wildflower kindle blanket

"Do you suppose she is a Wildflower? -said the Daisy"



I've been caught up in a true water armageddon. Our beautiful newly renovated flat we poured our hearts (and a big pile of money) in has been flooded in every possible way. I'm pretty sure there is a water witches' curse on it! So instead of enjoying last days of summer, I'm running around supervising (and trying not to look too closely) the total eradication of our carefully selected floors and parts of the walls.

Luckily my DIY-s are providing some destruction, saving me from a total heartbreak.
I've been putting this project off for months, but I'm finally done - brand new and 100% handmade kindle cover!

It's one of these projects you can complete in one afternoon or stretch it for days - depending how practical you are. I'm not practical at all, therefore I spent 2 hours on actual cover and about 2 days on embroidery and design. But I loved every second of it!

But to the point... I used 2 sheets of soft felt (approx 28x19cm) plus one sheet for the screen frame (9x12.3cm - 14x19cm).

If I was making it again, I would probably use stiffer felt, at least for the frame, to make it less flimsy. As it is, I stitched cotton ribbon around the inner edge to stop it from losing its shape.

The embroidery part was the most fun. I even did a quick sketch of what I want it to look like. A word of warning, though : felt tends to stretch if you pull it too much, so embroidery hoop is out of the question. Also felt on felt embellishments look really good and don't take quite as much time as what I did.

Anyway, once that was over, I glued both of the covers together with fabric glue so they hold together well.

The last part was a blanket stitch all over. I mixed gray wool with a regular gray thread to have both the looks and durability.

My case has a centre opening for the kindle and a small hole for the charger. Speaking from experience- mark your openings well. I didn't, and stitched right through it.

Once I had all the edges blanket-stitched, I just added two small metal clasps, which is not at all necessary. I guess, I just wasn't quite ready to call my project finished. You know what they say about enjoying the journey quite as much as the destination...
And here it is, my wildflower kindle blanket!

The Notebook ... DIY

Recently, I realized that I kind of miss painting. Sure, I doodle every now and then, make an occasional illustration, but I haven’t been painting for ages, and I’m fairly certain I forgot how…  

What I really needed was a nice sketchpad. I actually have a bit of a thing about notebooks in general. It’s hard to explain but they just have to feel right.

Getting one was a bit of a problem. I couldn’t find anything suitable in local stationary and I didn’t know any of the brands available online. Well… there is always Moleskine, which I love, but using it for some embarrassing attempts would be just wrong. 

In the end I decided to make my own sketchbook. I found sheets of decent watercolor paper in the tiny shop called Paper Mint in Mapusa, and few excellent tutorials on Pinterest. 

In the end I used this one for stitching the pages and this one for making the cover. My book would probably turn out a bit neater if I actually followed any of the instructions instead of just skimming it, but it does the job.

I decided to make it more of an art journal in order to overcome the “it has to be perfect” paralysis. I have to say, there is sth. very liberating in having a designated notebook for all the experiments, trials and attempts, no matter how horrible the outcome!

Christmas cards

I always loved the idea of Christmas card display. It gives such a festive and warm feeling…  Plus making cards is so much fun! I remember, back in high school, we had a Christmas fair every year. Some two weeks before holiday break, the whole school transformed into Santa workshop, with us elves running between sculpture and calligraphy classrooms with freshly decorated baubles, bags of glitter and piles and piles of hand-made cards. 

The problem is, nobody sends cards any more, and displaying facebook or sms wishes is rather difficult, not to mention, way less decorative.

This year, I decided to revive the tradition, and got to work in the very beginning of December. It started with only a few, for immediate family, but things kind of spiraled from there, and I ended up with the whole collection, which we only just managed to send.

Quite frankly, I have my doubts about reliability of Indian post (the very reason, which had me emailing Christmas wishes for past few years) so I keep my fingers crossed for all of my beauties to arrive safely and on time. 

Christmas in November...

I’m slightly ashamed to admit, that this year we started Christmas preparations in November. Usually I refuse to have anything to do with premature christmasness and complain loudly about any sign of it. After all, how can you make Christmas feel special if you celebrate it for two months straight?! For me, 6^th December – Santa Claus day – was The Day – the day when it was O.K. to let my inner Christmas Obsession explode with full power. 

The problem is, that Goans seem to start decorating for Christmas as they put their Diwali lights on, which leaves me – the December Christmasser – with very limited choices.

Of course, Goa being almost as Christmas obsessed as I am, you can find all the basic ornaments in nearly every shop, but buying twelve eggs and a bag of baubles just doesn’t do it for me. I need a proper ambiance for it to count!

There is this magical place in Panjim – shop dedicated solely to Christmas, open only for two months. The problem is, towards November end, there doesn’t seem to be much left to buy!

That’s why this year, I decided to make and exception. We journeyed to the Winter Wonderland a good week ago, and what a trip that was! I swear, it’s like entering Santa’s workshop! The whole space is packed with beautifully decorated trees, wreaths, garlands… there are strings of lights, buckets of holy, bunches of mistletoe and piles and piles of decorations.
 And of course the music… I think that’s the worst part. I promised myself, I will get in, pick what I need, get out and pretend it never happened, but no matter how hard I tried the jingle bell, jingle bell… just stuck with me. Thank god December is finally here!