Slides...

We recently borrowed a film scanner from some friends and discovered it also scans slides. My parents have boxes of old slides from my Grandma and asked me to scan some for them. I love slides, there is something really nice about them, the colours are so vivid, also I just really like looking at old photographs. These were some of my favourites.

365 Knitting Clock...

First off, appologies for the lack of blogging...again! Struggling to find time these days. I do have a lot of things built up so expect a lot of blogs soon! Secondonly I came across this wonderful piece of design recently. A clock that slowly knits a scarf...over 365 days it will knit a 2m long scarf so it also works as a kind of calender! I love the idea but also just really love the look of the thing, my flat is in need of one of these! Please see Siren Elise Wilhelmsen's website for more wonderful designs...

Coffee, courtesy of Christoph Niemann...

Coffee

I came across this blog post a while ago, it has to be one my favourite blog posts I have come across since becoming a blog poster and reader. Ever since the discovery I have been hooked to the Abstract Sunday Blog presented on the New York times website as well as the wonderful work of Christoph Niemann. I just wish he would blog more often...not that I can talk??!

Lonely New York Bike...

My boyfriend was in New York recently with work (lucky bugger!) and noticed amongst the streets that there are also some lonely bikes so he kindly took some pictures for me. Photographs courtesy of Andy Mackie

Monster...

Donna Wilson is one of my favourite Designers and for my birthday I received one of her 'Make your own Monster kits' which I was delighted with. Now my birthday was about 9 months ago...did I mention I had been busy...I just recently decided to take it out and turn it into a Monster.

One of the great things about these kits, and one of the reasons why I love Donna Wilson is that she provides you with a selection of scraps from her studio. Last bits of material, scrap bits of felts...better giving it a new life than just throwing it away plus it make each kit completely individual.

One of the pieces is pre-stitched into a Monster shape, you just have to trim it down turn it inside out then start playing around with ideas.

I decided to keep mine fairly simple and just played around with the felt pieces. I added a bit of stitching for detail and attached the majority of it together with gold old bond'a'web.

Once finished he was looking good but a little thin...in need of eating some stuffing (thankfully also provided).

All stuffed and stitched up he is finished, just needs a name...

That's a lot of paper work...

So I have been a bit rubbish at my blog again recently but I feel my excuse is valid. I spent the past year doing my PGCE which involved stress, tears and a lot of paper work (as you can see and this is not including the 2 huge bags full of paper I dropped off at the recycling bin!). The past year was very testing, there were moments when I was ready to admit defeat and quit it all and moments of great joy, pride and the feeling of...'man, I love this job'. I finished it all over a month ago now, I finished with an outstanding grade with masters, could not be more proud of myself! But most of all I finished really happy with my career choice, the past year was hard, really hard but it was definitely all worth it. I discovered how much I love teaching, I can not imagine doing anything else and lucky me managed to also get a job at an amazing school. I worked there for 3 weeks in July, got to meet all my new students and get a bit settled in before starting properly in September. Right now it's the summer holidays (big plus to being a teacher) which means I can finally relax a bit and hopefully get back to making stuff, although all I really want to do right now is make things for school to help the students...did I mention I love my job!

Loney London Bike #5...

Vulpine Cylcing Fete...

The lovely Nick and Emmalou of Vulpine put on a brilliant event celebrating the world of cycling and art as well as raising some money for charity. The very talented Andrew Mackie was invited along as he took the product shots for the Vulpine website. Having just launched his own website this was the perfect opportunity to show off some off his great work. 

Proud moment...Andrew's stall (however small it was) looked great and he received a lot of positive feedback, all in all it was a successful day! Big thank you to Andrew Tracey for the branding and printing and thank you to Katherine Harrison for the iPad loan!

Please check out Andrew's website: www.andymackie.co.uk

I had a massive Spaced nerd moment when Tyres (Michael Smiley) turned up, kitted out in full cycling gear! I was too embarrassed to go and say hello and by the time I finally plucked up the courage he was tucking into a hog roast, bit rude to interrupt really. So, I missed my chance but managed to take a sneaky picture!

As well as lots of lovely bike stuff there was some very talented creative types showcasing their great work. This illustration caught my eye from the moment I got there and lucky me managed to buy a print just before he ran out! 'Pigeon' is just one of a series of illustrations by the very talented Philip Deacon entitled 'things i've run into'.

Please check out his blog for more work: www.philiprints.blogspot.co.uk

Big thank you to the wonderful Vulpine!

www.vulpine.cc

Lonely London Bike #4 The Boris Edition...

Where'd everyone go?

Spring...

It's Spring, although you wouldn't think it with all the rain! But it is April I suppose...April showers and all that.

Bristles...

Sometime good things happen by accident...I was taking pictures in the workshop and put my camera down on one of the benches to rearrange something, when I went to pick it back up I noticed I had placed it right next to a brush. The image showing up on the screen looked pretty cool so I set my camera to macro, got really close in and took this picture.

Flowers...

Full Petal Jacket...

Came across this recently whilst on a walk through Victoria Park, made me giggle...

Light Forest...

Love this...by Ontwerpduo

The Manly Art of Knitting...

Bugs and Sea Things...

I did some illustrations for a school resource but actually really like them. Inspired by nature, creepy crawlies and strange things living in the sea mainly...

Lonely London Bike #3...

 

You know when you see something all the time and then when you start consciously looking for it suddenly you can't seem to find it anywhere...I feel like my lonely bike project seemed to get a bit lost for a while and then I saw this at the weekend. First Lonely London bike of 2012.

X...

Dendrobium, I think...

Vík Prjónsdóttir...

So my love for all things woolen continues...I came across Vík Prjónsdóttir a while ago, they are an Icelandic design company, they make all kinds of wonderful woolen products made only from Icelandic sheep wool. They draw inspiration from myths and stories, this little onesie or 'Kópurinn' inspired by an icelandic myth involving seals is quite possible one of the cutest things I have ever seen!

Vík Prjónsdóttir 

Cookies...

Cookies are one of my favourite things to make, I made these just before Christmas for our PGCE Christmas party. White chocolate and raspberry and dark chocolate and hazelnut...yum!

Finger Knitting...

I recently discovered finger knitting, it's really easy and the results are pretty nice. I thought I would practice by making these little Christmas decorations.

Week 14, it's all over...

 This was my last week at my first school placement, which I was pretty upset about; I did have a brilliant week however. I really enjoyed all of my last lessons with the classes I had been teaching for the past few weeks, especially the year 7’s as we had a pretty fun lesson. We started with a Christmas quiz then I challenged them to make the penguins out of bin bags, they loved this and their penguins were so cute!

 

The school held a Christmas concert, which was lovely, the atmosphere was great and really helped bring back my love for teaching as it made me realise all the bonuses that come along with the job. 

 It was sad to say goodbye to the department, they had all helped me so much and made me feel very welcome, it was also hard to say goodbye to my form. The lovely year 7’s who I had been with for 10 weeks now and had come to know quite well. They made me a goodbye and good luck card, which was really nice of them!

 I was really sad to leave my first school placement as was everyone else on the PGCE, we were warned about feeling this way when we started, like we felt like the school was ours and were jealous of those going to our school in their second placement. I am however quite looking forward to starting my next placement, it is an inner city school and seems to be quite a contrast to what I have experienced so far so it should be really interesting.

 I have decided not to carry on blogging about my school experience and will keep my second placement private instead, so sorry to anyone who was reading about it but I will carry on blogging about all the usual stuff I blog about so stick around…only if you want to of course!