Oct Highlights

Let's see...

Visit to Jo's. I didn't want to stay home alone that week cos of the reactions people get when I tell them the block of apartment where I stay used to be a hospital. These people would joke about the unseen and the morgue and etc. Their stupid jokes didn't help me at all while I'm trying to get used to the place! So when Rick went away for a week, I went to Jo's and stayed away from these friends. Jo and the kids helped a lot cos after I came back, I wasn't pissing in my pants anymore. sigh.... but anyways, spending time at Jo's was great...not to mention the shopping. hahah

finished a crochet project. this is warmer than it looks. hmmm... it's black with pink flower buttons. the pink i used for my shawl. horrible lighting.

Baked a Japanese Cake according to the recipe Vic sent me. didn't line the bottom enough so water seeped in while it was baking but came out beautifully though a bit too moist. added more lemon cos the hubby likes lemony things but I didn't like it cos it was wayyyy too tart for me.

hmmm.... jewellery....here are some of the pieces I've made in Oct. Lighting in this country is horrible for photos.

and sewing... hahah made a winter coat... it's not that hard to make a coat...(dressmaking is easy if you get ready made patterns!)...just the amount of work!!! and of course the fabric i chose was beautiful to look at but a pain to work with! and obviously I made mistakes here and there and by the time it came to hemming it, I was wayyy too sick working on it. but overall, I thought it looked very well done! although from the pic, the back looks funny. Hubby assures me I did a good job though...

a dress before that...looks more like the primary school uniform! should have chosen a diff colour! Just as well, I have never worn one.

A dress for Chinese New Year assuming by then I can still fit in it! . This fabric...sigh... cost me £9.90 per metre. I needed 2m and I am a housewife with no income!!! sigh...

 And the grand finale!!! As I was piling on weight like there's no tomorrow... I have convinced myself to break my own rule and overcome my allergy to exercising and convinced the hubby I needed help. Tadaa!!! A cheap Cross Trainer from Argos. Putting it together was fun and tiring cos the hubby was away when it came. the first 2 weeks, I did an hour about 15km on average every other day. This past week, I'm doing 20 mins about 5km every morning. Bloody hard work if you ask me! I must be out of my mind! All this just so I won't get too many 'Geez! You've put on weight!' or 'OMG! You're SO fat now!' Hubby assures me I'm not fat and he loves me the way I am.. but then he's not going to complain if I have a fitter body, is he???

 

And Jo and the kids visited us and we had loads of fun but too much walking. Poor kids! and the hubby's been away for 3/4 of the month. That's it I think for Oct!...

My Room

Hehe... Yes, I have my own room, my very own sanctuary,  in this house as I've told you guys.... heheh so here are some pics that might make Peng Peng and Fely a wee bit envious... hehe...here goes....

 A bit messy but at least I know where everything is! I call it 'Organised Mess'. hehehe...

This is the sofa bed... at the moment, it is my storage place for miscellaneous... I just chucked them on the sofa bed. the red bag on the sofa bed contains all my yarn that I stuffed into it for the move...doesn't look like much here cos I stuffed it all into the bag. If you look at one of my previous blog entries, I used to have all my yarn on a shelf.

My old sewing machine that I got free cos Peng Peng found a lady who wanted to give it away in reading. It doesn't sew well at all but it's not like it can't be used and I can still sew with it. I'm not going to get it fixed cos getting it fixed could well be the cost of a new sewing machine.... And I made this chair cushion for one of our garden chairs which I used before we bought the blue one. I made this in a hurry and I didn't bother to measure and cut my cloth properly so the lines don match but it turned out brilliantly I thought. Made it out of the fat quarters of cloth I bought in Reading... Have to get more filling cos I used up the filling I bought to stuff our flat cushions... hehe...and now what should I do with this?

My sewing boxes with my fabric, patterns, scissors, etc....got more fabric but beside the sewing machine in the pink bag.

And this is where my multi-billion jewellery business takes place... hehe.. we bought all the furniture and my bureau table in my previous blog from a second hand shop.... let's see, the gorgeous dark wood foldable table cost £15 I think. my bureau table cost £30 or £40. The shelf and the chair was £10 each. The table top was quite scratched so I covered it with vinyl.

Looks messy in the pic, doesn't it?? but to my eye it is very neat cos I have everything I need on hand. well, I don normally have the tray out. I just bought it and so tried it out. I normally used my homemade one under the tray. I draw out measurements on oil cloth leftover from the dining table cover. hehe... my beads don run away from me on the white bit on the wrong side of the table cloth . The red and black box contains my earrings.

This was my old workstation in Reading... hehe I've graduated now!!! hehe I use this table for my sewing machine now. I had to clear the table when I made my dress and then  move everything back on the table after that.

My work supplies... hehe..my big box of beads and things I need for jewellery. the white tray on the top left contains half done and complete pieces.

So there you go, my room... hehe

And while I was writing this blog, I looked out my window and saw this.

The old lady was washing the car while the man was just standing there watching!!! heheh I feel like I'm the nosy parker spying on my neighbours!!! Wonder if this is how the papparazzi feel taking secret pics. I wonder how much I could blackmail them for... hmmm...

York

Everything is unpacked in our new apartment now...except for hubby's books in his office.... might take a holw year before he unpacks them cos he doesn't have enough shelves...hehe... moving is a pain but when you hire movers, it cuts down a lot of hassle. so I actually managed to unpack most essentials on the day we moved cos I wanted to give the movers their boxes back. It took me 3 days actually to sort out the kitchen, lounge and our shower room. I call it oour shower room cos the shower is in the ensuite but we don use that room as our bedroom cos it was smaller than the room we use as our bedroom. our wardrobes are also in the shower room(my own walk in wardrobe!). we also hang our laundry there cos I don like the aundry in the kitchen.

Here are some pics of the apartment...first the lounge.

 

The lounge is upstairs... but 'you live in an apartment!' I hear you ask... hehhe.. if you look at the top right half of the pic, you can see the white ceiling... heheh it's not a very high ceiling unlike the place in Reading. See the railing at the end? This next pic is what you see when you lean over it.

That's the dining table. I covered our garden table with oil cloth.

 Remember the exercise bike in the lounge? You can see it through the railings if you look up. I'm standing by the dining table while I took this pic. See my apron and red heart on the right of the pic? Use that as your bearing in this next pic.

hehe...still with me?  The lounge is right above the kitchen and on sort of like a mezzanine floor.

Cool, isn't it??? heheh We have 3 rooms downstairs and they are all like that. In fact, all the units in this building are like this. This building, County House, used to be a hospital in the late 1800s so the ceilings are very high and they have been converted into mezzanine floors to add extra rooms. I must tremember to take a pic of the garish pink lobby and show you one of these days.

 Because there are built in cupboards... sigh... I can't reach the top shelves so this is my new kitchen helper.

I love it. I can reach anything now without having to shout for hubby... hehe

 York Minster to the right when you look out the window.

My walk in wardrobe/shower room

If you look up, that's my room/workshop

My shoes in the storage room which is supposed to be used for hanging coats.

I finally finished the latch hook door rug I bought the first time when I visited Joanne. It adds colour to the tiny hallway.

This is my new second-hand Bureau Desk. I love it!!!!

I will take pics of my room when I have tidied it a bit... heheh... it also serves as the guest room.  I also have to get used to a new place asap cos hubby is going away on a long trip soon...  So there you go... pics of my new place.

Finished projects

My new card!!!

Here is an update on my finished projects the last few weeks...

This is one of Peng Peng's pressie.... Made her a pair of earrings you can see on her blog.

A pendant and a necklace I've been playing around with to match the earring on the top right for a friend.

A bracelet I learnt to weave with beads from Beejang's blog.

A set of silvery necklace and earrings for my Coriandr shop.

 

Tried crocheting with wire.

My new winter cap... a bit too big and my head looks ultra big in this!

And this dress!!! hahah.. Peng found me a lady giving away her old sewing machine so I had it a while back. So one day while the husband is away, I went to Fabricland and got myself a dress pattern and cloth to make it. After cutting the pattern out laboriously with my small scissors, I had to fix the sewing machine. Cos when the lady showed me all the knobs and things, she turned this and tweaked hat to show me it worked except for the tension spring. Something was wrong with the tension spring...anyways, can't complain cos she gave it to me for free. Her husband got her a new modern one. I spent hours trying to fix it and get the tension between the needle thread and bobbin thread right... Headache.... I think the spring needs to be changed..but it's still usable and VIOLA!...I made this dress... albeit it being a size 12....heheh I thought I was so fat by now, I'm a size 12....a bit of consolation to me, I'm still a 10 or possibly an 11 ...phew!... and i was so eager to finish it while summer was still here, I was too lazy to try it and fix it...so I'm sticking to the dress being a bit loose especially the bodice. It was supposed to be a strapless but I'm not well endowed enough to hold the dress, I made straps at the end...hehehe.. not bad bah kan.. I haven't touched a sewing machine since collage!

But I'm thinking kan...although I have lots of sewing projects to do and I even got material and patterns already!! hahha... but I'm thinking kan.. I still like making jewellery best cos I can be creative with it. I still love crochet and knitting and even subscribed to a magazine for it. But knitting and crochet take the longest. It takes forever for the project to look like what it's supposed to look like and even longer to finish! Sewing takes a hell lot of preparation but finishes fast. But I find the preparation most tedious. Maybe it's also due to my personality...hahah Nobody can accuse me of being organised and I don like planning either...

There's something about working with your hands and making something that is sooooo therapeutic and soothing! No wonder I haven't lost my temper in a while....heheh although the husband like sto think it's because of him...wakakaka...