New bag for Spring

Sofia goes to dance class once a week and the gym that hosts the classes is located right in the middle of town. Once dance begins us parents aren't allowed in the class room and so I find myself with 45 minutes to spend as I see fit.

Not far from the gym is a store that sells Marimekko fabrics by the yard and while I've always loved the look of the Marimekko designs I don't own many items featuring it.
If it's affordable it's usually a knock off.

But the other week after I had bought my customary coffee mug and I was wandering about the streets around the gym I came upon the Marimekko store and saw that they sold the fabrics at a discount.
So I treated myself to a yard of a summery cheery fabric.



I say treated because the start price was still so high, even at a discount it's quite pricey.

The fabric has languished in its bag since then but yesterday I decided to go ahead and make myself a new purse.
I have purse frames at home (bought here) that I have still to use and I picked the biggest one so the purse would be big enough in itself to show off the design.

Lisa of U-Handbag had a free purse pattern for that frame and I set to work.



I chose not to add the frill to the top because the fabric doesn't really give off that frill vibe to me. Instead I decided to use it plain to show off as much of the design as I possibly could.


I put in an inner pocket and gave the magnetic snaps I've had at home for ages a try. Another time I would have made the pocket deeper, but this will do for now.

Over all I'm fairly pleased with it. I could have done a better job of the glueing, but I'm still learning.

It's still drying so I'll post a finished picture later.

Stockings to leggings

Sofia is growing at a crazy rate and she's at that stage now where lots of her clothes are too small and I need to fill it up not only with spring/summer clothes but also with a bigger size.

It's still a bit chilly in the mornings. It's not unusual to have below zero temps when I drop them off at school and daycare and then in the afternoons it's 15C or more.

The other day Sofia showed me that she had a hole on her footed leggings, or stockings as I tend to call them. And since they are a smaller size than she needs I would have thrown them out, but then I thought maybe I could salvage them.



So I cut the feet off them and sewed some ribbed cuffs to the ends. I even had a blue ribbed cuff at home that matched the blue dots on the stockings.



In Sweden they sell precut ribbed cuffs at the fabric store in lots of different colours and I tend to stock up on them when ever I'm there.



They make great wristwarmers and I'm pretty sure we could figure out a way to use them for Barbie clothes as well.

Yay for upcycling!

Enough with the weight talk. More sewing!

Saturday I was planning on sewing new curtains for the kitchen. I had the bases all done from before but had taken the toppers off to switch them out for something new.

Isabel was going hiking all day and Rickard and Sofia were leaving for their shorter hike. I dropped them all off then sped back home to get started.

Once home I had to start the dishwasher and a load of laundry and then I had to tidy up a bit and make some coffee. And then. No. Sewing was on the menu.

That's when the phone rang and my SIL asked me to look after her children since she had to go the ER with her husband. And her parents (my in-laws) weren't picking up the phone.

I told her to drop the kids off and to take their time. We had no plans all day (other than my sewing).

So I entertained F and A for a little while before packing them into the car to go fetch Rickard and Sofia from their hike.

Sofia was thrilled to have the cousins over and I think we'll have to schedule a few more playdates for them.

After we had served the kids lunch I did however manage to sneak in some sewing. Since the curtains were half done already I managed to finish one before I had to go fetch Isabel and by then the cousins had been picked up. Isabel was very sad.

She invited a friend over and that gave me some free time to finish up the second curtain as well.

Yesterday morning (Sunday) I got out of bed early since I couldn't sleep and did some bookkeeping for my company and then I proceeded to cut out fabric for the patchwork placemats I have planned.

I sewed one up last night but they took too long and I had a date with a cup of coffee and a tv-show so I had to take a break. I hope to finish the placemat tops tonight and maybe even cut out the backs and batting for them.

Fingers crossed. (And pics to come I promise)

Ironic

The irony of talking so much weight loss as I have these past few days and having crepes in my banner isn't lost on me.

I might do something about that too - or not. We'll see.

Just once more

I said I wasn't going to talk much about my weight issues at least not here. And I won't.

But that said, I have another blog where I try to keep track of weight stuffs. Camille - thank you for your comment, I have tried to answer it there.

I am however celebrating a little today since I am once more able to use the bathroom scales. Not only because they once more have batteries but because I have lost enough weight for them to be bale to measure me.

Yes. That is how bad it was.

Doing something about it

I wasn't going to post about this on this blog but I feel the need to report that in the past 5 weeks I have dropped 13 lbs in weight.

I'm following the Weight Watcher's program since that worked for me a couple of years ago. I have 28 lbs to go to my first goal post. After that I'll set a new goal and work towards that. This will be a long journey. Last time I was in Weight Watchers it took 13 months to reach my goal weight.

I expect this time to take as long or longer.

I do weigh-in on the weekends (Saturday), and I do them at home. In the morning. On the Wii Board since our bathroom scales doesn't have batteries in it.

I plan to measure my body (I have to do this either way since I plan to make myself some clothes) and mostly use that as a guide. My jeans are already falling down on my hips and I have to take them in a bit soon.

I will not be posting about it here every week or even every month. It's too personal.

Sick again

Well, wow.

A week and a few days ago I wrote about how our Winter Sports Vacation had suck because I got sick. Well let me tell you. A common flu (not the stomach bug kind) has nothing on a raging strep throat!

I had shipped the girls off to my parents on Friday March 2nd so Rickard and I could go out to have dinner and maybe catch a movie.

We decided to meet at the newly opened Starbucks (Yay!) in town so we could check it out. Also they have rebuilt the whole Central Station and I haven't been there for so long since I never take the bus any more.

We ended up getting some dinner at our favourite restaurant Chilli right next to Grand Square, but I felt the entire time that I was starting to get a sore throat.
So instead of dessert and a movie we decided to take the bus home and watch something there instead.

It was cold outside and I felt a chill coming on and once we were home my throat hurt and I was shivering.

I woke up in the night with a high fever and I had really weird dreams.

Saturday was spent on the sofa. I didn't eat much all day since I couldn't really swallow so I mostly slept and felt sorry for myself.



The girls came home in the afternoon and my parents quickly fled the scene. We were supposed to make them dinner but they declined. I didn't mind. I still had a pretty high fever.

I had hoped to last until the regular doctor's office opened on Monday before I got medicine but on Sunday morning I felt I couldn't really wait much longer.
So we drove to town to go to the doctor's office that's open on evenings and weekends. I fear it would take forever but they were pretty efficient there and it only took 90 minutes before I had a prescription to pick up at the pharmacy.

Monday was spent on the sofa as well and my throat was still really sore. I got caught up on "Upstairs, Downstairs". I lived off rose hip soup (mmm, yum) and soft thin-bread.

Tuesday I was back at work and finally I could feel the soreness in my throat was dissipating. And today I'm mostly back to normal although I get tired and dizzy pretty quickly if I strain myself. It's sad - I can't even bend over to put on my boots before I see spots before my eyes.

If there is an agency who dole out these illnesses and they are listening can I just say that I am done now. I don't need another bout of illness, Thank you. I'm all set for the rest of the year.

Thank you to all you sweet friends who showed me sympathy last weekend and this week.