taking up sewing

A few weeks ago I bought myself my first sewing machine after falling in love with this tatted dress drawer freshener which required a little bit of sewing.

I originally bought a really cheap thing from Hobby Craft (I guess it is the same thing as Hobby Lobby in the US) but the zig zag stitch didn't work and there was no speed control so I took it back for a refund and decided to splash out a bit and get me a Borther LX27NT

Now, knowing nothing about sewing machines and having not used on since I was about 14 in Home Economics class I really just went with the good reviews and the pretty pattern on the side but from the very first moment of taking it out the box i've loved it.

Of cource having spent the money to get myself what I consider a fancy bit of kit, I had to do more with it than simple sew up a tiny drawer cushion so I trawled the internet for some free patterns and have already made myself my first handbag.  I wont share the photos in this post as I only have camera phone photos which are rubbish so i'll wait till I get the photos off the DSLR camera.

Of cource with any shiny new hobby i've dived off the deep end and have ordered heaps of material and downloaded lots of patterns and have decided to make all the females I know handbags for xmas even though I have only made the one bag so far.

Unfortunatly I was about to head out to my local fabric shop when I got a phone call from the bank and it turns out someone has stolen my card details and has used my account to pay some short term loan company so I am signifcantly less well off that I though earlier this morning.  Luckily the loan company agrees its fraud so I should get my money back eventually but it meant my card has been cancelled and I have to wait till I get the money back.  It put a bit of a dampener on my day and I couldn't be bothered going out after being on the phone for 2 hours so i'll go in tomorrow insead.

My shopping list for tomorrow is to get stuff to make an ironing board and craft mat case. Since noticing when making my first handbag that I had no work space to iron my seams etc like I was supposed to (the house is being removated so there is no room to set up an ironing board).

Anyway, hopefully next time I post I will have photos of my bag, my iron mat and maybe even have my money back (fingers crossed).

Till next time...

Cat x

Rally season has begun!

I took the dogs to the first race of the season at the weekend.  We were racing at Aviemore which is about 2 and a half hours away and sure enough just as I was about to set off it started snowing.... badly.

Now you would be forgiven for thinking, "surely snow is a good thing when you race sled dogs" but in fact unless it is deep and bedded in snow you cant really use a sled and its horrible driving country roads when you cant see more than 100ft in front of you.

Still, off we went and I wasn't too phased as I knew I would be staying at a camp site with electrical hook up so I could use my electric fan to keep me warm when sleeping in the van over night so off we went and arrived before it got dark.

When I arrived I proceeded to let the dogs stretch their legs and releave themselves then I got to setting up the van.  plugged in the electrical cable, then my fan... NOTHING!!  I'd come all the way to find out my heater wasn't working!! I got the maintenance guy to have a look and we tracking the problem back to the van so there was nothing much I could do about it.  I phoned my Husband to ask if he had unplugged anything when he was working on the car the previous week but he hadnt so I resigned myself to a very cold night.

I went round to a challet some friends were staying in around 9pm to blow up my mattress and get a hot water bottle then about an hour later I was back at the van....... to find my Husband in there with the fan working!! He had driven 2 1/2 hours in the snow at night just to fix my heater!  What a hero!!

So we both camped in the van over night then the next morning he went back home while I went off to the race venue and went on to have a great weekend without loosing any toes to frostbite!

Here is a photo of us approaching the finish line on Saturday.  They did really well, knocking over a minute of last years time.  Look how happy they look!