Little Boxes

There's no picture to go with this blog, it's just a trip down my memory lane.

There's an advert on the Telly at the moment with the tune 'Little Boxes' by Pete Seeger.   I just have to record in this blog that I love this song,  I have known it all my life.  My earliest memory of it is my mum singing it in the kitchen whilst dying home spun wool (from our own sheep) with onion skin to make it yellow.  I also remember her dying wool with berries to make it purple, but maybe she wasn't singing at the time.  She always used to say that the song reminded her of the people on the estate where we lived.  I must mention that my parents were not typical of the people on the estate.

I can't help thinking that somehow I failed because I went to 'the university'with full encouragement of my mum. I certainly live on an estate of 'boxes all the same' and work with the people who came out all the same.  I try not to be quite the same, that's why I make my own clothes.  I also talk to my daughter who at 13 is not 'the same' as most of the other girl's her age.

Despite my mum's singing, she wanted us to be the same but I'm not and nor is my daughter.  We insist on being noticed for who we are and what we do.

New Retro

 I can't believe how far behind I have got with this blog again.  Never mind here are the latest pictures.  I bought this lovely retro material in a sale and it just had to be made into a 60's style shift dress.

 Complete with bell sleeves..........

............. and a long matching scarf to wind round my neck or in my hair or even to use as a belt if I want a more fitted outfit.

To complete the outfit here are my latest purchases from Fairysteps.  Aren't they fabulous.

Catch Up

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post, I've had a few problems with my computer.   Finally here is a catch up on what I've been doing.

 I've made more cakes.  This one's another chocolate one that I made for Mother's Day, and there's a banana one just come out of the oven.  I bought banana's as they are supposed to be good for runner's, but I kept forgetting to eat them!!

 I made my mum a lovely lilac bag for Mother's Day. She came up to visit my nan on the train and so taking flower's back with her on the train wasn't very practical - also a bag lasts longer.

Remember the fabric from the last post, I made myself a gypsy style top from it.

Finally, I have been running - a lot.  After my last race I (stupidly) decided that I would aim for a Half Marathon and my mum's always saying that she never sees me race as she is in Devon and I usually race near my home in Buckinghamshire.  So I entered the Great West Run, which is on 6 May.  I've got my mileage up to 9 miles now, very slowly.  Nest weekend I'm running a race called 'Brill Hilly'. 

I've also ordered some lovely fabric to make some summer shirts.  I'm hoping that with the bank holidays that are coming up, I will be able to find some time to sew properly rather than just running up something quick.

Running, Sewing and Plans

 The first part of this blog is a bit late.  Last Sunday I ran my second 10K as part of the festival of running.  The race went much better than the last one, although the time (56 min 52 sec) was still a bit slower than I would like.  I feel like I am making no progress with improving the time and am thinking of training for a half marathon distance.  With is in mind I have just returned from running club where I opted for hill repeats and I plan a 4 mile run with my friend tomorrow lunchtime and a 7 mile run on Sunday.

And I have been finding some time to sew.  I made a vest top last week and plan a cardi to match, ready for Mother's Day next week.  I also have this gorgeous fabric and I plan to make a blouse from it tomorrow evening.  There's loads of it so I might well make a dress later in the year as well.

On top of all this, I am planning to redecorate my bedroom.  My bedroom is south facing and very light and I have a vision of a very pale room with toile, gingham and ticking bedding, curtains, blind and other soft furnishings in blue.  I am busy finding the fabrics and working out what should go where for best effect.  Unfortunately the actual decorating can't take place until after Easter, but I need to have all the fabrics ready.

More Cards

Just a quickie, a few more cards for a friends birthday and a couple of new people who are joining our department at work (from a different department).

I'm very excited about this as it means some more responsibility for me and also having the opportunity to work with two lovely ladies who I haven't had much chance to get to know yet.  So as a welcome to the department I wanted to make a card for each of them.

I hope tomorrow goes really well, but it has been hard work getting up to speed with the new responsibilities  so I'm afraid with that and the running, I haven't been doing much crafting recently.  I do have some sewing planned for the next couple of weeks.

First Race of the Year

Yesterday I had my first 10K race of this year.  After my training I did have high hopes for a good time, but I wasn't feeling too well and I have been experiencing problems with my calf muscles (probably due to overtraining running up hills too fast!!), so I was very disappointed.  I only managed 59 minutes which is slower than this time last year.

However, all our entrance fees, plus money put in collecting buckets on the day and proceeds from the sale of bacon rolls and cakes (very scrummy) goes to charity so it does have a positive side - about £2000 was raised.  Also I got this lovely bright orange T-shirt as a momento of the event.

I didn't run with the club tonight, I thought a fast 5 miles might be too much for my legs.  I did manage a slow 2 1/2 mile run with the dog.  I have to get my legs in good working order as I have another 10K race this Sunday.  I'm contemplating an ice bath for my muscles but can't quite face it!! This next race is a totally different type of race, its part of the Milton Keynes Festival of Running event and is a huge event with a very competitive atmosphere.

I've also signed up for a race on 1st April, aptly named 'Brill Hilly'.  I ran this one last year and it is a killer but rather fun.  It starts at the top of a hill by an old windmill, you run down the hill and round on the relative flat for a few miles and then back up the very steep hill.  My aim is to run a 10K race every month for the rest of  this year.

birthday baking

 It's daughter's 13th birthday tomorrow and she's having her friend round for tea and to go ice-skating at the local rink before tea.  So I've baked a few cookies.

 She didn't want a big cake so I've baked some muffins, I'll ice them quickly in the morning

I've borrowed a cake stand from my friend and as luck would have it, if I take off the bottom tier it has space for 13 cakes, I've put it on this nice cake plate.  I'm going to serve the muffins like this with a few candles stuck into the top cake.

Then on Saturday we're having a family tea party so I'll be doing loads more baking.

Cards and knitting

February is a busy birthday month.

 So I have been card making again,

 Two cards for friends at work, 1 for a cat loving auntie

 a special one for daughter

 and not forgetting one for hubby this week.

 It's still absolutely freezing outside and far too icy for running.  So I'm planning to sit down and knit this afternoon whilst the roast is cooking.  I only have about 20 cm of the cardigan to knit and it'll be finished.

I'm already planning my next knit!!  Why are there always far to many projects and never enough time?

Winter Wonderland

 Yesterday evening it started snowing and this morning we finally woke up to some proper winter scenes.

 We had to clear the paths so the we could feed the chickens and the guinea pigs.

and daughter made a small but cheerful snowman on the drive in front of my little car.

Crepidula

I have been having a bad week at work, there are some incredibly selfish people about who just manage to make life difficult for everyone else.  So it was doubly good when my friend phoned and told me she was going to a craft shop at Stony Stratford (link to hcscrafts) she wanted some yarn for a jumper she is knitting.  I didn't actually plan to buy anything, but I just couldn't resist this Riot chunky yarn from King Cole. 

 It's so lovely I had to take another picture of it in the bag.

 I knew it was just what I wanted to make up the Crepidula sleeveless cardi by Brigitte Beyenburgerin (available free on Ravelry).  A pattern that I had been thinking of knitting for a while, its knitted top down, so I can make it longer or shorter depending on what looks best and how much yarn I have.

I started yesterday afternoon and took this photo before it got too dark.  It's actually grown quite a lot since I took the photo, as on was working until late and I was busy knitting and watching old episodes of Poirot whilst waiting for him to finish.  The yoke is half finished now and I'm hoping to make more progress this afternoon.  Now I've started I really want it finished for daughter's birthday in three weeks time, it should look really good with an olive green floor length jersey skirt I made a few of years ago.

Running

I've managed to increase my mileage.  In December, I was barely clocking up 3 miles a week, this week I've managed 16 miles and Thursday evening's club session was one of the fastest 5 miles I have ever run.  At 46 minutes it was about 1 minute/mile faster than I usually train.  So it seems that things are going in the right direction.  I have entered a 10K race on 26 February, and this will test how far I have really come.  

Then I need to work towards a longer race, but I can't understand how people manage to fit in the mileage.  Some people at club run 30+ miles a week, but I have no idea how I could fit this amount in.  I have hardly done any crafting this week and I'm not prepared to give this up.  I started to crochet a beret, and I'm planning some sewing as well but I just haven't been able to fit it all in.  I just need to plan better particularly at the weekends.  Now I have to do the weekly shop on a Sunday, by the time I have run as well there is not enough time left (before cooking dinner) to do sewing, I just had enough time to make banana bread (from banana's that I didn't take to work this week as I had to go on a course).  Next week I'm going to swap the Sunday run to Saturday and assuming I'm not too tired I will have more time for sewing.

Waste not.....

Or what to do with some rather tired veg and a few things still left over from Christmas/New Year.

Yesterday I really had a bit of a 'using up' session.  As well as a collection of 'past their best' veg, there was some pastry from a pie that I had made for dinner on Saturday, a few bits still left from the festive season and lots of opened packets of flour, sugar and butter all with small amounts in.  Son does cookery at school and is  always taking new packets in when he cooks rather than using up the opened ones!!

First on the list were some pasties, to use up the pastry.  The filling is leek and stilton - just perfect for lunches this week.

Then I made a lovely ratatouille, to use up a part used aubergine, a courgette, an onion and some cloves of garlic.  All it needed was a tin of tomatoes to make a good meal with some crusty bread.

Finally to get rid of some of those nearly used packets of sugar, flour and butter I made a chocolate brownie. It also used up some walnuts left over from Christmas and was greatly appreciated by the 'troops'.

Now that I have cleared some of the cupboard and fridge, I can see what I actually have.

A lucky break

As I said last time, I wanted to finish the trousers on Wednesday and I did I just haven't had time to post the picture.  So here they are.  I wore them on Friday with the ruffle scarf that I made.  Daughter bought me the ball of ruffle yarn for Christmas and I whizzed it up into a scarf one evening between Christmas and New Year.

You may have noticed that the trousers have buttons and not a zip.  I put a zip in (a brand new zip) and then went to try them on so I could alter the waist to fit before completing the waistband.  I made the alterations required and went to fit them again to check they did fit and the zip had broken.  I couldn't believe it.  But it was lucky it broke then rather than when I was wearing the trousers at work!  Although I did have another zip, it was exactly the same as the one that broke and I decided not to use it.  I had sort of gone off the idea of having a zip.  I removed the broken zip and found some jeans buttons in my stash and used those instead.  It was quick and simple to add a line of buttons and button holes and I feel safer with these than the zip. 

Fitting it all in.

 So far so good.  Everything has just about fitted into this weekend.  The denim was cut for the trousers,

 and they were sewn.  Unfortunately the zip, back pockets, waistband and hems will have to wait until later in the week to be finished.  Probably Wednesday.

The wool was wound and all the chores were done, including doing the weekly food shop, which I usually do on Monday evenings but can't if I am going to running club.  Eventually the shop will move to Wednesday evening so that I have more time at the weekends.

I have realised that running more in the evenings will leave me more lunchtimes to do knitting and crochet, so I'm feeling pretty happy about that.

Update

I am still keeping this blog updated, I am determined not to lapse again.  But I have been very busy,like a lt of people I want to get fitter this year.  So instead of my usual jog round the park or round the lake during my lunch break, I have joined the local running club.  This is additional to my usual jogs, as I need to up my mileage, increase my stamina and speed.  Many of you will have read that I am sponsoring a Women for women project and it is my intention to eventually run a half marathon to raise additional money for this charity.  In the mean time my aim is to decrease my 10K time to under 54 minutes.  My current 10K time is about 60 minutes so this is a considerable aim, which requires considerable time dedicated to training.  The positive side of this is that if I run in the evenings with the club, I will have all my lunch breaks for knitting or crochet.

So I have sorted my woolly stash and have lots of plans for it.  My first projects will be a hat and gloves in lovely beige alpaca that I bought at Ali Pally show last year.  I now have the patterns and so knitting should commence next week.  I need to wind the yarn into balls at the weekend.  I'm also planning some projects patterned or stripey projects to use up the oddments in my stash.

On the sewing front, I'm planning another pair of the bootleg trousers that formed part of my new year suit, this time in black stretch denim.  I always promised myself that I wouldn't have any more bootleg or flare trousers but these ones seem to make my legs look very long and slim.  Much slimmer than the currently popular 1980's style trouser's which I'm afraid to say do make my bum look big!!  This is my weekend project so hopefully some pictures next week. 

New Year, New Suit

First Happy New Year to you all. 

 During December I spent most of my spare time on the birthday cake or getting ready for Christmas and sewing took a back seat.  Then one day last week I woke up knowing that I had been dreaming of sewing and that's what I needed to do! 

My latest Burda magazine arrived just before Christmas.  There's not that many patterns in it that I want to sew as a lot of it is fancy dress costumes (may be useful in the future).  But there was this gorgeous ruffle collar jacket, and I had just the fabric to make it in my stash.  A thin woollen fabric in grey/blue that I bought many years ago to make a trouser suit that never got made.  I looked back at past issues of Burda to find a trouser pattern.

This close fitted bootleg pattern fitted the bill, both in terms of style and suitability for the fabric.  Bootleg isn't my usual style, but I thought that they would work very well with the style of the jacket.

I laid out the pattern pieces.  They had to be cut in two goes as I didn't have anywhere with enough space to lay out the whole length of fabric in one go.

The frills on the jacket had to be slightly frayed, so I did this one morning, whilst waiting for my mum to visit.

Yesterday, I set aside for the sewing.  Here is the jacket, complete with the belt that fastens it (I found the buckle in my stash0.

A close up of the ruffles, I do seem to have gone a bit 'ruffle' mad at the moment.  I'm not sure that I have ever sewn anything with ruffles before and the last two items that I have sewn have involved them!!

Here are the trousers, I couldn't get the full length into the picture.  They are very flattering when worn.  Very fitted round the top and then flaring out below the knee. 

Here's a close up of the pocket which is a feature that I particularly like but which is unfortunately hidden when the trousers are worn with the jacket.  I like these trousers so much that I might well make another pair.

So there it is the 'New Year, New Suit', all ready to go to work on Tuesday.  Hopefully the first of many sewing (and other projects) that will be completed this year.