Shabby erm... chic?

Okay, I know you came here to read about my scary story. I will definitely tell you about my terrifying scare - probably when I have nothing crafty to talk about but still feel the desire to bore you with a new blog post. Today, I have something else to talk about and I don't even know where to start. That's how incredibly psyched I am. I haven't eaten in two days, I hardly slept, the house is looking decidedly unkempt. Thankfully, Pelle was with the ex this weekend, because I'm sure I wouldn't have noticed his presence had he been here.

A couple of weeks ago, I came across a blogger who had taken an online class to make a Remains of the Day Journal. This lady is the teacher and she's fabulous. Anyway, the journal is made entirely out of scraps of paper and fabric, all sewn together with the help of a sewing machine. Now, please note that I have never in all my life used a sewing machine, but I thought this was the perfect opportunity to get started with mine. This journal calls for a shabby treatment, you see, so failing to sew straight lines is actually a requirement. Heh. Here are some pictures of the progress I've made:

Gathering fabrics and making a plan:

I set up the sewing machine and actually deliberated for a minute or two about whether or not to use it. I'm a little scared of the thing, you know. However, sewing through a couple of layers of fabric AND thick paper seemed even scarier, so I plugged the beast in, and this is what happened this morning:

Ta-daaaaaaa!!! Ta-da-da-da-da-da-duh-daaaaaa! Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! I'm pleased. Can you tell?

And after all that sewing and changing sewing machine needles and threads and colours, do you know what took up most of my time? The freaking kumihimo-cord that I ended up not using. I thought I'd put it in the picture so as not to make it a complete waste of three or four hours of my life.

This is the journal in various stages of open-ness:

The inside is a complete mess, but I don't care. Perhaps you're thinking to yourself: 'actually, Annemarie, the outside is pretty bad as well.' You'd be right, of course. But I don't care about that either :o) Hooray for Shabby Chic (aka Primitive)!
Oh, by the way: sorry for that shade I threw on the journal whilst taking the pictures, but obviously, I'm too absorped to go back outside to take the pics again. You get the idea anyway, right?

This next picture shows you some (but not all) of the stuff I will be using to make up the pages.

Needless to say, stitching has never been further from my mind. Tomorrow, however, I'm off to visit Harmien, so I will take my stitching with me. Possibly the Vilage of Hawk Run Hollow, the project we decided to do as a SAL about, oooooh, three or four years ago :o)

Until next time, dears.

Yours psychedly,

Annemarie.