Never say never,

Until recently, I always said I would never wear skinny jeans again.  I remember them first time round, in the 80's, except then, (here in the UK), they were called  'drain pipes'!  Anyone else remember sitting in your Levi's in a bath full of water in the hope they would shrink and be tighter?!  Just before christmas, I went shopping with my mum and tried some on.  I liked them.  I bought a pair.  I bought a pair of Fly London Mols (in brown, they were in the sale as they are last years style).  I wore them with my skinny jeans and liked them even more.

Now let's move to after christmas, and like Florence, I am also a huge fan of brown cords.  I began on the train of thought that there might be a possibility to bring these two loves together, in the form of a pair of brown corduroy skinny jeans, ...could it be possible?

After a great deal of searching, I had found many things but alas no holy grail.  Skinny cords in the right colour, but not the right size (I have a bit of a Jennifer Lopez situation going on in the butt region), and cords in the right size, but not brown.  I need brown!  Cue, next stop, Ebay, and we're getting there.  A pair of Gap skinny cords, UK size 12 (that's an 8 I think in the USA), in camel.  That's almost brown, right?

And here they are...,

 

Now, although I do like the colour, I know in my heart I still want brown.  I would wear them more if they were brown.  So, after a quick exchange of emails with Florence to quiz her on the recent dyeing of corduroy trousers, a trip to the shops later, I am armed with a box of Dylon Machine Dye.

Florence used Dylon Wash & Dye in chocolate brown.  I went for the basic Machine Dye in dark brown as it was a slightly less red shade and a little bit darker.  The only difference between the two is the Machine Dye needs 500g of salt adding, the Wash & Dye doesn't.  My poor washing machine was going to be in for a bit of a battering, it takes one full cycle to do the dyeing, one full cycle to rinse, then a third full cycle to clean the empty machine, although I suspect I will be just doing darks for the next few washes until I"m certain all the dye has gone.

And here they are again...,

I have also taken them in slightly, again something I haven't done since the 80's, and shortened the length (which I always have to do with trousers anyway, being, well short myself!).  I think they've turned out pretty good, and cheap too.

Trousers : £2.50 ($4.03) + Dye : £4.49 ($7.23) = Total : £6.99 ($11.26)

Bargain! 

Favorites...,

You must know what I mean when I talk about favorites, it's that favorite piece of fabric languishing in your stash that you love so much, you almost don't want to use it.  I mean, what if you can't get anymore?  In this case, it's a button, my favorite button.  Let me describe it for you.  It's cream, slightly shiny, only about 1cm in size, scratched because it's old, came in a mixed bag from a charity shop and has tiny little flecks of grey in it.

As buttons go, it's pretty plain.  But I thought it was beautiful.

The dilemma is, shall I keep it, or shall I use it?

At the moment it's here, and I'd say I'm 50% happy about using it.  A little nervous that it's not safely tucked away in my button box.

There's still time to unpick!

How brave are you with that favorite item in your stash, are you a keeper or a user?

A cautionary tale,

...about backing up. How well backed up is all your computer work, digital photographs, ipod music downloads etc? Take a few moments and think about if your computer, ipod or iphone went kaput or was stolen, how much would you loose?

I thought we were pretty well covered at home, until this week, something important slipped through the net. We backed up onto an Apple Time Capsule, looks the business, large memory capacity etc, however the other day, just as I was dragging files from it to the new imac, the time capsule went blank. Our back up failed.  Turns out it is a common problem. Most files are salvageable in some way as there is another copy on CD, but sadly there are, amongst other things, photo's of the children gone and a word document I had spent most of this week working on, something big and important, something I thought I had a second copy of, but I'm embarrassed to admit, I didn't.

The bright side is I do have a new computer, and it is indeed a beauty!

So, while I rewrite what's been lost from memory as best I can, lets think about ways of backing up :: external hard drive (make sure it's a reliable one though!), burn to a disk, memory stick, email your files to everyone you know and ask them to keep a copy for you. If you can think of any more, let me know.


(me, playing around with photo booth)

ps, thank you for all the lovely comments about turning (whispers)..., 40!

I have been dragged,

...kicking and screaming into 2010. I didn't want this year to start. This is the year I turn,

(can I even type it?!)

40

There, I've done it. I know I'm in good company, there are some other crafty bloggers (who will remain linkless) also due to turn, well, you know what.

In the mean time, there is sewing happening, honest -

a bit of desk debris,

followed by a new (secret) softie,

christmas reading material (by the way, I love Meg's book),

my 15 minutes of fame!, front page of 'Stuffed', volume 3

and inside, on page 113, some softie shoes!

There, I'm off to sulk some more that it's 2010, and I can't stop time.