Home-fixed phone cover

When I got my smartphone a couple of years ago I didn't buy the very pricey leather case on offer in the shop I bought it in, instead choosing to go into a shop just down the road selling nothing but phone cases and getting one there. I paid 9.90, which I think was about the cheapest one there and, given that the one I had left behind in the other shop cost closer to 40, I was happy enough with it.

Look closely and you can see the indents where the diamante
used to be

Even if it was covered in little diamante yokes.

It didn't take me long to pry them all off. It has since seen a lot of wear and tear and at the networking events I attended at the start of July, I actually felt very self-conscious about leaving it on the desk in front of me. I had already been thinking I should look for a new cover and that made my mind up.



I'm not terribly concerned with image but I know many people are and since I'm now also running my own business and using networking events like that to try and make new contacts and maybe get some new customers, I do feel like I need to make at least a small effort.

For whatever reason, I kept putting off and forgetting to look for a new cover but next week I will be attending the summer school I have been organising in my new day job and, even though academia is turning out to be way more casual than my previous work life, I thought it was really time to finally get something.

And then it occurred to me that since I'm broke, maybe I could try and cobble together something at home first. If it didn't work out, I could just buy one anyway and if it did work out, I'd have saved a little bit. So I dragged some material out of my stash (a patchwork material that I bought as a remnant years and years ago) and found the craft glue that I bought to make a fancy album for my sister's wedding. She has just celebrated her 10th anniversary but thankfully the glue still works.


A little bit of cutting and glueing and I just about managed to get something that might not be very office-professional looking but at least is a bit less ragged and dirty looking.

I even managed to cut a hole for the camera and flash

And I remembered to do the magnetic clasp bit

I didn't spend a huge amount of time on it, as I had ironing to do. Finally managed to figure out how to put on the new cover I bought and badly needed to iron some clothes to bring to the summer school. So there is one tiny part wher I didn't quite manage to get the material quite right but for the most part, it's fine. Nor is it all finished and pretty looking from the inside. But again, it's fine.

So, it may not be the sleek leather most professionals might go for, but I think it's got a kind of cool, funky vibe that I'm not at all averse to. And maybe one day I'll use the rest of that material to finally make myself that skirt that I originally envisaged. This is enough for now. And now I'm all inspired to make another one or two covers - if I used some elastic I could perhaps make them similar to fitted bedsheets so I could swap them out depending on my mood.

Photos of repaired trousers

Frugal Paragon did a post a while back about fixing the worn inseam of a pair of jeans. Since I am also, to borrow her phrase, not a woman who is plagued with thigh-gap, I am all to familiar with this issue. A few years ago, I decided to try out one of the many tailors to be found all over in Germany.

I think it's just lining material used for the 'patch' - very soft

The problem wasn't just a worn seam, but that the material had actually worn right through. Since it's hard enough to get a pair of trousers to fit me and these were about the only nice, non-work, light trousers I had for the summer, it seemed worth the chance that a professional could do something. And I was amazed at just what is possible when you know what you're doing. Such a simple fix but I'm light years away from ever being able to do it myself. All he does is place a piece of material over the area that needs to be fixed and then sew lots and lots of lines to fix it in place.

You can see where the material is a bit balled but no holes!

And that's it. You can barely see it from the outside. Easy enough with black, I suppose but he really does match up the colours so well, too.

Since then I've had a couple of other pairs of trousers repaired in the same way and nowadays I try to be a bit more pro-active with the whole thing, paying more attention to my clothes in an attempt to get them fixed preemptively where possible. With that in mind, a few months ago I put a pair of black work trousers into a bag, meaning to take them to my lovely local tailor as the material had started to ball on the inside leg and I could see it was wearing though. True to my usual style I then left that bag sitting for a couple of months until my favourite trousers, combat-style very lightweight summer trousers that I bought in Australia when I was there developed a rip. I didn't think they were quite at that stage but they were nearly at the end of a second summer of heavy wearing so fair enough. I am thrilled that I got these trousers done actually, because starting to cycle a bit more means there's even more wear and tear on that part of the legs so having them already reinforced is great.

Here's the second pair - material is a different colour so easier to see but it was the same colour as the trousers on the reverse

And here's the outside - you can see the outline of the 'patch' more on this one, I think because of the lighter colour

I love being able to extend the life of my clothes like this - cheaper than buying new trousers (if I could even find nicely fitting ones) and less waste. It was only a few weeks ago but I'm ashamed to admit I've already forgotten how much I paid for this. It's in or around ten euro per pair of trousers, I think, possibly a bit less. I don't have a problem paying professionals to do a good job though and am very happy to support a family business like this one.

Christmas patchwork cushions

Since Sarah was asking what I planned for some of my material purchases I thought I'd hunt out the magazine with the pattern. Photos, again, aren't great but that's alright since I'm sure if they were good enough to make out the text properly I'd be in breach of copyright or something. The magazine was a special cushions supplement to Magic Patch, which has a copyright date of 2008 and that means I bought it even longer ago than I thought, way back when I had only just moved here and obviously still thought I would get sewing within a couple of months.

It's a French magazine and I visited my sister early in the December of 2008, just four months after moving here. My French isn't great and neither is my sewing so I reckoned I could kill two birds with one stone and improve both at the same time.

I did actually come back to this idea a couple of years ago and bought the beige material and a couple of different greens. With the new greens I have, I think I'll be able to make a good attempt.

Still not sure about the sequins though and might end up just using some gold ribbon instead. Or maybe, if my machine even still works, I'll figure out how to use one of the fancy functions and do some nice stitching with gold thread. But lets not get ahead of ourselves.

Spend, spend, spend

It doesn't take long to get rid of money at a market like the one I was at, that's for sure. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera so I have no pictures for you but Dortmund is a nice town with a lively centre and as well as the material market the normal weekly market was on, too. I didn't see much of that as it was all shutting down when I got back to it but it did seem to be more the retailer type of market than the local farmers' market type like the one near where I live. I did see a at least a few local places though so it's probably a mix, as most of them are.

One thing that definitely wasn't local was the flowers. As I was passing by one stall though one of the guys was throwing some out of the buckets into piles on the ground. I wandered a bit closer, as did a couple of other people and he told us to just help ourselves. They were the flowers that were already past their prime and definitely wouldn't be saleable anymore by Monday. Free flowers. That's my favourite price and probably about the only time I would actually take flowers that were grown in Africa (fair trade or not).

The orange ones are a bit best their best but there was only one that was beyond hope - and even if they only last for a day or two at least I'll have them for a day or two

As for the market, I enjoyed an hour roaming and looking although the first two rows I wandered up and down weren't really very inspiring. And even the so-called scraps were fairly expensive. Then I found one of the Dutch stalls, were there were dozens of bundles of 100% cotton, rolled up in half-metre pieces. One for 3.50 or 3 for 10 euro. Despite having decided that I was definitely going to walk all the way round before buying anything I was too tempted. The stall was absolutely thronged as well and I had to wait a while to get to the front to be able to rummage and it seemed like a waste to just leave what I saw there and try coming back later.

 So since I spied a nice green one right away and pretty soon had gotten my eye in and was having difficultly deciding, I just went for it. I was only going to get three and leave myself with half my money to spend elsewhere but I couldn't choose which one of four to leave behind and decided to just go ahead and get six altogether. Of course a few minutes later I spied the main stall run by the same people, which was all the same material at a price of just 6 euro per metre. Typical. Although I did hear him saying that half a metre was 3.50 so the lower price was only for purchases of at least one metre. I'm still happy with my three metres for 20 euro though.

The photos aren't the greatest but the middle one of these three is a gorgeous turquoise colour. I thought the purple one with the bunting was very cute, too. The one at the back is red with yellow polka dots.

I have a pattern for some christmas cushions that I have been meaning to try for at least two and I think three if not four years. Green material, for whatever reason, tends to be quite expensive so I was delighted to find a whole selection at this stall. One woman spied the middle one of this lot in my hand and sounded very irritated that I had found it and she hadn't but she wandered off down to where I had found it to look for more, leaving her daughter standing holding a large basket full. People are funny.


In total today I spent nearly 35 euro, 20 at the marekt and the rest of it broken down like this:
Reformhaus (independently-owned health food shop)
Cider vinegar 2.29 (for hair conditioning)

Tischdame (new small delicatessen nearby with a focus on sourcing from small, family producers)
Pecorino cheese (about 110g) 3.60

Charge for using the toilet in a department shop
70c

Kiosk at train station
Ham and cheese baguette thing and small bottle of water (so annoyed to have forgotten to bring water with me) 4.85

Aldi
1 litre organic milk 95c
2 tins kidney bean @ 39c each = 78c

And, confession time, I had a quick look last night and couldn't find the cotton I am sure I have to start knitting my sister some cloths for her birthday. Since it's next week and I wanted to use the time on the train today to start I also went into one of the bigger department shops here, Karstadt, and bought four balls of cotton, which cost 8 euro. I do like the colours though and at 2 euro per 50g they weren't too expensive either. And I'm halfway through the first of what I hope will be five cloths, which isn't a bad achievement either.

Not sure there's quite enough for more than one cloth from each ball so if I want to make five altogether the last one might end up being stripey!

Needle book and pin cushion

I signed up for another swap on down to earth, this time for a needle book and a pin cushion and got matched up wtih a lady in the USA. As I could see from her blog she is a very experienced seamtress so I've been glad there's so much time to complete this swap. We have until September and given that I'm in the middle of moving that's not a bad thing. On the plus side I found out today that my stuff will be in Germany tomorrow. And I won't be there for another week! It'll be kept by a German company and delivered then - I'm just hoping now that it'll be delivered fairly quickly and not just left sitting in a warehouse for weeks.

Anyway, I received my needle book and pin cushion from Cindi today and they are beautiful. Thank you so much again Cindi, in case you're reading. They even have my name embroidered on them! I did keep my camera out of the big shipment so I'll take photos as soon as I can and post them up. And as a bonus I also got an amazing bag which will be very useful for me as I learn to sew I think - I love to have things to organise everything into. Everything was so well finished that it certainly gives me a lot to aim for in terms of sewing efforts.

Although rather than starting a load of new projects I really need to finish my blanket project first - it's H.'s birthday next Monday so he's definitely not getting it for his birthday. Unfortunately the way my finishing dates have worked out mean that I won't be able to visit him for his birthday but that of course means that I have a bit of extra time to finish it. He's a chef so can't take time off to come and visit me during the season so it's likely I won't see him until September - I may be able to take a day off work then to head up to him for a long weekend. In the meantime I know we got a first edition stamp sent to work a year or so ago that nobody wanted and I put it to one side. So I'm going to send that to him in a card so that he has something on the day and to add to his stamp collection.

Down the country

Have had a lovely couple of days out of Dublin although it's just like me to choose to go west during some of the worst storms for years. At least I now know what it's like to have to drive through a flood so it was a learning experience which is always good. Isn't it?

Unfortunately the storms also meant that the internet access in the hotel I was in got knocked out so all of the catching up on blogs I intended to do didn't happen. I have been keeping up with the 3 little things although I need to do enough this evening to make up for the last few days. 5-a-day hasn't gone so well although I did bring a bag of apples away with me to make sure that I had at least some fruit.

I brought some knitting with me and got the hat for my brother done. I have loads of wool left and am planning on doing hats for my nieces and nephew in France for Christmas. I also brought my music and choir rehearsal tape and did loads of practice so am feeling much more confident for the concert on Sunday.

From a money point of view I didn't do too badly. I had the money for the hotel and feeding myself while I was away put aside and overtime money from last month to pay for my massage and facial. Which were lovely. I bought a small milk jug as my souvenir but I only have one small jug so it is something I will use. I also took the opportunity, since I was down that way to stop into Fabrics Direct in Rooskey. Lovely shop and now that I've seen it I think I'd be more inclined to order stuff online from them. Ann, the owner, took ages to talk to me when I explained that I was only starting out and I decided to get a pattern and bought the material to make it as well. She went through loads of stuff on the pattern giving me hints and tips so I feel much more confident that I'll be able to do it now. And on the way home I stopped at Liffey Valley, a big shopping centre not too far away, and bought a top for my work Christmas party this Friday (am wearing the same skirt I wore last year) and one new shirt for work which was on sale. That's it though, will be on strict budget for the rest of the month as I want to have some money to bring to the States with me. I asked my sister how much I should bring and she said about $400 would probably be enough. Her husband said I'd need $800. I was hoping to only need about $200! At least the exchange rate is good at the moment and after talking to her I think I've convinced her that I really don't want to spend the day in Disneyland or any of those kind of places (I hate rollercoasters and rides like that anyway) and just want to chill out and hang around doing more or less nothing. I'm going over to visit her more than to visit Florida really.

How quickly time flies

It doesn't seem like two weeks since the last time I wrote but so it is. It has been a funny couple of weeks though and I have to attribute my lack of writing to a mixture of "time flies when you're having fun" and the sheer difficulty of getting things down on paper when you're not feeling too positive. Strange that I feel that both of those things, which are so opposite, have been going on for the last while. But I'm trying to think of life in a positive way, even to the extent of sometimes just saying under my breath "stop being negative, we need positive energy, positive energy".

On the negative side I have been down and I'm having difficulty adjusting to living with my new housemate (seemed like it would be okay at first and then she decided to change a whole load of things in the kitchen, she doesn't like it to be cluttered and everything has to be put away - although I'm slowly moving some things back as it's just not practical to not have things to hand and I use the kitchen far more than her anyway) as well as having been extremely busy in work and with choir taking up a good bit of time.

On the other hand, I've been trying to stay positive and at least keep going with some of my simple living pursuits. It is great to be able to read other people's blogs even if I'm not posting myself as it sort of keeps me focused. And even though I was upset when my kitchen got "tidied up" I didn't follow my first inclination (which was to head straight out to the cinema and watch at least two films in a row) but did do a bit more work on clearing and cleaning my bedroom. It had gotten to a really bad state and because I always try to not leave stuff lying around downstairs I sometimes end up with a very messy bedroom. So this time I didn't cut my nose off to spite my face and made some progress on my bedroom. That's a couple of weeks ago and I finally have nearly finished it this weekend. I do have a stack of stuff which needs to be freecycled and a few bags of vacuum packed duvets and spare bedclothes which need to go into storage. I'm making use of my sister's storage facility but won't be able to get there till next Saturday again.

I also need to finish a big pile of filing but most of this is sorted and just needs to actually be put onto files. I have one sports bag which had all the last little bits and pieces shoved into it and I plan to take three things out of this every day and either find them a home or get rid of them altogether. I rearranged the furniture in my room a bit and have my armchair positioned better to catch light from the window and have moved a tall boy in front of the non-functioning-but-sometimes-windy fireplace which will cut down on the draught. I didn't notice it last year but the last few weeks have been extremely windy and the room has felt a bit cold sometimes. If this doesn't work I'll cover the fireplace with newspaper as well.

I feel like I'm starting to ramble again and find myself feeling bad for writing such long posts. In the end I have to remind myself that while I love that some other people read this blog it is first and foremost for me and so I can be as longwinded as I feel the need to be. :-)

I finished knitting the scarf for my brother and I also knit a hat for my sister last week. I have to sew it up (note to self to buy darning needle or similar) but am very impressed with myself. While clearing out my room I also dug out a small bag I had with some material remnants - I started buying a few bits of material a few years ago (the last time I decided I wanted to learn how to sew) and they have just been sitting there since. I realised when I opened it that I had the programme from the last time I tried to start making things and went to the Knitting and Stitching Show for inspiration. 1997. If you'd asked me I would have said it was three or four years ago. Not nine! How and ever, I've started now and think this time I will keep it up. I'm about to start on a hat for my brother next. He is thrilled with his scarf. I found a booklet in my 1997 programme with knitting basics in it and finally decided that I need to pay attention to tension. The ribbed scarf I made didn't look like the one they had on display in the shop although I still think it looks good. I think it was because my tension was way off - I always start knitting and check the tension after a few rows. It's usually way off but since I've only done simple things like scarves and they've looked fine, I haven't bothered trying to correct it. I now know about knitting a sample swatch so will try that for next time. As a general guide I'd say I'll usually end up knitting with needles about two sizes smaller than what's given.

Well, that's another long post and I still have much to say. Thanks to Becky I'm going to the craft fair in the RDS the weekend after next and I'm really looking forward to it. I won't have much money to buy things but am eager to go and have a look and maybe chat to some of the exhibitors about what they do. I've promised Becky that the money I've saved on the ticket I'll spend on their stall and am really looking forward to choosing something beautiful that I hadn't planned on. This weekend I'm heading away for a couple of days for my birthday - I'll stay with a friend on Saturday and then am having two nights in a hotel. I've had the money put aside for months and it has been hard to hang onto it - that's enough for the hotel and meals. I'm getting paid this week as well and as I'll be getting paid for a few hours overtime I did I'm going to use the extra money to treat myself to a massage and facial. And oh, one more thing to make my Monday good - I just got a phone call from a freecycler to say I'll be getting a radio alarm clock tomorrow. This is fantastic as I'd been thinking of getting one for a while but kept putting off as an unnecessary expense. However, on Saturday in my cleaning frenzy I knocked over my old alarm clock (which I've had for almost twenty years) and it finally broke to pieces so it's brilliant that I'll be getting a freecycled one to replace it. And I read this post from Stonehead which made my heart feel warm. Not your typical Monday morning so far!

Still busy

This week has just flown by and I am exhausted. I ended up going for a drink with some friends (who I hadn't seen since summer) after the performance on Wednesday and although it was just one drink we stayed till closing time and I didn't get home till midnight. I was still on a high after singing though and couldn't sleep. It was after half-one before I did I'd say and yesterday and today I have been shattered. Heading home from work now (my boss was out all day and let's just say I haven't exactly been productive despite my best intentions) and will probably be in bed before eight because I can barely keep my eyes open as it is. But want to wait till about then so there's a chance of me sleeping through the night.

I called to EcoLogic yesterday and picked up some meat from the farm who I normally buy from at Marlay Park Market on Saturdays [update: finally remembered it's called Terryglass Organics]. Bought enough for the rest of the month and it'll save me a trip there tomorrow. I'm going to head to Blackrock Market instead. I haven't been there for ages and want to visit This Is Knit (www.thisisknit.ie) who I saw at the Knitting and Stitching Show last week. I had a look at their website earlier and this really strikes me as the kind of place I'd like to give my custom to. Blackrock Market doesn't usually have any food stalls but it would be great if it did as I could do with buying some fruit. Otherwise I'm going to have a week or two of just eating what I already have on hand - I think I have more than enough for a decent variety and I have a good bit of tinned fruit as well if I don't see any at the market.

I'm going to try and start building up a stock of scrap bits of material to use for quilting the way I learned last week. I'd like to just lay into it and start making those little squares and then wait for a while to decide exactly what I want to make. This may not be the correct way to go about planning a quilting project but I know myself and if I don't just get stuck in and start doing it I'll never get back to it. There are a few steps involved. Cutting the circles and squares of material and batting is first up and even if I can start on this and build up a supply then it'll make it easier to just pick it up some evenings and just sew a little bit at a time. I definitely need to buy a decent scissors though and hope it won't prove too difficult. I'm left-handed and do have one left-handed scissors my uncle gave me about 20 years ago but it's not good enough for proper cutting of material really. Will have to check on prices and it may need to wait till I get paid at the end of the month. I'm not managing my money well this month at all and really only have enough left for basics for the rest of the month.

While at EcoLogic last night I aslo bought some lentils (something I have eaten and enoyed before but never cooked myself), some barley (want to cook the barely broth to bring you to health from Nigel Slaters cookbook) and some Irish-made organic pasta. Am very excited to have found this even though he only had the spaghetti and I don't really like stringy type pasta (due to being traumatised by my sister as a very young child who told me I was eating worms and the red sauce was their blood!). If I like the taste though I'll get him to get in other shapes as well. I was able to find out online that they do use local free-range eggs but am not sure if the organic flour they use is Irish. However I'm not sure there is any Irish organic flour around so this is probably the closest to fully Irish organic pasta I'm going to get. It's produced in Sligo by two Germans who moved there ten years ago or so and set up the Noodle House Pasta Company. I don't think I'll end up staying in Ireland but if I do I think I would move to the north west - it looks like there's a very healhty eco-conscious, organic community up around there.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Busy times

While nature is slowing down (and my nature really wants to as well!) life seems to be getting busier and busier. I sing with a couple of choirs and am on the committee of one. Between organising and rehearsing for an early December concert with that one and rehearsals for a concert this week with the other choir (a much larger, well-established choir - we're singing in the National Concert Hall and I'm still quite intimidated and nervous about that) as well as three performances of Messiah in December a lot more of my time is being taken up with choir related stuff than I thought would be the case.

Work has also been hectic the last few weeks with a possible big change in the works over the next few months.

To top it all off I got hit with another bad cold two weeks ago which I am still trying to get over. That's two colds in about five weeks. This happened to me last winter as well although didn't start as early. It's so frustrating that it's happening even though I've been making such a huge effort to eat properly and well. Still, only four weeks left and I will have a long weekend away and then a few weeks after that I'll be off to Florida for Christmas. I booked those flights in early summer before I started to seriously think about things like my ecological footprint. It's probably a good thing I'm so broke as I think airline travel is one of the things I'll always find most difficult to have given up. If I had the money I'd love to go and visit friends in Germany, France, Belgium etc. for the weekend - I've done it before and it can work out well. But it's definitely very wasteful to be flying somewhere just to spend a day and a half. At the moment I don't have money to be booking flights anywhere so it's not an issue I need to trouble myself with too much. It's probably one reason why I'll eventually move back to mainland Europe though.

My sister (who I'll be visiting in Florida) and her husband are both big into skydiving. I keep promising I'll do a jump (actually had wanted to do one for years before she did, just one more of those things I haven't gotten around to doing) but do want to lose some more weight first. I'm just about at the limit of what's allowed and would feel much safer knowing I'm not pushing the boundaries on that. But in a way I'm hesitant to do a jump as I don't want to end up loving it. It must surely be one of the worst hobbies from an ecological point of view.

One hobby I may take up is quilting. I was at the Knitting and Stitching Show in the RDS yesterday. Managed to resist buying stacks of wool just because it said "special offer" as the prices really weren't all that special. I did talk to the guy from the Wool Shop in Bray to find out exactly where it is and opening hours. And spoke to a couple of lovely ladies who run a website business and also have a stall at the market in Blackrock every weekend. It's handy to know there are a few more options for buying wool around. And on weekends too.

While I was there I signed up for the Japanese Folded Patchwork workshop. They said in the leaflet the workshops were for every level from complete beginner up. Well, I'd say I was the only beginner they had. The woman looked a bit dumbfounded when I asked her what she meant when she told us to sew with the material right side up. I don't think she was entirely prepared for a complete beginner. Although I was able to thread the needle all by myself. Finishing the project, which involved quilting a four inch square, took me the full hour and I didn't get to do the last bit of decorative stitching and beading but I ended up with something that's almost a perfect square (I thought it was a perfect square but when I took it out last night to look at it again realised it's a bit pointy in one corner). Am feeling very pleased with myself. It's not perfect by any means but I think it's pretty damn good for a first effort. Must borrow a digital camera from someone and post a picture here. I think this is something that I will be able to do although I can see it being a very slow process. I do like the idea of creating something over a long period of time though and have thoughts of having an entire double bed size throw by...well...maybe by my birthday in 2008.