The fat lady dances

So while I am still suffering a shocking case of EITTTS, I was reminded today that it is not always so.

Sheesh , he's done pretty well for a small town postal duck hasn't he?

Milligan is in this months issue of Homespun magazine and he is in some very fine company indeed. and today sees the last working day of the school term for me, I don't have to be back at work for 19 sleeps. At approximately 3.31, if the wind was blowing the right way , and you were listening, you may have heard the faintest whoop and felt the earth tilt ever so slightly on its axis, as I danced a little fat-lady dance through the library shelves and out the door.

In the nick of time

Holidays have arrived in the nick of time, I was beginning to think that I would never have an un-grumpy day again. I am beginning to think the day-job is not so good for my health. This morning I have put the very very final edits on a pattern and am sending it off in the post on Monday. I rode the black stallion for an hour - yes a whole hour, as in 60 full sweaty minutes....

I know ! I'm a freak. Do you know the secret ? I read while I walk ! yep it takes a bit of balance but in another crazy Jodie-does-deals-with-herself kind of thing, the deal is that I can only read while walking ,so the trick is to get a great book and then I almost actually want* to exercise.

Got any suggestions for me ? I don't do horror or gore and it needs to be a page-turner that doesn't require a PHD to follow.

*want- in an I hate every single sweaty, uncoordinated, uncomfortable step kind of way but if the book is good enough, I just keep turning pages and ignore it.

Just because you can......

Doesn't always mean you should.
I spent a HUGE amount of time yesterday working on little baby turtles, step by step photos -the whole bit.
But you know what? As cute as they are, I just don't think they are replicable - and no its not because I think I am some freaky genius and no-one else can do it, its because something that is only 2 1/2 inches long should not be made up of 12 separate pieces....

I was absolutely ramming layers of wool felt through my machine...and I just don't think it will translate that well into a sewing instruction

Step 7. Squash the hell out of the whole project so it fits under your sewing machine foot. Hold your breath, keep your fingers out of the way and ram the fabric through......

Back to the drawing board on that one.

Of course Milligan may have preferred that I spent that time looking through my 70 kersquillion buttons to find some to hold his wings in place
(is it wrong to admit that it would be quicker to drive to a shop and buy two buttons than it would be to sift through my huge unsorted tubs of buttons?)

So here he is, still with pin eyes, and cottons hanging from his feet, but steadfastly loyal and happy in his own duck world.

When he is totally finished and accessorized he will be heading off on an adventure and not back here for quite a while.

and even though I know that he is just Doctors flannel and hobby fill and cotton.........

I'll miss him.

Big stick

With big stick firmly in hand, I mended the mannequin

I finished off the first of my postcards for this weekends Daylesford Craft Experience.

I made a new skirt, which I actually cut out at Sewjourn in May

(and quite obviously need to iron)

A bit of trace around a jam jar embellishment. You know, I realise that although I don't enjoy making clothes at all I quite like the embellishing bit.

and dug out the dress and chair. Today I need to give these guys a bit of a spruce up and iron the frock. I also need to start my next postcard for the weekend and check my Gocco supplies. I am waiting for the delivery of a new computer and need to fold some patterns...

but once I have done all those things

it is off to the duck factory !

I'm not the pheasant plucker

I am not the pheasant plucker

I'm the pheasant plucker's son

I only pluck the pheasants when the pheasant plucker's gone......

'cept that they are ducks, and not plucked, and I'm a girl.....

but it was either that or a shot of me having an existential softie- making breakdown....

Fascination

Fixation

Celebration

Hesitation

Population

Devastation

Returning to normal

I closed my Etsy shop a while ago so I could get ready for the Stitches and Craft show, but its time to return to normal and get in there and tidy the place up a bit.

I've listed the four new patterns

and some lovely Doctor's flannel for dolls as well as some packs of wool for robots..

A good mornings work if I do say so myself...And my reward???

I'm spending the afternoon with Milligan !

and when the thinks won't stop........

sometimes you just have to give up and let them out.................