You can't give up now. Did Jackie Jormp-Jomp give up when those vampires attacked Woodstox?

So, there are only a few hours left of 2012 and, having made the executive decision not to go out tonight, I'm looking forward to seeing 2013 in with my family, Nic and a bottle of champagne. Naturally then it's time for me to reflect a bit on 2012!

I started 2012 with really high hopes that I'd have a good year. And I really have had a brilliant year! I still haven't got my work situation improved as much as I would have liked, but that's just a resolution to carry forward into 2013, and I can live with that.

My year has been full of love and laughter and good times. It was also a year of weddings - I suppose I'm getting to that age now - and Nic and I had the joy and privilege of being guests at four weddings. Emma and Adrian on New Year's Eve, Dan and Vic in May, Adam and Helene in July and my baby sister, Kelly, in August:

 

Kelly and Mickey Daly - 18th August 2012

The other big day I enjoyed in 2012 was when my darling Nic finished his PhD. He had his viva in January and graduated in July, becoming Doctor Nicolas Pillai. So we got to celebrate it twice, with one big night out and massive hangover in January, and a wonderfully sunshiny ceremony in the summer!

 

With Doctor Pillai on 17th July 2012

I talked about it length at the time, but I am so incredibly proud of Nic for this achievement and it was brilliant to be able to celebrate it with good friends. 

The other big event of 2012 was our trip to Orlando in March - my first time in America! I had a wonderful week in the sunshine, it was such a treat to spend a week in a beautiful, hot and sunny place!  We had the extra bit of luck in having Nic's colleague Julian to show us around and to be joined for a few days by our dear friend Tom. I'd go back to Florida in the morning, to be honest. It was magic - and we didn't even get a glimpse of that famous mouse! 

 

Me by one of Winter Park's many beautiful lakes, in March

That's just the headlines,  really. I have had a happy year with lots of adventure and fun - if I have half as much fun in 2013,  I'll be doing well. I have honestly never felt so happy and relaxed and excited about the future - it's a good feeling! My only real resolution is to keep doing the things that have kept me happy and healthy throughout 2012 - to spend time with loved ones, to spend quality time with myself by sewing and crafting and reading and dreaming, and to try to be open and adventurous.

 

A belated outfit shot from 18th December - floral pencil dress from ASOS, Poetic Licence Backlash shoes and Ness Sienna satchel

My lazy and relaxed Christmas holiday has set me up nicely for the start of the year, and it's even better now that Nic has joined us in Northern Ireland to see in the new year. If nothing else, he might help me put the brakes on my shoe-buying spree. My home town of Dungannon is wicked good for shoe shopping and I indulged myself with three pairs of shoes in the last fortnight! I don't even feel bad because you guys know, I do wear my frivolous shoes... Also, I bought them from nice independent shops so I am supporting my local economy by indulging my acquisitive side! But I probably don't have room in my case (or, you know, in our flat) for any more...

 

Escape Boutique by Zoe Greenhill 'Canape' heels

This is my nod to sensible shoes - the heel isn't that high and they're black patent. Except, they have bows on the toes and the heels themselves are purple. Still! These came from Panache in The Linen Green. I've linked to the website there, but I wouldn't bother, it's a bit crap. The shop itself is pretty cool, though!

 

Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Lady Dragon in dove with pink heart

Irregular Choice Swallow court shoes

Ah, my two favourite shoe brands, and from one of my favourite shoe shops, Solo in Dungannon. It doesn't have a website either, but buying half price shoes from there has become a Christmas tradition for me. Hurrah! 

Now I've shown you my new shoes and told you about my year, all that remains is for me to wish all my dear readers a very very happy new year. This blog has brought me so much happiness over this past year and every comment and email has meant a great deal to me. Thanks, guys, and here's to lots more dresses, shoes, sewing and adventures in 2013!

We're wending our way down to the liquor store, we'll drink 'til we just can't drink any more...

Hello all! Now there's a little change of pace around here today. I don't normally do reviews here, but the people at Achica contacted me a few months back to see if I'd be interested in doing a review of their products on here and I thought, why not?

You might have heard of Achica from their adverts featuring Wayne Hemingway of Red or Dead - well, that's how I had heard of them, anyway. They bill themselves as a "Members Only Luxury Lifestyle Store" and they sell designer homewares and accessories in limited-time sales, to registered customers. I was offered a £60 voucher to spend on their site, and I opted to spend it on some kitchenware as that is one of my weaknesses! I thought it was high time I replaced my glassware and went for some lovely glasses to make my drinking experience that bit more elegant. I found that £60 actually went quite far given the discounts, and this is what I bought:

 A set of 4 Ella Sabatini "Natalie" old-fashioned glasses - £9.50

I admit, I went for these "Old-Fashioned" glasses as they remind me of the glass on the cover of my Mad Men boxed set! They're a nice size - delicate but sturdy - and just right for drinking this Crown Royal Canadian Whisky that was a gift from Char. To be fair, I am not a whisky drinker and I'm not sure Don Draper would have approved of this - when Char bought this for me her brother said to her "Why not give her a brick to hit herself around the head with, it would do the job faster!"

A set of 4 Ella Sabatini "Natalie" Hi-ball glasses - £9.50

These hi-ball glasses are just right for a gin and tonic. I know some people prefer to drink their gin and tonic from a tumbler but I like lots of ice and lots of tonic. The Rev bought me this Hendrick's for my 30th birthday, and it's best with cucumber - these hi-ball glasses are a good size for this! I like them a lot and so does Nic, but they failed the Eugene test. When my Dad came  to visit he said he wouldn't buy these - he thinks the glass is too thin and he didn't enjoy the feel of the glass in his hand. He is a fussy customer, though! I like the curved shape, myself.

A set of 4 Ella Sabatini "Natalie" wine goblets - £9.50

These wine goblets are my favourites! Prior to this my favourite wine glasses had been pinched from various pubs. These have a lovely wide bowl and are so delicate and pretty - perfect for drinking this lovely Australian Cabernet Sauvignon. YUM!

I'm not 100% alcohol motivated, so I also ordered this:

Muurla Enamel Casserole with lid - £21

I admit, I'm not such a domestic goddess, but I know that Nic will enjoy using this to cook us up lots of tasty vegetarian stews and soups and curries over the next few months. I was attracted by the design and the fact that we didn't already own anything that could be used on both the stove and in the oven. But look, if I lived on my own I'd mostly eat toast so I think it will probably be Nic who uses this most often!

As with other, similar websites, an order from Achica can take a while to arrive. This lot arrived in 3 deliveries, all about 2-3 weeks after I placed my initial order. I am still awaiting the final piece of my order - a giant Lindt chocolate bear - but that will be exciting when it finally does arrive. This is the case with all of their sales, so don't order if you need your items in a hurry! That said, I think the significant discounts make it worthwhile and the range of stock they carry is impressive - as well as homewares they sell electronics, accessories and even holidays. I was pleased with the customer service  also. My only gripe is that, for my orders at least, Hermes was the courier. Their customer service is terrible, I have had real issues with them in the past and had resolved not to shop with any companies that used them as their courier. However, I should say that this time the deliveries went smoothly. Still, Hermes are notoriously unreliable and I admit that this might make me think twice about ordering from Achica in future. I'll still keep an eye on their sales, though!

Disclosure: I was not paid for this review, Achica provided me with a £60 voucher to use on their site. However, my review is honest and my views are my own.

You won’t be able to come with me… when I go into space. I’m going to be the first priest in space.

Hello all, and happy Christmas! I hope you all had a wonderful day, whatever you were doing. I had a lovely day full of Prosecco, food and family. It was great. My brother's girlfriend came to dinner along with her children and it was a lot of fun to have small children around. I did enjoy colouring in and playing with their toys. Today my plan is to avoid the Boxing Day sales (because anyway I have already bought two pairs of shoes) and curl up with the dog and some sweets and a film. I love this time of year!

Nic and I spend Christmas separately as he goes to his parents' house and I go to mine. This arrangement works fine for us - and this year he is coming to Northern Ireland to join us for New Year's Eve - so every year that we have been together we have had our own little pre-Christmas Christmas. This consists of us watching Christmas specials of our favourite TV shows and Christmas films, cooking Christmas dinner together and exchanging our gifts. It's always very festive and fun.

This year we held our Christmas on Sunday 15th as I was heading home on the 17th. I had bought most of Nic's presents already but on the Saturday we headed out into town to do some last minute shopping and to go out for a coffee. I had a very specific, very small gift in mind for Nic, but seemed to spend most of the afternoon trying to find it! Thankfully it was a lovely dry, mild day so wandering around was most pleasant.

 

Calamity Jane dress and Faith ruffle shoes

My mum and dad bought me these shoes for my birthday a few years ago but I haven't worn them for a while because for ages the top of the t-bar rubbed. But, as is sometimes the mysterious way of shoes, they have now stopped rubbing. GREAT STORY BRO. I wore this with a purple cardigan, too.

Purple, very wrinkly cardigan from Warehouse

Post-Christmas shopping, Nic went out with some friends and I stayed in and spend hours reading about conspiracy theories on the internet, because I am really cool like that. I was glad when Nic got home though because I had reached the stage where I was freaking myself out. I still couldn't seem to stop myself, even though I didn't believe any of them (except maybe the Beyonce not really pregnant one) I am much, much too impressionable.

I managed to get my festive feelings back when we got up on Sunday morning and opened our gifts. Nic loved the small thing that I spent ages trying to find (sword-shaped cocktail sticks, but that wasn't his whole gift) and it was a lot of fun to listen to the Charlie Brown Christmas record, open gifts and eat our selection boxes. The only thing that could have added to it was a bottle of something alcholic and fizzy - and I will get on that for next faux-Christmas! Nic had bought all of my gifts from my favourite shop in Leamington, Magpie Mexicana, which was very exciting. I got dressed and we went out for a walk in the afternoon.

Colette Patterns Chantilly dress, Sourpuss Swallow Cardigan and Irregular Choice No Place Like Home shoes

This lovely cardigan was one of Nic's gifts, and very fitting it was too as it is very rare that I'm not in a cardigan! It's lovely - and it fits really well in the sleeves and waist but of course, is a bit small to button up totally. So this next photo is for the purpose of showing you all the swallows, I don't think that the buttons-straining look is a good one!

Swallows!

We finished our Christmas day by going to the pub with some friends, which was perfect. Sadly I couldn't get too festive as I had to go to work the next day - even though it was my last day before the holidays it was a busy one. Still, that didn't dampen my enthusiam for a lovely day.

Now, my sister is cooking a lovely late lunch so I'm off to feast on that, but I'm sure I'll be back later in the week. Happy Christmas, everyone!

2012 - my year in sewing

Hello! It's Friday evening and all but the very last tiny bit of my Christmas shopping is done, and I am feeling very mellow and relaxed indeed. Time for me to get reflective on yo asses. Gillian of Crafting a Rainbow has set the ball rolling with her Top 5 of 2012 series, and while I'm not going to stick to the format exactly, I did want to take some time to reflect on my 2012 sewing, especially as I have been parted from my sewing machine until January!

So, yeah - 2012 has been a good year for me and sewing. Actually, I think it's been a darn good year all round, but that's for another post. I've had hits, a couple of misses, and a great time overall.

So, the stats! In 2012 I sewed 21 dresses and 1 pair of underpants. 22 garments! This is in contrast to the 8 dresses I made in 2011, so almost three times as many. I'm really pleased with this, as it signals to me that I have grown in confidence when it comes to sewing. This is important, because I started 2012 in a bit of a sewing funk, even crying into a latte in frustration about it. Making my yellow vintage dress broke my stressful sewing streak:

McCall's 5517 from 1960

If I'm being totally honest, I should probably count this dress just as a miss as I only wore it once. It's so far from perfect it's not even funny! But actually it's very sweet and I think if I take the skirt up a fraction I will wear it more. The best thing about it was how much I enjoyed making it - I think I just put aside my fears of getting it wrong and got stuck in, so this is a very happy dress indeed.

While I'm on the misses, another worn-oncer is my English Hazel dress...

The English Hazel dress 

This dress is super cute and it's another one that I really enjoyed making. But it didn't live up to my visions of it because the hot-pink lining just doesn't show through the white in the way I had planned. White is a difficult colour to wear when you have celtic colouring - eg, you're basically pale blue. I'm considering overdyeing it, but it's been packed away with my summer clothes so I will reassess this in the warmer weather. So it's not a complete fail, but it's not paying its wardrobe rent just at the moment.

With that said, I have worn my me-mades SO much more this year than I have before, and taking part in Me-Made-May really encouraged this. I discovered then that I would have had enough me-mades to get me through the month and I think this gave me the little confidence boost I needed. It helped also that I sewed four dresses during May! The dresses I made in 2012 that I wore the most were...

Spotty Simplicity 2444

This is one of my plainer makes! But gosh, I love this dress. It isn't perfect - the pleats are a bit off and my zip is a bit eccentric, but I wear this dress all the damn time. What is brilliant about it too is that no-one has ever looked at it and commented on either of those things, and knowing that this stuff is not the be-all and end-all was one of my big sewing breakthroughs this year. Yeah, I try to get it right, and I think my finishing techniques are getting better all the time, but I have stopped freaking out over it.

Gingham Sewaholic Cambie dresses 

I wear my full-skirted Cambie dresses a lot, too, but these a-line gingham ones were the star of my spring and summer wardrobe. This is partly due to my enduring love of gingham, but also because they are so cute and comfortable to wear and I feel really cute and sexy in them. I can see many more Cambies in my future.

I think the biggest shift for me this year was in deciding that, as sewing is my hobby, I wasn't going to worry about whether I should be learning new techniques or to feel bad for not tackling bigger projects and just sew whatever I fancied. I have no plans to change this, and I think it's led to me making some of the more 'wow' dresses in my handmade wardrobe, such as...

Home Sewing is Easy dress - Butterick B5603

This dress is so wonderfully ridiculous, and wearing it makes me really happy. The fact that the fabric was a gift from a very dear, dear friend just makes it even better. It sounds a bit silly and sentimental but when I wear dresses like this I feel like I have found just how to express myself and that's ever so satisfying. These Retro Butterick patterns have been stars this year, too. I feel properly old-school elegant in my Magnificent Obsession dress:

Magnificent Obsession dress - Butterick B5603

Looking back at all of these photos - look at my smile! I think you can see how much I have enjoyed sewing my way through 2012 and how much it has brought to my life. It isn't just the dresses, either. Sewing has brought wonderful new friends into my life - I attended a couple of sewing blogger meetups in 2012 - knicker-making in Bath, ballgown-pawing in London, and cleaning Birmingham out of fabric. That doesn't even touch all of the online interaction on Twitter and on blogs. I feel unbelievably lucky to be part of this community and the happiness it has given me is immeasurable.

When I took up sewing in 2010 it was, in part, a way for me to address the depression and anxiety I was dealing with. In so many ways, sewing has helped me to become a better, more patient and happier person. I'm really proud of what I achieved in 2012. The only resolution I have for my 2013 sewing is to keep on keeping on - to sew when I fancy it, not to sweat the small stuff, be curious and adventurous, to be proud of my creations, and to continue to connect with all of these talented, funny, awesome women. Sewing is freaking awesome, you guys!

Oh, and if you want to look, I've added a page to this blog to show off all of my handmade dresses. You can click through from the tab at the top of the front page, or just click here.

Really? I like my Pradork bag.

Hello beauties! I'm curled up on the sofa at my parents' house, with a small dog not far away and a large mug of coffee next to me - I'm finally on my Christmas holidays! I got home last night after a lazy day in Leamington, and was greeted with the wonderful news that my little sister got engaged! So I am feeling very festive and relaxed indeed.

I was able to take a case home this time with me (rather than my usual trick of trying to fit everything into my hand luggage) so I have lots of pretty dresses to wear over the holidays, and rather too many pairs of shoes, too - but space for me to potentially bring something back from the Solo sale, which has become something of a Roisin Christmas tradition! But I do have a backlog of outfits to show you so, yeah!

This is from a whole month ago! Sunday 18th November, to be precise...

 

Fever Phoenix dress and Irregular Choice Flick Flack shoes, with mustard tights from Primark

Ha ha, look how moody I look here! That wasn't at all intentional, I promise. Although by the end of this afternoon I WAS feeling a bit moody because these stupid tights kept rolling down and I had to take them off and put them in the bin. Which is annoying, because I love the colour! I may get some more mustard-coloured tights one of these days, but this reminded me just why wearing tights bugs me. I'm not sure how I feel about this dress, either. It's comfortable and pretty cute and everything, but I so rarely wear it because it's grey. But anyway, it was grand for whatever it was I was doing on that particular Sunday!

A more recent Sunday this time, Sunday 2nd December:

 

Fever Owl dress, red tights from Dorothy Perkins and Irregular Choice Little Miss Oh shoes

I didn't take a good photo of the print on this skirt, but it's little owls sitting in a tree by the light of a crescent moon. I like it because it reminds me very much of one of my favourite childhood books, The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson. It's a lovely, fun and comfortable dress to wear and an example of how patience can pay off when it comes to ebay. There are a few items in my wardrobe like this - things I have seen and either missed in the shop, or didn't want to pay the full price for. I had to wait over a year for this to pop up, but it did and for a mere £10. Good old ebay! This dress also looks cool with a petticoat underneath it as the skirt is quite voluminous, but for a lazy Sunday at home that didn't feel necessary or practical.

Anyway, that's a few that have been on the shelf for a while. I have more, but as I am on holiday and dedicated to leisure right now my brain is switching itself off! But I will be back in the week so I will see you all then.

People are put in prison ships because they murder and because they forge and rob and do all sorts of bad things… and they always start by asking too many questions!

I make no apology for my love of the novelty print. It's like my Kryptonite - I am powerless in the face of gingham, polka dots, or a ridiculous print. I can't help myself which is why, when I joined Marie, Kat and the other sewing bloggers posse in Birmingham in November, I came home with four different lengths of silly prints. After buying polka dots and Russian dolls in the rag market, I had decided not to spend any more money. But then we hit Barry's, and Mellie pointed out this fabulous measuring tape fabric and my resolve crumbled. I didn't know what I wanted it for, but I knew I wanted it. So I bought 2 and a half metres, and then Marie crumbled and bought some as well.

I don't usually buy fabric without a clear idea of what I'm going to do with it, but I didn't have anything in mind for the fabric. I just knew I had to have it. I bought enough to make another full-skirted Cambie dress, thinking that the skirt gathers would really show off the stripes in the fabric. I still think that, actually. I washed it and put it away and then last Friday afternoon I was ironing one of my Vivien of Holloway halterneck circle dresses and it hit me that a circle skirt would be perfect for this stripy fabric. As soon as work was finished for the day, I pulled the fabric and my copy of Butterick B5748 to see if I could make it all fit. I had 2.5 metres of fabric, but it was only 45in wide. I remembered from making my One Good Turn dress that shortening the skirt considerably pre-cutting worked well, and the skirt pieces still had the fold lines from where I did that before. By cutting the skirt pieces on the cross-wise grain and shortening the skirt, I was able to comfortably get the dress out of 2.5 metres. Happy days!

As before, I adjusted the bodice slightly by decreasing the side seam allowances and increasing the seam allowance at the shoulder seams. I also put some of that billions of metres of cotton tape to good use by taping the neckline. Seriously, I think I'm going to do this with most dresses in future. It doesn't take long to do and it just gives the neckline that bit of stability, it's ace. As with the One Good Turn dress, I lined the bodice but not the skirt, and I put in a lapped zipper.

Bodice back- apologies for the slightly crappy photo, low light!

For funsies, I decided to play with the direction of the stripes on the bodice. They're running horizontally on the bodice front, but I decided to make them run vertically on the bodice back. No reason other than I thought it would look fun. Nic and I were watching Fringe on Sunday and I made the observation that the answer "oh, just for the craic" applies to almost any situation ("Walter, why did you design a scorpion boy?" "Oh you know, just for the craic") Well, I changed the directions of the stripes on the back of the bodice JUST FOR THE CRAIC. I'll stop taking about it now though because it's really not that big of a deal. But I like it, anyway.

I lined the bodice with some cream cotton and I enclosed the waist seam in bias binding, which I also used for the hem. As usual, I machine stitched it to the hem and then handstiched it. This took most of a lazy Sunday afternoon and made me happy. I really like hand sewing. And this dress makes me really happy - as with the changing direction of the Russian dolls on my One Good Turn dress, I love the way the stripes of the tape measures swirl around the skirt.

My turned and stitched seams and bias-bound hem

I love how meta it is to wear a dress with measurements printed on it, even if I wouldn't necessarily trust them. And I really adore the colours. This fabric came in lots of different colourways and they were all lovely, but this one looks like sweets.

The Meta Dress - worn here with Poetic Licence Backlash shoes, and accessorised with an umbrella because it was raining really heavily.

I tried to think of a good cutesy measurement name for this dress, but I hated them all. So it's the Meta dress! This is now the fourth dress I have made using B5748 and, despite having disparaged the instructions before (fair enough though, I'm still not putting in a zip by sewing something closed and then unpicking it) it's clear how much I like the pattern. It's very simple so it works well with 'conversation' prints, by giving them space to do the talking. I really like the fit of the bodice and, as I have said before, the low scooped back. Even if I never made another one of these dresses (although I will be) the bodice pattern will be really useful for dart placement. But I will be making this dress again - in fact I have two planned for the spring. One in a large print gingham, colour as yet undecided, but with a sweetheart neckline (although this red gingham frock from BooBooKitty Couture is making me lean towards red) and another using the Michael Miller Paris Ville fabric, to make my own spin on the Bernie Dexter Paris dress I have been drooling over for the past year. And in the nearer future I'd like to make a blue polka-dot one!

A delightful photo of my rather chubby looking back so you can see the stripes! 

The thing with this fabric is that, I know a lot of people would look at it and see it being used for a bag or accessories or even home decor, but NOT clothing. I can see why. I mean, there's definitely a fear that you'd end up looking like this:

If you do want to look like this, you can! 

Can we take a minute to salute the genius who decided to put a Tape Measure costume into production. And also all of the people who have bought and worn such a costume. It's just so... unusual. But there must be a demand for it, there must be enough people out there wanting to get dressed up as a tape measure to warrant this being produced! Anyway, I must admit that I do occasionally become slightly concerned that my love of novelty prints is close to tipping over into the costume end of things. It doesn't unduly worry me but I do already get people asking if I'm in fancy dress, or if they can borrow my clothes to wear to a fancy dress party! (the people asking to borrow my clothes for that purpose can shite off, to be honest) But at the same time, it's a way for me to express myself and have fun, so I don't think there's any reason for me to stop just yet!

Clearly, I'm not somebody who minds looking ridiculous. It makes me happy. So, onwards towards more frivolous sewing projects and novelty fabrics!

I do look like the Arrow shirt man, I did lace up my skates professionally, and I did do a fabulous job finishing my muffin.

Hello my loves! It's my last week of work of 2012 and I am feeling very happy about that indeed. I'm just crossing my fingers and praying to the God of Antlers and Hooves that it doesn't start to snow between now and my flight home.

I'll mostly be doing this for the next week 

Anyway, I am starting to feel very happy and festive indeed, and very excited about going back to Northern Ireland for Christmas. Last week my Dad rang me to say he was going to be coming over to Manchester for work, and he was planning to drive down and spend the weekend with us if we were free. Which we were, so he arrived with us on Friday night. This was very exciting because it's been ages since he's been able to visit, and also he's really good fun so I knew we'd have a lovely weekend. On Friday night we had dinner at home and went to bed early - he'd had a long day, and we needed to be up early on Saturday.

On Saturday, Nic was giving a talk along with his colleagues Michael and Paul, as part of the Warwick Words 'Tea Time Talks' lecture series. This was starting at four and in Warwick town, so we had the morning to ourselves before going over to Warwick to get set up. After breakfast we headed out into the sunshine to run a few errands in town and to give Daddy a bit of a tour of Leamington, which he loved. We had lunch in Stone Monkey and were joined by Paul and Michael for a coffee. I didn't get a chance to get an outfit shot, but I wore my Home Sewing is Easy dress with my Poetic Licence The Right Stripe shoes - I was very bright and colourful and so many people stopped me to talk to me about my shoes or my dress or both! This made my Dad very proud, which was so cute!

Me and Daddy in Stone Monkey

Daddy was able to drive us all over to Warwick which made life a lot easier for the boys, who had equipment to carry. Also, they were all really excited about travelling in the back of the van. Good thing really, because I was most definitely NOT doing that.

Men in Ven

After we left the boys to get set up, Daddy and I went for a wee wander round Warwick town centre and to have a look in the market and the shops. I didn't buy anything, but Daddy was fascinated by this giant toy soldier!

There's really no suitable caption for this photo 

We got to the venue in time for a cup of tea and a biscuit before the talk, and to get front-row seats. 

A Study in Sherlock 

Nic, Michael and Paul talked for around an hour and a half about the history of adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, with clips and photos and even a snippet from a Holmes radio play. The talk was sold out and the audience seemed to really enjoy the experience - although I think, from the sighs of relief when a clip of the Jeremy Brett Holmes was screened, they were baffled by some of the more eccentric adaptations. Still, I really enjoyed the clip of Victorian London being harrassed by a giant mechanical pterodactyl in Sherlock Hound. But maybe that's just me.

After the talk there was just time for us to have a congratulatory drink together in the Star and Garter and for Daddy to explain his theory of Underfloor Heating to Michael and Paul before we headed off to Kayal. Our lovely friend Greg had just passed his phd viva so had invited us all to join him for a celebratory meal. The food was wonderful as ever and I know Daddy really enjoyed meeting some of our friends (he said to HayleyJayney as we were leaving "It was lovely listening to you.")

Daddy had to leave pretty early on Sunday morning which left me and Nic with a day to ourselves. After waving him off at the end of the road, Nic and I ran a few errands in town and did a bit of Christmas shopping.  

Get Cutie Bluebird dress, polka dot tights from Untold at House of Fraser, Irregular Choice Mermaid shoes and vintage handbag (a gift from Louise)

This is the Get Cutie dress I bought a few weeks ago, on sale in 52 Greek Street. I have had my eye on a dress from this fabric for a while but have never been able to afford Get Cutie prices. And, to be honest, after my experience with a previous Get Cutie dress I'm just not prepared to pay full price for one. For similar money there are other companies hand-making their clothes in the UK where the garments are of a higher quality (Vivien of Holloway and Limb, to be specific) HOWEVER, this one was on sale for £35, so fair enough. Depending on the cut of a dress I'm usually anywhere between and 8 and a 12, but there was only a size 14 left in this style in the shop. Consequently this is a little loose, especially around the bust. But actually I quite like that - it's very comfortable and it means I have room for a slip or a camisole, which is essential given the cut of the bodice. I love the fabric and the cut, and even the little flounce on the bottom. I'm thinking about getting a cotton petticoat from House of Olivier to wear underneath this but wonder if that would be too frilly?

Anyway, after our chores were finished Nic and I put the Christmas lights on and settled in for an afternoon on the sofa, which was wonderful. The whole weekend was really special. It was an unexpected treat to have my Dad to visit and showing him round Leamington and introducing him to some of our friends really reminded me how lucky I am to live in such a lovely place, and to have such wonderful friends. And on that note, it's time for me to get down to the serious business of relaxing. I'll be back in the week though, to show you my latest sewing project!

A (sewing) Room of One's Own

I consider myself to be very lucky to live in Clackett Towers. You're probably all familiar by now with our famous front door from my many outfit shots there. I love the location and the view. I've always wanted to live somewhere with sash windows and I do, and my goodness but I'd be lost without my lovely large wardrobe! That being said, our wee flat is small and recently I have been daydreaming about moving to somewhere a bit bigger.

This is mainly so that I could have a dream Roisin-room, a sewing-cum-dressing room. I'm not interested just now in getting onto the property ladder but even moving to another rented property can prove to be expensive, and to cover the short-term financial hit of a deposit and fees, as well as the few bits of additional furniture I'd need to buy, I'd have to consider some sort of loan.

I'm not ready to move just yet, but I would have so much fun setting up my sewing room dressing room! I'd finally invest in a tailor's dummy named Miss Blossom, like this one:

Miss Blossom - a Lady Valet adjustable dressform

I'd have a sturdy table for my sewing machine and a table for cutting fabric as well, and I'd fill the room with gorgeous inspiration by hanging some prints from the V&A and framing some beautiful vintage sewing pattern envelopes. 

I'd hang my framed poster from The Golden Age of Couture exhibition 

This McCall's dress pattern from the 50s would provide lots of inspiration! 

I'd also display some of my favourite pieces of jewellery and my gorgeous Vivienne Westwood Melissa shoes.

Of course, this is all a little bit in the future. I would be too sad just now to leave our little flat behind, but of course it's wonderful to daydream about the future!

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post

Never go with a hippy to a second location.

Evening all! No OMGSNOW (tm Forever Amber) here so that's good. I like snow, on Christmas cards. As I'm counting down the days until I can go home for the holidays, snow is most unwelcome. I just don't think I can cope with the stress this year!

Well anyway, I hope you've all been having a good week. Work is busy as ever, although this week is a little less stressful than last week. Last week wiped me out - and Nic had a similarly busy week - so our plan for the weekend was to be as lazy and indulgent as possible. As the end of last week coincided with a much-anticipated (and much-needed) payday for both of us, this was particularly enjoyable. On Friday night, it was all about Deadwood, wine and nachos.

I had a hair appointment on Saturday morning and then we headed over to nearby Kenilworth to run some errands and buy fancy food in Waitrose. I decided to wear a lovely new (to me) dress that had arrived earlier in the week:

 
Gingham pencil dress from ASOS (via ebay) Irregular Choice Oz shoes and Ness handbag

Because I liked the polka dot wiggle dress so much, I thought I'd spring for this one when I saw it at a similar price. The seller only had it in a 12 and despite the 10 being a little roomy on me I thought "eh, fine" and bought it anyway. But what I hadn't taken into account was that a) this is not the same dress as the polka dot one and b) size 12 is smaller than size 10. Except, wait there b, a 12 is NOT smaller than a 10. But this one is! If I had bought the 10 it would have been too small. This is actually a good fit, it's fitted but there was still room for me to layer up with a slip underneath. Online shopping is a shit, sometimes. I'd have been so gutted if this hadn't fit. I do like the dress a LOT, though. It isn't as impressive as the polka dot one - there are no underarm gussets, for one thing, and the zip is really strange, it's a big white plastic zipper like you might see on jackets? But I'm being picky, maybe, because for the price I paid for it, it's adorable. I love the shade of blue in the gingham.

Basically the same photo, except I'm looking at the camera in this one!

I'm not sold on ASOS, though. I have ordered a dress from them directly and actually getting it delivered is a bit of a pain. Ebay 4 lyf. 

We had a successful trip to Kenilworth - Nic bought me some shoes (woo!) and we bought lots of sweeties and cheese and booze in Waitrose before heading back to Leamington to go to the pub, go home for dinner, and then go back to the pub. A pleasing Saturday!

Essential shopping

The evening pub trip was to say a fond farewell to our friend Wujung, who was leaving to go back to Korea. It was sad to say goodbye, and I'll really miss him, and it was a fitting way to send him on his travels. It was also a good chance to catch up with other friends...

with Denise

And on Sunday, this happened...

 

EXTERMINATE!

That's it from me for this evening. I have halloumi waiting to be eaten. Waitrose essential halloumi.

Shouldn't 'vaginatorium' be capitalised?

Hi all, and happy December! I've been having a crazy work week, I can't quite remember the last time I felt this relieved for it to be the weekend. So I hope you're having gorgeous weekends, whatever you're up to!

Since I last wrote, my little sister has been here to visit and we had a blast. I'll tell you about that in a minute, though. Earlier this week I got an email from the fabulous Roobeedoo, which made my day for lots of reasons. One of them was her suggestion that some photos from a previous post would work well as a gif. So, Roo, this is for you:

If you like it then you should have put a ring on it

Anyway, yes, last weekend! I was super excited about Colleen and Rich visiting, and they arrived on Friday evening so the best thing we could think of to do was to take them to Kayal for dinner. It was really busy in there so we had to wait quite a long time for our food, but when it did arrive it was absolutely delicious, so totally worth it.

Neither Colleen nor Rich had ever been to London before so that's how we decided to spend Saturday. We got up bright and early and caught the train down. Unfortunately the weather was absolutely stinking, so it wasn't the best day to be tourists in London. Still, we had a good time. We caught the tube to Green Park and walked down through Green Park to Buckingham Palace:

 

Polka dot pencil dress from ASOS, Jonathan Aston tights, red shoes from Topshop and Nica Cannes handbag

I bought this polka dot pencil dress on ebay, and they still have some of the variations of it on ASOS (like this one) I bought it sort of on spec because to be honest, I've been pretty unimpressed with the quality of ASOS own brand stuff I have bought previously. But I did like the look of this, and thought it was worth £12.99. But do you know, the quality is just lovely. The fabric is a really gorgeous cotton sateen with a slight stretch, it has pockets, is a proper midi length and the sewing nerd in me is super impressed with the fact that it has underarm gussets! So I did buy that floral one I linked to because I think for the money it's a lovely frock.

 

After looking at Buckingham Palace we walked through St James's Park to see the Pelicans - which were brilliant - and up through Westminster to Trafalgar Square. It's a shame it was so rainy, because we got some excellent sight-seeing in. By the time we got to Trafalgar Square we were wet and in need of somewhere to sit down and eat. Our pub choice wasn't serving food so we, rubes that we were, went into Garfunkel's. Folks, DO NOT EVER GO TO GARFUNKEL'S. What a pile of absolute shit. Seriously. After waiting for nearly an hour for our 'nacho sharing plate' THIS is what we got:

This picture should be subtitled "Disappointment" or "NINE FUCKING POUNDS"

Once we got up to Soho things improved slightly, though. It was still raining, but at least we were in Soho. Colleen and I both did some shopping in Zegerman and Lusky - she bought a top and I bought a Get Cutie dress on ridiculous sale. What makes it even better was that it was one I had been after for an age, in this print:

 

Apparently "bluebirds" but these seem like finches and tits to me 

I made the mistake of taking Colleen and Richard to Oxford Street. Ew. But, I think, overall they enjoyed their day. On Sunday we took them around Leamington to all the sights and to enjoy the Christmas markets, and curled up in the evening with dinner and Working Girl.  It was a really lovely visit, and it made me feel very excited about Christmas and going home and spending time with my family.

Anyway, now that it's December I can start to get legitimately excited about Christmas and going home for the holidays. It's also Dressember and while I'm not taking part this year (I found last year that, as far as the organiser was concerned, it didn't count if you weren't on Facebook), I do love seeing what other people wear. Gemma of Big Girls Browse is taking part this year and raising money for Parkinsons UK. She has fabulous clothes so make sure you check it out!

Well, that's your lot for this evening. I need to have dinner and go to the pub!