Hat's Progress

Can't believe that there are only a few weeks left until final deadlines and the end of another college year. My hat design is coming along nicely.....or at least I think it is. 

Brim edged with millinery wire.

This is my hat brim all stitched and edged with wire, it just needs the bias binding put around the edge and the centre hat piece attached and its finished......fingers crossed it all goes to plan. :P

There is still a little engineer in here.

I know its pretty geeky but I was given this the other day by Shula, my brothers girlfriend, who is also a civil engineer. Its for sticking on your hand hat so folks know who to call if you get hurt on site........ok ok am a geek. I don't care. TTFN

What's in a name!

Back in 2010 I was made redundant from my Civil Engineering job. Although leaving the MC crew behind was upsetting, this gave me the opportunity to re-evaluate my career and decided that although my time with Millards had been good, Civil Engineering wasn't really what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

Millards boys and girls - a fab wee family

Along with the "joyful" task of job hunting and signing on I started looking into starting my own sewing business. While collating information to create a business plan one of the requirements was to give a business name. I started with the obvious "AJ's sewing business" but it didn't feel like a company name that would elude to anything more than someone who makes and alters clothes.

It was around this time that I was making cloaks for my auntie who was renewing her wedding vows with a hand fasting ceremony. I was asked to take part in the ceremony as well by giving a reading for the element of water. I started making a dress for myself as well but couldn't decide what colour of ribbon to use as a belt for the dress. And this is how it started......

Red was definitely the way forward, so Turquoise and Red it was. And I loved it so much I have tattooed myself with my colours. 

 So watch this space and follow where Turquoise and Red goes, I hope to be around for a while. TTFN

Fabrics

Took a trip to Edinburgh to get some fabric for my projects. Gold organza, black & white cotton organdy and grey satin backed crepe (or crepe backed satin depending on how you look at it) for graded unit. Cotton for fine art project and wedding for millinery.

Also went to a salvage yard and got some old linen hand towels which still had the laundry tags on them.

Got my Christmas present from my brother and his girlfriend from Texas......wonder what i can do with these. TTFN

Feeling a little Texan!

 

The Easter holiday's are upon us and I am more excited that I usually am about the holidays because my brother and his girlfriend will be with us all the way from Texas. (Minus a little girl called Emmy though so not totally happy with them :P )

My brother has lived in Dallas for over 3 years now and I went to visit him there in 2010. Had a great time and if it hadn't been for the heat and the crazy drivers I may have considered moving there. (I'd been made redundant so there was no job to keep me in Scotland.)

This will be Kristens's first visit to Scotland so to make here feel a little at home I thought I would share with you some facts about Texas so you can wow her with your knowledge if you meet her. :)

These facts did make us giggle quite a bit. I was going to do a comparison for Scotland and Texas but we don't have a country ship, country flying mammal or country fish. But here goes

 

	Texas	Scotland
Capital City:	Austin	Edinburgh
Statehood:	December 29, 1845 (28th)	843 AD
Population:	20,044,141	5,295,000
Nickname:	Lone Star State	Caledonia, Alba, The Greatest Country on Earth
Motto:	Friendship	Nemo me impune lacessit (No one provokes me with impunity)
Origin of State Name:	Based on a word used by Caddo Indians meaning "friends"	from the "Scoti" or "Scotti" a Gaelic speaking people who had come from Ireland around 500AD
Counties:	254	33
Largest Cities:	Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, El Paso, Austin	Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow
Border States:	Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma	England
Land Area:	262,015 sq. mi.; 2nd largest	78,789 sq km
Highest Point:	Guadalupe Peak, 8,749 ft	Ben Nevis (1,343 m)
Lowest Point:	Gulf of Mexico, sea level	Loch Morar, Scotland 987 ft (300 m) below sea level
State Bird:	Mockingbird	Golden Eagle
State Flower:	Bluebonnet (lupinus)	Thistle
State Tree:	Pecan (carya illinoensis)	Pine
State Song:	Texas, Our Texas	Flower of Scotland
State Web Site:	www.state.tx.us	www.scotland.org
State Mammal:	Texas Longhorn	Unicorn
Longest State River:	Rio Grande (1270 miles)	Tay 193 kilometres (120 miles )

I did have to come up with some of them myself so they might not totally accurate :) TTFN