Flibbertygibbet

Today's post is brought to you by the letter...

B. BBBBBBB.  I got a new keybbbbboard. It's beeyoutiful, bouncy and best of of all, not broken. I accept full responsibility for drinking coffee in the proximity of the old one while not quite awake one morning... I killed just one key, the B. I mean, it could have been worse - a vowel, for example - and I expanded my vocabulary while avoiding words using that letter, it's been a long couple of months using the cut and paste function while trying to decide whether to spring for a new machine (this mac is a little old in the tooth though that's not necessarily a reason to retire it) or find another solution. The answer came in the form of the Bookyard, who sell Apple spares and I got a new keyboard for about £50 and fitted it myself, rather than paying the £150 I was quoted by two different repair shops in town.  I used to think "Why do I have complete crap like watchmakers screwdrivers cluttering up my house?" The answer is (a) to make jewellery like this and (b) to enable me to remove the metal plate beneath the mac's keyboard, unplug the old one and put in a new one in three minutes.  The service from the Bookyard was excellent after an initial snafu where they shipped the wrong model, but they responded to my email within 30 mins - at 11:00pm at night and it was all sorted out the next day. I may yet send them my titanium powerbook to see if they can do anything with it...

Lots of little adventures this week.  I was lucky enough to win a dozen cupcakes from Ella's Bakehouse, a chi-chi new bakery at 20a Covent Garden Market, where they specialise in cupcakes with a couture theme (the woman behind it used to be a model, the face of Versace, apparently)

 

 

They're yum. Very very yum in fact.  I brought them to the volunteers' meeting at Wilton's that evening, as I'd already brought baked goods to work once this week - and to my neighbours too.  I am luring the guy next door into a false sense of security, once he's hooked on the cookies I'll be asking for some help putting up the long awaited shelves in the studio. I baked like a maniac last week because my grandmother had fallen and fractured her hip (fine now after an operation) and I needed displacement activities.  Cue two dozen cookies, rye sodabread, and muffins.  Plus the sourdough that didn't quite work out (the sponge starter is hidden under Lotusen's cupcake teatowel below) which I'll be attempting again today.

 

I've been back to the Make Lounge (the more of observant of you may wonder if I ever leave) to do the embroidery class. Super sweet teacher whose name I've forgotten, eek, but you can find her via the ML's website. I started on a pillowcase using one of the Sublime Stitching patterns, Dutch-Russian but due to attempting time-consuming satin stitch on it, it's still languishing.  It's a supercute pattern though, and you can see another classmate's project from that pattern here.  So for some instant gratification, I cam home and did this: a quick cupcake onesie.

I'm still persevering with running, 3 miles every other day. I loved the physio I saw about my feet/shins/knees/hips (nobody can agree what it really is) the other day because the first thing she said when I walked in was 'So you're a runner' and then I realised she didn't think this was lunacy and rather was focussed on how to keep me running rather than simply telling me not to. Incredibly refreshing. She did suggest that after a spin class or any other time when I'm having problems with numbness that I should get someone to massage my outer knee and showed me how to do that - I can't quite imagine throwing myself down on the floor of the spin studio and saying 'You, here, now'... but otherwise the advice was promising.

Lots more weekend news to come but given the issues with Typepad recently I'll quite while I'm ahead. Though when I bitched about TP on Twitter, I got a swift response from someone in their technical customer service offering to help.  I'll be taking him up on that. Between the b key and procrastination, I'd become lax enough at posting and then the renewed technical issues, after the utter debacle earlier this year, made me wonder whether to just shut the blog down but now I'm a little more optimistic...

Typepad, I hate you again

I got an email to say that I'd been upgraded to some new version of Typepad. I spent an hour on a post. I even cut and pasted to avoid the issues with formatting in the last post. And Typepad chewed it up again.  Are we back to that ridiculous situation where they've upgraded and screwed it up again?  FFS.

More than I thought

I mutter to myself 'well what will you blog about - you haven't done anything much recently'.  Upon reading the divine Lotusen's blog though, I realise that in fact I've been out and about quite a bit! (I'm the G that she mentions).  Here's the dress - not yet shortened but it's actually quite cool!  

I'm not sure that it's really designer, but this is what's on the label:

I've had a lot of freelance work on - I spent today repaginating a 500 page book, yes, all of it - and also the day job has prevented me from doing fun stuff like having coffee with Helen and the bub, bah. To say it's keeping me busy would be quite the understatement. That's also my rubbish way of saying 'I'm too braindead to fix the formatting problems here, sorry guys'.

London's climate has been temperamental, to say the least. Last night was cold enough to warrant pulling on the Misti Alpaca socks (long since finished though apparently never detailed here) and grabbing the quilt, though we've had scorchio days and too-hot-to-sleep over the last weeks too. I'm persevering with the running despite the weather (purchased shorts on Friday. Needed to wear thermal running tights on Saturday) and using the Nike+ is really helping, as I've mentioned before I am ludicrously competitive with myself. I get a little thrill every time Tiger Woods chimes out to tell me that I've run a new 1m PB. (9:11 - yeah, I never said I was Speedy Gonzales but I compensate with stubbornness)  If anyone else is using the Nike+ website, I'm Scampermouse on there. Come and say hello.

 

I'm spending far too much time on Twitter lately, mainly because it has introduced me to lots of interesting people and places, both conceptually and IRL and all of the following was introduced to me via Twitter.  The zeitgeist nature of it coupled with the fact that it seems increasingly to translate to real life, intrigues me wildly.  On Saturday I went along to meet some Tweeps (ok sorry - the terminology drives me insane, I can't really bear to say that) to meet some people from Twitter at the Crafternoon at The Old Queen's Head in Islington. I'm halfway through making a Measuring Tape Rosette from a kit I got there - I have to say my only gripe about these craft kits is that the thread supplied is usually crap - in theory I'll finish it at home. Ahem.  I did teach someone to purl though.  Halo polished.

In the evening it was off to Wilton's Music Hall, with some of the knitting crew thankfully as time with them recently has been far too curtailed, to see Tiny Wallop's Phantasmagorical Extravaganza.  It was utterly hilarious - to the point where my cheeks were aching from laughing so much - tinged with the sense of buttock-clenching fear that comes only from Audience Participation with us all trying to judge which strategy worked best to avoid being chosen - look at the performer, or avoid their gaze? There's one more night, which is Saturday 18th July, if you're in London. Come! Catherine Rose, the magician and mind-reader who opened the show, was amazing too. I want to know how she did that with the table.  Even when the hall is dark, Wilton's is a magical place, currently raising funds for renovation, so you should pop along and 'drink for charity' - patronise the bar if you're in the area.

 Finally, again via Twitter, this is one of the funniest things I've seen in ages and I now feel the need to purchase the kit. If you don't like profanity with your pastry or are exceptionally easily offended, there's no need to click here.