Empty pages

Long long long time without any postings I know.

My only excuse is that I had some pretty tough family stuff to deal with and didn't feel like connecting with the world much.

BUT, things are getting back to normal at home so hopefully things shall get back to normal on here soon too.

I have been busy during my time away too. I have 6 new superhero ties ready to be photographed and listed - all of the Avengers persuasion :)

Not a lot else to report, sorry for the long absence and short update, and I look forward ot getting back into the swing of things soon :)

See you in the future ♥

A project post of superhuman proportions

I promised last week to produce a new project post in honour of releasing some Avengers themed accessories soon so here it is! :D

First thing I do it iron the crap out of my fabric. If I remember one lesson from college when I'm old and senile it's this one. No matter what you do always but always start with thoroughly pressed fabric.

I then went on to draw out  the pattern onto my chose fabric. This example is using a batman tie so my fabric is black satin. My pattern calls for 3 pieces (2 of which are show here)

When making a tie you will always need more fabric than you expect as everything is cut on the bias. I can usually get 2 ties from 1 metre of fabric.

Once these are cut out its a rather simple process of assembling, in all this tie calls for 2 machine stitched seams and 1 hand stitched seam.

The most important thing to remember when assembling the tie is to trim your seams allowances. This cuts down on the bulk when turning out the finished piece.

My basic superhero ties consist of a plain coloured tie accented with a logo of a particular hero. As I said before this one is batman. I make the logo separately from soft cotton felt, hand stitching the detail for a clan line. I tend to use a computer print out as a template to give me the right shape and size. I then hand sew up the back of the tie (after ironing again to make sure all the raw edges are tucked away and trimmed) then attach the logo to the front.

I try to make the logo so that it fits across the widest section of the tie without overhanging the edge.

Et Voila! One tie ready to be pressed (again) then packed up and shipped off to the customer! I hope you've enjoyed this little peak into my studio work and this has sparked your interesting in making your own clothes in the future.

And as a little side note I have been working on the logos for the avengers ties. Just got to make up a batch of tie blanks to fit them on!

OK that's me for today, hope you've enjoyed this see you in the future! ♥

Great Mood Mondays!

Another week, another Monday!!

Ignoring the fact that I was in pain most of the weekend today has been a good start to the week. Went swimming for the first time in ages; Saw Avengers Assemble on Saturday (LOVED it ...more in a bit) and arrived home today to find an email from Jane Austen's Regency World Magazine offering me advertising space for my Austen Inspired cushions and the possibility of an editorial in the Christmas edition of the magazine!!! So excited, this would be great exposure and just awesome!

OK onto other things. The Avenger's movie was just AWESOME, having only seen Thor recently and regretting seeing the original Hulk reboot with Eric Bana I was mainly excited for the fact that Joss Whedon was directing it but then I sat down and really got into the movie as a whole. First I LOVE Thor. He is just hilarious and cute and it's just brilliant that I remember him way back when when he was playing Kim Hyde on Home and Away

I really liked the dynamics in this film too. Each character went on a journey of sorts, individually but also as an ensemble, and creating a story where you have that many central characters and still managing to create emotional depth and a sense of empathy from the audience is a hard task, so I applaud the whole team working on this film.

In related news, many of you will know that I sell a selection of DC inspired ties on etsy, and being an equal opportunities fangirl I've always loved Marvel as much as DC and have been meaning to make some Marvel inspired ties for a while now. Along comes the Avengers and everything seems to make sense. So tomorrow I will be posting a project post, showing the process I go through to make some of my new Marvel ties!

That's it from me today guys! See you in the future! ♥

Obligatory Kitty Post

Gah! Missed Monday again! I blame having a job interview. It threw me out of whack. :)

So today could I suppose be called Wonderfully Weird Wednesdays. In fact that will be the name :) I haven't felt up to blogging much the last few weeks as I somehow managed to pull a muscle in my back which left me feeling like someone had punched me in the chest repeatedly. Thankfully I've started to recover, but it has rather put a bit of a kibosh on my search for a good mood Mondays theme for this week.

So instead I am bringing you pictures of my kitty because she always makes me feel better :)

A rare moment of Josie looking stupid with her tongue out.

Being a winter kitten Josephine often likes to help me decorate the tree.

As I said she likes to "help"

She also likes to watch from the stairs. We call this the "Josephine Head" (clever name right?)

I hope you like this glimpse into my life as a crazy cat lady, who happens to own some crazy cats. 

See you in the future! ♥

Good Mood = Sad Ending

I finally actually started a week blogging on the right day with something to blog about. Yay for progress! :D

This past week has been good, The Superhero Gods have been kind and people are ordering ties :D I've completed 2 superman ties and have a batman tie waiting to be made. I guess, what with the Avengers movie coming out soon I should get some Marvel ties in the shop to go with the DC ones :)

 Also, I went to see The Cabin In The Woods last night and without giving any spoilers I really liked it, I wasn't totally sure what to expect but went because it's a Joss Whedon film and I was pleasantly surprised. Really thought provoking but not in a brooding drama sort of way. Plus GORE!

OK here comes the Good Mood portion of the post! (yay)

Last week, I was on LJ when I came across a gorgeous fanvid posted on a HP community. It took a few days before I watched it cause I can be pretty slow when it comes to watching videos but I'm so glad I did. It's utterly gorgeous and brings back all my feelings while watching the final film. *sob* you can find the maker here and I urge you to go watch the vids and subscribe :D But I'm getting distracted. Here is the video that I wanted you to see!

OK that's it from me today. See you in the future!  ♥

Costumes, costumes and more costumes

I think it is now safe to say that I completely suck at blogging on a regular basis and while the motivation and inspiration is there, the memory and organisation required is, however somewhat lacking. 

But, I am here today, blogging away trying to sound interesting :) 

Not much news to report from Wednesday's Child HQ. I'm waiting to hear from my adviser concerning when I'll be put in front of a funding panel with the Prince's Trust and until then the orders from etsy are slowly but surely coming through.

As well as Etsy, I decided to apply for a Ladies Cutter vacancy with Opera North in Leeds.  I figured that while I may not have much experience within a theatre environment I might as well apply :) It did however occur to me that it has been 5 years since I last applied to something even remotely linked to working in a wardrobe situation. True, 3 years of that was university but I feel like I maybe need to get my brain into gear and perhaps throw a few C.V's around the place to see if anyone is still interested and to basically keep my hand in.

I also decided to bite the bullet and put some of my costumes up for sale on etsy. While I won't be selling the actual originals I will be offering custom made versions of said costumes. Hopefully it will garner interest for when I finally get some brand new costumes listed.

For your enjoyment I give you a few examples of the costumes waiting to be listed:

My infamous romantic tutu which I love to pieces











 
My painstaking rococo ballgown with a stupid amount of hand beading and ribbon work :)

One of my favourite foundation pieces: a pregnancy suit which will be available for all stages of pregnancy.

I guess that's it for me today. See you in the future! ♥

An additional good mood cake post

So I decide, since the cake I made for my mum's birthday was so yummy I needed to share the end result with you guys...also I left it on monday on a bit of a cliff hanger as to how the whole this turned out.

Basically it was a roaring success. It wasn't the neatest thing in the world but it was yummy and my mum was happy with it :D

So this was all that was left of the cake by Wednesday morning when I came to take photos. Clearly people liked it :)

Before I then devoured the rest, I did get some close ups of the inside and icing. Which tasted much better the second day as the apricot jam had had a chance to soak in.

Yummy :D

The topping, which was whipping cream, melted butter and about 200g of chocolate was yummy but quite difficult to spread evenly.

- Hence the untidiness of the edge.

I really urge all of you to try this cake for yourself because even though ti takes a bit of work it's well worth it :D

here's the link again in case you missed it on Monday, Sacher Torte Goodness

Good Mood = Cake

I've been spending all day at home either in my studio or in the kitchen baking. It's my mum's birthday tomorrow so as per our tradiations I'm baking her a cake. This year we decided to go for something a little different and since she is heading to Germany as part of her university course soon we would look towards some German/European foods. We picked a Sacher Torte :D

And let me tell you this was not an easy cake to make. After a false start I finally did it, with a lot of mess :D I ended up whisking 7 egg whites by hand (with a bruised shoulder I might add)  using about 8 different bowls and lots of chocolate :D

 We won't be eating it until tomorrow so while the dinner is in the oven I can slather the thing in apricot jame and melted chocolate :)

I think it ended up slightly overcooked but once I slice it down and cover it in chocolate I'm sure it'll be fine :)

I hope this is a good alternative to our normal Good Mood Mondays post. I would love to see photos of your baking experiments  :D

♥

A long over due update

I have been terrible at blogging this past week. I do have reasons but I also feel like a major update is in order.

First off I had my first meeting with the Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust last monday to discuss options of support and funding for Wednesday's Child. It went really well. My advisor is really nice and very excited about my business proposal. It looks like I will be put in front of a funding panel soon to get financial help to get my business off the ground properly :D

The rest of the week was spend swimming, sewing, going for job interviews and seeing The Muppets movie (more on that in a bit) I never really got round to sitting down and actually blogging which was a bit of a pain.


OK now onto the Good Mood Monday section of the post.

The boy and I went to see The Muppets on Wednesday afternoon. IT WAS AWESOME. XD

as someone who grew up with the muppets and sesame street I was crazy excited about this film, I'll admit it took me a while to see it but I am so glad I did. The boy was ridiculously embarrassed by my  behaviour in the cinema. I didn't make loads of noise or anything but I was silently squeeing and dancing in my seat. Like a lot. I regret nothing. :D

I present you one of the most awesome songs from a film :D

I promise I shall begin blogging more :) just need to get myself into a routine!!!

♥

Totally Awesome (and apologetic) Tuesday

So I yet again failed horribly in my attempt to blog at all on Monday.

I would like to blame my cat for being too damn cuddly, I would like to blame my bed for being too damn comfy but really I was super busy doing work for a friend and just plain ran out of time.

But as an apology I bring you a Totally Awesome Tuesday post instead :D

The exact same format as the monday blogs just a day late.

This week I would like to draw your attention to this:

 It can be found here at cute overload along with lots more adorkable pictures of cute and/or baby animals. :D

Also I found this last week, it was released for International Women's day on the 8th and I've been listening to it non-stop since thursday :D

I love it! :D and links nicely into my next segment which is to talk about new products coming soon to the shop!

I had planned to get these out last week but things got on top of me, but I'm hoping to have a short run limited edition cushions inspired by the women's liberation movements so keep you're eyes peeled on twitter and facebook for updates on this and more products to come :)

In other excited news, I heard back from the Prince's Trust today and will have a full conversation with them tomorrow about my business plan and application for funding.

Ok that's all for today


♥ to you all

I found an exhast port

So there isn't really a point to this post apart from the fact I finished watching The Fades this morning and wanted to have a bit of a flail about how epic it was.


I know, I know you're all sitting there thinking "But Rhona, The Fades were on months ago" and you'd be right unfortunately I only managed to see the first 4 episodes of the 6 part series before disappearing off to Canada, meaning I had to wait all this time before managing to get a copy to finish watching the show.

And the only words I am able to form are Oh Holy God. ( ok I had a few more choice words than that but this is supposes to be a family freindly blog)

I love this show for many reasons:

First, the fact it's this tiny little show hidden away on BBC Three where barely anyone noticed it. This is one of the reaosns I am so fond of the BBC, yes they release garbage like Strickly Come Dancing or Top Gear BUT every once in a while they come out with little gems of almost independant works like this. It maeks me appreciate the value of the licence fee, in providing original programming without too much commercial interference or agenda.

Second, is Daniel Kaluuya. Not only was he really cool on Skins (and a staff writer....how epic is that) in this he plays the ultimate geek/narrator. When he plans to save the world (or at least his chances of hooking up at a school dance and later his best friend) his first response is to use the lessons he's learned from Star Wars. I only wish I had a best friend like that at school, someone with that kind of wonderfully geeky knowledge.

And Finally, I actually love the costumes of this show. The details of each character's clothing is highly telling of the type of person they are. Neil is about loneliness and self reliance, while Paul is the geeky little kid given too much to handle.

I noticed that as the final episode arrvied and Paul grew braver but also more burdened his costumes becmae darker, and more subdued (ok to be fair he's covered in blood in this one but my point still stands)

It's this attention to detail which always made me want to become a costume designer. The old addage goes that if you are a writer, you need to know your characters inside and out, even if not every detail comes out on paper/screen but the same can be said for the costume designers. You need to have an indepth knowledge of the characters to understand why this or that character would wear a particular thing at a particular time.


Also, as a side note I love Paul's purple/red jeans.

This has been a fangirl flail post.

<3

Another late Monday

This week I am blaming the lateness of my blogging on staying up until 2am watching Father Ted and then Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone with the boy.

Still, it's Monday and I am here to brighten it up for you :D

First up: My shops is officially relaunched! you can see some of the products on the Etsy tab to the right of this post under my profile. Or just hope over to etsy itself and have a peek! Wednesday's Child Is on Etsy and for a limited time only enjoy an extra 10% off your entire order with the code "SHINYSHINY12" (without the quotation marks obviously) Just my way of saying thanks for sticking with me during my inability to blog and my stress filled month trying to get the shop up and running again :D


Next, I need to give you something fun to brighten your day. The video I'm linking you to is fairly old in internet terms but is, in my opinion one of the greatest things on the internet ever and is the sort of the thing the internet is made for :D

So without much further ado I give you: A Muppet's Bohemien Rhapsody

Enjoy and I'll see you all soon! :D

<3

Back to Monday Morning

So I failed miserably last week on the blog front. Many things got in my way, from too much work to evil wifi providers. But here I am bright and early in the hopes of resuming my regular blogging activities.

I wasn’t sure what to write for my good mood post this week, not because I’m not in a good mood, but sometimes it’s hard to pick one.

First I wanted to show this comic from Questionable Content. It was a filler comic for valentine’s day but Oh My God is it cute :D so here, revel in the cuteness of holo-animals :D

 Secondly, I have finally finished and photographed my line of Jane Austen inspired home wares. You can see the photos here on my facebook fan page. I am hoping to get the shop relaunched properly on the 3^rd of March, and it is now going to include a few lines of literary inspired items. This makes me happy because it allows me to not only expand my customer base but to indulge in one of my very favourite activities: reading.

Business wise things are going very good, putting me in an even better mood. :)  I am in talks with small business funders, and a few boutiques in and around Edinburgh possibly interested in stock my products.

p.s. the above comic can be found here you should all take a look, as it is awesome :D

see you all soon! <3

Monday with a difference

It was strange trying to think of a topic for this week's Good Mood Monday as today marks the 3 years anniversary of my gran's death. I want to make this post a feel good post but need to discuss a few things first, so bear with me :)

The day I found out my gran died was a Friday, Friday the 13th infact, but it didn't feel like it was terribly bad luck thing to happen. The date didn't correlate with the idea of bad luck; she could have died a week later and it would have still beeen horrible.

I was in Wales at university when it happened and wasn't sure what to do, I couldn't jump on a train straight away, partly because it was about 8pm by that point but also I had uni work to do over the weekend. My first response was to see my friends, to not hide in my room. We decided to rent a film to take my mind off things. Wandering round the rental shop, I struggled to find a film. What film wouldn't make me cry? What film doesn't deal with family and/or death? Which film is totally unrelated to everything that was going through my head? The film I came up with was "Drop Dead Fred"

I LOVED this film growing up, as a child (and adult) with a fertile and somewhat overactive imagination, the idea that your invisible childhood friend could come back and help at the most difficult points in your life was brilliant. Plus, I would argue it is an exanmple of Rik Mayall at his insane best :D The strange thing is, when watching this film recently I finally got alot of refernces that went over my head as a child, making me question why I was allowed to watch this film as a 6 year old. However, I would argue that this film is the perfect pick-me-up for anyone needing to escape reality for an hour or so.

It has become a tradition of mine now to sit and watch "Drop Dead Fred" at least once on February 13th. So after this post, I'll be making a hot chocolate, wrapping a blanket round myself and settling down to watch the movie and remembering how awesome my gran was.

So after that little hearfelt message of love I bring you the real Good Mood Mondays post.
I want to talk about two things, both related to cats.

First the art of cat breading please click this link because every cat in the land must at least once be breaded and the results shared on the interwebs for everyone to see :D









Secondly, and I won't say much on this except Cat Yodelling is epic:

That's me done for today. Hope everyone has a good Monday and an awesome week all round :D <3

Superhero Monday

I spent alot of this weekend thinking about what to blog about for today's post and originally I was going to post about Sherlock and more specifically Benedict Cumberbatch, because if anything is going to help me into a good mood on a Monday it's Benedict Cumberbatch and his mysterious cheeckbones :D

BUT as I was checking facebook this morning I found one of my friends had posted a link to Superhero Valentines Cards. It was so epic that I needed to share.

It really doesn't matter if, like me you are a bit unconvinced by the point of Valentine's Day ( a discussion for another day) because this set is worth it just for the cheesy messages and the fact it has BATMAN AND SUPERMAN SAYING HAPPY VALENTINES!

This makes my inner geek very happy, and my outer geek giggle alot :D

The actual site can be found here so not only is it a fun idea but you too can cut them out and spend a fun filled afternoon assembling classic DC valentines :D

Hope everyone is having a good day, and that's it's a start of a good week.

see you in the future <3

Monday's here again :D

So another week has passed and it's Monday again. Don't worry though because my Good Mood Mondays segment is here to save you from a day filled with bleakness and sleep-deprivation :D

This week I wanted to share a video I found a few weeks ago. It's been making the rounds globally and I can understand why. When I first watch it, it nearly killed me with it's utterly loveliness and sweetness. If you like it PLEASE share it and help the cause. I'll put a link to the web address after it too.

I hope everyone had a good weekend and are looking forward to the week. My task for today is to finish my Jane Austen themed items for the shop :) (photos will be coming soon)

                            
                                     

The link for the organisation is here

Try to have a great day whatever you have planned, and I'll see you in the future!

♥

I'll show you mine, and you show me yours....

Workspace week :)

A big part of my first week back has been spent reorganising my studio. In all honestly I do this every month or so but this time I was gone for a full three months and left my parents with access to it. Last Thursday I came back to this:

  

With my cutting table dismantled and hidden somewhere under the window.

I set to work...first on the agenda was getting some proper shelving. I have lived too long without proper shelves in my studio, so after a quick trip to B&Q I have somewhere to keep all my costume books and various bits and bobs.

Not nearly big enough but at least it's a start :)

Yesterday included a visit to Ikea for storage items including this my new tower of fabric :)

Again, no where near enough space but it's a fun way of storing some of it and being able to see what I have at a glance :)

I also bought this because it's awesome :)










So now after a week of the shop being reopened and finally getting over the jet lag enough to do some physical labour I have a tidy and usable work space even if I am still sharing it with my mum :)

So I want to see your workspace :) even if it's just a desk with a pile of books and a laptop! Share in the comments and have fun :)

♥

Let's start again

I arrived home safely from my Canadian experiance on Thursday. Despite travelling constantly for almost 15 hours and being awake for almost 30 I haven't suffered from jet-lag too much whcih means my plans for reopening the shop today go ahead without a hitch :)

Apart from reopening the shop I'm hoping to start blogging more consistantly, and to help me with that I propose a weekly segment called "Good Mood Mondays" I know from experiance how difficult it can be to get out of bed really early in the morning especially when it's below freezing and still dark outside. Any way the point of this segment is to give a bit of happiness and cheer to your early morning monday starts. I'll be picking things that make me smile, giggle or that I just find sweet. If you have any suggestions I welcome any comments :)

So our first installment is at least a few months if not about a year old but it still makes me smile it's from XKCD and it's about the discovery channel :)

It's so happy and upbeat that it makes me feel better everytime I look at it. Ok so after that little interlude it's back to work I go: lots of things to make and do if I want to earn money in 2012 :)
Hop over ot the shop and say hi! Wednesday's Child Is on etsy

One Year On...

So it was pretty much a year ago I started this blog and even though I haven't posted as much as I would have liked I'm glad I keep coming back.

This year has been interesting in many ways. While some fairly major events have happened, both good and bad; this year has not been a year of complete highs and complete lows, for which I thankful.

One of the major events was me finally graduating from university. I knew from the age of about 9 that I would be going to university so as much as I would like to go back and get a masters of a PhD eventually it feels really good to say I have finally graduated with a 2.1 undergraduate degree. It also marked the end for now of my life in full time education. Apart from the year between college and university when I worked on my portfolio I have been consistently in education for 18 years and I am really ready for the next bit.

Which brings me to Etsy. Finding out about Etsy and deciding to open up a shop made a huge impact on my confidence levels. Come June, I will have been open and operating for a year. To be able to imagine actually making a living doing something I love is incredible and gives me belief in myself and my abilities.

While the start of 2011 was a bit rocky - losing 2 beloved cats in the space of 2 months - the majority of the year was fun. I completed a 13,000 word dissertation (was only supposed to be 10,00 oops ha ha ha) participated in the biggest anti-cuts march ever to happen in Britain and received my first "first grade" in a module at university.

The middle of the year hit a slight bump when on the return journey from my graduation ceremony my family and I were involved in 4 car crash on the motorway. 3 of the 4 cars were written off because of the damage but thankfully other than a few minor bruises no one was hurt. My parents composure and strength through that time was incredible, my brother had been sitting next to the point of most impact on the car and had the other driver hit us in a slightly different place we would have probably lost my brother. The echoes back to his first car accident were frightfully loud.

However, we came through this OK and now my mum has just finished her first term at university doing a fantastic masters degree in Art Therapy while my brother has traveled down to London to attend a very highly acclaimed university for his BA.

The last part of the year has been the most exciting and unknown for me. I had planned to move to Canada for 7 months starting in October and while my plans got slightly changed thanks to Canadian immigration I am now coming to the end of a 3 month trip which has included getting ot meet lots of new people, spend christmas and new year with my best friend and her husband and meeting my gorgeous god-daughter as she said hello to the world on the 18th November.

It has been an amazing experience for me and I am preparing to leave knowing I will always have a home here if I wanted it. It's been incredible watching my gorgeous god-daughter Anne grow up so much even in these 2 short months, from being new born to being so aware of what's around her and watching her learn to smile.

And in a couple of weeks I will be heading back home, my plans include expanding Etsy, working on some interesting projects with friends and saving up either for driving lessons or another trip to Canada. 2011 was good to me so let's hope 2012 is even better :D

<3