Home made bread

Yesterday I baked a loaf of bread, I find nothing makes one feel more accomplished or domestic than baking your own bread, although I have to say lengthy kneading, and allowing to rise does bring out a rather impatient side to me!

Today I enjoyed my bread with home made Vegetable, Lentil and Chili soup which is my current soup of choice, the chilli just lends a delicious kick to it, brilliant for warming on a cold January day.

Shamefully absent

I've been woefully neglectful of this blog lately. Mostly because I've been up to my eyes in research for my final major project. It's pretty intense my but i've chosen a theme that I love which makes it easier of course :)

Here's a peek at some drawings I've been doing

In other, not unrelated news, I contacted the company Jersey Lomellina asking if they would mind sending me some samples of their fabric for my research and not only did the nice lady send them express airmail from Italy, but when they arrived there was a meter of each fabric! I'd expected maybe an A4 sample at most, It's so nice to find a company that doesn't immediately decline to help when you mention the word 'student'!

Which means, there will be more than enough fabric for me to run something nice up for myself, I'm definately thinking a dress of the pink one would be fabulous for summer! :)

Home sweet home

Although I am looking forward to finishing university and starting the next chapter of my life a big part of me is sad at the thought of saying goodbye to the beautiful city of Cardiff and my home here.

I thought I'd share a few of the photos, only the details though, I would hate to subject you to the horrendous seventies textured walls or the mould in the bathroom, oh the joys of student living!

 I've been meaning for a while to properly photograph my flat, every single corner so that in future I can remember what it looked like, I know we always think we will remember these things but somehow the little details slip away and I imagine that in years to come I will look back on even the horrid textured walls with an amount of fondness. So there it is, fully documented.

Lets go fly a kite!

I have a bit of a soft spot for kite flying I must admit, mostly because on one of my first dates with my lovely man he took me kite flying so when I stumbled across this kite cushion on Pinterest I was instantly smitten.

So today I made my own kite tote bag by appliqueing a diamond of felt for the kite itself and then hand embroidering on the details and adding bows of ribbon. I used an existing cotton tote bag that I've had for years, I can't wait to take this shopping to bring home my groceries in!

On another note, I watched The Holiday last night which features the most amazing indoor tent, I can imagine curling up and whiling away a winters afternoon with a good book. Blissful!

Researching

I have been hard at work researching imagery for my final major project, It's scary and exciting as this module is 50% of my entire degree mark so now is the time for working hard and doing well.

My project will be designing fabrics for underwear, I'm imagining lace and ruffles and layers of beautiful sheer fabrics in shades of champagne, ivory and grey. Almost bridal in style but I don't want to design exclusively for the bridal market. I am just crazy excited about this project!

Images found at This is glamorous , Elizabeth Dye & Pinterest



The National museum of Wales

On Wednesday, in search of inspiration, I visited the National Museum of Wales in the city centre. I've never spent a great deal of time there I'm ashamed to say. (forced drawing visits in the first year of uni somewhat put me off the idea)

I think they've re-done a lot of the natural history section quite recently and it's brilliant! I'm quite sad I've been missing out all this time!

 But what I was really there to look at was the porcelain collection, they have a whole room filled with the most beautiful (mostly) welsh ceramics which is an amazing source of colour and pattern inspiration some of the pieces are absolutely stunning, unfortunately they don't allow photographs from the museum to be displayed on websites, so you'll just have to go there yourself to see what I mean :)

Blogging

Yesterday we were given a lecture at university about creating a blog, which led me to realise that I could be utilising this space much more effectively. Being somewhat of a computer dunce there are many things I am unaware of and one of them being the 'pages' function on blogger.

So the task for this weekend is to expand my blog by adding 'About me', 'Portfolio' and 'Contact me' pages, as well as a huge pile of research for my project! I'm actually quite looking forward to it. :)

Paper beads

For Christmas I was given this absolutely stunning necklace made with paper beads,

 naturally I was intrigued and eager to try it out myself so I found this website which has a paper bead making tutorial and I set to work. I am a complete hoarder of scraps of paper so I raided my stash and found plenty of bits of old magazine, craft paper and even wallpaper to use.

 Here are my first attempts, obviously not as neat as the ones on my necklace but I think not bad for a first try, I need to get some clear varnish to protect them and to make them shiny and then they will be completely finished. It is actually so easy (well easy to do, harder to do perfectly but what's the fun in something that's not a bit of a challenge?) and they look absolutely beautiful, and if you use patterned paper you get snippets of the pattern showing through, I love them! I urge everyone to have a try! :)

On another note, I found the perfect place for my heart collage canvas, It's now propped on my chest of drawers opposite my bed where brightening the room with it's cheeriness :)

Rainbow art

This morning I spent ages cutting little hearts out of paint charts in order to make this canvas collage, I absolutely love it, I'm thinking of making more with different shapes to hang alongside each other. I'm much more open to embracing colour these days which I can only beleive is a positive thing :) Not sure where it's going to be hung yet but I will be sure to show you when I decide.



Sewing

Unfortunately my New Year enthusiasm has been slightly dampened by a cold but nonetheless today has been spent happily sewing. Here's a peek at what I've been up to, I'm hoping that these will be finished and ready to be put in my etsy shop within the next few weeks! Exciting stuff :)

Grey

I am absolutely obsessed with grey at the moment, such a diverse colour with infinite shades. And, since helping a friend to paint her bedroom the most beautiful shade of Oyster I am now dreaming of my very own grey and cream bedroom very much like this one found on Pinterest

Also on my to-do list are a grey dress for the spring, i'm thinking layers of chiffon or lace, sigh!

I bought this beautiful quilting fabric yesterday and I'm thinking of a quilt or a bed runner but I think it will probably need a hint of colour too, possibly raspberry perhaps, not too sure? What do you think?

New Year

Well, I have had some time off to relax and now I'm ready to get back to work. 2012 is set to be a big exciting year for me, the year I graduate, pass my driving test, get a job, open my Etsy shop and move in with my boyfriend. (all of these things accompanied by a big *fingers crossed*) It's scary and exciting all at the same time!

I have a few days before university term commences and I am thrown headlong into my final major project and I want to take some time to get on with a few things I have planned in relation to the aforementioned Etsy shop. It's been in the pipeline for a long long time but having the time, the energy and the money to put my ideas into practice has not been so forthcoming.

 I definately want my shop up and running before I graduate in July, only really because, the employment situation being what it is, I would be naive to think I can waltz into my dream job fresh from uni. With the more realistic sequence of events being that I take whatever job I can get my hands on textile related or not just to get some money coming in and then worry later about what I actually want to do.

In that case, I want to have a textile related project going on alongside my day job in order to keep me being creative and motivated, I know how apathetic I can get in a job I don't particualrly enjoy and so  it will be good for me to be doing something I love alongside.

(Completely unrelated photos taken on a Christmas eve walk at Montacute House. I know right, roses on Christmas eve!)