Ikea Pillow #2

Here comes the second pillow-case made from the Ikea fabric. It is not that loud as the first one , more neutral, to keep balance.

As I only learn to sew the first learning book that I bought was Learn to Sew by Chris Jefferys ( "Азбука шитья" ). It really contains very basic technics that a total beginner like myself could learn and try to apply making very simple designs. The book has very detailed instructions and big clear photographs of essential sewing operations. I always wanted to make two pillow-cases suggested in this book.

   

So I combined both designs in the next Ikea pillow-case.



Front side



Back side

And this is not the end of my romance with Ikea textiles!

A Date with Dickens

I decided to track in my blog not only the needlework but also my reading. In December 2010 before the long holiday break I accidentally visited Oprah Winfrey's web site and found out that she picked two Dickens novels Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations for winter holidays reading. I didn't read any of these books so I was happy to join. I immediately ran to the book store and bought both books. I found A Tale of Two Cities in Russian and Great Expectations in English.

Oprah couldn't make the better choice of books for Christmas holidays. Sitting on the sofa near the Christmas tree wrapped in soft plaid with a cup of cocoa and reading Dickens, that fits my picture of holidays perfectly.

I finished the first book A Tale of Two Cities in January and I really liked it. It's a beautiful story of love, frienship, devotion and self-sacrifice. Dickens not only gives us the personal life stories of characters but also describes the revolution and revolutionaries. Being myself from the country that lived through the revolution less than a century ago and having heard the stories about that time at first hand from people whose life was influenced by revolution, including my grandmother  it was extremely interesting for me to get Dickens view on the subject. Finally it only proved my opinion that revolution is always ugly.

Helping books

In my journey to perfect wardrobe I don't rely only on my judgement and taste but also going to use some professional advice.
The first step was to define my best colors. I made the analysis with the help of the book Farbberatung (Color Analysis) by Christel Buscher . It has advice not only on the best color choice for clothes but for make-up, glasses, hair color and jewellery. I made color test and found out that I am a Summer type.

At the moment I have some more books about style and looks on my reading list:

Does This Make Me Look Fat by Leah Feldon.
 

And the book that gave the title for my blog Staging Your Comeback: A Complete Beauty Revival for Women Over 45 by Christopher Hopkins.

I am going to read these books, do all exercises and to figure out style that fit my personality and lifestyle and the most flattering cuts for my body type.