Sorry for the delay in getting back to you peeps (more about that later!), but I’m very happy to announce that the winner of the book was selected according to a highly scientific method (little scraps of paper in my son’s hand…and I closed my eyes to draw one out)…

and the winner is…..

drumroll….

Indianna

So Indianna of the very cool name I will be contacting you to get your address.

I think life should now have turned a corner. This week I had the auditors in at work. Now don’t get me wrong, they are a very nice bunch, and I’m absolutely not prejudiced against auditors (having been one myself for over a decade – how come I never realized how much misery I was causing untold numbers of people?), but the best thing about an auditor is seeing him close the door on the way out having told you that everything looks fine. People out there who work in finance, I know you understand!

At work my whole existence seems to lead up to the annual audit…and I’m stressed for weeks getting everything ready for them, so if I’m honest, life has pretty much been on hold for the last two months.

Well now I’m back!!

I’ve been perusing sewing patterns and fabrics, I’ve been lying around and just doing quite a lot of nothing very much, I’ve been pottering a bit but achieving nothing of importance (no strike that, I cleaned out the cat litter), I’ve been thinking about watching Wimbledon (but just switching on the TV seems like way too much effort) and basically I have spent today being a complete and utter blob.

Which feels like just exactly like what I should have been doing.

Tomorrow I will probably resume being a whirlwind.

Have a great Saturday 😉

Helen

My mojo seems to have gone missing at the moment, so despite the World Cup I still haven’t managed to sew or knit anything of consequence….work is busy and to be honest it feels like a productive day if I manage to come home and actually water my hanging baskets….(and feed the children!)

Quieter days are on the horizon though and I’m panning to compensate some overtime and just have some delicious me time in the next month or so. So watch this space.

In the meantime I discovered that I have somehow managed to acquire this lovely Japanese dress-making book twice – so it’s free to a good home – just send me a message if you would like it and I’ll draw a name out of the hat.

A word to the wise – this is a pattern book suitable for beginners, but in my humble opinion less suitable for those who tend to the curvaceous (like me). Think Japanese – think slim, flat….if that’s you, then give me a shout! It does have some lovely patterns though!

Happy Sunday,

Helen

A perfect way to spend a bank holiday in Switzerland. Too cloudy to go up a mountain, but a trip on a steamboat on the lake certainly fits the bill. I feel so lucky to be living in this wonderful country.

Almost no sewing to report – but with the World Cup almost upon us I would bet your bottom dollar there will be some serious knitting done in the next few weeks.

Life is good.

Helen

On Friday my lovely friend Elisabeth (aka Shark’s Dinner) and I headed out to the Swiss Quilt Guild’s exhibitions in Solothurn, a pretty town about an hour on the train from Zürich.

What did we find?

It had been yarn bombed…. (don’t you love the pink bobbles!)

Who would have thought? Those railings involved some pretty serious amounts of knitting! I have no idea who was responsible, so if anyone out there knows, please let me know!!

Unfortunately the quilting exhibitions didn’t allow any photos, which was a real shame as there were some lovely quilts, which I would have loved to show you. They were mostly modern, on the art quilt side, but not too arty if you know what I mean!

There were even some vendors (who we had to support). I bought these two little boxes of 25cm squares- from my local quilt shop!

(Note to self: must make an effort to pop in there again sometime soon – they clearly have a lot of lovelies at the moment). Pretty restrained by my usual standards though!

It was great to have a self-indulgent day out, but I have to learn to curb the feeling guilty because I’m not working feelings (how stupid is that?).

Have a great weekend!

Helen

It’s been a while,  it really has. Most of my life at the moment is lived at a rate of knots, juggling a lot of balls, multitasking and at the same time trying to find some sort of balance and appreciating the little things in life. There really hasn’t been much being a domestic goddess for a good long while

Today is the last day of a four day weekend for me. Three days were spent doing necessary and absolutely unexciting stuff: shopping, cleaning, washing, collecting things, you know the score. But today? Today I saved. For me and for pottering and doing some of the lovely things that I don’t find time for on the average weekend…

Like…

Making hot cross buns – you can see the recipe here. (We won’t go into the fact that I did something strange at some point and they turned out a bit like rock buns. I’m working on the premise that if I put good things in, then they are going to taste delicious anyway, even if they aren’t quite what people are expecting!)

Potting up my hanging baskets

And my patio pots

Making preserved lemons,

so that I can make some lovely Moroccan food from this recipe book….

I love Jamie and his photos of Marrakech in the Morocco section are absolutely the Morocco I saw and loved when I was there last month with Quiltova…

Doing a little weeding (OK, I know that counts as work and is necessary, but at this time of year before the garden has turned into a jungle it doesn’t seem so unpleasant at all)

Putting a collar on my blouse.

I’ve ended up using an absolutely ancient Butterick pattern for this – I know it’s ancient because the collar was so big it would have flapped in the wind, and I had to cut it seriously down to size. The fabric came from Japan and I actually bought a Japanese tunic pattern to make with it. I’ve been pondering the tunic for a while and finally decided against because a) I am categorically way too curvy for a Japanese pattern and b) I had a more than sneaking suspicion that it would end up looking like a maternity smock and cause sniggers all round. So I am going for a shaped short-sleeved blouse of the conventional variety in which I will look reassuringly normal and in which I am unlikely to be disowned by the teenagers.

We also welcomed a new member of the family this weekend. Please meet Pablo – an Italian cat who needed a new home. He is the soppiest animal alive and if I don’t fall down the stairs while he is winding himself around my legs it will be a miracle. It feels really good to have a cat here again. I missed that.

On that happy note I’d better go and give Pablo his dinner!

Helen