Hard sums

Whenever the Whippet has to think hard about something, such as "come here" or "don't eat that stick" or "cuddles with Mum or cuddles with Dad?" he gets confused ears, and we say that he is having to do Hard Sums.

For me, selling things - anythings - is very much Hard Sums. Same with stitching teaching samples. Which is why I get distracted and do things like make swirling vortices of marmalade instead:

or have a sudden urge to buy a red skirt in a charity shop, chop off any frilly extraneous bits (the skirt's on the bias and won't fray too much - fingers crossed) and stitch on some braid salvaged from another charity shop find several years previously...

before....

during...

 

after! 

(have you ever tried to photograph your own legs? bloomin' difficult...)

The red boots were a separate procrastination project. They were the Girl's, and she has grown out of them so when I was clearing them out of the porch, I followed a whim to try them on - and discovered that they fitted, in a slightly snug toe sort of way. So then I had to ransack the understairs cupboard for the special sheepskin washing liquid so I could chuck them in the washing machine, dry them for a week, and proclaim them My New Slippers. Girl is slightly miffed, and can't work out why her old boots that are now too small for her suddenly fit her Mother who has bigger feet than she has. I'm not complaining mind.

Emboldened by the success of the Red Skirt, I dredged from my wardrobe another indifferent bias cut skirt in an indifferent shade of beige. This was also originally from a charity shop and bought because it I deemed it suitable for "work". But seeing as I never really do much of that, I thought it would now be a fine candidate for another chopping session.

But first, to address the general beige-ness, a dunking in the dye pot was called for:

(note the teaching sample on the wrist!)

We are now at this stage and have come to a temporary halt until I stitch the braids together.

.

In between simmering things from my wardrobe, I finally did do something with all the bits that were lying on my desk.

Here they are cut into strips:

and then with added sheers

then with added hearts

then with added stitch

and finally with added mount board, ready to go into the etsy shop.

And while I was considering this bold and dramatic move, which gives me very uncertain ears, I found this little piece from last year, which I shall list at the same time:

The most Hard Sums of all involved finally listing some stuff on eBay - the carved wotnots that I found in the loft last week, which Mr G said looked a bit like some members of the Kenyan paralympic team....

So I get it done eventually, but I do find it very Hard Sums and wish I didn't. Maybe I just need to do more of it...