trapeze dress, my practice project

In between staying in bed with awful cold and barely going out to get some medicine and food,  I have finished this dress.  I did make a few major mistakes, so I can not sell this one.  This was meant to be for Arielle.  But I don't think it is her style.  Oh well... here are few photos of it.  I did order some weaved labels for my projects and it is pretty cool with it, looks almost professional. 

sewers beware, do not buy from Cooper(sewing machine discount.com)

Since I have a fairly good machine waiting to be sent to my next long term place(still not sure where), while in London I have decided to find a really cheap one so I found this website called Sewing machine discount .com  and called them.  They said it will be there next day if I order it.  That was a start of my nightmare.  I finally got my sewing machine after thee weeks of mental suffering,  it has problem of snagging in the bobbin, but I decided to deal with it rather than deal with this horrid trader. They are the worst of the kind and should not be allowed to do business. It was unfortunate that my first experience coming back to UK was this nasty.  

The weather has been nasty also and I ended up getting sick this week and still am. I can't really work or go out much.  Just to get some groceries. But in between resting and getting sick I was able to do a little test sewing with one of my wonderful sewing books I ordered through the French publisher.  Sewing machine snagged badly only once, that is good.  

When I was at Cornell majoring Chemistry in the early 80's,  I took an apparel design course and almost failed.  I am terrible at sewing. 
I have some sales fabric I got from John Lewis ( this fabric travelled to Israel and came back to London with me, along with my nice Liberty fabric stash, story of my life at the moment).
It is going pretty good so far, not perfect. I am making a trapeze dress for Arielle, which I highly doubt she will wear it.  

the sweetest pin cushion from Greece, a gift from Arielle

The pin cushion Arielle got me as a gift from Greece a few years ago is being so useful.  I absolutely love it.  Thank you my angel!!!
After this one comes out wearable, I can make a little summer dress with my Liberty fabric. 

columbia road

I have lived 49 years in this life.  Getting old is a hard business and I wish I enjoyed my youth more when I was going through it.  I moved back to London hoping to start a little business but each day, I am getting a bit more timid with the idea.  I am not the fearless, brave person I once was.  But I have to do something, to keep my sanity. I can not just get work here because I don't have the working visa. I was going to get entrepreneur visa and start small business since it seemed like the easiest visa for me to achieve, but I need to start a real business and hire legal workers here. I think selling things is hard, even harder will be having a retail business, so if I do start, will be a very small affair online. But I am almost tempted to just go back to the states, find a job and play safe.  
I live near this lovely artsy street Columbia Road, where a lot of independent artists have small boutiques and studios. I went for a walk the other day just to see whats out there.  The place is busiest on Sundays when there is this famous flower market.  I have not been there on Sunday but on a weekday during lunch hour. It was discouraging because, the street was dead except for a few tourists and homeless people. It would be hard to run shops here.  

cute street corner near columbia road

one of the shops on Columbia Road

cute antique shop on Columbia Road

I have to go back on Sunday to see how vibrant this place is.  The place near it has so many cute little flats, which I suspect are now incredibly expensive and gentrified.  Here is the link for Columia Road businesses. http://www.columbiaroad.info/

For the time being, I must continue my everyday crafts and here is another hat I am making, finally for myself, since the weather here in London is freaking redunkulously freezing.

finally, a hat for myself

mini ice age in the UK

Since I moved back to UK, the weather has not been that good.  I know, it is London we are talking about but after all it is almost April.  It's been several weeks since I got here and the weather is getting worse by day.  Just freezing. Yucky! 

The day after I got back, I decided to keep my promise of getting in shape and start walking a lot, if not able to run right away.  I invested in £90(omg, thats expensive) running shoes and was doing well walking for first few days, and this deep freeze......

Serious walk has to wait a bit.  For now, lots of knitting, driving to Islington and  Stratford Westfield and try not to feel too guilty about it.

I got this wonderful how to knit book for x-mas for Arielle, from this tiny craft shop near my flat, and she made this wonderful wrist band for herself.  She chose out these adorable metal buttons for it. I was really surprised she did this all by herself.. she is only 14.  Well done Arielle.

I am also starting a knitting project and am making a wooly hat, so I can share it with Arielle, we desperately need more wooly hats now, we will need them until start of May. Oh dear.

If life gives you a lemon, you need to make lemonade right? So, I decided to hold off with excercise and stay home and do some fun craft projects.  

All my things are still in the huge concrete mansion in Israel waiting to be shipped to wherever I decide settle,  my sewing machine included, but I really want to start sewing soon, so I ordered a cheap but reliable(hopefully) display model from this website, and it is supposed to be delivered today. yay!!! I figured that if I am really going to start trying to have a little online shop, having one more sewing machine will be alright.

No offense to anyone but as far as design is concerned, it is hard to top French or Japanese, in my opinion.  I have recently came across Japanese publications of apparel, knitting and crochet books while in France.  French publishing company translates them and sell them. From my Korean friend who loves sewing, I found out that they do translate these amazing books in Korean as well.  Of course there are so my other wonderful books published in UK or USA like Rowan, Debbie Bliss etc, but I love these Japanese books the most. But I can not find any English translations.  The other day, Arielle and I went to the Loop knitting in Islington, and to my surprise, found the Japanese books there, but double the price of French publication, eek... I bought one since with postage and shipping ordering from France or Korea will take a while and bit more complicated... But the problem is that I understand French more than I understand Japanese, mind you I barely understand French. However, they do give you diagrams with codes, so I can try to work with that.

French translation of Japanese book from edisaxe publishing company

 

Original Japanese publication from Loop Knitting in Islington, London

 

 

Courtauld Gallery and Wool House at the Somerset House

cold and snowy in London, colder than when we were here for xmas.

Yesterday was a very good day, although it was fereeeeeezing outside. So, if you live in London for a while you learn few tricks. The tube costs fortune, like if you want to go to several places, it can easily add up to £20 easy. I do keep a car in London but during the weekdays most of the day, you need to pay £10 to get into central London, so unless I have to, I don't bring my car in. But, on Saturdays, and Sundays, there is no congestion charge, and on Sundays, a lot of parking bays are free. So, yesterday, we drove around central London like we own the town, for free. So, that is a good day.

Although I lived in London from 2009 to 2011, there are too many places in London I haven't seen yet. We lived previously in the West side of London, but this time around we are in East London. There are so many cultural venues and one of which is a smallish gallery with a great art school called Courtauld. It is located at the Somerset house right next to the King's College Strand campus. I finally visited with Arielle after visiting the Wool House for the second time. It house few of very famous impressionist art which was a great surprise. The current exhibit is called, Becoming Picasso:Paris 1901, a small but wonderfully comprehensible exhibition. I could not take photos of the exhibition but I was able to snap a few photos from their permanent collection.

arielle in front of a Botticelli piece

Wool House exhibition at the Somerset House

a child's room at the Wool House exhibit

After several days of arriving back in London, I feel a bit settled now. Lexy was ill with a terrible food poisoning and for a few days, we could not do much.

But she is feeling much better( Thank you lord!!!!) and today we had such a lovely day together. I met her at Somerset house after her lecture at King's College next door, where she studies English Literature. The exhibit is called Wool House, and it was one of the most enjoyable exhibition I have seen. I was so happy to just take in these gorgeous crafts.

It runs till this Sunday, and I am planning to go back with better camera with Arielle, she is coming in a few days from Israel and I can't wait to go back there with her. This exhibition was just so stunning. I didn't expect it to be as large as it was. I expected few rooms with some woolly crafts but it completely exceeded my expectation and I was so impressed. Hats off to the curator. She did an amazing job.

Lexy in a apparel room with Vivienne Westwood creation

My favorite rooms were a child's room and a very rustic country room. I left the catalog at the tea room at the Savoy( I know, that will need another blog all together) where we ate after the exhibition... bummer. So I can not recall the designer's names but here is the website for more information. http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/about/press/press-releases/wool-house

child's room

The rustic room

love the wooden cross

displays

workshop in progress

me being happy

This exhibition is a dream for people who love arts and crafts. And it is free. If you are in London, it is so worth a visit.

ready to move on

I painted this from Arielle's preschool photo

Only a few days and I will say goodbye to Israel and move in permanently(at least for a few years) to our London hole.  We had bought a lot of IKEA furniture, two TVs and so much other stuff here in Israel.  I am selling it all for practically nothing and today they will come to take them.  Finally I feel like closing this chapter of my unstable life here in Israel.  Israel can be a wonderful place, but this time around I really didn't enjoy it at all. It feels great to be getting out of here.

As I was packing again, found this painting I did for Arielle's room in our French country home. I used acrylic paint thinned with water, almost like water color.
I really love doing, kitchy, almost primitive style of paintings,  a lot more than academic based art with so much meaning(or b.s.) attached to it.  Simple arts and crafts, especially ones you can integrate into your everyday life and be able to use it seems to me more meaningful for me at this stage of my life.

DMC

click on the picture to go to the larger image for instruction

click on the picture to go to the larger image for instruction

So many future projects, too many wonderful craft sources, so little time. I would love to start lace crochet again which I have long abandoned since my early twenties.  
I discovered DMC yarns while in France,  they are really wonderful and in their UK website you can find some free patterns and ideas.  They ship all over the world, but if they do not to where you are, I will be happy to do it for you for a small fee.  

Here is the link to their international website.
http://www.dmc.com/

La Croix Verte

I love this quilt, I slept in it

for sale on her page which I like very much

my bag

In the spring of 2011, my visa to UK ran out and I decided to buy a property in French countryside and travel between UK and France. While I was waiting for notaire to finalize the purchase and move in, I had to spend few weeks in Chambre d'hotes. I was staying at this place called La Croix Verte. I found it through UK travel site Alistair Sawday, Special Place to Stay.
The place or the breakfast was not that amazing although a small chateau in the back of the property was absolutely darling. What was amazing was that the French owners, who didn't speak English at all, were incredible artisans. The husband is a potter, who made all their kitchen ware and lamps and what not. The wife made incredible patchwork, all the gorgeous linens in the house are made and embroidered by her. I bought one of her bag when I left. They have a shop and studio in the property and are very French. They would not give me any discounts. You can discover her stuff through the links I posted and also buy her things through French version of Etsy, A Little Market( her line is called lilyabeth ) mind you, she is not cheap( or very friendly ) but I do really lover her stuff. Something I wanted to share from my travels. Enjoy!

broken opaline

super glued, sad

Last summer, I sold my country home in France and moved everything to Israel temporarily, since my future whereabouts was so uncertain( it still is ). I had bought some of most beautiful French antiques from a lady in Limoges. The house had the most beautiful lights and I bought almost all of them. The house was her late mother's, the lady had impeccable taste. The light was beautiful in my bedroom, but when it was moved, the mover packed it without disassembling and right next to a very heavy metal fan. When I found it broken, I was so upset. Now I am moving again, I wanted to at least piece together as best as I can until I can find a proper restorer who can restore opaline.

If anyone who knows someone who does glass restoration, or who can make exact duplicate, please drop me an email or leave a comment for me, please. It looks like I need to find an opaline artisan who can replicate it somewhere deep in the French country and when will I be able to do that?, I am not sure.

Comptoir de Famille

Comptoir de Famille, France, sells absolutely gorgeous home stuff, and yes, they are quite pricey, but oh so beautiful. Here are few pictures from their new collection I stole from their website. You can find dealers in US and UK, but nothing like visiting their shops in France. While I was living in Central France, the closest big city was Limoges. Shopping there was just so much fun and there was a Comptoir boutique in the center of the beautiful town near the medieval church. I got a gorgeous picture frame and a lamp which adds to my collection of pretties.

I want it!

I want it all, including the apartment.

Bienvenu

Welcome to 'lexi e ari'!
I am very excited to start my blog called 'lexi e ari'. As some of you may know, I will be relocating back to London in a few weeks time, in the wild and crazy Hackney, where there is a wonderfully vibrant art scene going on. I will be bringing my viewers some exciting objects of art and other European merchandise that is hard to find in US or Korea. So, hopefully in a few months, this blog would evolve as start of my online shop. I will be also creating my art work (eg. your pet portraits by order)and crafts and in good time, they will be on my blog for sale as well. Cheers to all.
Solyi