November...

Looking back at the month of October, I can say that it was rather unproductive in terms of blogging as well as sewing. It was a slow, slow month where day just passed after another day...

So now that we've just hit November, I am determined to change that trend! So let's start with me telling you all about my rather successful trip to IKEA this Sunday just gone. It is a general known fact (don't quote me) that most men hate shopping and 'browsing' through loads and loads of items in a shop unless they have to buy something. I know there are a small proportion of men out there who geniunely enjoy window shop with their other half and will suggest doing that on a beautiful weekend. But I can tell you they are of the rare exception and ladies if you happen to be going out with one, well done!

So it didn't come as a surprise that my man was an unwilling victim in this scheme of mine, to spend half a day in IKEA looking at pretty things, gasping and 'appreciating' the arrays of colourful and wonderful plastic goods that IKEA has to offer at affordable prices. Mind you, I have been browsing through their catalogue online and I did have specific items that I wanted to purchase. But that didn't stop me from wanting other things as well when I saw them there. You can't help it, it happens in all IKEA to most women. 

When I started off my sewing hobby, my beloved sewing corner aka 'my retreat' looked like this.

You might be asking, where's the sewing machine? Well this picture was taken before the sewing machine arrived and the feeling I was experiencing at that time was akin to an expectant mother preparing her nursery for the arrival of the new born baby. I mean, not exactly the same, but you get my idea.

And when the machine's arrived, it was transformed to this. By then I had purchased a few more essential items that I needed. When I started getting interested at patterns and ideas from various sewing books, I started buying them like mad from Amazon and slowly but surely developed a collection on the shelf.

Because I couldn't find a single bookend in the house, I had to stack them up on the shelf like that because I had learnt through the hard way that standing them up wasn't such a good idea especially when the books came tumbling down onto the sewing machine. Let's just say 'thank god for hard covers.'

Anyway, through these past few months, I wasn't just collecting books. Bit by bit, I slowly built up my lovely sewing corner with fabric, and accessories and the latest puchase was a much needed drop leaf table where I could do all my measuring and cutting. After using this table to measure out and to cut fabric for a project I'm currently working on, I did wonder how I had managed to cope with measuring and cutting my fabric pieces on the bed before I had this table. Of course what you couldn't see was that what used to be in that spot was Steve's exercise bike which has been pushed aside. So the best thing about this drop leaf table is that it's perfect for me and that space. When it's not needed, it can be collapsed and hidden away in the corner.Even better, I bought this second-hand so it didn't even cost me too much money.

Anyway, it is with much pleasure for me to show you my sewing corner at its present state.

This is my retreat. This is the corner where I spent many enjoyable hours making fun things while listening to my Ipod dock (which is well-hidden by the way due to lack of space). What I managed to purchase from IKEA made a lot of difference in helping me organise my space better. The two hanging baskets which I got meant that I can now organise my sewing boxes and bits and pieces under the shelf and that freed up more space for books (Oh dear) and I managed to get bookends too which meant that my books won't come tumbling down anymore. And I also managed to get a cute clamp lamp which ideally was going to replace the table lamp but because it was not bright enough, the table lamp had to stay. Let's zoom in closer to look at those tiny creatures on my shelf.

 Honestly I had no use for them at the moment but when I saw them at the charity shop I couldn't help myself.

 These are the wooden pegs that my DSC got me during one of her trips to Cornwall and they are so cute.

Some of my book collection.

For the past few weeks, I've been driving round and noticing how beautiful the autumn leaves are so this morning, armed with my camera, I decided to capture some autumn colours to show you and very much lacking in skills and knowledge on how to fully utilize my camera, I present to you some mediocre shots that I took with the auto mode on my Canon G11.

Autumn on my desk.

I have just bought a book called 'From snapshots to greatshots' from Amazon. So hopefully, very soon I'll be able to share some good quality pictures here with you. In the meantime, I'll just have to settle for the auto mode.

Have a great week ahead.