Flibbertygibbet

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.

Whatcha been up to?

Culture with Abi

I didn't say 'high culture' as of course 'high camp' is more normally associated with the Wizard.   The production  has attracted a little controversy,  and I can't say I disagree with a lot of the criticisms but yes, the dog is great and more seriously it's worth going for the music alone which is utterly spellbinding.

Baking cupcakes with friends.  Finding Laura Marling's marrow and being bemused at and amused by Les Savy Favs at Field Day.  Sadly missing other lovely people's social occasions, from knitting operas to engagement parties.  Doing London Walks with my uncle and old colleagues, catching up on gossip - gossip was quality; walk was sadly not as interesting as previous outings. Plotting my first quilt for me; and starting to think about baby presents for the entire kindergarten class that's arriving Nov-Jan.  Eating really well and doing a ton of exercise.  Intending to blog more.  Preparing to buy lots of things from here for my new pursuit this autumn. Being excited about my new local, a resurrected pub which looks very promising.  Planning for Green Man.  Obsessively checking the weather forecast to see whether I need these.  Probably  more useful than ruby slippers.

Being made {{extremely happy}} by:

Thank you so much Kirsty, you immensely talented woman.

And by Dan Hillier:

 

The art of Mise en Scene

Or of being in the right place at the right time.  Recently at a wedding in Scotland, I met someone who may in fact be my separated-at-birth twin.  You know when you immediately click with someone?  We did and it was great, given that I'd been a bit apprehensive about going to the wedding 'stag', as it were.  I love weddings, just not so keen on the walking in alone bit.  It's an established fact that going to a wedding alone just sucks, especially at a given age, i.e. most of your friends are still tying the knot rather than divvying up the wedding presents, bless 'em.  Anyway, it was a wonderful day, a beautiful couple who are just head over heels and all tremendously good fun, and it also reignited my interest in getting my camera sorted out.   Clare, new friend, is an amazing photographer and she recommended a local photography course, I think it might be same place that Helen's going to, and I would like to get to grips with the newish SLR that arrived in January and has been sadly underused.  So that's on the list of To-Dos. 

As is the ever-evolving flat.  I finally got around to framing some stuff, and then realised that I didn't actually  have as many pictures as I thought...  some of them are hiding in here.

This came from the Small Object last year at Renegade Craft.

This is a greeting card from a really sweet girl at Spitalfields, or possibly the Backyard market.

Watercolours which were a gift from my grandmother.

More Renegade craft loveliness. 

I am trying to wangle a work trip to San Francisco to coincide with Renegade Craft in July.  Can anyone out there recommend fun stuff to do around SF?  Is it worth staying a week if I can sort that out, and how feasible is it to get around without driving because I don't drive here, never mind on the 'wrong' side of the road.

There hasn't been much crafting, but I did very quickly sort out the kitchen curtain on a temporary basis.  Yes, it's very boring but it's an improvement on the kitchen roll that was stuck up there; and it may get some further embellishment.

I made a sock bag for Lovely Lucy last night as part of her birthday presents but forgot to take a photo of it.   

This was one of my birthday presents a while back, and it made me laugh out loud.

Sent home from school

My boss told me to leave the office at 3:00pm today because it was so quiet, hardly anyone back at work and dead phones.  Cue internal "Hurrah - I can go to the Liberty sale!"  Followed by internal "Doh.  Being a temp sucks sometimes",  because I don't get paid for shopping time.  But I decided to look on it as a gift from the universe, or something equally cosmic, and also time to do the freelancing I have been sidelining for the past few weeks.  Therefore I didn't get to go out knitting this evening, as I headed home after being remarkably restrained in Liberty, but I did get almost half of the proofreading done, and some tidying too.  Being productive makes me calm, I realise.

On New Year's Eve I freecycled a futon that was just taking up room. Last night I schlepped furniture.  And today I have a playroom... Imagine it in daylight!

It comes complete with oversized beachball.

When Ikea say the trestles can be used for storage this probably isn't what they are thinking, but still.  I put this together on my own and remain mystified as to how you connect the trestles to the table top (I couldn't see any appropriate holes in the underside of the table) so it's not as stable as it might be. (BTW Denise, can you see Hello Kitty?)

I was made green-eyed encouraged by Susan's enormous craft room which houses two of these sets of shelves, lucky girl (though I am too, I know).  The eagle-eyed will spot that there are a couple of cardboard boxes still sitting there - have to find suitable storage for the letterpress's moveable type.  A few things still need homes.  BTW, with a couple of exceptions, most of these storage boxes contain fabric.

There's also some progress in the sitting room.  The red cupboard made it too.

What you probably can't see behind the table is the yarn stash.  Yes, that's right.  The fabric takes up the whole of the other room and the yarn had to come out here.  That's because I do things like I buy silk at Liberty (mmmm, silk....) which is pretty much the same colour as previously stashed silk. So when do you think we'll be getting a fabric version of Ravelry?  I'll be a beta tester, gladly.