Monday 19 November 2012

Paris, mon amour

We went to Paris.
It was the longest time we'd spent together, minus children, in five years.
Five years earlier we got married, and our time alone together was our honeymoon. Oh Paris, what a lovely way to spend an anniversary.
I have to tell you, Paris, that I'm in love with you. So is the lovely husband. We want to come back.
I'll tell you something else: we discovered we're still in love with all the same things we loved pre-living in toddler world. Pottering through churches, getting eye-drunk in art galleries, little quirky boutiques, architecture, culture, lazy lunches in cafes, impressive dinners in restaurants, too much walking, and philosophical discussions about our lives.
We are also still in love with each other. Head over heels. Not bad after nine years together.
There's still a little Paris clinging on to us. It took me two weeks to bring myself to clean the Paris dust off my shoes. I'm not planning on dusting off my heart any time soon.
That's a little Monet-inspired triptych for you. Wait for us, Paris. One day we'll be back.
 
(Pictures, top to bottom and left to right: The Eiffel Tower from the Pont Alexandre III; vintage car near the Grand Palais; Champ de Mars from the second floor of the Eiffel Tower; the Champs Elysees; Eiffel Tower; the oldest working clock in Paris, on the Palais de Justice; inside Notre Dame; the Memorial des Martyrs de la Deportation; chalk-board sign at the famous bookshop, Shakespeare & Company; the ceiling of Sainte Chapelle; the Eiffel Tower at night.)
 
All photos by my talented husband except the last, slightly rubbish phone photos of Eiffel Tower.
 

Friday 16 November 2012

Stitch a card? Genius!

It was my mother's birthday. I made her a bag (more of that later). I made her a card from the same fabric. And, oh, I am in love. Why have I never stitched a card before? And would I be completely mad to attempt to stitch all my Christmas cards this year? As usual I've got so many more plans than the capacity to complete them.
 
PS A belated happy birthday again, Mum. You are just super.

Thursday 15 November 2012

And the times, they are a'changin'

I want to talk a little about autumn, but I'm afraid you're going to have to put up with some rubbish mobile phone pictures to go along with my wonderings. I really need to get around to reading my phone's camera instructions. Or nagging my husband to bring his camera everywhere we go.
The trees above are just a month apart, but look at the difference. I've read elsewhere on the web that the autumn colours are disappointing this year, but those thoughts are coming from bloggers in the south of the UK. Up here in the north, things are glorious. There seems to be much more yellow than usual, in beautiful oil-paint vibrancy. Autumn has been slow, too, with a hesitancy to move through to full-on winter and not enough storms to blow all the leaves away. The lingering is much appreciated. I'm looking up everywhere I go. I'm enjoying it with feet in crisp cornflake-like leaf fall, and eyes in the deep yellow hues of a revelling autumn. My nose always accepts an invite too, for there is that beautiful mulchy decay in the crisp air, and wafts of wood fire waiting to surprise you as you go.
It's such an amazing time of year for walking. Oh you just have to get out in the woods, accept the mud that cakes your walking boots and buggy wheels, and take scarves and gloves that will be peeled off in the autumn sunshine. It's not just the leaves that delight, but there have been fungi treats everywhere. I can't help but look out for them. On trees, in grasses, wherever the damp and decaying can be found. Every time I wish I'd brought a mushroom book with me. My favourites are the bubbling mountains of frogspawn-like blush fungi like in the photo above, right. Or the giant crescents that grow out from trees above your head, like a shelter from a storm. 
We enjoyed the berry season so much, mostly on the hoof as it's pretty hard to get a small child to pop a jewel of candy-like blackberry delight into a box to take home rather than their mouth. Now I'm seeing the shrivelled, dried-out remains of the blackberries that were ignored or forgotten, and will give themselves back to nature. The undergrowth is thinning and the evergreens, hardly noticed the rest of the year, are starting to show off again. The robins seem so much more profuse, although they were here all summer long, and I choose to conveniently forget that they are not the sweet, timid little creatures we like to think they are. Autumn is, after all, as much a fantasy of our concoction as a reality of decay and Darwinian dances. 
Every year in spring I think, "no, I was wrong about autumn and this definitely is the best season". Come every autumn, my allegiance changes again and I crown it king. I like these two changing seasons the most, when the world wakes up and then goes to sleep again.
 
The pine cones, acorns, spinning jennies and conkers are the jewels I'm coveting now. I want a cape of crisp autumn leaves, mustard-coloured like so much of the tree decor this year. I want a crown of mushrooms with a robin on top. Well, I accept I'd look just a tad ridiculous. I shall just have to put on my outdoor gear and go kick leaves.


Wednesday 14 November 2012

I have sewn...

... I've created a new page on the tabs above - 'I have sewn', showing many of the things I've sewn. Feel free to take a casual look or use it if you'd like me to make you something. Here's a sneak preview...
 

Monday 12 November 2012

Sunshine on a rainy day*

(* yes, you have to sing that)
Does that cheer you up a bit? Chatsworth in the summer. And that's the back of the Little One when he was a bit littler.
How about this? It's a Malteser birthday cake (Nigella, naturally, and found in 'Feast') that I made (again) for the Big One's fourteenth. Yes, fourteenth. I feel ancient.
 
Or this? Pumpkin pie for Halloween. It was a Hummingbird Bakery recipe that I slightly over-did with the cloves. But it was universally loved.
 
It's been rainy both actually and metaphorically. Really, really hard. One of those days when you never catch up with the version of yourself that's getting it all right. When you get to the end of the day and feel like, although you've hardly stopped all day, your list of things you wanted to get done still lies unaccomplished.
 
I have so much to do. And blogging isn't on the list so goodbye friends! Let's hope tomorrow's better.
 
 

Wednesday 7 November 2012

Toddler's builder's belt tutorial

Surely I'm not the only person out there with a sewing machine and a number of very little builder friends?! I've made three builder's belts in the last few months, and I figured a proper tutorial was in order for any other little builders out there. I've never written a tutorial, but I'm not afraid of something new so let's go!...
 
 
This belt should fit your average 2-4yr old with room to grow. The pretty belt above was my first attempt, which is why there's a pocket on either side of the belt's velcro 'buckle' and some tool loops too. When making more, I found it better to have the loops on one side and the pockets on the other, which this tutorial shows you how to do.
 
1. Cut out your belt fabric. Use something thick like canvas that won't require any interfacing. Cut one strip of 66cm x 10cm. This will be your belt. If you have a toddler waist nearby to measure, measure it and adjust accordingly! You need a decent overlap for a long-ish piece of velcro that will allow for growth. Cut another piece of 26cm x 9cm and another of 26cm x 6cm. These will be your tool pockets.
2. Fold your longer, belt piece in half along its length and press with your iron. Fold both of the shorter ends in by 1cm each, press and then sew to secure.
3. Now for your pockets. Fold over 1cm of a shorter end on both, press and sew down. Then fold each piece in half to make a pocket, and adjust so that you have 4cm of fabric exposed at the top as in the picture. Press with an iron. Make sure your sewn hem faces outwards.
4. Now, sew down each side of the two pockets with a 0.5cm hem, making sure you backstitch at both ends and that the backstitch at the pocket top runs right over the hem fold. Remember, clumsy toddler hands will be trying to force hammers into these pockets!
5. Turn your pockets inside out, using a knitting needle or similar to get into the bottom corners. You will notice that just above the pocket top the single-width fabric naturally folds over at an angle.
6. Press your pockets with an iron, pressing the natural angled folds at the top of the fabric too (see picture). It doesn't really matter where the tops of these folds peter out, just that they match on both sides of the pocket (in my case, there's about 1.5cm unfolded fabric left at the top). Then use a zig-zag stitch on these folds to secure them and prevent fraying. Make sure you don't sew onto the pocket part itself. There must be a better, neater way to do this but I'm still too much of a beginner to know it!
7. Now return to your belt fabric. Unfold it. Cut a 4-5cm piece of velcro, separate and sew one part in place about 0.5cm below the long fold on the belt at one end, and just clear of the hem on the belt end. Do the same at the other end of the belt with the velcro twin, but on the other side of the long belt's fold. I.e., make sure your velcro matches up when belted (one piece visible on each side of the belt). Sorry, this is a bit hard to explain so I hope it makes sense! Have the scratchy side of velcro facing outwards from the tummy so that your toddler doesn't get scratched by it.
8. Right, let's make the tool loops for the belt. Get a new, contrasting piece of ordinary fabric that's at least 40cm long and 10cm wide. Fold it in half longwise, press, and fold each half in half again towards the middle and press. All the folds should face the same way - see photo! You won't necessarily need use the whole length of fabric in the end, but you can't know how much you'll need until you start sewing.
9. With the fabric folded up, sew along the open length to make a quadruple thickness length of fabric. You needn't sew up the short ends: we'll be sealing them in a minute.
10. We're going to start sewing the tool loops in. Place your canvas belt flat down, unfolded and with velcro facing up. Fold the end of your coloured fabric over by 0.5-1cm, place on the belt about 2cm from the end of the velcro (so that, when worn, the other end of the belt doesn't touch it) and just below the long belt fold line. Make sure your coloured fabric runs parallel to the canvas belt. Also make sure your long seam on the blue fabric faces down so tools slide in unimpaired. Sew down.
11. Time for your judgement. I can't give you measurements here, but just allow a nice loop that will hold a tool, sew another parallel line down to hold it in place and keep going. Remember the loops need to be accessible, so don't extend them beyond where the child can reach back. I make the loops all slightly different spacing and tightness to allow for different tools. If you have the toy tools to test as you go, lucky you! Once you have 3 loops, cut the end of the coloured fabric to the right size for your fourth loop then sew down.
12. We're almost done. Time for some assembly. First, fold the long lengths of your belt over to make 1cm hems and press with the iron.
13. Now place your two pockets on the other end of the belt to the coloured tool loops you've just made. Place them inside the belt, 1cm down from the belt inner fold and with the first pocket 1cm from the end of the velcro on the other side of the belt.
14. Carefully holding the pockets in place, fold the belt down over them and pin in place. Mine were not as precisely measured as yours will be, hence being slightly different lengths! Now you need to finish the assembly by top-stitching the whole belt: sew down the short end of the belt then all along the length and up again. Your topstitching will seal both the pockets in place and should just skirt the bottom edge of the coloured tool loops.
15. It'll help you to see the whole thing. From left to right: non-scratchy velcro on the other side of the belt end; then two pockets; then a gap where the child's back is; then the row of tool loops; then the velcro facing upwards at the other end (just visible). And yes, that's my shadow in the bottom right corner. I'm such a masterful photographer (insert sarcasm here).
Shall we have a look at the belt all assembled and fastened?
How about from above? Or with tools in?
And for good measure, let's have a few looks at the first belt too.

There you go. I do hope your little builder enjoys it!