Enough - feet up - faccio niente

So yay that's it. That's my sewing room pretty much done. Here are my before and after shots.

Before

After



Before



After



Before



After



I think I can put my feet up and get back to something a little bit more fun.

I visited my brother in San Diego a few weeks ago and I was watching Eat Pray Love again on the plane (for want of anything better to pass the hours).  It reminded me of the phrase they stress in the Italian section "la dolce far niente" - the sweetness of doing nothing. 

The idea really resonates - to be calm and do little. I am such a fidget britches and have such a long list of things I want to do, to try, or to finish, that the thought of spending time not doing anything, and not trying to accomplish something, is much more difficult than it sounds. Well it sounds grand, but then I think "oh, I could start that...." or "I could try to do a little bit of that....". For example, I get the Saturday paper delivered because I like the idea of sitting and sipping coffee and leisurely reading the paper.  I never manage to get through more than one section and then it just gets used under the weedmat in the garden.

So this is my new aim. To allocate some time every weekend to not have to achieve an outcome - read a book, or snooze in the sun. That's my pledge.



The One-Yard-Too-Little Curtains

The cream/fawn curtains that were already in place in the room were relatively inoffensive but were too plain and made the room look very drab. I really wanted to make some blinds but with the width and construction of the windows it was going to be impossible. So, I opted just to replace the curtains with something with a bit more pep.

I bought this fabric at ikea when I was visiting my brother in San Diego. It ties in with the designs that I had chosen for the other 2 bedrooms but has a bit more pattern, which I thought was necessary.

However, as is of course the way (especially when you have no opportunity to go back to the shop and buy some more), I bought about a yard too little. (Likely to be the difference between yards I was cutting and metres in my head.  sigh)  Ahhhh, the frustration (enough to say, not good words were said)!

I tried calculating the measurements of the fabric again and again, but lets face it - you can't magic up threads from nowhere.

So, I was forced to adopt that age-old tradition ...... tack a bit of some other fabric on the end!

I bought some sturdy satin-finished material and have made a large bottom border and a sash from this material. I made the linings from just natural calico. In hindsight I wonder if the black material shouldn't have been at the top, but I don't mind how they turned out. It took quite a long time to get these all done given the extra hemming and the lining and the sashes, but pleased to have these completed finally.  Thoroughly sick of curtains for the time being.

And, in a fit of productivity I made a final tribute to the old wallpaper.  Whilst the migraine of the truck wallpaper was too much to live with, it was worthy of a tribute and has therefore been immortalised by framing a piece and giving it a well deserved place on the wall. 

Shades of grey being very in this season

No, I haven't read the books.  I have them on loan from a friend but couldn't get past the trash writing to the interesting parts.  Anyway - that's not what this is about. 

I opted for one wall to be a different colour.  I knew I wanted grey but again, had a few test pot disappointments.  In the end I bought a can of Quarter Sidewinder on the misguided view that it would simply be a lighter shade of its cousin, Half Sidewinder.  That's right - I never learn - another whoopsie.

However, after some grovelling and a lot of work from the girls at the local paint store, they tinted it up as much as possible and it has turned out to be what I was looking for.  A warm grey.  Phew.

I have finally got to hang all those picture frames I'd been hording for the past year.  Some are from ikea and the rest are from the local dump shop and painted white.  I love how the frames look against the grey.

Bit by bit

I've been causing myself angst and stress about the fact that there has been no blogging of late. Bad bad Blogger!

This blog-drought started from a lack of Craft Room-ness when I started the revamp of the third bedroom (AKA my craft space). However, as things dragged on and on and on, I wanted to be able to post my finished product in all its glory - to amaze with the resulting transformation. And so, on and on the delay went as my finished product remained out of reach.

And now, I have perhaps had a wee moment of epiphany - there may never be a finished product (I've refrained from noting "old chinese proverb say ..."). 

So, I have come to the realisation that I don't need to reveal a finished product. Blogs are about progress, and updates, and developments. Like so much in life, there's never a brand new sparkly twinkling reveal - except of course on Extreme Makeover.

With that in mind, what limited amount I can say I've achieved is: 
- The truck wallpaper gone.
- The rocket ships that were blasting off underneath are gone.
- And we are plastered and painted.

And some of the immeasurable delay came from trying to find the right paint. I tried test pot after test pot. Doing one-off commando missions to the paint store only to get home, slap some on the wall and be disappointed. Taupe and Napa, Fendleton and Dumblane, Half this and Quarter that. In the end, I realised I had spent more money on countless test pots than I would have on paint for the room and it was getting out of hand. So, in frustration I conceded to what the other half had been pressing for, and painted the room the same colour as the hallway (which is Double Whitepointer by Resene).

And, as luck would have it, I like it. The colour is different in the room than it is in the hallway (its not as grey-white but has a tiny bit more warmth in it). It is what I was looking for.

I still need to paint all the trims as they are looking very sad, and there is much to do, but that's for another day.  And compared to the truck wallpaper ...... its an oasis of calm.

A few purses

After a hiatus post-market, I am starting on some more purses.

I've managed to get the medium sized ones sewn up.  Looking at this array it is clear: the usual draw to florals, blues, greens and browns is clearly alive and well. :)

I am about to start on the over-sized collection (oh - 'collection' makes me sound a bit too serious doesn't it. lets call it a 'bunch').  As its getting wintery and wonderful here, I am making a few out of some wools and tweeds which are perfect for the season. Why not eh.

Anyway, all going to plan they should start appearing on my (terribly empty) FELT shop soon.

Fun in Brunswick

Well its been a while since my last post. There's been a variety of things happening (good and bad) that have meant life has felt a little bit on hold. Its funny how the process of moving through a bad patch just takes some time before you come through the veil and actually feel you can give some positivity back to the world.  I do now feel more able to focus and look to the future.


And certainly, now as the winter days are now much shorter, it lends oneself to hibernation tendencies. This "inside-time" presumably should have the effect that I might be more productive in the sewing sense. Maybe.

One of the positives in the last wee while was a visit to Melbourne for a friend's engagement party. I love love love the creative soul of Melbourne - it is quite simply brimming over with originality and style. Coming from little old Wellington where we pride ourselves on our snazzy cafes, the sheer size of Melbourne and the endless spirit is so awesome - I am always profoundly jealous. I walk away thinking there is absolutely no excuse to not be wonderfully stylish in Melbourne - whilst here at home we are lucky to have 5 or 6 design stores, Melbourne has such an extraordinary bounty.

I was lucky to have the time to spend quite a few hours meandering happily along Brunswick Street. To be fair, I would have been just as happy to pitch my tent and live on the side of the road for a week or so, but I settled for an afternoon.

Loved the stores that I lucked upon there. The Fabric Store, with its light warehouse feel and clean walls made looking at cloth a delight. Mozi which had the most gorgeous bright coloured home wares (I bought an oil drizzler - love it!).  And Amor y Locura, a shop that specialises in Day of the Dead kitch merchandise, and so many many others.  A delight.

Fabric haul

 I often get emails from fabric shops such as Hawthorne Threads showing off their lovely wares. I covert the lovely fabrics (sewers are such terrible hoarders). The costs overseas are so much less than what we pay here in NZ, but then the shipping cost starts to eat into the difference.

 My brother lives in San Diego so in the styles of any self-interested daughter I ordered a batch of fabric to be delivered to him and made my poor mother lug in back from a recent visit. It wasn't mammoth amounts (compare my recent ikea curtain fabric haul - now that was heavy!) but I did have the odd twinge of guilt. Is this the right thing to do to one's poor old mom? However, this guilt was significantly reduced upon delivery - I mean seriously, how fun are these fabrics!  So mum hauled it but I get The Haul.   

I love the Retro Kitchen print - my intention is to use some of this stretched over canvas as a kitchen wall hanging. In hindsight its a little like the cheesy wallpaper that used to be in the laundry which I rudely painted over - but the other half can't complain about a wall hanging so easily .....

I also think these will look great as tea towel trims, any kitchen accessory, and lined as a blind. Actually would also look great as some bunting wouldn't it? ..... hmmm, now I'm thinking .....

Anyway, I bought extra amount to share the love so when I finally get round to it there will be available (fat or thin quarts) on my felt shop for those who like the print and don't want to pay the usual high retail price.

My favourite however is a print in the Gallery Fiori range. This poppy print reminds me of Van Gogh paintings - its just lovely. I have absolutely no idea what I am going to make with this but when I see it, I'll know. I think it will make a striking top of some sort.