Mini Bird & Squirrel Feeders

While feeding the squirrels and robin; unexpectedly got pesky, smart, wood pigeons as well. To feed my beloved robin I have made this mini bird feeder out of a few bits and upcycled a couple of objects.

Bird feeder components: tapered garden cane, log slices, two plastic lids, screw, plastic hanger.

I have basically got two log slices which was purchased online to make coasters and other things, but I don't have table saw, so that's the best I can do. I've hack sawed the garden cane to a nice short length, sanded of the bark off the log slices and garden cane ends, Danish oiled these to make these smooth and waterproof. 

Clear lid will protect bird food from light rain, as birds get sick from wet food, it's just a Nestle Powdered Milk lid from a can. Black plastic lid is from my old food flask, it's washable if needed and keep food well inside it. 

Black lid and smaller log slice drilled just big enough for screw that fits bottom of the larger side of garden cane. Small log slice hole has been countersunk, it's not necessary as it's just aesthetics. Large log slice and clear lid drilled with hole big enough to slide down cane, but not large enough so that it wedges part way. This will deter larger birds from landing and doubly keep food dry.

Lastly screwed in parts and super glued the hook from plastic hanger in the top of garden cane.

Finished partially upcycled bird feeder.

I realised bird feeder needs a bit more of an extension to encourage the little birds to sit on there, so therefore drilled through an old fan grill and added that on.

I've yet to see the robin try it out, it has since disappeared for a while, hope to see it again in our garden soon. I have made a similar one for the squirrels, which has kept the pesky pigeons at bay. It took the squirrels a while to grow accustomed to it; they were afraid of it at first, but now they jump up on the plant pot or posts near it and pull the feeder towards them, they are so cleverly cute!

*Note while I was taking photographs in my garden, "taking photos in the garden, show off", from bald neighbour side. Fact is daylight is free, less on electrical bill and photographs look fantastic in natural light!

Stamp Making - Updating

 Designing and producing my own stamps, since I'll need custom made stamps for my business.

Trademarking & Logo Production - Updating

Luckily for me, I'm capable of designing many things including logos, so running a business will not be a problem. I have the majority of skills to fully run one with the exception of programming my own website, but that I will steer clear from this and my sibling kind of acts like a consultant which is good for keeping costs down.

I'll be keeping my business name secret for a while until my business gets going, since my nosy, malicious neighbours who were also eavesdropping on my conversations are stalking my social media and the bald neighbour found it hilarious years ago because they don't think it's possible for me to run my own business. This will be my source of income in between or while employed and top up while studying.

I've designed two logos for this brand name, one with the full name and one without for smaller items where space is tight, a logo that can be seen in less than 1 centimetre square. The logos were produced using CAD, tracing over a photo of my own hand written created font using vector tool in Affinity Designer and then transferring into Photoshop Elements which does not have the vector tool, I prefer the layout and ease of use of Photoshop, but the professional version and the Adobe annual subscriptions are far too expensive for me. Hopefully, the greedy Apple Inc doesn't come after me for using a fruit not related or even looks like an apple, a disgraceful company suing owners with pear and apple logos. The smaller logo which is a Pomelo is also the letter "o" for the full brand.

Full sized logo

Small, simplified logo for tight spaces and brand recognition.

I've decided to not use the name, so therefore will have to design a new logo because I think it's kind of an odd name and more logical to have a brand name that keeps it simple. I have still however post this logo up as an idea with copyright of course.

The second logo I've created will be uploaded later, this brand name has been registered. I've done a quick search online and the all brand names I have created have not be taken, I usually do a quick follow up on government registrations just to be sure. For this brand, my business specialises both in designing fashion accessories and graphic design work.

In some ways my second brand name is causing a lot of notifications from the government, just simply because I use the word "Atelier" as part of my trademark and that is a word commonly used by many businesses, I'll have to think of a brand without this word for my third brand name that I will be creating soon.

After being excited and suffering from anxiety, trademarking has now passed after 2 months and 1 week, a week earlier than specified by the government.

I will still be trademarking third logo/brand name at a later date to sell other products such as cosmetics and everything else that is not trademarked by my second logo/brand name with maybe a couple of upcycled items from used and new sources. I don't really have much to upcycle except a couple of wool coats that is too small for me now, most of my goods or clothes are to raggedy to even donate to charity and most items I make will depend on my random creative streak, so there is no point in trying to trademark more classes than necessary. Sometimes you can find inexpensive materials in shops when they have a sale and therefore design a new item by taking these apart.

All of my trademarks are brush fonts with no serifs and based solely on my handwriting style. Sans serif fonts give it less of a traditional feel which are easier to read, a brush font gives it a more personalised or free spirited touch, using my own hand writing style makes it unique and less likely to infringe intellectual property rights with other companies. My Atelier Pomelo trademark/logo is more cursive and more eccentric, my second logo is more controlled and non cursive.

Trademarking is extremely expensive for designers because each category of goods will be classed separately and therefore extra charges for each category. For example, jewellery is classed into two separate categories; precious and fashion jewellery, clothes are also separate from handbags etcetera. Business names and visual logos are also trademarked separately.

An registration fee and for one class is £170, each extra class is £50 each. So I will be registering 4 classes under one trademark, so this comes to £320, so it's not cheap. The process takes the government 2 months to complete waiting period for objections from other trademark holders, just in case similar trademarks appear and two weeks to publish the trademark once completed.

Since I'm still have to complete fashion coursework, I will be sticking to the £1000 sales limit this year, I will decide whether to go over this limit once I'm more confident with the business and myself at handling more paperwork (tax forms), I really want to start the business this year. Eventually, I hope to escape the grasps of being employed and moving to self employment, I hate my job for a reason (two faced greedy, non-caring, harassing bosses in retail work with ridiculous hours and hardly any contracted hours). I do like retail because you can meets all sorts of interesting individuals, get some exercise or fresh air and I get inspired by my surroundings.

So although I don't make the 2023 £12,570 personal allowance on my current salary, I legally need to report any extra money coming in over £1000 in sales (not profit) in additional to my annual salary. This includes personal sales of second hand goods etcetera from auctions or car boot sales or any other means, many people break UK laws and delude themselves that they are legal, I've seen plenty of people take money under the table. This sum will be different for those on government benefits. Personally I think this is a lot of annoying and pointless paper work for both me and the government, but all countries are greedy and like to keep tight tabs on tax payments. 

https://www.search-uk-trade-mark-classes.service.gov.uk/searchclasses

The above hyperlink provided by the government is a good way to search what class your product falls into if you are not sure.

So as my logos are registered, I've added an ®  so this means that it is a protected and registered with the government. I'll will also be adding a © my name and year created to protect my logo from being misused and stolen. Copyright is applied on all works of art so to speak automatically once it has been created, in the UK there is no register service or storage of works created by artists. You will often see ™  on logos or trademarks, this means that it is a trademark which may not be officially protected nor registered with the government.

As you can see Debenhams and Daky had this issue using the standardised regular fonts for their standalone letter 'D'. Both using the same font and the letter 'D' being identical. It is therefore wiser to create your own fonts, if you are capable of doing so or hiring a graphic designer.

https://uk.fashionnetwork.com/news/Debenhams-settles-trademark-dispute-over-use-of-letter-d,1196948.html

Sweet Scents & Colour Pop - Updating

Making my own body mist, room scent and scented body oil. As you may know from reading my hair cutting post, I like fruity and yummy scents, something subtle, don't like strong fragrances. I'm strongly allergic to scents like lilies and musk (hay fever), therefore I try not to apply for jobs involving food and involves high hygiene standards, as I really have to wipe my nose a lot. When buying deodorants in the past, some of them I really don't like the smell of, my mother has purchased me five bottles of the stuff when had asked her buy me one, going to have to use it up over my lifetime by mixing it with another scent. 

Don't actually use a lot of scents in the mornings, as prefer sleep over grooming, so it is purely for my days off. However, will leave it by my hairdryer and use it when there's time before work, I'm sure that my colleagues will be bursting with vicious remarks.

The thing with us creative people, we like to show we are creative by our clothes, hair or makeup, accessories, it's the way we express ourselves and usually market the products we make (think self advertising, no one is going to buy a dress from you if they've never seen it or viewed your skills). And satisfies the restrictions of a job surrounded by closed minded colleagues or people in general, it has nothing to do with flirting! Most woman wear makeup etcetera for themselves, not for others. I always get people second guessing what I'm wearing, in particular makeup, they always get it wrong. I'm a creative person, I don't do the norm, I always think out the box.

I had a couple of really rude bank assistants in the North End branch back around 4 years ago, talking about my lip colour due to the stalking bald guy living next door spreading lies. There were only two customers in there including myself, once the other customer had left; the female said "she's wearing pink lipstick", male replied "yeah". Of course I was not wearing pink, because I generally hate wearing pink (pink is associated with girly types and in colour psychology it represents people who need looking after), it wasn't even lipstick but other products and colour. The bald guy even had two b*tchy female visitors yesterday 22 November 2020 (yes, in national lockdown), still saying this is "confidence" and "showing off", oh and "sly" for tying the harassing neighbours up to the druggies across the road. The only reason why woman or even men have a go at other people's dressing and styling is jealousy and hate. Didn't think nothing of that remark until I heard the bald guy next day talking where I was, people walking past me in the street and my b*tchy store trainer Karen (I think she now works in the hospital up in Cosham) at the time saying "show off, she's wearing pink lipstick".

Scents and colour are good for mental health and lifting up spirits. So this is another project for my second lockdown of Coronavirus. So far just using myself as a guinea pig to check for allergic reactions before giving it to my friends or even selling a few lip balms and glosses online, and check for staining on fabrics.

One of my friends every year gifts me lip balm a lot which is shared with family as I have too much, once I send her some, she'll probably get the hint. I like giving things I make to friends and work colleagues I LIKE, there's a good self satisfaction when you've spend a lot of time and hard work on something you've made personally being appreciated. I've been wanting to try this for a while, back when the Superdrug lady was wondering why I was buying so much Vaseline petroleum jelly which I accidently used for my own skin care and had to buy a new pot so that it is not contaminated. There's a lot of people watching me shop, due to the infamous slander circling around me; but they don't even realise it is stalking, slanderous behaviour and it is actually being very nosy.

*Update; after spraying the body/room spray on white cotton, particularly sweet orange which is yellowish in tint, I can confirm that it does not leave any staining on clothing or textile furnishings. However if you are trying different brand of oils or wearing any special clothing, I'd advise patch testing the spray first on some scrap fabric or old tee shirt.

Terminology & Safety

This is from a lot of research online as no one explains it all at once for the newbie. It is important not to use oils pure from concentrate as it can cause allergic reactions on the skin. Some people develop sensitivity particularly in sunlight, or develop life long allergic reactions such as rashes and blisters when coming into contact with any oil. The general rule is up to 50 drops of essential or fragrance oil to 100ml of oil or water, you can do the math.

Essential oil = Extracted oil from plant or seed

Fragrance oil = Artificial man-made oil

Carrier oil = Skin friendly oil for dilution

Neat = 100% concentrated oil

Phototoxic / Photosensitivity = Negative reaction to light / ultraviolet light

Sensitisation = Skin reaction; redness, rash, itching, blistering

Tools

Empty lip balm containers, lip gloss containers, 100ml spray bottles, 10ml roller bottles.

Mini serving pans and gas flame / microwavable pan or jug

Pipettes with measurement in millilitres

Teaspoon

Small wood stirring stick

Measuring jug in millilitres

Ingredients

Water

Essential oil / Fragrance oil (Must be skin friendly cosmetic grade, using Fresh Skin brand)

Polysorbate 20 (emulsifier for mixing together oil and water, for vegans you will need to check with supplier if it is derived from plant matter over animal)

Grapeseed oil (I'm using Fresh Skin brand from eBay)

Castor oil (moisturising nontoxic vegetable oil, acts as waterproof film)

Petroleum jelly (Using Vaseline brand as it is most reputable with surrounding safety concerns, this may not or may be vegan friendly depending on the vegan's viewpoint)

Carnauba wax flakes (Vegan friendly plant wax, works as a binder for oil and waxes, hardens soft ingredients).

Food colouring paste (optional, using Sugar Flair brand, it is vegan friendly which is a bonus)

Food flavouring liquid or artificial sweetener (optional)

*Most of these ingredients can be kept for years in cool, dark storage.

Scented Body Oil Tutorial

1. Drop in 4 drops of essential oil or fragrance oil into your roller bottle. (If you are vegan, check oil supplier for animal friendly oil).

2. Using your pipette, drop in 10ml of grapeseed oil. (Grapeseed oil is light and easily absorbed into skin than other carrier oils).

3. Body oil or body scent is complete.

Scented Body Spray Tutorial

1. Drop in 20 drops of essential oil or fragrance oil into your spray bottle.

2. Add 20 drops of polysorbate 20 using a pipette into the spray bottle and give it a swirl. (Polysorbate 20 is an emulsifier to mix together water and oil).

3. Pour in 100ml of water into the spray bottle. (I'm just using normal cold Brita filtered boiled tap water).

4. Body mist or room spray is complete. (I think 20 drops is about right, it is subtle and the scent does linger in a room for around 2 days). There will be bubbles on the surface when the bottle is still, as polysorbate 20 is a surfactant, it will also turn cloudy, so you will have to shake before use. 

Lip Gloss Tutorial (I will upload pictures later)

1. In your serving pan or microwavable container, heat one level teaspoon of carnauba wax flakes until melted. If using the pan over gas, you may want to hover the pan slightly above flame, as to not over heat the mixture to hot to produce smoke.

2. Take off heat and add 7 teaspoons of castor oil.

3. Add about 1cm of a cocktail stick of food colouring (what the cocktail stick can hold on 1cm), if not using food colouring leave it out. This will only tint the mixture lightly, if you want a heavier tint, add 1cm of a teaspoon handle on the flat side or lolly stick. You can also add food glitters and edible colour powders.

4. Add your optional food flavouring, use around half to one teaspoon of liquid flavouring. I've used mango in mine and smells delicious. You can also add a bit of artificial sugar or honey for a sweet flavour, but I leave this out as it shortens the best before date.

5. Re-heat mixture, to re-melt all ingredients.

6. Take off heat and sit in cold bowl of water, when it is half solidified, stir the mixture thoroughly with a wooden stick, this will mix the contents well especially the food colouring paste.

7. Re-heat mixture and stir well.

8. Take off heat and fill your empty lip gloss bottle or lip gloss tube, there is more than enough for a 10ml bottle. I just use a steady hand and pour into the tube opening, so it is useful to have a sharp spout on your melting pan or container.

9. Let it cool, before use. I think the mixture is as good as shop brought glosses. Most of the ingredients will last forever providing they are stored in a cool dark place, unless sharing glosses with friend or if used, as this will contaminate the glosses with bacteria.

Lip Balm Tutorial (I will add photos later)

1. In your serving pan or microwavable container, add half level teaspoon of carnauba wax, heat wax to melt.

2. Add 3 rounded teaspoons of petroleum jelly, heat to melt. As with gloss, if using gas, hover pan slightly over flame to reduce smoking.

3. Add food colouring paste, as dark as you wish, it is purely optional. Don't add liquid food flavouring as this will separate from the jelly and wax. Artificial sweetener should be fine as it is a powder.

4. Re-heat mixture to melt all ingredients.

5. Put pan in cold water bath to semi solidify ingredients to stir colour or ingredients well.

6. Re-heat mixture to melt all and stir well.

7. Pour into lip balm tubes, let it cool before use.

Lip Tint

(Still experimenting, still trying to master this one, may not upload if I fail)

*To clean the pans, reheat mixture to liquid and wipe off mixture with tissue. Wipe down teaspoon or pipettes with tissue, otherwise it will be evil to wash off. I just store mine in resealable food bags for next time.

*If you are buying Jasmine scent, buying 2.5ml or 5ml of Jasmine Absolute will cost you around £25. It is expensive as 7.5 million flowers are needed to produce 1kg of oil. If it is cheaper than this price, it is not 100% pure and likely to be mixed with other ingredients. 2.5ml will be around 50 drops.

Voiles - Updating

So while I was doing up my kitchen, mother decided that I should make some voile curtains for our lounge door, as chiffon is my area of speciality and fix the screw fittings back into the wall, even though the kitchen had not been finished. She had already put some screw fittings into the wall and made some none see through polyester curtains for it years ago and it had pulled out of the wall, because it is hollow plaster board, despite her super gluing the fixture to the wall (don't ask me why, I didn't do any of the DIY work previously) and the curtain wasn't particularly heavy. She believes visitors can see well past two front doors into the lounge even if doors is at angle with privacy film on one and frosted glass on the other, this is one of the reasons I get into arguments with my mother, as it is totally ridiculous.

My self-centred neighbours are constantly trying to spread that I'm a pampered princess type, when in fact they are the ones sipping up from their silver spoon in delusion with prince/ss syndrome. 

My mother is selfish and likes to show off when her skills can be lacking at times, manipulative, unsupportive, nosy, interfering, stingy human being. She does this only to me and not my sibling. She is quite two faced, she'll act differently in front of her friends acting like she is very caring towards me, at home she is nonchalant, ignorant and extremely patronising. It is a love and hate relationship, she is about 10% nice, she can be very nasty,  rude for the rest of the 90% and talks behind my back thinking I don't know.

I was mentally and physically abused by both my parents as a child, my mother however would call it punishment (that includes locking me in the garden shed and caning for not doing as I was told or doing my school work or a scapegoat for my sibling). I spent most of my life translating, writing and correcting her homework and doing household chores as a kid even now she only calls my name to do these, then having to put with her PMS and now kid like temper tantrums (ever seen a sixty-five year old roll and kick their feet). She use to joke about old people acting like kids when they retire and grow old, now she is exactly that.

I might as well reveal what she really is every time we have an argument, I need to let out that anger and resentment I built up over the years towards her. When I just started secondary school, she accused me of pushing my sibling down the stairs at home. All I knew was my sibling hit themselves on a radiator at the bottom of the stairs on the head, she started screaming and cursing me for no reason like she always does. After rushing my sibling to hospital to have their head stitched, and several days later when my sibling recovered, my sibling confessed that they had slipped on their "reading book bag". Yes, my sibling is a clutz, and there was not ever an apology. I wrote in my English poem with the final line ending in "s/he fell down the stairs", my English teacher had such a horrified look on her face, but nothing came from it. I was actually quite a blockhead as a kid.

At the moment, she is so stuck on the China Hong Kong situation that she has become ridiculously biased in her opinions and somewhat paranoid thinking (says the Chinese government can spy on your phone in the UK, follow you, check passport and bank details and take all your money out), she is also worshipping Trump. She claims all the food coming from China coming to Britain is poisonous or fake goods. So if you ever come across my home and we're arguing, that will be one of the reasons. If you don't want to get in to an argument with my mother, never mention China, Hong Kong or Trump and remove yourself from the conversation when she brings it up, because she regularly will bring it up and then blame it on you. 

My mother and sibling always stick up for each other, so I have no one on my side, I don't think living with them is good for my mental wellbeing, but given the situation I am stuck with them, hope I don't ending as their unpaid care worker in the future, but that will be unlikely as I will refuse. My sibling is somewhat similar in personality, but not to that extent thank goodness, but thinks everything has to go their way, even a tiny tap on the floor and they'll run in to my room and yes this did happen, I was trying on some shoes (I feel like I'm living in a prison sometimes). So if you are being malicious and patronising in any way towards me, it will likely be you who will take my wrath.

When I was a child, I was made to clean the kitchen along with my sibling. However, I got the side of the kitchen with lots of kitchen units, fridge freezer, cooker, sink, back door, window and all the worktops. My sibling got one tiny kitchen unit, a radiator, two flat internal doors and a small wall opening. When I asked to swap sides for a few weeks, I was told by my mother that I was bullying my sibling who is less than a year younger than me. To this day she claims she treats us equally, I think I was around nine or ten at the time. On 24 April 2022, she hit me on the back of the head for no reason at all, all I was doing was preparing dinner. I fed up of her cocky, platonic lying, think she can get away with it attitude, pure nastiness now, she's like a replica of my nasty neighbours.

Well I suggested putting the fixture into the door frame eventually because even with a metal drill bit and all other drill bits, it failed to enter the wall due to a metal frame surrounding in the door frame and use a lighter weight curtain, I will patch up the holes she made in the wall later temporarily until we redecorate that area of the house.

So my mother had brought this fabric in Allders apparently, can't vouch for that as she has a tendency to forget things all the time, only those who worked in Allders at the time can say. This is a polyester cream chiffon raw edged cut fabric with printed leaves of brown and gold, she had brought around 4 metres of it (a habit that both of us share), I have made two voile curtains out of it.

Raw edged fraying voile fabric with shelvage.

The fabric obviously has two sides of one centimetre wide shelvage (to none fashion students, the two woven edges of fabric on the roll where fabric does not fray and unravel), I have pin hemmed it using my own special technique of sealing the fraying edges and one single row of stitches to hem chiffon fabrics (most students are taught to sew two row of stitches and my show off tutors at university expected me to ask them for help and was surprised of the technique I used on my own to do this when they had asked me).

Shelvage on one side with chiffon hem, with single row of of stitching.

Frayed edges have been sealed and hemmed, at the top have sewn a channel to allow net rod to be inserted.

(image to be inserted as I have not take photographs of it yet)

(completed net curtain, also have to take photograph of it hopefully before the year ends)

Sweater Conversion - Still updating

Bean Bag - Updating

Made this pillow style bean bag to prop myself up while watching television in bed, against my metal bed's head board. I have turtle neck syndrome and very bad posture as it is, so need something big and suitable. It's comfortable to sit upright in bed and lie down to watch television. The bean bag measures 63X83 centimetres.

Why anyone would label my posture as confident is beyond me and I've seen myself in my CCTV camera; that's what happens when you're are surrounded by nasty, stupid and spiteful individuals. My colleagues especially bad at reading people of ethnicity and people of different backgrounds, but that obviously had something to do with my lousy neighbours.

How does one take a good photograph of one single bean bag?

Purchased this lovely navy polyester suedette from Fabricland and bag of polystyrene beads from Wilkinson's for £6.50, made my bean bag pillow shaped about the size of the plastic bag of which the polystyrene beads came in with an added extra two inches or so in length. They didn't quite have enough fabric in the shop, so have added a scrap of black suedette which was hanging around at home from other projects. The fabric is warm to the touch, but will not be to hot in summer and very quick drying.

So I have a strip of black suedette down one side of my cover, keeping the seams flat, I have cover stitched them down with two lines of stitching, this produces nice lines of stitching while binding the edge down at the same time. So just for those who said I was not self taught, what makes you think my college and university had one of these machines? My university tutors expected me to ask them for help threading an overlocker and seemed surprised when I did it myself. For those who don't know, overlockers are evil machines to re-thread from scratch.

On the other side of the seam; for washing reasons, have sewn in an 24"/61cm invisible zipper and seamed the ends as the zipper was not quite long enough and it was the longest found on EBay.

Inside part of internal zip, have not overlocked this down as the zip is always the first to break on any item of fashion or accessory.

Outside cover of invisible zipper

The cover is now finalised by seaming down both open sides and nicely overlocked inside. This suedette doesn't need overlocking as it doesn't fray, but makes it look nice inside and help keep the seams flat while in use.

Next the bean bag internals; the bean bag stocking net liner was from another bean bag which my mother doesn't use anymore, this was just knotted on either end, the beads were transferred to two other bags to top them up and its faux fur cover keeps my sewing chair warm.

Not recommended, I've seamed both ends and overlocked the bean stocking liner. Wasn't an easy job filling it. Looks like a sea slug!

Portable Seat Pad - Updating

Made this to sit on at work before the company unlocks the store. They don't have benches, but a concrete floor and they make you stand in the entrance where everyone tramples over. It's inconvenient to stand and eat at the same time, they can take over 30-40 minutes for them to unlock and sometimes even make us late for the job. I don't know why they can't delay people's shift by about 10 minutes if they can't open up on time or why they take their sweet time to unlock particularly when they've overslept. Usually employees should be allowed to have time to go to the loo, eat and dry yourself if drenched with rain before a shift starts.

So I designed this seat pad out of foam insulation gold foiled flooring underlay which is waterproof, slightly warm and cushioning, this stuff was left over when my sibling was sound proofing their computer case. This was cut 60X38 centimetres, with the foil side down and on top this lovely beige strawberry fleece was sewn around the edges with black polypropylene strapping. I like to hoard fabrics, the fabric shop is like a little kid in a candy shop for me. It's not that fun now with the obnoxious insults received in there half the time (Portsmouth Fabricland which has now closed down) and they don't seem to stock that much variety anymore, it matters to be able to touch fabrics when one sews, and their photos are really awful quality online. Anyway, had a huge thing for strawberries at one point, hence several fabrics stored in my room feature strawberries.

The foam was cut in half and joined by a piece of fabric cut out of my mother's old work bag, it was recycled after the end of it's life, but the fabric is still good. The fabric is plastic coated polyester fabric, the material you find on most luggage, so it is waterproof. This allowed my seat pad to be folding, portable and lightweight. Added two small 'D' rings at the fold and polyester strapping to attach a strap for travelling and concealed the nasty looking edge with the binding from the strap of the bag. The mat is finished off with magnet to keep it closed, but will flip over if it rains.

It's not perfect since I made it for myself, there's a couple of wonky bits, but no need to be a perfectionist when it is not for sale, made it in 2-3 hours after all. It'll be good for those wet park benches when it's warmer and want to sit outside, I'm also using it at home, to sit on the cold floor board, to do some Chinese calligraphy.

Pin Wheels & Plant Stakes

We have a mini border fence on our driveway spaced out; mainly to keep our conceited neighbour and arrogant visitors from driving on it and sitting in the car on it. To brighten up the driveway and fill in the spaces in between fencing, added a personal touch through some colour and fun through the use of pin wheels and plant stakes. 

Pin Wheels

These are made from plastic laminate and covered in outdoor UV resistant vinyl, I could have used recycled laminate, but there is a chance that text will show through the light coloured vinyls. Used longer rivets to allow pin wheels to spin and rounded off points with a corner cutter and scissors to give it a more professional look and be less eye poking. Covered bent copper (like one of those BBQ skewers) in white plastic coating to reduce oxidisation, purchased extra strong coat hangers to withstand the gusty wind in our area and hopefully have made these to last a good few years.

Made a total of 4 mini pin wheels for the front yard and 5 large pin wheels exactly in the same colours mainly for the back yard. All of them glow in the dark for a bit of extra fun.

Completed pin wheels.

One large completely glow in the dark pin wheel, to make it easier for my family and visitors to park in line with the fencing even in the dark.

Plant Stakes

Free handed the shapes for my plant stakes using red kohl pencil on some old steel pencil tins, cut them out with tin snips and ground the edges smooth with a electric engraver. If you've been an art student, you would have been told by your tutors to purchase soft pencils for drawing and these often come in tins. The other tin was a box of really rubbish colouring pencils from a pound shop which my mother brought for me. This is the only recycled part of the project, you can of course use aluminium cans instead.

Before: cut out steel shapes in steel container.

Final plant stakes; traced shapes in colourful vinyl, cut and stuck onto tin shapes both sides. Holes punched in position for rivets, cut and bent copper coat hangers into shape. Wire hanger plastic coated in black and hammered shorter rivets to keep complete the butterflies and flowers.

Finished four plant stakes, butterflies are not quite yet finished.

Finished butterfly stake complete with black garden wire, should have centred the antenna, oh well.

Spring cushion, Strawberry Print Cushion Cover - Updating

Seat Cushion & Cover

Made to pop on top on my lovely bamboo box or to use to sit on the floor. Reclaimed part of a coil mattress, sibling had backache so the mattress had to go.

(image to be inserted)

Finished cushion and cover. Navy strawberry print cover with silver edge piping, complete with hook and loop opening.

Broke down the mattress, pulled off extra coils to size, cut and glue gunned the woolly felt which came with the mattress. Drawn paper pattern around the mattress block and made a cover for it.

Simple Basic Card Holder

Made this holder for work to store numbers and notes, the little blank cards are used regularly in my place of employment, so are easily replaceable. This is adaptable to bank, identity or store cards and can be used to store phone numbers, addresses or business cards. I've seen customers come into our store asking for these, so you can make your own if you have the equipment or some nice hand sewing.

Card holder (ribbon decor)

Tools:

Food impulse sealer
70 micron CD sleeves (Higher micron if you want thicker and better quality)
Sewing machine or needle and thread with badawl or similar
2 Paper clips
5mm thick or less of scrap of ribbon around 8" long (optional)
Iron (optional with ribbon)
Leather or PU cover (optional)
Strong glue / Strong double sided tape (optional)

Tutorial:

1 Curl your CD sleeve to find the halfway mark, make a little crease at the top and bottom of that halfway mark. Insert your card to find where you want the base of your holder to end and make a crease where it ends. Do this to as many sleeves you need, but there should be too many otherwise your holder will not close, each sleeve will hold two cards (I'm using four sleeves for eight cards).

2 Align the creases in your impulse sealer (setting 4, varies on different sealers), seal each sleeve.

3 Cut off the bits you don't want, top and bottom.

4 Carefully align your sleeves in one direction and hold together with paper clips on each side.

5 Sew down the middle down the sealed line on sewing stitch length 4. If you are hand sewing, use the badawl and ruler to punch some holes for easier sewing.

If you want a cover you can add an extra sleeve and put in some coloured card or cut a piece of leather or PU and sew it with the sleeves or simply glue (shown after step 8, go up to step 4).

6 Fold the ends of your ribbon to double the length of the sleeve and iron it flat (This part is completely optional, you don't really need the ribbon).

7 Sew down each side of the ribbon sewing the inside of the holder first, if you have trouble sewing both sides at once. (If you don't like sewing, if you have some good double sided tape or glue to stick the ribbon, that will cover up the middle stitch line).

8 Close your card holder and ditch stitch along the ribbon (shown as blue dotted line on image), and your card holder is complete.

Hanging Magnetic Pad & Magnetic Wrist Pad - Updating

Saw my mother re-wiring our faulty door bell, she kept on loosing screwdriver and screws. Magnetic belts and wrist pads are available to purchase online. However, I wanted to try a hanging design and custom made to fit my small wrist. It will be useful for DIY tools and a lot of my steel sewing tools.

I will include a tutorial for the wrist pad which I'm currently making, though short on a few bits and bobs, but will upload the full tutorial soon. Unless you already have all the sewing materials, it is most likely cheaper to purchase online.

(wrist pad image will be uploaded once finished)

Materials

1 D-ring, rectangular rings or tri-ring

Polyester ribbon (enough to surround edge of pad)

Polyester strapping (enough for where ever you are attaching on your body)

Strong heavy duty fabric (I'm using cut offs from re-sizing a luggage bag to fit a mini fridge)

Linen thread

One large PVC computer dust filter (strong enough to withstand magnetic pull from magnets, this was given to me by my sibling)

6 or less neodymium magnets 5mm in thickness (thinner ones will shatter)

Velcro

ID neck strap or clasp (optional)

A lot of patience

Tutorial

1 Cut computer filter in half ( you could use a very thin cross stitch embroidery plastic or fabric mesh if you wish as a substitute), line up the holes of the two halves. Using the linen thread hand sew three divided sections to fit magnets, you can use the end of some scissors to push the magnets in, sew in the first three magnets and continue to next row (check to see they actually fit initially, before sewing them in). You should leave about 1 centimetre on the edge around the magnet to sew you metal ring attachments and strap. I sewn mine quite neatly back and front, you don't have to follow that rule. Two of the sides left wider for my wrist strap.

front

stitching on back

2 On the back of your fabric, draw around your filter and magnets, add 7mm seam allowance and cut two out. Place on top of filter and magnets on either side, sew all together around your filter (you should be able to feel the edge). If you are using a sewing machine, the magnets will stick to your machine's throat plate, so you will have to sew feeding it in holding most of the magnets in you hand to prevent them from sticking to the plate, unless you have a plastic one.

3 Iron your ribbon vertically to leave fold in the middle of you ribbon. Using a lighter or candle singe the end of your ribbon to stop it fraying, it should go along one edge of your filter, cut to measurement and singe the other end. Do the same for the other three edges of your filter. Once all cut to length, proceed to sew the ribbon to the edges.

4 Cut your polyester strapping to length; you can fold the edges in to stop fraying if really light weight or for heavy weight strapping singe the ends. Thread your metal rings through the strapping and sew onto the wider sides.

5 If it is to fit waist or wrist, you will need to sew on velcro patches. You should now have a finished magnetic pad.

(will be finished and upload later, budget constraints)

Cherry Blossom Bag Embellishment

This was sewn years ago as my very first sewing personal sewing project a couple of years after my uncle picked on me for my old lady appearance in my early twenties; my old camera couldn't handle the reflective properties, only just managed to photograph properly now with a better camera. The bag seemed a little boring, so embellished it with a sprig of flowers; I was really into the whole East Asian culture of cherry blossom viewing and had a thing for them at the time. The bag isn't used that often, mostly during the Chinese New Year period, as cherry and plum blossoms are representative of the new year in most East Asian cultures.

Flowers were all individually cut from circles of acrylic felt with seed bead centres detail and hand sewn with metallic gold thread. Branches of gold wrapping elastic stitched down with more metallic thread; finished of with peach plastic pearl beads as buds and green bugle beads as leaves.

Glass Etching - Still Updating

PVC Pen Pocket & Work Belt

Clear PVC pen pocket with 'D' ring and black plastic popper made for work to hold a couple of normal sized markers and at most a big marker. After being moved to a different department, it was inconvenient to search clothing pockets, much more efficient and keep out the way by hanging on a neck strap, and tucking inside shirt until needed.

PVC can be quite weak on its own, so have strengthened the pocket and 'D' ring attachment by heat bonding and pressing with an impulse sealer. Neck strap is a strong versatile and adjustable existing strap I have purchased off line. I had so much fun making this item.

Made pen pouch number two, after PVC pocket went to heaven. This one is much more robust; It's still flat as I didn't want anything bulky around my neck, it's quite snug since the pocket size was reduced by about 1cm and has three separate pockets. Created from recycled PVC lined polyester fabric from a luggage bag, some ribbon brought from the shop, D-ring, polyester strapping and a snap button.

Personally customised elasticated two inch belt for work in case any more weight is put on, it's handy to have something which carries everything I would need. Both pen pocket and belt is matched to my black uniform, black is a nice standard neutral colour, it will match even with different outfits if chosen to be worn for an interview.

This is made with twin elasticated pockets made from remaining elastic since only a meter was ordered with one popper button fastening for securing small notes and one to hold a not so clean tissue, hook and loop opening over a rectangular metal loop for keys or chain a safety knife of which is being ordered for me and a piece of suede for removing dry wipe pen. On the side is a popper fastening on Petersham ribbon to hold steel coil or key chain to prevent it swinging into someone or some child's face. Clear nylon mesh pocket is detachable from the belt and made from an old pencil case resized, it holds some cards needed for work, clean tissue and a plaster.

Chinese Calligraphy - Updating

My mother use to take an online course for Chinese painting many, many years ago; as my hobbies includes a lot of creative arts, I took an interest in her course books, curiosity got the better of me and my mother told me to give a go. I was okay with it and my mother praised me for my work, but never really kept it going. Later was told my handwriting was good and strangely took to it rather well, ending up taking on calligraphy as well. My mother doesn't really praise me for much; I was never treated like a princess; rather brought up as a tomboy to make sure I was taught to learn and do things by myself. I feel there is a connection to my Chinese cultural background when I practice it, it is very satisfying when it looks good.

I was born in England, so not going to say my Chinese will be top notch; or my reading, speaking, writing skills be up to standard or fluent. Like many British born Chinese children, our English will be better than our Chinese, after all we need to make a living and to learn English is part of survival and my mother tongue is not the national Chinese dialect or even second in rank. I did learn and improve my Chinese due to watching movies, particularly Jackie Chan action movies and television dramas. At home I will flip between English and two Chinese dialects, one being Cantonese and the other my home dialect; often a sentence will be a mishmash of the three languages, so you have to understand all three to make out what I'm saying.

The most insulting thing a Chinese person had told me was in Debenham's, not a English person. A Chinese customer obviously from mainland China told me I should speak and greet Chinese to him (Mandarin), I did learn Mandarin as well, but he should really have read up on Chinese history and the fact I was in an English speaking shop. I was also called a derogatory term by another Chinese person from Hong Kong that I was a "banana" (yellow on the outside and white on the inside), I'm obviously far from being "white washed", just because I'm born in England doesn't make me uninterested in my cultural background or fully integrated into Western culture. It's upsetting to be discriminated, yet by Chinese people who should know better, clearly people don't know my full background history and should get to know me first.

There are 10 Chinese dialects, there are also dialects in a dialect. Most Chinese people will have to learn other dialects, just like another language; the tones and writing system slightly differs and most of us will not understand each other. There are two writing systems; that means learning to write in two ways as well, though that does not mean every Chinese person can write in both systems. The first, are traditional characters and the second are simplified characters. The simplified system was introduced to main China in the 1930's, so it is not as old as traditional characters, mainly to improve literacy and communication. Only some of the traditional characters were replaced for simple characters, so in a way the traditional characters were not made extinct but co-exist. As China is a big country and speakers of other dialects did not want to loose their own mother tongue or did it catch on completely, traditional characters still exist as second form of writing. Traditional writing is standard in Taiwan, most used in Hong Kong, it is still standard with some other dialect users there are over 50,000 characters. Simplified however, is considered China's main writing system. Unlike English, the Chinese writing system is not phonetic, but is made of radicals which makes it harder to learn; this will be explained further with my calligraphy work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_Chinese_characters

The national dialect in China is Mandarin; used mainly in mainland China and Taiwan, Cantonese is dominant in Hong Kong. My dialect, is also mainly in Hong Kong; which I will not be spilling the beans to anyone, it is nice to talk without nosy individuals eavesdropping. I cannot say too much about the other 7 dialects or can I name them, but you can read about them in the link below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varieties_of_Chinese

Drawstring / Hook & Loop Bags - Updating

Make a whole bunch of bags, just to keep bugs and dust at bay, and to keep things organised and easy to carry.

Made originally for my sibling's dashcam; insists that everything they own is in black, so ultimately had to make a black one, so this one ended up for my mother's dashcam. Made from some cheap bead kit from the pound shops, and some faux polyester suedette fabric, left over from college project.

Freebies came with my sewing machine which included 50 rolls of sewing thread; a real bargain as it came with accessory kit, plus a five piece set of Frister + Rossmann scissors. Decided to make a bunch of calico bags to keep threads together and the insects out; white nylon mesh windows from a recycled beach bag with bias binding surround, complete with colour coded writing when viewed from back.

Baking Fun - Updating

Chinese Styled Cream Egg Roll

Personal recipe with fruit cocktail twist.

Variations in flavour with the same recipe, trying to not bore my friends and family of the same old same old thing:

Cream and fruit topping of fruit cocktail and honey dew melon slices, with fresh cut strawberries from the garden. Two tone flavoured cake; chocolate base and plain top, drizzled with diced strawberry syrup.

Still experimenting with alcohol measure in cake recipe; Baileys egg roll with liqueur cream and liqueur chocolate syrup.

Egg roll with fruit cocktail, vanilla fresh cream, topped with chopped nuts (given to my mother as Christmas present).

Made for my mother's 60th, a little rushed so not perfect; sandwiched permisson fruit syrup, smothered in fresh cream, topped with crunchy caramel swishes and fresh cut permisson slices.

Belated birthday cake, timed it for the weekend, so family could eat it all. Plain sandwiched double layered berry cake; fresh cream topped with sliced strawberries and blueberries drizzled with almond flavoured syrup, decorated with chocolate "Flake" and more sliced strawberries. I should make this in summer; should steal berries from our own garden, they are so overpriced in supermarkets out of season.

My favourite; chocolate roll with chocolate fresh cream filling, laced with black cherries and kirsch syrup, topped with chocolate dusting. A hit with the rest of the family and friends.

Chinese Crispy Egg Rolls

Ingredients & Tools:

Real butter

95g Icing sugar

Eggs

Electric waffle maker / ice-cream cone maker (must be completely flat)

Cotton gloves to prevent burning

Wood or bamboo chopsticks or similar

Sesame seeds / poppy seeds / seaweed crumbs (optional)

(Full tutorial and image to be uploaded later)

Handmade Cards

Handmade cards for friends and for sale, self made components excluding text.

Made with purchased components or gift from a friend.

Made with a gift tag brought in the Woolworths sale for 10p.