Last Sunday I went to the reservoirs, inspired by the snow on the hills. I had a lovely icy walk, lots of beautiful scenery as always, but also some amazing ice formations that had formed, some from the drips on the cliffs and others around the grasses and brambles.

I amused myself taking some arty shots of the frost on the moss and the reflections in the water. It was so lovely and strange to think that in a few shorts weeks we will be back to having lambs on the hills and then all of the rhododendrons in bloom. It doesn’t seem that long since all the walks last year and here we are at the end of January.

In some ways it has been a long year but in others it seems to have flown by. As of tomorrow I only have 150 days left at work. I bought myself some little countdown chalkboards at the start of term last year. In August the first day was with 305 to go, and I am now over half way through! Exciting times indeed. Now I just have to sell the house, pack everything up, learn to drive and try and leave the country, negotiating Brexit on the way 🙂

Ellen came up again this weekend and did the first fitting on the jacket, it is not too bad size wise so the next task is tacking it up fully and another fitting in a few weeks. I am so glad she is able to help with this. Having the mannequin is great but she is not the same shape as me and does not move, so is not good for proper fittings.

We also made a start on the hat to go with the outfit. I have been trawling Pinterest again and had added these two lovely examples to my Steampunk board.

I wanted to make a miniature version and after many trials decided on a 4″ high with a 4″ diameter hat that will be attached to a headband. We made a little mock-up with cardboard and making tape.

I had ordered some embellishments for the hat this week, I was so pleased with the cameo, which I found on Ebay. It goes brilliantly with the blue material.

The gold lace was from my stash, no idea where that came from but may have been a present from Mum from Spain.

The ostrich feathers are so soft and fluffy and look brilliant. I do need to source some more trim for the top and brim edges of the hat. The real thing will be buckram covered in felt. The trim will be useful to hide the joins as buckram can be quite difficult to sew with. I found this very useful tutorial so am using that as a guide to making the top hat, but am just intending to do a flat brim.

I have just found a perfect pair of shoes as well, second hand, which just need a bit of lace adding to them as well. I will also make a handbag, possibly with a clasp and chain but we will see how that goes!

I hope that you have all had a good week and are doing something nice this weekend. Next week I have what will hopefully be my last Saturday teaching session ever so will be very excited to have all my weekends free from then on.

Take care, stay safe, and thanks for visiting.