Oh I do like to be beside the seaside.

I love the seaside. I miss it, and especially as it's (supposed to be) getting in to summer, I really really miss the sea. Not that I ever really properly lived by the sea. I lived in Portsmouth for 3 years whilst at uni, and managed to go to the beach almost every day, even though it wasn't a proper beach, or amazingly nice, I just love the sea air, and the feel of sand or pebbles beneath my feet.

So as soon as my niece was old enough to stand and walk, I took her to the local parks to play in the sand, as I feel it is very important. I spent most of my childhood holidays outside or on the beach somewhere licking pebbles and eating sand, which is why I believe that I'm so healthy as an adult, I got all the germs in there when I was younger so my body got on and dealt with them, and now I'm thankfully very lucky to have a good strong immune system.

I love my niece, and I know she's only little, but she can be a little bit prissy about things and doesn't like getting her hands dirty (one of her favourite games used to be 'wash hands' - weird child). So i feel it is my duty to teach her to do more outdoory things instead of her more favourite watching tv. Luckily, there's always a Nana (or 2 in this picture) around when I'm home to come and entertain the little one with me, and so when I was home for Easter, we took her to the park to teach her how to make sandcastles.  

Although Nana is possibly getting a little more into it than my niece is, she did love it. So we taught her the important art of building sand castles, and then I taught her the even more important art of jumping on them!! I've heard so many stories of mums nowadays not encouraging their kids to share with others that I feel this was important lesson to learn - have fun with it while it's there, but then there will be plenty more things to play with after, so there's no need to get attached to just one thing. 

On saying this though, I did have to keep swapping spades with the little one when making the sand castles, as she kept insisting that mine was the better spade and she wanted it....I will learn one day!!

Spring Sewing

So one of my friends mentioned at work last week that she'd been reading some of my blog posts and laughing to herself at her desk and it made me realise that I hadn't written anything for a very very long time. And suddenly it'as mid-May!! Where has the year gone?

As a pretty standard response would be when asked 'What are you up to this weekend' the answer has been sewing, and lots of it. And of course some drinking cider. My current project, apart from preparing little bits for the Roxeth School Fete, on the 23rd June, is making cushions. And a lot of cushions.

One of the Art directors who I work with had a massive box of African style batik fabrics, and a lot of cushions and mattresses and so thought that covering them all would look fantastic, but just didn't have the time. So I was entrusted with the box of beautiful fabrics, and asked to make a lot of cushion covers. 36 in total, to be exact. 27 cushion covers and 9 mattress covers.

Now I'm quite a pro at making cushion covers, not that there's really much to it, and so it doesn't actually take me too long to make one, if I concentrate. Maybe half an hour for a standard size cushion cover, and an hour for the mattress covers.

But the problem is concentration. I am so easily distracted. If there's no one at home, I can probably concentrate and sew properly for a good few hours, and be very productive, An example of this was yesterday morning when my house mates were all asleep and so I made 8 cushion covers in a row without stopping, even to go on the internet.

However, when they're in, I struggle a lot more as I constantly want to wander in to the living room to see what they're up to. Or I even get sidetracked with other sewing projects. In the midst of cushion making I have half made a very pretty dress, and felted a fair few new strawberries for various projects.

I'm just waiting on some Velcro to arrive to sew down the lengths of the mattress covers, to get them on and off, but apart from that, after this weekend, I should have pretty much finished them. That is if I get off my computer to stop blogging and get back to sewing.

Easter Biscuits

I love going home for Easter. It's obviously not quite as exciting as Christmas, but in my house it's still pretty exciting. My mum follows the much lesser known tradition of having an Easter tree which is basically a few twigs from the garden, with some hama bead decorations on, that me and my sister made when we were about 8, but it does brighten up the fireplace....and the kitchen window sill where she chose to have a second Easter tree this year!

We also have a lot of Easter biscuits. As I've grown up baking and eating these, I just assumed that they were what everyone baked and ate at Easter. However, when I first went to uni, and brought a supply back with me after the Easter holidays, I discovered that no one else had ever heard of them, and thought that me (well my mum) had made them up!

There's no easy way to describe an Easter biscuit, as the cassia oil in them has such a distinctive flavour that there is nothing else really like them. Basically, they are round, buttery biscuits, with currents in them, flavoured with oil of cassia - sort of like spicy thin shortbread, but not really.

The recipe is quite simple: Mix 8oz of butter, 8oz plain flour, 2oz of self raising flour with 6oz of sugar and 2 eggs. Add in some currants and a healthy dash of cassia oil and you're done. Roll them out thinly, cut out some circles and bake for about 20 mins. Then when you've eaten a few baking hot ones straight out of the oven, brush the rest with milk and sprinkle some sugar on the top. I think they are quite possible my most favourite type of biscuit!

Cassia oil is also known as Chinese cinnamon so I suppose they are a bit cinnamon-y. According to Wikipedia cassia oil should be consumed in moderation as it can be toxic, but can also help people with diabetes. Hmm, I think I'll stick to eating lots of them. I haven't poisoned myself yet, and may as well try and stave off diabetes!

Some Winter sun

I was lucky enough to fly off to South Africa in January for some winter sunshine. Sadly not for a holiday though, this was a purely work visit. Still, it was 41 degrees one day so it was a very lovely escape from the grey winter dreariness in England.

We stayed in a gorgeous house in Kommetjie just outside Cape Town which was overlooking the beach, and shot on the beach outside the house, and on Scarborough beach, and on Nordhoek common.

We've just been editing the behind the scenes video in work and it has made me wish so much that I could be back there right now in the baking sunshine!! Even if it is nice and sunny outside, it is definitely not warm enough to be in a bikini and there's no sea or pool to dip into!

And I was thinking that it has been like summer here recent'y with some beautiful sunny days, and even a picnic in Green Park....but at the moment it's forecast to snow on Wednesday!!! In Richmond!!! Ridiculous!!!

A Mini Adventure to Paris

Last weekend, I took a mini break to Paris with a few of my friends. It was something we'd been talking about since January when the Eurostar was on sale, but by the time we actually organised it, it was £150 so annoyingly we had to fly instead. Although I was lucky enough to have enough British Airways airmiles to be able to fly for almost free and in style so I didn't mind flying too much.

We had a rare day of really hot March sunshine, and so spent the Friday with bare arms and feet which was lovely, and I'd forgotten how much I love Paris!

It was amazing to discover that you can get in free to almost everything if you're European and under 26 so we made the most of this and went to St Chapelle, which was stunning with the sun coming through the windows, and to see the Degas exhibition at the Musee D'Orsay, and to the Pompidou centre - very cultured.

We also found a fantastic food market really near our hotel, which was full of locals and had some delicious offerings (I smuggled lots back in my suitcase) and a huge vintage market north of the city. Here I could have spent hours wandering around through all the little lanes, with shops crammed full of all sorts of exciting curiosities.

I of course bought some buttons - there were millions to choose from and I very conservatively bought 5 (I had to limit myself or I'd never have stopped with the buttons), and also an apple core necklace (which my house mate thought was real, and disgusting!)

I spoke a lot of French while I was there and really didn't want to come back - but as it's so close to London, I'm sure I'll be back very soon!

Prop Making

One of the most fun parts of my job is being asked to make props for various photo shoots. This is really exciting as it could be absolutely anything - and made from almost anything.

My first creation was a kite to match an anorak and wellies which would be worn by a child running along flying the kite. As it was very last minute, and we didn't have any spare fabric, I had to but up an anorak to make the kite. Combined with some kebab skewers which I found in our 'man' drawer in our flat, and some pretty ribbons, I think I made a pretty good kite!

(Shot in Camber Sands on a surprisingly sunny September day)

I had a few small commissions in between, but then my next big challenge was to make a Bedouin tent, out of some of the SS12 dress and skirt fabrics...which was about 6ft tall....and could be packed into a suitcase to be transported to South Africa! 

Luckily, I found a gazebo which although it didn't quite fit into a suitcase, it was well within oversize baggage allowances and so easily transportable onto the plane (along with the other 47 suitcases we took!!). I took off the existing boring green cover, and transformed it into a floral Bedouin tent. 

I was pretty pleased with my result, although my sewing machine nearly over heated after all the miles of straight stitching in one day. This tent took about 7 hours to make, and used about 40metres of fabric. But looked amazing.

We did put it up one day to be in the background of some shots, but sadly it won't actually appear in the background of any of the photos. Very sad. Still, maybe next year?

So, my most recent challenge was to knit a cover for a small stool. Didn't sound too hard, except that I can only actually knit squares or decrease. I'd never exactly mastered increasing. Not one to say no to a challenge though, I watched a few you tube videos on how to increase, and had a bit of a play and although I think I may have invented a new style of knitting - I managed it!

These were my instructions...

My halfway through the attempt....

And the finished result. Once again, I am very very proud and will look forward to this appearing in the catalogue or on the website very soon. Well, in about 6 months really when the AW12 collection is actually launched. 

Pretty Patchwork Quilt

I am very proud of my completed very pretty patchwork quilt!! It is finished and sitting on my bed, looking lovely of course!

After searching through my vast collection of fabrics, I decided that I actually needed something completely plain to go around the edge of my quilt, as nothing else I had really matched both sides! So I paid another visit to my lovely little fabric shop just down the road (Akhtar Fabrics - 154 Willesden Green High Road) and bought some plain white cotton to make bias binding for the edges. This I machine stitched on one side, and hand then folded it over and top stitched the other side, as I would have done with normal bias binding. 

I think it looks lovely with it's 2 different colour ways, and am very proud of my first quilt effort!