the least gossipy gossip ever...

Oh my, I cannot do mornings!  Anyone that remembers the state of my blogging when the bathroom was done may want to stop reading for a week or three as builder is back and this time the Utility room is coming into being....  This is ultimately good news, it will be great when its done, and builder is a nice chap to have around for a couple of weeks, but...  Unfortunately this means I have to be up every day before 8am.  Now I know, I know, I can hear many of you tell me that few people like *having* to be up before 8am every day... but it really messes me up.   I end up spending the entire day falling asleep and the night that follows, waking up...  I can neither stay awake nor stay asleep!!!  However, I hereby promise not to moan about it. Well not too much anyway....   I just thought I'd let you know what's going on.

Man is still at sea, and no doubt now hoping he'll be at sea a bit longer too!  Ah bless him, he just cannot stand home maintenance, and he really truly didn't know that until after he'd bought a small, bizarrely constructed 1906 three storey town house, every inch of which in dire need of repair or replacing...  He is, fortunately, a trusting soul and so far has not objected to my little touches... the (now covered in cushions) window seat I had put in the living room, the not gay at all rainbow tiling in the bathroom...  I'm sure the yellow dotty flooring I've just picked will go down a treat!  Well, he will leave it to me...

Photo from the website - Avenue flooring, bubblegum range

(Man loves it by they way - yay!!)

These are my little happy treats, and they cheer me up when the house has been getting me down.  Its not always nice being on your own in an old house, especially when you're a paranoid numpty like me.  If you're going to be living alone and you want to get a pet for company and reassurance  I can tell you now that a scaredy cat is no bloody help at all!  She gets freaked out by noises as much as I do...

"WTF was that?!!  Did you hear it???"

There was a cracker the other day, sounded like rubble sliding down a cliff face....  I'm assuming some dirt just slid down between the wall and the plasterboard.  And don't get me started on the musical floor...  There's barely a step on the stairs that doesn't talk to you when you tread on it.  Such are the joys of old houses!!

No, not where I live...  This is Park Hall.  (I should point out its not a "good stone building" either, it was one of the early concrete houses. Still stunning though, and one I absolutely love!)

I have always been a passionate advocate of old housing.  I have indeed been known to rant like a mad woman when I see yet another soulless, identi-kit house defacing the landscape going up when there are so many buildings, good stone buildings, beautiful characterful buildings being abandoned to disrepair because they don't have scope for en-suites and oh how terrible, no double sodding garage...  oops, ranting already.

Anyway... I digressed.  Just a little...  but you're lucky I can string a sentence together to be honest!  I did get a bit of sewing done before builder started, but I didnt get photos.... It was just doing some free motion quilting and then binding on a childrens panel to finish up one of the quilts for my local Project Linus.  I hope to do a lot more of that this year too.

Well, quilty plans and ideas are brimming to overflowing in my tiny brain just now.  I wonder if it coincides with my least active periods on purpose?!  To update the situation with my FAA membership (Fabric Addicts Anonymous) I have failed big time.  I must be due a suspension... or a hefty slap on the wrist at least.  I have 2 parcels on their way.  They will be the only arrivals in February though, of that I am quite sure.  Right, I think that pretty much covers the last 2 weeks!  The thick grey soup has lifted from the sky and the house is actually not dark for the first time in a long time.  Damn... now I can see just how badly I need to hoover...  better try and do something boring practical whilst I'm still awake!
Laters peeps x

Make your stamp worth while!

A couple of weeks ago bag making guru Lisa Lam was having a giveaway for some Moo Business cards, and I was one of the lucky winners.  When Moo contacted me with my free business cards code, I cheekily wrote back and said if they didnt mind I'd much rather have postcards if at all possible!  Dan from Moo was delightful and said they didnt mind at all.

Now, obviously, openly, I got a freebie.  Giveaway, its all there in the name.  I am not, however, under any kind of obligation what so ever to blog about them - no-one is twisting my arm or hypnotising me or paying me or nuthin. I'm just telling you all about them cos I was impressed with the service and I love the product.

The only difficulties I had setting up and ordering my Moo postcards were in choosing what photos to use - no matter how nice I make something, almost all my photos of my makes are pants!  Seriously.  2 1/2 years of making and blogging and it was tough to find photos I liked... Terrible terrible lighting.  No garden for pretty background, no washing line for quilt hanging.... Anyway.  Eventually I settled on my photos, and the rest was simple.

My postcards arrived pretty quickly.

Another thing that impressed me was the packaging, you can remove the Moo slip cover and put your own business card on the plain box if you are giving them away or selling them, crafty huh?

Best of all tho, I love my postcards!

Dunno what Moo made of my swearystitching, but honestly, no crossed-fingers-behind-back, it just happens to be one of my better attempts at photo taking, thats all....

Randoms ... (but still very sweary)

When I only get a few days in a week that I am up to "doin stuff", the week can go by quickly and if the "doin stuff" wasn't all that interesting, well...  Meh.  I've been sat here thinking "almost 7 days since my last post... what on earth have I been up to?".   Friday had been the big shop day, so that wiped me out as usual.  I did have a nice day on Tuesday, a really good natter with my good friend the Local Quilt Shop lady.  But other than that?  

Not bloody much.  

I did get this done, and I think its rather pretty.  You don't want to know how many hours that took!  Lets just say that 65% of those were incredibly knotty.  And I have never figured out how to take a thingy of thread, find the end, pull, and not turn it into a birds nest.  (Precisely why I'm putting them all on cards).

And I did get my other sweary stitching done, and I think its pretty too.

Not an original idea I must point out, I saw it HERE on flickr first, by shootcoward.

Its a pressie for a mate of mine.  A very awesome mate of mine.  For why?  Example.  

In the run up to Christmas just past, she got to go to a gig by someone we were both positively loopy about when we were teens.  I would have absolutely LOVED to have been there.  So when she was there, and she got to go back stage, she actually thought of me.  She got me a signed Merry Christmas from them!  How freakin awesome was that?!  

   

Anyway.  I keep my fingers crossed that tomorrow I'll be awake and get back to some quilty sewing.  Meantime, just in case, please leave a helpful comment -  

"Sarah, next time you've done f*** all but sleep and stab yourself with needles every time you attempt to sew for days, why not entertain us by telling us . . (insert suggestions here). . . ."

January with a NSFW tail...

Perhaps not the biggest list of makes for a month, but for me... I'm pretty pleased!  The blocks were the most fun, I was getting quite carried away. 

Other than that I've been stitching...  

Leanne of She Can Quilt is one of my favourite bloggers.  Having met her in London I can say she is such a lovely, calming, straight forward person - all around us was chaos and an absolute racket of noise, but chatting to Leanne was just so lovely all of that just faded away.  I enjoy reading Leanne's blog too, as her work is just awesome.  Her improv and her work with solids especially inspire me.  And I'm Scottish, saying something "inspires me" still makes me feel uncomfortable...  Ach, she's no bad.  Phew that's better.  Anyway...  Leanne said she was making a wall hanging with ways to say NO.  I asked if I could contribute a Scottish one.  She seemed keen...  (she hasn't seen it yet!!!)  Now the Scottish No is either no, naw, or nut.  So I elaborated a little and did the equivalent of "no way".    Its sweary.  Of course.   

I chose a flowing font and chose to do it in white because I didn't want this to look harsh.  I am not speaking for everyone in Scotland obviously, but in my opinion we / some of us / I swear quite a lot, and a lot of the time it is not actually said in any kind of harsh tone.  For instance, this would be more commonly used in situations where the implications of this response lie more along the lines of "No, not likely, and you're a little bit cheeky to ask".  I was going to do one that said "no on yer nellie" which is the same thing more or less, but apparently "not on your nelly" could be Scottish or Cockney!   Ah'm no havin that.

Looking at it on the photo I'm disappointed in the doodles... I had some super sweet pastel colours so I thought a little bit of doodling round the edges would be fun.  I did draw it out first, and in marker they looked enough.  However they seem to be disappearing and look a bit like an afterthought, which they were not....  Oh well, Leanne, feel free to ditch it!!

I certainly enjoyed it.  I'm working on another already.  In fact, I'm gathering quite the list of profanities and inanities...  Really, I'm surprised how easily they come to me......

It's not often I manage to get a post done on the first of the month so I'm pleased I get the chance to link up to Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day.  Have a look there yourself!