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– 37 – make do quilt challenge

Monica Dunkley

6 comments

March 9, 2017

The challenge was to make a quilt with what was at hand. No buying fabric was allowed… harsh, I know…

Luckily for me I’m a fabric hoarder so I had plenty to choose from. What did I use?

An old Toast top that had taken an accidental and sadly fatal trip into the washing machine.

A few of Mr M shirts

A piece of wool fabric bought at a charity shop, unused, but too small to make anything wearable with

A linen skirt and a linen dress that never fitted properly (think drunk Holly Hobbie after six months of living in the streets)

Cut it all up in neat(ish) isosceles triangles (my geometry game is strong) and voila’…

you have yourself a super cosy quilt.

I liked the simplicity of it and didn’t want the quilting stitches to interfere so I tied it with linen thread at the interceptions of every triangle. And then I also used facing rather than a border. Simple/minimal was the name of the game.

I kind of think it would nice hung on the wall too… Mr M has hidden the hammer from me… but I think there might be one in the shed…

– 36 – … thank me later…

Monica Dunkley

3 comments

March 8, 2017

So, let’s talk wrapping paper…

I like the stuff and I tend to have a few rolls stuffed in an Ikea metal bin in a corner of my studio. Paper for boys or for girls… fun paper or ‘serious’ paper… but rolls tend to last for too long… there’s too much paper in a roll, don’t you agree? It gets boring… (I’m a gemini… I get bored quickly) (Unless it’s Christmas paper and then I’m always running out.

In the past I’ve rebelled and bought a massive/huge/mahoosive roll of brown paper and colourful ribbons and tapes. I even potato printed it once. Madness.

Then I went through the coloured tissue phase and the newspaper sheets phase.

NOW I found something else. (Some of you will roll their eyes and think ‘sliced bread’… but it’s new to me!). In Hobbycraft. (£5.95, which I thought was reasonable for what it is)

What you see in the photo above is a book (about A3 size) which contains 12 different sheets of gorgeous wrapping paper folded in 4. Which is easy to tuck away in a drawer… unlike a roll. (and also it won’t be turned into a sword/bat/something to hit your brothers with once the paper has ran out… just saying).

I choose the 70s theme but there lots and lots of different ones

Look at that gorgeousness.

Seriously… how fab?

When you have a present to wrap… or a book… or a box… or fancy lining a drawer…

… you follow the instructions and voila’… the world is yours to wrap…

Good stuff.

– 35 – random

Monica Dunkley

5 comments

March 7, 2017

I have absolutely no idea what to have for breakfast. I’m hungry but nothing feels right.

Child No 1 is concussed. No it wasn’t me when I saw the state of his room… he had a particular nasty collision with another player last Wednesday which left him with headaches and slightly dodgy memories. It took me three days to take him to A&E… that makes me a bad mother. My guilt game is high right now. (They didn’t scan him but he’s banned from any sports for three weeks).

sigh

This morning’s drama was about the missing white shorts. No 3 swore they disappeared/he’d put them in the wash/I must have given them to his brothers… in the end they were found inside his tracksuit bottom. Inside. Apparently it wasn’t him that did it. Yes, because of course I always hide white shorts inside dark navy tracksuits before washing them because I love to make life difficult for myself… yup, call me the joker…

sigh

I received the most bizarre email yesterday from Clintons (a British greetings cards company) highlighting some of the occasions ‘worth’ (note the inverted commas) celebrating this month:

Adopt A Rescued Guinea Pig Month (no thanks)
Employee Spirit Month (I have no staff. I am ‘the staff’)
Expanding Girls’ Horizons in Science & Engineering Month (I have only boys… I can rest)
International Expect Success Month (I don’t even know what to say here)
International Ideas Month (how ‘do nothing’ month?)
International Listening Awareness Month (tell that to my children Mr Clintons!)
International Mirth Month (WHAT??)
Mad for Plaid Month (mother will be happy)
National Craft Month (I can live with this)
National Eye Donor Month (ahem…)
National Frozen Food Month (eat what’s in the freezer? stock the freezer?)
National Kidney Month (eat or donate?)
National Kite Month (never managed to fly a kite, ever)
National Umbrella Month (… as in try not to lose one?)
National Women’s History Month (mmh, ok, what do I do?)
Optimism Month (ha ha ha)
Play The Recorder Month (NO WAY, evil instrument, should have been banned by the Geneva Convention on human rights)
Quinoa Month (seriously?)
Sing With Your Child Month (they obviously have never heard my children sing)
Youth Art Month (that’s cute… I’ll tell no 2, and he’ll give me the ‘you’re so lame’ look)

And what about the celebration ‘days’…

Day of The Dude: 6
National Cereal Day: 7
National Proofreading Day: 8
International Bagpipe Day: 10
Land Line Telephone Day: 10 this is ridiculous
World Sleep Day: 10 yup, I like it
World Plumbing Day: 11
Fill Our Staplers Day: 13
International Ask A Question Day: 14
Pi Day: 14
Lips Appreciation Day: 16 who makes these things up!!
No Selfies Day: 16
International Sports Car Racing Day: 18
Worldwide Quilting Day: 18 YEAH!
Play The Recorder Day: 18 NO NO NONO
Alien Abduction Day: 20 (Started in 2008 at Toronto Alien Festival)
Bed-in For Peace Day: 20
International Day of Happiness: 20
World Storytelling Day: 20
Twitter Day: 21
World Water Day: 22
World Meteorological Day: 23
Red Nose Day: 24
Pencil Day: 30
International Hug A Mediaevalist Day: 31 scraping the barrel here…

AND don’t forget Mothering Sunday here in the UK on Sunday 26th . (Which I’ll be spending on a hockey pitch as usual…)

sigh

– 34 – poetry Monday

Monica Dunkley

1 comment

March 6, 2017

“Phenomenal Woman” (Maya Angelous)

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can’t see.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
‘Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

– 33 – a day out

Monica Dunkley

1 comment

March 2, 2017

Today I gave myself a day off from hockey matches and washing machines and trips to the supermarket…

My good friend Emma and I drove to Stratford-Upon-Avon – the birthplace of Shakespeare – and had a lovely day walking around the town remarkably empty of tourists.

I do love a good Tudor wall… all wonky with history…

Mr M and I lived in a Tudor cottage when we were first married. So cute. (And crooked. And creaky).

We treated ourselves to lunch in the theatre restaurant and it was delicious. I always feel very self conscious taking picture of food in front of me, but my fillet of sea bream with puy lentils, chestnut and celeriac pure’ (4 ingredients my children won’t touch with a barge pole) was as pretty as it was tasty.

We also may or may not had a cheeky creme brûlée… shhhhh.

And then we watched a play in the Swan theater.

I could lie to you and pretend that we’re very fond of 13th century chinese dramas… but that would be ridiculous… we wanted to go to a matinee at the RSC… and this caught our eyes. And we enjoyed it! It was a twisty yarn of love and lies, myth and superstition… but it kept us hooked till the very end.

I always find going to the theatre a huge re-charge for my brain. It’s so distant from my day to day that it feels like a boost everytime.

A change is as good as a rest and all that.

A good day.

A very good day.

… and people in Stratford loose gloves too. Reassuring.

– 32 – D is for Dunmore, Helen Dunmore

Monica Dunkley

no comments

March 1, 2017

Another kindle book because we were going skiing and didn’t want to take with me my vintage Penguins (don’t you love those old orange covers?) of Monica Dickens…

I had read ‘Zennor in Darkness’ a few years back and remember I had enjoyed her writing voice very much, so I was pretty sure I’d enjoy this one too. (Choosing a book by the author’s surname only can have its drawbacks… it’s a fairly stupid thing as well actually but… hey, who doesn’t like a gamble here and then?)

So anyway, this one was a very good choice. It’s a family story told from the point of view of Catherine… a story about siblings love, forbidden love, lost innocence… a family broken apart, the spectre of the first world war, changes in society… it’s a gothic novel too, mysterious, dark, intense…

The writing is keeps you hooked. You want to keep reading, slowly to take it all in, to let the atmosphere it creates wrap around you like a cocoon.

“You live in the past,’ Kate said. ‘You live in your grandfather’s time.’ But she was wrong. The past was not something we could live in, because it had nothing to do with life. It was something we lugged about, as heavy as a sack of rotting apples.”

A fabulous 10/10.

– 31 – poetry Monday

Monica Dunkley

1 comment

February 27, 2017

I always thought the best way to judge a man was the way he treats his children… it turns out that it’s only half of it… you should also judge a man from the way he treats his parents…

Alzheimer's  (Bob Hicock)

Chairs move by themselves, and books.
Grandchildren visit, stand
new and nameless, their faces' puzzles
missing pieces. She's like a fish

in deep ocean, its body made of light.
She floats through rooms, through
my eyes, an old woman bereft
of chronicle, the parable of her life.

And though she's almost a child
there's still blood between us:
I passed through her to arrive.
So I protect her from knives,

stairs, from the street that calls
as rivers do, a summons to walk away,
to follow. And dress her,
demonstrate how buttons work,

when she sometimes looks up
and says my name, the sound arriving
like the trill of a bird so rare
it's rumored no longer to exist.

– 30 – my studio, part 1

Monica Dunkley

3 comments

February 24, 2017

I was going to start by apologising for the number of photos I’m going to post… but I won’t… because in a week, when the place will once again look like a bomb site (post explosion) I can look back and reminisce … and remind myself of the way it can be.

With me?

So anyway, let me start by saying it’s a huge room (9m by 5), bigger than some of the whole flats I lived in when I was single. I know I’m lucky. Stupidly, pinch myself lucky.

On the wall there’s a mix of things made by me and by people whose work I really enjoy. (Mandy Pattullo, Cathy Cullis, and Wendy Crabb who used to blog under the name Green Girl Art but know I’ve lost her)

Yeah… this is AFTER the cull, after the streamline operation of the last two days. I just can’t do minimalism. It just isn’t me. Let’s accept it and move on.

Ah… my yarn cupboard. I love it. It was an old medicine cupboard in its youth, now it holds medicine of a different kind… yarn, fibres… good for you, right?

The two old bookcases next to it were salvaged when Mr M purchased its offices. Left behind and abandoned in favours of more modern and sleek office furniture. One man rubbish… blah blah blah…

On the opposite wall there’s a hanging wire (from IKEA, if you’re interested to know) with a constantly changing arrays of quilted things. And my bamboo quilt ladder. I love my bamboo quilt ladder. I love it so much that I bought another one which is our master bathroom with the master towels.

So there you have it. The other half is still waiting for shelves and a coffee table and a proper tidy up too. Keep watching. But don’t hold your breath… I might be a while.

– 29 – ladies who lunch

Monica Dunkley

2 comments

February 23, 2017

Yesterday I had the enviable chore to HAVING to pay a visit to Burford Garden Company (had to, it was an instruction from Mr M in order to find interesting plants for the new lounge shelves… pictures to come…). The place lies halfway between me and Ali… so meeting up for lunch was a no brainer.

Whilst waiting for her I had a good mooch around:

(hashtag crochetblanketgoal)

(I need more green in my life)

(really loving this huge lampshades/mudhuts…)

(I’m totally copying this)

(this is only part of the plant haul… I love white flowers…)

And then we had lunch, which I didn’t take a picture of because we were too busy catching up and putting the world to right. As you do.

Chicken with three salads. Very delicious. Green tea.

Ali that candle I bought? Smells divine… but tooooo relaxing…

– 28 – rearranging

Monica Dunkley

2 comments

February 22, 2017

… why oh why the week we come back from holiday and I have mountains of washing, and after a weekend on a full house (fab by the way), and hockey tournaments, and after school clubs pick ups, and new furniture deliveries….and when I’m still trying to catch up on Homeland series 6…. do I decide to move my studio around?

Bonkers.

So far so good though. I’m feeling good about the changes and about the de-cluttering I’m able to do. I’m trying to be ruthless and I’m even thinking of getting rid of my huge jar of buttons (remember when buttons were ‘the thang’?), and the box of ric rac (remember ricrac/rickrack ric rac? what can I do with it now? Do you want it? And why oh why do I have a bon maman jar full of drawing pin when I don’t have a drawing board?

Madness.

A new ‘vintage’ cabinet should hold all the miscellaneous fabric and shelves in the useless alcoves should hide all the ugly stuff … I hope… because I removed two cupboards which are now in the hall and will have to be transported into the garage by children and husband.

Better think of suitable culinary bribe.

Full reveal in due course.