I have a great love for vintage items, crockery, fabric, clothes, furniture...you name it I adore it. The 50's and 60's are my favourite, mainly because the 50's were very much the housewife at home with the husband going out to work and not changing nappies, things were about to change so much and the items from this period are carrying almost an idyllic, innocent way of life in them. The 60's because things went haywire in design, the bolder the better, there was no more fear of mixing colours, it was about making a statement and it was exciting.
So you can imagine my joy at winning a fabulous 60's dress on Ebay. I'm always on the lookout for them but the sizing is so different from nowadays that it takes a while to find and then win a dress that will fit me. My dress arrived in the post and I tried it on immediately, it fitted like a glove and looked fabulous.
Fast forward to the weekend, Long Suffering Husband is off on the QM2 (working) and has decided to put on a few loads of washing (can you see where this is going?), first load finishes and unbeknownst to me my dress is in there, now this is fine because I knew the dress could go in the wash but then it passes from the washing machine to the tumble drier.
Fast forward to me emptying the tumble drier and finding my vintage, original sixties dress now only capable of fitting a 12 year old...I did try to shoehorn myself in to it but I'm quite fond of breathing and unfortunately this dress no longer allowed me to do that and that was without the zip being done up!
Fast forward to LSH now doing the ironing (I know, I know!), now anyone who has a man in their life knows that they do like to do ironing the manly way, as in setting the iron to the hottest setting. What LSH is unaware of is that our son's school trousers scorch slightly on the medium setting, not so much marking the trousers but leaving black smears over the iron.
Fast forward to Monday evening, LSH is now the QM2 and I am sewing, I am making a changing mat with the last of some Tanya Whelan fabric I have, there is just enough (again...I sure you can see where this is going), I sew two pieces of fabric together, back to back, flip them right sides together, make sure the iron isn't on hot, iron the seam flat...AAAGGGHHH...huge black streaks make their way across my fabric. I would love to type the words that came out of my mouth but my mother reads this and apparently i am not too old to be told off!
Fast forward to the next day and we are now a two iron household, one for LSH and one for me...mine is far superior...of course!
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Tuesday 20 September 2011
Thursday 8 September 2011
Work-Life Balance and Hairdressers!
I had a phone call yesterday morning from my hairdressing salon. They like to phone me and send me text messages when I am about to have my appointment (which I need as I never write it down on my calendar!) but as I was talking to them I was thinking 'I'm sure it hasn't been 6 weeks' and then the awful news...Sarah is leaving...Aaaagggghhh! Only two days before I had told my long suffering husband how great it is to find such a fabulous hairdresser (he nodded in abstract agreement), now I am breaking out in cold sweats at the thought of a new hairdresser...the update on this saga will follow I'm sure in future blogs!
Anyway having my hair cut is one of those wonderful, precious times (as all mums will know) where you cannot take your children and are completely alone in an adult world of gossip mags, gossipy people and coffee (with the odd stray hair mixed in)...absolute bliss. Trying to find a balance of time to be you and not 'mum' is essential to keep the madness away!
I set up Funky Sprogs because of my passion for sewing, but it also meant that I could provide myself with a job that I love and still be able to be there for my children during the week (and the dreaded school assemblies!). Not forgetting of course the most important thing...having our family time at the weekends. Now I knew there would be craft fairs and markets but I promised myself that they would be kept sporadic because otherwise I would lose out on my family time.
Then I did my first fair...I loved meeting people and discussing my dresses and t-shirts and booties and sewing and fabrics...you get the idea and anyone who knows me will tell you that I love talking (which would explain how I ended up working in the Entertainments dept on Cruise Ships!). I also loved making money...it was an absolute joy to sell the things that I had loved making.
Which leads me neatly into my headless chicken mode of desperately trying to make it to a market that for some reason I thought was the be all and end all of Funky Sprogs...LSH had told me that he was working on the QM2 (oh the glamourous life that I don't lead!) that week and so I set about packing my stock, tablecloth, banner, mannequins, hangers, clothing rail into a suitcase and hiking rucksack...check...all sorted! Next finding someone to look after my sprogs from 7:30am to 6pm on a Saturday...bizarrely I had three offers (I have some really, really good friends!) and then I stopped and thought about it...it's one market, it could rain, my children would be spectacularly unimpressed, and I would be an unattractive headless chicken.
It would also completely defeat the object of why I wanted to set up my own business.
So instead I will wake up with my sprogs at a reasonable time for a Saturday morning, maybe take them to the park, maybe watch a movie with them...who knows...but I won't be stressed, and they will be happy and LSH will be on a luxurious cruise liner 'working'...ggggrrrr!
Anyway having my hair cut is one of those wonderful, precious times (as all mums will know) where you cannot take your children and are completely alone in an adult world of gossip mags, gossipy people and coffee (with the odd stray hair mixed in)...absolute bliss. Trying to find a balance of time to be you and not 'mum' is essential to keep the madness away!
I set up Funky Sprogs because of my passion for sewing, but it also meant that I could provide myself with a job that I love and still be able to be there for my children during the week (and the dreaded school assemblies!). Not forgetting of course the most important thing...having our family time at the weekends. Now I knew there would be craft fairs and markets but I promised myself that they would be kept sporadic because otherwise I would lose out on my family time.
Then I did my first fair...I loved meeting people and discussing my dresses and t-shirts and booties and sewing and fabrics...you get the idea and anyone who knows me will tell you that I love talking (which would explain how I ended up working in the Entertainments dept on Cruise Ships!). I also loved making money...it was an absolute joy to sell the things that I had loved making.
Which leads me neatly into my headless chicken mode of desperately trying to make it to a market that for some reason I thought was the be all and end all of Funky Sprogs...LSH had told me that he was working on the QM2 (oh the glamourous life that I don't lead!) that week and so I set about packing my stock, tablecloth, banner, mannequins, hangers, clothing rail into a suitcase and hiking rucksack...check...all sorted! Next finding someone to look after my sprogs from 7:30am to 6pm on a Saturday...bizarrely I had three offers (I have some really, really good friends!) and then I stopped and thought about it...it's one market, it could rain, my children would be spectacularly unimpressed, and I would be an unattractive headless chicken.
It would also completely defeat the object of why I wanted to set up my own business.
So instead I will wake up with my sprogs at a reasonable time for a Saturday morning, maybe take them to the park, maybe watch a movie with them...who knows...but I won't be stressed, and they will be happy and LSH will be on a luxurious cruise liner 'working'...ggggrrrr!
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