Pictures of my lovely glass!

As promised from yesterday's blog, here are the pictures of the lovely bowls I got at an Op-Shop. :)

I think they are probably vintage to some degree, lets say 70s, but I'm not 100% sure.

I still like them.

All of the above for $4.50! Woo Hoo!

Here is an example of the only other 2 types of bowls we have in our house. 

Good for everyday use, but well you know, just a bit boring. When we moved into our current house my boyfriend decided that we needed new plates and stuff. We already had the white. I came home to find these blargh looking beige things. See, he picked them to 'go with our kitchen' which has lovely cream tiles and stuff, but well I think they are just a bit boring. He liked them so I didn't say anything. I just like to have pretty bowls! So when I came across some that were cheap as chips, I couldn't resist!!

Here is a further breakdown. 

These lovely larger size bowls were $0.50 each. I ate my salad in one yesterday for lunch, and folks it was a decent sized salad at that so I'm pretty well pleased with them.

These ones were $2.00 for the 'set'. They are more your dessert sized bowls. Yet to use them, but I think they are quite lovely.

This one was $1.00. There was only one of them unfortunately. It is the same size as the 3 above. It has found a new home in my bathroom holding some of my more often used makeup.

Lovely. 

Oh, and here is a picture to demonstrate how bored I was yesterday...

I was so bored I cleaned out and organised my bathroom cupboard.

Still slow on the sewing front. Bored!

It seems that I gave myself a tiny bit of burn-out. Either that or I just really need to go back to work. See when I get too bored I just seem to not want to really do anything and I get really negative. Bored. Boredy, bored, bored. I need to get back to work so the creative juices can start flowing. One more day to go and then hopefully I will feel better. 7 weeks of no working while not actually doing anything much on your holiday is really a bit too long. I'm even too bored to get over-involved-all-consumed in a book.

Still sewing my way through tutus. Layer 2 has now been sewn on all 16 and all 16 have had the waist finished off waiting for elastic to be threaded through upon total completion. So, if you include all of the initial cutting out of lycra and tulle and sewing of lycra I am probably about half way through.

On a side note, I went op-shopping yesterday. (Thrifting for non-Aussies) I had every intention of finding clothing. I did not find any clothing. I think the absolute sweltering hotness of the tiny little building had something to do with my not looking very hard though. Anyway I came away with some lovely 'glass.' I found 7 lovely glass bowls. 3 bigger than 4. 2 matching sets of 3 and one odd ball. All together they totalled $4.50. Lovely.

There were also several scarfs there, but I was hanging onto 7 glass bowls when I spotted them so I didn't get a real good look. I will post pictures of my lovely (vintage?) glass finds tomorrow. Hell, I haven't got anything else to post about right now have I??

A first attempt at 'feathering the nest'

I'm not nesting for any particular reason. I had this fabric left over from a dance costume and a lounge that was very plain.

So I made these 2 cushions a few days ago. They are pretty plain, I didn't have anything in my stash to put on them so they stayed plain. But I do live with a boy, and I accept that I can't have really girly stuff all over the house. Not that I am the girly decorator type anyway... they are backed with a light khaki cotton that was also in my stash. Also a left over. I need to get some new cushions though - the actual bit that goes in the cover. I stole these ones off our other lounge and they are about 7 years old, so they are very squashed and loved... just a bit sad looking. Oh well!

But yeah, made some cushions.

I felt proud.  :)

What has your sewing machine been up to lately?

Bargain Dress Form

My boyfriend (who is meant to be working) is currently off  'doing garage sales'. Don't ask...  Bloody paramedics...

Anyway I get a phone call it went something like this:

"You know that red dummy thing you have in your sewing room?"

"My dress form?"

"Yeah, that thing... do you need a new one?"

"Yes, and I know what sort I want to buy when I go back to work and start getting money again."

"Oh. I just bought you one."

"From where?"

"Oh, a garage sale. It was thirty bucks"

"Well I only want it if it works. The one I have is second hand and not all the dials work..."

"They guy said it has only been used once and is virtually brand new."

"Ok then, thanks sweetie."

"I bought you a present!"

Cut to 5 minutes later and he has shown up at the house with this.

I just pulled it out of the box and had a quick inspection and it does indeed appear to be brand new.

When I told Mr the he would have to get rid of the old one he replied with "Nah you can keep it and race them!"

A bargain at $30.00!!!

Uh Oh. I've added to my stash...

Sorry for the hiatus of non-sewing stuff, but I really didn't think you guys wanted a daily update of the sewing of 16 tutus for under 8 year olds...

This is where the problems began...

I went onto ebay a few weeks ago.

Big mistake.

Spent money I shouldn't have spent.

Got some pretty things though!

I got this lycra.

Although as a person who works with a lot of lycra, I wouldn't really call this lycra. It is, but ehhhhh it isn't thick enough and the stretch is way more one way than the other for me to consider it 'lycra'. Is it a fabric that has lycra in it. Yes. But is it 'lycra' lycra. No. Still pretty though. I was going to make some swimwear out of it for a design comp later in the year, but with the lack of 2 way stretch I'm unsure now...

I got this lovely knit.

I'm going to probably make a sweater dress out of it for winter. Can't wait. I'm excited about it.

And I got this beautiful silk.

There is about 2 metres of it and I love it. Problem is, as the fabric is so nice I have this feeling that it will sit in my stash for ages through fear of ruining it in a dodgy sewing project.

So, does anyone have any suggestions on what I could do with it? I was leaning towards this top from over at Burdastyle but I have a fair bit of fabric so it seems silly to just make a little top. But if I make a pretty dress chances are I won't wear it much (as stated in my previous entry).

Your clothing upbringing?

I follow a couple of blogs that are primarily based around the personal style of the blogee. What I Wore, Cupcakes and Cashmere, Lady Melbourne... and I enjoy what these ladies come up with on a daily, weekly or whenever basis.

See, I would love to do that sort of thing. Post pictures of what I wear everyday on my blog. But that is just me living in a fantasy world. See the real me, well I don't really have any call to get myself all dressed up and accessorised everyday. And thus I come to the title of today's blog.

What was your clothing upbringing?

Mine was a little something like this.

If you were at home, whether you were inside reading a book, inside playing, outside playing or just hanging around you didn't wear your 'good clothes.'

If you were going somewhere, like to the movies, out shopping (unless you were coming straight from school and then you would be in your uniform - ick) or generally going out of the house then you wore your 'good clothes'. That is just how things were and I guess stuff like that sticks. Kind of like when you _have_ to make sure you go to the toilet before leaving the house. Stuff like that is ingrained, and I guess clothing upbrining is the same.

I sort of don't really see the point of getting all dressed up if all I am going to do is sew, do laundry, watch tv, read, or clean the house. You know what I mean? So quite possibly I live in the same few items of clothing - especially for the bottom half cause it is kind of difficult to work with and when I find something that works it tends to stick.

My chances to get dressed up are kind of pretty limited. You see, I live in a little country town that would probably have a population of about 3000 people. You feel overdressed when you go 'down the street' (we only have one street for our cbd) wearing your nice jeans, a nice top, heels and accessories. Tis a bit sad. Even if you wear a pretty dress you sometimes feel a bit silly. I tend to get my fixes from the odd excursion out to lunch with my boyfriend, shopping trips to Newcastle (our closes big city - an hour and a half away) and the very occassional trip to Sydney to go to the theatre or see the ballet. Sigh.

I work in a town about 70km away - which is about a 1 hr drive - and even then I am limited to what I wear. You can't really bust a move as a dance teacher while you are wearing your new favourite pair of street shoes. So it is always pretty amusing when I do get to 'dress up' (ie dress like a normal person) around dance-school people. It comes out as something like "Oh, Miss Jenni, you look really nice today"  I usually reply, "Thanks! Yeah, you don't really get to see me in my civies very much!" I love lycra, but when you wear it for work the whole leggins craze kind of loses it's appeal...

That was a really long post. Sorry for the rant!

Thoughts anyone? Am I alone in this seemingly narcisistic, fashion obsessed culture we exist in at the moment?

- just as a side note, does anyone know how to remove the boarder from around a picture?

Shameless self-promotion...

Today I put a couple of new items up in my etsy shop.

Pajama Pants

and

Floral Blouse

Both are now available for sale at my shop.