Sunday, 29 June 2008

just what do you do when the kids grow out of their clothes?...

there are the obvious options, to pass on to friends or family or send off to the charity shop...the brave few might even ebay them...but you know those little bits of clothing that have a special resonance...the ones that you absolutely adored on them...or that remind you of a special occasion,...or were given by a special someone...what do you do with those? I just can't bear to let them go...I'm pretty good at moving things on and looking forward rather than back...but some things I just can't say goodbye to...

they've been hiding away in a special box until recently...when I took them out, gave them a freshen-up wash and did this...

trousers Ms Reva wore to Florence aged 3 months (and a felted cashmere sweater of her dad's - the moths got it so it had to be...) the back has the smock you see below...

from my favourite smock of Ms Reva's, back when the girl would still wear anything floral ...before she moved on to robots and spacepeople and living in t-shirts...


from the dress Ms Bester wore to the Venice Biennale aged 2 months...and a pretty vintage button

now I just need to score me a billion pins...

what do you do with those special somethings?

Thursday, 26 June 2008

wemakeLondon...a roving report...

your intrepid Milkwood Times roving reporters (ed in Chief AnnieB, cub reporters Ms Reva and Ms Bester) braved the depths of central London last weekend to bring you this exclusive report on London's finest craft fair, the one and only WeMakeLondon...our main aim was to meet the infamous Angharad and check out her lovely wares...we found her in a pleasant corner, penned in by beautiful bags and purses and had a first hand report that the fair was fun. Helen certainly looked joyful as she sat on her perch next to Ms Clothcat (lovely felted items) and surrounded by her handmade goodies. Her purses were almost too pretty (ooh, they are gorgeous, and they are for sale on etsy too) for my slovenly lifestyle (shame that...) but I did score this wonderful tissue holder...


...now complete with inaugural Cath Kidston polkadot tissues...we'll degenerate to lidl multi-packs shortly, as soon as this initial flurry of good taste and throwing caution to the wind with regard to paying almost a pound for a couple of sheafs of paper that you will wipe children's snot with wears off. It won't be long.

After that it was one sort of crafting wonderfulness after another until I thought my head would explode.

The Milkwood team's faves were, in absolutely no order at all:

Cub Reporters Choices
1. Buttons by creamrose
ooooh, we spent a lot of time on this stall, and re-awarded our favourite button award many times over. In the end we made some choices and walked away with two sets, but I know we will be back for more.
They will be perfect for the many baby kimono cardigans that will be gracing my needles for Autumn 08. The Creamrose team were simply delightful and acted as though they weren't put out in the slightest by the cub reporters tactile approach to the sport of craft-fairing. Thank God!
2. creatures by siansburys
we didn't take any of these home (had we not just had a birthday and lots of cub reporter spoiling I am pretty sure defences would have been lower and we'd have snagged at least a brace) but have our beady little eyes on them for the future - they were fab
3. sock critters by millimoomi
the cubs invested heavily at the shrine to sock critterdom that was millimoomi, walking out with not one but two tiny sock rabbits. These are currently taking pride of place in the cub reporter's staff room, although the pink one has hidden and refused to come out for the photo [ed's note - photo now lost also...will be included at later date if photographer not sacked for negligence] - the choice of this pink one struck me as strange, as usually my girls profess to hate pink, but Ms Bester let her love of sock bunnyness overcome her hatred of the colour, as it was the only one left once her more senior colleague had snaffled the yellow...

Ed In Chief's Choices
1. Angharad, obviously. Such beautiful work, such gorgeous fabrics, such an eye for detail and colour. I loved them, and cherish my tissue holder and the opportunities it may yield for an all round fresher faced reporting staff. Do Not Hold Breath. I May Never Use A Polkadot Tissue. They Are Too Cute.
2. I second the cubs' choices above. Those are damn fine reporters.
3. I fell head over heels and totally in love with...wait for it...some knickers. Not just any knickers you understand, ooooh no. These are Greygoat's handmade silky ones. Oh my word they are gorgeous. And she does matching camis too I hear. I have updated my Christmas wishlist already...scratched out all the teflon coated bakeware previously inscribed (well, the oven doesn't work anyway so who needs them, frankly) and replaced with these. In unscratchable ink. Roll on December...

after all that hard work the reporting team repaired to the nearest pizza express and had some damn fine pizza, swiftly followed by a trip to the British Museum and much hilarity in the Egyptian rooms ("there's a dead one" "Ooooooooh, there's another dead one" "Mummy, Mummy, there's a Mummy, Mummy" and my favourite of all, when faced with a Mummy case with a beard painted on the external representative figure "Is that one a Daddy?")

(note: it is past midnight on Thursday night/Friday morning and I have been seeking a moment to write this post since Sunday night...is it any wonder I am on an average of one post a week...)

(note 2: Thank You all so much for the birthday wishes for Ms Reva. You rock!)

Thursday, 19 June 2008

eva is...


I can't quite believe we've made it this far baby...


here's to the next 6, and the 6 after that, and after that...and...and...and..................................

there were sewing kits to open...



and many pins to push...



needlebooks to needle...



more dinosaurs...this time to eat...if feeling brave (those colours - yikes!)


in short much hilarity of one kind and another...

her sister enjoyed the fruit kebabs greatly...


(love that self-administered hairdo)

roll on next year is what I say!

Sunday, 15 June 2008

swaps and general wonderfulness...

sorry I have been absent even longer than usual...putting my back out a couple of weeks ago has wrecked havoc with my normal fairly sedentary, fairly hunched over, happy existence. Apparently (or so the osteopath and physiotherapist tell me) in order to avoid more of the same excruciating indisposition, a body has got to exercise. Which really is not compatible with spending all one's free time crafting or blogging. Is downright inconvenient to be frank. But I'm doing it (through gritted teeth) I may now seriously have to consider giving up the day job (sitting in front of a computer is very bad for me you know) ...there simply isn't enough time in the week to do it all, work, craft and exercise too. Bah!

anyway...there has been much wonderfulness since I reported last...

doll swaps received...(swoon!)


a beautiful bag, containing my doll from from Emily at Ravenhill


Gorgeous isn't she? I have never seen a more charming tea lady in my life. She is currently guarding my precious tea stash and administering to my beverage requirements beautifully.

She was accompanied by a selection of vintage buttons and a doily...which just had to be put in one of my vintage china saucers as that is what you do with vintage buttons in the overmilkwood house (Ms. Reva's latest edict)



so now I can show you what I sent Emily too...most of these pictures are from Emily's blog as she takes a far meaner photo than yours truly. Her little daughter Lilly (isn't she the cutest?) seems to really like Ms Myrtle (yes, Ms M really does spell it like that, no-one knows why) which makes me very happy indeed


What fun I had making this, my first doll. I have plans for many more

The dress was made to be easily put-on-take- offable by a three year old, the cardi was a variation on the kimono cardi I knit a while back, and the books were made by Ms Reva and Ms Bester

In further swap extraordinariness I was the lucky recipient of these pieces of functional felted perfection...

made by Lisa at lilfishstudios who actually made the felt herself...I kid you not...you just wouldn't believe how beautiful, soft and tactile it is in the flesh (so to speak)...these came wrapped in tissue pattern pieces which was a small touch I loved...

finally, this weekend was the Reva Girl's 6th birthday (nope, I have no idea how that happened, seems like only yesterday I was marvelling at her tiny starfish like hands and skinny little jaundiced legs) and here is a taster of the sewing kit I put together for her

which was inspired by her recently developed passion for vintage buttons and the ilk (oh what a proud, proud moment that was for me, when I walked into our craftroom to find her marvelling at old glass buttons and rushing to the kitchen to find a vintage saucer in which to place them to best advantage)...I'll get the other photos of the little kit up during the week I hope...watch this space...

Tuesday, 3 June 2008

right on cue...

one week on...

big news of my week is that I managed to have breakfast at home and alone yesterday...it was a totally tranquil moment, I almost had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming...I normally have breakfast surrounded by manic children husband and cat or at my desk at the day job in front of a pc checking emails at 07.30...so imagine my delight when I found myself in a quiet, empty house in front of this...
imagine, once upon a time all breakfasts were like this, or something close to it AND I NEVER EVEN NOTICED...in fact I was probably SOMETIMES BORED by the quietness...what a waste!

unfortunately I had to do my back in and be off work in order to experience this moment of nirvana, but hey, silver linings and all that...

so, I have finished my first ever doll for the doll swap I am involved in and it is on its way to Norway as I speak...I hope Emily likes it ( I am very nervous as Emily only makes fabulous dolls and sells them on etsy!!!)

I realised I forgot to show the little quilt I made for Marie as part of that swap so here it is...I was working to a rainbow theme as she had said she loved rainbows...


and while I am on the subject of swap items I forgot to blog I may as well show you what I sent to Diane in Texas as part of a vintage swap...she told me she liked autumnal colours...and coffee...



Finally, I may have mentioned before this little dinner circle I am part of (a grand term for a very casual, informal arrangement, but we like to talk ourselves up... it strikes us as amusing for some reason)...well, recently the dinner circle turned all oenophilic and we had a Riesling tasting evening under the direction of our great expert The Wolf (he took it very seriously as you can see and had a blackboard and swordy pointer and everything - we even got a special badge when we pronounced those tricky German words in anyway approximating correctness)


it was wonderful evening and I promised (after one too many glasses of delicious wine) to start up a dinner circle blog. Ahem. I now find that I do not have capacity in my already full to bursting life to do this but I share some pictures here in the hope they will enthuse my dear friend Ms D to take on the mantle of dinner circle blogger extraordinaire...go on Ms D....you know you'd love to...
Ms D's wine tasting glasses, labelled in preparation for the inebriation that was bound to unfold that evening...(it wasn't really that dark, we were just on a not-using-the-flash mission)