Out There, Somewhere

not here

Wed, 05 May 2010 14:10:22 +0000

This is probably my last post. Fighting a losing battle with spammers and frankly, can't be arsed right now.

Might be back at some point. maybe.

if you want to get in touch you can email me: clanky (at) this domain name minus the www or my first name (dot) my last name (at) gmail (dot) com

Here

Sat, 02 May 2009 20:50:01 +0000

busy. work is shit. sewing is good.

Except when you cut a hole in something you shouldn't.

Whilst I'm off sick (again)

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:50:06 +0000

thought I'd just publish a quick post.

Have been busy sewing, I'm waiting for a zip to arrive so I can complete my first dress, the Burda one from March's magazine. I am going to have to wait till I go back to nightschool to talk to the tutor about my Simplicity dress as it's too bloody big and I need to discuss how to adjust it. The skirt will also have to come with me the following week as I'm buggered if I know how to make it smaller and fit me.

I've got my first subscribed issue of Sew Today and I also have sorted out getting BWOF as well.

Found some lovely cheap linen in Tooting whilst on the way to cat sit in Nasar's on Upper Tooting Road. I got an idea for a skirt that I'd like to make, but wonder if doing it in white is a good idea!

Woop

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 09:31:49 +0000

Day off today. Wonderful day yesterday which ended with me feeling happy and relaxed and not thinking or worrying about work at all. Yay! More of that please.

So today I am due for a blood test at 10:50, I have to pick up some gutermann thread from the sorting office - apparently the package is so big it didn't fit through the letterbox - weird. Anyway, it's looking a bit grim outside so I think I'll stay inside and sew. Have two halves of a dress to put together and then attach the bodice onto that...still on the Simplicity 3673 dress. Might put some more pictures on Flickr to show progress. Sue my college tutor is impressed with progress. Ian and Kim have asked me to visit George the cat tomorrow and it means I can pop into the Tooting fabric shops I've been meaning to get to for a while. There's also a place in Battersea I've been reading about which looks promising (Fabrics Galore on Lavender Hill).

Busy easter weekend ahead!

wow, averaging one post a month

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:05:01 +0000

So I'm kinda busy right now. work is pants. However I'm trying to persuade myself to blog more by writing about current obsession: sewing.

At the moment I am reading Threads, Burda World of Fashion and Sew Today, in fact I just subscribed to Sew Today as we get subsidised copies through college. I am still not making the petticoat (bored bored bored with it!) or the corset (bit harder than I thought) but am making a skirt from a really nice wool and lycra blend material and I'm about half the way through a dress (the one in the middle) which I'm hoping to have finished in the next few days. Pics of the bodice before sewing the side seams have just been uploaded to Flickr.

The next thing on the to make list will be another dress, though not in that fabric!

I am doing stuff which does not involve sewing: I went to an amateur boxing match, at the Vauxhall Coliseum last Thursday. One of my colleagues was fighting so a bunch of us from work went to cheer him on and he won his fight, so that was really cool.

Nearly March already

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 15:50:45 +0000

have been sewing, cycling, cooking and working. Doesn't sound like much but time has flown by.

The great meringue trauma

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 09:09:14 +0000

I bought a fabulous dress off ebay (this one) with a circle skirt and thought I'd make a petticoat to go underneath it. I looked at the prices and thought I could make it cheaper.

The tulle was cheaper but oh my god I don't think the work put in justifies me ever making one myself again. I am currently stitching (ok, by machine, not by hand) together 12 bits of 25X400cm fabric to give me a length of net 48m long, and I then have to gather that and stitch it onto a circle with a circumference of 16m. Oh and bind one of the long edges in satin to make it look nice.

Pics of the 16m stage:

My conclusion is that it might be slightly cheaper to make one yourself, but save your sanity and buy one. I haven't bought one from this seller yet, but I am going to in the future. Her eBay feedback is positive and the photos look great.

Playing catchup

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:23:45 +0000

I always seem to be doing this.

It's been over a year since I stopped the big commute, yet I don't feel like I have any more time, or feel any less tired than I did than when I was living in Brighton and spending up to 4 hours a day travelling to and from work.

However, there is time for me to sew, which I have been doing with a passion. I love it. I look forward to the weekly class and can't wait to do stuff at home. This weekend I put the zip in the skirt I'm making at class and am half way through a tulle petticoat that I'm making to wear under a 50's halterneck dress which has a circle skirt. Although that is a complete bitch. Do you have any idea how near impossible it is to gather 16 metres of tulle so that it fits onto a circle circumference of 3.14 metres? And that isn't even the end of it; I then have to attach 48 metres of tulle onto that.

Once the skirt I'm making at college is done I will be making a high waisted pencil skirt for work, which will be my first bit of pattern adaption. Then I have a wedge of vintage dress patterns to get through.

Other things that happened recently, well birthday at the beginning of this month, which was the first year in 4 years that Rich wasn't studying so we were able to go out and do something. Together! I had to work in the morning but then we had lunch in Wahaca, then went to the Rothko exhibition in Tate Modern and then saw Burn After Reading at the cinema. A quiet but really enjoyable afternoon. Other than that it's been work, work, work.

Boo.

Next year will be different

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 12:52:23 +0000

no dad to die again, no more studying, work changing for the better, more time to get over not having a baby, more awards to win.

I got nominated in three categories at work at the end of year review: Passion, Go Getter of the Year and Most Respected. I won the last two. I now have more than enough vouchers to get my tailor's mannequin and I heard things said about me that made me blush. And I'm now having people come up to talk to me that probably wouldn't have unless it was to ask the time or where so and so was. Weird.

Season's greetings to you and you and you. Happy new year and don't get too drunk.

xxx

I'm not dead

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 08:39:56 +0000

Yeah, ofelia came round to kill me but we had a chat and a glass of wine and she decided to kill this other guy who actually believes this chain letter voodoo bollocks.

Apparently I am going to die. Before I go I have to say I love you, and love you and you're not too bad either. But you're a cu..

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:21:40 +0000

...heh. In one of my Hotmail inboxes:

"On December 24, 2006 at 8 oclock in the morning, a young 14 year old boy by the name of Scott Jackson was found dead. Doctors couldnt come up with the cause of his death. His mother checked his emails to see if she could figure out what happened. Turns out he was still signed into his Yahoo email account. She found he had gone to sleep after he read and didnt send a chain letter about a little girl that kills you in your sleep with no natrual cause of death. This is the email she read: My name is ofelia Heras. Im 16 years old. Im a murderer. I have no face. When you look at me youll die immediately.You have 900 seconds to send this to 24 or I will visit you tonight. Put subject as: 11 year old pregnant girl"

Fuck you ofelia. I'm fucking waiting for you, BIATCH!

I am sat in your chair and listening to Stevie Wonder and Radiohead. Where are you?

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:07:55 +0000

In between work, waiting for the electricians to come back from Hitchin with their big, fat capacitors. I haven't been capable of writing anything for a while, Dad's death is still too close in my mind and I just don't want to go there right now. But if I don't purge I'm going to explode.

Peter is here in the office. It's ten past midnight. I've tried to shut *that* part of my head down for the rest of the year, but I can't stop thinking. I'm listening to Nice Dream by Radiohead. My shoes are off and I can feel the air on my feet as I wiggle them in time to the music. It feels good. I want to cry, I want to break down in tears in front of everyone. I want them all to know, I want to tell them everything, but I don't think they will understand. I mean, I don't think I would.

I want to stop, I do. But I don't really want to, if I'm honest.

Oh High and Dry is just so beautiful. I'd like to make love whilst it was playing in the background. And come to Just.

you can never go home again

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:18:52 +0000

he won't be there. Things will never be the same again. I just want to see him, sat in his chair doing the crossword in the paper. It's not fair.

lists

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 23:04:45 +0000

as a teenager I made a lot of lists. I seem to have been so obsessed by doing a 'top ten' at least once a week I ended up doing a top ten of my top tens. I guess I actually enjoyed the process of list writing. So it has pained me, literally, to have been writing lists of people and things to do over the past few days. Banks, pensions, insurance, cousins, aunts and friends of the family all have to be told when people die. I've been remembering too how you carried me home on your shoulders from the club - once but it was enough to make me remember the event - being washed as I sat in the draining board with my feet in the sink waiting for mum to come home from work. Standing over you watching whilst you fixed yet another telly, the valves glowing and the needle of your meter flicking from one side of it to the other. Mum dispaired at the growing stack of sets come December as everyone wanted them fixed before Christmas. I was so proud that you could do that, I thought you were so clever. Nobody else's dad could mend tellys or videos or radios, nobody else's dad grew beans or rhubarb or made their own wine or jam - jam! I could hardly wait at times when the sticky purple gloop went into the fridge to see if it would set, and you showed me how to test it with your finger. All I wanted to do was taste it, I didn't care if it was set or not! I wish I got to speak to you on Saturday. The last thing I expected whilst making my way home was to be told to go the hospital. You knew I was coming, why couldn't you have waited a little longer? I love you dad, rest in peace.

ooops

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 07:56:42 +0000

sorry for previously rambling pissed entry now deleted. You didn't miss anything of consequence and right now I have much bigger fish to fry.