Polkadot bubble skirt

I've been meaning to try out some new skirt designs for a long time. Other things have come up, and I've never had the time or headspace. But a customer is keen for a skirt for her daughter so I had the perfect opportunity last night to play around with a new design.


This skirt is dropwaisted with a gathered lower tier so it's nice and full.


I lined it with plain orange cotton so that the bottom edge is bubbled instead of hemmed.


I really like bubble hems, so I'm thinking about extending the pattern into a dropwaisted winter dress. What do you think, is it a Go? Maia was quite taken with it, so I already have one vote for 'Yes'...

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City mouse, country mouse

Yesterday we went to visit some friends who have just bought a cottage in Aberfoyle in Stirlingshire. They're lovely folk who are just about to have their first baby in November, and I was curious to see where they have laid down roots for their impending family of three. Within seconds of our arrival, the kids were in the back garden on the swing set:


We don't have this, we have a communal back garden that's landscaped. With nine retired neighbours who watch our every move from the window lest the kids disturb the garden. Let me pan out:


That spot of water that you can see is Loch Ard. And let's swivel around to the other direction:


Those are (I believe, pardon my ignorance) the Trossachs. We went for a walk down their quiet lane towards the village, and met a stream and bridge:


And a further three minutes down the road, a playground right at lochside:


Here's a random Bavarian milkmaid with a rather fetching bag me at the playground:


And a closer photo of Loch Ard:


And the boys admiring the view:


And another swivel to the side:


We had such a nice day, a glorious day, a perfect day... Well, minus the fact that Maia was foam-at-the-mouth jealous that Daddy's friend was named 'Jamie' and not Maia, and cried half the way home as our Jamie rubbed it in.

I grew up in the woods of northwest Connecticut, no neighbours for miles, just forest. Wild animals, adventure, tree forts, and freedom. No threat of traffic, no worries of 'predatory strangers', my parents let me and my friends roam free in the woods for hours in the age before cell phones. We were around, somewhere, and that was enough. We would come back when we were hungry, or tired or it was getting dark. And we did. But growing up in the middle of nowhere made me want to live in a city, I wanted what I never had. The convenience, the culture, the architecture, the history, the bustle, the ready-made friends just next door. But that's just me, I wanted those things. And now I've chosen this city upbringing for my children. I've started agonising over this decision. We live in a city of half a million residents. We live near a very busy road. We worry about 'predatory strangers'. We live near green spaces but they're not our own. Is is right my children won't have the freedom I did? The glory of nature that I did? I'm torn.

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Something cool, something clever, something random: Part two

Something cool:

I had my first sale on my relaunched website yesterday, one of these:


And not only that, when I was just about to share my excitement on Twitter, I saw this:

Double cool!

Something clever:

Steven brought home some chocolate buttons for the kids last night. I didn't want to open them because it was too close to bedtime. But Maia was pestering for a treat, I said she could have one if she went wee on the potty. She has never done this, she hates the toilet, she hates the potty. Despite being physically ready for potty training, she is resolutely against the concept. How smug I felt that those buttons wouldn't be opened. But with the specter of chocolate looming, she plopped herself on the potty and promptly deposited a capful of wee. And so a single button was given. Five minutes later, another capful of wee, another button. Five minutes later, another capful of wee, another button... And repeat four times. This little game of tiny wees and rewards was only cut short by bedtime. Clever little minx.

Something random:

Elton John tribute pic.

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Further proof that my life is unfair

I've grown up a lot in the two weeks I've been in my thirties. I realise now that it was silly for me to look for age-inappropriate crushes. Let face it, they were boys. Boys who wanted to shag their mums, or commit crimes against hairdressing, or geeky boys that are too cool to acknowledge crushes even after being harassed by Vonnie. And I don't need boys in my life. Neither do I need men. What I need is hot vampires. I dare you to look at these pictures and not agree with me.


For those of you unfamiliar with True Blood, this is Eric. I was doing a lot of *ahem* research last night for this post and I'm not the only one who's obsessed. Here's my favourite geeky graphic from the awesomely named 'F*ck Yeah Eric Northman' fan site: It's one of life's great injustices that I have never been in a vampire love triangle. But a girl can dream, right? So with the final episode of series two looming this weekend in the US, here's how I think it should go:

Wow, check out that girl over there.

(Looking coy)

I can't stop thinking about that girl.

Listen, Eric, have you told Sookie yet?

I've met someone else.

I need some advice, how am I going to find out who she is?

Don't worry, I'll Google her.

Look, here's her blog.

Hey, she's really funny.

But what's this she posted last Sunday?!

It was her *sob* wedding anniversary?! She's married! Nooooooo!

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It's disguise time

Maia gave herself a goatee yesterday.


Even Jamie was disappointed in her.

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Website Pop Quiz

Fourteen hours of straight editing, uploading, tweaking, deleting and coding of my website has driven me demented. So let's have a quiz to recap.

1)Which is harder to edit?
a. A Mr Site website
b. A Phd thesis on quantum physics, in Russian

2) True or False: Making changes within the editing function will go live when you make them.

3) Which takes longer?
a. Paint drying.
b. Manually clicking each item to move it's position up or down.

4) No matter how many times you retype your hyperlink, clicking on 'Hoodies' will take you where?
a. Hoodies.
b. A porn site.

5) A picture you are trying to upload keeps distorting. What do you do?
a. Cry.
b. Give your computer the finger.
c. Decide not to sell that item anymore. Too many bad memories.
d. All of the above

6) You have no choice but to update every single price and offer Free Shipping. Why?
a. Sometimes Mr Site does not add any postage anyway and you lose out.
b. Sometimes Mr Site levies a triple postage amount and you have to refund.
c. Both a and c.

Despite the sarcasm and griping, my website is back in business, and I think it's the best it's ever looked. There are still a couple of things I want to change / add, including a fabric gallery for custom orders, but I can't face it today. So please stop by and buy lots of things check out the new format and contents! Oh, and let me know if you find any crazy links.

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Getting back on the horse

When I was young, I used to run road races with my Dad. The races themselves were fine, I enjoyed them, but I hated training. My Dad used to say, 'It takes three weeks to get in shape, but only one week to get out of shape.' It was true and I didn't like it at all, I'm a destination kinda girl.

So here I find myself in the same situation, not running, but sewing. And pattern making. And grading. I took almost a whole month off when I was on holiday, and it's taking me awhile to get back to where I left off. I'm incredibly frustrated. Before my customers go running into the hills, let me qualify this by saying that my actual sewing is going fine. My new machine is sewing more beautifully than I remembered machines could. Please forgive me, old sewing machine, I didn't appreciate how badly I'd been treating you.

But before I went on holiday, I could look at something and think 'I know how to make you'. And then I could make a mental list of what order I had to do everything in. And I could pull out a pattern, and remember how to make it bigger or smaller by moving lines and changing ratios. I was so immersed in The Business that it was easy (ish). But it seems that everything I've made since I've been back is tricky. I struggled with the bag, I struggled with the wallet. And then last night I made Steven a cozy for his Creative Zen. I took pictures as I was going along for a tutorial, but if I was to post it now I would have to call it 'How to make an Ipod cozy when you have too much time on your hands'. End result? Just as I wanted. The journey? Too long.


This actually would have taken me about 15 minutes if I had got the order in which to sew things right.


So I think I'm all set, I've been pushing myself hard too make things (like accessories) that I have no experience of. And for what? That's not My Business. Sure, I needed a bag and a wallet. An Ipod cosy is just about the only thing I could make my husband that he'd accept. But it's not what I know, not what I've been working so hard to get good at over the last year. My shops are re-opening tomorrow.

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