Flibbertygibbet

Honey, I spent the housekeeping

It's lucky that the cats don't cost too much to feed as I completely smashed, decimated, obliterated the budget at I Knit Day 2008.  It's ok, they like yarn (I know this because each day when I come home they have dragged something else out of the WIP basket to play with) so they'll forgive me - besides, I buy the cat food (ten minutes before Tesco closes, practically wearing my pyjamas, because I got so stuck into socks this morning) and so therefore I retain some measure of authority around here.  In that vein, I think I shocked a fellow Raveller yesterday when I said something along the lines of it was worth getting divorced to get a craft room.  Anywaaaaaaaaaaaay...

The queue.  At 10:45.  Apparently within an hour it was around the block, and around the block again.

A soft murmur filled the air - the sound of silk being revered, lace being admired, sock yarn being pawed, and Claire spontaneously shrieking 'There he is!' when we saw Jon EasyKnitter.  I bought three skeins from him:  lushness (stored on Ravelry)

We took time out to make pom poms for peace.  And for a seat, I admit it.  Tiring, this spending a fortune and yarn-pimping lark. 

As this particular adventure was a last-minute decision, my only option had been an 'exhibition only' ticket.  I had a good feeling though - so I asked at the front desk whether there had been any cancellations. And what do you know... I also scored a Ravelry badge as one of the girls at dinner the night before said that Alice Socktopus had ordered a huge bag and she was giving them away with purchases - so one set of Pattern Tamers later...

Cassandra knits furiously to get the dishcloth finished.  While everyone else sits in anticipation.  Whilst knitting, naturally.

She was priceless.  Really, really funny and with some serious points to make.  Partly about not committing felonies by assaulting people who don't 'get' knitting (I'm paraphrasing and condensing here - paradensing) but also about how in fact we're actually doing something that benefits our brains, enhances creativity, engenders patience, and provides us with a supply of superb gifts when we get the gauge wrong. She had a strong message about how the muggles just don't get it, and that's ok.  Because as we could see and feel, as we sat as a group listening, laughing, knitting and empathising, we know that we're right and they're off fishing and that's just standing in water.  Sod the people who don't understand it. Despite what a Cambridge study may say, we know that there is such a thing as emergency knitting, and yes it does fit in your bag.

  

ETA: was listening to Craft Sanity and in her interview, Cat Bordhi alludes to the more scientific side of Stephanie's talk and it may be the subject of a future podcast.  I think it's something she normally talks about when she does one of these big events, but for anyone who's not going to make it to one soon, look out for it.

Raspberry Monsters

Hasten over to 'A Year of Softies'  to view all the finalists in the 2007 awards (voting opens at the end of the week) and support this little critter

(copyright belongs to Raspberry)

in the 'Creepy yet cute category - indeed!  Made by the wonderful Raspberry - wishing you lots and lots and lots of luck!

Somewhere over the rainbow...

...there's a leprechaun waiting to give me a large pot of gold.  And when I find him - I'll be going straight to the Ribbon Jar.  I enjoy torturing myself so I subscribe to their newsletter, which arrived today, and their special collections are so utterly divine...but I haven't actually ordered anything from them yet.  Yet, hah!

As an addendum to the letter M, I just have to share my love for the Muppets.  The epitome in family entertainment (plus I was pretty much raised on Sesame Street).  Remember Pigs in Space? The Swedish Chef? And Miss Piggy, of course.

One of my favourite trivia questions is:
Name the two guys on the balcony who heckle everyone, but mostly poor Fozzie bear?
And for bonus points, where do their names come from?
Answer here.

So come on, which one are you?  Apparently, I am...

Fozzie Bear!

"Wocka! Wocka!"
You're the life of the party, and you love making people crack up.
If only your routine didn't always bomb!
You may find more groans than laughs, but always keep the jokes coming.

Do leave a comment to say who you are...

Oh lordy, it's almost midnight.  Time to flee up to bed with my ballgown rustling before I turn into a pumpkin.

Kitchen chic

The June/July Tie One On gallery is all about musicals, so much fun! It has also introduced me to some great new blogs which I'll be checking out regularly.

My favourites amongst lots of wonderful stuff:

Julie's is inspired by South Pacific, and her photo is great, loving the hula arms

Selena's Wicked apron - look at Emerald City!

Catrina's Willy Wonka - so simple and works beautifully

Bridget's La Cage Aux Folles creation is so sweetly cheering

And though all of Lori's aprons were great, the Wizard of Oz one is just too perfect! My absolute favourite! My own effort was also inspired by Oz, but I'm now quite glad I didn't go for all over gingham...

I've linked to the blogs rather than to their specific apron posts - but just scroll down if necessary, and enjoy the read.

An overdue apology...

To Miss Twiss. I believe I wrong accredited her with a quote which I listed in an earlier post, about echoing someone who'd said how they longed for people to say to them about some of their creations 'where did you get that?' with admiration, rather than 'you made that, didn't you?' with an air of despair.

As Miss Twiss is in fact a very talented professional fashion designer, I imagine it's about four decades since anyone ever looked critically on her creative efforts. I mixed her up with someone else - well, obviously.

Whoops.

*** Mortification. ***

"Anniyah amamaterial girrrrrl"

Since I went freelance and don't have a constant, recognisable income (well there's some cash coming in, but as I'm mostly wearing my Project Manager's Hat during our house redecoration, I don't have a lot of time for freelancing, plus there's lots of banging and clattering going on - which is odd, because how noisy should painting really be? Minimally so, I'd like to think - and I like it to be pretty quiet when I work, nothing but the sounds of me scratching correction marks on to the page, and Classic FM on my fantabulous girlie radio, which was my leaving present from my last job. Hell, getting out was enough of a gift, and then I got this too! Then after I finish working it gets tuned to XFM - it's my aural equivalent of leaving the office.)

[Flib shuffles back on track]
Since I went freelance I've been trying to limit my spending severely - no credit card usage at all, and Wardrobe Refashion 06 has helped with this - and luckily all the nice people there and on Sew Retro have helped me with my sewing misadventures - I keep the WR06 support board in business, let me tell you.

But today, after spending a lovely afternoon in the park with a friend and her two most gorgeous little girlies, I dashed into town, armed with various gift vouchers that have been burning a hole in my wallet. Actually, one of them was a wedding present, and though it had already furnished Flib Towers with two very lovely pressies (a frying pan and an ice bucket!), it had £15 left on it which just needed to be spent, plus a £20 vouchers for Selfridges. Niiiiiiiiice shop. It's great because it stocks a huge range of stuff, and the housewares are normal prices, basically.

For my £20 in Selfridges (oh, did I mention that it's Sale Season?), I scored:

- A cutting mat so I can try some patchwork with some of my stash fabrics, fat quarters that won't make anything else really, but I didn't actually know what fat quarters were when I bought them from eBay, many moons ago
- a metal edged cutting ruler (for the patchwork)
- a set of Denyse Schmidt stationey, 50% off! Stationery and patchwork in one - swooooon....
- a funky spotty box with o-o-f dots*
Okay, I confess. I overspent there by £1.70.

With the remainder of the wedding voucher, I came out with
- these cute pegs (to be used in gift-wrapping, and organising the office)
- 70% off candles, to fit the mini candle holders my mum put in my Christmas stocking a few years ago, never thought I'd find replacements
- and miscellaneous cards

As I was walking past Earthworks I realised they had gorgeous Sarah Bernhardt paeonies outside. I like this florist anyway, because they have a resident cat there, called Bonnie (who, incidentally, is poorly at the moment, as it turns out that she is allergic to protein - how rubbish is that for a cat? Please send good kat karma to Bonnie) and paeonies were the main component of my wedding bouquet. And at £4.55, they were a steal, let me tell you. No, of course I paid, I did...

Then on to John Lewis for a 22in zip, in the hope that buying the notions will lend me the mental strength to rip the disaster dress and resew it, thus necessitating the zip in the first place - the zip of encouragment. I was legging it through the place as it was almost closing time, but not so fast that I didn't see the 'Reduced' tag on some dusky rose taffeta! So that is the aspirational fabric now - I aspire to get the disaster dress sorted out, because when it works, I'll be remaking it in the taffeta for the August wedding. Hah, now I've said it on here, and it's bound to come back to haunt me!

Further to yesterday's post, I got up at 6.30am and tidied up, having mopped the floors etc yesterday. Yes, I do know that the guys will be back traipsing dust and muck through here again on Monday, but it had to be tidied for the weekend. Can't wait to get the hall stand back out there, the carpet fitted (I won't make the obvious joke about excitement at getting laid) and hang some of our gorgeous pictures, which have been languishing for almost two and a half years! Ah, nesting...

* The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that I missed the spotty box out of the picture above. That neatly encapsulates the Selfridges sale slogan that's on all their advertising:

You want it
You buy it
You forget it

Vroom vroom!

I've seen these in baby blue and eau de nil but this is the first pink one I've seen. I think I'd have to have three as I could never decide which colour to go for - hah!