Thursday 15 September 2011

a wisp of grey

Grey seems to be featuring at lot in my life at the moment. even my work.

a grey over black Tuelle , halter neck evening dress.





autumn reading


I do love the Autumn and all the new books that come out.
Now I have made a promise that I will curtail the puchasing of said books, after I had a jolly good clear out recently.
see , this is the library, otherwise known as the spare room.

but September is the time for new books so here's the links to my 'to read' selection. they where just too good to say no too!

Electric Michelangelo by Sarah Hall

The Vintage Tea Party Book

The secretS of Pain by Phil Rickman

Rose Petal Jam by Beata Zatorska and Simon Target

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami

Saturday 10 September 2011

times, they are a changing and so is my hair

So it's September, and here in the UK, we have gone from Summer August to Autumn. It's windy and rainy , and I love it!!! not quite cold enough for Jumpers, but the nights are drawing in and I'm planning my next crochet blanket and a few knitting projects for dark evening by the fire.
I always get a feeling of change in September, and this year especially. things are changing and so is my hair!! it still needs a bit of toneing and tweaking ,it's lighter and more grey/violet in real life( can't get the right colours in the photos) but it's good so far.



I've been making a lot of plans for my own designs, http://misstallulahblue.blogspot.com/

so I've been playing around with hat designs. this is an original opera top hat , a bit battered , but it has the pop-up mechanism, so I've been using it for inspiration. I've been playing around with some lovely faux fur too. all will be revealed soon!!


new baby.....

I've finally got my hands on my dream sewing machine.... a singer 201k . built in 1950 in scotland.
I've had my eye on several on E-bay, but kept getting beaten on price. But fate was being kind to me.
Last week end we went to the Dorset Steam fair
http://www.gdsf.co.uk/visitors_information/picture_gallery.aspx

they have a huge market selling a mind boggling selection of the strange and wonderful and tucked under a table, complete with it's own spiderwebs( and spiders!) was this beauty. for only £5.
She has the original case, extension table, metal box with the extra feet, manual and even the original screw driver.
I've stripped her down( not completely , but enough) cleaned her and oiled her and she's purring away.
These really are incredible machines, they cope with anything from chiffon to leather. my modern machine is great, lots of fancy stitches and wonderful automatic button holes, but she hates jersey,and can be tempremental when it comes to chiffon. Not the Singer.
she is just a joy, and I'm soo happy, and she sounds WONDERFUL! A real audio memory of my mother and grandmother, it was at their knees that I learned my craft.






Of course Levi wanted to know why I was on my knees and was it play time? look at that tail go!!


He couldn't quite understand the excitement, but felt he should be included anyway, especially as he spends his days 'guarding ' me whilst I sew

Tuesday 6 September 2011

Rainy afternoons

With Autumn blowing in with wind and rain today, I didn't want all those sweet raspberries being blown away, So raspberry Vodka, was the answer ...



And Jam was made on Sunday, there are several more jars hidden away....


and a little piece of summer and sunshine for lunch.....


Singer cake

JUST FABULOUS!!



Source: flickr.com via sweet on Pinterest