Monday 23 July 2012

Making Dolls (Or Not.)

Inspired by this: http://madebyjoel.com/2012/07/painted-fabric-dolls.html, I sat with the kids around the dining room table, with piles of beads, needles and threads, stamps and inks, and a hot glue gun.


Then we sewed, beaded, coloured...


...glued, stitched and stamped for all we were worth.


I was the design advisor, chief needle threader, and hot glue gun supervisor. So this is how far my doll got:

 Ho hum.

Monday 16 July 2012

Liberty's

Because, let's face it, she deserves her own post...


I got to Liberty's at the end of a long day, tired but excited. My only fabric outing of the trip.
I wandered through the halls with my mouth wide open (it was a very attractive look).



Let me insert here, that while living in Israel can be fantastic, fabric shopping is, well... mostly absent (I'm being polite here. Very polite.) I do all my fabric shopping online. I so miss the pleasure of being in a fabric store, moving bolts around, making discoveries; the feeling of being in a candy shop, only better.

So Liberty's. Ah, Liberty's. All candy, all the time.





And as if my joy were not already complete, an angel appeared.

She saw me rooting around at the end-of-the-bolts counter, collecting the thin scraps that had tied bundles together. I showed her a handful - how much for these? She let me take them for free, and then pulled out their real scrap bags. Oh good lord.


She encouraged me to pick my way through this collection, and take scraps home with me. I now have a small purple Liberty's bag, filled with little fabric treasures, sitting by my sewing machine. It evokes for me this wonderful day, the kindness of strangers, and serendipity.


Monday 9 July 2012

LONDON: On Location!

I went to London to visit my family, and all I brought back was this huge number of photographs...

I hadn't visited London in many years, and just drank it in. Thinking of visiting? The museums are free. Free! And amazing! Live there already? Rejoice!

Here's some of the architecture. It is so inspiring.

An interior archway leading to the courtyard of the Victoria & Albert Museum...


 The entrance to the Victoria & Albert - I don't know what it is, but isn't it cool?



Here is the escalator leading up to the exhibits in the Natural History Museum; it's kind of like traveling through the sun...


This is above the entrance to Selfridges, a luxurious department store on Oxford Street...


And the lobby of the Science Museum...


Isn't it amazing? All that design in one place? Simply breathtaking.