Resa Smith ***maxi dress***

A few weeks ago I had time of work due to a nasty throat infection. As I work in a call centre this made me un-work-able! So I began to dream up some ideas.

The Inspiration:

Here is the inspiration, from Monsoon, followed by the outcome, a maxi dress made with fabric I bought with Selina, from an Indian fabric shop on Dudley road.

The Plan:

Well so many people, when they hear about the idea of maxi dresses go 'oOOooo I'd like one please!!' so the plan is to finalise my pattern and have 1 standard size to fit dress size 8-12 (bra 30a-34c)

Followed by two length options:

flats (5"4 and under)

heels (5"5+)

Bigger bust sizes (dress 12-18) will be made in a few weeks when I've got going :)

So I'm off fabric shopping asap (I have work this week boo!) and then I'll get sewing!!

Once 6 are done I'll be calling on Selina (beautiful model) for a photoshoot and J will be working hard to get a website online with paypal enabled

Blessings!! xX

(please comment if you have any further sizing ideas or if you feel you wouldn't be suited to the options suggested)

Blackbottom cakes

Made yesterday, half the mixture is cocoa and flour, the other half is an egg, mascarpone cheese and choc chips... Yum! Rich but went down well x

Nebula Photos

I've finished all 6 nebulas and they start going on tour with the kids club from tomorrow. More photos on picasa:

http://picasaweb.google.com/MaresaEsmee/NebulaBlog#

Technique:

I'd start off by tye dying the sheet a base colour, such as green or blue, three hours later I lay it out flat on some plastic sheeting. Onto the spray bottles: two bottles filled with colours (silk dye, bought as a liquid) and one filled with water to blend the colours. I used an image as reference per image so I had something to work from, and once the intial pattern was 'painted' I'd work more colours on top with different intensities of dilution, or using dylon powder dye in the bottles - mixed with salt and using hot water.

The silk dyes are very intense when used 100% and leave the fabric soft to touch, whereas the dylon can be used to cover larger areas and leaves the fabric more crunchy due to the salt.

Once nearly dry (the next day) I sprayed or splattered some areas with bleach, or left to dry completely before applying a second lot of dye. Onto the ironing which would take about 45 mins per sheet to ensure the silk dye is fixed, and because the sheets are huge! I'd then lay

them out to map the sequin using dressmakers tape and sew sew sew!

I got pretty into it and would love to do more!

Nebula

First few photos of my nebula project.

These are room dividers for a kids club, made from a series of flat double bed sheets. I've used a range of techniques, silk dye, dylon, bleach and salt to get a variety of effects. They've all turned out so different.

The inspiration - Organic space - not rockets or spaceships - Nebulas, supernovas and gas storms

The outcome - liquid colours that still look as though in motion, grainy explosions and crinkly black velvet tones creeping across the sky with a shimmer of sequins and crystals.

Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

We had some friends over last week and to make it a bit more fancy than the usual lasagne evenings, I made some strawberry cheesecake cupcakes. I've got two recipies for these, one of the muffin variety, and the others are cupcakes. I chose cupcakes because the topping is made from butter, icing sugar and cream cheese with sprinkled digestive biscuit crumbs. Yum. The cake has strawberry chunks through it, making it more of a pudding experience than afternoon tea delight. I think the muffins would be good with ice-cream and they lack the creamy topping.

The day after, I made some black bottom cakes, rich chocolate cakes made from two seperate mixtures - one chocolate and eggless - the other flourless with cream cheese and choc chips. You collide the two mixtures side by side in a cupcake case and wallah! Delicious, rich, varient cakes. Ingredients: coco, choc chips and of course my current obsession; cream cheese. (pictured before topping was added)

Oh and J & I have discovered the best time to go shopping in Asda is 10pm, when all the kids are in bed and the new stock is being put out :)

And heres the cake I made for my birthday.

Delicious Kitchens

Our initial 6 months in Wolverhampton are nearly over and now we are looking for a new place to live, either in Wolves so J can keep his job, or in Nottingham - to let the real adventure begin! If anything is cetain, its this: I'm on a hunt for a fabulous kitchen!!

It has to be faitly modest too, afterall, in September I will be a student again, so as long as there is room to make baked beans on toast and pizza - we're fine!!

Here's some inspirations:

Breakfast bar attic style kitchen, great worktop space even thought the kitchen is small

Kitchen/Diner in a house in Nottingham (affordable!) Could imagine this for when we have kids too

Lush kitchen island/bar/worktop with storage. This would be ideal because then it can go with us wherever we move to. I like the wood colour with the white.

Davina has kitchen shelves instead of cupboards and it's so handy, you can see where everything is so things don't get lost. (Ikea of course)

Love the chalkboard idea. And I'm spotting a theme here - Kitchen Islands!

Gorgeous exposed brick wall, rustic cooking in a rustic kitchen.

Kitchen/lounge/diner, open plan which has a spiral staircase in the middle of the room, leading to a mezzanine floor for the bedroom... LUSH!

In Wolverhampton Princess lofts (but someone is renting it already)

What's your favourite kitchen styles?

Meez xX

Merlin Boots

For Christmas I am hoping for some new boots! J has messaged everyone in our families to ask them to club together.. but I keep finding more boots to choose from! I love the current trend over the knee boots, but I would like something more wearable for the everyday uni days, something that will last for years without dating, or at least something that suits me and the styles that I wear. Tall boots can make me loose my legs!

...My inspiration came from watching Merlin, the BBC series..

www.bbc.co.uk/merlin/

From Free People (who now ship to UK, finally!), these are perfect, but perhaps over priced, and coming from USA I can't try them on or return them.. Brit Boot £148

http://www.freepeople.com/index.cfm/fuseAction/products.detail/_/Brit-Boot/productID/548ef12f-db87-4e0d-9a2f-0200f87317ab/productOptionIDs/0b6e9cad-a8f4-4ccf-8a37-466219f4ea95/categoryID/9bc28317-1ea4-460d-a375-7bd1806ebb71/cmCategoryID/8a61524b-907c-474c-ab37-f357c9ae11e3/&detailcross

From Dune, these are great on the screen but crap on my feet! Tiff £90

House of Fraser has a brill range, I headed in the direction of Kurt Geiger even tho they tend to be expensive and found these, they looked fabulous in the shop and on my feet but they are brown instead of black and also heeled.. hmmm

Which are your favourite??