Placement and a place to sleep - well, if you're a mouse like Hunca Munca!

Today, I had my first day back at placement - it was amazing! The mum is lovely and so similar to me: she sews for a living, and loves baking and cooking. we're planning to make plum jam and yoghurt together, and she's got some sewing for me to do.

Tonight I've been sewing on my friend's machine. More specifically, I've been sewing mattresses. Tiny mattresses for the princess in the Princess and the Pea. It's for college. we have to do a story sack (a book in a bag with objects which are relevant to the story) and that's the story I chose. I have this version of the story - I was very fussy when choosing! And I realised that it wasn't the easiest story to find objects for. So I'm sewing a lot of mini mattresses. this is my first one:

I'm rather chuffed! It's dinky and oh-so-sweet!

 Check out that corner sewing! My mamma showed me how to do those when I was home over Summer, and you can see it's come in useful!










Plus, check out how well the stripes ended up matching! Completely coincidental, I didn't do it intentionally at all, but I'm very very pleased with it.





I'm also pretty chuffed with how it turned out because I designed the pattern myself, all out of my own head. I spent the day pondering ho to make the shape, figured that out, then decided dimensions as I went. And here are the distractions for you!


You will need:

a piece of fabric 9"x6" (any fabric will do)
a sewing machine
toy stuffing

All seam allowances are 1/2".

Fold your fabric in half, right sides together and sew along the short sides, and across to the middle of the long side leaving a small gap in the very centre of the long side:

Take each corner, so...

And pull the fabric out to flatten it this way:

Then take a grid ruler and measure about 1/2 " down your seam line:

Check the sides are equal - the distance from the seam line to each edge should be 1/2", the same on both sides:

Draw a line to mark, and pin the corners:

Sew along the line:

Repeat for other 3 corners:

Turn right way out:

Stuff:

 

Close up hole:

Done!

yes, alright, I'm very proud of designing the pattern for this myself! You end up with a soft mattress about 4"x3"x1". if you make lots of them, you can stack them up like I'm going to for the story of The Princess and the Pea. Yes, I'll show you a photo of the finished pile!

That's all for now!

Love love xx

The Maggot Aftermath with its ups and downs, and some welcome housemates who engage in baking with me!

I know, that last post was just disgusting, wasn't it? well, in case you were worried, the cupboard is now officially clean and spotless; no sign that the maggots were ever there:

See?! Ta dah! All better now! Of course, I wasn't all better - all the yucky maggot cleaning meant that I slept really badly the following night, and then was really vomity the next day, and really ill and whiny. My poor parents! They received numerous phone calls where there was nothing they could really do! But once I'd had a good sleep I felt I much better, and a week later I'm all good!

My housemates have almost all arrived back now, and I no longer have the house to myself - booo! but it does mean lots of good conversation and some wonderful friends who are willing cleaners! We are not your typical students...

I baked with one of my housemates today, Libby (the one who owns Norwegian Blue fish!). She has just started getting a children's magazine made by a particular well known global company which makes films about princesses and mice in clothing for children. So I taught her how to make shortbread, and she made these biscuits:

Not bad, huh?! We had leftover dough which didn't want to turn into the cartoon mouse heads, so I rolled it out and she chose another cutter from my box. the hearts go well, I think! The mouse head was one of those cutters where you cut the shape out, and then they give you another tool to press the face markings in:

Now, I'm normally a super lazy chef, and I just stick the biscuits in the oven straightaway. But as any baker will tell you, if you do that, your biscuits will spread. And we didn't want deformed biscuits. So we chilled them in the fridge first, then popped them in. And they came out very clearly! My recipe for shortbread is a very simple one, from the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book - I think it's under 1-2-3 biscuits. I double the amount, and tweak it a little. But, just in case anyone doesn't know it, here it is:

1 oz sugar
2 oz butter
3 oz plain flour
1 splash vanilla

Mix your butter and sugar together, then stir your flour. Keep stirring, even though it looks too dry, and it will eventually form into big lumps. Squash those together into a dough ball. Pop it in plastic wrap or a food bag and pop it in the fridge for 20 minutes (or not at all if you're feeling lazy!) Take it out and roll it out on a well-floured surface so that it's about 1/4" thick. Cut your shapes out and place them on a tray covered with greaseproof paper. When you can't cut anymore out, squash the dough back together and re-roll and cut untilt here's no dough left. Pop the tray into the fridge for another 20 minutes whilst you preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Pop the tray in the oven for about 8-10 minutes. take them out when they're light golden in colour.


And that's it! Try not to re-roll the dough or fuss with it too much, as it makes it tough. And be aware that the biscuits should still feel soft-ish when they come out of the oven, but they will harden as they cool. If you leave them in the oven until they're hard, they'll be horrid later! Of course, you know all this, I know, but it helps to say it anyway just in case!

Tomorrow I'm back to church, and Monday I start at my placement - I'm working with a family this semester, and they're lovely people. I had lunch with them on Thursday. Plus, they live only a 20 minute walk from me! Bargain! Wish me luck!

Love love xx

A new series, life lesson I wish I hadn't learnt lesson two, since lesson one was actually the Dead Fish Incident

I'm back in Bath. It's almost delightful. But, due to the one thing which makes it un-delightful, I have decided to start a series of posts called 'Life lessons I wish I hadn't learnt'. Since I'm pretty sure the Dead Fish Incident was the first of these (even though I didn't know it at the time), I'm starting today with number 2.


Life lessons I wish I hadn't learnt: lesson number 2

Do not leave perishable food in a cupboard for 2 1/2 months, because it will go off and leak brown rotten vegetable liquid...

 ...and develop a fruit fly infestation...

 














and if you really haven't cleaned it up by then (or in fact even noticed it)...

...What's that, near the brown icky decomposed puddle? That little white stripe? It's a... it's...







maggots:

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!

Yes, this really happened to me. No, it wasn't my food that was left - as if I would leave vegetables uneaten! One of my housemates left onions and potatoes on the second shelf of her cupboard, and since I did not yet have a cupboard for my food, she kindly said I could share hers for the time-being. Little did I know the horrors that would bring me. But at least now I have learnt what happens if you leave your vegetables to rot for too long. And I have learnt how to dispose of and clean up maggots. A life lesson I definitely wish I hadn't learnt.

Love love xx

Bibles and festivals, babies are the best, and the month ahead

I know, I haven't posted in ages, bad me. But I have done lots of work, been to the Christian festival momentum, and spent the past 3 days enjoying a 10 week old baby boy! Of course, all of this means that very little sewing has gone on since the blocks I posted for QATWII. But the coming month holds promise, I think - when I get my sewing machine down to Bath!

Momentum was amazing, despite camping (the root of a lot of grumpiness). The worship was wonderful, the talks really interesting, and I splashed out and bought 2 new bibles! Shocking, I know, what could I need 2 more bibles for? Well, this is one of them:





This is the official Momentum/Soul Survivor bible in a year. It's arranged with one passage from each of the old and new testaments and a psalm each day. They also have this great blog where they explore the day's passages and what we can take from them. It's really great for if you've never read the bible before, or if you read it but then can;t understand how it can teach you anything, because the blog talks you through a particular focus or lesson you can learn from it each day. That's not to say that that's all you can get from the passages, but it helps to give at least one meaning to what you're reading!

And this is the other bible I bought - this one pretty much explains itself in its awesomeness:







































See what I mean? Bible in graphic novel form! Amazing! I mean, there are some dense bits of bible, like leviticus, numbers... I could go on. But this way they're fun to read!





And just a few pictures of the people I went with:






In worship...













The octopus posing...















I spent a lot of my time with these guys - and they're a lot of fun!

And me there as well!









And I had a blissful day today - I was getting in my newborn hours for Nanny College with the grandson of my mum's receptionist. He's 10 weeks and a day today, and he spent all afternoon fast asleep on me! He's so tiny and delicious and perfect, and I wish I could show you a photo - but I do not post photos of other people or their children without permission. But I assure you he's beautiful and placid and thoroughly lovable! And I would keep him if it weren't for the fact that his parents want him and stealing babies is wrong.

So that's me caught up! I'm back to Bath Thursday evening, and working Friday. And back at college in a couple of weeks. I'm seeing the boy tomorrow for lunch, and hopefully I'll see Mandibles and Bilbo before I go. But we'll see! All that's left to do is link this up to the Small Blog Meet on Lily's Quilts!

Love love xx

A quilt block and some cleaning

This is what I did today. It's for QATWII again - one lovely lady asked for interlocking geometric patterns, and so I did this one. I know, it doesn't look interlocking exactly, but it's meant to be a ribbon all twisted into loops. I found it on The Quilter's Cache, here, but it's a 16 1/2" unfinished block on there, and I wanted 12 1/2 so I spent some time scaling it down before I started. It worked really well, and really easily - it was obvious how to put it together, and when I finished and pressed all my seams one final time, I was really pleased with how neat the back looked even! I just hope it's liked and works with the others in this set.

I also tried out my parents' steam mop thingy for the first time today, and fell in love with it. It's so much easier than mopping floors the normal way! No bucket to fill and lug around, no mop head to squeeze out... Yep, that's how bland most of my day was! I'm telling you about the cleaning I did!

Hopefully I'll have more interesting topics to talk about soon!

Love love xx

21st birthday gifts, wonky plastic cakes, bags made of fabric with kimonos on, black and white paris block commenting on the Parisian tendency to frequent cafes, Jewels in the dark, and a new baby

So - a few of the happenings which have been going on here recently!

The wife turned the ripe old age of 21! And so Mandibles and I made her a vw camper-van cake... only, we didn't make enough cake to make a well-proportioned camper-van, so we... improvised:

Just ignore the accidental brand advertising in this photo!

What?! This is how all the best bakers form the shapes for their cakes!... And the finished cake?

I know, it's a little saggy towards one corner - what can I say, it's vintage!




And if you look at the background of this photo you will see a bag with a maths book and some sweets in. Well, I made that bag! Didn't remember to get any actual photos of it once I finished it, but my mamma did. Here are some photos of it in the making process...

 See that gorgeous fabric with the kimono print? Yes, I fell in love with it too! And it seemed very appropriate to give to someone nicknamed 'chinky-pole'! Yes, I know it sounds racist, but it isn't, I promise! She's half polish but looks oriental, and we love both these things about her, hence the nickname! Well, the basket had kimonos on the side to reflect the Chinese side to her, and Mandibles and I were going to get her some polish vodka in a tiny bottle as well to show her polish side. But we couldn't find a single miniature bottle of vodka, so we left it. We filled the bag with sweets we had as children, a couple of books and a numbers workbook (in-joke about the wife's awful maths skills!) The books we got her were Michael Morpurgo's War horse: the only one of his books she hasn't read; and Crossroads by W M Paul Young, who also wrote a book we love called The Shack.

And the finished bag:

I was rather pleased with how it all turned out! And the wife didn't even realise that I'd made it! This was probably partly because she was so interested in the contents, but I'd also like to think that it looks sort of good enough to have been bought in a shop!

And for entertainment value, some photos of her battling the cake!

First slicing attempt...

 ...Managed to peel some icing off the top...










 ... Uncovered the top of the cake, where we'd written HA! in biscuit crumbs!...















... "Why is this so hard?! I'm so confused!"...















 ...Hurray! Finally!









 And, as well as making the bag, I also made a couple of blocks for QATWII - the Paris block:

Black and white, with just a pop of blue was requested, and Paris themed. What could be more Parisian than a coffee at a cafe?!





And one called "Jewels in the dark":

Bright colours on a black background were requested. I actually really liked this one once I'd finished, despite hating it in the middle of doing! Mainly because cutting strips of black to fit scraps of colourful fabric frustrated me - but I like it now that it's done!



And that's what I've been up to! Oh - one more thing happened - a new baby came to our house:

That's right, you're looking at my sewing machine!! It's really for my 21st, which isn't until October. But mum and I went to choose it together. I played on a few machines, but I'm used to a Bernina, so I preferred it. It feels sort of heavier when sewing than others somehow - not in a way that makes it hard work to sew, but in a way that makes it feel stronger in the way the needle goes into the fabric. It's hard to explain. Anyway, she's mine! A very expensive toy, and she needs a name. Any suggestions?! But I love her so, so much, and I know I'm very spoiled by my parents but I am really grateful!

So that really is all! Tomorrow I'm hoping to play on her a bit more, and make another block maybe. And I'm having tea with the family I childminded for last year, so I'll probably go in the afternoon and chat with them, and catch up properly. I'll update soon!

Love love xx

Finally, the fish story!!

So it turned out that the fish story was not finished. or maybe it was like, I thought it was a standalone book, but then there turned out to be a sequel. Whatever. Point is, I know I didn't post again as soon as I promised, but I swear, there was more trauma, and it took me, like, twice as long to get over this trauma. But finally, here it is in all its glory!

So, one of my new house-mates has 3 fish. She has carefully moved them over from her old house to the new one. She has set them up in her room, and they look pretty happy. Problem is, she's going away to Dubai for the summer, because that's where her dad works. so she asks another house-mate to look after them over summer. And this other house-mate agrees. But then this other house-mate decides to go away for the weekend. Now, because I'm still in town, I reassure the first house-mate and tell her I'll check in on the fish and make sure they have food. So I go to the house, let myself in, find the key from the empty washing powder tub, and unlock my house-mate's room. The weather recently has been scorching - think weeks of unbroken sun, with little wind and no rain. So when i go into her room, it's pretty warm. The curtain diagonally across from the tank is open, and sunlight is streaming directly into the tank, which is a no-no for fish. So I go round, open all the windows and close all the curtains.

Then I go to the tank. I have a quick peer inside, looking for a long-term feeder - you can get fish feeders which last 1-2 months, or pellets which last a few days. I can't see anything like that, so I lift off the lid of the tank to take a look, in case the feeder is floating near the top. And the smell that hits me is just foul. I know you often read in books about a stench of death and how awful it is, but this didn't smell like I imagined the stench of death would. It just kind of smelt like a sweaty composting bin. Nothing major about that, in this weather, but I make a mental note to myself that fish really smell. Then I see it. One of the fish is lying on its side. It's resting on top of the water filter and looks really, really ill. so I give it a prod (with my bare finger, I know, DON'T JUDGE ME!) and it floats out into the main tank. Still on the surface of the water, still on it's side. The other two fish are swimming around fairly calmly, but this one seems... Dead. Really dead. Like, so dead that bits of it start falling off - or rather, floating off since the water stops them from actually falling! and I swear, for a moment my heart stops. we haven't even started living together yet, but I have to tell my new house-mate that her fish is dead. It feels like a surreal moment. I get my mobile out, dial her number, and wait. No answer. I try again. still nothing. so I go onto facebook, and message her, saying, "one of your fish is dead. I'm really sorry but what do I do?" And then I ring my best friend, who, I know, had a fish when she was younger...

H: Hey, what's up

Me: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! I don't know what to do! Oh my goodness...

H: Oh my goodness, what's wrong hun? Are you alright?

Me: It's dead! And it's not even mine!

H: Wait, what's dead?!

Me: My house-mate's fish is dead! And I found it! And she's not here!

H: ...your house-mate's fish is dead? Have you told her?

Me: I tried, but she didn't answer, so I left her a facebook message saying I'm sorry but her fish is dead. (cue much laughter)

So she kills herself laughing whilst I panic about what to do with the dead fish and how to tell my house-mate. And in the end I fish the dead fish out with a net, change all the water and then ring the house-mate again; and this time she answers...

L: hey, which fish is it?

me: The black one.

L: Are you sure it's dead? because he likes to pretend to be dead a lot. He's like a dog.

Me: He's definitely dead. Really, really dead.

L: Okay, you can flush him or bury him. I'm really sorry!

Me: It's okay, I'm really sorry too!

So, the fish ends up in the washing powder tub, and my house-mate's keys go into a different box for safekeeping. I take the washing powder tub outside, thinking I'll bury the fish. And as I get outside I realise I have nothing to dig a hole with. But, since I haven't seen the garden, I take a wander round it, past the burnt out bonfire of mattress springs, through the lumpy, bumpy grass, and round the trees. And I stick my foot in a hole. It's like the kind of hole that an animal lives in, like a rabbit or a rat or something. And as I'm stood there, I begin to think that actually, it's about the same size as the washing powder tub. In fact, it would fit in there really nicely. and I can bury it later. Stop judging me! I was in shock! So I stick the tub in the hole, cover it with dead grass so nobody would be any the wiser, and make a swift exit. I check on the surviving fish one last time, then leave.

And there I thought my story ended. But apparently not. Some author thought that this story needed a sequel, and the sequel was about as welcome as Saw 2, 3 and 4.

So moving day finally arrives for me. I've packed all my stuff, hired a van, and I'm all moved over. I realise something crucially important: moving is awful. There must be a section of hell reserved for people who leave houses without paying their rent, where they're constantly packing and moving and unpacking and packing and moving and unpacking, for all eternity. But anyway, all my stuff is brought up and dumped outside my room, and in a moment of procrastination decide to check on my house-mate's remaining fish. the other house-mate messaged me in the week before I moved asking about the location of the key to feed the fish, so my visit is just cursory, really.

I retrieve the key, unlock her bedroom door, and go to the tank. Immediately, I can see one of the 2 month feeders in there. But... I can't see any fish. You would think, you would think I have learned my lesson from last time. It's like watching a scary movie, when you're yelling, DON'T TURN YOUR BACK! DON'T TRUST HIM, HE'S OBVIOUSLY THE KILLER! and so on. I lifted the lid of the tank. And there started a second phone call to the wife which also ended with her in fits of laughter as I hysterically shrieked at her down the phone, "THEY'RE DEAD, THEY'RE ALL DEAD! THE OTHER TWO FISH ARE DEAD!"

I could go on, but I feel that the sequel had a very predictable storyline, which very much mirrored the first book, and was the author's excuse to add more gore. The ending was unsatisfying, and the entire plot lacked climax or resolution. But it does have a moral, which is NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER GET FISH. EVER.


Tomorrow I'll show you my latest sewing exploits and some other fun things!

Love love xx