Another week?

Wow, where does time go?

Another week done and dusted.

Not a great deal of anything this week.

Crafting wise I have been working on my stripey fireside cardigan

I've just started the last stripe on the body, dusky pink!

then its the sleeves and then the final rib border, I hate to think how many stitches are going to be on the needle for that, may need to get a longer cable, [I use circular needles]

No sewing has been done, but I have been naughty and ordered a new pattern, Its my favourite style for tops so I couldn't not buy!

amazon

I may even try the pair of trousers!

I also spotted this little beauty, a bit ahead of my self, but I had to grab it

My work year starts in July, hence an academic diary.

I do love stationary!

Home life has been a bit turbulent, the hounds behaviour has got worse, hes anxious and mad, having weird ' moments of madness' and getting a bit 'nippy', hes also not eating well. Enough was enough, I spoke to the vet and have picked up some new tablets. We're now on some anti anxiety medication. The vet is going to speak to one of the behaviour vets at langord and see where we go from here, probably an MRI and a brain scan. She thinks hes having small partial seizures, poor soul. But hes driving us mad with the barking and constant restlessness.Its also not fair on him.Fingers crossed we can get him sorted or the future does not look too good.  Despite having his new meds alongside the other ones, hes still not settling yet!

So after the Saturday morning's ' I love the vet really' training session and medication picking up we took him for another local walk. 

We headed to Kings Weston house

The views are good and they have a great little cafe.

The walk around the house isn't very long but he gets a good ' chase the ball' session as well.

A nice little walk with a fab brew! Another mini date for me and hubs!

All in all not a bad week.

Disaster: sewing project no 2.

Yesterday I decided to have another go at making.

Never 1 to shirk something challenging I decided to make a t-shirt

Really simple pattern

But

It involved working with t-shirt fabric and bias binding

never used either before

what a nightmare

Its stretchy!!

loved the fabric

loved the colours

loved the pattern

My machine didn't

in retrospect I should have done a bit of research on working with stretchy fabric

My poor machine ate so much cotton it give up the ghost!

Lessons I have learned

1} use a needle specifically for stretchy fabric, apparently you can get ball point needles?

2] use the right stitch type, straight doesn't work, use a zigzag

3] use the right foot on your machine, there's a nifty little walking foot

simple when you know how

finally. here's the unfinished , put back into the stash drawer t-shirt

Spot the many mistakes......

That's 2 projects done, neither of which I will wear, good job its cheap fabric that I can refashion when I have worked out what to do with them!

Saturday walking and sewing.

We took take the hound up to the vets as part of his behavior plan this morning.

just to sit in the waiting room to get him to relax and be less anxious when we need to visit!

He did really well, wouldn't go near the treatment room though even though the lovely vet nurse was tempting him with treats! but its a start.

The Vets is on the way into 'town' not somewhere we normally walk the hound, but we had spotted a path and decided to give it a try. I love to explore new places where we live.

I  had my new phone, [contract had expired so upgraded phone and reduced the monthly bill] and wanted to try out the camera on it.

An interesting and long walk, we could have walked right into the centre of the city as it took us to the river which heads that way.

It was wet under foot and slippy, yes I did take a small slip and ended up on my a*** luckily hubs didn't have a camera.. lesson learned? wear walking boots when with hound, you never know when you might go off road.

we walked down a little path in between houses and the pub

.

and found a hidden wood

 we decided to head to the left and down towards the river

At one point we had to cross the main road and go back down to the path the other side

Its amazing that you can drive somewhere everyday and not really notice these places

we walked through the woods and then it opened up onto a huge green with the river and train station ahead ahead.

And then on down to the river

It took us about 40 minutes to get to the river, but it had started to turn grey and chilly

so decided to turn back to find the car.

It seems we could walk from our house right into town along the river, there are a couple of places you need to dip onto the road, but you would never know you were in the middle of the city, apart from the constant hum of traffic heading into town! Definitely a planned walk for warmer days.

Home to do some chores, then an hour free, boys were watching rugby! what to do?

Sew of course..

I decided today  was the day to try a t-shirt, I had some fabric off we go..

another bad angle photo.. that's my excuse anyway!

Lets just say it didn't go as planned and my machine has now decided to give up!

I shall post about my attempt tomorrow when I have daylight to take some real photo's

the fabric is actually gorgeous!

First 2015 sewing project- Done !

It all started with a little lunchtime walk

The problem with having an office based in the centre of town is that wherever you walk, you walk past shops.

There just happens to be a fabric shop just a stones throw from my office

Having given the old sewing machine a quick once over

thought it time to crack on with my lap quilt

All the strips are ready to go

I just needed some cotton to stitch them all up

off I went

Oh dear

I bought the cotton but some fabric fell into my basket

whats a girl to do.

Anyone who knows fabric land knows there fabric is dirt cheap

£3.99 metre average price.

I bought it, absolutely no idea what to make with it though.

Off home to route through the pattern box

nope, nothing suited to little birds

The quilt didn't get a look in.

I could make a cushion cover, I could make a bag

but what I really wanted to do was make something to wear.

Nothing for it but to hit eBay and find a cheap easy pattern

Yes, a fuller figure pattern

but I love the square neck long sleeved top.

Cant be that hard can it?

Wrong !

Blooming heck I spent a good few hours on this this weekend

good job I was housebound due to poor hound

[who I have to say has made a remarkable recovery

lets hope he doesn't have another fit.]

I had ample time on my hands

First up was cutting the blooming pattern, haven't used a pattern since school

mastered that and got it all cut out.

Then the hard part started

interfacing? whats that? don't have any ?

off to hobby craft

got some

crack on

and so it went on, with the help of you tube I managed to get it all done bar the sleeves, who's great idea was it for a first project to have long sleeves !

That really flummoxed me

couldn't make head nor tail of the pattern

so did a botch job after watching a few videos.

I finally finished it tonight

want to take a peak?

Just remember its my first attempt

Although its not a top to wear in public I'm quite proud I managed it

On the hanger

I even managed bust darts!

on me

not a flattering angle and most definitely not a flattering shape

I actually think I should have made the smaller size !

And the cotton a tad to thick for this style

The shoulders are too big ,and the sleeves, well lets just say I need to practice sewing them in..

But overall I am quite pleased

I made a top

It fits

I most certainly wouldn't wear it out

but its wearable

I shall call it my gardening top.

What?

As usual wide awake before anyone else. No problem go grab a tea and read through blog-land.

Let the hound out, made a cuppa, hound came in.

Go sit in the office, hound comes in, sides on to me for a smooth, usual practice, then all of a sudden he turns his head, starts to make snarl type faces, thought he was going to bite me, jumped up, then poor old hound fell to the floor and had a full blown epileptic seizure

Panic does not describe what I went through, now being a nurse you would think I would be calm, wrong, major panic, screaming for hubs to come down, the whole  house woke up thinking we were being burgled!

I seriously thought he was going to die.I have never been so scared, he might be a pain in the a** but we do love him.

Panic call to the vet, luckily he came out of it, but it took him a good hour to recover.

Appointment made, vet visited. lovely young lady who has a rescue lurcher herself.

Recovering in the sun. bless.

She seems to think its idiopathic epilepsy, we could MRI/cat scan him but that would mean anesthetic and a stay in the vets, very stressful for an already anxious dog.

Decision was we would try him on some meds, we have rectal diazepam  to use if he has another seizure, and some daily tablets to try rather than go straight in on anti-consultants. Hes also on diazepam tablets  today and tomorrow.It may just be a 1,off but there is the possibility that some of his 'mad' behaviours may be linked to Epilepsy. Especially as hes so anxious hes constantly in a state of anxiety!

Come this evening he seems to be back to normal, usual playful self despite being full of diazepam!

This hounds monthly upkeep bill is almost matching ours for the whole family!

Spindle spinning.

This spindle spinning malarkey is more difficult than it looks. Now I remember why I didn't keep at it!

Boy does it make your arm ache, definately a good upper arm workout.

I have managed to spin about 25g so far, its definately a thick and thin yarn!

I'm still a bit cack handed, getting into all sorts of mess trying to keep the fibre in my hand whilst not getting it tangled with the bit i'm spinning.

But i'm learning something new and will hopefully have some yarn worthy of knitting at the end.

I much prefer a wheel though!

March already?

Wow, where does time go? March already?

February seems to have been another long month, a drab grey month.

February was the month we got new to us sofa and chairs for the lounge,  we celebrated my birthday at our local enjoying a family meal , we had walks with the hound, I read  books, I shopped for new spring work wear, I was health checked, I got the lurgy.

But now its March, I can feel spring approaching, I think March is going to be a good month.