A tote

This should have flown to Oz in December for a Christmas swap, but thankfully my partner is in the US on a three month trip. Whew, she bought me some time. She already knows,I confessed. At the moment she’s either at the Grand Canyon or their heading back home and planning their next destination.

This is what I made for her. The tote is simply cut as a rectangle to the size you want. Many free patterns online for these kinds of totes and others.  I had made this little heart ornament last year along with many others for Valentines day. I kept a couple, I just knew somehow, instinctively that it would be needed. I had more of the upholstery fabric and it grew into a tote bag to match the heart. The lining was also from the drapery section of the fabric department and just fit so perfectly. The colour is a bit off in the picture, it’s more of an olive green to match the straps.

Flowers are made from a pattern I got from Snazzie Drawers. Just follow the link on the right side of the page, to her Snazzie Drawers Boutique patterns. These flowers are from her Juliette pattern. Of course there is nothing like the the original, but I’m quite happy with the first time out of the gate making them.

My Room

I made a sign for my room today. Not entirely sure why I did, but it seemed necessary to do that, maybe just to add a bit of humour. I told someone what my sign was going to say and she wondered if I got it from the movie with Colin Firth.

I haven’t seen the movie with Colin Firth yet, “The Kings Speech”, so I didn’t know about a line in the movie, but I was told it’s something like, My Castle, My Rules.

This is my bit of silly creativity for today and totally not inspired by the movie, it just popped into my head and now it’s facing the door to my workroom for all who enter to see. It might be my way of stating the obvious.

I used my two favourite things to inspire me, my pal Patrol, (still miss her like crazy) and Jesters/Harlequins, and all things related to them.

Dirty Little Secrets

Taking a lead from Susie McMahon on her blog post, I have done a clean and sort. You have to highlight the first part of her post to read it, the text is the wrong colour, but it’s worth the read.

The difference with what Susie did, is that I went through the rest of the house as well and did this. Thank goodness I don’t have a mansion… Be thankful for smallish compact houses with just the right amount of room…lol

Once my new desk arrives next week, all things crossed, I will get that set up and show you the final piece of this project…. I have to admit it was all worth it. It’s eye opening to see what exactly can happen when you don’t pay attention to what’s coming in. I kind of slacked off about my “when something new comes in, something old goes out” theory. Now I’m pretty much on track and will be able to go through things as I have a few minutes.

There are a few small things to sort through and I can do that at my leisure, but the worst is over and I can see everything I want to use all around me and know exactly where things are and that cloud of “where do I start” is gone. I was unable to even work at my table even though it was uncluttered, but the rest of the room was just so full I couldn’t concentrate. Now the fog has cleared and it’s full steam ahead with projects.

Have a great weekend and look at what I accomplished. One of the charity groups comes this morning and I’ve put out the two stacks of banana boxes and the rest will go next week to another group, sharing the wealth and all that….lol  Someone is going to think Christmas is early when they start to open the boxes…

More repurposing

With all my swamping out in the last few weeks, there have been some things that I just can’t part with because I just know if I think a little longer before acting, I can find a way to “make it work”…Thank you Tim Gunn.

I used to teach painting classes from home, and have had over time many ways of organizing my supplies. This is one of those wood pieces. It’s meant to hang on the wall, but you’d bring the wall down hanging this filled with paint bottles. It’s meant to hold those 2 oz. paint bottles and the depth of the slots is 3”. The paints are gone now and the stand remains. This holds 100 bottles and has to be good for something don’t you think.

I found a great use for it. Some time ago I used another wood piece for all my black and white fat quarters. That has worked out great.

I have been wanting to put all my batik fabrics in one place because I would like to make a table topper for my dining room table and some table runners and the thought of trying to find them all in my stash has been putting me off. See where I’m going with this.

I got busy yesterday and hauled out all my fabrics and filtered out the batiks. They are now properly sorted out, rolled up and placed in colours in this new wood stand, and that’s not easy because batiks have so many colour changes. The extras, not a lot, are stacked next to it. It looks great on one of my worktables and now I can actually see what I have.

Today I’m taking a day of rest. I will show you the fruits of my other labours another day…

Repurposed

For the last 4 years or so, at least once a year, I have been given some real fur coats due to someone that has passed and the gifters weren’t  sure what to do with them. While I don’t condone the killing of innocent animals for their skins for those who feel the need to be noticed at the expense of those innocent animals, I also felt that given the age of these jackets and stole, it seems like it would be dismissing them out of hand to throw them out. If these can be given another purpose, lets do that instead.  These date back decades. I don’t even know the type of fur they are.

The only way I can stand the clothing being made is by those indigenous people who live in the northern and remote parts of the world and need the warm of the skins for survival and in those cases the animals are completely used, for their skins and for food.

This is how they first looked.

A couple of weeks ago, I sat in the middle of the living room floor and dismantled them. The insides on some of them were so old, they had disintegrated and I kept getting sprayed with all manner of debris. It took a good couple of hours but it’s done. I saved the buttons as they are quite lovely and the insides made up two garbage bags on their own. What’s left is a mishmash of pieces. This black one that I have no idea what it was, came apart in a variety of different sized pieces.

Two of them came apart in relatively solid pieces. Still don’t know what they are, but I think they will work for teddy bears.

The last one came apart in many small pieces that I will use for small dolls and ornaments.

I am treating these skins with respect because that wasn’t shown to those animals when these clothes were made. I am also thankful that today, the idea of using real fur is so abhorrent and those who want to wear them have chosen to go the faux fur route.

Morgan

I have been so busy this last few weeks. It started when I was taking Christmas decorations down. I decided to thin those out as I went. My house isn’t getting any bigger, but my collection of decorations was and a lot of it was just sitting in the boxes each year not being used, no room for them. So time to pass them along to someone else.

I did manage to finish one doll that’s been staring at me for ages. It’s a design by Judi Wellnitz, The Stump Sisters.  I chose a simple but pretty doll to work on using one of the batik fabrics I’ve collected. I think she looks so pretty in blue. I gave her blue suede gloves and used a piece of real fur trim that I’ve had for eons. She reminds me of Morgan Fairchild when she was younger. Haven’t heard much about her in a long while.

I haven’t been to creative otherwise. I was feeling stuck and then realized what it was. I needed to do a clutter clearing of my work room and get organized again. I think tons of others are doing the same thing right now judging by the blogs I’ve come across where others are confessing their sins. I have to confess to, that I have purged so much out of here, it’s scary.

In my own defense, much of it is things I kept last year at this time knowing I would definitely have to keep those things, because of course I would use them during them through the year. Famous last words. I was very good this time around, I really tossed and tossed and tossed. Tomorrow I have to go and collect boxes and start packing it up to give to whatever charity group phones first. I think it’ll have to go to two separate places, yeah, there is that much…. A good dose of watching Hoarders helps with the motivation side of things to. Works on hubbies to… ;o)))

Anyway, my workroom is in pretty good shape now and I feel like I can get back to work in here. The spring cleaning has started early around here to. Oh boy can I find work…..

And here is Morgan and I’m off to read.

Life is like coffee….

Just a quick post today, more to follow soon. Have been busy….

I got an email from a friend and thought it was just a good way to start off the New Year with a positive and thoughtful way to go through the year.

It touched me because it’s something I say all the time. Be grateful for what you have, a roof over your head for security, food to nourish, and the ability to move around freely wherever you go without fear of what’s around the corner. Don’t worry about the things you don’t have, be appreciative of what you do have.

This short clip really says it all in a simple way.

Life is like coffee.

One more time!

We decided to spend one more day busing around before hubby goes back to work this week. Our first stop was Swan’s Hotel for breakfast. A great building with a long history. In the summer the flower pots all around are filled to capacity and there is a lot of activity all around the area. Follow this link to read up on this part of town. History of Swans Hotel.  Considering the time line and the background of the area, it’s great to see that the building is still going strong.

From there we headed over to the bus stop to go down to Cook St. village. Along the way we passed the chalk art I showed you the other day. Some of what the artist had done, was gone, but there were two new ones, just as beautiful as the others. He loves the old masters work and I think he’s fabulous the way he captures the emotion on the faces of the people.

We ended up getting on the bus at the wrong stop so we got a tour of another part of town before we headed to the village. That was funny. It was so cold outside, I didn’t mind being in the bus longer. When we left home, it was –5C and only got to maybe 1C during the day. I would rather have had snow, at least with snow it feels warmer out.

So we got to the village, but unfortunately most of the shops were closed. We had planned to go to Abkahazi Gardens next, but when we arrived there, it to was closed. Hmmm, poor choice to go out on Jan. 1st. However, we’re going to go back there. It has such a wonderful story behind it and the fact that so many cared enough about the gardens to work to keep it going and to raise the money needed to have it protected under the Land Conservancy speaks volumes to the value of the gardens.

Next stop was Oak Bay Village. We walked a few blocks to the village from the bus and passed by the shoe cobbler. I saw this doll in the window and just had to take a picture. Isn’t he great. Wonder how long ago he was created. Sorry for the glare, but through the window was the best I could get.

By this time I was so cold, it was time to find a nice place to have lunch and rest up. I had been to the this place once before and it was good. This is a picture from up top where we sat. This is the Penny Farthing Pub.

We sat next to a great old fireplace that was still decked out with Christmas decor. I got side tracked looking over the decorations.

Lunch was great, the environment was to. We thought we’d check out one more stop on the way home. We grabbed the bus again and headed off to Hillside Mall.

Of course this mall would be open, it’s always open…. WRONG….I couldn’t believe it, CLOSED.The rest of the people who were pulling on the doors were just as surprized. That mall never closes except Christmas day….

Darn….. back on the bus, head home and collapse in the heap on the sofa. Really tired, we walked tons, and it was cold cold cold (by our standards) and it was just really good to get home and put the tootsies up. I have a much better appreciation of what the homeless go through in colder weather….and so appreciative of what I have.