Who’s a clever boy?

Well he’s 23 actually, but coming home next week clutching not a 2:1 but a First Class Master’s degree in engineering, so how proud of him are we? Very!

Computer is back (of sorts…!)

I now have my computer back and it is working although not exactly fixed. The shop had it for over two weeks and tried all sorts of different parts, they said, but to no avail, they couldn’t find the problem with the screen, which is completely black. After I had been in and had a real kick off about needing my computer back they called ten minutes after I got home again to tell me that they had managaed to get it working with a secondary screen and if I was happy with that solution then I could come back and get it straight away and that could have been done weeks ago. To say that I was mightily brassed off is an understatement. Now if I could just get my broadband to operate at a normal speed instead of slower than dial-up then things would be peachy!

Roll on the return of the tech wizard from university to put us back in order, hopefully grasping a 2:1 Masters degree in engineering.

Computer is down!

My computer has decided it’s time to go to the doctors and the screen has given up the ghost! As usual, my computer, at four years old is now outdated and they don’t make spares for it any more so repairs are taking a bit longer than I had anticipated.

My emails are now being collected from the library once a day so if you want to be in touch then the best thing would be to telephone me as I might not get there every day.  I will update when the computer is repaired, please hope that this happens very soon!!

Craft 4 Crafters show coming up soon and more besides….

Next week sees the return to Westpoint, Exeter of Craft 4 Crafters for it annual visit to the west country. The show will be open to the public on Friday 23rd January until Sunday 25th. I will be with the Countess Wear Village Hall stand alongside several other tutors who also run workshops there and we will be looking forward to talking to lots of visitors and hopefully inspiring them to sign up for some of the workshops and classes on offer.

Creative Stitches last September brought a new opportunity which will involve me demonstrating at Sewing for Pleasure at the NEC in March which I am looking forward to very much, possibly some catwalk too. When I opened my February edition of Sewing World after it dropped on the mat this morning I found that they have used a photograph of one of my miniature dress dummies in the editorial about the show, they’ve not used my name but I recognise my backside in the background of the photo (not my best feature!)

Grouting & rendering update!

Just before Christmas the shower stall tiling was finished (started in April!) and the shower duly re-connected but 60MM has encountered a small problem now as the cold water isn’t coming through…..! Oh dear, plumber required! The white tiles in the shower stall look very smart but now (as I predicted) show up how old and tatty the 1970’s pink and white ‘chicken’ tiles look in the rest of the room, it’s like being in an episode of Rising Damp!

Curly hair after a lifetime of straight (ish)

I have worn my hair quite straight and short for most of my life and going to the hairdressers was a regular occurrence (every two or three months), but there was a hiccup in the attendance at the hairdressers when I was working at the fabric shop in Exeter for two days a week so my hair grew a bit and I discovered that a combination of not going to the hairdressers, not having it cut, and the advent of the menopause has turned my hair curly. I’m not complaining as it is actually easier to manage than the straight hair was.
The upshot is that there is a positive side to the ‘long warm moments’ and I don’t worry whether my hair looks dreadful or not.

Grouting & rendering

I’m pleased to say that the enforced house move had been put on the back burner due to the slump in the housing market and I have pointed out that said house move would end up costing us in the region of £20k and as the children 17,19 and 22, will be on elastic for the next few years we can’t intensionally make one of them homeless.

60MM has slowed and the shower room tiling is taking forever, when finished the shower will have new white 6″ plain tiles in the stall but the rest of the room will still have the old 4″ pink and white ‘chicken’ tiles which will eventually become a unique selling point! Student let brought to mind!!! The windows are nearly all done with 5 left unattacked due to rain, rain and more rain and a lack of interest on 60MM’s part as there’s now no rush to get the house on the market.

It’s all part of the fun I suppose.

Sewing in public 2

It wasn’t a fluke, another order has come from this week’s fair so I have to revise last year’s decision not to do the summer fairs as my thinking was obviously wrong.

Sewing in public

Last Sunday I exhibited at the craft fair at the Pavilion here in Exmouth. I’ve done this a few times as it is a very economical way of advertising the sewing courses and workshops and I have had some degree of success in recruiting students this way.

Up to now I hadn’t ever sold anything and really didn’t expect to but last weekend was a bit of a surprise as I sold a bodice from the rack, took an order for a corset from a lady from Ireland and took measurements for a lady from the Midlands who subsequently ordered a bodice this week and I finished two bodices whilst I was there! What a productive day!

I am going to try it again this coming Sunday to see if it was a fluke!

Sewing summer school

I had a conversation with someone today whilst I was at the fabric shop (strange place to find me!) who was saying that her daughter was at Bristol University doing Fashion & Textiles but, and this is a BIG BUT, they don’t teach them anything about making clothes, what is that about? Her daughter had spent a year (maybe?) at Taunton (SCAT) and not made clothes there either. I am appalled, isn’t fashion about clothes? If they are training people to be designers then surely they need to know about fabrics and how to put a garment together, but it seems that the students have to go out and find out about it for themselves.

With that in mind I feel that a summer school for fashion students would be in order to work on some sewing skills for these students so would like to have some feedback on what students would like to study in a summer school and how many people would be interested in attending. Classes would be in the Exeter/Exmouth area and I have a B&B just around the corner from me if you plan to stay for a day or two if we do more than one day.

Please leave your comments or drop me an email if a sewing summer school is interesting to you.