Machine 0 vs. Moi 1 Friday 4 September 2009

I got another overlocker through Freecycle last night having decided to give it a try instead of continuing the hung for a lower looper for my other one. The kind donor did say it had been given to her but she’d never used it and it had been living in a cupboard for ages.

I got it home and discovered it was filthy! Also someone had ‘borrowed’ the plug. Luckily I had a plug spare so repaired that … spent 2-3 hours cleaning it in detail (cloths, QTips, paint brushes, cleaner, you name it). It was sparkling by the time I finished with it! Then I oiled it generously as the crank didn’t want to turn very well and gave it a new lightbulb.

The needle in it was broken so the next morning (today) I had to find some that fit (sadly my normal machine needles don’t). My first point of call was a friend (June) who has a sewing business (Recycle & Sew) as I thought she would either have some or would know where to get them. My internet searches revealed the machine is American (and ancient) so when I couldn’t get through to June, I began calling around local shops (I’m far too impatient to order online in these situations!) thinking I wouldn’t find them. But to my delight, in the end I did manage to find a place not far away (Eastleigh Sewing Centre – nice people – friendly & helpful).

So I get home with needles and did the struggle to get them into the machine properly – it’s very fiddly and you could do with having multiple, tiny hands for this! The success of fitting them was sadly short lived as the fun of threading it came – Ahhhhhh! There wasn’t an instruction manual but I found one online (Yea!) only it was a PDF of scanned manual and the images weren’t very clear (Boo!) so threading was partially done by guess work. Both of the loopers were tricky and in the end I took one off the machine to clean it to find the hole! So once threaded up, off I went to test it out knowing I’d need to tweak a few bits.

Several hours later … I had discovered it wasn’t picking up the left needle thread so I took that out of the equation … eventually discovered the needle was in wrong way round (the tops are round unlike my normal ones which are flat on the back side so the whole episode of fitting a needle was even more fiddly the second time around) … also found out that I hadn’t threaded the needle threads properly … at one point wanted to chuck the thing against a wall … another envisioned a huge bill to have it serviced … and yet another had me wondering how the nice, friendly lady could give such an instrument of torture to anyone … I even asked friends on Facebook to have the white jacket on stand-by!

But in the end I was victorious! I defeated the filthy little bugger and now it is submissively purring along beautifully Yeah ME! Okay it took me all day but I didn’t give up, I didn’t give in, I persevered and I kicked its overlocking ass! heehee

All that is left now is:

A. To think of a suitable name for this minx

and

B. To figure out what the heck I am going to do with it!!

Suggestions (as always) are welcomed! xo

Red Nose Day 2009! Friday 13 March 2009

Today, Friday 13th March, is Red Nose Day for Comic Relief! Always fun, always silly and always for good causes. This year’s theme is “Do Something Funny for Money” and has brought the usual paraphenalia in the form of badges, noses, cookbooks, etc. As always, Hoovy’s school got involved and for a minimum donation of £1, the kids and staff could “Dress Funny for Money”.

Cairistiona choose a fabulous ensemble! An outrageous red wig (the cost of which went to Comic Relief) coupled with red face paint, her pajamas and pink ugg boots. The following picture was taken this morning just before she left and I immediately set it as my desktop wallpaper because it is so cheerful!

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

RND 2009!

OMG it’s December! Wednesday 3 December 2008

Well here it is … December already & I haven’t posted anything in eons! As most of you know I began my second year at uni in October so that has sucked up any tiniest spare moment in my days. Although this was anticipated, I still had planned to post something each week. Ah …. good inentions and all that! I have one more essay to write and hand-in by the 11th and then can enjoy Friday the 12th as my last day until next year … Yippee! I am SO looking forward to the holiday break when I can (hopefully) re-energize since I feel very run down at the moment.

Anyways, once I get past the 12th I promise I will write a proper update on everything because there’s been alot going on since I last wrote! In the meantime … I have uploaded one of the essays I have already submitted if any of you are brave enough to read it! Culture, Communication & Cognition

My love to all

Text Only Friday 26 September 2008

Apologies in advance for this being a short blog with no pictures.

6th October. This is the first day of lectures for me this year. As I await the arrival of this momentous day (heehee), I am doing my best to deploy every tactic I can think of to distract my mind from the way I always feel at times like this. Waiting for something to start is not easy to someone who is naturally and relentlessly Impatient (and yes, that is Impatient with a Capital “I”, although there are times when one could and should capitalize the entire word where I am concerned!). I always feel that I am stuck in a state of limbo and this makes me very restless. Restlessness leads on to irritability and a distinct lack of concentration. But I am trying to avoid this whole horrible scenario this time!

“How?” you may ask. Well, to start, I have been cutting out patterns like mad for 2 days now. The thought process behind this is actually logical. In preparation for returning to studies, I want to clear the sewing clutter that has taken over every empty nook in the sitting room. All unneccessary fabric and clothing is to be stuffed up into the loft to await rescue next summer when I will have the time to play with my sewing machine again. But it seems too drastic to stuff it all up there and to be honest I am not 100% convinced that the ceiling wouldn’t collapse.

So I thought I would cut out lots of little projects (bags, etc.) to fill 1 medium sized wicker basket which I will keep out along with machine and the smaller basket that holds all my notions, cutters, etc. That way if I find anytime and am desperate to sew something it is all ready to go.

So at the moment the kitchen has been overtaken with scraps of fabrics, piles of stuff waiting to be cut, patterns, etc. And I still haven’t stuffed anything into that loft as yet! I did recently manage to finish a air of flannel pajama bottoms (the shirt is cut out and awaiting sewing) which I will post a picture of soon – I promise!