Swimsuit Cover-up

This is my latest craft project:

It's a wrap around swimsuit coverup.

Here is the back.

It is made out of a sheer-ish synthetic fabric that I found in the discount section of my local fabric store. This is the first of many sewing projects I think.

Pencil Skirt Outfit

Here's a fuzzy photo of today's outfit:

Purple H&M shirt, beige Topshop pencil Skirt, skinny tan belt, white patterned tights.

Blazer Outfit

This is an outfit I wore to try to go to the fabric shop. It was an unsuccessful trip as the shop was shut for siesta.

Black blazer, white tube top with flowers (H&M) skinny white belt, grey skinny 'Leigh' jeans(topshop) white wool kilt socks, black laceup boots (Topshop). I am also wearing a cool cloche hat.

Watchband Re-covering

I was given this watch, but I didn't really like the band. It was a light purple snake skin. Since the face is nice, and the bracelet fit well, I decided to recover it.

I used leather, and sewed it onto the watch.

Here's the finished product

Mending

I spent most of today doing this pile of mending! As soon as I finished, I was handed another pair of jeans to do. :(

Lavapies

I live in a part of Madrid called lavapies. It's not pronounced live Lava-pies, but It always make me think it is. I made this in Minecraft in honour of Lavapies.

Lavapies

According to the fruit, spring is here!

At the supermarket today I found fresh local strawberries! I guess spring must be here! Unfortunately it is very chilly out, and much of Europe has been snowed on. At least the strawberries are good!

This is today's outfit:

It is a frayed jean mini skirt (Topshop) a striped cowl neck tshirt, worn off one shoulder (Newlook) a blue belt, and navy tights. This outfit got me two head turns and an introduction(In Spanish) at the supermarket. I didn't even undo my coat, so you couldn't even see the top. Maybe this skirt should be retired.

Braided Hairstyle

This is a hairdo that I did. I started French braiding form the side you see here, but I only picked hair up from the bottom of the head. When I got half way around the head, I started only picking hair up from right beside my face. When I ran out of hair beside my face, I added the remaining hair in quickly, and finished the braid. I then pinned th braid up underneath the french braid. I added a flower.

Close up of the look

Start of the braid

Leather Clutch Bag

This past week I've been spending a lot of time making a leather clutch. The reason for this is that I have a pair of bootie heels that I want to wear to an outdoor winter wedding in February, but I don't have a handbag that matches them!

Here is the outside of the bag. The leather I had was a light blue colour, so I had to dye the exterior. I have also used shoe polish on it to seal the colour in.

Here you can see the velcro that I've used as a fastening for the bag, and the 1euro scarf that I cut up for the lining. I glued the lining directly onto the leather.

Here you can see that I got a bit carried away with adding interior pockets! I had originally planned to sew the two sides of the rectangle directly together, but I found that for the pockets to be usable I had to add triangles of leather to the sides of the bag. The phone holder is fully adjustable, and the little change pouch beside it is removable. The pockets are made out of scarf, blue card, and scraps of blue leather.

Laundry Adventures

I live on the 4th floor (5ht floor for those in North America) and I have a window into the building's courtyard. Just outside the window there are two washing lines. I really enjoy being able to hang my washing outside, but being so high up there are sometimes mishaps...

This is a photo that I took just before I removed this bed sheet from the washing line. Apparently I left a pillowcase inside it!

This a pair of underwear that I accidentally dropped! Unfortunately it didn't fall all the way to the ground, but got stuck on a valve handle part way down.

 They were rescued them with a broom! 

Just this evening I had to knock on a neighbour's door to get another pair back! I didn't drop them however.

Minecraft Castle

This is the outside of the castle I'm currently building in Minecraft!

Epiphany Parade

Saturday evening we went to the Three Kings parade in Madrid. Spain has different Christmas traditions than most other countries. The beginning of Christmas in Spain is the Spanish national lottery draw held on December 22nd. We did not participate in this though, as lotteries are more like a tax for idiots than a good way to win money.

The Spanish are very Catholic, and the Christmas markets are full of figures for nativity scenes. Madrid put loads of Christmas lights up. Here is the tree in Sol.

Inside the tree

The entire tree

We were in France for most of the Christmas period, so we did not see the Spanish traditions.

 In Spain it is not Santa who brings the children their presents, but the Three Kings or 'Los Reyes Magos'. On the 5th January, the eve of Epiphany cities and towns hold parades. In Madrid there were floats, people throwing candy and that kind of thing. The parade had camels, donkeys, goats, elephants, geese, sheep, and a zebra. Parents bring ladders to the parade so that the children can see. I did not get any good photos of the parade as it was too dark.

Happy Epiphany!

Epiphany is on Sunday, so in honour of the last day of the Christmas season, here is a photo of our Christmas tree!

Our tree has a few geeky ornaments that I made out of Sculpey, a few red and white baubles, and Santas.

Madrid's strange statues

I've been wondering around Madrid, and I've noticed several really random statues. I've started taking photos of them, so here they are!

The man with the clipboard is called "Homenaje al agente comercial" and is located at the Atocha train station. The man with the broom is in Plaza de Jacinto Benavente. The lady leaning against the wall is called "Homenaje a la antigua Universidad" and is located in calle Pez.

The Prime Meridian

As we drove back to Spain, we drove over the Prime Meridian! The Spanish government built a marker over the motor way, and put several signs up so there's no chance you could miss it.

Here it is, the Prime Meridian!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! I've decided that I will try to start blogging weekdays to provide myself some extra entertainment while I'm in Madrid. I'll start off with some photos of the last day of 2012!


We went to the beach with our nephew, who was really excited. His parents dressed him up in his boots, and rain pants. He immediately ran into the sea! He got both of his changes of clothes soaking wet, and had a great time.

Here I am on the Beach near Sete, France.

 like this beach as it is full of shells and sea glass.

Views of the beach near Sete.  I quite

On our way back, we had a bit of an adventure! The front license plate of our rental car had not been attached properly, and it dropped off while we were driving! Luckily we managed to attach it with a belt, and continue on our way.