projects Archives - Journeys Are My Diary

Life Lately

May 27, 2015 by Bel

As you’ll have seen, I haven’t been posting as much recently as I did before I went on holiday to Florida. At first it was tiredness and a need to get the holiday clothes washed, the house straight and life back to normal etc. Then it was procrastination of all the things I wanted to post about to do with the holiday. Finally life got busy again, then it got tiring and then it all just piled up! This week has been bank holiday weekend, half term and tomorrow it will be my birthday. I’ve mostly been concentrating on spending time with my kids as it’s nice to have some time together.

However I’ve made some decisions, because I know it’s been holding me back with my blogging. While I fully intended to do a post about each Disney World Park and Universal Orlando, I just can’t find the motivation to do so. As so I’m writing off my holiday as thoroughly enjoyable but I don’t want to ruin it by dragging out long posts that just feel like hassle. So if you want to read about my Florida trip, read Monday Round-ups week 14, 15 and 16. We had a fantastic time and maybe some time in the future I’ll write up some sort of tips post but for now I’m done with Florida.

I have a few posts however that I do still want to catch up on – one is Nutella Cheesecake, another is MCM Comic Con this last weekend and undoubtedly I’d like to post about any birthday celebrations I get up to over the next few days. Otherwise I’m starting fresh next week, onwards and upwards, hopefully more motivated.

I’m now working (volunteer) in school and getting some office experience, so my free time isn’t as free as it was. However I’m really hoping to get back to my sewing machine too and run up a few more creations. I’d like to open a store and maybe sell a few of them but that’s a work in progress right now so we’ll see how that goes on. I’d also like to write murder mysteries but there doesn’t seem to be spare minutes for that.

Finally I’m really wanting to get my house sorted over the next few months. Today I laid lino in the front doorway, with the help of the girls. This is a small job but one that has needed doing for a long time now. I’m going to make a list of everything that needs doing, from big jobs to small and get cracking with it. Every day there becomes more and more reasons to move and less and less reasons to stay.

If I get time, I’ll post about my birthday stuff on Saturday, then 52 Project on Sunday and my Monday Round-up again on Monday. After that I’ll start a fresh and renewed hopefully, bringing posts because I want to, not because I feel I have to! Hope you’re all having a great week. Please check in again soon.

T-shirt Tuesday

January 27, 2015 by Bel

So a week has passed from the time I announced my new feature – T-shirt Tuesday. I have two to share with you today, both the one I’ve been wearing today and also the one I started on as my “project” t-shirt.

First up, is the t-shirt I’m wearing today. I have loads and loads of t-shirts by this artist – Karen Hallion. In fact, she’s pretty much my favourite artist. I’ve actually made it my quest to own all her Disney/Who t-shirts and I’m not far off doing so! This particular design is called “Part of Every World” and is available to buy in a variety of places including TeeFury, RedBubble and Society 6.

Unlike majority of my t-shirt (they’re black), this one is a nice blue colour. It was available in other colours but since its set under the sea, I liked the idea of keeping it blue. Anyway – this is my t-shirt of the day!

Next up, you might remember the t-shirt I decided to take as my first project t-shirt, this time last week.

To be absolutely honest with you, I couldn’t remember where I ordered this from, what the design was called or who the artist was before making this post. However I’ve taken the last fifteen minutes or so to root through my emails and figure it out. The artist is CleverAvian (Kate I think) and they use various platforms such as RedBubble, TeePublic and DeviantArt. This particular design is called “The Last Petal” and it features Belle (from Beauty and the Beast), along with the Beast and a rose.

I started off by cutting off the sleeves, roughly in a shape I wanted. Sadly I cut a little bit too much off the second side and had to level it on the original side. I had a feeling back then that I’d cut too much but I ploughed on as I wanted to finish anyway. Next I cut a skirt out of t-shirt material and stitched the top and bottom together. I sewed all the edges to neaten and then cut the neckline lower as one of my issues with the t-shirt was its high neckline.

As you can see from the middle picture, my bra shows due to cutting the armhole too big. I can luckily cover this by wearing a vest tee underneath, a cardigan on the top, or I could even sew an extra panel on each side for a permanent solution. Otherwise though, for a first attempt, I’m pretty pleased with it! Will I wear it? I guess we’ll have to wait and see but…

I’m wearing it now!!

Keep an eye out for my next T-shirt Tuesday to see what I’m wearing and what I’m working on!

T-shirt Tuesdays

January 20, 2015 by Bel

Today I had a sort out of my drawers. I didn’t really go to plan…

Back in June of 2013, I posted all about my t-shirt addiction and anyone who has been following my blog for some time, will know that I have been buying t-shirts on and off for years. That said, I’ve noticed over the last year, I haven’t been buying as many as I used to. I don’t know if that’s because they don’t appeal any more, if it was perhaps a fad, or maybe partly connected to body image in the increased weight. Whatever the reason, I also know I haven’t been wearing the t-shirts as much either but the new pages from the bestdamnpolos.com helped me get the t-shirts and wear them more. That was partly because of wearing work uniform every day, but largely because of the extra weight I’ve been carrying and not feeling as comfortable in the tight tees. As such, I decided that this morning I would sort out my two whole drawers full of t-shirts – try and separate out some to sell, some to throw, some to up-cycle perhaps.

I started to take all my t-shirts out of the drawer, making a pile to go back in and supposedly a pile to go. I went through every t-shirt I owned, without wanting to get rid of a single one. It was while I was doing this, that I realised what a huge geek I was and that even my lesser fandoms were so loved that I didn’t want to get rid of them. As such, I decided I would make the feature “T-shirt Tuesdays”. The basic idea would be to feature one t-shirt a week, to showcase all the awesome tees I have.

I set about going through the pile again – this time more ruthlessly. I manage to add about ten tops to the “to go” pile, but this was largely because I didn’t like the fit and style, rather than not liking the design. It was at this point that I decided, perhaps I would up-cycle them instead. After posting something to Facebook and having a few people comment, I decided that dresses were my preferred option of where to go with it. After doing a bit of googling, I found various ways to go about it and today I made a start.

So… while some weeks “T-shirt Tuesdays” will just feature the t-shirt I’m wearing, other weeks it will showcase my “project” t-shirt. This week I’m bringing you the “Beauty and the Beast” tee that I’m going to attempt my first dress with. This is what it looks like now and I’ll let you know how it turns out!