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!

Patchwork Quilt - Somewhere in the middle...

So I'm now halfway through making my patchwork quilt and it's going pretty well. I decided that instead of backing it with just a plain piece of fabric, I would make it patchwork on both sides, but the reverse in a different colour way, so that I could flip it over depending on my current duvet choice, and which mood I felt best suited me at the time.

For the reverse, I chose a selection of pale blue and white fabrics, picking a small spot, a large spot, a check and a stripe.

I love the look of this and it will look beautiful when it's all combined with the pinks, and sewn together. 

I started by sewing the pink side to the wadding, and then sewing this side to the wadding as well. I then commenced the diagonal stitching. However, this did NOT go well! As I tore the fabric into strips before cutting it into squares, I think some of my squares are slightly skewed and so do not lie perfectly flat. 

Note to self: Next time, cut out the squares, don't rip them. 

Anyway, so after a disastrous first attempt, and a lot of unpicking, I've now started just sewing the pink side to the wadding, in lovely diamonds, and this is going very well!

Shouldn't be too long before I'm finished! I can't wait to see the final piece!! Although I really needed it for last week when it didn't go above freezing for the whole week - in fact we found one small patch of snow still remaining in Hampstead Heath today so it still must be pretty cold, and definitely still the right time for an extra quilt!!

A Patchwork Quilt

As it's cold and snowy outside, and I spent the morning playing in the snow at our local park, practising my expert steering whilst sledging skills, to make sure that I didn't hit too many children, I thought that a good Sunday afternoon activity would be to make a patchwork quilt.

I've been collecting the materials for a while, as my housemate has a lovely Ikea rose floral quilt, in red/white/green, and I'm quite envious of it. Some of the fabric I already had, a bit came from leftovers from making flags for a tent for work, and the rest came from a duvet cover which I bought from a charity shop.

Although I knew the basics of how to make patchwork, I found this very helpful guide (http://www.cherrymenlove.com/crafts-how-tos/2010/03/how-to-make-a-patchwork-quilt.html), which gave me an idea on how big to make my squares, and how big to make it.

It took me a few goes of laying out all the squares (and cutting out a few extra pink ones as it was too white) but I eventually was happy with my layout and started sewing. 

I've sewn all the strips together, and have made my squares 20cm x 20cm, and my quilt 10 squares by 7 squares, which I hope will be a nice size to sit over the end of my bed, or wrap around me when sitting on the sofa. Before joining up the strips, I've pressed all of the seams open, so that it's easy to match up the seams to make perfect squares. 

I match each seam, and sew about 2cm across the top of each seam, and go all the way across with just a small amount of sewing at the top of each seam, to make sure they all perfectly match, before going over the top and sewing the whole length. 

That's as far as I've got for today, as I've got a few bits to alter, and want to get on and read my book Half of A Yellow Sun, as I'm half way through and want to find out what happens. 

What A Strange Country - Oh Wait, It's Malaysia!

Malaysia! Such a beautiful, underrated holiday destination, but also a rather strange place! We crammed a lot into our 3 weeks, and hopped all over the country, visiting the capital, an island, the jungle, another island, with Sharon's house on the mainland, some tea plantations in the mountains, another island, a historical city, then a short stop in Singapore, before the overnight train back to KL.

On Pulau Tioman we saw loads of fish, quite a lots of monkeys, and I got sprayed by a cat whilst at dinner one night!

We had the most amazing Satay one night, as well as some scrumptious Singapore noodles and far too many cocktails.

After a short stay in the jungle where we encountered far too many leeches than is necessary (only about 5 but that's 5 more than I' comfortable with) we headed to Penang for a stay with Sharon! She was an amazing tour guide and took us to all the best places and made us eat all the local delicacies. Including Cendol. Do not eat cendol - it's weird! Who puts noodles and beans into their pudding??

Onto another island, and we headed to Pulau Pangkor which was very calm and quiet compared to Tioman, but we did manage to persuade one of the local barmen to bring us mojitos on the beach at sunset every day. And there was an inflatable obstacle course in the sea. And a temple with a Mickey Mouse and a mushroom. What more could you want?

From Pangkor we headed to Melaka (my Greek housemate says this means 'arsehole' in Greek so finds it pretty funny every time I mention this!) which was a beautiful old city. It was baking hot but we still managed to fit in lots of wandering and a visit to one of the local night clubs.

Then we headed South to Singapore (followed by a Frenchman who we were very rude to) and spent a classy day and a bit in a posh hotel with a rooftop pool, a cocktail at the Raffles Hotel and then a good explore.

We overnight trained it back to Kuala Lumpur and did a final bit of sightseeing and finished off our bargainous shopping, before partying in style at the Reggae Mansion - the best hostel in the world!

I loved Malaysia (so much more than Thailand!) and would definitely recommend it as a holiday destination!!

Did Angelina Jolie really give Brad a waterfall for Christmas - and other random questions?

Did Angelina Jolie really give Brad Pitt a waterfall for Christmas this year was the title of one of the emails in my inbox this evening. Apparently the answer is yes, but so that he wasn't too spoilt, it was a joint birthday and Christmas present. Top that!

As is usual in my house, we have been asking many other random questions to each other tonight. Usually we don't know the answers, and so look them up, but I actually knew the answer to one! (How big are tunas? - I'm so proud - The answer is massive, bigger than dolphins).

So tonight's main questions are:

Q. How much tomato ketchup would you need to eat to get one of your 5-a-day?

A. Apparently 1/2 a cup - although I don't know if this is endorsed by Heinz. Also - it does mention the rather high sugar content of ketchup and so this would probably be about 500% of your recommended daily allowance of sugar. So not the best idea.

Q. My house mate then asked which part of beans is part of your 5-a-day.

A. My answer is the tomato as beans aren't a vegetable, they're a pulse. Plus spaghetti hoops also say this and pasta is definitely not one of your 5 a day!

Q. Do fire hobs use more power than plate hobs?

A. (Apparently you should just call them gas or electric hobs). The answer is that electric hobs use less power than gas hobs, but electricity is more expensive so overall, it will cost you more to use an electric hob than a gas hob.

That's all for now!