Porcini Designs

It's my birthday today, so I am starting a blog for the first time ever, to go with my current life plan of having no life plan for the first time ever!

I'll hopefully use this as a log of random creative, crafty adventures but I can be a bit of a butterbrain so I might forget sometimes. 

The name Porcini was inspired by my Oh-so-adorable cousin Ruby Rose (Isn't her name perfect for a craftster? But I couldn't use it, it would be theft!) she loves mushrooms and everytime I see her she wants me to draw thousands of mushrooms which is where my little mushroom came from. Porcini (or Porcine) was just my favourite mushroom name.

To set the scene a little, I intended to study Chinese language and culture at university and to go on to be a teacher (because I love teaching and I love China!), but honestly, there are enough native Chinese speakers out there willing to teach Chinese that it seems kind of silly. Plus, I was getting serious withdrawal symptoms from not being within 30m of a sewing machine, with knitting being my only remaining link with the craft world.

So I quit. Applied for transfer to a Design Technology teaching course (because I still want to teach, I always have, I just want to teach something more creative) and bought myself my first ever sewing machine. 

I had always used my Grandma's or Mum's sewing machines before, but after having made several roman blinds for the new flat I'm living in, I couldn't bare the sight of those machines. I spent most of my time unpicking stitching and correcting it by hand as the machines would just jam and plough through my material with no consistent tension or quality. Those days are behind me now and as I type this, I can look at my beautiful Janome DC3050 glinting proudly in the sun and smile!

I'm renting a reasonably big room in Edinburgh at the minute, which I have now packed with 2 desks (one for working, one for sewing), my clothes (mostly in a chest of drawers but pretty much all over the place in boxes), several shelving units piled on top of each other brimming with my craft supplies and books, my trusty (only slightly temperamental) iron and ironing board, and a disproportionately large amount of chairs that I don't really want but that seem to migrate back to my room every time I remove them.

I have no idea what I'll end up doing design wise (or indeed in real life) and I don't get my decision about my teaching course until sometime in March. Nevermind, who needs a plan these days anyway?