Flibbertygibbet

Thoughtfull

I am sure she has been named a Thinking Blogger by about 'eleventy million' people, but the third person I'm naming is Laurie, aka Crazy Aunt Purl. 

She makes me think. 
She frequently makes me think "How did she get into my head, fish the jumbled-up thoughts out, and rearrange them more more eloquently and in an infinitely funnier way?"
She bares her soul, not just her knitting.

And then there's Kelli from AfricanKelli.  She is not just a Thinking Blogger, but an Action Blogger, I suppose you could call her. She's in Africa at the moment and her recent post is heart-wrenching. This is the woman who brought us CAOK, or Calculated Acts of Kindness - and that sums her up, really.

I think... therefore

A while back, I was very flattered to find that the lovely Julie at Little Cotton Rabbits had nominated me for a Thinking Blogger award, in the company of four other blogs that I like immensely.  And for many weeks I've been thinking about which five bloggers I would nominate myself.
Then I decided to feed them out to you one by one.  Here's the first couple:

Another Outspoken Female  -  you have to love her for it
Eglantine's Cake - a delicious mixture of wordsmithery, family musings and general entertainment

Today on Julie's blog there's a meme, for which I've been tagged by a number of people, including  Miss Marvellous Mouse, Jade and Helen and please remind me in the comments if you tagged me too.  I think it's either seven or eight random things about yourself...

1. If I miss the first episode of a series of TV, or the first few minutes of a film I just can't watch it.  The set-up is just too important.
2. When I was little I despised having my hair cut so much, my mum had to bribe me (roughly twice a year) to get me to the hairdressers.  Horse-riding lessons, getting my ears pierced etc.  I still don't get my hair cut as regularly as I should.
3. I'm not a Catholic.  That made for an interesting upbringing in Ireland.
4. I am extremely particular about writing instruments and paraphernalia, I adore paper, notebooks, stationery and proper pens. But I can't write properly with a fountain pen - or even a biro -  if I haven't placed the cap on the opposite end, so that it's balanced again.
5. The sound of Pan pipes can drive me to bodily harm.
6. I am the person who forgot how to ride a bike.  Twice.
7. When I was little I wanted to write books for a living, and started at least one. I burned it, pages and pages of it, when I was eighteen and clearing out my room when I finished school.  I kind of regret that now.
8. I have a tattoo.

And that's probably enough for now.  Consider yourself tagged, and leave a comment if you do it on your blog so we can zoom over and check out your particular flavour of randomness.

Naughty or nice

If someone you love has been very, very, nice, then you could send them here. Allegedly I have been very very nice, and so a friend treated me to a session here as a late birthday present (33's birthday has been the year that just keeps giving and giving...) It was utterly fabulous, and I'd love to live in the sort of world where I might indulge in the Weekly Groom on a weekly basis - would you get bored of being so pampered?  Well I guess I'd be happy to try it out for a couple of months and see...

If someone you love has been very very naughty, and in fact you're only just resisting harming them bodily, then send them to see Magicians and punish their mind instead.  The Time Out review captures it pretty well.  I thought it would be funny if not riotous, in fact it was tedious laced with a little offensiveness.  Certainly give me those two hours of my life back and let me take a slap at the director and the writers.

More worthy of your £8: The Future is Unwritten, Julien Temple's film about Joe Strummer, which was the Knitflicks movie this week. At one point I got very excited because a friend of mine popped up on screen, and I found out afterwards that he made a record with Strummer. I'd say it's definitely worth the popcorn though it could have been a little shorter.

We managed a quick trip to the SLFS afterwards and I was relatively restrained, though the woman there did say 'Oh you're back again!' and then I worked out that I've been in there three times in four weeks - but on one occasion, only buying for someone else.  Seriously! Thanks to everyone who's suggested hints for the cup sizes thing (I think I might have made up the thing about it only being A and B cups in the pattern but it doesn't go that much further) and Ruth is going to send me an article that I hope will help.  Also, while I am in the middle of throwing out lots of clutter, and some clothes, I am going to adapt Fliss's suggestion and use a shirt I already have as a base pattern for some experimentation.  I also spent some time yesterday sorting out my stash and frogging all the disastrous WIP garments, so the green cardi and the purple tank top.  I've cast on again for the cardi, using straights this time instead of a circular and already the tension looks better.

Everyone please cross fingers and send good vibes that something good job-wise comes from the squillion CVs I sent out last week.

Right, I've got a freelancing job to do.  And a mortage to sort out.  And a divorce settlement to chase.  And a shirt to make.  I may be some time.

And sideways

I am accepting that today is going to be a strange day where positions change and instead of forging ahead with things in my typical Aries fashion, there is going to be more deliberation, contemplation, planning and dodging side to side. In an almost Cancerian manner.

I believe I may have a fairy godfather who is helping on the flat side.  No more news than that at the moment but I feel I have someone on my side now.  It is very reassuring, as were all your good luck comments, thank you folks. 

I found out that the NYC hotel that XH has booked for me (I uncharacteristically demanded a room for two nights using his hotel reward points - people, he owes me) is not the most salubrious, however it is around the corner from my fave New York bagel place.  Hooray.

Purl keeps drawing me in. Apart from being fiendishly excited about visiting the shops,  especially as Denise is coming up for the day and we'll be going there together, I have also found out from Purl's blog that the Gee's Bend Quilting exhibition opens in Baltimore on the weekend that I'm visiting.  Denise says we can add it to our itinerary, double hooray!

Yesterday I bought a couple of new patterns, determined to use the fabrics in my stash, mainly Liberty prints, and I would like to try making some shirts or blouses.  I bought the Wendy pattern and I'm now dismayed to find that it gives measurements for A and B cups. Having been measured recently, I have found that I'm waaaaay further up the alphabet, and while I'm not complaining, I know lots of you have made this pattern.  Do you think it would be possible to adjust by um, five cup sizes?  Or should I just go with another pattern?

Ups and downs and ups and down

Yesterday I was bouncy-bouncy jubilant as there were three pieces of good news to report:

a:    that I had booked my trip to New York and Washington
b:    that my decree nisi was due today
c:    that my offer on flat V had been accepted

Today I am a little closer to ground level because

a:    trip is still happening and even better, P is going to be there to play one night as well, but I'm relying on money from
b:    the settlement, which it now turns out is nowhere near my bank account.  I'm furious with XH and his frankly cretinous solicitors.  Mind you, they are all useless bastards.  Sorry, that's just been my experience to date.  They've sent back none of the paperwork which XH says was filed weeks ago and have not replied to chasers from my equally bloody useless representation
c:  there is now a potential problem with my mortgage lender, in that I can't prove last year's income because I haven't filed a tax return yet (it's due but not for another couple of months I think).  It's a bit more difficult to get a self-cert mortgage, plus it's ex-local authority in East London so a lot of lenders are sniffy.  I wish they would pull their heads out of their arses.  Just how many of them have tried to get on to the property ladder recently?  You're looking at £250k for a one bed that isn't ex-local, assuming you can get hold of one. It's incredibly infuriating.

So I'm now on the hunt for an accountant.  My dad would guarantee a mortgage but he's based in another country so that might not work either.  It's a lot to think about.  Please cross your fingers for me that this isn't going to be a stumbling block.  I feel that little flat is destined to be mine.  I just have to keep hoping that. 

And to take my mind off things, Dad's birthday socks are going well.

PS SWAP PEOPLE due to my present crapness, I did manage to buy my fabrics for my partners but I don't have them packaged up yet.  In the spirit of 'it's my party and I'll cry if I want to,' I'm extending all the deadlines by a week.  So get those packages in the post by the 22nd! 

What are you doing on the 3rd of June?

© 2006 Aardman Animations Ltd

Do you fancy coming to a picnic?  Or should I say, the PicKnit?  It's part of the Camden Green Fair - green as in eco, so you can stop racking your brain to figure out where Camden Green is...it takes place in Regent's Park on Sunday 3rd of June from 12 noon to 7 pm.  It's in conjunction with London Sustainability Week and World Environment Day.

If you'd like to help out, perhaps demonstrating knitting basics to interested newbies...
If you have any spare needles or  yarn you could bring along...
If you have any non-copyrighted patterns for knitted food...
Then please do let me know!

Some inspiration: here here here and here

Of course you can just come along for a knit and a natter, and I hope that lots of you will.  Bring your yarn and needles and a blanket to sit on (there may be deckchairs available to hire, that's being confirmed, but I believe portable seating isn't allowed) and you're encouraged to use public transport to arrive, keeping with the green ethos. It should be a great day - if the weather is poor I understand we'll be able to escape into one of the tents to shelter.  Though I understand he won't be attending this event, there is a lifesized Shaun the Sheep under construction and all of the Shaun related activities will help to raise funds for the the Wallace and Gromit Children's Foundation which helps seriously ill children.  Please do link to this post or to the one on www.flibbertygibbet.co.uk and help us to raise lots of money!

Come.  Come and knit ham sandwiches, cupcakes or squares of green grass with us.  Get it in your diary now...

Sveden, you woz robbed

I had a long debrief with my mum this morning about the Eurovision.  We both agreed (as was the consensus last night when I watched it with P, F and C, that Ireland deserved to come last - oh the shame - and that Sweden was robbed.  Watch them and I challenge you to not walk around humming 'Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes' all day.

I went to the London group sewing Meet Up yesterday.  Zoe, who runs it, is great and we had a mutual bag envy thing going on - so we traded!  One of my Dirty Weekend bags in pink for this beauty:

It's lined with pink gingham, then the chihuahua is stencilled on to a vintage sheet and then she sewed clear vinyl over it.  It rocks!  And it will be perfect for carrying socks to the last days of Tuesday knitting group - as I'm hoping to start working soon, Foyles may be a luxury I have to relinquish soon.  I started socks at the Dove the other day, for my Dad's birthday, in a Lana Grossa colourway that I've now decided is too girly, so it's been removed off the needles to four safety pins and I'm going for something browner.  More Daddyish.

After the Dove, and before Eurovision, C and I went back to Flat W.  Did I mention my offer was accepted?  When we left the agent, I already had a good idea of C's views, as I'd overheard one side of her phone conversation in the car as I was making small talk with the agent, when her hubby was asking what she had thought... we got out of the car and I immediately said 'So you didn't like it then?'  She explained that firstly she didn't think it was well-finished, and pointed out many things I hadn't noticed, and I'd already seen a few, and then came out with the clincher:

"I don't think it's very you".

And that's the key, really, isn't it?  I'm not blank white walls, glossy white kitchen, windowless bathroom: hell, I'm not ground floor.  I am mismatched dining room chairs, cake stands and tea-sets, flowery cushions on squishy sofas with stuffing hanging out.* 

I think I have to admit that I'm slightly more chaos than order.  Perhaps I'd been veering towards a classic trap that women exiting a long-term relationship frequently fall prey to - it's the over-riding desire to get out, out quickly. And was tempted by the first place I saw, which ticked some boxes but had just as many cons and pros. As C said of it: 'that was a ready-meal kitchen'.  The ultimate insult.

So the mogs will have to get used to a balcony rather than the run of a couple of gardens - so goes it.  So I'll have to get my renovation hat (overalls?) on again.  So be it.  C and I are going to see Flat V together tomorrow evening if I can get an appointment, so she can use her x-reay vision on it.  I fear that by tomorrow I'll be seeing more with my heart than my head, the classic trap.  Ironically Flat W was totally a head decision - it just would have been the wrong one. 
Of course it all has to go well and then I'd have to get Flat V for the right price - having done my research, it's on for far, far too much. I walked around there again today, and it felt right. But no getting excited about new kitchens and rugs and lampshades until we get a few stages further on.  Then we can start on about movers and packing and freshly painted white walls.

*For what I aspire to, see the profile on Emily Chalmers in this month's Elle Decoration.  When I is growed up.

PS if you're in the swap, you should have had an email today with your partners' details...

My brain is overheating

And my hair may soon spontaneously combust.

Wedding was great, scorchio weather.  No photos as I took the groom's camera and took pics for him all day, so not expecting to see those for a while. 

Visiting parents was lovely, I scoffed at their kitchen refurbishment - not everyone else has an 'old kitchen' to move into while theirs is done up -  and that may come back to bite me in the arse very shortly*.

Took pictures of the carpet that inspired the blanket - will post soon.

I am in full job- and flat-hunt mode.  Hence impending cranium combustion.

I have seen two completely different properties that I really like.  I just don't know what to do (with myself, dah dah-dah-dah dah-dah)

Flat W

• Private garden
• One big bedroom, funny L shape (possibly an opportunity to make it into two rooms, as in the flat above it, for resale)
• New build
• Ground floor
• Ready to move into
• Area I kind of know, near her, hurrah
• New development, mostly private housing nearby
• 5 mins walk to a small park
• Transport - 10 mins walk to tube.  But on district line.
• Vacant
• Has another equal offer so it's into a survey race
• Will get a mortgage on it pretty easily
• 50 square metres

Flat V

• Balcony
• Two bedrooms, the smaller one could be my room and the other could be the STUDIO (slash guest room)
• Ex-local auth block, not sure of mixture of private and council
• Period, *needs a new kitchen and cosmetic work everywhere
• Second floor, with lift
• Area I know very well, near her, hurrah
• Beside a common, and just around the corner from the huge park
• Transport - 10 mins walk to bus, 10 mins on bus to tube.  But then on central, Hammersmith & City and District line (same station as now, in fact)
• Vendor still living there, have to get them out
• There could be issues with getting the mortgage
• 60 square metres

W is the easier option, by far.  It's also 15k more, not that it makes much difference when you're talking mortgage numbers (i.e. telephone numbers).  But it needs nothing doing to it, save perhaps injecting some character.  I'm not a fan of new builds.

I also like going upstairs to go to bed.  That could be one of my wierd things, Helen (I've already done that meme but I'm sure I have another 70 or so wierd things to gradually share with you)

I know that in my heart I'm scared of doing the work on Flat V, the one I can really see myself in, after XH criticised the job I had the builders do on our house.  But then again, he is a fink.

I'm  going to a sewing meet up tomorrow, then knitting at the Dove, and finally Eurovision, yahoo!  With a couple of 2nd viewings for the flats in the late afternoon.  I'm impinging on the good natures of some of my fellow knitters, asking them to come along with me. 

There's about 219 more things I have to tell you but I have to go and put a cold towel on my head.

Are you in?

Ok, so the sign-ups are closed* for the the 3rd round of the fabric swap, you'll be getting your partners' info via email in a few days.

This is a list of all the participants:

Sarah P
Tamy
Sarah A
Sarah G
Justine
Dawn
Penny
Jane
Kristen Mary
Mary
Caroline
Steph
Ann
Tamy
Suzie
Samantha
Kerrie
Cathy
Anna
Kahne
Jade

A wonderfully talented bunch of ladies and I'm sure that the packages will fab!

If you thought you signed up for the swap, but don't see your name here, then email me asap and I'll see what I can do.  My spam filter is a bit over enthusiastic so I may have missed some emails.

*I'm a bit of a pushover.  If you read this and though 'oh no! I really meant to sign up!' then get in touch today and I'll put it in today.

Seriously....

....thanks to everyone who came over to comment on the last post and I will try to get back to you all!  I just wanted to say that um, I think some of you might have been worried I was going over the edge a bit - I'm not.  It was genuine musings, with a smidgen of crazy thrown in and suddenly with a fresh day and a new perspective there's lots of stuff to keep me busy and away from the sharp implements.

I've made a decision.  I need a holiday.  And the exchange rate is so good that it seems rude to not head over to see Denise, my lovely friend from college, like she suggested.  I was thinking that perhaps it was a little crazy - and then remembered that I have some airmiles... and score!  Enough to take me there and back, plus I can do stop overs en route.  So will definitely be heading to Washington and New York - but the west coast or Chicago or Boston are also possibilities.

So who knows a good hotel in New York then?

Oh and the first reminder - if you want to sign up for the fabric swap, click on the link in the sidebar!