Back to The Sewing Machine

For a while now you might remember I have been trying hard to loose a substantial amount of weight, because of this my sewing journey stopped until I had reached a comfortable point where I wasn't

 dropping a dress size every month.  I'm really pleased to announce I'm nearly at my destination on this crazy journey and I feel I can happily start making clothes again.

I know for certain this blog will be having a lot more posts about my sewing, so please bare with me while my blog attempts to find its perfect identity and works out what is going on, there will be a big variety of posts between now and who knows...

The first dress on my new wardrobe list was the cappuccino dress by Liesl Gibson for Oliver and S. 

I'd been looking for along time for the portfolio dress created by sew lisette for Simplicity (2245) but being out of print couldn't find it anywhere within a normal budget. When I saw Liesl Gibson had released a really similar but much improved pattern I jumped straight on the band wagon. 

It is the long anticipated pattern to replace the out of print portfolio dress (simplicity 2245) that I wish I had brought several years ago. I know so many people in the blogging world wanted to mark this portfolio and I'm sure as many will be making the new cappuccino. 

I used some basic cotton that I had in my stash to whip up this first number. 

Although really basic in colour, the style made me more than happy! With in 12 hours I was already onto making my second. I found the first one had some real pattern issues for me, I needed to create a full bust adjustment on it to make it fit a little better.

I used the same fabric again for the second pattern but to make it easier to tell this apart I also used a fabric of the same construction but red in colour.

Seriously, I'm not sure the dress can get any cuter than this. 

This time round I attempted to make the longer sleeves, I'm confident to say that this pattern will become a wardrobe staple for me and I'm already planning a few more versions of this to ensure I have enough wear out of the pattern. I love the tunic version that is also available and plan on making some changes of my own to play around with different constructions etc.

I love how easy it was to construct this dress and how it seems to be able to be dressed up and dressed down.

The red version was a little tight on the red fabric, and I love the cuteness of lining the pockets in something different, however I've so far worn this dress twice and both times someone has asked me what's white inside my pocket...

Of course I gave them the standard answer of CHICKENS!!! What else would a girl have in her pocket?

I've said it previously but I will say it again, this dress is amazing. If you've previously been on the fence about this one I need to tell you that you should get off the wall knowing your bare feet will be more than comfortable in the grass that is this amazing dress.

I will be looking out for Liesl Gibsons other patterns in a few weeks as well. Amazing!!!

Project life organisation

This evening I've finally finished organising my prohect life 3x4 cards. 

I've got this divider from muji which fits them perfectly and allows me to see all the cards. 

There was a recent post in a Facebook group I'm in (Project Lifers) that suggested turning 1/2 the cards over so it's easier to see the other side. 

I've done this and organised it into categories. Other than my old kit (Amber) I have 5 categories in every collection. 

The only cards I haven't put into this organiser are the seasons mini kit and the holidays mini kit. I intend to keep those together so I can see them easier. 

Il leave you with some more photos. 

The dividers were made from some old scrapbook paper that I'm either not a massive fan of or have a lot of the same. And the Martha Stewart sticky tabs. 

Written on each is the kit name and a word about what's behind them. 

Engagement gift - Project Life

I'm sure like all you guys you love talking about and sharing project life. 

One of my closest friends has just got engaged. I knew straight away I'd love to get her the wedding mini kit from Becky Higgins. 

This wasn't the most exciting gift I could think of, so I started thinking outside the box. 

I'm really lucky to have some amazing colleagues at work and some awesome equipment to use a laser cutter and supporting equipment to design and make these special cards.

She's planning on getting married on the Disney Dream ship so thought the bottom card was absolutely perfect. 

What do you think?? I'm sooo happy and I hope she is to.  Congratulations Gemma. Xx

Week 8 - A busy Week

Wow!!! This week has been pretty non stop. 

I'm proud to say on Sunday night I have finished the week. No doubt there will be a few minor tweaks as time goes on (including cutting my week 8 title) but I'm super happy with this one.

I decided fairly early on that I would highly embellish this week as it's a holiday for me and this week my Freckled Fawn embellishment kit arrived (I'd love to say I used most of the elements before the next one arrives)

Although the bottom left looks dark in this photo there is actually a photograph there. 

Due to being busy I've ended up doing a fair bit of journaling onto the photographs using dies to cut some project life cards up. 

Front of insert. The top row has all been cut using my cricut and matches the card I made my parents for their anniversary. 

A big surprise for me this week visiting the Cath Kidston outlet store near my parents took up an entire side of the insert (with a couple of filler cards) 

It took me ages to work out how to journal on the top right card! I didn't want a plain card journaled on so I ended up die cutting this banner from amber project life cards and journaling onto that. 

I'm so pleased how this weeks turned out. And I super proud that I'm keeping up to date because I know this week is going to be a really tough week and I won't have time to complete it. I fell behind last week and only completed that yesterday, I didn't enjoy that and don't want it to happen again. 

Project life - Week 7

Decided I must try harder at project life some weeks. Knowing I'd be putting this spread together during my holiday I decided I needed to embellish more. (It's also a little late because of the holiday) 

I love how this spread has turned out (and I am happy it's a double page, think I'm going to run with that more often) 

This week has used my new blush core kit (the title card was from the jade kit)

You can see my title card has my cricut cut week stamp. 

Although this side is a little plain it highlights the week perfectly. 

The weather card was from the seasons mini kit (Britian has had some dramatic winds in the week) 

Using my phone and my canon selphy I made the photo collage bottom right. Perfectly portrays the organisation and movement from the evening (in the pub)

This week was valentines week so there's little hints of that around. 

Really happy to use more of my embellishments. Think you'll see more decoration as the weeks go on. 

Titles for Project Life 2014

Well I did it. I got my cricut out. Blew all the dust and cobwebs away and got playing.

I'm not going to lie. It didn't take me long to decide on this.

I wanted something simple that I could cut every single week. To be identical and fit with all my colour options. 

Naturally I went for black because at one point I was considering white. But worried about those pages that are already white. Maybe 2015 will be the year of the white title. 

I feel this black works really well as the binder is the black American Crafts with cameras on that Amy Tangerine designs. 

Project Life Week 6

What initially started off to be a really boring week turned out to have so many photos (mostly from the weekend) that I've ended up having a few inserts in the week as well.

The weathers been a bit iffy recently so I decided to do a quick outfit of the day for the week. Really enjoyed doing this, I'm considering doing this 4 times throughout this year. It was interesting that I thought about what to put on because I knew it would be recorded. 

I had a day out in London on Saturday which actually supported most of the photos from this entire week. 

M&M world 

I loved that the bag was 12 x 12 so slipped it straight in a page protector. Sad that it rained so much the bottom was soggy and fell off. 😞

Thankfully the otherside is doubled sided scrapbook paper and I think the green works pretty well. 

This next page is work in progress. I wanted to include a traditional scrapbook page and knew I want to include these photos. So for now I've just tucked them inside and will work on them later. 

Below is my traditional project life lay out. 

I've pushed myself a little bit by working with lots of bold colours. 

Inspired by the Olympic Rings I chose the colours and the shapings. 

I would normally put something like my tax disc in my project life except the UK have recently learnt that in September they will stop issuing these. 

I decided this was something I wanted to keep as part of the memories. 

You'll possibly notice I haven't stamped the weeks or dates on yet. This is something I've still not decided on from previous weeks and am currently considering using my cricut to cut some pretty numbers. 

As a fairly naive project lifer. I'd love to know what you guys think. 

Project life Week 1 - 5

I gave project life a miss in 2013, through out the year I kept looking at other peoples instagrams and blog posts showing their amazing love of their album. So decided 2014 was the year for me to log my life again. 

I started recording my life on the 1st of January using a smashbook, Initially feeling this would allow me to keep hold of memorabilia as well as photographs. 

Five weeks in and I had a totally sleepless night thinking about my original project life. Grabbed my 2012 project life album and fell in love with it all over again reminding me of all the small things that I'd forgotten about. The little things that make me smile. 

 I had the majority of things I needed to start 2014 so got straight on with transferring the first 5 weeks from my smashbook into a new project life album. 

Here is my cover page. Kept simple. But I'm sure as the year goes on it will become developed and much more detailed. 

I've been forcing myself to not follow any specific rules, after all rules have been made to be broken. 

My first week, very boring. The week after new year before returning to work. Small 3x4 card explaining all the photos. And a card I love - packaging, washi tape and a paper clip. Simple but ... Perfect. 

I spent a few hours pondering this particular card. How to get the best from the light bulb paperclip. In the end I settled on sewing it on. I'm sooo pleased with it. Every time I see it I smile. 

My second week gave a large disaster; washing machine soaking my carpet. A final Christmas present (with an amazing gift tag that I just had to keep) and a new coffee product I've fallen in love with. 

An empty space and unsure what to do I resorted to some sparkles. Sequins in a pocket. I love the excitement of seeing the next week between the sequins. 

Little stories this week including screen grabs from my phone. I felt its important to keep the little details that are important to me, they make me who I am but may be boring to other people. 

All my thoughts this week were based around one particular event. I was given some paperwork at this event that I needed to keep. Who knew normal page protectors would fit in my scrapbook album?

I made no alterations to this document I just tucked it in. 

I loves my zentangle I'd created for my smashbook so much that I had to cut it out and keep it for my project life. I've seen several people on Pinterest cut photos and memorabilia between pockets, I LOVE how this turned out. 

Long of stories this week and next resulted in bifolded cards for the bigger picture. 

Mini stories in week 5 of 2014 and I discovered an app on my phone to print small Instagram photos  to tell more of my stories. 

I hope you enjoyed my small viewing. I'm in love and feel il keep this up for a long time. I've subscribed to freckled fawns embellishment kit and can't wait for it to arrive.

Massive thanks and love to Cat (decision inspired) who continues to inspire me every day. 

New Filofax set up!

Hi guys.
So in an order to get more organised in 2013. I decided to set myself back up with a new Filofax. I've had this one for ages. Brought on eBay for pennies. She arrived in a sorry state but after a very extensive Nivea facial or 2 she's gorgeous!! I love how loved she feels, I never thought I would but I like the fact that she is worn in already.

In the front cover I have paper clips, pretty things to look at. The obligatory stickers, post it's etc. My cover page will be created as I go along with things I like, currently only has an envelop I cut up as my address was too gorgeous not to keep!! (sorry I've covered it with a project life card)

After this you can see my week to view diary. This came from Philofaxy but I've personalised it slightly. Afraid lots of my documents in here originate from Philofaxy then I've made them much more personalised (if you see any you like for their colourfulness contact me, il ask the Philofax king if he's happy for me to share these with you)

In between each of these months I've got my month to view. Think I'm going to get on better seeing these at the beginning of the month rather than in a separate section!

Simplicity next is my notes section. A combination between these plain pages (as you can see I was planning how to set up my filo) and lined paper.

My meal planner is really useful in allowing me to save some money! It's actually rare that I plan weekends but its there incase I want to use it.

I've recently become very addicted to the gym so this month to view has been adapted to keep track of my activity in the gym (including these stick figures of various gym poses) I've been using this set up for the gym for 3 weeks now, I'm finding its working really well so far!

Next up is to keep track of my slimming world journey. I've been following slimming world for 4 months now and am really enjoying it but I'm finding I have enter weight loss the weeks I track my syns and healthy extras so I've built a diary for this. Aiming to loose most of the weight before my next birthday (end of June)

As most of you I like to keep track of finances, to keep costs down I've created this myself purely because I only have a few original Filofax ones left.

Last but not least are my planning pages for project life. Carrying these around with me will allow me to keep up with them a little better.

I also keep this pen in my Filofax where I can highlight things once they are complete. I love that it also has post-it flags on the other end.

As everyone with Filofaxes I'm sure this will be changed as my life style changes. 2013 is the year I'm getting organised and loosing weight so hopefully this Filofax ell stay with me for a long time (although I may update the binder itself)
TTFN. Xxx

Project Life

I've shared with you before, since the day I turned 25 I've been recording every day of my life.

I'm excited that one day I will be able to look at this with my kids and tell them my story about 2012 and the days I was 25!

I'm really enjoying this process and have become totally addicted to recording every week.

This is my current week. I hope you like it and the little stories that Im sharing!

I'm also joining in december daily this year but am unable to show you anything until my page protectors arrive!!! (Hopefully that will be tomorrow)

Let me know what you think. If you are also a project lifer please say hi!!

Project life -week 1

Hey guys,
Something a little different from me this week.
I've been looking for a while for a way to document my life. I think I've found it.

Project life!!! Becky Higgins has come up with this awesome idea of scrap booking but using photo sized slots.
I've done a few specific pages before week 1.

Then week 1:


Let me know what you think. Can't wait for my actual kit to arrive!!!! For now I'm making my own journaling cards.

Wish me luck

Ok here's a new project for me. And a little bit of a challenge.

I'm turning an old dress of my mums made of gorgeous fabric into a new dress for me.

I'm using this dress..





Close up of the fabric

Into this.....


Needed for the 27th of June

Wish me luck!!!