HEY NOW! How is everyone? I am...injured, actually. Nic and I were watching an episode of Made In Chelsea earlier and, when it finished, I danced out of the room to the theme tune and banged my foot against a box that was sitting in our hallway. I must have hit it awkwardly because the smallest toe on my left foot is purple and swollen. It might fall off! No, okay, it won't. It's just bruised but it is painful and also obviously I do feel a little stupid for getting an injury dancing to the Made In Chelsea theme tune. Hey, it is a good theme tune though.
Devastating foot injury aside, it's been a good couple of weeks. Work has been pretty good, which is nice, and I have been doing lots of fun things. Last week Nic and I went to see The Divine Comedy playing in Leamington:
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Devastating foot injury aside, it's been a good couple of weeks. Work has been pretty good, which is nice, and I have been doing lots of fun things. Last week Nic and I went to see The Divine Comedy playing in Leamington:
Long-time readers might know that The Divine Comedy are my favourite band - they have been since I was about 12 - so it's always such a great experience to see them live. The fact that they were playing in my hometown was even better and it was a really fantastic gig - if 13-year-old me had known that one day she'd get to see Neil Hannon performing The Frog Princess whilst dressed as Napoleon, she probably would have spontaneously combusted with happiness!
On Sunday, I was off to London. Anneke was in London with her boyfriend for a few days, so I was able to meet up with them both for a bit of pizza and pottering around Brick Lane. Then I headed off to Notting Hill to meet my friend Kate and her flatmate at the Portobello Star for drinks before going to this:
DEAN AND JERRY OH YEAH.
The last train up to the provinces leaves London pretty early on a Sunday night, so I had booked a hotel and taken Monday off work, which gave Nic and me a little holiday in the city. We were staying in a really nice hotel on the City Road so we spent Monday in that area - we had an indulgent mimosa breakfast, walked around St. Paul's Cathedral, visited the Tate Modern and had a late lunch in Dishoom. It was really lovely.
Being a tourist on Old Street
So that's the craic with me anyway. We have some fun stuff coming up too over the next couple of weeks as well, so when I'm able to wear my shoes again I'll be ready for more adventures.
I've been sewing away and recently I managed to get some photos of a dress that I made back in June - JUNE - to wear to my cousin Sean's wedding. I've worn it lots since then, so I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to get photos of it!
Lucy dress - Butterick B5748 in Liberty Carline tana lawn, worn with Swedish hasbeens
Suzanne sandals
ANOTHER B5478. Whatever. I bought this blue colourway of the beautiful Carline print from Shaukat over a year ago, and it took me ages to decide what to do with it. I bought it initially planning to make a shirt-dress from it, but the tana lawn has a much finer hand than the poplin that I have made my other shirt-dresses from, so I decided against it. Once we had our flights booked to get back to Northern Ireland for a wedding and I wanted to make an appropriate dress, this combination presented itself.
And here is me wearing the dress back in June, along with my sister Kelly and my brother Daniel. The wedding was lovely - Nic and I only went to the evening reception, and this dress was pretty perfect for dancing and having fun in. While I was ironing it, my mum asked to try it on and she liked it so much that she asked me to make one for her too - which I did, in a navy pin-dot fabric. I have some of the red colourway of the Carline lawn stashed away to make her another one for her Christmas present too.
There's not too much I can say about this pattern now - I love it, and I love wearing this dress - I've worn it such a lot since I made it. I wore it on a day out in Oxford a few months ago:
Being a tourist at the Radcliffe Camera. Just out of shot: Lewis and Hathaway chatting shit.
I hemmed the skirt with ivory bias binding, which I think works really well - the lawn is obviously really light and floaty and the bias binding gives it a bit of body without weighing it down. I don't have any photos of the back of the dress, but I used cotton tape on the scoop neckline to help keep it fitting closely and to prevent it from stretching out.
Although cotton lawn is such a summery fabric, I have been able to wear this dress in these early autumn months. On the day we got the main blog photos it was warm enough to go bare-legged and wear sandals, but as I had to go out in the evening I put on some blue tights and boots with this dress. It didn't look as good - but I have a bit of an attitude problem about tights - but it was still pretty cute. I think I might be able to wear this dress once or twice more before it gets really cold. Failing that though, it can be tucked away to await warm spring days again.
Although I did love wearing these sandals with the dress - they're what I wore for dancing in at Sean's wedding, too, and they're pretty much an exact colour match for the roses in the print:
So, that's the craic there. Now I am going to go and elevate my foot (MY FOOOOOOOOOT) and watch an episode of Law & Order: UK because Bradley Walsh. Laugh if you want. I love him.
#housewiveschoice