injury time & Pinterest the saviour

At first, the thought of taking a week off to let my muscles heal after this epic fail was totally OK with me... "sweet, a whole week to just sit about and make a few sparkly things, and no need to even get out of my pyjamas. Lov-er-ly!" ...I naively thought.

It's been 13 days since I hurt my back in that fall, and I'm getting thoroughly frustrated at not being able to do all the things I want/need to do. I'm lucky that I work for myself, and have been able to do some of the things I have needed to do while curled up warm and snuggly in bed. Post Office runs have been done by the ever patient chap of the house, so I've just had to concentrate my efforts on getting orders out on time and 'resting'.

It is, however, increasingly hard to know what I can do to keep occupied while 'resting'. I'm not very good at doing nothing, even when I know it's what my body needs. My brain is too busy planning and designing and thinking and worrying to just sit about doing nothing in its vain attempt at rest.

So, I've read a few books and I have the entire new version of the WFTDA rules to learn, and that's keeping me busy-ish, but reading rulebooks is not the most exciting of things, so when I've not been reading I have been spending an unhealthy amount of time on Pinterest.

Oh Pinterest! If you were a person, you would be one of my all time favourites!

The only downside with playing on you, you wicked little website, are the dozens of projects I feel I now MUST try, none of which seem to be very likely to be accomplished in this state.

Let's take a peek at some of the things I am determined to try when I'm back on my feet and able to move around:

sew some pants // scoff some earl grey cupcakes // Jambalaya boxes!

decorate my lampshades // make some dinosaur snowglobes // sew myself a tail

make my studio sparkle like crazy // do some Valentine's RAOKs

That should be more than enough of an excuse for my body to stop being broken already!

wilting over quilting

We're having some unusually warm weather here in London at the moment, so the subject of this post seems a little inappropriate for the time of year... Having said that, as I've been ill for the last I-don't-know-how-long, I have been snuggling under my most favourite quilt ever - affectionately known in the family as the 'ill quilt', it is the quilt in which one wraps oneself when one is ill. My mum made it when I was little, and I remember sitting on the bed with her while she sewed the hundreds of hexagons that went to form it.

I've never made a quilt myself, and I would really rather like to have a handmade Vixie quilt which I can wrap my babies in, when I eventually have them. I've got a few years yet, but it may well take that long to complete it!

To encourage myself into designing my perfect quilt, I've been pinning like crazy...

baby quilt via Jane Sorenson // quilt via Teighla Thaharn // quilt via Liliana Tello

quilt via Michelle Johnston // quilt via Jessica C // quilt via Nanette Scofield

quilt via Elise Menz // quilt via Wendy Bryett // round quilt via Lolo M

quilt via Mindy Groom // quilt via Dana // quilt via Sandi Lewis

Have you ever made a quilt?

Any tips?

gallery wall lovin'

I read an awful lot of blogs about interiors and interior design. Whether they be sensible blogs showing tutorials and practical information or purely for aesthetic pleasure, I am pretty much addicted to them.

What do I do when I'm feeling a bit down?

You'll find me on Pinterest.

Checking out interiors.

For realz.

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And my favourite trend at the moment is the gallery wall. Oh man, I love them, and I desperately want one. I have masses of artworks, some purchased myself and many that were gifts from my art school buddies. It would be great to be able to display them properly, rather than just propped up against shelves like they have been for years.

Now that I have a nice long wall in my new house it should be possible. It's not a very high wall, and I'm a little concerned that filling the space with frames might make it seem much smaller or make the ceiling seem much lower, but I guess the only way to know for sure is to try it out... and now I know what I'll be doing over the half term holidays next week, woo!

How do you feel about this trend? Do you have a gallery wall of your own?

all fingers and thumbs

Ever since I was a wee littlun I have bitten my nails. I know it's gross and I know it's an awful habit, and yes, I should have grown out of it by now, but there's just something so comforting about having a little nibble every now and then.

Pinterest, with it's delicious array of candy-coloured pictures, has made me think about things a little differently - perhaps it is time to be a grown up and stop this silly habit... that way I can have pretty nails like theeeeese:

all seen on pinterest

There is, of course, a dark side to these little pretties... if you go too far you could end up like this:

all seen here

...though I have to admit the unicorn nails are pretty awesome! I can guarantee if I had unicorns on my nails I couldn't possibly bring myself to bite them!

Do any of you bite your nails? How do you feel about nail art?

very pinteresting

I think I may well be the last person in the world to discover Pinterest! Why had no one told me about this before? It's incredible!

Here's the description on the website:

"Think of Pinterest as a virtual pinboard — a place where you can create collections of things you love and "follow" collections created by people with great taste.

Our mission is to make Pinterest the best place for you to share your taste with the world."

So instead of keeping scrappy cut-out pictures of pretty things you have spied or filling up your documents folder with images that you can't remember where from, you can "pin" them to a board and share them with the rest of the pinners! I only have a couple of boards up at the moment - "pretty things" and "treats" but you can have as many boards as you need.

You should sign up (you have to request an invite, which should come through in a couple of weeks) - it's super awesome and pretty and crazily addictive!

I've only been on it a week or so, so I don't have a lot on there yet, but I'm sure it won't take long to fill 'em boards up!

Do any of you already use Pinterest?