Strawberries Galore

A true sign that summer is here is when strawberries begin to appear in my garden.  They remind me of the huge bowls of them my grandmother, Nana Doc, would prepare  for family picnics and get togethers, pick-your-own where we'd sneak more into our mouths than the cardboard baskets, Little Sister Fanny with blond ringlets innocently denying eating them whilst having the red juice smeared all round her mouth, and Tess Durbeyfield being seduced by strawberries offered by Angel Clare.
I love strawberries.
They're simple yet sophisticated, seductive in their shiny red plumpness either perfectly shaped or almost indecently nobbly, and simply the most decadent food ever when sun warmed and plucked straight off the plant into my mouth.   The indulgent pleasure of sitting in my garden eating them is only matched by sharing this simple delight...but not with slugs or woodlice. I'm getting pretty fed up of wandering into the garden each morning to find that the luscious looking nearly ripe strawberry I'd had my eye on the night before has been devoured.  So last Thursday, having had a couple of pints of pop, I returned home to enjoy another strawberry related activity: late night slug hunting.  Slightly inebriated I rifle through my camping equipment to find my head torch and then I'm ready and armed.  Should any neighbours look over they must think I've cracked as I make my way around the garden in an unladylike squatted position picking over leaves and hurling slugs over the fence. Yet this isn't the worst of my crimes.  I am normally a fairly compassionate person who follows a vegan diet and hates the idea of killing another living thing.  Slugs are my exception.  Over the fence is the Worcester branch of the St. John's Ambulance and onto their car park land my flying slugs.  It's survival of the fittest; part of me hopes they squelch their slimy way somewhere else knowing they are not welcome in my garden, the other part quite enjoys the irony of slugs being run over by ambulances.  So there's the truth. I would say I'm sorry, but I'm not.

Will hotwater bottles make me a millionaire?

I have been hoarding materials, scraps of fabric, buttons, beads and other such haberdashery delights for many years.  I'm like a magpie and can't bear to throw anything away, but even I have realised that unless I either stop collecting stuff or do something with it I'm going to hoard myself into a corner, be found smothered to death by a toppled tower of beautiful fabrics; or turn into a dusty, vintage clad Miss Haversham-type character wandering amongst islands of unfinished creativity, blindly touching the precious things and muttering memories of my unrealised intentions, whilst living in abject poverty and squalor.
Being slightly low on funds at important times such as Christmas and birthdays I've always made things and part of my defence for continuing to hoard is that anything can be created in an emergency.  This Christmas I bought two half-size hotwater bottles from Poundland and made covers for them from some beautiful, accidentally felted cashmere jumpers that had been given to me (do donations count as part of my hoard?)

I was so pleased with these that I immediately went out and bought 15 more hotwater bottles, and more whenever I saw them, with great plans to become a hotwater bottle millionaire by Christmas 2011.  They have resided in a cardboard box underneath a pile of fabric for the past 4 months.  However, the New Plan involves making things to make me happy, which will hopefully also make some money, and these are my first step.  I'll keep you posted.

The wedding outfit.

Wedding invitations are beginning to arrive more regularly.  It's that time of life when my peers are making big commitments.  Having a sedate social life which requires disappointingly few opportunities to dress up makes these events all the more exciting.  You'd think with months to prepare I would have planned, bought or made everything well in advance.  This is never the case.  I am the Queen of the last minute; if buttons were sewn on and hems in place before leaving I would be certain that something was wrong.  As far as I'm concerned the lighting for putting on make up is best in a taxi, bus, passenger seat, reflection of a shop or car window near to the venue; mascara and eyeliner should be applied at traffic lights, and nail varnish goes on quite well over speed bumps.
So, to the outfit. Not content with my already heavy workload or stress levels I decided to make a jumpsuit without a pattern and combining 2 parts of different outfits from patterns in 2 sizes.  Why make things easy when you can over complicate to the max?

Flaired palazzo pants with the top half of a dress.

Cutting it short, it all worked out.

The jumpsuit complete, I bought  hideously naff jacket from  charity shop, shortened it, made some matching buttons, and sewed in some of the jumpsuit fabric inside the cuff to tie it all together.  

As I've said, time management is not my strong point.  The jacket was altered and buttons made on the train from Worcester to Dorset on the morning of the wedding, the button corsage broach was made in my tent 20 minutes before we left for the church, and hair and make up was done in the back of the car.  No obliging shop windows meant I didn't actually see the outfit on in it's entirety until I got home.  Lucky, very lucky.

The 5 year coat.

Right, I started this coat a while ago and then somehow it got left, life moved on and it got forgotten.  Well, I've had a sort out and got it finished a couple of weeks ago.  I avoided buttonholes as they are not my forte, so it has giant poppers instead with lovely vintage buttons on the front.
The coat is a classic princess cut with tabs at each side on a high waist.  The fabric is a a beautiful loose plaid.  It was 50p/m in the John Lewis sale so,  getting very carried away I bought 15 metres.  The coat has take 3.5m.  I have a lot left.  Perhaps it should form the basis of a collection?  It could become my 'signature' fabric. Anyway, here is a completed coat.  Only 11.5 metres to go.  Any suggestions?

Hiatus

Well, as you can the blog didn't launch with much energy.  Many things have changed so hopefully I can keep this up to date regularly.