A sunny weekend

The UK has been basking in glorious warm sunshine – at last!  After a very long cold winter, we struggled through a very cool, dull Spring. Now all of a sudden the sun has come out and it is hot, hot hot!

We went to Brighton on Sunday.  We actually went there for a whisky tasting session!  I bought it for Maurice’s birthday this week. 

He does rather love his whiskies and is fairly knowledgeable about the different styles of whisky and the distillation and aging processes.  We tasted 5 very different scotch whiskies.  (Needless to say we took the train to Brighton!)  The tastings took place in the very atmospheric wine cellar of one of the seafront hotels. It was quite nice to go down to the cool, dark cellar after the bright hot sunshine outside.

We wouldn’t normally venture very far from home on a hot weekend day, for the simple reason it’s what everyone else does!  It was amazing to see the beach so full of people!

Must go for a ride on that big wheel next time we’re there.

A few more for the scavenger hunt:

A theatre.  How about this Punch and Judy puppet theatre on the beach?  Very traditional.  Or the stage door of the Theatre Royal in Brighton?

Local pub, cafe etc.  It is said that in the old days Brighton had a pub on every street corner!  I think they looked like this one:

Dressmaking

I have done a fair bit of dressmaking in the past.  Mum used to make our clothes when I was little, and I picked it up when I was a teenager.  I made trousers and jackets, and a few dresses.  I can’t remember now whether we used to bother with fitting properly!  I think back in the 1970s it wasn’t such an issue!!  Later on, I went to dressmaking classes at the local adult education, and made a couple of dresses that I ended up not really wearing.  Wrong fit, wrong colour, wrong style!  I went again when Lucy was little and made her a few little dresses, some we liked, some we didn’t!

Having my new sewing machine has made me want to have another go.  I went to a ‘vintage sewing class’ as a taster at a lovely little shop in Hove called Mazalino Designs.  We handsewed a vintage ‘pinny’ from a pillowcase, embellishing with frills.  The class included afternoon tea and cake, and was great fun!  They were advertising a 4 week dressmaking class, and there was a discount if you signed up there and then.  Well of course I couldn’t resist!

So for the last 4 Mondays I have been going over to Hove for my class.  Maryamm, the tutor, started off right at the beginning and we went through the basics.  We made a toile (a practise version of the dress) from simple calico so we could learn how to put the dress together.  I had not made a toile before, so will definitely try it with my next dress.  We made 2 bodices one the outside, one the lining, learning how to do the curved princess seam, and how to sew the two bodices together. Maryamm also showed us how to insert a concealed zip, something I’ve not done before.  I enjoyed the classes very much and have revised dressmaking techniques and gained confidence and to make a dress by myself now.

But when I started to look at dress patterns in the pattern books, how was I going to make sure the dress style is right for me, and the fit and fabric are right?  My answer to this dilemma was to go shopping to try on as many different style dresses as possible to see what style I liked the best.  I really liked the waisted style of the toile we made, but trying them on made me realise that it wasn’t really MY style.  I liked an empire line better, like this pattern I chose:

I bought some cheap fabric to make up my toile.  Watch this space!  I will report back how I get on.  I am hopeful that this pattern will suit me as it cost over £8, so I will have to make more than 1 dress from it!

Meanwhile, I will probably make this one for my niece’s baby first:

I’ve got some lovely pink patterned fabric which I’ve teamed up with this plain pink from my new neighbour!  We have a new fabric shop just open about 5 minutes walk away from me.  How exciting!  Here’s the website: www.eclecticmaker.co.uk  It’s a lovely shop, and the owner has lots of very colourful funky fabrics in stock!

Have you dabbled in dressmaking?  What have been your successes?

In search of a tower….

Yesterday we visited Portsmouth, about 1 hour to the west of us along the coast.  Portsmouth is famous for being the home of the Royal Navy, and there is always lots to see there.  We went to visit the historic dockyard, specifically the new ‘Mary Rose’ exhibition.  I took along my list from Rinda’s Scavenger Hunt to see what I could photograph.

First off, a tower.  Should I choose this tower block of flats?  Or this conning tower on one of the navy’s most recent ships, HMS Defender?

No what I really wanted to photograph was the Spinnaker Tower, rising 170m over Portsmouth Harbour.

We fulfilled a dream by going up there, and walking on the glass floor!  It was a reasonably clear day so the views were pretty spectacular.  

Other photos I have for the scavenger hunt:

How about this for a police vehicle? 

A Fence.  This is my back garden fence, I have recently cleared the gravel path.

How about this one?  Could it count as an animal in a zoo?  Or a theatre, as the poster was on the side of my local theatre!  I am counting it as my dinosaur!

I am linking up with Rinda's blog.  It’s not too late to join in!

Scrubbed and Polished!

 

Way back in December Lucy turned 21.  One of her presents was tickets for both of us to go to a Maroon 5 concert at the O2 arena in London.  It was supposed to be last weekend, but Maroon 5 have postponed until next January!  So we looked around for something else to do, and came across a ‘pamper day’ at a local hotel on Groupon.  I am not usually all that keen on beauty treatments, but Lucy really wanted to go so we packed our swimming costumes and off we drove!  We had 2 ‘mini’ treatments each, a pedicure and a facial.  Look at my toes!

We had a really lovely lunch, all healthy stuff, sitting in the bar area.  The waitress asked me if I was Merlin’s owner!  I didn’t recognise her at first, so asked her what her dog’s name was.  It turned out that we used to walk our dogs together about 8 years ago!  Sadly she had lost her dog earlier this year too.

Our day was made when we ventured outside to the pool (the water, a balmy 30 degrees) and then the sun came out!  So we sat in the sun for the afternoon, perfect!

Remember my craft challenge?  June was supposed to be make a bag, which I am pleased to report I have done.  It’s a doggie bag!  I made it from a pattern in Lynette Anderson’s book It’s Quilting Cats and Dogs.

Home Decor

I feel as though I have neglected my blog recently.  Partly because Merlin has been so poorly, but also because we have been decorating!  We are reluctant decorators really, and it has pretty much taken over our lives  over the last few weeks!  So I thought you might be interested to see what we have been doing. 

We live in the seaside town of Worthing on the South Coast of England, about 50 miles due south of London.  The town expanded during the early part of the 20th century and our house was built in 1929, along with our neighbours.  It is a quirky house – like an L shape with the inside corner drawn across, and all the rooms are different shapes, a carpet fitters nightmare!  We have lived in this house for 20 years, and seen both kids grow up here.  I can’t imagine us leaving for a while, as they both still live here, so it was time to do some updating!

We started at the front and worked back.  We had these rather splendid double oak doors with stained glass – but unfortunately they were going rotten.  They would swell up in the warm sunshine and some days we couldn’t open them!  (I got stuck outside several times until I started taking the back door key with me!)  So rather reluctantly we decided to get a new ‘composite’ door.

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The new door is so much smarter!  Much easier to open and close, so much more secure and will be draught free in the winter!  It looks really pretty from the inside.  This picture (below) is taken from the hall into the porch.

We have a massive hall.  It is like another room, and we  have used it as a dining room when the kids were little, when the real dining room was a playroom.  About 15 year ago, we bought this rather splendid oak dresser:

It has magnificent carvings all over it.  We sought advice from an auction house, who told us that it has really crisp carving, with several different influences, art nouveau, art deco etc. It fitted perfectly into our hall.  We painted all the woodwork in an antique green colour, and I had an eclectic collection of plates on the plate rack.  Here’s another angle, looking towards the stairs: 

We loved it!  But is was time for a change.  The hall is quite dark, and coloured woodwork is not so fashionable now, nor the Laura Ashley wallpaper below the dado rail.  So after several weekends of rubbing down, undercoating and glossing, here’s what it looks like now:

We sold the dresser (on eBay!) and bought a new oak sideboard (www.oakfurnitureland.co.uk).  The big red tulip picture is one of my photos on canvas.  We have new funky lights from www.next.co.uk.  The wall light casts lovely patterns over the wall.  It has made such a huge difference!  We are thrilled to bits with it!  I keep going out there to have another look!  Just a couple of finishing off bits to do, like tidy up those cables drooping off the shelf.

We carried on decorating up the stairs and onto the landing.  We have fitted a wooden venetian blind to the very large window half way up the stairs, which overlooks the back garden.  Really pleased with it as it blocks out the powerful rays of the sun without blocking the light.  Maybe I will be able to hang one of my quilts on the wall up the stairs now.

We also updated our bathroom, with new tiles, new shower screen and flooring.  Again, it looks fab!

Phew!  I think that might be it for another 20 years or so!!  (Although secretly, I would like a new kitchen, maybe next year!)

Merlin

Sad news.  Merlin, our flat-coated retriever passed away this morning.  He was very poorly so we took him to the vets and he was put to sleep.  We have had a fantastic 10 years with him!  He has bought us so much joy!  We will miss him terribly – it already seems really strange without him.

Rest In Peace Merlin, we love you.

This last photo taken just 2 weeks ago, his last outing to the beach.

May/June craft challenges

I am afraid my May challenge to scrapbook as many online challenges as possible ended up making way for decorating!  I did do all the UKScrappers challenges, and found the fabulous Counterfeit Challenge Blog, so I am happy enough.  Maybe I’ll come back to it in the autumn and have another go.

So for June, I am going to make some bags.  I have a lovely pattern (with a little applique black dog, and sewing kit on the front) from Lynette Anderson that I want to make.  I would also like to make some small bags from the lovely little kits I have been getting from Seamstar.

In the meantime, the sun is shining, it’s nice and warm, and look at all these self-seeded aquilegias that have appeared and overwhelmed one of my borders!