A Domino Effect

Happy Mondays everyone!  I hope you have all had enjoyable weekends, and are excitedly anticipating another week!

My own weekend was by turns relaxing and superbly productive.  On Friday night I went to the cinema to see Inception, which was *amazing* (yes I know everyone has said that, but it was), and on Saturday I had dinner with one of my old flatmates and her boyfriend, which was both delicious (the food) and hilarious (the company).

I baked a batch of lemon cupcakes on Saturday afternoon, which were tasty, if not altogether aesthetically pleasing (this is the defining feature of my baking – tastes good, looks a bit wonky – absolutely nothing like the beautiful creation above), and I had a nose around some of the charity shops in my area, picking up a fantastic long-sleeved print dress in one.  It needs a tiny smidge of work on the sewing machine, but it will definitely be a great addition to the USA suitcase (three weeks and counting!!).

I also got round to dyeing a few bits and pieces of clothes that I haven’t worn in ages.  I bought a white cardigan a few months ago which mysteriously turned a dingy shade of grey after only one wash, and I also have a sundress and a couple of shirts that were looking slightly tired.  The dress was that awful shade of bubblegum pink - eeeeugh!  A blast of terracotta dye, however, and everything is ready to shine once more – one of the cheapest, yet most effective, reinvention tactics there is, I’m convinced of it!

Alongside dyeing (not dying), I donated a carrier bag of unwanted clothing and a couple of old books (I think I’m safely passed the stage in my life where I’ll feel the need to read Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, thank God) to the local Shelter shop, and a few small bits of furniture to the Bethany trust.

This week, I have a number of ‘boring but necessary’ things to do, which are thankfully offset by several things I’m really looking forward to.  In the boring but necessary corner, we have sorting and posting off documentation for uni next year; making an appointment with a careers advisor to discuss finances and listing a bunch of new stuff on eBay.  I was so busy cupcake baking and enjoying myself at the weekend that I completely missed out on the two free listing days – fail.

In the ‘really looking forward to’ corner, however, I have: a vintage fashion fair tomorrow evening at a hotel in the West End; swimming/sauna-ing on Wednesday after work; cushion cover-making with the gorgeous Ikea fabric I wrote about here, and a little bit of writing practice as well, hopefully.

What about you?  What does this week have in store?

Thanks to everyone who left a comment on Friday’s “Choice: Friend or Foe?” post (below).  It’s comforting to know that I’m not the only person who doesn’t deal well with having too many options!  As always, the input of readers to this blog is much appreciated, and the simplest of comments really can make my day, so cheers guys!

Image above courtesy of Flickr – chotda.

The dress above (picture of which I pinched from the t’internet) is from Oasis. Cute, huh? To my surprise, and amazement, I found one in a charity shop on Saturday morning for a measly fiver. It was priced so cheaply because it was damaged – I’ve no idea what the previous owner was trying to do with it, but it had several holes around the waistband, a few frayed edges and it generally looked a bit shabby. I knew I’d have a bit of work to do to spruce it up, but at the time I thought a little hand stitching around the waist and a nice chunky belt to cover up any flaws would be all that was needed.

I got it home, tried it on and realised, to my profound dismay, that I had grossly underestimated the size of me in comparison with the size of the dress (hate it when that happens!). There was NO WAY this thing was zipping up – I would have had to get rid of both boobs and probably a few ribs as well before it would go anywhere. And forget about breathing after that! I was mad, especially because I almost never take anything away from a shop without trying it on first – Saturday was a freak exception which I put down to there being a crazy person with half the stock of the charity shop in the changing room - I couldn’t be bothered to wait.

In my dismal state I put the dress in a corner and settled down in my rocking chair to sulk for a while, whereupon I was suddenly slapped in the face by a colossal desire to be destructive. Before I knew it I was attacking this preppy pink delight with my sewing scissors, hacking the skirt from the waist, severing hundreds of tiny, and extremely tight, stitches and discarding reams of raspberry coloured thread left, right and centre…

A mess, granted.  But there were better times to come.  I quickly made a black waistband from three random scraps of elastic I had in my sewing box, gathered the newly hacked bottom half at the top, and then sewed the one to the other, exercising lots of patience so as to get as straight a line as I could.  Similar to the 20 minute skirt from a few weeks back…

Ta Da! Nice right? And it fits! I could happily eat three loaded platefuls of carbs in this thing and not feel constricted at all! I’m going to attempt this on Friday at the local Italian…

Oh, and I’ve still got this bit…

I’m not sure what to do with it though – it’s far too pretty to throw away, but if it’s ever to fit me it will need serious expansion work at the back. All suggestions welcome!

Happy Mondays everyone! Hope you all had nice weekends doing whatever it is that makes you happy!

I had a lovely couple of days, relaxing in the sun, catching up with an old friend, sewing, sewing, sewing and eating lots of yummy food, including this brocoli and courgette (and cheese, lots and lots of cheese, mmm) pizza, which I made last night. I took a punt and chucked some oregano and some rosemary in with the dough as it was whizzing around in the breadmaker – I don’t know if I could really taste much difference but it certainly smelled and looked appetising!

I also made a start to my list of mini goals for the month, crossing off the first one (it somehow feels more productive to be starting with the very first thing!). So my previously unloved notice board has had a nice little makeover, and is now hanging in my room, awaiting adournement with lots of eye-pleasing bits and pieces. I covered it with some nice cheery material, and pinned a few cards and flowers etc on it to get me started. It’s nice to have a visual reminder of films I’ve seen or gigs I’ve been to, as well as the odd inspirational magazine article and whatnot – you never know where the next idea might take you!

As well as notice board covering, I began work on re-zipping my old raincoat (goal no 8). Well, what a long time it took me to wrestle the old, broken zip out of its hiding place! I thought Primark was renouned for making crappy clothes destined to fall apart but oh no, that zip was solidly welded to the rest of the jacket – it took me at least half an hour and two cups of tea to set it free with my sewing scissors. It’s history now, however, so I’m going to pop to the fabric store later on to buy a replacement to sew on this evening. It feels good to be getting ahead of the game with almost two goals done in the first five days of the month! I’ve also got another exciting, and very thrifty, sewing machine-related tale to tell tomorrow (can you sense there’s a bit of a sewing craze on the loose here at TC?!), so make sure you tune in!

Finally, to complete the thrifty news roundup, I managed to sell all four items I’d listed on ebay! Massive whoop! They didn’t go for much money at all, but they were completely worthless to me, so any cash I could get for them was a profit in my eyes. I’ve now listed a couple of other things, so am just waiting for the bids to start rolling…thanks to the lovely Kat, Caroline and Elizabeth for their sage advice on this. It’s much appreciated ladies!

My first month of mini-goaling was, I think, a success.  I scored 8/10 goals, which is more than can be said for some of the World Cup teams (come on Spain!!).  The two things I didn’t get round to scoring off of the June list were going for a swim, and learning some Spanish (the latter was a failure even despite me having borrowed a ‘teach yourself Spanish’ audio course from the library).  On the whole, though, I think I did alright.  I finished my book, I baked a carrot cake, and I’ve been back on my bike for three weeks now, not yet having been mowed down by a bus, which is great.  Having the little list in the back of my mind has really spurred me on to tackling some jobs I’d been putting off for ages.  The mound of paperwork that was slowly turning my room into an administrative hell hole has shrunk considerably; I’ve found out a bit of information about career development loans (although there is still more to do on that one) and I have a lovely new set of bedlinen thanks to my strenuous but thoroughly rewarding efforts with the sewing machine.  It really is true what they say about pressure – tell someone (or the world) that you’re going to do something and it suddenly becomes a whole lot more difficult to wriggle out of it as I’m so often wont to do.  So in the spirit of continuing to get things done, here is July’s top 10.  I’ll be keeping the list in a separate page at the top of the blog and scoring things off as I get them done.  Going for a full house this month!

1. Re-design and hang cork notice board!

Inspired by Holly’s efforts with her jewellery board, I’ve decided that my cork notice board needs a bit of a new look.  It’s been sitting in my room for most of the year with nothing on it except for some flowery fabric I covered it with ages ago.  I think a makeover is in order…stand by.

2. Organise and implement a fun birthday bash!

The big 24 is upon me next Friday, so I’m going to organise something fun and relatively youthful to do in its honour.  If the gorgeous weather we’ve been experiencing of late can hold out (or perhaps even if it can’t), I’m thinking of having a game of rounders in the park with a few friends followed by snacks, drinks and board games back at the flat.  Tres jollie and inexpensive!  So if you live in Edinburgh and want to join in then by all means come along – unless you can’t field for shit and will let my team down that is (that’s a joke but I am disgustingly competitive).

3. Watch two classic American movies!

This is in preparation for the summer’s big trip.  My film consumption rate is terribly low (I blame my attention span), but nevertheless I feel that there are some real American classics out there that I should probably see before I go state-side.  Laura from Move to Portugal has helpfully suggested Manhattan, which I’m currently trying to get my hands on, and I really want to watch Milk again as well, given the time we’re going to be spending in San Francisco.  If anyone has any other ideas, however, then drop me a line with your recommendations – perhaps I can squeeze in three, or four, or more!

4. Finish the perma-unfinished quilt!

The clue is in the title with this one – yep it’s another unfinished sewing project!  I started making a quilt one summer afternoon a couple of years ago, and I just didn’t ever finish it.  A new job, a house move and multiple other distractions saw it safely into the bottom of a suitcase never to be looked at again.  I’d love to see it finished – it’s a shame to leave something so pretty languishing with no prospect of ever actually being used.  So that’s another one for July.  I’m not sure what I’ll do once I’ve completed all of these half-finished projects I seem to have.  Start a bunch of new ones perhaps!?

5. Wear five things from my wardrobe that I’ve never/hardly ever worn, and document it!

This goal is really a bid to reassure myself that deciding to keep a whole bunch of stuff that the stern minimalist in me tried to put to the carboot sale last month was the right thing to do.  I’m also making more of an effort to hang all of my clothes up rather than leave them draped on a chair or hiding in the ‘to iron’ basket (which is a hilarious name for it seeing as I only iron in dire straits – it would probably be more accurately described as ‘Rebecca’s clothes dumping ground’).  Anyway, the challenge is to actually wear these elusive items of clothing which rarely see the light of day, and to take photos of them to prove it.  Only then shall I be satisfied that they really do still have a place in my wardrobe.

6. Do a carboot sale!

And this is to raise money for my travels at the end of the summer.  I’ve been ruthlessly combing through my clothes, shoes, accessories and other possessions for a few weeks now, and I think I’ve arrived in a position whereby I can put up a reasonably good stall and hope to make a little bit of money from it.  That’s all there is to this one really, it’s just a matter of finding the right date and getting myself organised!

7. Make cushion covers from Ikea fabric!

When I went to Ikea a couple of weeks ago I got some really nice blue material with leaves on, which I think would make adorable cushion covers.  I also bought a couple of ‘naked’ cushions, and I’ve got plenty of thread, so all I really need now is a free evening, a shedload of patience and a gritty resolve not to fall out with the sewing machine.  Hopefully I’ll find myself with both at some point this month and ultra-stylish cushions will be the ‘that was totally worth it’ result!

8. Repair yet more clothes!

I was clearing out a load of stuff for the carboot sale at the weekend and came across an old jacket that I thought I’d thrown away years ago.  I stopped wearing it because the zip went bust, and having virtually no sewing skills to speak of at the time (and very little money to take things to a tailor) I bundled the jacket away and haven’t looked at it since.  But when it popped up on Saturday I wasn’t immediately filled with horror at the prospect of trying to re-zip it, so I’ve decided to chuck it on this month’s list for a punt and see how I get on.  I also have a cream sundress with a strap that’s in need of a little tightening.  It’ll be perfect for the desert temperatures of the Grand Canyon so I’m going to fix that up as well.

9. Make a scrapbook!

Friday 5 several weeks ago was things you’d save if your house was burning down, and one of mine was my so-called ‘memory box’, otherwise known as a bunch of randomly ordered scraps, each of huge sentimental value.  I’ve decided that being as precious to me as it is, my memory box really deserves to be looked after a little better than I’m managing at the moment.  So this month, I’m going to start the mammoth project of scrapbooking the entire thing.  It’ll be like Blue Peter – scissors, glue, sticky tape, perhaps a bit of ‘here’s one I made earlier’…

10. Learn stuff about America!

So I’m not completely ignorant when I go over there.  Simple as that really.

Finally, I’m going to roll over the unfinished goals from last month to this month, adding swimming and Spanish learning to the list.  So I really have 12.  That’s do-able, right?

Image above from Flickr - Curt Deatherage.

I got past what was looking like the curse of having only three completed goals for June yesterday by moving on to finishing the fourth. I bought a kingsize sheet and two pillowcases in this (above) print from a charity shop a few weeks ago (chintzy as all hell, right?). I initially wanted to turn the sheet into some kind of throw to sit on the bottom of my bed, but I soon realised that it would actually be easier, and more practical, to make it into a duvet cover instead. So I bought a plain white sheet from Tesco and just sewed one half to the other, ‘good’ sides facing together. I left a gap large enough on one side to fit the duvet through, and that was really it. Sounds simple enough, right? WRONG!

To say that this one simple project turned into a bit of a drama would probably be to make the understatement of the year. This thing took me a cumulative total of around eight hours, spread over four nights, to complete. I never would have thought that such a simple-looking task could take me so bloody long and cause me so much untold stress and upset. To be fair, the problem is with my sewing machine, not the project itself. My sewing machine seems to want to make my life as difficult as it possibly can by snapping my threads, bunching up my stitches and occasionally just spitting the entire bobbin case out in a huff. It’s like a petulant child: everything seems fine for five minutes and then there’s a sudden tantrum which usually ends with me holding my head in my hands and wondering what it is I’ve done to make this lump of plastic and metal despise me so.

After many, many retries, several hundred deep breaths and a lot of swearing, I finally managed to coax the machine into a place where it seemed happy enough to at least let me finish my duvet cover yesterday morning (that was after I made it roughly half a metre too long and had to cut it down to size)! It’s now on my bed, however, and it looks great. The hard work, sweat and tears (yes, there were tears) was definitely worth it. I also have much-improved levels of patience. I didn’t take a photo of the finished thing because the lighting in my room was terrible last night, so you’ll have to take my word for it. My new duvet cover is probably the most practical thing I’ve ever made on my sewing machine. Combined with the long, hard slog I went through to get it finished, it’s probably one of my proudest home-made achievements to date. Total cost = £11 (£4 for the floral sheet and pillow cases and £7 for the single backing sheet from Tesco). Not bad, huh?