The lightbulb effect

My friend Cath, who is a fantastic photographer was bought a light lox for christmas from her husband. She has since taken a photo of a bag I made for her last year and look how good the photo has come out. The bag looks much better here than in my poor attempt. The suede fabric looks amazing (even if i do say so myself). Off to amazon now to a buy a light box.

Its finished

I am stuck at home with a sick child - fever all weekend and turns out to be yet ANOTHER bout of tonsillitis. So going slowly insane as i am really not very good at being in the house all day, especially as Martha seems to have developed a wheeze.

On a good note i have finished the nappy bag. It was a big job. The sewing itself was all quite straightforward, there was just a lot of it. I have yet to make the changing mat, but as the only terry towelling cloth i could find was in John Lewis at £17.50 a metre, I have decided to have a rummage through my own towel collection and see if i can not cut something up. £17.50 can you believe it. I could buy a couple of new towels for that from the next department.

The amount of fabric involved in this project is phenomenal and so quite costly. 3 metres of fabric for the lining, 2 for the exterior plus canvas, fusible interfacing and the previously mentioned Terry towelling

The bag (above) Phone pocket below

Each pocket is interlined and it has 2 bottle pockets on each side

I am though really pleased with the result and Naomi is over the moon. It was a rush job at the end and i spent much of Saturday and Sunday holed up in the sparing room frantically trying to get it finished. Naomi and baby Michael had to be rushed into hospital on Saturday as he had lost too much weight, so i thought it would be a nice cheery present for her yesterday. mum and baby are fine and my brother is doing a fantastic job looking after them all. However due to the last minute rushed nature of this bag, the photos are a bit crap. I finished the bag at 2.55 yesterday afternoon and had to leave at 3.20 to go and see them in hospital. Andrew bless him sat and cut all the loose threads from it which is a job i just hate doing.

So onwards and upwards in a crafting way. My friend wants to a knitting bag so i am working on that this week, following the tutorial on U-Handbag

So sewing again

It has taken me so long to get back into sewing since Christmas. There seems to have been so much to do and caffeine/sugar/carbohydrate withdrawal have meant that i have not been a particularly nice person recently.

So anyway i am now getting stuck into making the nappy bag for Naomi, mum of my new nephew Michael Dennis. I would have started it earlier but i have a superstitious streak running through me when it comes to babies and i never ever want to tempt fate. Does that make sense??

Anyway i am using this pattern which i was lucky enough to win in the Amy Butler sewing competition.

I would show you photos of the fabric but it is now out of production so i don't seem to be able to get any. It is taking about three days to cut out all the pockets and fabric etc etc. I am hoping to have it finished by the weekend.

Healthy eating update - 8lbs down and 2 inches off the waist.

Enjoy the sunshine (if you have it of course)

Welcome to the world

Little Michael Dennis Phelan was born this morning at 2.14am at home. My big brother Richard is a daddy for the first time and i am just so over the moon. Restraining myself so that i dont go rushing around there. 8lb 9oz. Congratulations to Richard and Naomi

Shes only gone and done it

Yup gone and got myself an Etsy shop. www.joannabags.etsy.com Only got two items on there at the mo - Christmas was very successful with my stock. Also currently working on an Amy Butler Nappy bag for my sister-in-law and have another two orders after that. So then i will be ready to put more stuff in it which will be fun. I have heard some negative things about people not selling through Etsy but to start off for me it was the easiest, quickest and by far the cheapest starting point.

The nappy bag is going to be SO SO SO funky. I won the pattern in the Amy butler sewing competition on U-handbag and it has to be said i was over the moon. There is so much fabric to cut out for this one, and on the detox thing i am so so tired i cannot seem to get off my backside and do anything.

Anyway that is all for now apart from Hoorah to my little etsy shop.

sorry link didnt work click here

Chickens

As you can see in the right hand tool bar there is a chicken and a banner with the strange title of "Chicken Out". For those of you in the UK you will have seen the big push to get everyone to buy free-range chicken or better still organic. If you havent seen the programme click here. Although i knew about the lives of intensively farmed chickens and as a result buy free range always, i still found the programme harrowing and at times had to turn over as it was too painful to watch. If you havent already, sign up to their campaign you can do so by clicking in the right hand tool bar.

On a lighter note if you want to see a funny story about a chicken click here and go to the lovely marmadaisy blog.

back to craftiness again next time.

Apologies in advance

Just a quick post to say that if any subsequent posts become moany ranty objectionable and argumentative it is because i am on a two week detox thingy. Not a just eat celery and water one but i am cutting out all carbs, wine, coffee and chocolate for two weeks to give my body a kick start.
I drink lOADS of coffee and rely on it quite heavily
I LOVE my wine
I need chocolate to survive.

But hey ho, my waist no longer fits into any clothes so drastic times etc etc

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everybody. With Oliver's last day home yesterday i decided we were going to have a joint effort at making cakes. Something we haven't done very much since Martha was born as she is allergic to eggs and putting her finger in the mixture would just not be a good thing. So having been given a recipe for egg free sponge cake off we went.

Martha had no idea what was happening and spent the first ten minutes banging the cake tins together and then decided that she would just spoon anything she saw into the tin. Oliver as ever was diligently eating the mixture. I didn't take a photo of the finished product as Andrew thought it the best cake ever and ate it.............all

Martha didn't even try it. The thing with avoiding foods is that when you try and give them something that looks like the very thing you have been pulling them away from, their instinct is not too eat it. hey ho Oliver had fun which was the point of the exercise. (yes i know my kitchen looks awful it is on our to do list for 2008 and i cant wait)

So off he went to school today after suffering with ear ache last night, upset that the snow i had spoken about, failed to materialise.

Anyway for all of you out there who also have to cook for children with allergies here is the recipe. the cake tastes amazing

120g marg

12og Caster sugar

1 tbsp golden syrup

240g self raising flour

150ml milk

(if also intolerant to milk use milk subsititutes for marg and milk)

Preheat oven to 190 C or gas mark 5

Grease and line two 7" inch cake tins

Cream marg, sugar and syrup together and then slowly stir in milk. Add flour and beat until this forms a batter and divide between the tins

Bake for 25-30 mins. Turn onto wire tray and cool

Or bung all ingedients into a mixer and press start