1 year closer to being a Lady of a certain age!!

So, people, today I turned 31.

There's nothing spectacular about 31.

 Its not like turning sweet 16, so full of innocence and hope for the future, and finding all sorts of ways to combine your name and that of your crush...In my case I was locked up in an all girls boarding school, so there was no boy to make doe eyes at....I did have a mega crush on my Head teacher's son, but as I recently found out, Mr.Dibs DOES read my blog, so I shall not give the juicy details of that crush here....ahem...I intend to stay married forever.

Its not like turning 20, when you consider 19 too young ( teenagers anyone?), and you feel ready to conquer the world with your dreams....at this point I was reading law at uni and skipping class all the time to go to pubs with my boyfriend......said boyfriend was my highschool crush from above paragraph, but I promised......shhh, Mr.Dibs might be reading this on his commute from work as soon as I post it.

Its not like being 25, too old to make the same mistakes from your younger years without thinking SERIOUSLY, this time, of the impending consequences. In my case I decided to quit my job as an Account Manager in a leading advertising agency to come to the UK to do my Masters so I can return and earn even more money. 6 years on, I'm still here. The consequences of that decision? A Masters degree in IT and Management, a job in Marketing, a husband ( poor soul) and seriously knocked up.

And its not like the big 30, which I turned last year, but was too sick with a cold to go into town and be a bad girl. Its just another year added , which takes you ever so closely to being a Lady of a Certain age.

Today, my 31st birthday, though relatively insignificant, was destined, by events beyond my control, to be the one I will most likely think of every time my birthday comes around. Today, my dear friend, whose baby shower I attended a couple of weeks ago, had a cute baby girl. I have not seen Miya yet, but I love her already. She is going to be a very special little lady in my heart and life because not only is her mother one of my closest friends, but Miya is also my birthday partner, and everytime I look at her, I will remember my 31st birthday. Yes, the insignificant 31st birthday has become the one which will be remembered, pour toujours!!

Baby news aside, what else made today special for me were the gifts i received. Oh the gifts. I'm still giddy with joy.

First up, Mr.Dibs got me these.....



A supa dupa fly manicure and pedicure set because.......




.......for the first time in my life I have nails......

When I was younger, I developed the bad habit of biting my fingernails. A habit I have tried to stop unsuccessfully, until now. This is due in part to my pregnancy hormones which have made my nails hard as nails, and increased its growth speed. I tried to bite them once, and almost lost my front teeth....so not cool..... So Monsieur Dibs got me this set to congratulate me, as well as to encourage me to keep beautiful nails.




Dremel Versatip, which will be useful for jewellery making as it is a butane gas.....




So many possibilities with this little monster......




Glue for.........




Dremel glue gun.....all to add to my already owned.......




Dremel engraver..........

Can you notice the dremel hobby obsession thing going on here? Now all that is missing for me is the hobby table.....Christmas stocking anyone?



Then money from his parents got me this



Xyron Design runner.....I am so looking forward to ribbon priniting....


These two are wending their way to me right now. Mr. Post man is being a naughty boy....



Xyron creative station





Xyron sticker maker



I got myself these just because......

Then I got surprised at work with this



A sewing box...yay!!




and some chocolate cake......yummy!!!



So a good day for me. I have not done any household chores today because its MY BIRTHDAY, and I can do what I want today. Birthdays are so cool right? imagine being treated this way everyday of the year....oh well maybe not....but we should have more days when everyone dots on you. One of my friends celebrates her birthday month....a whole month, can you imagine. I'm talking to you Vicks, I know you are reading this right now!!

And I leave you , with this song by Neil Hannon called "Lady of a Certain Age".

Blogger Meet-up and the day I grew up.....

Ok so I'm already old, and my wisdom teeth are threatening to fall off any time soon, but today , I realised I had become a grown up....fabric wise.

As I announced yesterday, I was on a very serious mission today. Meeting up with fellow sewing bloggers is always a big thing with me, as I get to meet other people who help me justify my fabric addiction. Afro wig in place, I met up with Stevie and the gang at the Goldhawk Road Station. "The Gang" included people I had met before like Santie and Claire , and people like Alana, Nikki and Steph who I was meeting for the first time, though it seemed like we'd known each other before, because we all felt really comfortable with each other ( at least I did).

L-R: Santie, Alana, Nikki, Steph, Stevie and Claire.

Goofing around with the Maxwell bump!!

 I was quite impressed when we entered the first shop and Santie whipped out her shopping list.

This is how to concentrate ladies!!

 We went through the shops on one side of the street, and decided to have some lunch because at this point, I was almost passing out from hunger. A big thank you to Claire, who had the foresight, as always, to sensibly come along with some emergency chocolate bars. I very much doubt I would have been able to last till Vesbar for lunch, had Claire not taken pity on me and offered me one bar of Wispa.

Hungry women pondering the menu

Cocktails galore!!!

After eating and catching up, we decided to hit the other side of Goldhawk Road. I must at this juncture point out the fact that many more purchases were made post lunch. I think those concerned will agree with me that those little cocktails did help to make their fingers more nimble, which led to notes being withdrawn from wallets without hesitation, and four digit codes being punched into payment devices with such agility and swiftness that even Usain Bolt would have struggled to keep up.

Since I am presently handicapped on the alcohol front, I was more careful. This, I can assure you, had nothing to do with the fact that its the end of the month and I am most spectacularly broke. I want to assume I have become so wise in my fabric buying ways that I can now resist the lure of cheap fabric. Did I mention I was broke?

So I got 2metres this purple viscose jersey to make my vogue dress.....

at a good price .......I paid £9 for two metres.

and 2metres of this glazed cotton fabric for £3.50/metre. This fabric was such a big hit, with the girls, and I think about 4 of us bought this. 

I also bought 2 bundles of 100g acrylic yarn (£2.50 each) to make two snoods. I just loved the colours.

After leaving the girls, I went to John Lewis at Oxford street to find some clear elastic to use on my Vogue dress. Unfortunately, having dragged my now very tired body to Oxford street, I discovered John Lewis did not have clear elastic. I now have no other option but to order it online...yikes. I really wanted to make the dress tomorrow but as it is, I will have to wait until the post man brings me some clear elastic.

Shoulders slumped, I made my way back home. Normally, when I get home and Mr.Dibs is already there, I like to ring the bell for him to open the door for me. I have my own set of keys, but why use them when its so much more satisfying knowing that he will stop whatever it was he was doing, to open the door for me? ( hihihihihihi). Today however, because I had some fabric to hide, I quietly opened the door, sneaked into our bedroom, and shoved my bags under the bed....fear not folks, he readeth not my blog.......then I went to the living room, making sure to limp my way to the couch as soon as I knew I was within eyesight of Mr. and junior Dibs, put my legs up, and wait for dinner. The power of the bump folks, the power of the bump.

Have a good night everyone....

Guess who's going fabric shopping tomorrow....

Yeah folks. Me!!

Stevie over at Beebee's Vintage Dress is coming into town tomorrow, and she's organising a fabric excursion to Goldhawk road. Goldhawk road is only 20minutes from my house so I shall be pushing the bump all the way there at 11am.  For anyone who has suddenly decided they want to make it, we are meeting outside Goldhawk Road station at 11am, and attacking the shops from 11:30am.

I seem to spend my time buying fabric these days, and not actually sewing anything. Hopefully that will soon change. It is becoming quite obvious that I need more clothes. I wore a rather sorry looking combination to work yesterday, and  that prompted the ever silent Mr.Dibs ( silent in all matters concerning dressing), to ask me what the frack I was wearing. Today I tried my best to wear something less frumpy, and got silence from Mr.Dibs. So he either did not notice what I was wearing, or it passed muster.

The dress I'm wearing is a size 10 dress, and there's a very good reason why I am standing sideways. It looked obvious from the front that the dress was made for a smaller person. So yes, I really do need to go fabric shopping tomorrow.

I cut my hair as well. I did that when I was going through the first 4 months of being sick, and looking after my  hair was the last thing on my mind. Now that its getting pretty cold here in London, I'm starting to regret that moment of madness. Tomorrow I intend to step out in a wig. Give the excursion some 70's vibe. Oh yes!

Enjoy your weekend folks!!

So whats growing within?

Yesterday Mr. Dibs and I went to the hospital for my anomaly scan. I was pretty scared and excited at the same time. Excited because I was going to find out the baby's gender, and scared because I knew the sonographer was going to be checking for all sorts of anomalies with the baby, and no prospective mother wants to know that the little munchkin inside of her is not developing properly. Oh no....., I have not been eating all that broccoli for the love of vegetable!!!

As you might know, I have been announcing to all who would listen to me that I am carrying a girl. Yes! mothers can tell you know. Mr.Dibs on the other hand, has been most certain its a boy, based on his very unscientific theory that mothers are always wrong.

Anyways, to cut to the matter at hand, while the sonographer was going through the necessary checks, I noticed two dark spots, and quickly asked, in a mega excited voice

" Are those the ovaries?"

to which the sonographer replied, after laughing for a good minute

"No. Those are not the ovaries."

3 minutes later, I noticed a stick like something protruding from between the newly identified legs. I closed my eyes, willing THAT THING away. Oh, I thought to myself, I hope THAT THING is not what I think it is.

THAT THING was not meant to stay a mystery for too long, as I heard the sonograher say with a chuckle

" You see that thing between, the baby's legs? That, is a penis. Its a boy"

I can still hear the sound of Mr.Dibs laughing at the shock on my face when I heard those words, and when I realised I had been wrong all along.  After the initial shock, I am now as excited as ever about our little Maxwell. I spent the whole evening looking for ideas on what to make for a baby boy, and I am so happy I found loads.

Here, dear friends, is our little Maxwell

Rubbing his eyes!!

Giving a thumps up!!

Conquering the snood.

I finally finished it!!

Nope, not a book, nor a maternity dress.....

THE SNOOD!

Karen's snood has inspired many a sewers to try their hand at knitting.....yours truly included. Earlier this year I tried my hand at knitting, failed miserably, and settled into crochet. My efforts there were more successful (only just), as I managed to make this and this.

So after seeing this lovely pink number from Pincushion Treats, I decided to go out and buy some yarn. Yarn in the bag, I still did not start knitting. It took seeing Jane's version to get me knitting the first 5 rows. Then I promptly cast it aside. The final kick came when i saw Marie's version. At this point I was salivating really badly at all the lovely snoods slowly creeping up around my fave blogs. So I decided enough was enough, and decided to go for it.

Ignore the fingernails please!!

I used turquoise Sirdar Big Softie, following Karen's lead, and boy do I love it. Following the pattern from the Guardian's website, I bought 200g and used size 12mm needles. I ended up using only 100g of the yarn, much to my annoyance. That soon turned into a positive thing though, because I decided to try my hand at knitting a hat as well. I used this free pattern from the Guardian.

I am really happy with the outcome of my knitting efforts. I now know how to do this (not very well yet mind you):

• Cast on
• Knit stitch
• Purl stitch
• Stocking stitich
• Ribbing
• Knit two together (K2tog)
• Purl two together (P2tog)
• Mattress Stitch
• Slip, slip, knit (Ssk)
• Cast off

Not bad aye?

Needless to say, I can't stop smiling.....

Can you notice my "Baby on Board badge?"

I wonder what I will knit next.

Mr.Dibs mentioned in passing he needed a new scarf. I just might go yarn shopping this week. Gosh!! This could get so addictive. Does anyone know of any nice yarn I could use to knit him a scarf. Left to my own devices, I'm positive he will be spotting a very angry yellow scarf all winter.

Enjoy your week everyone!!

Work in Progress......Simplicity 7558

Ok, so let it never be said I do not listen to advice!!!

During one of my pathetic moaning spells about the lack of nice maternity patterns,Debi,  Marie and Scruffy suggested I try out vintage patterns. Marie even did a search for me on Etsy for maternity dresses. Talk about dedication to vintage wear. I did find one pattern I liked.......Simplicity 7558

I searched the internet for any completed version to see what it would look like. I only saw one version of it, made by Julie of Julie's Blog. I fell in love COMPLETELY with her rendition of it, and would have gone for the same fabric choice as her, but I have already spent all of my meagre monthly fabric money, so that Houndstooth version will have to wait till November.


I have this thick knit fabric I am going to use. I don't know how it will come out, but the pattern did say you could also use bonded knits. I have no idea what that means, but I am going to experiment with this fabric. I got it cheap anyway, for £1/metre. I have 3 metres of it this, and if I mess up, I will go back to where I got it from. It is somewhere near Tottenham Hale tube station.Its the fabric outlet for a knit fabric manufacturer, and the most expensive fabric there is £2/metre.

This is their address.

Cannon Street Jersey Fabrics Ltd

Knitted Fabric Manufacturers, Finishers And Printers

ASHLEY WORKS, ASHLEY ROAD, TOTTENHAM HALE, LONDON N17 9LJ

TEL: 020 8885 9401   FAX: 020 8885 9410

There is A LOT to be bought there. Some of it is quite comical, but you will DEFINITELY find something you want, like good interlock knit for £1/metre. Word of warning though, they do not take cards, so go there with cash, and make sure you take a trolley with you. Trust me!!!. 

YOU WILL NEED IT!!!

Sewing for tiny people and the snood bug.

I am so happy!!. I finally made something after many months of inactivity. Granted its nothing fancy, but it was for a good cause, and it gave me a slow reintroduction to my machine.

Yesterday we made a surprise baby shower for one of my friends and I thought instead of buying a present, I should use the opportunity to make one. Giving her something made by me, which would be unique, and also helping me practice sewing for babies.  

So, I bought some plain white onesies from John Lewis and decided to appliqué them with some leftover fabric I had at home, and also made matching burb cloths and bibs. The pictures are not very good, I know, so do forgive the bad quality. I forgot to take pictures of them when I finished, so these are pics from the baby shower. I decided to include a washing line as part of the baby shower decorations, and the sets were a huge hit with the guests.

These are the first baby related things I have ever made, and sewing them was really easy. I am looking forward to making loads of appliquéd onesies for the wee one when she comes. I had never done an applique before, and I must say it can get quite addictive.

Another friend recently gave birth to a baby girl. Did anyone say more onesies? Oh well, I have to make sets for her little girl too, because she really loved the ones I made for the baby shower, and wants some. So, more sewing for tiny people.

I've also discovered the world of Fat Quarters!!. Why did no one ever tell me about them? When I was trying to decide what fabric to use for the babyshower project, I went online looking for ideas, and saw so many beautiful prints. In true Dibs style, I quickly ordered some fat quarters from Saints and Pinners. I am still to decide what to do with them, but its quite exciting knowing that you don't have to use alot of fabric to make cute little things for babies.

In other news, I'm currently knitting a snood. yes!! I said it!!. Karen's snood bug has caught me, and I am working on a turquoise snood. Now, I mentioned before that I find knitting hard, and crochet easier. I still do, but I am determined not to let the little matter of me not knowing how to knit prevent me from rocking a snood this winter. Especially as I am currently recovering from a nasty cold. I reckon if I had made this snood earlier, I would not have fallen victim to this cold. But  not to worry. Knit a snood, I shall. I have no clue when I will finish it, bit I know it will definitely be sometime before Christmas....no pressure here.

Have a lovely week everyone!!

So Ironic it hurts

A young woman, not really interested in fashion.
She falls pregnant, and watches her waistline go
and all of a sudden........she develops an interest in fashion and an addiction to style.com.
But there's scant fashionable stuff out there for the burgeoning belly.

Now isn't this ironic? Don't you think.