Well I have got back into things again, our looming Miss Johnson's Vintage and Handmade Market next Friday has a lot to do with that. Nothing like a deadline to get you moving. As I wanted to make something new for our market I have pulled out the sewing machine, as finding things is still an issue, have decided to not stress and just go with what I can find. These little dresses are my inspiration for a range of products that I think suit vintage as I use vintage materials and I think they have a romantic shabby chic look. I am in the process of making small heart cushions and wall hangers to go with them. The photo above is the dresses before I wash them

These are after I have soaked them in boiling water, then screwing them real tight to take the water out, I then hang them on the line to dry. All this does is take out the dressing in the fabric and give it a nice wrinkly look which I like, think it gives it an old look. When they are dry they are also quite stiff.This is a close up look of the detail on the pocket. I still need to sew some beads on and do a little bit of embroidery. Make a wire coat hanger and make a pocket parcel to package when sold. I was inspired by Ruth Rae's book 'layered, tattered & stitched' on fabric art. I have tried to add my own slant on her designs.

I have just learnt a knew trick with my point and shoot digital camera, there is a little flower symbol which when pressed down gives a cool macro lens for close up photo's, this is my photo I took using that symbol, pretty cool aye, bit scarey too, can you see all that dust on the tray grhhh.... just because I am working from home, housework has to take a back seat to deadlines. I have been looking a SLR digital camera's, now I have a SLR camera that we bought about 30 years ago with all these cool lenses by Tokina at considerable expense. I haven't used it since I got my digital point and shoot, I have looked into the possibility of buying a case only digital SLR that I could use the Tokina lens attached, unfortunately it is not recommended as technology has moved tremendously in 30 years, and the cases of a digital SLR may not be compatible. So decision has been made that as the my point and shoot does take good photo's I am going to take my SLR in to make sure batteries etc still working and enquire if film is still available and just go back to taking special photo's with film. I am thinking that possibly rather than having the photo's developed and printed, that I may be able to get them on a disk that I can manipulate etc on the computer and print only the photo's I like. Anyone out there still using SLR camera's and film?

Have a wonderful weekend full of fun and enjoyment, after all that is what weekends are for.

Jacky

journey over

Well its all over, we finally finished cleaning up the shop at 8.30pm Saturday week ago, so much work but we got there with a lot of help from family. Husbands are such treasures at a time like this. Anthony, Joannes husband with the help of his family did all the heavy lifting of cabinets, taking down wall panelling, and John followed up with filling all the holes you get in the walls of old buildings, sanding and painting. We where very grateful for all their help.
Now its a case of getting back into a routine, we have had a week of rest to get over it all and time to move on. We have our Miss Johnson's Vintage and Handmade Market in less than 3 weeks and I need to make new products for this. I have semi cleared my studio, well at least enough to move around, finding things is challenging, but hey I have all day to do it...... Its also time to get back into my blogging and I will try to make it a bit more interesting for you.