rainbowtatt

Sure, Mrs Beckinsale made this for her fair goddaughter:

But I’m telling myself that it’s for *me*.

Is it not perfect??

I’m only putting up a small pic, so you mightn’t be able to tell, but it’s even got “Laura” sewn onto the cupcake.

Major props to Liz for putting this in my Google Reader list for me!

Before I get started, a quick thank you to everyone for their lovely comments in my previous post. It was a hard one to write, and one that isn’t exactly my best writing, but I appreciated the comments all the same. Fanx guys :))

My weekend was totally focused on doing something NOICE for myself. I knew I had earned it!

I spent Saturday on the couch and crocheting. I mastered the technique with the help of a few more YouTube videos and am now well on the way to making a baby blanket for a friend’s bubba:

Look! The edges are almost straight!

Other noice-ities of the week include (and not limited to)

• Lovely friends who make lovely Tim Tam-themed treats
• Ordering our wedding bands (zomg I’m getting diamonds on mine!!!11!1!!)
• Discovering and watching about 10 eps of Glee (how fabulous is that damn show?!)
• Hanging out with my youngest nephew – who apparently described me afterwards as “cool”. Not bad from a 12yo!
• Booking TWO massages (!). One’s at InSpa, a place so popular I have to wait until the end of August for the next available appointment. So I booked an interim one this week with the girl who “shapes” my eyebrows.

What was noice in YOUR week? Join in at That’s Noice, our weekly meme called Noice-ities :)

Alex of Crafternoon describes her crafting as having “enthusiastic bursts” and when I read this I burst out laughing. Cause I’m the bloody same!

Let’s see, that sewing machine I bought last month… I haven’t touched it in about 3 weeks. It’s starting to collect dust.

BUT! It’s because I’ve fallen in love with crochet (which I keep mis-typing as “crotch”, which is, erm, lovely).

It started as a big plan to go to a class through The Craft Room after perving on Sarah London’s stunning crochet work. But realised that I couldn’t afford to go as quickly as my ADHD wanted me to. So I’ve been teaching myself courtesy of YouTube videos. Lots of YouTube videos. I’ve made lots of practice pieces and about 3 times I’ve started a “proper” crochet project of a blankie and each time I get distracted after about 4 days and want to start it again using a different method. Or different YARRRRRRRRN (American ladies of YouTube have infiltrated my brain).

I just went on a quick hunt around the house for random crochet pieces and this is what I found:

There’s more. I just can’t find it all. Some have been stolen by the cats to be used as playthings. So I guess all is not lost.

I went through a knitting phase about four years ago (I made three scarves). Sewing is clearly out for the time being and I’m wondering how long the crochet will survive. I currently take crochet wherever I go, on lunch dates, to work, to hospital when I visit mum… I’m even known to crochet while watching Doctor Who or while sitting up in bed instead of reading. So I guess this is the height of my “enthusiastic burst”?

I’m planning on popping along to a Crafternoon session very very soon. I love the idea of hanging out with a bunch of cool crafty ladies and picking up tips and tricks while nomming on cafe snacks.

Noice-ities is a new gamey thingy we’re playing over at That’s Noice – Leigh and I launched it late last night… and it’s taken me until this afternoon to finish my own post. I’m nothing if not efficient ;)

Leigh has already admitted that the name of the game was my idea and that it looks like we’re saying nice tits. Oh dear. And now that the name is on our logo, it makes our logo look like a large, bright pink nipple. NOICE!

Now that’s all I see when I’m working on That’s Noice, hehe.

ANYWAY! It’s our version of games like My Place & Yours that I’ve been playing, and we’re starting by asking

If skill/talent was no object, what do you want to make?

I’m a simple girl with simple goals at this stage – my big big thing would be to make my own dress that I could wear when we get hitched… but that’s a tad unrealistic, even for me!

The most I’ve made on my new sewing machine is a cover for my toaster:

which isn’t exactly advanced, but I’m chuffed to have finished it (mostly) successfully. My first draft turned out okay, but this time I actually ironed the seams and whatnot (I think the iron is still in shock from actually being used!). And now I find I’m eating toast more often, just so I can use the cover. Sad, no?

Next, I want to make covers for Dan’s Xbox and PS3s (yes, we have multiple PS3s. Save me). Gaming consoles aren’t as square as toasters, so it’s going to be… um, interesting!

Why don’t you come along and join us for Noice-ities – you don’t even need to have a blog to take part!

I am seriously thinking I need to start a new FAIL blog. Or at the very least, a FAIL category.

Because, honestly, after yesterday’s debacle with the giant cupcake, you’d think I’d give it a rest today.

But no. Today I decided to try sewing.

But! I saw this Lola Nova tutorial for fabric eggs and fell in love.

I’m sure I did a bunch of things that a good sewer never does. I just folded up the calico into 4 layers so I only had to cut the damn shape out once. I didn’t mark my start/stop points like the pattern said I should. I didn’t look up how to back stitch. I actually decided by the back stitch stage that the egg was a disaster and beyond help. So who gives a damn what a back stitch is.

(I actually ended up making a pretty cool mock up of an owl softie after this disaster, so I’m heading out in the morning to get appropriate owl fabric (Felt? Polar fleece? Fat squares?). Promise to show you the end result – hopefully something better than a big fat FAIL!)

Unsurprisingly, my sewing adventures have come to a grinding halt!

It’s hard to find the time to sit down and get right into it in between the office job, home jobs, freelance work and life in general.

But I have *heaps* of inspiration sitting right next to me:

The Complete Book of Sewing — bought this on Fern’s  recommendation!

Simple Sewing

The Sewing Book

Sew!

The Sewing Book and the Complete Book of Sewing are technically quite similar in being like a sewing text book. But the way techniques are explained are quite different and makes for interesting reading.

Simple Sewing and Sew! are both gorgeous books! I keep finding myself drooling over the different projects.

All I need to do is find the time to go from inspiration to reality. Hmm, I can has a few more hours in my day?

This is Suzie:

Suzie is a Singer Stylist Zig Zag 457, a model from 1968. She’s 11 years younger than Buela, the other sewing machine in my life at the moment.

I’ve been feeling a bit guilty since I picked up Suzie last night; like I’m cheating on Buela, who’s packed away in the corner of my bedroom.

Buela is a beautiful girl and runs like a charm, but she’s only got two speeds: full throttle and full stop. I don’t have the required 1337 sewing skillz to keep up with her; my stitches were WAY off if I tried to do anything too creative (like follow a pattern).

Suzie runs just as beautifully as Buela, and lets me drive in first gear, meaning I was able to sew nice curves and such. Suzie had me in a very good mood when I went to bed last night.

But then this morning I got up and planned to practice a bit more on Suzie before trying something closer to a Proper Sewing Project. And suddenly the feed dog stopped working. After much Googling I was feeling brave enough to undertake some investigative surgery on Suzie.

And then, I found the source of the problem (excuse the blurry panicked photo):

SHIT. Part of one of the gears (plastic ones!) that operate the feed dog has melted. While part of me is chuffed that I successfully diagnosed the issue ALL BY MYSELF (and Google) another part of me is feeling so so SO guilty.

I’ve probably caused the gear to melt. It’s not even MY sewing machine. I don’t deserve a sewing machine!

I’ve called a couple of places and spoke native Sewing Machine fluently enough for them to understand what I needed and how much it would cost to replace the gear. Just waiting for Suzie’s native owner to give the okay for me to go and take care of it.

This sucks :( I try to do the right thing and borrow other people’s property instead of buying something (cheapish) myself. I play the patient game, borrow two machines and now I’ve gone and broken one.

And so the waiting game continues…

One of the items on my holiday to-do list was to acquire a sewing machine and get down with my stitchy self.

I, of course, forgot how crafty my in-laws are and was told in no uncertain terms that I Should Not Purchase A Sewing Machine, Here Borrow Ours For A Really Long Time.

The first I’ve adopted is my finance’s sister-in-law’s grandmother’s 1957 Lemair Helvetia. Also known as Buela the Beast:

It’s similar to mum’s old machine I used to use when I was little – I think it’s referred to as a zig-zag external front loader. Also, it’s heavier than a semi trailer.

Courtesy of teh interwebs, I found someone had scanned in an old manual – sticky tape and all – so I was able to suss out the basics with threading and whatnot.

I’ve been down to Spotlight to get some basics like calico so I could have a practice run. The machine runs beautifully, though I’m struggling to find a nice, slow speed so I can try to keep on the straight and narrow.

Now to decide what to make!