Sunset, 4.23pm Today

Bit of an odd one, today. I felt totally down over the weekend due to the incessant wind and rain - all three weeks of it - and it didn't help when it looked like much the same again this morning when I woke up. I wasn't particularly looking forward to going out in it all to meet Steph and Jan in Temptation, but I'm very glad I went. While we were stitching, bitching, gulping hot chocolate and munching the best toast ever, the rain stopped and the sun made a rare appearance. Shocking! I managed to get a fair bit of Crimbo shopping done afterwards - which I was beginning to worry about - without any hassle and without the heavens opening on my head. Once home, I did a bit more shopping online and tackled most things on my enornous to-do list. So a day that started off looking rubbish actually turned into something really rather enjoyable.

Something else that has brightened my mood is having one of my knitted monsters mentioned on Cuteable today. Thanks, Lynsey!

The Brighton Line Socks

Back in August, I visited The Wool Bar in Worthing, a lovely new(ish) yarn shop. I bought this yarn there and cast on for a pair of socks the very same day. And I've only just finished them. Tsk.





 

Aprons! Lovely Aprons!

I had the idea to make half-aprons out of teatowels AGES ago, and bought some to make them with about 18 months ago when I moved back to Brighton. They've been sitting in bag ever since, awaiting their moment of glory, but, finally, I made some! I used that lovely French, vintage ribbon for the waist ties. These two lovelies (which really could've done with an iron before I took photos but hey-ho) are up in my Yellow House Etsy shop now.

Tin of Gouache

Today, in a spare five minutes, I decanted all my gouache paints from the old Flora tub I've kept them in for about a thousand years, into a newly-emptied biscuit tin. The colours just look AWESOME all lined up together. It ticks all my anally-retentive boxes.

Photos from My Phone

With just a lil' bit of colour-tweaking, but otherwise just as they came out. I'm constantly surprised how good phone cameras are. I don't know why I should be - my phone has a 5 megapixel camera where as my Proper Camera has a mere 6.3! I think it's just crazy that even basic point-and-shoots for sale this Crimbo in Boots have 10, or even 12, megapixels! Bizarrio beanz. And my Proper Camera is only just over two years old. Technology is moving at the speed of light at the moment. Exciting, and just a little bit scary.

Felted Gubbins Everywhere

I went a bit crazy in the end with the felted jumpers/tank tops. These two guys turned up:











And two other little creatures, but as they're going to be gifts I can't share them yet.

I'm buzzing with ideas for felted/button hair clips and brooches. They'll hopefully be coming up as soon as I've got some hair clips in to work with. It's been great fun this weekend. No patterns or anything, just going with the flow and seeing what came out. The only downer is that every surface now seems to be covered in a fine layer of wool dust! Must go get the hoover out ...

Sunset, 4.10pm Today

Reusing and Recycling

I thought I'd share my favourite bit of new (to me) furniture we bought for the flat. This awesome chest of drawers was a bargain 45 quid at my local YMCA shop. I LOVE those shops. Boyf and I spent a small fortune in there decking out the flat, although buying all the furniture new would've been much more expensive, not to mention not as much fun! Mid-century furniture just rocks. It's always so well made and relatively cheap. I think it's because it's not as fashionable as other types of vintage furniture - yet. Plus it's built from real wood and everything. None of this flatpack MDF malarky. Anyway, according to a stamp on the inside, this CoD was made in Japan sometime (I'm guessing) in the 60s. I LOVE the handles and the different coloured top drawer. It's now housing all my clothes which just about fit in. Best of all, it means I haven't yet become a complete Ikea tart! The little glass jug on the top was £3 in Oxfam and is now holding all my DPNs and crochet hooks.





Talking of recycling and reusing old stuff, I felted these old jumpers and tanktops yesterday to use in a little crafting for my Etsy/Folksy shops. I hope to share these soon as I am uber excited to get cracking. I've already sold a pair of my fingerless mittens and I'm going to put up a couple of new aprons ASAP, too.

No sunset tonight as it started raining at 2.30pm and hasn't stopped yet so far too grey outside. (Not to mention I was so busy finishing sewing the living room curtains at the time to really notice!)

A Shamless Plug

I've just updated my Yellow House Etsy shop with these three pairs of fingerless mittens:













Go on, treat yourself!

Never as Bad as You Think

The view at 4.20pm tonight. Luvverly.

So, after yesterday's winge-fest, I evidently didn't do as bad as feared as they rang this morning to say I'd got the extra hours! Phew. Un-cancel Christmas, I can (just about) afford it now!

Today I've been rushing here, there and everywhere. Been out knitting, hired a car for an hour and took cardboard and plastic up to the recycling centre, wrote my new BiG column, let an unexpected electrician in to anchor the new hob in properly....still have all the housework to do, but as Boyfriend is doing the final clean up at his old flat this weekend there's no rush!! (Sluttish behaviour, I know).

I have work tomorrow morning, but in the afternoon and on Sunday I'm going to finish sewing the new living room curtains. They're 75% done, so not that much more to do on them. And then, if I get the chance, I will do a bit more on my Christmas crafting.... of which I may share a sneaky peak of a corner or two soon.

Today

The view from my balcony, 4.21pm today.

This morning I had an interview for some extra casual hours dealing with admin within the council. Started well with a grammar/punctuation test - I am a Punctuation Nazi after all. (eg Last week Boyfriend and I tried out a new place for dinner in Hove. The manager gave me a comments card to fill in; I circled all the spelling mistakes and misplaced apostrophes. Fact.) Went on to a typing test (not so bad), then a "how-well-do-you-know-Word" test which was dodgy in places to say the least. We weren't allowed to use the Help function, either. Then I had the answering questions part of the interview which I always suck at and today was no exception. Bah. Oh well. I can always try to beg more hours at Jubilee Library if it doesn't go well. The thing is, this job pays nearly two quid more an hour, which does add up over a few shifts. Bah again.

So, of course, I had to perk myself up afterwards with lunch at The Mock Turtle. And a poke around Paperchase. Following a recommendation on Jane Brocket's blog, I've been reading Virginia Woolf's "Selected Diaries", which I'm really enjoying, particularly when coupled with the munching of tea and toast. Sadly, I've never read any of VW's work and my only experience of her up until now is Nicole Kidman's portrayal in "The Hours". I shall have to remedy that. I'm very chuffed with the amount of reading I've managed to cram in this year. I shall have to put together a definitive list for some kind of End of The Year Review.

Anyway, back to more cheerful things. I made Banana Bread this afternoon, while starting on the basis for tonight's Shepherd's Pie, and it's made the whole flat smell yum. Next time: add another banana and double the cinnamon. Plus, there was that fab orange and blue sunset above. AND I have tomorrow off, which I'm going to spend sorting and sewing. Awesome.

Going Up, Going Down

A deco dream stairwell in John Lewis on Oxford Street.

Blogged Again!

You might remember that back in August I donated a set of my LRRH prints to the Art for Hearts auction. Well, the auction itself took place at the beginning of November and raised £523 for GOSH. Vicious Imagery has blogged about it here, including a pic of my Wolf print promoting it, and Art for Hearts put up pictures of all the work on display here. Looks fab! So glad to have been able to help raise a wad of cash for charidee.

Blogged!

Lucy at Bambino Goodies has mentioned my Fairytale Alphabet prints on her awesome blog. Thanks for the mention and the great write up!

The Teacups are Here!

A week ago I finally received the teacups from Yvestown's Cath Kidston giveaway. I was really worried they wouldn't get here before I moved with all the postal strike palaver that's been going on, but arrive they did, safely and beautifully packaged and with a lovely card, too. Thanks, Yvonne!







Aren't they lovely?

I had a bit of a cosy Saturday afternoon this weekend. The terrible weather virtually demanded an afternoon on the sofa with the December issue of Country Living, a bar of Dairy Milk and a pot of tea. I settled down for a good slurp, munch and read, but totally forgot I had my new cups until Boyfriend remarked he was surprised I wasn't using them. Agghh!! Oh well. I expect there will be plenty of wet and windy afternoons to come in which I can put them to good use. And get another bar of chocolate, obviously.

Now, How is This for Cute?

This is Ophelia, Steph's new bunnykins. Look at those humungous feet! She's sitting in the palm of my left hand while I take the photo with the right. Tiny and fluffy, what more could you want?

Long Time No See!

Hello stranger.

Well, we're in the new flat and it seems to be slowly coming together. Right now I am blogging from Boyfriend's laptop - hopefully I shall be setting my computer back up today. I've been taking the opportunity to varnish my working desk, something I should've done 18 months ago when I bought it!

So, in the absence of any real news and updates, I want to link to this AWESOME post by Backseat Gourmet about making coconut jam inspired by my book, Munch. How cool is that??!! It's like fan mail or something.