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Week 41 – Monday Round-up

October 12, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

As you maybe know, I’m knocking this round up nonsense on the head, come the end of the year. I would stop it now, but I feel like that would be a shame with only 11 weeks of the year left. However I do hate doing it, so those 11 weeks can’t come soon enough.

This week has mostly been one of illness. I began to feel ill on Monday, it peaked on Saturday and then began to die off. As I write this, I’m still ill but I think I’ve over the worst of it. Not only that but Chris came down ill a few days behind me, Megan had stomach ache Saturday and Lily had my sore throat the whole weekend. Other than that, its been a week filled mostly with sewing – of course. Tuesday I walked with Lily’s class to church and back, plus dragged the kids a long way for a fabric run! Chris had a friend called Jon around Monday night and I had Nat around on Tuesday night. On Wednesday the girls and I went to mum’s house for dinner. And on Friday, mum picked up the girls from school for me as I wasn’t feeling well. Honestly, other than that, there wasn’t a whole lot else going on!

Sad to say, it was a boring week. It should have been filled with Run or Dye too, but unfortunately we had to bail out on that. So this is it. Sewing and ill. My life this week, haha!

Week 38 – Monday Round-up

September 21, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

This Monday Round-up is definitely starting to become the bane of my life! I was unsure about doing it again at the beginning of this year and now 38 weeks in and I’m almost certain I won’t be doing it again next year! Anyway… another busy week (duh!). Monday to Friday and the kids were at school, though Lily was off sick on Wednesday. Chris was off Tuesday and Wednesday, but otherwise he was working every day and also Saturday at the weekend.

I honestly don’t remember much of the week, as its now a bit of a blur. Monday I think was probably a day spent catching up on blogging and the internet – as it often is. Tuesday I didn’t have to take the kids to school as they were at their dads, so it was lazy to begin with, then a shower and changed for a Secondary School open evening that night. Chris and I went to pick the girls up from school, headed home for dinner and then Megan and I went out to the first of her open evenings, leaving Lily and Chris at home to watch Avatar.

We were back around 9pm and so Megan and Lily headed straight to bed. We enjoyed the open evening though and LCHS is Megan’s first choice for next year. Wednesday as I mentioned, Lily was off. Nat also came around for the day and Chris was off work so we were a full house! Nat and I however headed out to Scunthorpe for fabric and then obviously later that afternoon I went out to get Megan from school. That evening was spent making a start on a custom Cinderella dress and then researching and ordering a few bits and pieces.

Thursday everyone was gone again – Chris back to work and the girls both at school. I spent the day working on a variety of sewing projects, popping into town and really just getting on top of things. I picked the girls up from school and then headed to mums where we would have dinner before heading out to another open evening. This time mum and Lily came too but not till towards the end and it was only really to meet us and make getting home a little faster. The girls went to bed not long after we got back and I started on Lily’s Harley Quinn dress. I spent pretty much all day Friday working on Lily’s dress and by the end of the day (with picking them up from school and dinner etc.) the dress was done. Lily had a friend to stay overnight Friday as well, which made things a little stressful but I still got plenty done.

I then spent Saturday morning making some bows for Lily and tidying up Megan’s Belle dress. Lily’s friend went home midday and at that point I was back to working on my other projects, putting a zip in a different dress, working on new ideas etc.

Sunday was Geeks in Lincoln, a sort of mini-comic con. The girls got dressed up but Chris and I just wore geeky t-shirts. Left the house not long after 10am and met up with Nat and her son Josh around 11am. The convention was really busy but it was small so only took an hour or so to look around. The girls enjoyed themselves and I have to admit I did too – despite it being small. We also bumped into Rhiannon who I haven’t seen in ages! We headed to KFC for lunch and then to my mums. After that we all headed home and just chilled out for the rest of the day – making time for homework and baths too though.

Another busy week coming this week but what’s new! Hope everyone is okay and having a good week too.

Just Sew Geeky

June 10, 2015 by Bel 1 Comment

As you probably know from my previous posts, I love to sew. My mum and dad bought me my first sewing machine at the age of 18 and I used it for a good year or so before it got stowed away and barely used. Since having kids I’ve used it every now and again, but it has never had more use than in the last 12 months. Last summer a group of us decided we would go to London Film and Comic Con and that we would cosplay. This was my first ever experience of cosplaying and I wanted to make my own costume. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out, especially since I hadn’t used my sewing machine in a long time.

Sadly now when I look at the photos, all I see is how much weight I had on at that time. I was beginning to lose weight at that point but since then I’ve lost about 1- 1 and 1/2 stone and feel so much better for it. Anyway, when I try to focus on the costume itself I’m pleased but I know I’ve done so much better since. In the following months I made young Anna and Elsa dresses for my two daughters, I made a Snow White costume for my best friend Amy and I made a whole stack of Disney inspired dressed for our holiday to Florida.

Since getting back from Florida I’ve flipped flopped back and forth about starting my own business – sewing clothes. I have had an online store on Etsy selling jewellery for some time now and I’d love to combine everything geeky that I like to do and make a little business from it. Anyway… the title of this post was one of the names I toyed with – Just Sew Geeky. However I felt it was too sewing orientated (and I want to do more than sewing) and in the end went for Closet Geek. The sewing section of my site will probably be the largest – for the most part I’ll be offering inspired dresses and clothes for children. In the future I hope to be able to offer custom cosplay too, not just for kids but for adults. I’ll also add my Jewellery Ever After stock (and add to it), along with the inspired hair bows that Megan and I were making a few months ago. On top of all that I hope to add murder mysteries to the categories, but that’s a little way off right now. It’s a lot of work and I’ve really only just started. I have the bare bones of a site in progress, social media platforms set up and business cards ordered.

At the weekend (just gone) I sat down to get some sewing done and discovered the foot from my sewing machine was gone. I’m absolutely certain I’ve put it somewhere “safe” but after two hours of searching, I still couldn’t find it. In the end I ordered a new one, costing a total of £8.79 (only £3.80 for the foot but £4.99 postage!). To be honest I toyed with buying a new sewing machine all together. I checked out sewing machines online and I found a really good range at Tesco Direct but as yet I haven’t made a decision. There is nothing actually wrong with my sewing machine at the moment but I have to admit I can tell it’s definitely on it’s way out. As I said, it was bought for my 18th birthday – and I literally just had my 36th last week. It’s old… though not as old as I am… and it’s going to need replacing soon, especially if I expect to be sewing on it even more often than I have been recently.

Though I’m bubbling over with ideas of Disney inspired dresses to make, my first project is actually a cosplay one. For now I’m going to keep it a secret but I’ve ordered vintage Simplicity pattern 9825 and turquoise jacquard material that I could really only find in the US. I’m excited to crack on with it so my sewing machine foot better turn up soon! In the mean time I’m going to head for Pinterest and start pinning some more ideas and also work on my online store! I’ll let you know as soon as I have an update.