Hello There.....

.......and a very happy new year to all of you!

There has been a huge expanse of nothingness coming from this particular little portion of blog land all down to the following...I haven't made anything.Well not what you would term truly inspirational or original.I made four quite passable short skirts out of remnants which I have worn almost constantly all autumn and winter so far and I did crochet before Christmas a nice pile of blankets that I sent off to two different charities which had the threefold effect of making something for someone else that might bring a bit of cheer whilst using up quite a large chunk of my wool stash and keeping my brain active on a project that I knew I could not possibly make a mess of.I did finish many weeks ago my Ursula jumper....well apart from the dreaded sewing up and I have this vague suspicion I have done something oooh-nasty with the neckline that needs sorting out before any sewing up commences.As this jumper is cream and short sleeved I have designated it as "Spring wear "so have convinced myself I don't need to do much with it at this point in time but after all of my sisters spinning efforts I have got to knuckle down and finish it off PROPERLY....without having to add it to my ever increasing list of disasters.

my collection of Ursula bits

 2012 did turn out it would seem on reflection to be a year of disastrous makes and bad pattern choices.My intention at the start of the year was to be more frugal and to make less items that were of a higher quality.I think I can safely say I absolutely failed to achieve this in any way, shape or form....much as my book reading target fell by the wayside before I even reached the end of January.
Thinking about my disasters made me feel acutely embarrassed... there was the Cynthia Rowley disaster and "The Warty Thing" too and that horrible scratchy denim dress for starters.I went through my wardrobe and sorted and sifted out all the badly made,ill fitting and just downright laughable clothing I made over the last year bagged it up and took it to a charity shop.All that time ,money and effort wasted.
I also felt acutely embarrassed at writing about all of this tat and that put me off wanting to blog for these past few months.However some very nice people over the new Year and Christmas sent me some messages and asked how I was doing and that they missed hearing from me.Which was really sweet of them and cheered me up no end.
I don't think I shall blog as before but there might be an occasional outburst of something if I have made anything I think might be worth sharing.Mind you I have to get into making mode again.I am not going to make any grand statements about what I am planning to make as it more than likely won't ever happen.2012 was the year of NOT making any of those 1940's dresses OR beautiful floaty nightwear OR gorgeous thick winter coats.
A surprising winner though was my swimming costume.Now this I had down as an absolute dead cert doomed failure.I was convinced that as soon as my feebly over-locked seams hit that chlorine enriched water disaster would strike and somehow it would all disintegrate and unravel leaving me "compromised".But no! Flailing and thrashing about as I do in the local swimming baths in my Aquafit class no excessive bagginess or undue stress in either the lower or upper regions occurs and it all stays miraculously in place.Admittedly the skirt section does have a tendency to float upwards when I do stop flailing about and  stand still with the effect that the lurid coral and tangerine colour way makes it appear as though I am encased in a radioactive kelp bed but I think I can live with that.So go me on the active wear!
I am quite pleased though that I managed to keep to keep to two resolutions through out the year.One was to wear at least one item of me made clothing each day and I did...and still intend to...and the other was to not buy any clothing brand new if I could help it...and I didn't other than underwear and the odd item of knitwear as I can't knit that quick.Unfortunately I will not be able to boast about this next year as browsing through  Modcloth the other night purely for inspiration I accidentally bought two dresses in the sale (Damn you Paypal and fleeting favourable exchange rate).

Anyway,I only made one Christmas gift this year much to my shame but I was the lucky recipient of three beautiful tea towels hand woven by my sister.Each tea towel has a different pattern and they are so nice to use and wash really nicely too.Personally I think she should have her own blog...what say you lot out there?

three beautiful tea towels

 And Christmas could not be Christmas without  something Myrna Loy related from my daughter.She was looking around a flea market in Cadiz and found a stack of old cinema cards one of which was of wonderful Myrna and William Powell.What a find.

And finally thank you again to all of those people who were kind enough to send me a message and words of encouragement.

Wishing you all a disaster free 2013! xxxx