Bonus Day

Today has felt like a bit of a bonus.  Don't worry - no near death situations, just that I was expecting to teach all day, but when I got into school, turned out a reorganised assembly schedule had put a spanner in the works  big time and so home I came, skippetty-hop, keen to get on with a bit of stitching.

First I sewed together the pieces and layers for some notebook slipcovers, mostly made from bits of tray cloths with a sprinkling of vintage fabrics.  They're not quite finished yet (hand stitching, ribbons and buttons still needed) but I'm quite pleased with them. Here's a couple of them (these made with new fabrics). 

As I wasn't ready to sit down and do the hand stitching and embellishing, I then decided to reach for the glue and have a go at covering some boxes I've been gathering up over the past months.  First, just a little one.

Note to self: next time, get the fabric the right way up!

Then onto a bigger project.  

One side...

And the other...

Top and side.  Can you guess what it is yet?

Ta-dah!

Please admire me from all sides!

 This being a trial run, there are one or two minor imperfections, so this one will have to stay with me - what a terrible shame!  The set of drawers only cost £2 from Mr Tesco, so I think I will be heading that way again soon for some more to do.  My lovely girl thinks they would be very popular, which always seems like the ultimate in compliments!

So that's been my bonus day.  The down side is that I have to go back and work tomorrow instead!

The Secret to True Contentment

I have to say the title is really a cheap attempt at grabbing attention.  All the same, here is a very easy way to gain a feeling of great satisfaction - well, it worked for me today!

1. Tidy your sock drawer.  Throw away the socks that have lost their partners (or, if they are not too tatty and you are into sock puppets, get down to a bit of creativity!)
2. Throw away every mis-shapen, bleach splattered and unravelled-at-the-hem t-shirt currently taking up drawer space. Or better still, cut them into a pile of dusters!
3. Sort through your bras. (I am assuming a mainly female readership here...) Make a pile of the ones with the wires that poke through or baggy back elastic. They're doing you no favours. I really can't think of a way of recycling these (Double hammock for a pair of sparrows?  Weapon of mass destruction?) so into the bin they must go!
4. Get out your winter clothes and look forward to wrapping up against the chills, enjoying stews and dumplings and all manner of comfort food.

I have also been finishing off a couple of sewing projects.

Here's one of them.

Can you guess what it is?

My way of tidying all those wiry nuisances I can never find or identify when I need to.  I had fun with stitching the labels on these pockets.

I'm putting together some instructions for making these - soon to appear in the 'Pages' section of my blog - look on the right.

I'll end with a couple of news stories that caught my attention.

The Sublime...

Wish I taught in that school!

And the Ridiculous...

Has the world gone mad?