U-handblog

Which words do you use most on your blog?

Interesting question to ask isn't it (especially if you're supposed to be getting on with some real work)?

(Click on image to enlarge). So this is U-Handblog laid out in a wordy image (called a Wordle).  The larger the words the more often I use them.  Yep, all pretty self explanatory I think. I wonder if any of you lovely readers saw this image elsewhere you would think "Hmm I bet that's Lisa's Wordle; she's forever using the word 'folks''.  I quite like the way that the words 'Clasp' & 'Booty' appear together - Heh!  :)

I found out about Wordles on Kyoko's blog.  Try it; it's quite revealing and sooo easy to do. You can also waste extra time by changing the font, colours, and layout.

!!Hang on, I've just had a nice idea!!  If you get a moment make up your own Wordle and share it us by commenting on this post.  That way we can all have a look at each other's Wordles. 

NB: you can't save your Wordle image to your computer.  You will have to take a screen shot of it and save it that way (a screen shot is like taking a photograph of what is on your screen).

Taking Screenshots on Macs: Command-Shift-4, then select an area: Take a screenshot of an area and save it as a file on the desktop. (from mac rumours).

Taking Screenshots on PC: Instructions here.

If you haven't already, today is the last chance to enter the Big ol' bag making booty draw.  I'll announce the winner in my next post.  Good luck!

Notes on Chinese Food Culture & Scenes from a Chinese Family Dinner

Ahh! it was great staying with my folks for a few days.  It's so restorative to touch base with your family, play at being the kid again, and eat wonderful food and laugh loudly with your mouth open.  Both my parents are wonderful cooks, but my mum takes it to another level; she cooks and bakes for fun, for her church, and for her friends neighbours and family.  She also teaches Chinese cooking (so I guess that's where my love of teaching comes from).

Fresh out of the oven coconut, sesame, and peanut buns and Wendy waiting patiently for them to cool down.

Food is so integral in Chinese culture.  Different ingredients, cooking methods, and dishes have: symbolic meanings, can bring good luck, fertility, and even symbolize wealth.   Many foods are medicinal, both preventative and curative (some of those medicinal brews are pretty whiffy!)  What I find interesting is that Chinese people regularly eat and drink a lot of preventative medicinal food   throughout a given week.  For instance they'll make soups which are good for refreshing and cleaning out your system, or good for cleaning out your lungs, or your liver and so on. Some of these soups taste pretty good! 

Chinese family meals are always eaten together at the table.   As you probably already know there will be a whole bunch of dishes set in the middle which usually consist of a meat dish, a fish dish, some veggies and maybe some tofu as well, and a soup which is enjoyed at the end of a meal. Each diner will have their own bowl of rice and they will select the morsels of food that they wish to eat from the dishes in the middle. 

The sharing of food in Chinese culture is a very important way to show your love and respect for someone. This gives the activity of eating a ceremony all of it's own.  For instance before I would start helping myself to food I would select a nice cut of meat or fish (or whatever) and place it into my Grannie's rice bowl for her to eat, then I would do the same for someone younger than me (say a cousin, or sister), and then I would do the same again for my Mum and my Dad.  The etiquette is you serve oldest generation first, then the youngest, and then the generation above you before finally serving yourself.  In this way you are showing that you care for others by wanting them to eat well - before you do.  This way of eating sounds time consuming (which it is because meals can take hours) and chaotic, but it actually works brilliantly because everyone else is serving each other in this way and throughout a meal and throughout the years everyone gets a turn at the nicest cuts of food.

Here are some pics from a Lam family bun fight;

My parents live close to a large fish merchants (where posh restaurants in London; such as Le Caprice, The Ivy, The Oxo, source their fish from).   The fish is always fab quality and because my Mum regularly brings around her tasty food for the fishermen she gets really fab deals on the fish (and lobster) as well.

Dad always does a wonderful job of cooking the lobster...

This may look like a scene from one of the Alien movies, but I can assure you this dish was deeee-lectable.  The sauce was flavoured with a little chilli, spring onion, and ginger...mmm!

Peking roast duck is absolute pain in the...to make from scratch (I've done it once and I vowed never again).   So it's really handy that Mum knows how to make a perfect job of it.

Groovy apron eh?  Chinese clothing manufacturers love to print random English sentences on their clothing.  It doesn't seem to matter whether it makes any sense or not, but over the years the grammar has improved somewhat  :)

Am drooling on keyboard...

Homemade Tofu with a minced pork & prawn topping (the same stuff as the filling for wontons).

Here's the food...

...and here's some of the family.  May I introduce (anti clockwise from bottom right): Dad; Sister; Mum; Greedy guts; Grannie; Friend, Aunty, and Aunty.  Chinese home meals are typically messy affairs and they take a long time to eat, but that's OK - everyone looks happy!

Thanks Mum and Dad; Beanie and I had a lovely time! XX

Sunday Bag Eye Candy

Some of your gorgeous baggy goodness to sneak a peak at whilst loafing about at home on a Bank Holiday (in the UK).  It sure beats traipsing around retail parks (IKEA, B&Q,or Homebase...shudder!) out in the chilly (August?) wind...

As for me I am staying with my folks all weekend in Poole in Dorset, and I have been slaving away over pretty much nothing except reading (The Shipping News), some really fun cookery mum and daughter sessions (of which I'll post about later), and eating lots of suuuuuublime home cooked Chinese food.  After staying with my folks I am so going to have to do mega over-time at the Gym when I get back to London (I always do!)  I hope you are all having a nice relaxing weekend too.

From the U-Handbag All Bags Pool...

1. Gayles crazy dots bag, 2. Kokeshi Dolls and Spots Project Pouch, 3. Yvonne Glasses Case, 4. lily beth, 5. IMG_1538, 6. Birds bees flowers in trees 1, 7. butterfly bow bag, 8. Blue Diamond Sweater Back Pack , 9. Fairytale in the Supermarket Bag-8-20

I'll include your pics from the U-Handbag Tutorials pool next week (not quite enough entries to make a mosaic this week).

I know it's not a bag, but I still wanted to show you this anyway.  I got distracted by this sweet hand knit baby cardigan which has a choo choo train running all around the top yoke, and I love those blue buttons.  How dinky is this?  I want one!

Thank you for putting your lovely bags into the pools everyone.  You bag ladies are very very talented!   I've gone back to doing Bag Eye Candy weekly so please keep your baggy pics coming.  Ta!

10 Crafty Questions with Megan Reardon of the fab blog; Not Martha

Oh my!  I am really loving the links that you've been adding to the Bag Making Booty draw.  It's such a diverse,  interesting, and not forgetting - groovy bunch of links.  I was going to watch a movie last night and instead (thanks to you good folks) I ended up mooching on the internet for most of the night.

Here's somewhere else to visit; I have just posted an interview with the lovely Megan Reardon of the fab blog; Not Martha.  I have asked Megan 5 questions and her readers made up another 5 questions to ask.  To read the interview pop over to my other blog. 

 

I am Not Martha; I am Megan.

Another Big ol' Bag Making Booty Giveaway

The last Bag Making Booty draw went pretty well (and it had a cool pic of Al doing some housework).

I love the feeling of smugness you get after you make yourself do some serious (let's not be sentimental) clearing up.  Afterwards it's so nice to: see the floor of a room, get stuff from shelves without everything toppling down, and see the things on the shelf on the first place!

So I have given the stock room a bit of Tasmanian Devil style tidy up and I now feel like such a clever girl!  Which means there are some bag making bits a bobs up for grabs if you fancy them:

This is a very un-artistic photo of the fruits of my clear-out which forms the booty that is up for grabs.

This lot is made up of odds and sods that I'm not going to use or I don't sell in my shop.  Most of it is in great condition and some of it isn't, but it is all perfectly serviceable.  Anyways it's plenty enough to keep anyone busy for a little while!  The bag making booty includes:

• 8 pairs of bag handles (including some rather posh Clover bag handles which aren't my cup of tea, but you might like 'em)
  
• 10 single bag handles
• and....
  

... all of these fabrics.  Some large to enough to make whole totes from, others are large enough to make cute clasp purses, and the rest would make pretty trims or would be great for quilting.

Draw Details (please read carefully)

Well, I don't suppose any of you sewing, crocheting, quilting, or knitting fiends fancy getting your hands on this little lot do you?  I'll post this bag making booty to 1 lucky draw winner.

To enter all have to do is comment on THIS PARTICULAR POST by:

• Including one link or more in your comment to the grooviest thing/s that you've seen on the internet lately.  It's best if you copy and paste from the address bar.   Please don't add any full-stops or other punctuation to the end of the link/s - or the links/s won't work
  

Contest Official-ness :

1. I'll randomly draw the 1 winner in a weeks time - 29th AUG and announce the winner the following day-ish.  Good luck!
2. I'll need to ask the winner to make a donation for the postage.
3. Sorry I can't notify winners, so please keep an eye for the winner announcement.  This is made easier for you if you subscribe to this blog so you don't have to keep checking back, although it's always great to have you pop-in for a read :0)
4. Prizes which are not claimed within 3 weeks of the winner announcement will be carried forward to the next draw.
5. Sorry I can't reply to contest/draw comments, but I do love reading every single one :)

Sewing World Bag Nov 08. Gathered Yoke Clasp Purse.

I think that lots of folks who make purses start by making them a clutch purse size and that's a good idea because it's always a good idea to master walking before running.  But the nice thing about making your own bags and purses is that you can make any size you darn well wanna.  I really had fun making this purse because I wanted see what a handbag sized purse would look like on a clasp frame.  I'm happy with the way this purse turned out. You can fit all of the usual essentials plus a small bottle of water and notebook/novel.  Who says that handy can't also be pretty?

So the theme for Sewing World Magazine Nov 08 is the colour brown.  So in keeping with the theme I designed this handbag sized clasp purse with yoke and pleated body. 

I used a nice piece of Amy Butler Trailing Cherry fabric, this bronze purse frame, and this purse chain.

Side view.  Lovely and puffy.

Inside view; a nice jewel bright teal coloured lining and a slip pocket.

Here are a couple of 'here I am making this purse' pics that will appear in the magazine:

Pin the yoke to the donk to the gathered main body.

A bit of product placement for my most favourite ever ever ever purse making glue...

Gaggle of Giggling Gloggers...er Bloggers

Last Saturday (as you might have already read elsewhere) I met up with Florence, Helen, & Jo for another fabby Crafternoon.  The day's events have already been humorously re-told on their blogs so in this post I won't add much by means of the day's breakdown except that one of my fave highlights of the day was laughing out loud and hysterically at this make your own lingerie book.  Inside the book could be found rather risque pics of semi nude shaved men in come-to-bed poses wearing satin lace edged boxers.  Yep, you read it right; lace edges boxers! Why didn't I take pics?  You must think I'm making it up.   I'm not adversed to pics of semi-nude blokes (especially as my own hunky man has been away for over a month now...sigh!), but laced edged?  Shaved?!!!?  Urgh!

Here are a few pics from the Crafternoon:

Florence told us about this very charming habby and yarn shop 'All the fun of the fair'.  Inside was much cuteness in the form of various sewing supplies, yarns, and ready handmade goods.  The lady inside was very nice and told us that the shop takes ready made goods (in small numbers) so if you want to sell your handmade goodness in this yummy shop do give 'em a call.

So after much gossiping, giggling, late and long lunch, and checking out and laughing at said craft book/s we ended up and the 5th floor in Waterstone's Piccadilly like last time.  Smile (and look reasonably gracious) at the camera...

...Gosh these cocktails are really rather good aren't they?  They make me feel REALLY happy :) "

I didn't go mad craft shopping wise.  I just bought myself a 1.5m of charcoal grey jersey fabric from the Cloth House.   When I get a couple of quiet afternoons to myself (I will be really shocked) I am going to wing it and try to make up the pattern and sew a long tunic top kinda like the one below...

It's jersey; it's loose fitting; so not too much can go wrong can it?  Can it?  This top (if successful) will be my second item of clothing (I've done pajamas trousers to death) on my overlocker.  I can't promise my version will look anywhere near as good as the one on this lady, but I promise to show you the result, whatever the outcome.  Hey, it might be as hilarious as lace edged boxer shorts...

Sunday Bag Eye Candy

Some of your gorgeous baggy goodness to sneak a peek at whilst chilling out on a Sunday with a nice mug of hot choccy  (am I the only one with woolly house socks on (in the middle of flipping August!) and cookies for dunking...

From the U-Handbag Tutorials pool...

1. oiseaux upper zipper2, 2. wallet inside, 3. heather bailey frame, 4. Made from Uhandblog tutorial, 5. External, 6. Sandy's Garden, 7. faux suede basket bag, 8. Pleated and darted purse, 9. Travel Bag -- Top

And from the U-Handbag All Bags Pool...

1. Quilted Frenchy , 2. Handmade Beaded Purse, 3. Apples Wallet, 4. IMG_3528-1, 5. Mist-Flower reversible handbag - tablecloth side , 6. ID Wallet and Key Ring, 7. Cameo, 8. Blue ribbon crotchet bag, 9. Blue_Mum

They're all nothing less than wonderful aren't they?  I'm so chuffed that the latest zippy tutorial is working for you folks. Thank you for putting your lovely bags into the pools everyone.  You bag ladies are very very talented!   I've gone back to doing Bag Eye Candy weekly so please keep your baggy pics coming.  Ta!

10 Crafty Questions with Kathreen Ricketson of the Wonderful Whipup

I guess it would be fair to say that this has been a most fruitful week for my autograph book :)

I have just posted an interview with the lovely Kathreen Ricketson where I have asked her 5 questions and she has made up another 5 questions to ask herself.  To read the interview pop over to my other blog.

And the winners of the Amy Butler Sewing Pattern Contest (Jun 08) are...

Well this is slightly weird; announcing the winners of the Amy Butler monthly contest (after seeing the lady herself 2 days ago).

So last month it was all about modeling your Amy Butler goodness.  I am flipping late to announce this month's winners so without further ado:

No posing in this pic, but the colour combo in this sweet Birdie Sling was too pretty to pass up.  By Pink Painted Giraffe.

How glam-happy does this summery lady look with her yummy Weekender Bag.  I love the way her outfit matches her bag.  By Cherryrolfe.

Yeah, so a lot of you know that I have a thing for man arms.  So when I get to see nice man arms and a fab looking High St Messenger Bag in the same pic, it's pretty much a done deal.  By Her Secret Stash (you should read her pic title).

Well done Ladies!  Please get back to me with your choice of Amy Butler pattern and your postal address and I'll send you your pattern. 


Thanks to everyone else who entered, sorry you didn't get lucky this time.  You could always try your luck in next month's contest!  Next month's contest is about taking a pic of your favourite snack/food/cake with your Amy Butler pattern item.  I know it's daft, but I'm nosey!   I can't wait to see your entries :)