Annie Lennox at the V&A

Posted: February 6, 2012 | Author: Kim | Filed under: Life | Tags: Books, Exhibitions | 2 Comments

I have had a lovely couple of days away – mainly to go and see my lovely daughter but also to visit the V&A to see the Annie Lennox exhibition. We got our first real snow of the year on saturday evening and I knew we had to be away early to be in London for 9.30am in order to have plenty of time to wander the exhibition and get back to my daughter to go out for lunch. Thankfully the management (husband) takes a dim view of people and organisations who fail to cope with such a relatively small amount of snow ( are you listening Heathrow?)

We were a bit later than we hoped getting to the V&A (tube delays!) but had plenty of time to see what turned out to be described as a ‘small temporary exhibition’. Seven of her stage outfits were available for me to look at though not terribly closely. Lovely anyway! Do you recognise any of them from her videos?

I did have time to just wander the museum after that (I could spend all day in there!) so there are more photographs but I will save them for another day.

One I have to share is this wonderful hat for my Australian followers! Gday! (Who could this belong to?) Small clue: she is a Dame of the British Empire. Sort of.

: Sydney Opera Hat

I spent a little time in the bookshop before leaving (for what was by then a very welcome lunch) and found Pattern Magic 2. I would have been rude to leave it there. So I didn’t.

Had a Merry Christmas…

Posted: December 31, 2011 | Author: Kim | Filed under: 'The Material Lady', Computing, Life | Tags: Books, Computing, JAM 2011, Life, The Material Lady | Leave a comment

… ate too much, drank too much, did no sewing at all. As planned. I am now feeling a bit guilty for all the non activity and feel like planning the next move. But I haven’t shown you the Christmas prezzys I made yet! (Don’ t get too excited – it was a last minute thing – as usual).

Purple Organiser Wallets'Chez Hoodie' - How perfect!

'Chez Hoodie' - How perfect!

Pre Christmas I saw a 12 Days of Christmas feature on LBG blog for a fabulous organiser wallet that I knew would be a good gift for my daughter and a good friend. I had just the right fabrics in my stash and with a visit to a stationers and the local quilt/patchwork store ‘Totally Patched’ for batting I was sorted. It wasn’t until I started cutting the Paris inspired fabric I realised just how perfect it was! If you looked closely at the shop signs one of them was ‘Chez Hoodie’ – as a Hood giving a gift to a Hood it was just perfect. I even remembered to put my label in them. (Just as well as when my daughter opened it she didn’ realise it had been made for her – praise indeed!)

Paper heaven!

My darling daughter is probably most responsible for the fact that I have done nothing for what seems like days. I know I never work as well when the house is occupied so having both daughter and husband home meant that the sewing was scuppered – but when you are given a bag full of Stylist magazines (weekly magazines given away free on the London Underground – saved by my fabulous daughter!) there is no possibility of work. Apart from meals and pauses for fabulous TV I have devoured these magazines this week. Fabulous! (Lots of inspiration for sewing so perhaps it does count as work? )

I have been looking at the thread on Stitchers Guild about sewing related gifts. I don’t usually expect anything sewing related as everyone seems to think I would be difficult to buy for (just try! I’ll be happy – honest) but this year my husband found an old book which he bought thinking it might be quite amusing. I could hardly believe it when I opened the parcel – my mum had this book over 40 years ago and I used to enjoy thumbing through it even then. Kindles could never smell like this !

: The Art of Needlecraft – Published 1935

Looking back on 2011 I haven’t done as much sewing for myself as I would have liked but I have made some real steps in other areas. I took over ‘Material Matters’ fabric sales from Pamela in April and hope I have been able to serve my customers as well as she did. I am still on a very steep learning curve but hope to find next year easier now that I have some things set up on computer to ease the process. That was next, I have completed a computer course this year (and now have a Nationally recognised qualification to show for it!) which I did not find easy. All the knowledge gained is being put into use and I hope that I will continue to improve (watch the website – I am working on another tutorial online which may show some benefits soon!). I have failed miserably to complete 12 jackets in the Jacket a Month challenge – but I have 3 more jackets than before so I win anyway!

Next year I hope to be able to improve my business and do more sewing for myself – it was one or the other this year. Lets see what next year brings.

Happy New Year to all my readers.

Kim