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Monday 20 June 2011

Home Sweet Temporary Home

I am finally home...back in Oxford with my husband while he snores away after being up all night for a hand-in is studying here for the year. It is nearly summer holidays (although you would be hard pressed to tell that from the weather alone!) and the end of his course is just around the corner so he has plenty of work at the moment - my timing could not have been better! 

Mark's folks were over visiting from South Africa when I arrived back so we did a few of the touristy things with them this weekend...above is a picture of the Radcliffe Camera - a 5 minute walk from our front door!

This is a view down the main street where all the high street stores can be found - its so quintessentially British - no shopping malls like we have back home & restricted car access - I love it! (except when it is raining or I've purchased something heavy and would prefer to have a car parked nearby but there are no cars for us this year and I am getting used to the concept of public transport)

Below is University College - no undergrads here - you have to be invited to sit the exam and its full of some of the greatest minds in the country - truly humbling.


In between catching up with all of our wonderful new friends we have made this year and spending time with Mark's parents, I found the time to be reunited with my sewing machine.

I tried my hand at a few things completely new to me (making up a pattern & smocking) and a few others I am still really new at (sewing for a start!)...and managed to come up with a sweet little baby dress with what I refer to as a yoke style neckline


...it is a little short (so I am going to make some matching pantaloons to go over a nappy) and is riddled with errors but I'm pleased with my efforts and am going to make another and try my hand at making a tutorial for it if anyone might be interested? Promise to do it properly this time - for instance I will get the iron out and use it...our rented flat is literally shoebox-sized and in order to get the ironing board in position, I have to be stationed on the landing, plus there is something wrong with the iron and it keeps making all the switches trip - but I will give it a try!

Here is a view of the back of the dress...


And of course this post would not be complete without a few close ups of the teeny flower buttons used along the front for decoration and the larger Incomparable flower button used for the closure...


6 comments:

  1. The dress is adorable and I do admit that the buttons are my favorite part. I totally adore buttons (as long as I'm not the one sewing them on)

    The photos of the city are gorgeous. Thank you for linking in to Fiber Arts Friday!

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  2. Soo cute...I enjoyed the photos

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  3. Oh, how lovely to see Oxford again. The gray building is my most favourite clothes shop in Oxford.
    I do miss it!!

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  4. Such a sweet little dress creation....and your photos of Oxford are just yummy.
    xo jana

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  5. What a fantastic place full of history...something we so lack here in Australia. How great to have the opportunity to tag along!!and see so much of the world.

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  6. Rosalind Atkins27 June 2011 at 09:09

    Pedant alert!!
    It's not University College you have pictured & described - it's All Souls. Univ is a regular college, with undergrads as well!
    Thanks for a bit of reminiscence, esp the Radcliffe Camera, right opposite the best college in Oxford, Hertford :)

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