Sew; a needle pulling thread

I know the exact moment my interest in sewing was born.

I was about seven years old. Madame Di Bono (that was really her name!) was working on my First Holy Communion dress and I needed a fitting. My mother took me in to her workshop for a visit, and as always, I had my teddy bear with me. Madame Di Bono noticed that he was a remarkably bare bear and proposed an outfit. I agreed, so she stopped what she was doing, scooped up a scrap of fabric, and within a matter of minutes had made this little playsuit for him.

It was like magic. I was spellbound. So many possibilities had suddenly opened up.

Once he was in this outfit, he didn't look like a boy so much anymore. One quick gender re-evaluation and Teddy became Angelina

After that I snaffled spare bits of fabric from my mum and started knocking up very basic outfits for myself. My first efforts were a towelling halter neck top, a bikini and when I found some net curtains, an M&S vest was transformed into a tutu. Angelina got one too. We quite liked matching outfits, but then, that type of thing was popular in the 1970s.

This started off life as a shift dress, but way too big, so it needed a refashion

So fast forward to today and sewing is still top of my list when I have a bit of free time. When everyone starts talking about Autumn, I go into denial and start making summerwear. A couple of weeks ago, with temperatures forecast in the 20s, it seemed to me the perfect moment for a playsuit to match Angelina's.

It's one of those cut and shuts again. This will be the sixth garment I have made using this bodice pattern and the fifth time I've used the trousers/shorts. I've also made the shift dress/top three times. I think it's fair to say I've had my value out of these patterns.

You've seen most of them before. It might be time to try out one of my other patterns. The good news is I have next week off work, with no big plans, so I think it's time to get the sewing machine out again.

However before that, I've got a full weekend, with the girls from Uni coming to stay. Seven of them! And I still need to finish the alterations to my dress.

How about you, got anything nice planned for the weekend?

A la recherche du temps perdu

I was the type of child who didn't say all that much, but on the inside I was quite fanciful and spent a lot of time daydreaming and imagining.

I had my future planned out in quite some detail. I was going to be a famous ballerina to begin with, like my heroine, Dame Margot Fonteyn. Then, after a tragic love affair, I was going to retire from public life to live in a tiny cottage in the forest with my faithful dancing bear, Angelina. We would live off berries and fruits which we were able to forage in the forest and hedgerows. I was also very certain that I was going to grow up to be a Princess (Curtise will love this). My full title? Princess Proserpina, after the ancient Roman Goddess.

Precocious? Moi?

So anyway, when we went out brambling at the weekend, I thought about Princess Proserpina with her cottage in the forest and her foraging ways. I thought about the bear too. Big, hairy and partial to sweet treats. 

Hmmm....sounds familiar.

I still love a bit of nature's bounty and forests are my favourite habitat, along with mountains.

That's a cheap and cheerful 60s shift dress there, home made by someone 50 years ago. It's been lurking in my wardrobe for some of them. Nothing special, just one of those wardrobe staples. 

He suggested it was impractical for brambling because I wouldn't be able to get right in the bushes. 

I told him not to worry, I'd be using my superior managerial skills to do some delegating.

You see this old man on the right here?  Well it's him we're after next. Sweet chestnuts are my absolute favourites. We'll be back for them next month. Apparently you can tell them from that distinctive bark pattern.

He laughed when I said I had brought four tubs along. Said there was no way we'd fill them. Well, Princess Proserpina knows a challenge when she hears one. As soon as the first blackberry went in that fourth tub, she said, 'Phew, thank goodness we brought four tubs'.

I know what you're thinking. Bet he wishes she'd grown up into the type of adult who doesn't say much. 

Well, I've only got two more things to say. Firstly, thanks to Q for the crumble. It was delicious.

Finally, thank you so much to lovely Krista for sending me this amazing embroidered folk handbag all the way from Portland Oregon. It is gorgeous. Fit for a Princess!

A city of two tales

A chance invitation to house-sit this last week, meant I was in town for the latest bloggy get together yesterday. Which town you say?

It's Cardiff, capital of Welsh Wales!

The first tale is of a get together with some lovely bloggers: Vix, Dee and Em. What a stunning group of women!

I have met Vix before; the friendliest blogger in the known universe, but sweet gentle Dee with her gorgeous red hair and big eyes, and beautiful Em with her lovely manner and gracious hostess skills are new to me. A few hours in, fuelled by killer strength mojitos, we were laughing like navvies.

Here's the way it goes: various bloggers turn up dressed to kill. First task is to find a reviving coffee after the journey. Then there's some serious shopping interspersed with sightseeing. Next comes lunch, always in Wetherspoons, usually washed down by jugfuls of cocktails, often involving social intercourse with pensioners. That takes a while and involves photographs. After that it all goes a bit woozy until we suddenly realise our train is due. At some point we open gifts!

It's a patented formula, and very successful it is too. Any bloggers wishing to establish a franchise are very welcome. Your only obligation is to have fun!

A book set in Africa and 1960s pattern from Vix and a couple of funky brooches from Em. 

Wetherspoons, where the smiles get wider! :D

Miss Taunton, Miss Winchester and Miss Walsall. No competition, they were the best in show.

Vix just managed to save herself from a slovenly hair moment there. If there is one thing that we learned in Cardiff it is that 'slovenly hair can ruin all your chances'.

I advise you to take heed.

There's a lot to see in Cardiff. There's a giant panda roaming on some cafe tables, fine architecture which would not be out of place in Venice, a tribute to the late great Aneurin Bevan, founder of the NHS and a castle. Which is where the second tale begins.

The traditional owner and resident of the castle on the right here, was the Marquess of Bute.

A resident on the street on the left, St Mary Street, was my four times great grandfather, the imaginatively named Mark Marks. Marks and the Marquess of Bute were well known to one another, and in 1841 the Marquess presented a plot of land to him.

In the 1861 census, my relative can be found residing at 34 St Mary Street, which is today the Cardiff Oxfam Boutique. WHICH WE VISITED!!! I didn't know at the time that this was great great great great grandpappy's residence or I would have been squeaking in excitement, just as I am now.

Have you ever done any family history? I recommend it, it can be quite amazing what you discover. It can lend general history a fascinating new perspective. If you have, have you found out anything interesting? Any characters in your clan?

Mrs Malaprop has been missing in action

I see I have been missing in action for quite some time. Deary me. Where does the time go?

I have no idea. I can tell you that I have been busy, but I can't necessarily specify how. We have certainly been working hard on the garden, because when I thought to look at my recent photos, they are all of flowers.

We did a pop up Steptoe and Son for a day with the contents of the shed. A couple of pieces came out to be chucked, but most of it went straight back in. Excellent. Guess we'll be doing another one soon.

 I bought this dress a while ago, but when it arrived, it really honked. I stuck it out on the line to air for about a month. It's been hanging around like the protagonist from Don't Look Now at the top of the garden. I think it has now finally been rid of its anti-social tendencies. Now I just need to do a bit of jiggery pokery on the sewing machine and it can be unveiled. It's crimplene. I'm not a mad fan of synthetic fabrics: they have a tendency to make my hair look like this dandelion, but I'm going to give it a whirl.

I thought you might like to view my world-famous cellulite fish. I have a friend who has entertained us for years with her malapropisms. When she gets cold, her teeth clatter, and, for the record, she is electric to meat.

I'm a bit of a vocabulary geek. I love a juicy word, and I love to know the provenance, particularly if it is foreign. Did you know that the word parlor started off as a parley room, which in itself comes from the french 'parler' to talk or speak. Or that the word 'shufti' meaning have a quick look, comes from arabic and was brought into common parlance by soldiers returning from North Africa during WWII?

No? Well, you do now. So endeth the lesson for today.

In other news, I am still awaiting action in my bedroom. The wardrobes, I mean. We'll have less of your sauce. When the man finally turns up, this is what I want it to look like.

This post feels rather as though I am grasping at straws. But good news this way comes. Over the next few days I am going to escape the garden and see Actual Real People, so hopefully there will be something blogworthy to report. I just wanted to say hello...

No sign of the Easter Bunny yet

Well, I can tell you, my last post proved educational for me. Robin Asquith, Russ Meyer, there's been talk of milkmen and naughty neighbours. The man of the house apparently knew these names already as they were met with snorts of laughter. Fancy.

Well, this weekend, I have been seedy in a different way.

The annual seed planting is underway. We started with crops: sweet corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, french beans. He commented on my sowing technique. Said Monty Don wouldn't have me in his garden. A lively and frank discussion ensued.

But I can't complain because he has been working his socks off scraping floorboards in our bedroom. An unenviable task. He uses broken glass to scrape old varnish off and wire wool to scrub. I think I might need to make some tasty tea tonight.

I have been on painting duty. Pimped up this mirror. I did have before pictures but they have mysteriously vanished. It was metal.

This 1930's children's cupboard is going to get the treatment too.

These handles may be involved.

I also cracked and went to the chazzas. It's been weeks, people! These brooches were a highlight of my trip, found in the same shop as the mirror and this little pixie who has settled in with the Hula Honey twins.

We also watched Withnail and I and an Argentinian film called The Secret in their eyes. I really love foreign films.

What have you all been up to then? Chocfest or virtuous? Home alone or out on the town?

Then and now part 1: My lucky number's 19sixtyTwo

When I was about 12 or 13 our grandmother opened up her wardrobe to us. She had a lifetime of clothes and she fancied a clear out. We got suits and dresses from the 1940s through to the 60s. It was amazing.

But at that age I was short and skinny, so the first thing I did was take things up and take things in. The second thing was wear the clothes to death, so a lot of them no longer survive.

But I do have a few choice pieces remaining and here is the first of them.

Oh look, there's George, plying his wares again. Look's like he's got the Port open this time!

My grandmother made this two-tone dress to wear to my father's 21st birthday party, so I can date it exactly to August 1962. She would have just turned 44, which is exactly two years younger than me now.

It was a very special occasion because it also happened to be my Mum and Dad's first date. Can you spot the lovebirds?

Well anyway, the date went well and a few years later I came along, ready, willing and able to take care of The Dress. It's made of a heavy dupion silk with loads of fabric in the skirt. Great for twirling in.

At around about the same time, her sister, Aunty Dolly gave us her old make-up. Lipsticks, rouge and perfume. That's Dolly with the blonde hair playing the piano. She wore her hair like that until the day she died.

Shortly thereafter, I was in a supermarket in Paris and the checkout girl had done her hair and make up just like this, with little perfect circles of rouge and drawn on freckles over her nose. She looked so amazingly cute and I wondered if she had the same Bourjois rouge as me.

She looked like a little Parisian Lene Lovich.

Old school drinks for Christmas

During my childhood, at family parties there was a ritual, a real tradition. Granddad would be the barman.

"What would you like Lily?"" I'd like a snowball please George." That's the way it always went.

Edie would express interest in a snowball, as would Maisie and Dolly. Marie and Ann could usually be persuaded too.

The elderly Advocaat, the Miss Haversham of the drinks cabinet, would be found, dusted down and then shaken up to see if the separated layers of liquid would amalgamate into one custard-coloured mass. There would be some discussion and scrutiny to determine whether it was old enough to be life-threatening. The whole process could take a while. Then, only then, would start the search for some equally antique lemonade.

My sisters and I would say, can we have a snowball? Pleeeeeease? The answer was always no. Not until you are older.

So, last night on the TV Nigella helped herself to a lovely snowball. She enjoyed it in only the way Nigella can. I told the story above. Then tonight, the man of the house came home with all the makings! I wonder if he thinks I'm going to go all sexy domestic goddess on him. Maybe if I drink enough of them ;)

I can reveal it's like cream soda with ice-cream in. All topped off with a maraschino cherry. Cheers!

Two places beginning with M

We were due to be in Marrakech this week, but circumstances dictate that we go to Middlesbrough instead.

Malesh (never mind).

I've been practising my arabic. 'Ya habibi!' (You are lovely). 'Wahid kobbaya fi moya min fadlik' (a glass of water please) and my favourite 'Inti humara' (you are a donkey). Although I wouldn't dream of using that last one. Unless of course I found myself confronted by a confused donkey. In which case I would tell him he was lovely and possibly even ask for a glass of water on his behalf.

This is what I was looking forward to. Adventure, warmth and colour. The souks, the food, the Atlas mountains, Yves Saint Laurent's house....oh the list goes on. Being a Sagittarius fire horse, I love to travel and to see how other people live. Hopefully we will get to go another time. Inshallah. I keep using that one.

I also like it when people tell me about their travel adventures. If I don't know where they are going I get the atlas out and look it up. Secret pleasure. The checkout man in the supermarket has just been to Pakistan for three weeks and my friend A is off to Berlin for four days. How about you? Off anywhere nice?

Picture 1 bookableholidays.com
Picture 2 creditbonus.blackburn.ac.uk
Picture 3 Debi Treloar
Picture 4 Henry Bourne for Elle Decor