Showing posts with label days out. Show all posts
Showing posts with label days out. Show all posts

Friday, 4 March 2016

Hatmaking: Workshop at the V&A with Bink Pearls and Swine

So I'm not and never will be a milliner, but I adore Binks creations and as soon as I received the email informing us that she was holding a workshop at the V&A, I bought a ticket. Immediately. Which is just as well as it sold out shortly afterwards. As did the extra day they put on. Fast forward several months, and it was time to go! Due to rail replacement services I had to drive to the next town rather than just hop on at Huntingdon, but I was at Kings Cross by quarter past 9, plenty of time to nip to Wasabi to buy some sushi for lunch, then make my way to South Kensington to the V&A.

The only thing that irked me about the whole day - I did not have time to have a mooch around the V&A. Theres a shoe exhibition on right now that I really wanted to see. Alas, not enough hours in the day, which is a fairly common whinge from me!



I chose the pink ship for some reason (my head was shouting 'gold, gold' but my mouth said 'pink')


We started off by sewing on ivy leaves, then picked our flowers. I went with a pink tinged white rose and just carried on from there. 

The workshop was so much fun and I got to meet a whole hoard of lovely ladies. 


So many beautiful creations.






Honestly it was such a lot of fun and I'll definitely do this again. 




Tuesday, 18 August 2015

Bagmaking: Dolled Up Train/Vanity Case in Zebra and Cherries! Plus: frocks, days out, and clearouts!

Its still the summer holidays. I'm still not getting much done, however I can show you my most recent completion.
This is a really lovely pattern, but quite hard work. Its the larger train case from DiedelbugHandmade, and as I was commissioned a very long time ago to make a vanity case for an old friend, I decided this would be the pattern I would use.

The spec was basically zebra, pink and cherries for a teenage girl.
It was supposed to be just a 'box' rather than a 'two piece' but I could not resist making this pattern.
The lid has space for brushes etc, and then the bottom has a clear zipped pocket, then space for larger items like hairdryer/bottles/tongs and so on.


The pattern is very clear, but there is a LOT of cutting out to be done. My machine struggled around the edges where foam interfacing met foam interfacing.


Overall though I can't quite believe it went together so well. You just need to follow it slowly, step by step, and it does come together. 


One day, I will make one for me!

In other news: Noah had his first taster session at the olympic gym. He loved it, but sadly they are only on in the school holidays, for a few sessions, so next time probably October.


I had a wardrobe clearout. 6 bags of clothing gone. This is what my wardrobe looked like after the cull. Too many dresses for the tiny space on the left. 


So I took out that bar on the right and re-arranged. Ta-da!!


We visited Burghley House and the beautiful grounds. This coincided with a family fun day, so the boys got to do activities, followed by the Gardens of Surprise (water gardens)







I bought some dresses. Because its August LOL.

This Hell Bunny is very cute.  Please note - I had just come back from aqua aerobics so Im' not looking my best. Also, our bedroom has since been cleaned :)


This Lindy Bop May dress sadly didn't fit at all. Bodice too long. I'm holding down the sleeves here as otherwise they sit an inch above my shoulders. Also skirt is a bit A-line - I'd prefer more fabric. Too much work to fix. Went back. Love this fabric, although I do own 4.5 metres of it so one day I'll make my own :)


I purchased items in the collectif sale. Two Fairy dresses for our hols, and a Dietrich swing coat. (work toilet shots - nice)


I love Collectif, as their dresses are generally very flattering, although I had to take some little tucks in at the neckline to stop it gaping. I also reduced the bodice  length by 2 inches on the pineapple dress. Haven't got around to doing the atomic flamingo mods yet!


Love this coat. I've been wanting for ages. Well its my birthday this month so, y'know, why not!


I completely changed my mind about what I'm wearing to mother in laws wedding. It will now be this:


Its the atomic flamingo design- but this is Dolores style (the one with cap sleeves which I modified a while back because they were TOO TIGHT) The sourpuss bag is one I won from Audrey Stars Boutique/British Belles. The shrug was ebay. The shoes MohedaToffeln. I have since bought a slim belt which I may or may not wear :)



Other news:

I sold the tent! 
I bought (another) paddling pool! 
The Punto failed its MOT (boo hiss) and the Peugeot required over a grands worth of work (faints) but otherwise - its going well!!






Monday, 27 April 2015

Two nights out in a row!

Friday night - St Ives for Nics work leaving do. 
Restaurant Molise was the venue.
Its a bit sh*t frankly. Won't ever return, however it was lovely to see my friends.

Anna

Anna gets her pud

Nic gets her pud too!



Gerbil faces with Nic.

I can't even be bothered to review the restaurant properly. The food wasn't very nice. Not awful. But mediocre. I had to leave half of my flabby, wet, microwaved lasagne - and I am not a food leaver. The staff were friendly, but the service was bad.  It was fab to see my friends though. Since they both moved to Norfolk it doesn't happen that often (we're all working mums, so finding time to meetup is always tricky) but its all about the quality. Of the meeting up. Not the food :)

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And so on to Saturday night.
Into London to see another set of friends. I've known this lot since we worked together in London in the job I started in 1999. These are my Logica friends. Although it hasn't been Logica for a long time. Its current incarnation is CGI. There are some faces missing but I hope to see them next time we get together.

They'd been out during the day at the Fashion on a Ration exhibition. I am jealous I didn't get to go so I'll not mention it further ;)



Alice, Tanja and Sonya


 Tanja looking baffled

 Alice getting sozzled

 Sonya looking more demure than she actually is :)

Then on to Bacco
Wowsers.
Bit more refined than we're used to, but they are doing a 50% of starters and mains at the mo. 


Didn't quite have time to take photo of the amuse bouches before Alice whipped hers off the plate!
TBH its not the sort of place I felt comfortable having my phone out to take pics. I certainly wouldn't have dreamed of asking the waiters/esses to take a group shot!

The food was stunning. Way better than I'm accustomed to. No more expensive than the place I went to the night before though (with the offer)


I won't pretend I know what half of the stuff on the menu was!


These were awesome. Tanja ordered them (courgettes) as a side. They had a kind of tempura batter. Delicious!



Unfortunately my phone packed in and I couldn't take a photo of my pud (a sort of rum baba thing on some syrupy stuff with crispy bits LOL)


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Due to vast food consumption (and only drinking from 5pm and not noon like the rest of them!) I wasn't hungover next day, just very very tired (Noah doesn't care if I don't get to bed till 1.30am - he's still up at 6) So we headed to March so they could visit fossils galore - and there was a St Georges day festival on! 
We also headed down to our local park. 


Looking for treasure at Godmanchester riverside.


Hunting for sharks teeth @FossilsGalore


March Museum


'Dig' box created after the visit to Fossils Galore


Noah being eaten by the St Georges day dragon


John rescuing a football


My boys hunting for 'Roman artifacts'. We acquired 3 other small boys too!


Saturday, 11 April 2015

Its the Easter Holidays. Time to entertain the children...

Its the Easter holidays. Still. So I've had quite a bit of time off the day job to play with the boys. Its not over yet and I feel like I need some time to recover (I'm at work today - downtime LOL)

We've done all sorts. You  can't really leave a 5 and 8 year old boy at home to entertain themselves all day. They start rampaging. They are a bit like puppies - they need regular exercise.

So just a few pics of what we have been doing (in no particular order). Sewing has had to take a back seat!

 
woodcarving

sandbathing

moatmaking

upside-downing

stately home touring

more upside-downing

eye-testing (Optician decided that Joey needs glasses so specs-ordering also)

milkshake bar-ring

museum trailing

swinging

gardening

baking

choosing

by-the-river-ing

friending

more woodcarving

climbing


waving


glueing


skating

and getting saturated :)
.