as they are just the innocent victims of my crafting and I want them to still be willing to talk to me when they are teenagers.
.
Ok, that's enough procrastinating. I had better get back to doing the taxes...,
.
SJB7PFPBT2YM

dress up

2010-03-15T12:18:00.000-07:00

The warm weather is back. Of course it is: after all, I made 2 more hats, in adult size this time. I'll write down the pattern for those of you that were asking for it - just let me finish doing our taxes first. It might be a week or so - I'm putting a lot of effort into procrastinating.

I did get around to making this wee tutu-like thing for a little girl's birthday, as modelled by my bored 4 year old. I had a quick look for tutorials, but they all seemed to involve knotted flouncy ones and I wanted something a little plainer. I hope that she'll like it. At least it should be cheap to post across the Atlantic..

Translation of the day:

UK English: fancy dress party = costume party in US English.

So, if you receive an invitation to a fancy dress party, you might want to check what nationality the host is when chosing between the bunny costume and your little black dress...

I had better run - got some cleaning up to do around here (I've been procrastinating on that front, too).

Exhibit 2

2010-03-08T19:45:00.000-08:00

If we could just have a moment of silence for my old computer, please. After a brief recovery, it finally popped its clogs. Rather suspiciously, it shuffled off this mortal coil right around the time that my husband discovered that it couldn't run a new game of his. The investigation is ongoing.

So, the last few weeks have been spent without Internet access. That had some advantages, such as finally getting around to painting my daughter's room. It turns out that my husband gets a tad restless without a computer game to play at all hours, though. I did miss the Internet. I like being able to instantly look up the answers to the weird questions that my kids ask (the moon weighs about 73,600,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg...) and whenever I can not access my e-mail, I become convinced that something terrible might have happened back in the UK.

We've had a spot of rain, so the weather has cooled a little, but the previous post's 'exhibit 1' suggested that there might have been more than one reason for the recent hot weather and there was. I give you exhibit 2:

A hot water bottle cover.

The hot water bottle is my mum's old one. I've since found them online, but never in any of the local shops. I guess there isn't much need for them around here, but it comes in handy for easing my husband's back pain without my frozen veg getting involved. The day before we left the UK, (the point when I finally remembered that I had intended to buy one) my sister-in-law told me that Tescos were selling some that came with a cover that looked like a wee jumper (sweater). I didn't get to see one, but this cover that I made is how I imagined them to look.

I knitted it in the round from the neck down, making up the pattern as I went along (meaning that I knitted the neck, knitted the 'shoulders', unravelled that and tried knitting the shoulders a different way, then unravelled that and knitted the shoulders the same way that I did them the first time, then I knitted some cables, then unravelled them and knitted a few extra cables... Still, at least there were no seams to sew). The back is in garter stitch to give a little extra insulation.Much better than the old stained tea towel that we were using.

Translation of the day:

UK English: pop your clogs = to die in US English

PS. I never did get caught up on answering e-mails and I think that my account deleted a few before I got to check them, so if you had a question and want a more prompt response, or if you don't get a reply in the next few weeks, please resend it.

The reason behind the hot weather: exhibit 1

2010-02-17T08:52:00.000-08:00

Anyone local wondering at the 80-plus degree weather in February can set their mind at rest: it's my fault. I crocheted my daughter a winter hat.

I thought that we might get to play in the snow and spend a night up in the local mountains last weekend, but it turns out that everyone else must have had the same idea, as it was all booked up. So we went to visit a local botanical garden and walked around in shorts and t-shirts instead. The woolly hat was not needed...

Still, it was a quick crochet, even though I was making the pattern up as I went along and did a couple of unravels. Please ignore the black bars - they are to protect the not-so-innocent. The photos don't show it, but that yarn is pink, not white. She likes it.I like it too, but now that I've finished it, I think that I once knew someone with a tea cosy that looked like that.

Translation of the Day:

UK English: pot plant = house plant or potted plant in US English

ie. a plant that you can grow in a flower pot, usually indoors. So I would just like to reassure the lady that was stood nearby that, when I expressed an interest in getting a pot plant to replace the ones I killed off, I really wasn't meaning a plant of the illegal variety.

Cold hands, warm heart

2010-02-11T11:34:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again. Lots of hearts and pink frilly stuff abound and then there's the difficulties of finding a suitable card for your husband (well, it can't be so gushing that he feels like there aren't some improvements that could be made, can it?...). Yet I have noticed that since having a daughter, some of my aversion to the pink frilly stuff in life has waned. Not that she's the pink frilly loving type of girl, thank goodness.

Yes, I've even noticed some hearts sneaking into the house. The one I can blame on my love of the grain of olive wood, but the others? And then I find myself sitting down and making a crochet heart for no reason whatsoever...

February already. My trip home seems so long ago now. For those of you that are getting a little fed up with all the snow:

We've had the odd rain shower, but winter in California looks pretty much like this.

Pah. I miss snow drops. Does anyone know if snow drops would grow in Southern California?

I'd better go -my computer still likes to die at random moments and I have to sort out some Valentines for my kids' classmates by tomorrow. Gulp. Plus I'm typing this with gloves on, to try to persuade my joints to work again, so that I can finish this:

Happy Valentine's Day to you all.

PS. Crochet heart pattern can be found here.

off on the wrong foot

2010-02-03T10:10:00.000-08:00

I wouldn't describe my parents as being superstitious, but I was brought up observing a few traditions, such as all Christmas decorations should be taken down by the twelfth day of Christmas (6th Jan) to avoid bad luck for the next year. Another such tradition was First Footing. We were over in England for Christmas, so I made sure that we were prepared for our return before we left: putting the lump of coal and salt in the glove box of the car.

The only problem with that plan was that, after a flat tyre on the way to the airport, long security lines, a delayed flight (the aftermath of the underwear bomber), spending 12 hours on an aeroplane, no sleep, a 4am (GMT) arrival, retrieving bags, driving home etc. I forgot the First Footing. Maybe my tall, dark husband was the first over the threshold in the New Year, maybe he was carrying one of the bags that had food in and had a coin in his pocket. It was probably short little me, though. And the lump of coal was definitely still in the glove box the next day.

Still, I'm sure that 2 tellies dying on us, my oven having a funny turn and our computer's indecision about whether it wants to continue working is completely unrelated. I have been scared to touch my sewing machine, mind, given my current luck with electrical appliances...

Hopefully posting about Christmas presents in February isn't unlucky, as I don't have much else to show you. It's not déjà vu - I just seem to have a tendency to stick to the tried and tested at Christmas time...

This was for one of my son's teachers, who is expecting a baby boy (it's a little nerve wracking when your source of information is a 6 year old, but luckily he did get all the details correct...). I think that this is my favourite boy baby blanket that I have made so far.

The other teachers got the usual clutch (from Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol) with English chocolates inside.

Another pair of Last-minute Knit Mitts in knit 1 purl 1 rib were churned out for a stocking stuffer. Last, but not least, here's another Emmeline apron. I think that I've got my money's worth out of this pattern. This one was for my Nan. Side 1:

Side 2:Here's the fabrics:

Translation of the day (easy ones today):

UK English: aeroplane = airplane in US English

UK English: telly (pl. tellies) = TV / television in US English

UK English: tyre = tire in US English

American immigration has started taking pictures of arriving Legal Aliens, which seems a little mean at 4am after a long flight. I'm hoping that that photo gets destroyed...

We have a winner

2010-01-28T11:45:00.000-08:00

I didn't disappear off to England this time. Instead it was my computer that went on a trip - to the see the nice bloke who knows all about computers who works with my husband.

I wish my husband had given me some warning about this trip, mind, so that I could have made sure that we had a copy of everything on the PC. My 'My Pictures' folder was a casualty, so I'm missing all the pictures that I have been sent by others. Yet my husband's gaming stuff suspiciously survived. Hmpf... Still, the computer returned acting more like its former self. Now I've just got to find a bunch of software cds for reloading things and hope that I still have all of my camera's memory cards (I should rephrase that: My husband had better hope that I still have all of my camera's memory cards...).

So, I've extended the closing date of the giveaway to this morning, as I wasn't around to announce a winner. Drum roll, please...

The winner is Liz:

Liz, I'll be sending you an e-mail to find out your address.

Thank you so much for entering, everyone. It looks like I've got a nice long list of new blogs to explore. Now, if anyone is still reading, I'll bore you with my pictures from my trip home:

Most of our time was spent with family and friends, but we did get out and about a little bit. Unfortunately it waited for us to leave before it snowed properly, so we didn't get to go sledging on our local hill, though. Tch, I miss home...

Now, I'm not sure if this counts as a translation of the day, but I had an American friend ask what this 'sledging' thing is - it's sledding. Everyone I knew growing up referred to hurtling down a snow-covered hill on a wooden sledge made by your dad as sledging, but I don't think that it is just a British term. Then again, it might just be that my friend still has trouble understanding my mumbling English accent...

Happy New Year and a giveaway

2010-01-05T06:14:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! I didn't forget about you all over the Christmas holidays. I went home to England. I would have let you know that I was disappearing off, but I've read that people like to find out where you live and burgle your house if you post about a holiday on the internet. Not that anyone would find anything worth stealing in this house. My kids have made it their mission to destroy anything of value (yes, I might still be a bit bitter about the hole put in the leather armchair). Still, it's embarrassing when people break in and then don't take anything. I'm still upset about the people that decided that my bike wasn't worth stealing. If you're going to break the lock off a shed, at least take the rickety old thing for parts or something...

Anyway, I'm back. I'm sure I'll be boring you shortly with the few photos that I took. That will have to wait until next time, though, as I have promised you a giveaway. Yes, I have finally reached my 99th post. It's only been a couple of years since I discovered blogs and a new world opened up to me. I've learnt to sew, knit and crochet through your tutorials and links. I'm not even too sure why I started blogging, except that it might be the closest thing that I get to grown-up conversation around here some days. Surprisingly enough though, I haven't been talking to myself. So, thank you - for listening, for your support and for understanding why a grown woman might still be making homemade ornaments for her Christmas tree.

One BIG surprise from 2009 was a novice like me having a couple of my patterns appearing in print. Some of you might remember my mentioning a year ago, that my fabric dollhouse was going to appear in a book called One-Yard Wonders. The book contains 101 projects that can be made from just one yard of fabric. I have a habit of buying a yard here and there of fabric without a project in mind, just because I know that it might be perfect for a future project. Now I have a book full of things to make with those cuts of fabric. One Yard Wonders has now been published and Storey Publishing have kindly offered to give away a copy to one of the U.S. readers of my blog.

Here's a sneak peek at some of the projects that you can find in the book: .

And near the back you'll find my fabric dollhouse:Recognise it? It's the one that I posted about here.Ooh, that reminds me - you really should check out the flickr group. There have been some absolutely amazing fabric dollhouses made that really put my simple versions to shame, so if you want some inspiration, there's lots to be had there.

Back to the giveaway. I'm also going to be giving away some one yard pieces of fabric, that I, uh, bought last summer, as I greatly overestimated my blogging speed and thought that I would have reached this 99th post long, long ago. Several Robert Kaufman fabrics, a Michael Miller, a Heidi Grace and a David textiles piece, of various styles and weights, that will hopefully be perfect for a few one yard wonders of your own:

All you have to do is post a comment on this post by, um, Wednesday 20th January and then I'll draw a name at random. This blog is on blogger, so I only have access to your e-mail address if it is posted on your blogger profile, so please make sure that I'll have a way of contacting you / check back regularly. International entries are welcome for the fabric, but the book is only for U.S. entries, as Storey Publishing will be sending it.

I'm too jet lagged for a translation of the day, I'm afraid. Please ignore all errors and nonsense. Here's hoping that I might eventually sleep past 2am once again...

Ragged

2009-12-10T20:14:00.000-08:00

My husband's grandmother died the Saturday after Thanksgiving. She got to spend a last Thanksgiving with her family and died in the presence of those who love her. She was 90 and her health had deteriorated to the point that she had hospice care, so it was probably for the best. Still, she's going to be missed. She was a really lovely lady, with a great sense of humour (I think that she'd have been laughing away at the stories told at her funeral). She kept her wit to the end and blatantly spoiled her great-grandchildren. I hope that they treasure their memories of her. She'll be missed.

So, things are still a little behind around here. I've decided to have my giveaway on my 99th post, as the 100th is just taking too darn long to get here, so keep an eye out for my next post. My poor neglected blog, blog reader and inbox. Christmas is really starting to sneak up on me, but I've made a large dent in the Christmas gift list today. At last count, I have got 2 presents to buy and 6 left to make by the 18th. That's doable, right? If I whip up some straitjackets for my kids first, that is... Oh, that reminds me: I need to take a picture of my kids and sort out some Christmas cards.

Can you keep a secret? This is one of the Christmas gifts that I have knocked out. After a year or so of procrastination, missing both a Christmas and a birthday, I finally made my daughter a rag doll.

The pattern is the Amy doll by Joan Russell, given to me, um, a long, long time ago by the ever so sweet Mr Monkeysuit after I told her how much I adored her version (later given a new 'do). I did shorten the neck (I had previously ended up with a slightly upturned face, that suggested the far too innocent expression of wonder for a doll that was supposed to look a little like my daughter).

It took me ages to find yarn that was similar in colour to my daughter's hair. That wasn't helped by my not being sure what colour hair my daughter actually does have, as it can look light brown, blondish and ginger all on the same day, depending on the light (I tossed a coin to decide what to write in the hair colour box on her passport application form...). Unfortunately the only thing similar was these patches in a variegated yarn - I just managed to squeeze out long enough strips to copy her short hair (the result of her repeatedly giving herself the odd haircut - you see now why an innocent expression would not have been suitable?). And then I nicked the idea of using a Waldorf doll face from Mr Monkeysuit, as it looked a lot easier than trying to embroider on an expression. Ok, a hint of a smile did sneak on.

I had plans for multiple outfits, but had forgotten that sewing teeny, tiny sleeves etc. would be bloomin' fiddly and time-consuming. They'll have to wait.

Translation of the day:

UK English: nick = to steal in US English.

Take care,

Too tired to come up with a title

2009-11-15T19:46:00.001-08:00

Snowman. Because I'm unlikely to get a real one around here.
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I really hate weaving in loose ends, but I did finally got out the yarn needle and sit down the other evening to finish off a couple more gifts. Here's a crochet scarf made using this pattern:This one's a baby blanket for a wee boy: I really ought to come up with something a bit more interesting for the baby boys. Oh, that reminds me - I've had quite a few people ask me for the pattern for the baby blankets that I make based upon the Rhubarb scarf. I'm happy to share it, but the stitch pattern came from a stitch pattern book. Is it violating copyright laws to share the pattern, or is the book taken as just being a teaching tool for various stitches? Does anyone know if you are allowed to share projects made from those stitch patterns?
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While I'm asking questions, I've had a couple of people mention that they've had trouble commenting on this site. Has anyone else had issues? E-mail me (address is over there at the top on the left) if you can't comment. The 100th post giveaway is slowly approaching, so I'd like to be sure that all is well by then.

It's been at least 25 years since I last made a pom-pom.

I had better run - busy day today. Take care,

Last-minute knit mitts (for beginners)

2009-11-06T17:46:00.000-08:00

I heard a shop playing Christmas music today, which made me smile. I know that some people think that it's too early, but I kind of like going around singing Christmas carols for a couple of months, even if my family dearly wished that I didn't...
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Anyway, Autumn is pretty much passing me by. The local weather is not 'Autumnal' yet and, what with me and my daughter getting ill, we didn't even carve a pumpkin for Hallowe'en this year. I grew up with harvest festivals (where schools and churches get decorated up and collect food to give to the needy) rather than Thanksgiving (nice meal, but could really do with some roast spuds and Yorkshire puds, if you ask me). Christmas, on the other hand, gets me all nostalgic. AND I've already started sorting out some presents for Christmas (I know, I know, you're wondering who I am and what happened to the procrastinator that usually posts on this blog...).
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One wee present that I've made is these ever-so-simple mitts. I was going to try the toast / toasty pattern, but didn't have the correct sized needles and couldn't get my husband off the PC so that I could check out what type of yarn was used etc. So I decided to make something up as I went along instead. Nothing ground-breaking, but I thought that I would share it, as it would be a great project for a beginner that hasn't knit in the round before. The ribbing would hide any join line and the thumb hole is simply made by switching to rows. The stretchy ribbing improves the chances of a good fit. Plus they do not take much yarn and can be knitted up quickly, even by slow-pokes like me. And I like the way that they look more like the ends of a layered jumper (sweater) poking out from your cardy sleeve than mitts.
Here goes:
Last-minute knit mitt version 1:
Ravelry link
Yarn: less than a ball of Bernat Soft Bouclé
Needles: four US size 5 double pointed needles (3.75mm)
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Cast on 30 stitches (I cast on using the long tail cast on method as I have some vague memory of reading that this is a stretchy cast-on stitch. My memory might not be reliable. Feel free to correct me).
Divide the stitches onto 3 double-pointed needles, so that there are 10 stitches on each needle.
Join, taking care not to twist the stitches. Mark the beginning of the round (ok, I never do this - I just look for where the tail of yarn dangles from the cast on edge and judge it from that).
Work in a knit 1 purl 1 rib (*knit 1, purl 1, repeat from *) for 5-8 inches, depending on what length that you want the mitts to be (measure your arm from 1" below the thumb joint to the desired length). Then, when you reach the end of that round, STOP - do not join. You should have ended on a purl stitch
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Thumb hole (stop working in the round, and work back and forth in rows for 10 rows):
Row 1: Turn the knitting around (facing the inside of the mitt), and start with a knit stitch (in that previous purl stitch), then purl 1, then continue in the knit 1, purl 1 rib pattern to the end of the row, turn.
Row 2-9: Starting each row with a knit stitch to maintain the rib pattern, knit 1, purl 1 rib to the end of the row and turn
Row 10: knit 1, purl 1 rib to the end of the row, then join.
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Top of mitt:
Knit 10 more rounds in the knit 1, purl 1 rib.
Cast off (I used the sewn cast-off method - again, vague memories about stretchiness).
Done. Make another one. Ta da.
I wish I had thought to use the self-timer when photographing previous mitts.Here's some green paper inside the mitt to show the thumb hole better. It's that hole being pointed to by my scruffy-nailed finger.

Last-minute knit mitt version 2 - the green mitt:

Yarn: less than a ball of Red Heart Plush (bought way back when during a closing down sale and I have never seen another ball of this yarn since...)

Needles: four US size 5 double pointed needles (3.75mm)

I made this version a fraction looser. Cast on 36 stitches, divide onto 3 needles, 12 stitches to a needle. Join and knit in a wider rib of *knit 2, purl 2, repeat from *. Continue knitting in the knit 2 purl 2 rib, following the pattern for version 1 mitts. ie. knit up to the thumb hole, then knit back and forth in rows, keeping the knit 2 purl 2 rib, for 10 rows, then knitting 10 more rows in the round.

Translation of the Day:

UK English: cardy / cardie (abbr.) = cardigan in US English.

I shouldn't get me started on the different clothing terms again...

PS. Don't worry - I am still a procrastinator. I haven't even taken a photo of my kids in their Halloween costumes yet...

PPS. I apologise in advance for all grouchy comments concerning the local weather. I get disappointed all over again every year about California's lack of seasons. Maybe I'll accept it as a given one day and stop singing "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" all December long...

All dressed up and nowhere to go

2009-10-20T14:32:00.000-07:00

My brother-in-law just held a reception to celebrate his recent marriage. This triggered a rush to the closets to see whether there is anything halfway decent that fits anyone, as, well, smart casual is a step above what normally passes for attire around here. My daughter was in-between dresses. Even though she gets several hand-me-down dresses each year from her cousins that do not get worn as, well, jeans and shorts are just so much more practical. Especially for a girl more likely to be found hanging upside down from a climbing frame than playing tea party. So I knocked out something on the quick, for cheap.

Yep, just a longer version of the smock top. With fewer pleats as I changed my mind about which side of the fabric was the 'right' side halfway through. I estimated instead of measuring the pleats. And did a horrific job on hemming the lining, as I was rushing it at the last minute.

Still, it turned out ok.

Then we arrived at the reception and it was whipped off her, as apparently they had a dress for her that matched her cousins'. It turns out that they had bought some little girl dresses for the cousins back when they were considering a church wedding. So, I had a late night of sewing for nothing. Still, at least I was spared the stress of having my daughter be a flower girl in front of a crowd of people. I didn't even know that they had been considering it. I wouldn't have put it past her to cartwheel down the aisle...

I might shorten it into another top. Otherwise it will probably gather dust like the other dresses.

Regarding the flour: it's not that 'English flour' is a special variety, it's just that American flour is made in a different way to English flour. Something to do with the weight of it or whether it is bleached or how much protein is in it or the amount of salt or whatever - so that the same recipe will turn out differently depending upon whether you used the American variety or the English variety of self-raising flour, for instance. I had been wondering why everything that I baked over here turned out awful, when I happened to see it mentioned that a cookbook author travelled to England to use their ingredients for the English version of her book, because of the differences. Now the difference in the sugars is fairly easy to see, but I had been unaware that there was a difference in the flour.

So I did more research and came across a wonderful article that went into the exact composition of the different types of flours in each country and how they differed and what you should add extra / how you should adjust the weight etc. to compensate for the difference, so that your baking will turn out as planned. Then I forgot to bookmark it. I have been searching for it ever since. So, in the meantime, I am just buying the imported flour, as that is the one my English cookbooks have been written for. Hopefully I'll find that article once more - or will at least replace my English recipes with American recipes that use the American ingredients on hand...

I'm supposed to cleaning the house, so no translation of the day today...

Take care.

Just a little bit hungry

2009-10-19T10:27:00.001-07:00

I had to take a 'cultural snack' to my daughter's preschool today. This is the kind of task that makes me nervous, as I have the ability to even mess up a cake mix (nb.English Muffins were included on their list of ideas from previous years. I hope they were meant to represent American culture, as further research into finding out what on earth they are turned up that they were invented in America).
I decided on scones, as my mum is from Devon (and I took a battenberg cake last time and decided that the likelihood of my making another one turn out as well was poor). Luckily for the preschoolers the import store was out of English flour, so I just bought a scone mix to make the scones with. They look ok. Hopefully they taste ok. I felt a bit daft using a mix to make something as simple as scones.
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You might have noticed that I mentioned that the import store sometimes carries English flour. Yes, they are ridiculously tiny bags for a ridiculously high price, but while my search for an American sponge recipe continues, they at least mean that I can produce this
instead of this
See that? There's even a gentle rise there!
And once they are dolled up with some English cake decorations (very generously sent by Ali - what a sweetheart!), they disappear quick...
I made quite a few snacks from my childhood for the kids this summer. I'm not sure what has happened to me, but despite still not enjoying cooking, I've been spending more time in the kitchen lately and, gulp, even trying out a few new recipes for dinners! These are just a few old favourites, though, like chocolate crunchies
and flapjacks
as suggested by my golden syrup can.
I'm not showing you a picture of my Bran Parkin Cookies, mind. I'm still trying to figure out what went wrong there. They turned out looking more like rock cakes...
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While on the subject of disasters, I finally tried dyeing. No, not my rapidly appearing grey hairs. Fabric. Luckily I didn't start with the bag and did a trial run on some old t-shirts instead. The process seemed a lot easier (and cleaner) than what I was expecting, but I think that I should have left them in a lot longer. What should have been navy turned out the colour of surgical scrubs. That wouldn't be so bad, except that I chose to dye a loose fitting v-neck t-shirt that, well, now looks like surgical scrubs. Now I'll never be able to wear it in public, for fear of a medical emergency happening in my presence and everyone turning to me with expectation in their eyes. It's probably been about 20 years since I earned my First Aid badge...
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My mouse-wielding (the computer variety - not rodents...) arm is still giving me grief. So, I've been spending very little time on the computer. Ah, I miss my blog-reading. I will one day reply to e-mails and comments, but it might not be soon (ask my mum - she hasn't been getting replies to her e-mails to me, either).
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Plus I've apparently got arthritis, because the rapidly appearing grey hairs just weren't making me feel ancient enough...
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I'm off to eat some leftover scones. All these food pictures are making me a wee bit peckish.
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Translation of the day:
UK English: peckish = hungy in US English. Well, moderately hungry. Not starving, just a little bit hungry. That doesn't mean that 2 scones will be enough, of course...

(Somewhat) Satchel

2009-09-20T08:11:00.000-07:00

The bag that was going to be a scarf. Carefully cropped so that you can not see what a mess my garden is. It's been too darn hot to do any gardening lately...

I found a new yarn shop, full of what seemed to be very impractical yarn. Still, I found myself unable to leave without purchasing a couple of skeins of this yarn (#1 and #22, I think). I do not normally even wear pink. I started a scarf, but soon realised that it was going to be itchy. This is weird yarn - it felt really soft when balled up, but felt kind of rough and scratchy when I was actually working with it. Maybe it's just me. Even so, I knew that I didn't want it around my neck, so I hoped that there was enough to make a bag from instead. The (Somewhat) Satchel was knocked out.

Disclaimer: I don't know what I am doing when it comes to crochet and often wonder if I am just making things up as I go along, but I thought I'd attempt to share the pattern with you anyway. If you do try making one, I'd love to get some feedback about any errors (I'm awful at counting stitches and rows) and ideas for better phrasing or the correct way of doing this etc.

The bag body is made in one piece, starting with the base. You will add a row of single crochet around the edge of the base, then work in the round up the sides. The flap is then worked back and forth in rows. The shoulder strap and buckle straps are made separately in contrasting yarn and sewn on at the end.

Ravelry link: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/somewhat-satchel

You will need:

approx 180 yards / 160cm of heavy worsted yarn (I used 2 skeins of Savanna by GGH)

1 skein of yarn in a contrasting colour for the straps (I used Vanna's Choice by Lion's Brand)

2 buckles (I bought a couple of dirt cheap cat collars and removed the buckles)

US size K 10.5 hook (6.50mm)

US size I 9 hook (5.50mm)

Yarn needle

Abbreviations used (nb. I'm using the American stitch terms):

ch = chain

sc = single crochet

dc = double crochet

fpdc = front post double crochet (a search on the 'net shows lots of great tutorials for this easy stitch - it's the same as a dc, but you put the hook behind the 'post' of the stitch)

sl st = slip stitch

rep = repeat

gauge: 30sc = 8" or 20cm

finished bag measures approximately 8" x 2½" x 5½" or 21cm x 6cm x 15cm

BAG BASE:

Row 1: (Using the larger size K hook) ch 30

Row 2: ch 1 to turn, sc in second ch from hook and each ch across =30sc

Rows 3: ch 1 to turn, sc in each sc across

Rows 4-10: rep row 3

At the end of row 10 you will work down the side of the piece (ie. along the short side of the rectangle), and then around the first edge (row 1) and then up the other side:

Turning the corner, sc in last sc of row 10 again (marked ** on picture), then sc in each of the gaps (marked *) down the edge (9sc). Turn the corner, sc in each of the ch of row 1 (30sc). Turn the corner, sc up the remaining edge (9sc).

BAG SIDES (worked in the round):

Round 1: sc in the back loop (furthest loop from you of the two top loops that make a single chain) of each sc all the way around = 78sc

Round 2: (switch to smaller size I hook) dc in each sc all the way around = 78dc

Round 3: fpdc, dc in next 28dc, fpdc, dc in next 9dc, fpdc, dc in next 28dc, fpdc, dc in next 9dc (the fpdc are at each of the corners of the bag)

Rounds 4 - 13: rep round 3

Round 14: fpdc, dc in next 28dc, fpdc, dc in next 9 dc, fpdc, dc in next 28dc, fpdc, dc in nect 8dc, sl st in last dc

BAG FLAP (worked back and forth in rows):

Row 1: ch 3, (continuing along the long edge of the bag) dc in next 29 dc

Row 2: ch 3 for turning chain, dc in next 29 dc

Rows 3 - 11: rep row 2
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I then did a row of sc down the side of the flap, around the top of the bag and up the other side of the flap and along the top of the flap. This gives it a nice neat edge, but isn't necessary.

In contrasting yarn:

SHOULDER STRAP:

Row 1: ch 200

Row 2: ch 1 to turn, sc in each ch

Rows 3 - 8: rep row 2

Sew strap on outside of bag using the yarn.

BUCKLE STRAPS (nb. The inside edge of my buckle was equal to 3 rows of crochet. You may need fewer or more rows, depending on the width of your buckle) :

Make 2:

Row 1: ch 10

Row 2: ch 1 to turn, sc in each ch

Row 3: ch 1 to turn, sc in each sc.

Sew buckle onto the end of this strap.

Make 2:

Row 1: ch 21

Row 2: ch 1 to turn, sc in each ch

Row 3: ch 1 to turn, sc in each sc
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Sew the 2 straps attached to the buckle onto the front of the bag, then (making sure that they are in line with the buckles) sew the longer straps onto the flap of the bag (use the picture as a guide)

You're finished. As modelled by a pyjama-clad kid in a garden that needs raking:

Wow, it seems a lot more complicated when you're writing out every step, but it's not a hard bag to make.

Translation of the day:

UK English: purse = small coin purse (feminine version of a wallet) in US English

UK English: handbag = purse, handbag or (apparently) pocketbook in US English.
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I had to look pocketbook up after reading that word the other day. I had no clue what was being referred to, but guessed that they weren't talking about a paperback book. Is it in common usage over here?

nb. I have a lot of catching up to do. I am way behind on replying to people, but I have an old wrist injury keeping me from spending much time on the computer. A police dog bit me 10 years ago (no, I wasn't on the run from the law - I just knew the dog handler) and it still keeps playing up (my wrist, that is. Hopefully the dog has stopped playing up).

Not too long to go 'til my 100th post and a giveaway. I'll give you a clue - there'll be some fabric up for grabs. It seems like I bought it ages ago now. I was under the illusion that I would be posting regularly and often over the summer... Take care all.