Maccabags!

I Don't Do Random

I belong in the Universe of Straight Lines - as so well expressed by Edward Monkton in his Interesting Thoughts:

My pencils are straight.

 

My socks are straight.

 

My pillows are straight.

 

My french fries are straight.

.

 

EVERYTHING  must be STRAIGHT or else the World will EXPLODE*

*Those who do not believe in the Law of Straightness will not BE SAVED.

 

So sayeth The Monkton, and because I so agree, it is difficult for me as I continue along the road of trying to make a completely "unplanned" stash quilt.

 

I have made 45 blocks now...

... they're constructed using several different blue and beige/white fabrics combined in completely random combinations. AUGGGGHHHH! I need 45 more, and this just sewing anything to anything is SO against my nature! I need to make them match! I need to make them PLANNED! AUGGGGHHHH!  I will not! I must not! Otherwise my stash quilt will not look so stashy! (Plus my anxiety is mounting - what if I fall into that category now: Those Who Will Not BE SAVED)?

I suppose it is odd that I like the look of stash quilts at all, seeing as their nature is to be random, but I do like them. (Well, I do as long as the fabric shades in them can be found in my Straight List of Favorite Colours)!

So the blocks are getting made, and the next challenge will be to sew them together in a random and (mostly?) unplanned fashion! (I'm using this method of construction).

And I leave you with More Monkton:

 

Encouraging Awards and White Cat/White Snow

Look what came my way! I must give a big thanks to Kyoko. She gave me this award. I love her blog and it makes me feel happy, and yes, encouraged, to receive this from her. But I also owe her an apology because she gave me the award over a week ago, and I have not done anything about it until now. I have my excuses, but I can only say that the lateness in doing something about this should NOT be an indication that I didn't care about it. Au contraire - I'm both delighted and flattered.

So - having received the award here is what I am supposed to do next:

1) Put the award on your blog - DONE

2) Put a link on your blog of the blogger who gave you the award - DONE

3) Nominate 5 other bloggers - here is where I thought I would do something a little different. I spent some time on the weekend following links from comments left by others on my usual favorite blogs and sometimes linked onwards from wherever I found myself. I wanted to find some blogs that I had never seen before - and out of those I used my own little ranking criteria to decide who I wanted to pass this award on to.  My criteria: blogs often, shares stuff, lots of photos, instant interest-factor to make me want to read more. I found some good ones - too many to nominate, and the whole very pleasant exercise took ages!

 

So - here are my choices. These people may be a little surprised since they will not know I have ever been to their blog until I leave a comment as I pass on the award. Let me say right up front that if I give you an award and you don't enjoy this process - then I will not be offended in the slightest. I know that some people like doing this and some others don't, and I believe strongly that everyone has a right to feel however they feel and that's the end to it!

 

My choices - in no particular order:

 

Where Ava Dreams  -

Varied topics, great photos, thoughtful and informative; also the author is moving to Canada soon and although I don't live there right now, that is my home - I only hope you'll come to love it like I do!

Turkey Cookies 

Crafts, Life, Cooking, Knitting, shares a lot with links to tuts, recipes, books, etc 

Burrow House

Tutorials, great photos, links to books and how-to's

Renee Knits Too

Books, Knitting, Quilting, Giveaways, Recipes

Zebra Knits

Gorgeous KNITS!!!!!

4) Leave a comment on their blog notifying them - I'm doing this next ...

5) List 5 things that I'm addicted :

a. My kids

b. My cats

c. Japanese craft books and fabric (well, any kind of fabric, really)

d. The Wire (currently working through Seasons 1-5 as slowly as I can make myself go)

4. Cheese, most shellfish, Jif peanut-butter on toast

 

And now for a switcheroo of subject:

SNOWING SNOWING SNOWING

I have lived in the UK for a little while now, and having grown up and spent most of my life in Canada, I have snorted with derision at what has sometimes been called a snowfall here -an inch or so of dryish stuff that disappears by lunchtime. That's up until now; I live in Kent, and it has been snowing great wet clumped together snowflakes for the past day and a half. Even by Canadian standards, this is the REAL THING.

See my middle cat wondering what in the world has happened! Probably the same kind of thoughts that the UK National Rail peeps are having right now. (Although this kitty also was born and partially raised in Canada, I'm quite sure he doesn't really recall the Canadian winter).

 

 

Inauguration Fun

My daughter sent me a link to this site where you can turn photos of yourself, your baby, your partner, your cat - whatever you like - into a poster which looks like the newly-legendary one from Shepard Fairey.

Below: my dearly-beloved-and-now-posterised-first-born. Try it - just for fun!

Koala Overload

I just saw this on Cute Overload.

Look at the eyes on the "kid" and the Mum and imagine that the photo is taken just at the point where the mother has registered the words "dirt bike" ....

(you are sick of eating Eucalptus leaves)

I -- am -- sick -- of -- eating -- Eucalyptus -- leaves ...

(you want to take me out for ice cream ...)

I -- want -- to -- take -- you -- out -- for -- ice -- cream ...

(and after that, you want to buy me a dirt bike ...)

Brilliant!

I -- am -- sick -- of -- eating -- Eucalyptus -- leaves ...

(you want to take me out for ice cream ...)

I -- want -- to -- take -- you -- out -- for -- ice -- cream ...

(and after that, you want to buy me a dirt bike ...)

Brilliant!

The Word for Today

...is R-E-L-I-E-F.

I was awake at 5AM this morning to see what the results of THE ELECTION were. And my reaction to the results was one of relief and hope.

I watched Obama's acceptance speech and it made me cry. So I did a Wordle. Haven't done one in awhile ....

 

Let's Play Tag - and I'm It!

 

 

Kyoko from Cotton and Cloud has tagged me - so now I am It.

 

 

The Rules:

Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
 Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog - some random, some weird.
Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog.
Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So -  7 facts about me.

1. LOVE ME/HATE ME: The two things I like best about me are my sense of fairness and my ability to forgive "wrongs" done to me. I am not so fast to forgive wrongs done to people I care about. And while forgiving comes easy, forgetting does not! The two things I like least about myself are my shyness and the way I procrastinate. Both of these traits make me miss out on things. People tell me and I am out-going and efficient. HA!

2. NOMADIC ME: I have traveled since I was 15 and caught the bug when I was sent from Canada to Mexico to represent my Sea Rangers troop at one of the World Scouting centres - My Cabana in Cuernavaca. My favorite place to live is still Canada - although I have spent a lot of time not living there. My favorite place(s) to visit  - Israel, Kenya and the US. I have yet to visit any country I did not like. I also have yet to visit New Zealand - even though I have wanted to go there since I was in University. How has this happened or rather, not happened?. I also want desperately to go to Japan and Botswana.

3. MELTING ME: My favorite man that I don't know is Denzel Washington. Now there is a definition of beauty.

4. 'FRAIDY CAT ME: I am afraid of snakes. I went to an activities day organized by my work a couple of weeks ago and held a baby boa constrictor in my arms. The "baby" weighed 12 kilograms and exuded raw strength - I now understand how easily an adult one could kill a large animal. He was dry, and warm because he had been lying on a hot water bottle. I am still afraid of snakes, but I am feeling quite smug about having held this magnificent animal whilst keeping my heart rate down to about 240 beats a minute. I was going to put a photo of one in here - but just looking through images of these lovely (!!!!!) creatures made me go all weird and shivery!

5. CLEVER OLD ME: The best thing I have done in my life is to produce 2 lovely daughters. I love them more than life itself - cheesy? Maybe. But true. They are 31 and 29 respectively and I speak to them every day. still travel with them, and have not yet spent a Christmas morning without waking up with them in my house - how fantastic is that? I love their strong values, their loyalty and kindness and the way they are each other's BFFs. My biggest failure in life? The end of a 22-year marriage. However, we're still friends and I guess that is the best that can be said because it has made things easier for the children we had together and for everyone else around us.

6. SUNSHINE AND SHADOWS ME: I couldn't laugh when I smoked - it always made me cough. I freed myself from smoking years ago, and laughing came easy then -  I still  think how great it is to be able to flawlessly produce anything from a good giggle up to an enormous belly laugh. I can't cry when I am sad. I can cry buckets when I am frustrated and angry and feel slighted,  and when I have seen a sad film. So far the record goes to Philadelphia - I cried until my collarbones were soggy!

7. CURIOUS ME: I wanna know why I didn't start blogging ages ago, why George Bush didn't get impeached, how it is possible that massively heavy metal tubes can fly through the air even if they do have wings, why I can't draw, if i will ever have grandchildren, and also what love is and if it likes peanut butter .....

I am going to have difficulty with the second part: seven others that I feel I could tag - so many of them have already been recently tagged, and a couple of others i know do not want to be - so i can only come up with 6 at the moment: Hannah at Span's Stitchin', Julia at Primrose Corner, Laura from Sew at Sea , Juliana at Honey & Daisy: Sewing and other lovely things, Cherrie at Willywagtail - I love that Blog Name! and Oge from Simply Crafty - you're tagged!

Can I just thank some others instead? Tracy- thanks for being so inspirational; Kyoko, (see her link above) thanks for being so talented and interesting and for sharing the video of the Kind Heart;  Raina - thanks for reminding me about Canadian thanksgiving - it was just in time! Mary (K & S City Girl) - thanks for having a read and leaving a comment - I love it!

 

 

Home Again, Home Again

So you know how it is when you get back from a lovely holiday - sometimes you think - "ahhhh, my own bed" and "awww, I so missed you, cats times three". Well this time there was none of that; I was so not ready to get back! We'd had three weeks of lovely Atlantic Canada and New England Indian Summer, and when we arrived at Gatwick, the queue for non-Europeans was at minimum a mile long. Then out we went to - RAIN. Yuk. So.  Enough of that, because here is what I found when I got to my house:

• A book from Oge, which I was expecting, but there was also a surprise - a very lovely bag that she had made and tucked in with the book!
• A pattern from Juliana (see link below) which she had taken the time to write out in an e-mail for me so that I can practice crochet.
• An e-mail from Jo who had just returned from Japan, saying what jet-setting crafters we are; she knew that I was traveling too - on the opposite side of the planet. You can see some of the lovely things she brought back from her trip here.
• A lovely mention/link from Kyoko in her blog; Kyoko's knitting pins have struck again with a gorgeous baby vest and a tiny tomato red cable cardi. I can't even begin to decide which of her lovely baby knits would be my favorite.
• Nice comments on my pre-holiday Baby Bunny Ball tutorial from Tracy - she's got a Stash-tacular Giveaway going on right now, Hannah, Julie - congratulations on your award, Kathi D - read her blog for hilarious stories and pictures of her new puppies - together they redefine cuteness, Raina - check out THE most beautiful silk scarf that she has just knit, and Kyoko and Juliana (see Oge link above, and Juliana link below).

So - all in all, that definitely took the sting out of being back from holiday. To all of you - THANK-YOU!

Here's the bag that Oge sent - I have commented to her so many times that I love the fabric she chooses. And now I have a purse made out of some of it - YAY! 

And go here to see that pattern that Juliana sent. I am going to have a go at this once I get the holiday laundry done.

To Jo, I hope you are recovered from the jet lag - I was slurping at the lovely fabrics  you picked up. I was traveling with 3 non-crafters and although I found some nice buttons and a pack of turning doo-dahs (see below) - I did not buy a single bit of fabric while I was in the States - never really got the chance to take the time to do all the browsing/scrunching/feeling/imagining that goes along with picking out fabric. I was worried about baggage weight and also about the amount of fabric that is sitting in my house waiting to be used.

 

 

Buttons, zipper pulls and the turning doo-dah that I picked up. This, for me, is a very meager stash! Hopefully the turning gadget works as promised in the hype. If so, I will demo on a later post.

Oh - and I also found this in New Hampshire - it's by Chef'n, for cook'n (actually, for chop'n garlic); it works a charm and comes apart for wash'n. (Of course, immediately after I got back, I found it on Amazon UK - for almost twice what I paid for it. Hee hee. Of course, if you include my air fare ....).

The Garlic Zoom by Chef''n

This weekend I need to make some drapes for a friend - so blogging is going to be scarce. I think I will have to post some holiday shots, though!

 

K-WIP/S-WIP* 'n Olympics

*Knit-WIP and Sew-WIP

Finally I have stopped ripping out  and have decided to move forward with this ribbon scarf. Took a little while longer than I anticipated to get back into this knitting thing. See this post for the opening moves.

 

Here it is - all 72 cm. of it - almost exactly half way there. If you look very closely you can see a white thread running horizontally though it - near the needle. "Necessity is the mother of ..." and all that; knitting with this slippery ribbon means that you can't go back and pick up stitches if you make a mistake. Well, I can't anyway.  Three times I have had to unravel all - right back to the beginning to start all over again; I thought my world would not be a happy place if I made an unrecoverable error after I had knit 60 cm or so!  I came up with the bright idea of threading a piece of string through the stitches on the needle so that the string would act as a holder for the stitches - every 5/6 cm I slide it out and move it up so that a few rows is all that I can lose. Like having a net under the tightrope.

 

I am also sewing today - even though my mind keeps wandering back to the K-WIP. I have to get some kids' bags done by early October for a carft table at my niece's school, and with September pretty much taken up with holiday (YES!), I thought I better get a move on. So here is the S-WIP:

 

 

This collection of cuttings will end up being 4 little bags - I have cut the owl and the turtle out of the same fabric that is peeking out on the far left and have used Bondaweb to put them in place - I will zigzag around them; the horse (maybe zebra?) was a purchased applique so it was iron-and-go. The rectangles with the owl and the zebra will become pockets and the turtles will be appliqued directly onto the front of one of the bags. The pretty dotted fabric is the lining; I was going to make a sun dress out of this but then there was no summer and so there was no sun dress. Not really my colour anyway, but I thought it was so pretty.

 

 

OLYMPICS 2008

I got into Beijing waaaaay late this time - it was the end of the second week before I really started to pay much attention. My favorite person has got to be the little kid Brit diver - Tom Daley. What a pumpkin! So talented and so not into himself. 

  <-----   Tom Daley - Brit sweetie  Olympic diver

The debate was on last evening about whether THE Olympian of these games should be Bolt or Phelps. Now there's a tough one! I agreed with everyone's opinion regardless of which one people were picking.(On the news this morning there were comments about Bolt showboating - what is it about human nature that makes someone, somewhere, have to come up with the negative comment)? Go for it, Mr. Bolt - if you can run faster than anyone else on the planet, and you can make it look exciting - then hey - GO FOR IT, BABY!

 

 

So - off to cut out some interlining - perhaps I will stroke the K-WIP on my way to the interlining stash. ;o)

Roots

Dana left me a comment on my last post - in which I had talked about being in France and about how much I was looking forward to going back to the old Canadian hometown. Her comment was just a couple of lines but it got me thinking. She said she had spent all of her life in the same place in Indiana,  not really ever leaving - and wondering whether that suggested that she was a throwback to the time when no one went too far from the cave.

(As a bit of an aside, I always wanted to go to Gary-In-di-ana, Gary-IN-di-ana, Gary-In-di-ANNNNNN-a). I have been to most US States - my parents used to have a home in Florida to escape the Canadian winters, we used to travel down the East Coast regularly to Boston when I was a kid and I love New England. I worked in San Francisco - in Marin County, actually - and that was awesome. I've been all down the East Coast and in the South - the central part and around the Great Lakes, to Arizona and California and Nevada. I've even been to Bismarck, North Dakota. (?)But never to - INDIANA!

But to wander back to the point - caves can be good. Nice, strong, solid roots can be put down outside them. I had that when I was young - growing up in a beautiful but SMALL town - it was pretty easy to stay on the straight and narrow there, because every parent knew everyone else's kids and what they were up to - and if there were any shenanigans, the drums beat and punishment and public humiliation followed.

Then I went away to University and never really came back to My Little Town (which was NOTHING like Simon and Garfunkel's). Since then I have lived and worked in 7 of 10 Canadian provinces, and in the US, England, Scotland and Poland. (POLAND!). In there also - marriage and kids, but that's a whole 'nother story.

I don't suppose that I would trade all of that moving around. The wonderful (and otherwise) things I have seen and done, and the wonderful (and otherwise) people I have met - all leave me rich with experience and memories. BUT - I have left bits of my heart everywhere. It seems to me that the more you wander, the more you want to, and then you begin to wonder - hey - where exactly am I? Those roots can be so good and they can provide such sense of security, but you have to stay near the cave to cultivate them. I have been very fortunate to have been able to sometimes take my daughters with me. They have always come to visit me when I have been working in other places, and they now live in the UK as well, so I see or talk with them almost every day. One day soon, though, I expect that one or both of them will be settling somewhere, and it may not be where I am. I will be going back to Canada to live in the not too distant future, and we'll see what happens then.

I guess all this is why I am getting so excited about going "home" in September and taking Meggie and Katie (my beautiful daughters) with me - back to see how the old cave is doing.

Hey! Good for Me!

 Well, that's a humble little title, isn't it? But hey! I have been awarded this:

How extremely cool is that!?! Thank you so much, Oge. Oge posts at Simply Crafty and I am so pleased that she did this for me. Go on over to see her - she has this great pass-along-the-book idea, and she makes seriously pretty bags. (And congrats on receiving the award yourself, Oge). I am truly pleased with my award, because I have not been blogging for all that long, and who doesn't like to be recognized?

So, now. My job is to pass this on. I am not going to worry about whether or not my choices have received this award before - I am just going to award the blogs that I read all the time.

First off - Kathi D at I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus, because she is so very funny. And I am never sure if  her stories are all outrageous lies, partly outrageous lies, or if she's just accurately recounting her outrageous life. Whatever, I have never read a post of hers that didn't put me in a better mood. Keep laughing at life, Kathi, and keep telling us about it.  (She has some pretty funny people as regular commenters on her blog, too).

Next up , Lisa, at U-Handblog. She must be like the Tom Hanks of bloggers - she gets so much recognition and so many awards that she must need an add-on to her house to keep them all together. But there is a reason for that - her blog is an example to us all - she shares her bag making skills with us through so many fabulous tutorials, and she writes in an entertaining way. Go Lisa!

And Jo : Jo at Today We Are ... because her blog is so ... well ... so balanced. She writes about sewing - clothes and bags and pillows and all sorts, but she also writes so well about her life and what she thinks about things.  And she does sew beautifully - for proof, just check out the Amy Butler Sophia Carry-all that she made - it is gorgeous. I wonder what she did with it?

And finally - I'm not giving this award to Kyoko today, but that's only because I know she just got this one last week. But do check out her blog at Cotton and Cloud -  you will see immediately that she deserves it.

And now - last weekend, and France. This is in the Dordogne, around the corner from where I was last weekend.

And, amongst other things,  this is what we did there.

I love France. Vive la France! I hated to have to come back and go to work. Reality: yuk! 

Never mind, there's a Bank Holiday at the end of this month, and then in September I am off to the east coast of Canada - there for a while to see my oldest friend, and then we're traveling down the Atlantic coast thorough Maine and New Hampshire to Massachusetts; we'll be in Boston and environs for about a week and then we will fly home from there. I am getting very excited about going. Here's a little picture of the town in Canada where I was born - right on the Atlantic Ocean and very very beautiful. (With my birth, the population rose to 2,011)!

Roll on September!

Riveting Rivets!

Found this wedding present for some friends in France at a local gallery;I couldn't attend the wedding, but I hope my friends will have many years of happiness together. This really pretty bowl is by a lady called Heather Powers - she screen prints onto glass, fuses layers together in a kiln, then  returns to the kiln to shape lovely bowls and dishes like this one. I think it is gorgeous - hope my friends agree!

Heather Powers - Cotton Pods

Another friend celebrates the big four-oh this week coming up - she doesn't know yet that a few of her friends are celebrating it with her this week - got another piece of glass for her. It's by another British artist, whose name I can never remember - I couldn't decide between this one and a very dainty, smaller one with a red heart in the middle. In the end, I just liked this colour.

Happy Birthday, D! 

I also made a couple of little bags; I am so on a roll with using up some FQ's - much fondled, never cut ... 'til now!

Little guys

Buoyed with success, I finally did a bag that I had been planning for a little while, using Lisa's U-Handblog tutorial, to fix in metal rivets. The rivet bit was much easier than I thought - just a little scary 'cause you don't put them on until the bag is otherwise complete - not the time to be making a fatal error like punching a hole off-centre or something. Armed with Lisa's good tutorial, I had no problems this time, though - and I am so pleased with the result that I am actually going to keep this bag for myself. I used a little square of the exterior fabric behind each of the magnetic fastenings. I usually do this on the back side of the lining to reinforce the closures so they won't tear through the lining with use, but I thought I would put these where they would be visible as a little "design feature".  My daughter likes the red lining in the bag and on the underside of the strap - because it peeks out on the strap she's called this the "Louboutin of Maccabags". I wish. Know what one of those babies would sell for?!!

Blue and white fabric is home decor weight; the lining is red linen.

Neat rivets!

Magnetic closure

Next weekend, no sewing, no blogging -  I am off to the south of France, just for 4 days, to help my brother-in-law celebrate his birthday. My daughter and my other brother-in-law are coming with me. The Birthday Boy is getting the present he requested - Series 2 of Doctor Who (I feel that this is not really worthy of a photo). But at least he suggested something - men are so hard to buy for! May have some photos of the party to add next week, though....

On balance, a good day, I think

Today is a good day because:

• I just heard from my Canadian BFF and she is having such a wonderful time in Australia/New Zealand. She so deserves it.
• my older daughter has a new job and it seems like it might be right for her
• my younger daughter has just had a birthday and we had good family/good friends together to celebrate it; I am still thinking about that a little and also I am still eating up some of the left-over food
• my kitties are all asleep around me and the only sounds in my house right now come from clocks ticking, the fan in my laptop, and the occasional little sleepy sigh from one of the cats
• I have some TV Wimbledon to look forward to later

Today is a bad day because:

• I am trying to lose 5 pounds before I go to France at the end of the month and all I want to do this morning is snack. On anything at all - as long as it is not low-cal.
• I don't think Andy can beat Rafa
• It was Canada's birthday yesterday (being away from home for a long time makes one very patriotic) and I am still piqued with whomever wrote the article in the newspaper entitled "One trip to Canada is too many".

So, given the fact that the good things are immeasurably good, and that the world won't end if I am 5 pounds more than I want to be and that whoever loses this tennis match this afternoon will get over it (Murray is 21 years old and Nadal is 22 - despite lovely big muscles, both are barely out of training pants for goodness sake). And as for Canada, it's probably the best country in the whole world, so if one trip to Canada is too many for whomever wrote that article, then he/she/they are quite welcome to NOT MAKE A 2ND TRIP!

So, yes - given all of that, on balance, a good day, I think.

Here's a photo of my Sammy that I took on the weekend - he was trying to hug the camera.

The Amazing Power of the Human Mind

 

Don't ignore this just because it looks weird. Believe it or not, you can read it. Try it!

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn ' t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

What the human mind can't seem to do - in my case, anyway - is remember at the top of the stairs what I knew I was going up for when I was at the bottom of the stairs.

Also - here's a couple of things for you (I love these explanations of where phrases we use actually came from):

It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride ' s father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon. (That one is for you, Kyoko).

In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them "Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down". This is where we get the phrase mind your P's and Q's.

Can anyone tell me where the British phrase "That's like teaching your grandmother how to suck eggs" came from?!?

So I am going off to sew something. I have FINALLY sold a bag (or 4) and I am so high on myself right now! I need to go off and do something which will subsequently require the seam ripper - that should take care of the Wonderful Me syndrome!

It's About Equality

A couple of people have commented about my Dylan, my Essex Girl (see her at the end of this post). As an equal opportunity cat person, I have to let my other two have some air time.

This is Jello (Biafra). He was sitting on my back fence one day when he got dubbed by a passing (complete stranger) 14-year-old boy, "Man, that cat is ... LEGENDARY".

Whatever. More like the feline equivalent of the Dumb Blonde. And just as loveable.

And Sam. The Gentle Giant. (Although he has been on a diet). He's sweet.

These two are Canadian ex-pats. What a palaver to get them Pet Passports. But worth it - they seem to quite like the UK. One day we'll pack them up and go back the other way. Wonder if they will have forgotten what real snow is ....

Next up - maybe a tutorial, but I have seen such great ones lately, that I'm not sure what there is left to tut about!

All Hail Goldhawk Road & More Tutorial Links

I have been meaning to go to Goldhawk Road (in Shepherd's Bush in London) for quite some time - on Saturday I finally went. Drool, drool, drool. Well, if you like fabrics, that is. The shops aren't quite as posh as John Lewis and Liberty's - but there must be about ten of them and the cost of fabric is far less then I have paid in the West End. Plus, it's friendly!

So I bought and I bought, and added my choices to the fabrics I have acquired in the last few weeks. I need to stop buying fabrics and do some sewing. And now the sun is making a regular appearance - can I rename my deck to The Sewing Room?

So here are some more links to good tutorials.  (Click here to see another list).

Perhaps I would sew a little more if I put my laptop away and stopped looking at amazing sewing sites?

• Whip Up for a Passport Sleeve Tutorial
• Ric Rac tells us how to make a  Vinyl Pencil Case
• Sew Mad for a camera cosy.
• I am not the biggest Martha Stewart fan, but this bag-from-a-pillow case is a great idea, and fast!

Also, I got this link from Lisa's U-Handblog and want to agree with her that it is a really good one: see Cotton and Cloud on how to sew a circular bag bottom neatly.

My lovely daughter has turned into my agent! She showed the ladies at her work my Etsy shop and also my Flickr stuff and they asked her to organise a Handbag Lunch so they could see, and maybe buy crossed-fingers some of my bags. If you want to see some in my shop, then do this link).

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