As we speed through another year among torrential rains and unearthly heat, I’ve been fairly proactive in all my hobbies (apart for writing as usual…).

House Makeover

My house has now lovely laminate floors courtesy of daddy, so it’s time to give a makeover to all the other rooms, starting from my office/craft room/woman cave.

I got over the all grey aesthetic, thankfully, so my new oak floors open up a myriad of colour possibilities, which translates in overthinking and infinite changes of mind. But also to purple walls.

I’m not gonna write a full post under the makeover category because it’s been just plain painting, but I would note down a few things:

• Paining dark matte colors on previously glossy wall is hard.
• A bigger roll is easier and more effective.
• Three coats are better than two but…

But I didn’t want to see purple anymore. The result is less than perfect, and a third coat would make it neater, but I run out of paint and I’m mostly in the dark in that room, and once the furniture and decoration are back in most of the walls will be covered, so I decided it was good enough to move on.

I moved some stuff around, and there’s more space, even to fit a dressmaking form to level up my sewing.

Shop

It’s now a total of four sales!

I was scrolling Facebook, and I suddenly saw a post in one of the cross stitch groups I have and saw a picture of a stitched pattern that looked like mine…

It was actually from one of my patterns!

It was very satisfying seeing my creation in the wild, and I was so happy that actually someone took the time to stitch it.

Since it is suddenly Halloween, my brain just came up with a tons of new ideas, and I’ll be spending this Sunday to sketch some new designs, and hopefully, get some new patterns in the shop just in time.

I’m a very slow stitcher, so it takes me a while to test it. But I’m slowly expanding the inventory, and this blog has now a new section: Freebies!

Check it out if you want to see a little preview of my patterns, and get a discount code to buy the full version.

Drawing

As I’ve “reviewing my life choices” (read regretting the ones I took since I was 5), I’ve been also trying to catch up on all the drawing practice I haven’t done since puberty hit me.

And for the first time ever I’m taking formal drawing classes; initially, it was to meet the requirements to apply to art school, but now I’ve kept going to the second level, as by the last session, the improvement was pretty obvious.

Being based on a classical approach to copy from masters, most of all it’s been teaching me to sit still and treat drawing as a marathon and not a sprint.

Sewing

A few completed pieces in this category, all tops from George and Ginger, which I find very easy and quick to sew. And they match my style.

My plan was to sew one of their rompers for a festival I was meant to go this summer, but as usual endless planning often doesn’t translate to action, but I had 4 nice tops ready. Then again, I never made it to the festival (no fault of my own), but I got to wear a couple of my creations during the bank holiday weekend.

Next in the pipeline is curtains for the office (done) and the bathroom (coming next), and a swimming suit for my November seaside holiday. This time I won’t let it at the last minute, I bought one of the courses with pattern from Tilly and I plan to do it properly.