A mandala pouch for my poppers

Since I shared the stack of vinyl pouches with you, pouches seem to have overtaken my life, which is a little dramatic I know. But I seriously have a bad case of Pouch Love!

This isn’t new to me, I’ve known I’ve had it for a long time - but what is new is that now I’m creating my own, and my answer really is ‘oh I need a pouch for that’ whatever the question. I’ve a few ready to share with you so will start to do that over the next few weeks, and don’t say I didn’t warn you.

This one though is both practical - it’s already in use - and had made use of two of the Adult Learning courses I did last year. This combines a print from the Indian Block Printing & Stitch course, along with the skills I picked up in the Bag Making course - most notably zips.

Though for all of the pouches I’ve made so far, I’ve still not switched to a zipper foot, so I think I probably should add that to my ‘to conquer’ list for this year, but back to this pouch.

It started off as a neon pink printed mandala on the cut up frill of an old valance sheet. Seriously.

Quite humble beginnings. At this point not even the edges had been finished on my overlocker - I guess I was keen to carry on printing during the class, and had underestimated just how many squares I’d need so printed and cut as I went!

As for many of the prints that I did in the class I had no real plans for what I’d do with the outputs, I was just enjoying the creative process and exploring the patterns and colours available. After the class finished I made more of a plan as to how I would embellish the prints, or at least chose a colour scheme.

The colour scheme chose me

This was was always going to have an element of teal, and I don’t know why. It’s not a colour I usually go for, though I have since bought clothes that are a similar colour, and I think it goes well with the pink. I was also keen for some of the printing to remain on show, and not to cover it all with embroidery, other than that I had no real plans when I started out.

After embellishing some of the printed area I knew I wanted more teal, and so it seemed natural to enclose it with a circle. And I thought I might turn it into an eye, but as I continued to embroider I decided against that. I didn’t do the outer circles - or at least two of them - freehand, I used a glass vase and then a plate to draw around to stop it all going skewif.

Nor did I use an embroidery hoop, and on reflection I probably should have for this one, as I ended up with more material than necessary in the centre. Thankfully though I came up with a plan for dealing with that - to use wadding to fill the hole, and so creating an almost raised central area. This in turn reminded me of the poppers I’d used on the first pouches I’d made, which the all important tools for were functionally, but not prettily stored in the metallic plastic bag it arrived in.

Now I really had a plan

With that I realised the answer was ‘I needed a pouch for that’ and what better than one with a big circle on the front. It was meant to be! But did I have any material that would match my teal scheme, probably - and as it turns out I did.

I’d bought the Liberty silk remnant during lockdown, along with some other prints which I’d used for some fancy masks, but I hadn’t used this one at all. Now was its time - I even found a complementary zip from the large stash I bought from eBay. The lining is the pale pink t-shirt remnant which I’d saved from a recently retired camisole top. Perfect.

I used the same approach as for the vinyl fronted pouches, but obviously without the vinyl part - and a whole lot bigger. Having made that stack of pouches really helped me out, as knowing how they were assembled meant I could made the adaptations I needed.

And it turned our really well.

Not only does it hold the tools for attaching the poppers - and the spare bits that came with it, it also holds the plastic container full of poppers.

So now when I want to add a popper I just need to go to my mandala pouch for my poppers - which may not always be easy to say, but it sure is easy to find!

Shelves in the pantry

I dubbed 2024 the year of the shelves, and while we didn’t get to all the shelves I’d hoped we would there were still plenty of shelves (and don’t worry more to come for MOH this year!). We were off to a good start with the really useful shelves in the bathroom cupboard, which I’d broached with MOH after a significant period of swear-free DIY tasks following the more troublesome to put together open shelving in the pantry and utility room.

True to my word the next shelving project was also in the pantry, though I didn’t expect it to be many months later until we started this - but hey ho, that’s what happened. It’s taken me a few more months to share it here, but while these shelves might be small, they are mighty!

They have completed the storage in this area and it’s so much better to see things on a shelf rather than a basket on the floor. Even MOH agrees, as he could never find any of our herbs and spices before - and didn’t help matters by putting them back into random spots, which made cooking “fun”.

But anyway, they are up - and are in use - and everything is still in the same place, (I hesitated to write that as i) I didn’t want to tempt fate and ii) I don’t want MOH to see it as some kind of challenge. Hmmn) and it’s the perfect use for a not very big, but potentially useful space behind the door.

I was pleased that the Proof of Concept passed muster…

Though I admit in my mind’s eye I had something a little more permanent and sturdy in mind…

I needn’t have worried, that was also a test, apparently, and after that the shelves flew up.

You might be wondering if the part-SMOL box is significant - it is. That was the very practical ‘spacer’ ensuring that the shelves (all bar the bottom one) were the same distance apart. It’s advantage was it was freestanding, thus freeing up MOH’s hands and avoiding the need for me to be there holding it, no doubt in the wrong place.

Don’t they look great?

What you can’t see here though is the detail on the front edge. Clearly growing back into his shelf game MOH routed the edges so they matched the edges on the open shelving which are (as you look) on the right of these. A small touch, but one that really elevates them, or I think so, he’s a clever wood worker isn’t he?

Then it was over to me to load them up - actually a more daunting task than you’d think.

I’ve grouped similar types of spices together, for example on the bottom shelf there’s all the spicier spices - which as luck would have it all turned out to be in similar coloured jars. The ‘shop’ tin on that shelf is just the right size for some stock cubes, and the one two shelves above is home to our home grown, home dried bay leaves - much prettier than an old take away box!

The top shelf, which I can reach without steps - another requirement! - holds those which are used less often. And while there’s spaces I think I’ve got all that I need and even threw out a few more jars in the process. But if there’s a new addition, then there’s plenty of space for that too.

The pantry isn’t the biggest space - but it’s plenty big enough - so it’s hard to get all of the new shelves in one shot. The final, and larger spaced shelf, has more stock cubes and more basics like salt and pepper refills. If needed, it can also hold bottles (as we know from the Proof of Concept) but I can’t see that we’ll need it for that anytime soon.

Living in the space (the house, not the pantry) really did help shape how we shelved this space. My first instinct was to have shelves top to bottom and be in shelf heaven. But I rethought that after hosting our first Christmas here in 2023 and adding some extra and much needed space with the fold-up table, previously my sewing machine table. It was so useful that since it moved here it’s never left, even though I’ve only used it a couple of times since.

And it’s found itself the perfect home, hasn’t it?

Opting for a muted colour scheme for my Christmas wreath

Last year my Christmas wreath was full of gold and silver and cinnamon sticks and dried oranges, and it was gorgeous. This year though I thought I’d try something different, though I wasn’t quite sure what that would be, and there wasn’t much point in having too set an idea as I wasn’t sure what would be available on the night.

This year I made my wreath with a small group of other people in a local pub in the next village to us - and a new to me pub too! The workshop at the Rose & Crown in Farndon was led by Emma from the Farndon Flower Farm, so it was great to support two local businesses at once.

This year instead of decanting the wreath into the garage overnight, I left it in the boot of the car. Retrieving it the next morning brought a pleasant surprise as not only was it the first time I’d seen the wreath in daylight, but the car also smelt of the pine and eucalyptus foliage.

My plan wasn’t to hang it on the door immediately though, as Storm Darragh with high winds was forecast for the weekend, so the wreath only made it as far as the gym for safekeeping. I was so glad I did as the weather was atrocious, our garden table and chairs were upended at one point, the table completely flipped over by the wind (while the chairs were still attached to it), so it was a good call.

With hindsight we probably should have moved the garden furniture ahead of the storm too - though when we spotted that it needed attention, thankfully it wasn’t raining so moving the table and chairs, and the cover which had become like a sail was only cold, rather than wet and cold work! Thankfully too the ceramic glass top of the table has been cushioned by landing on the grass, so it appears to have escaped undamaged. Phew. Needless to say, it’s staying in the garage for the time being much to MOH’s chagrin.

But anyway, the white washed walls so lovingly painted last winter by MOH provided the perfect backdrop for a mini photoshoot!

I was keen to have some longer tendrils of foliage on my wreath, and so that’s what I did choosing to leave the more wispy stems longer. I’ve also used a healthy dose of eucalyptus, which means every time we come in or go out we get a noseful of that - it’s glorious.

Decoration wise I added five sprigs of dried hydrangea - these were all from one flowerhead and separated into smaller more manageable sections. With those in place I added some dried bracken which adds a touch of natural gold, and bundles of berries sprayed gold, fluffy grass heads and dried sea holly flowers.

And I’m really pleased with how it turned out, and it looks great hanging on the dark grey door, as I knew it would. Though as I stepped back to admire it, my eyes were drawn to the door just above the handle, and yes, the door had eaten the wreath.

So much so, that this particular tendril had made it inside - some trimming was definitely needed! Now it’s trimmed and looking fantastic, we’re starting to feel like Christmas is definitely on its way!