Paper paper everywhere.......

Recycled paper and tea leaves.

Papers hanging to dry on a kitchen cupboard.

More papers drying tide between the legs of the two tables in my sewing room

Three impatiently dried with the iron and cut to size finished pieces.

Today has been a very messy busy day making homemade paper for the new brief in uni. The brief is to make a minimum of 36 different handmade papers each one measuring A5.  Today I have used recycled photo copy paper, envelopes, two boiled bananas and a handful of boiled red onion skins. I sprinkled a couple of the plain recycled paper sheets with tea leaves and another with dried Rosemary herb. I managed to make about 25 sheets of paper that now hang all over the flat in an attempt to dry out. However, I was rather impatient and tried to dry a few of the papers by sandwiching them between sheets of paper and ironing them dry. This was not the greatest idea and I decided to let the rest dry naturally.  The dead line for this brief is the 28 November but it is a bit of a time consuming task so I must organise my self and set aside a good few hours every couple of days to enable me to complete the brief. The next batch of papers will be made from celery, pomegranate, and sweet potato.

Michaela's a little doll

Michaela effigy is finished, well almost, she is missing her boots and her scissor. Hopefully her scissors will be here tomorrow but her boots are not due to arrive till next week.  Michaela came today to do my hair and she thinks her effigy doll is boss. Here is a picture of Michaela's kit that she takes with her when doing peoples hair next to her little effigy kit. I am so glad she liked it and once it has been assessed at the end of the year I am sure it will take pride of place on her work station at home.

A postcard, an effigy and a rainbow.

Beautiful delicate fabric postcard from my friend Lin in France.

Effigy of my lovely daughter Michaela in her role as hair stylist. (notice the rollers in her hair)

A gorgeous rainbow over St James Church.

I received this amazing card from my friend Lin in France one day last week and I have been meaning to thank her.  However, time just raced by and I forgot until Lin asked me yesterday had I received her card, I felt really awful not thanking her as they are a special thing to receive.  Once again my apologises Lin. The truth is that lately there are never enough hours in the day for me as I have so much to do.  It can be quite overwhelming that there are occassion when I can't do anything because I mentaly shut down. The past few days I have been working on a new effigy for Uni this time round I chose to make one based on my lovely daughter Michaela. I concentrated on her job as a hair dresser.  Last night I burnt the midnight oil and finished her overall and hair. Notice the hair rollers, these are made from a straw I obtained from subway.  Today I will decide weather or not to draw on a face or leave it blank.  Before I could start the overall I had to nip to Abakahn for doll stuffing and on the way home the heavens opened and the rain bounced off the floor. Luckily I did avoid getting wet and as I sat in my sewing room stuffing Michaela doll, the sun came out and two rainbows appeared over St James church which is the view from my sewing room. As you can see I only managed to capture one the other was rather faint but I asure you there where two. :)

Family, uni and postcards..

My life has become hectic and the weeks are just racing by. A couple of weeks ago I was at Sefton Park to cheer on my Daughter and Grandson as they did the "Splash Dash" and raised £100 for Claires House. So very proud of them both.  I was keeping on top of my Uni homework and all was going well until I was knocked of my feet with a horrible cold and I am now playing catch up on everything.  I have had very little time left to sew but each week I send my neice Paige a poscard.  They are not always fabric homemade cards but this weeks one was, I made her this little owl.  I showed it to Colin who said it looks like ET and he has eaten Ready Brek? I didn't have a clue what he was talking about until he held the card up to the light and the yellow fabric becomes a transparent glow leaving the under body and the heart shape face of the owl making him look like ET who has had his Ready Brek.  I am sure some of you will remeber the advert for Ready Brek porridge.

Starting over....

This week has been so hectically busy as I have returned to Uni. I forgot how long it took to get there and how tiring the journey made me.  The course is full time but we are only in Uni for two and a half days which means the remainder 25 1/2 hours study is to be done at home hence the large amount of home work. Colin does not go back to college until the beginning of October and has been a star helping me adjust by sharing the housework load bearing in mind he also works full time and then some.  He did the washing but then left me a mountain of ironing which I tackled yesterday before tackling some homework. However the star attraction of the week was this gorgeous fabric postcard I recieved from Barbara C who now lives in Spain. It is titled "the last daisy chain of summer" I love it, thank you so much Barbara and I hope we swap cards again soon.

Exciting times..

My niece Paige is off to Nottingham Trent Uni at the weekend we are all so proud of her as she worked really hard to get there.  I have made her a cushion and some bunting to help put her own stamp on her uni room. This is the first time I have made bunting and I am more than happy at the way it turned out. I gave Paige a choice of what colour bunting she would like and she chose black and white to match her bedding.  However, the cushion is a complete surprise and I am sure she will love it. I designed it today and only took a few hours to make. 

A new toy.

A few weeks ago I purchased a Sizzix Big Shot machine. I had been drawling over one for sometime thinking it would be an asset to my crafting but on getting it home and having a few goes I was a bit disappointed.  I bought two die cutters, one being a set of various size hexagons, even though I swore I never wanted to see another hexagon after completing C&G.  However, with this machine I can cut out perfect hexagon templates every time so rather than just leaving it to collect dust, I have started making some hexagon patches in the hope that one day it will become a quilt. Unfortunately, the die cutter will not cut through fabric, not sure why maybe you need specific fabric die cutter (I need to enquire). In the meantime I am simply drawing around the next size up die template directly on to the fabric then cutting them out by hand. Its been nice having some hand sewing whilst watching the TV of an evening with Colin.