New project going slow!

As I said in my last post I quite fancy starting to knit again. Actually it was being sick that prompted it, I would have liked something to do that was useful but didn't require too much effort, that also didn't involve trawling the internet looking at things I couldn't afford to buy!

So yesterday I started!! First up I chose my wool, there is always limited colour choice in 4 ply locally, unless you shop around, but I did find this which I love, especially good for red heads! It matches my footstool nice too ha ha!

This is what I'm attempting to knit

I haven't knit for about 15 years, in fact I remember the last thing I knit which was a wooly winter hat for a tour in Switzerland with my band, we've been disbanded for about 12 years, so yep I reckon a good 15 years. I couldn't for the life of me remember how to cast on, so I dug out a handy book I have. I used to have lots of these but sold some, however I'm glad I didn't sell them all!

It takes a bad picture because at some point someone has covered it in plastic so it would last longer I guess. But I do love the inscription to someone inside.

Once I read the instructions for casting on and I started, I knew exactly what to do, it came back to me immediately, I guess you never forget eh? Here are the instructions which I found rather complicated to read but if you did as it said, it worked, that's how I got to remember immediately what to do!

I knitted for a couple of hours last night and this is as far as I've got, glad I chose a summer sweater this could take some time he he!

Finally on the mend!

I'm finally on the mend and oh boy does it feel good! Let me just say first of all if you have any inkling you have bronchitis get it seen to straight away I don't think I ever had anything that laid me so low for so long, horrible! I'm not 100% still coughing & rather lethargic but I'm well on my way!!

So this morning I thought I needed to cheer myself up, I didn't intend to go out as it's a thoroughly miserable rainy day here in the UK so I had a lovely hot shower, gave my face a good scrub and put on some make up for the first time in about 2 weeks! I rarely put make up on when I'm staying in the house all day but I just felt like it after being so low for so long.

I also put on my favourite summertime perfume - it reminds me of holidays - and jewellery, another thing I rarely do when I know I'm staying in the house! Here's my cute 50's cat brooch

Lovely 50's hooped earrings that I sadly rarely wear as they are screw backed and for some reason my ears don't much like screw backed earrings, they are forever falling off!

And me much happier than I've been for a good couple of weeks!

Please ignore the badly rolled fringe and dark under the eyes, there are some things a girl can't address still when recovering, oh and the fact that my hair need dying so badly! Still feeling feeling better will do me for now

And I have to give a very special mention to the lipstick, I won it! It's Besame Red, and I've wanted to try Besame lipstick for ages but just couldn't justify spending when I'm broke and I have plenty red lipstick, but when you win it, it would be rude not to try it out!! I won on the lovely Retrochick's blog, she's a doll! Of course the prize was donated by the equally lovely What Katie Did, thanks Katie! I have to say I love it, I love how it goes on, it smells nice and as far as longevity is concerned, don't know yet, it didn't survive my veggie burger at lunchtime but I doubt much would have!

Later this afternoon I intend to indulge in a small amount of this....

One should always celebrate emerging from hideousness with a cocktail!

As you know I've been looking on ebay and etsy like crazy while I've been incapacitated so I thought I'd share a pair of shoes I would buy in a heartbeat if I had the cash, they're my size too, sigh....

How amazing are they? If you're this size and have money you can find them here. They have 9 hours to go and still at a reasonable price but I bet they won't stay that way!

Also whilst I was trawling I found this

How fab is this? And you know what's worse, we used to have this trio and because we couldn't find anything else in this pattern we got rid of it, oh how I regret it, it is such a fabulous pattern, ah well!

I also decided this weekend after reading some of my favourite bloggers talking about it so much laterly that I would start knitting again, my mum is a genius knitter so I will still get her to whip up sweaters like nobodys business but I really thought I ought to give it a go. So I'm going to start something easy to begin with, here is the pattern.

Thanks to By Gum By Golly, Snoodlebug and the very lovely Jenny from Yesterday Girl for the kick up the backside I needed!

I'll let you all know how I get on, I need to get the wool first but I'll get started this week, I'm slow so it could be a while, note I'm knitting a summer sweater ;o)

What floats your boat?

Well I'm still sick, went to the docs today and it turns out I have bronchitis which in itself isn't serious, but it's very annoying & brings you down, anyway they've given me antibiotics and as I'm not one to take much medication I'm sure I'll be on the mend in no time!

So as I have pretty much been sat on the sofa for nearly a week now coughing my guts up I've done a lot of internet surfing.

Today the sun is shining, it's a beautiful day, I'm under no illusions it's February and I live in the UK, it doesn't mean Spring is here, but it does have me looking forward to wearing something more summery again!

As I was trawling through Etsy it got me to thinking about our particular loves within vintage clothing, my era is definately 50s but within that there are certain things I like and don't like.

Here is something I definately like a lot!

This is currently on Etsy in Wear it Again Sam's store ok well on Etsy they're called Wear it Again, but the shop itself is Wear It Again Sam. Actually I like a lot of their stock, they are very much to my taste. I've been lucky enough to visit the store when in San Diego and loved it, I nearly walked out of there with the most expensive coat ever, I did manage to talk myself out of it though, I was being sensible, it was stunning though!

Another item from Wear it Again Sam, I love these teatimers, so comfy & versatile, get be dressed up or down, love em, I have lots of these both vintage and self made with vintage fabric, though I do particularly like the print on this.

Next up, I do like sparkly, a LOT!

I know this doesn't look like much, but you cannot beat a lurex dress once it's on, it moves with you, it sparkles with the light, I LOVE lurex, I would have a wardrobe full of lurex dresses! The link to this one is here if you're interested.

I love love love linen dresses with embellishments, I don't know why but it's one of my things. I have 3 really nice ones - which sadly do fit at the moment - but I love this one too. People don't seem to wear them much but I think they're beautiful, I prefer them with rhinestones - did I mention I like sparkly but this is pretty cute too! You can find this here on Etsy.

Last but not least, I do like a good a good colourful print. I think a lot of what is missing in more modern clothing is colour! This is a great example of a damn good print! You can find it here if you're interested.

There's a lot more that I like, I love rhinestones, the more sparkle the better as far as I'm concerned. I love halter necks in taffeta with rhinestones of course.

What I'm not into are floral prints, I'm just not a floral print type yet I would say lot of people are and go ga ga over a floral, I don't do pink or purple really, I'm not someone who like a lot of frills or frou frou, I'd be interested to know what floats your boat, I like that we're all different so if you like a pink, floral frou frou dress I'd love to know!!

Don't you just hate it when....

You break something you've had forever, especially as it's survived 50 or 60 years already and then you're the one who breaks it?

Well we lost something yesterday, it was no ones fault, it's so windy here in the UK, my husband opened the door the wind blew it and totally blew over our cat vase ornament off the ledge near the door :o(

It was smashed to smithereens so not a hope in hell of fixing it. I looked all over my computer to find a pic I'd taken of it cos it looked great next to the curtains I made in the hallway but couldn't find one anywhere. There is one on ebay for sale so this is what it looked like, sad!

We won't replace it, especially as this one is up for £79, crazy money!

Anyway I feel a teeny bit better today - at last - apart from being awake half the night coughing, but still don't feel quite so much of a zombie today. I thought I would do something useful. I wanted to sew all the cushions for the living room, I'm ashamed to say I made the curtains 2 years ago!! Anyway I got 4 done, then I was just too knackered to finish another couple, I guess I'm not 100% yet, but I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out!

Here are the cushions on the sofa near the matching footstool that I recovered the other week.

And a close up

Sewing the bobble trim on made it a little more complicated but I like it!

Here is the cushion on one of our wooden chairs, near the matching curtains

I'll finish the other 2 in the week, won't take much doing.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Dreaming of Spring!

Well I am still sat here on the sofa in my PJs with my nose and eyes streaming, not being able to complete a sentence without coughing my guts up! So all I've been doing since we last spoke is sleeping, blowing my never ending streaming nose, coughing and trawling the internet, looking at pretty things!

I like all seasons I have to admit, I love winter too but somehow come February I'm getting rather sick of it. I'm definately a more Spring/Summer clothes wearing person, I'm lucky enough to have a mum that knits so I do have some cute sweaters, but there is nothing nicer than sandals, bare legs and cotton clothing!!

Ages ago I took pictures of all my fabric - mind you I've bought more since that I haven't taken pics of yet, whoops! - and so I've trawled through it dreaming about what I'll make soon for Spring/Summer

I do love seersucker I don't know why but it's more comfortable than standard cotton cos it has a bit more give and seems lighter as a result. So the first 2 are seersucker, I have enough of both to make dresses, can't you just feel the soft summer breezer & sun on your skin right now?!!

I've already made one blouse out of the next fabric which sadly I've never worn, when I made it, I made it too big, now it's too small! However it will fit again soon and I do have enough to make something else too!

Can you tell I like a bit of colour? I do hate bland & boring he he!

oooh I love this next one and if you're a sewer you can see this already has darts in it, that's because I started a blouse, but ran out of time to finish it before I went on holiday, then I came back put loads of weight on, and need to lose it before I finish it, otherwise I can't wear it! Actually I might just finish it and have something to aim for!!

And last but not least, this lovely fabric which I don't have a lot of so I'm going to have to be particularly inventive about how I cut and make a blouse out of it! If I had a 34 inch chest I'd probably be ok, but I don't!

I won't be making any of these up this weekend if I do start to feel human again. I want to make some curtains for my office/sewing room first.

Hope you are all well and hope you all have a great weekend!

And the winner is....

Thanks to all those who entered my competition! It is a stunning book, my favourite in my collection!

I drew the name the old fashioned way and thought the only way was in a lovely Alfred Meakin bowl

And the winner is.....

Congratulations Kim!! I know you'll love this book!

Send your address etc to fiona@notoriouskitsch.co.uk and I'll get it off to you.

In other news, my grumpy state was explained this morning when I woke up, I have ANOTHER cold, a sore throat from hell, and I guess that's what was making me grumpy!! So I'm sat here drinking hot honey and lemon which is soooo soothing I'm oohing and ahhing at every sip, yep the throat is that sore!

Anyway there you have it congrats Kim, sorry to all those that entered and didn't win, I guess when I get to 300 I'll do another giveaway, which is closer than I thought it would be now!!

Weekend round up and a bit of grumpy stuff thrown in!

Hello all!

How's things? Good weekend?

Well we didn't, hence the grumpy content too. So I'm warning you if you don't want to hear some grumpiness, switch off now!!

First up I'm going to apologise AGAIN for not getting more photos. However the photos I'm going to put up now are the reality of working at a weekend event, and then you'll see why I never get any photos!

So we see our stall

We order pizza the first night after setting up to be delivered to our hotel room

We buy some cheap wine on the way back to the hotel to accompany the pizza!

And then we sit all weekend on the stall! I love this pic cos Paul looks like he's asleep, he's not, sometimes it feels like that though and to make matters worse there was so little room to move behind this particular stall we were stuck in one place all the time, grrr

So now to the grumpiness, I do try always to be positive on here, but then that's not reality of life is it? I started this year determined to feel positive all the time - as really it's my natural state of being - but today I feel grumpy, very grumpy so I thought I would just put in it writing whether anyone listens or not cos really it always feels better to write it down doesn't it?




Here goes

1. The event we did this weekend was a financial disaster. We didn't even cover our expenses, now I will add that we were not the only ones in this position, lots of people were the same, no one has money to spare at the moment, so that's just how it goes I guess. However when you don't even cover your expenses really what you're doing is paying to work for days on end, not much fun!

2. Some b****** stole my husband's disabled parking badge out of our van this weekend. I mean really how low can you get? So he has to reapply and meantime if I take him anywhere we have to park a way away from where we need to be and he just has to walk further, which is not easy for him, grrrrr

3. The recession is starting to p*** me off - see No 1! I've had enough already! It's been going on long enough now, could we just get it over and done with. However, I've got to say since October, as a small business we've really noticed the difference, it seems to be biting hard and deep now, scary times.

4. Everything has become so blumming expensive, the very little money we have is going nowhere, see No1 and No 3!! If you don't live in the UK this won't make sense but if you do you will really have noticed. I don't think ever in my life I have noticed how much food and petrol has increased in price, and to top it all my electric/gas company wrote to us today to say that is going up too! WTF?

5. I'm sick of being broke, see No 1, 3 and 4 he he! I want pretty things again, and not have to think when I run out of foundation whether I can do without it for a while, uuuurgh! If I see nice shoes I want to just buy them! However we are only cash poor not stuff poor, we have some lovely things and I am very grateful for that, and I am grateful for all I have, but I'm sure you know what I mean!

Oh there's loads I want to grump about but I'll stop for now.

That did make me feel better, so thanks!!!

By the way I will draw the competition tomorrow so keep an eye out!!