It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas....Jumpers!!

I don't know what's going on in the world at Christmas this year, but there are a lot more Christmas Jumpers making appearances. Maybe it's a new comfy weird craze, like onsies, or maybe its due to yesterday being the official Save The Children 'Wear a Christmas Jumper' day. Anyway, I've seen a massive amount more Christmas jumpers around this year, from the normal funny patterned almost ski style jumpers, to the amazing reindeer, Santa and penguin themed numbers.

We decided to celebrate the 'Wear a Christmas Jumper'  day at work yesterday, for the fun of wearing silly jumpers, but also to raise money for Save the Children. I was out Christmas shopping a few weeks ago with a friend  and she wanted to go into Primark. No I usually avoid Primark as it gets manic, and also I don't like looking like I'm wearing cheap clothes, but as it was a Monday, and so wasn't busy, I though 'why not?'. As soon as we got in we were bombarded with Christmas Jumpers. They were pretty cool, but nothing that made me feel really excited, and also I thought 'well everyone will be wearing them' and I HATE seeing someone else wearing the same clothes as me.

My boyfriend also has the same day at work (although on Christmas Eve bizarrely) and he wasn't too bothered about looking for one, so I thought I'd go downstairs in Primark and have a look at the Men's jumpers to see what was about. The children's section also happens to be downstairs and as soon as I came off the escalator I'd found the Christmas jumper I wanted!! Sadly they had already sold out of the bigger sizes (other adults I bet!) so I had to get a 9-10 (which actually didn't fit too badly) and I was so so so excited about what I was going to do to this jumper!!

Now above is the jumper so I bought it, which was pretty cool, but I immediately thought what can I do to it. Ideally, I would have wanted to make my own jumper, but having never actually knitted a while jumper before, there wasn't at all time to learn before the day, so whilst I was very happy with this purchase, I felt like it was a challenge to customise it as much as I could! So I started with bells for all the snowmen's scarves, so now I had a nice little jingle, and then went onto sequin stars for the tops of the Christmas trees.

Now the back sadly is just plain Navy, so of course that would never do! I painstakingly cut out the letters 'Merry Christmas' and hand stitched them onto the back. Much better. I also added some red pom pom tape around the next, just to finish it off. Again, much better.

Now the final touch was my exciting plan, which was that I wanted it to light up! I excitignly found some coloured LED battery powered lights which were perfect, and thereaded them through the knit in the jumper and voila! It was finished, and perfect. The reactions of most people when they saw me in work were 'Oh my goodness - did you make that???' Exactly the reaction I was going for and it made me very happy!!

(teamed of course with my Johnnie b tutu skirt!)

I'm now planning how many more occasions I can wear it on!! I've got at least 4 others planned which I am very very excited about!!

Time For Another Quilt & Other Christmassy Activities

It was around this time last year that I started thinking about making a patchwork quilt as it seemed so horrifically cold out that I just wanted to be wrapped up warm and snuggled in a cosy patchwork quilt. However, it wasn't until February (when we tend to be a bit quieter at work) that I actually got round to making one!

My house has the heating set on perma-high (it did used to be an old peoples home so you've got to keep them warm) so it has been lovely this winter, considering my old flat pretty much had icicles hanging from the ceiling. Still it didn't stop me from waking up in the middle of the night last night feeling very slightly chilly and wishing that I had my quilt.

Some of the girls are off shooting for Summer 2013 at the moment which seems entirely wrong given the current below freezing temperatures! For one of the props, I was asked to make a patchwork quilt in lovely soft ice creamy colours. I loved making my last quilt and so even though this one was much simpler, I really got into making it and it was very much fun. It also looked really cosy and warm so I imagine will end up wrapped around a fair few babies this weekend on the shoot, as well as being laid out on the floor!

In other festive news I have pretty much done all of my Christmas shopping!! I haven't actually been out yet with the intention of doing some Chrismtas shopping, I just keep finding things which I think other people will like so it is very exciting! On a day off my and my friend Kate had to have to use up some of our holiday before the end of the year we went ice skating at Somerset House which was just so beautiful and magical! We then went for mulled wine for breakfast afterwards which was even more delicious and a perfect way to get into the Christmassy feel.

I'm off to make my Christmas jumper now so watch this space....

Can A Bee Ever Be A Rabbit?

This is just one of the very normal questions we ask ourselves on a daily basis at work. So my latest prop challenge was to make a rabbit piñata for our Easter shoot. Everyone thinks December means Christmas and time to get the Christmas tree out but in shoot season, we shot Christmas way back in June and July, so are now on to a rather belated Easter shoot. No wonder some of the models were confused when we were cracking out the Easter Eggs and chicks!!

So for one of the props to make for this shoot, I had to make a piñata in the shape of a Bunny Rabbit. I didn't have time to get out the papiermache and make a piñata from scratch, as we only had a few days before the shoot, and all of the bunny piñatas we could find for sale online were horrific! And terrifying!

So I thought buying a Bee piñata and converting it to a rabbit would be best as it was quite cheap and looked like it could be the same shape. Plus they did next day delivery so that was sorted.

When the Bee arrived.....I was slightly more worried! But as I'd said I was easily able to turn it into a Bee I got on with it! I started by ripping off the antennae, wings, legs and all the tissue paper and then got to work covering it in white crepe paper. I quickly added some wire bunny ears which instantly made it more recognisable as a Rabbit, bit mainly it just looked like a random creature which had been wrapped in bandages!! I had to leave at this point to run off and buy some meringues, and when I got into work the next morning, my creature was also wearing some silver baby sandals.....now it looked really odd!

I carried on wrapping, and cutting and adding some wire feet and slowly the Rabbit started to take shape. This is the finished product and I am very very pleased with it!

So the answer to the title of this blog is yes! A Bee can easily be transformed into a Rabbit!

Tim Walker

All the girls from work went to see the Tim Walker exhibition at Somerset House while I was away working in LA and I was very very upset to miss out. So when my Mum said she was spontaneously coming to visit me at the weekend, and wanted to see something fun at a museum somewhere, I instantly suggested it.

Having never heard of Tim Walker, along with my auntie, they were both a bit dubious, and until my cousin said he was planning on going as well on the same day, they weren't sure. But as we both wanted to go, and they just really wanted to see us both they agreed to come along. My dad also came along with us on a short stop before flying off to Cape Town (as you do) and again, I don't think he was completely sure.

Once we got into the first room though, with the model of a aeroplane, and the photos including the plane, my dad was hooked and thought it was pretty clever and cool. My mum and auntie were not so convinced though. Until we got into the second room. There the swan boat in the centre of the room, and the stunning way the dresses and outfits were captured to look like models, figurines, fantasy stories, and instantly they were hooked.

I loved it! I love anything that's a bit quirky, fun, upside down and just not normal and so this exhibition was like a dream to view. The addition of the models such as the giant grasshopper playing a violin, and the sand in the corner of one room made the photos come alive with such vitality that you wouldn't be surprised if you walked along the street and saw one of the images re-enacted in real life. It was mesmerising!

I've no idea how long we spent in there but it was a world away from the cold and rainy world outside and instantly I felt buzzing with ideas of things to make, design, draw and write about, it was such a fantastic exhibition. I've since mentioned it to some of my friends and will go along again with as many of them as want to go as I would happily go 2, 3 even 4 times.

My favourite shots were the ones in Namibia with the Leopard just casually modelling away in the corner, and especially the shot taken through a fly screen scrim. Equally, the shot of the girl on a statue of a horse coming into a conservatory littered with pillars and other statues was another favourite. Meanwhile the bed made from human bones (I didn't notice this until the 2nd time I looked at the picture) was mesmerising and horrifying in equal parts. Either way I massively recommend this exhibition to everyone, and on top of that Somerset House is such a beautiful venue, you don't need an excuse to go and visit!

Croatia has a lot of steps & so does Montenegro!

Croatia has a lot of steps!! I'm sure that I had read this but I didn't really pay much attention, but we walked up a ridiculous amount of stairs in Croatia...and in Montenegro too!!

So as usual, I had too much holiday to be used before the end of the year, and just about managed to squeeze in booking a week off between finishing shooting Spring 2013 and starting shooting Summer. Me and my boyfriend had been talking about Croatia all summer so thought why not, and booked some flights. Much to the horror of my colleagues, we only took hand luggage (it was going to be sunny and you can fit a lot of dresses in one hand luggage bag) and also didn't book anywhere to stay! They thought we were mad!

The benefits of going to Croatia in October is that there are far less tourists (meaning old people wandering off their cruise ships) but it is still warm and sunny, and plenty warm enough to swim in the sea and go snorkelling. The downsides are that everything switches to 'Winter' from the 1st October and so lots of shops and restaurants close down, and the ferries switch to their Winter schedules which involves not running/running much less.

I definitely think it was worth it, as the slight annoyance of things being closed was way better than being overrun by annoying old tourists!! We spent a day and a bit wandering up and down all over Dubrovnik, and swimming in a little cove with some locals, then headed to the Island of Korcula which was equally stunning, and had the added bonus of also growing lots of grapes! We passed a very happy few days in Korcula drinking local wine, swimming in small coves, and eating pastries! Heaven!

From here we headed back to Dubrovnik, and then onto Montenegro, which had an equally ridiculous number of steps! We spent the night in Kotor,  a beautiful walled city completely surrounded by mountains, and walked up an old fort pretty much to the top of the mountain which had incredible views.

Sadly on our return to Dubrovnik, the sea was incredibly churned up and so although we headed back to our little cove to swim, we were scared of death and so didn't get in the water. Still, an amazing holiday!

All Things Green and Beautiful

I've been having a bit of a love affair recently with spinach. As a child I refused to eat spinach if it was called spinach as I declared it to be slime. However, my clever Granny used to call it holly and I would happily eat up my holly if it was put on my plate as I thought it was really hardcore and cool to be able to eat something so prickly!

I was given a soup cook book for my birthday by my house mates and one of my favourite and most cooked recipe from the book is a spinach and coconut soup - absolutely delicious!

I have made it many times, sometimes with chilli to give it a Thai style soup edge, sometimes with potatoes to make it really thick and creamy, but mostly just as it is as it is scrumptious.

When I haven't got any coconut milk in the house, I have been making a few variations on green soup, with spinach still as the main ingredient. I find spinach just makes you feel better at just the thought of eating it, it exudes goodness, and especially after an exciting weekend with a fair amount of drinking, I feel spinach is absolutely the best thing to be eating to make myself better and keep going for a weeks work.

To make it an ultra healthy soup, I quite often go for a green theme and put in anything I have in the house that is green. As one of my colleagues said today...'ugh - what are you eating' ...it may look like slime, but it tastes fabulous and very, very healthy!

The latest green concoction contains a red onion and vegetable stock cube, as the base soup ingredients, and then also contains spinach, peas, broccoli and celery! Yum!

Some Cushions, Hairbands and a Superhero Cape

So I thought I'd got most of the sewing out of the way for the Autumn shoot season but no...of course there is always more!

So today, as I was leaving work, I was given fabric to make 4 cushion covers for the Baby shoot, some lovely cobalt checked fabric to make a superhero cape and sleep mask, and then some soft silky fabric to make some head scarf ties.

Luckily I had no real plans for this evening other than recovering from a very exciting weekend so I had plenty of time to get on with all of this and sew.

One of the first things I do when starting sewing is to set the ironing board and iron up in my room and get ready to press as everything looks so much better once it's had a gentle press. I also love the smell that the iron gives of and especially the smell of warm cotton and I find the little clicks which the iron gives off very comforting!

Once again, better pictures to follow when the catalogue comes out next year!