Happy New Year!

 Oh my goodness it's been a while, hasn't it? I have no real excuse, unless loafing around watching TV and eating mince pies is an excuse...well its has been Christmas after all. But now the New Year is almost here and it's time to pull my socks up and get back to making stuff. Normally I make a few resolutions, but this year there is only one:

1. Sew stuff. Sew one wearable garment/accessory once a month at least. Build a fabric stash and make stuff with it. 

In fairness, the stash building I don't need much help with but the making something wearable I certainly do.  Since I got my sewing machine last Christmas I have made one dress and one skirt, neither of which are much good and which lurk at the back of the wardrobe taunting me with my lack of effort.

No more taunting!

I have been browsing Etsy all day for fabric and have found some winners, I feel. My January Project will be this lovely skirt by Clothkits

Picture brazenly lifted from clothkits.co.uk

This is the skirt I made before, but madly chose gabardine as the outer layer (gabardine?! Why?!) and quilting cotton for the inner. Needless to say there was very little drape, flow, or any kind of movement at all in the final garment. No one can accuse me of not learning from my mistakes so for Bustle Skirt: The Return I'm going to use some lovely wafty gauze cotton, perfect for hot summer days. I think I remember those, just (-23 today...)

Right, I am off to celebrate the evening with The Husband at a lovely little restaurant with eight courses and hopefully champagne...

Dog + Cake

So my beautiful fruit-filled, brandy-laced Christmas cake is no more. Diego, our 5-year old lurcher, managed to help himself to over half of it last night. He was not a well puppy, there was puke on our bed, on his bed, on the sofa, the kitchen floor, the sitting room floor, the hallway.... the poor thing could only have ice cubes every hour to rehydrate him and now he's on a fast until lunchtime to help his stomach settle.

The Decimator

I feel so guilty - I mean this is the dog whose illicit food spoils over the years has included: raw potatoes, a block of butter with the foil still on, a whole partridge, a dead pigeon, plastic bags...so really I should know better than to leave the house with any kind of food anywhere in reach.

The Decimated

Although the cake was decimated I did save just about half of it and it is very, very good so you can't blame him really.

The Silk Road

Finally, finally finally the dupioni silk I ordered in October arrived this morning. It is absolutely gorgeous, I'm really happy with the colurs I picked. But unfortunately it is too late - I have already had to abandon my plans to make gifts with it to send home to the UK  so now I am a bit stuck.
What shall I make with five fat quarters of silk? I'm quite taken by this cushion, or maybe a scarf and some rosettes. Hmmm. Decisions decisions.

Its so lovely I am almost afraid to cut it...

Christmas Phase I

Yesterday I got the wreaths up on the front and back doors. We have a plain fake wreath which I dressed up with some pine-cones I collected earlier in the year and some gold berries from Michaels. I'm quite pleased with how they look.

The back door one is just some more fake berries twisted into a ring

So: Cake is made, cards are made and mailed, wreaths are up, gifts have been bought....I'm feeling very organized indeed!