the Snap Press

A couple of weeks ago I talked about our 'new' snap press. Some of you (Okay, just comfy cosy!) wanted a photo of my magnificent machine, so here it is! Picklesticks (Mrs 23) did all the research and the actual purchasing of our press, but I chipped in half the cash. (Some might say a small contribution, but not insignificant!) It is heavy! And it attatches the most amazing plastic snaps. They are available in many colours and are very strong snaps. (I was worried about them 'staying on'. No problem. You have to worry more about putting them on in the right place, because they don't come off if you've got it wrong!) I'm in love with it, and I didn't even know it existed until Mrs 23 told me about it! It is so quick and easy to use. Mrs 23 was interested in purchasing one because she wanted to use cloth nappies for her son and wanted to use fitted nappies (for comfort) that she made herself. She has made the nappies and they are beautiful. It's quite possible that neither one of us will ever sew a buttonhole again!

Things at our house

This thing (a victorian sponge cake) was made by Miss 11. It was delicious! She is such a cook. It is the result of our visit to the library yesterday. Miss 11 borrowed a great book called 'Baking for children' (maybe) and decided on the sponge cake straight away.

Okay, here's the disclaimer! The following photos were not taken at my house, despite the title of this post. I just had to make that clear, least you think that my home is this wonderful! I took these photos at Mrs 23's house this afternoon. Her house is great! In this photo you can see all sorts of things that make her home wonderful. The quilt, the cushions, the softie elephant (obscured by the nightie, seen more in the pinafore photos), the watercolour of the water bird on the far left of the shelves. Mrs 23 is 36 weeks pregnant now and is very uncomfortable. I sewed the nightie for her last week and finshed the pinafore off today. She sewed the pinafore at our house a couple of months ago at one of our sewing days, but got stalled because it was too big. Not any more! So I finished it off for her, because it was at my house. (See, there is some validity to the title of this post!)

I delivered them so that I could watch Mrs 23 attach the snaps with our latest aquisition - the snap press! It's brilliant. So quick and easy. The idea of never sewing another buttonhole or sewing on another button is a really tempting one. If every future item of clothing is covered with snaps instead of buttons, you'll know I've succumbed.

This past weekend we have been changing rooms around. It means that I am now sewing in a different room. We ended up having a fateful conversation a week or two ago. You know, the one that starts off, 'Thinking laterally and forgetting all the present uses for rooms, how could we change the house to make it work better.' Or maybe you don't know. Miss 16 says that people with shiney houses don't change the traditional uses of their rooms. (We don't have a shiney house, obviously!) Of course we are pretty much stuck with the kitchen, bathroom and laundry, but just about everything else has been changed. When we get something finished a bit more I'll take some photos.