A weekend in Glasgow

Reflections in Glasgow shop window

Last weekend we went to Glasgow to visit old friends. Whilst their, I did a little shopping or rather lots of window shopping....This one fascinated me and I had difficulty taking a shot because of the reflection but the whole shop walls were lined with ranks of old sewing machines. I went inside and could not believe it, there were hundreds of them on every single wall. Instead of taking an interest in the extremely trendy clothes I found myself mooching around looking at the different makes of machines and wondering why I did not see any Singers. Not surprising I thought as most of these must have been manufactured abroad and so did not hold their value hence their decorative use in the shop. The shop was on Buchanan Street but I had never heard of the name before and now can't remember it, my friend could tell me but she is in France at the mo.

Meanwhile, I am nursing a stinking head cold, I have had it about 4 days now and its time it left me...........

I am not hibernating - just not enough hours in the day to blog

My poor, sad woodburner.....

The reason is simple, I am trying to catch up with some chores around here. Number one is wood burner repair as the glass cracked last week and I had to go to Penrith to buy more which is expensive. Whilst there I decided I would need to redo the rope around the door seal too and I thought I had cement/glue left over from last time so did not buy any. Wrong again: I now have sent for some from Ebay as driving back to Penrith with the cost of petrol was not an option......So the Morso cannot be lit and I have resorted to various candles to bring a bit of cheer to the gloom of no comforting fire. The place does not seem the same in the morning either because its colder as the heat usually keeps in until the next morning and I just pile on more wood and it springs to life.

Number 2 was new curtains for the kitchen door as the draft is a bit of a problem in winter. I decided they had to be thicker but did not go for interlining because I was worried the weight would be too much and bring down the curtain rail (that once happened in the hall and it smashed a favourite large pottery bowl made by Marea Goodman who is now resident in Colorado so no chance of another). So I just used light fabric for a backing and went for the velour/velvet material. I thought they were going to look too dark but DH says they have transformed the kitchen, a welcome pat on the back....



Probably the darkest fabric



Contrast

The material is actually very pretty and I used it to make a patchwork of rectangles so the kitchen does not look formal as it's country style with a dresser and open shelves with pottery on display.

For those of you interested in the bird saga, I had a fright on Sunday morning because a hawk swooped down to the bird table when 6 Lesser Redpolls were having breakfast.... I don't know if it made off with one or not, it was so fast. I did find though that the speed with which it scattered the other little birds caused one of the Siskins to fly into the greenhouse glass and I found it lying in a pool of water hours later. The poor little bird's neck was probably broken, I was very upset and decided to put something up on the greenhouse glass so the birds know its a solid wall. I am going to a garden centre later today to see what they have. Any suggestions?

Easter Break

It was a good Easter as far as I was concerned though not one where I had any chance to pick up a needle in any shape or form. So I decided to rummage around the house until I found something you had not seen before which I made ages ago.  We once went to a fancy dress party and my DH was supposed to be Indiana Jones, and this was his hat. I made the spider's legs with pipe cleaners, and its eyes are red buttons.

Moving swiftly on, as they say, we did enjoy meeting up with an old friend of ours and his new partner, as his wife and he had divorced. It seems to me that quite a few of the couples we used to know are no longer together, that's modern life I suppose. He was as hilarious as usual especially when we swopped anecdotes from the past like the time we were kept waiting for a meal in an Italian Restaurant in Folkestone for well over an hour for our soup course.....Then when it came (despite the fact that the place had filled up with starving expectant customers) the only waiter insisted on ladling each portion out 'silver service style' from a tureen brought to the table. Of course the joke was that by this stage of the proceedings we had drunk all the wine and ordered more so were beyond caring what the soup came in or tasted like. The main course was just a blur in our minds too......But we roared with laughter once we left the place especially as so many customers were still sans dinner!

We also managed to make some new acquaintances of a different culture, namely from Singapore. What an interesting set of people they were with so much to teach us about their lifestyle and habits. I was unaware that they kept the English in such esteem but it was once our colony. Our few days in their company were thought provoking and made me realise how lucky we are to have produced some great Lakeland poets  who are admired around the globe. We also saw something of the new Wordsworth Museum at Grasmere and have vowed to go back and spend some more time there. Is it only when someone else enthuses about our locality that we realise how much we take for granted?

I also found some time to read my latest book acquisition, 'Jane Austen's Letters' edited by R.W. Chapman and published by the Oxford University Press. Some fascinating details about her life are revealed by her letters mainly to her elder sister Cassandra. I have been reading this book for about 3 weeks now but not rushing it as it has to be studied to make sense. I am about half way through it so far. I have been intrigued by her continuous references to fashion and dress of the time and cannot fathom out what she means when she refers to "pink persian". Does anyone know what that was? She mentions that she has just spent all of her money on some as well as some new white gloves.

Teaching tomorrow

Well I have my teaching aids ready now and I made up 16 silk purse kits too. That actually took much longer than I planned, don't know why but the Mulberry silk fought back when I gently eased the tops apart to make up smaller batches. The Tussah silk gave way without a murmer in contrast, but its all made up into batches for the purses now....I also finished the lampshade but I am keen to make another one because I think I can make a better job of it. The silk paper was fine but having to make a frame for the shade was always a long shot and when I made up the shade I had to tug it into shape a bit and a tiny bit of the soldering gave way.

I spoke to DH and he said that 'soft solder' could always be a problem so the result is the shade is a touch wonky. I can live with it but we both agreed that what I really needed was lamp shade frames. But I don't see anyone in the UK doing them anymore in a good variety of shapes and sizes. It's ok in the USA and I wish I was in Palm Springs sometimes because you could find anything you wanted near there except of course a fabric shop......and the climate was divine..droool, oops better stop day dreaming.

So I need to do some scouting around and find out where is the best place for lampshade frames or I need to visit thrift shops again and buy up old ones cheap. But I am going to make another lampshade because its bugging me now.

I will take photos tomorrow and post them up as soon as I can, but the website I am designing is back on the agenda for Friday so I am a busy bee at the mo. No time to clean the fridge which had an accident with a beer bottle last week and their is brown sticky in the bottom............

Just a quick visit

Just to say I found this site this morning and I think it has some good ideas on it. http://www.slideshare.net/kootoyoo I also added a couple more blogs to the blogroll because they seemed to be fun. Still not sewing at the moment but up to my neck in the last design stages of a new website for the Keswick Rambles. I really do have to work this week to keep all the balls in the air. But I can see the light through the trees now and I must make a good job of it as I have not designed a new website for a couple of years and I am quite enjoying myself. I don't think its anything like as hard as when I started as a computer programmer way back when I was 19 doing machine code.....So I will be back.......