applehead

not too handy in an emergency...

but still lovely to wear! I have always had a bit of a thing for safety pins but was never brave enough to try the through the nose variety. When I saw this necklace by No Tomorrow I just couldn't say no.

A whole string of small sterling silver safety pins all packed in a very handy reusable leather zip purse.

No, they aren't functional and yes, I probably could have achieved much the same look by grabbing a handful of real safety pins and linking them together myself. But I didn't. So there.

Now,if I'm ever in a public place and discover that my hem has come undone, I can rest assured that people will be so busy admiring my necklace that they won't have time to notice the trailing hem! ( of course,they could be busy wondering if I realise that I have a string of safety pins around my neck- either way , I still get away with the fallen hem!)

Oh and by the way I joined in a bit of a fun swap currently doing the rounds of the Land of Craftblog.
Not sure where it started but Pay it Forward seems fairly stress free ( given the time frame!) and everyone get's a prize! This is the "promise"...

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don't know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week... ... but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog  

So if you are one of the first three to request to play along , and agree to post the same promise on your blog, then I will make sure a small surprise will show up in your mailbox in the next year ( hopefully it won't take me that long !).

taste of summer....

and of course, I've just finished knitting most of Rose's winter school cardigan...all I need to do now is knit up the front bands,make it up and then put it away until next year!
Actually, it's hard to complain when the past two days have been warm enough to play around on the beach after school. After all, we still have another month of winter left so I think we best enjoy this mild sunny weather while we can.The best way for us to do that is to head down to Clontarf beach - a beautiful harbour stretch of sand that faces west and so catches the afternoon sun.
And best of all...we had the whole beach to ourselves.....

I did a few scribbles in between building sandcastles and collecting shells.

in the bag

My current on- the- go knitting project lives in a plastic zip case that originally contained hair products. This then gets thrown into whichever bag I happen to be carrying around with me at the time.
It's certainly not very  glamorous but it is practical and doesn't take up too much room.
I have been wanting to replace it for some time with something a little more aesthetically pleasing. Everything I have looked at has been too big,too small, too expensive, too many features. Some were just plain old ugly.

On Saturday I came across a small clutch purse/pouch in leather -simple, functional and lovely to look at. Sigh. I didn't need it so back on the shelf it went.....
Later it occurred to me that the design could be adapted to suit my need for a project bag.

This is a rough sketch of the clutch purse - a bit of tweaking with regard to the size and shape ( I want my bag to be tall and narrow) and a decision as to the fabric I want to use.

And an hour or so to sew it all up of course.

alas poor Yorrick.....

Ann Demeulemeester skull necklaces

I've always had a bit of a fascination with bones and skulls...lucky for me then that skulls are to be found everywhere at the moment. These two beauties were found at Assin on my recent trip to Melbourne. I'm thinking of adding a few jet beads onto the cotton tape just because I happen to like black jet beads.

Skulls don't appeal to everyone - and I'm fairly certain the woman sitting next to me on the plane home did not find them as beautiful as I did.....I wonder what she would have made of this jewelery exhibition by Julia deVille. I loved it, especially the silver rook skull and the jet skull fob. I can only imagine her face if I had turned up for the flight, wearing this brooch.....

bird brooch by Julia deVille

travelling journals...

I'm taking part in Uschi's travelling journal project.
My journal has been made from an old book cover with a new Coptic stitch bound text block.
The text block is made from mixed media paper with a few pages from the original book added in.

A bit of masking tape and my first page has a pocket for holding bits and pieces
( I went to see The Barber of Seville at the Opera House on Saturday. Yes,that was me tearing along the Opera House walk in The Dress and my big black boots,hair flying - sorry if I nearly knocked you over but I was running very, very late. I made it just in time. But only just!)

sketch of The Dress

I know it will take forever to get around to taking a picture of The Dress so I pulled out  my rusty garment sketching skills and did a little sketch. This will give you an idea of what it looks like.The wool shell is a very dark navy .The under dress is a black self striped fabric with a smooth and crisp finish and  a lovely drape to it.
It won't be everyone's cup of tea and I guess some people will think it plain ugly,boring and/or unflattering. It's not a pretty or shapely dress but I loved it the minute I saw it and tried it on. 
It's such a me dress- black ( and dark navy), long and swishy. I only noticed the black velvet ribbon trim complete with bows, that sits in between the two rows of frills on the dress when I sat down to sketch it.
Just another reason to love The Dress.

I decided that I needed to adjust the colours in Photoshop a little after I scanned it- the dark navy shell looked too blue- and at the same time I had a little play with the filters.

Yep, love Photoshop too!

fibre fest...

I am not quite halfway through knitting Rose a cardigan for school. She dislikes pulling things over her head and the other options are either a sloppy joe (looks sloppy and  is a pullover) or a Rugby jumper ( only comes in sizes way to huge for Rose and is a pullover!).As I have only ever successfully completed one (small) jumper for Charlie ( which was actually meant for Rose but wasn't finished before she grew out of it!) I have set myself quite a task. Usually I get bored after a back, a front and a sleeve and wander off to do something else. This time I made a firm resolution not to start anything else until the cardigan was sewn together.

A back and a left front- so far so good.
And then this bit of temptation showed up in the mail and I just couldn't resist casting on to see how it would knit up....

When it is done it will look like this-
It is so lovely to work with that I haven't yet cast on for the right front of Rose's cardigan - but I will.
Tonight.
Right after I knit just a few more rows of stainless steel, silk and merino....
Who would have thought that knitting with the equivalent of sewing thread could be so addictive?