2 skirt weekend

Returning to work meant having a look at my wardrobe.  Trousers are still not comfortable, and one of the key skirts I have been wearing is a little - shall we say - short.  As I was up for a little more gentle pottering I treated myself to a new Clothkits skirt kit.  The kit I had been hankering after for a while from as long ago as last summer, but I was not considering wardrobe additions then.  Luckily they were still selling the kit and at the nice price it was previously.

With my first ever skirt kit from this company I had the skirt received, cut and sewn in an evening, but this time I paused.  I was not happy with the rather dull white lining they had provided.  So a short trip to John Lewis' fabric department to find an alternative cotton lawn.  If had been up to it I would have launched myself up the loft ladder to look at my own fabric stash but those kind of acrobatics are currently out.  I found a fairly tame pink which I thought would work well - which I show below with the cute but relevant facing.

Whilst in the fabric department I found some stretch denim and bought double the amount I ended up requiring to make a more work length appropriate denim skirt.  This I designed myself by taking the previous skirt as a base and adding pockets and top-stitching whilst jettisoning the lining.

3 week recovery

I have spent the last few weeks signed off work with a week's leave to finish (and was grateful for I needed more time off).  The first week I spent sleeping and in front of the TV.  I read a few books on creativity and documented my week by making a doll for each day of the week. The doll template which I styled to be a slimmer and taller version of me I got from the book that I found most fun to flick through Mixed Mania by Cheryl Prater and Debbi Crane.

Notice the lack of jeans - trouser wearing that week (and even now) was not the most comfortable option.  As a habitual trouser/jean wearing girl it was stretching my wardrobe to find enough skirts to wear, but the addition of a comfy dress helped.  Two of the skirts - the red one, and the patched one - were skirts I had made previously, one from a Clothkits kit and another by appliquéing some of my mono-printed patches on to one I had derived from the former skirt.

Thankful

Today I woke up thankful for:

1. the NHS
2. waking up in my own bed
3. a good nights sleep
4. less pain
5. the person next to me

I am now nestled in my cosy kitchen sipping peppermint tea and listening to Johnny Cash and watching someone else do chores.

Luckily I had completed my postcards for iHanna's postcard swap and popped them in the post before the last 48 hours occurred.

The sent postcards can be seen in more detail from my Flickr set, unfortunately they aren't the best photos as I only had my camera phone to hand.  Check out the rest of the swap pool.

Some winter walking

At the beginning of the week in between some of the snow we had in South Wales M and I branched out together for a wonderful (and in the latter half) challenging walk along part of the West Pembrokeshire coast, a circular around the Angle Peninsular.

The full photostream can be viewed from here.

New Years in Wales

M and I went away for the New Years along with G & Mr. T, X & S.  We all stayed in a comfortable cottage in Wisemans Bridge in Pembrokeshire.  Despite it being a little chilly, it was sunny and we were able to get out and about a bit.

We started the New Year with a barbecue

and some fireworks.

I watched a few hundred nutters people go for a New Year swim

and then for a New Year's stroll around Kilgetty.  It started of sunny and ended up snowy:

 There has been snow about ever since!  We had a little cycle to Tenby on slightly icy roads

Lit a few balloons:

Went for a really long walk:

(more on that in another post) and ate a lovely fish supper in nearby Saundersfoot. We thought we saw a little few wisps in the sky....

Then woke up on our penultimate day to this:

We then considered our options whilst checking the weather forecast and realised that even our little corner of Hampshire (last to get snow, first to thaw) was going to blanketed. So we struck camp and made our way home.

Some Christmas sewing

I saw just enough of somebody's Handmade Christmas to see them create a stitch and flip stocking before I turned it off thinking "I can do better (and cheaper)" and went off to my fabric compost in its nice colour sorted bags and came up with these babies just in time to be filled for Christmas. One for me and one for him. Can you guess which one is mine?

Brrrrr! Birthday Bear

Another Birthday and another wonderful outfit for my Birthday Bear.  Just in time for the frosty weather.