Upcycled T-shirt Collar

Like my new shirt?

It's upcycled.

It started off as a plain white t-shirt and some unwanted material from my Mum's culottes.

In fact the t-shirt was once my Mum's as well. 

The strips of fabric were meant to be tied around the waist of the culottes, and were already the right size to be a collar so I just had to sew it round the neckline of my shirt.

To make the fabric go nicely around my shoulders I had it go down the back instead of straight across the neck.

I cut a new neckline for the back of the shirt and sewed the fabric on in a 'v' shape.

So now it looks just as interesting from the back as from the front.

I really like how this simple, and completely free, addition has made the shirt look much more fancy.

It looks great with this new skirt I bought on sale at New Look.

They sell this thing as a school skirt! I would not have got away with that in my day. It's tight y'all!

But that might be because I bought it size age 10-11...

Explorer

I just wanted to share one last thing from camp.

Every year we have a theme and this year's was 'Explorers'.

A tradition that's started over the last few years is to dress up for one dinner based on the theme.

 

So I dressed up as Internet Explorer.

I bought a plain white t-shirt from a charity shop and used printable transfer paper to put the IE logo on.

I even made a cursor necklace to complete the look. That was just a cut out piece of laminated paper which I outlined with Sharpie.

Someone else actually had the same idea but theirs was just the logo drawn on to a t-shirt.

Amateurs. 

I don't have many photos of other people's outfits - I was too busy eating! - but I've got this one of a snow explorer, complete with tennis racket shoes.

And we're a fancy camp.

Our dinner was accompanied by some live classical music.

This Week I...

...was out and about.

Two of my cousins were staying with us for a few days after camp so we took them to Cambridge for the day on Monday.

The weather was lovely and we enjoying watching people punting, including those who almost crashed into each other.

On Thursday me and my friends went to the beach!

I love me some beach.

It was raining on the drive there but the sun came out when we arrived.

While my friends were napping or reading magazines I set about digging a hole because that's what you're supposed to at the beach.

Then we won big on the 2p machines and finished the day with some fish and chips.

How's your summer going?

Are you a lounger or a digger at the beach?

Then and Now

There are a lot of these projects around on the internet so I thought I would try recreating some photos myself.

I went to camp last week armed with a collection of old photos.

I don't know the exact dates of all the 'before' photos, but they're all at least 10 years old.

My Dad and I.

Same guitar, different car.

My Dad again, wearing the exact same anorak.

Isobel at 4 and 14.

In the first photo she was colouring, fell asleep, then woke up and just continued colouring.

Me at 3 and 23.

Proof that I have grown!

Mark at 12 and 22.

My cousin Miriam and I.

She's four years younger than me but as you can see, she's over taken me in size.

I used to arrive at camp with a bag full of clothes I'd out-grown to give to her, but I can't do that now.

This was really fun to do and I definitely want to do some more.

Clay at Camp

One of the guys at camp last week had an idea to do some clay work using the soil from the field we were staying in, as it was mostly clay anyway.

He'd taken some lumps of the soil, removed big stones, and added water so it was ready for us to work with.

There were plaques, bowls, beads and models made.

This is the creepy face my cousin made.

And this is the little dish I made.

I'm thinking about coating it in PVA glue to make it more durable.

Our hands looked like we'd been using a bad fake tan by the end of it but I was really impressed with how we had an afternoon activity and produced some lovely things for no money at all.

This Week I...

...went camping!

While I'm busy washing clothes and enjoying the luxury of a flushing toilet I'll leave you with a few videos from my trip.

My cousin and I getting interrupted.

A clip from the camp fire.

And a group of us getting lost in a maize maze!

It was amazing.

What have I missed while I've been away?

This Week I...

...but it's only Thursday!

That's because I'm going camping tomorrow so won't be posting for a week.

So here's what's been going down so far this week.

A few months ago two of my miniatures were shortlisted for the Cork Street Open exhibition which meant on Monday I had to take them to London for final judging.

The pieces were the McCreerys shop and the house.

Taking the house on the tube was a little worrying but it got there in one piece.

My Mum had the genius idea to put luggage straps around the cardboard box to make for easier carrying.

Unfortunately my works wasn't selected for the exhibition so I had to trek back to London today to get them.

Then it was time to start packing for camp!

My parents came home from their holiday in Italy and brought me this Little Sun.

It's a solar powered light which is really bright and you can either hang it up or wear it around your neck.

It's going to be so useful next week at camp. Especially on those late night trips to the loo...

I'm finally going to get to use the red cup I bought in Nashville.

It's proper plastic, not the flimsy plastic of the regular disposable red cups.

When I saw it in the shop I was thinking, 'hmmmm, but do I need it....I know, I'll use it at camp!'

I also bought some new walking boots as I didn't really have any.

These were a great find in a charity shop. They look fairly new, were only £8, and just happened to be in my size. Perfect.

Shout out to my sister Lucy for spotting them.

Well, this is going to be me for the next week.

See you when I get back!

Video Time

Today I wanted to share this quick little stop/start animation that I made using magic sand.

I'd forgotten how fun that stuff is!

Whoah, plot twist. Who saw that coming?

I've also updated my 'Are You Filming?' video so here's the extended version.

Still makes me giggle. 

My highlight is my friend Laura in a cupboard.

And while we're in the watching mood, who wants to see me rap again?

Can't believe this video is almost a year old!

This Week I...

I spent most of the week drowning in cardboard.

I had agreed to make some props for my sister's theatre group; 30 gas mask boxes!

I had to construct the boxes and cover them in brown paper, and then my sister came over Friday night to add the strings.

She then had to take all these boxes back to London on the train the next day. Rather her than me!

I took a break from the boxes on Thursday as I had a dentist appointment.

My friends Robyn and Stef came with me and we hit up the Natural History Museum.

It was so warm in there! But we saw all the dinosaurs!

For lunch we had crepes in John Lewis.

Delicious, but don't tell my dentist about all the sugar!

How was your week? Enjoying summer? 

Courgette Cake

My parents like to grow courgettes in the garden.

Then they like to go on holiday and leave me to look after them.

This year I didn't forget about them and then find some were way over a foot long.

I picked one at the appropriate size, I think. I'm not actually sure if this is a good size because I don't like courgettes all that much which is why I decided to make cake with it!

I'd never tried this recipe before, but I have eaten the cakes that my Mum's made with it and I think I did a pretty good job.

(This recipe is from somewhere on the internet but I've just typed out the printed copy we have)

Ingredients:

60g raisins

250g courgettes [2 or 3] weighed before grating 

(I've just properly read this bit. My one courgette was something like 340g before grating. Once I'd grated it and strained the excess water it was exactly 250g. Oh well, extra courgette!)

2 large eggs

125ml vegetable oil

150g caster sugar

225g self-raising flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda.

1/2 tsp baking powder

Oven 180c/Gas Mark 4

1) Grate courgettes and remove excess water with a sieve.

2) Cream eggs, oil and sugar together.

3) Add flour, bicard and baking powder.

4) Stir in courgette and raisins.

5) Bake for 30 minutes as a whole cake or cupcakes.

I made 12 muffins and put the rest of the mixture in a loaf tin.

They taste good guys, nothing like courgettes, and you can legitimately eat more of them because there's a vegetable in them.

Gotta get that 5 a day somehow.