stan the man

This is what happens when you're naughty. At least this is what happened to Stan The Naughty Fimo Man. He got tossed into our diorama prison and was left lying in a bed too small beside a blocked toilet. Was it an crime of passion? A robbery or sorts? The word on the street is that, I quote "he stole our money and used all our water and smashed our car up and smashed up our house too"

This recent stint at model making was prompted by a visit to the historic Oxford jail. The boys got to see first hand what these formidable jails they have heard so much about really look like. I was reluctant to explain that now days they have access to t.v, sky, junk food, drugs and a higher education, just in case it started to sound appealing.

The Fimo modelling compound we used to make Stan's hands, feet and head out of, is like plasticine, except it sets hard when it's been baked in the oven for ten minutes. We put holes into them first so we could stitch them onto the rest of his body, which was made with some bits of scrap wool rolled up into tubes. We inserted wire into them to make them bendy.

You can read a bit more about Fimo here, we're awfully fond of it.

Crusket boxes are easy to come by round these parts, so we cut one up along with some corrugated cardboard and painted them with poster paints to make the jail. Matchsticks were used for the bars on the window with plenty of PVA as always. It was a pretty quick and crude set up that took a couple of hours tops.

I am happy to report that I am getting some good mileage from it though. The addition of police cars and a zoo full of animals are making for some pretty interesting dramas being played out.

Actually, considering how tired I'm feeling today, it looks like the perfect place to get some peace and quiet and clock up a whole lot of sleep. I think I'll rename our villain Lucky Luke, set him free and get myself into some serious trouble.

fair isle

We are lucky to have quite a few Grandmas in our family. Six in fact, including Great Grandma Pearl. Even luckier for us, they all are tremendously skilled knitters, have taught me to knit and make gorgeous garments for their Grandchildren. This fair Isle cardigan /jacket came in the post last week from Nana Bec in Wanaka.

Nana Bec likes to improvise and draw from exciting colour palates when she knits. Her garments always have such flare and originality. She especially seems to enjoy all the multiple colour and woven pattern options of the fair isle and intarsia techniques.

I think the wee lass will be lucky enough to see this coat through three winters. Currently she wears it with the sleeves rolled up and it just stops short of her knees. I'm guessing next winter it will almost be a perfect fit and the year after she will probably start to out grow it.

Another one of our many knitty Nanas visited us yesterday. Being impressed, but quiet and slightly competitive, she was checking out the craftsmanship of Nana Bec's coat, paying her respects to the detail and execution.

She then went on to tell me everything she knows about knitting historically and about the pattern of fair Isle coming from the island of the same name in northern Scotland (apparently the fisherman who were particularly gnarly and rugged from all their time out at sea, would knit in this tradition.)

She explained that the Guernsey style jumpers (with the split at the hem) come from the island (also of the same name) in the English channel and the Aran cable jerseys are from Ireland.

Tho this is of interest, it is not the actual facts themselves that are particularly meaningful.

It's the way she imparts all she can recall ...while the memories are still there, graspable and wanting to be heard... that I love.

I cling to these facts, accounts, stories, whatever they may be and hang off her every word in hope I will remember the moment of her sharing them with me.

It's these pieces of handmade clothing and the stories that go with them, that I will keepsake and cherish forever.

birdie sling

Amy Butlers 'Birdie Sling' comes highly recommended.

It's a beautifully designed bag with wide contrast strapping, a big tear drop shaped body and two internal pockets. The pleats on the exterior and the interfacing of the bands and handles make for some satisfying sewing. With its modern styling and dynamic proportions, I know I'll definitely be making more.

I bought the pattern on line. You can get it here here and here.

The fabric I used for the outer main body, is a floral denim I found at Global Fabrics quite a while ago. It reminds me of the lupins through the Lindis pass in summer or a Monet painting in macro. I lined it in a baby blue cotton and used a dark navy denim for the bands and the handles. What have you been making lately?

murals on buildings part 2

Elvis is alive on Stanmore Rd

Old ladies having a laugh on the wall of Bronskis dairy on Ferry Rd

and the intimidating mafia thugs...

...with ear studs, cigars and attitude.

kids and cameras

On why you should let your kids loose with your camera occasionally.

They sneak mine when I'm asleep. And I love the surprises they snap.

weekending

homage to hotties

Hotties are god sent.

In times of need and distress they soothe and comfort.

In winter they warm our beds and our bones and all year round, the bassinets of our babies.

There is nothing more thoughtful or romantic than to slip a hotty into the bed of an unsuspecting guest or lover.

There are however, both good and bad things to be said about hotties.

Brand new hotties can be very stinky in a toxic kind of way. The best hotties therefore are the ones that are snaffled from grandmothers cupboards, their smooth skin having stood the test of time between flanettettes and flesh and lay waiting to be held tight once more. Or failing the ability to snaffle them, do check the new ones you are buying fit the stardards required here.

There are also tricks to filling hotties. My mother showed me how to pour the water in slowly so it doesnt spit back at you and how to burp the air bubble out of it at the end.

A good hottie needs to be at least half full, but no more than 2/3rds.

A hottie filled with boiling water will need to be wrapped inside something so it wont scold the skin. It will radiate its warmth for a good 6 hours or so.

Thankfully hotties still seem designed to a fairly universal standard. Which means that any hotttie cover you make will generally fit any hotty.

Here's how to make a basic hottie cover...

Lay your hottie out and draw around it leaving a good inch extra for seam allowance and ease.

Fold your pattern piece in half long ways and trim or reshape it to get it looking nice and symetrical.

Open it back up and cut this out in your choosen fabric. This will be piece A of 3 panel pieces. You can decorate this piece before or after you sew the hottie cover up, depending on how fussy you are and what you are adorning it with.

To make an opening to slip the hottie inside, you will need to overlap the 2 back pieces B and C. This is done by firstly folding the pattern in half and making a crease line.

Open it up and mark this crease with a pen. Then make another crease line on your pattern half way between the first crease and the top sholder curves.

As you can see, panel B will run from the very top of the hottie to the half way crease.

Panel C runs from the bottom of the hottie to the highest crease line.

Cut out both panel pieces B and C as shown from your fabric.

When you are ready to sew the hottie cover up, lay the 3 panal pieces right sides together with panel B in the middle. I used the blanket stitched edge of an old blanket as a feature of the opening. You can use any machine, either over locker or straight sewer or if its felt or felted wool your using you could probably just hand sew it together.

We were formerly using pillows slips to house our hotties in. The kids would drag them along the ground in the mornings, as if there was some stone cold blubbery dead thing inside that needed to be buried. I was worried the pillow cases would eventually rip or the hotties might burst their seams. Countless times, I have stumbled out of bed and stood on a tepid, cast out hottie, narrowly avoiding a small tsunami. Perhaps we are lucky but of all my years of accidentally standing on them and watching the kids do the same, we have yet to break an ankle or witness a hottie bomb go off. I imagine it would explode rather like a wet whoopy cushion.

I wonder...

Do hotties get mouldy inside?

Does anyone actually prefer a wheat bag warmed in the microwave?

I'm a hottie girl hands down. But I'm interested in your thoughts.

It's like talk back radio here today.