easily distracted by shiny things…
Posted in FAQ, inspiration, writing on Jun 26th, 2009
I started working for myself for two reasons.
I went to an event with a lot of independent traders, and came home thinking “I could do better than that”. And I did. For a while.
I became frustratingly and unpredictably ill. Working for myself gave me the flexibility I needed to work as much as possible when [...]
Posted in culture, inspiration, writing on May 31st, 2009
Image © Tom Hunter
I was reading the Big Issue yesterday, and suddenly did a double-take when I saw this picture. It’s from the “Travellers” series by Tom Hunter, who has several current exhibitions in London and around Europe.
When I was at University I harboured a sort of a romantic notion that I would somehow land a lovely [...]
So, we’re in a global recession. A couple of months ago I had a surprising number of orders cancelled, all at once. Most of them were for party dresses that people simply couldn’t afford to pay for any more. Never mind that the dresses were going to be hand made from beautiful fabrics, one of [...]
This week I got myself into a terrible state trying to write up my CV for the Museum of English Rural Life. One of the difficulties with being self-employed is that it’s often necessary to take part time or seasonal work, to make sure you have some form of income during those quiet patches. Unfortunately, [...]
Posted in culture, inspiration, shopping, writing on Mar 31st, 2009
This week I am in love with the seemingly random interconnectedness* of things.
The other day I joined Twitter.
Havi Brooks sent many people my way with her tweet (thank you!), one of whom was Randomling. She turned out to be the housemate of Miss Alice, who’d put me on to both Havi and Twitter in the [...]
Posted in culture, inspiration, writing on Mar 26th, 2009
Yesterday I met a duck, and today I learned how to Tweet.
The duck in question is not the fancy Mandarin pictured above. It’s Selma, able assistant to Havi Brooks.
Miss Alice realised that I was in serious need of some help with “destuckification”, and sent me a link to Havi’s website, The Fluent Self. I may [...]
Posted in culture, inspiration on Jan 9th, 2009
I was browsing through the BBC iPlayer this afternoon, looking for something to watch in the background whilst doing a spot of hand sewing.
I hadn’t realised what a lot I was missing!
The title above is a quote from a wonderful 1950s programme about fashion history. The series is called Men, Women and Clothes, and this [...]
Posted in corsets, inspiration, sewing, writing on Oct 9th, 2008
So far I have made a grand total of seven and a half corsets. Two for me, four for friends, and one which is still under construction. The first one I made from a commercial sewing pattern, and it was such a ridiculous shape (even for a ridiculously-shaped garment like a corset) that I decided [...]
Posted in culture on Jul 21st, 2008
I think it might be safe to say that my bedside reading mountain is getting a little out of control!
As you can see from this picture, I don’t tend to read a lot of fiction these days. This makes the book on the very top of the pile a bit intimidating.
I signed up to Blog [...]
Posted in culture on Jun 7th, 2008
We finally got around to watching This Is England last night. I’ve been wanting to see the film for a long time, even though I already knew that it would be very difficult for me to watch. I’m not a big fan of racism, violence and extreme right wing politics, and those are the main [...]