What I wore 12th – 18th December 2008

What is it about this time of year? I can go all year buying only three items of clothing and then December appears and in addition to my planned purchase of boots I find I need some green shoes to make any of my party dresses work! Clearly I spend far too much of the other 11 months of the years in very casual clothes. On the plus side at least I haven’t wasted weeks planning my outfits – I’m just soo laid back about such things these days.

Friday
Black leggings, new black buckle boots, emerald green vest worn under long sleeved grey knitted dress, black and green necklace.
I swapped the knitted dress for a lighter grey and black one when I went out to a pub for a hour or two.

Saturday:
Brown boots, skinny jeans, grey pillowcase top, grey shrug, spider necklace, black rubber bangles.

Sunday
Black leggings, new black buckle boots, emerald green vest worn under long sleeved grey knitted dress

Monday
Skinny jeans, turquoise vest, grey wrap dress, brown boots.

Tuesday
Mens jeans, white vest, grey wrap cardigan, black DM boots.

Wednesday
Mens jeans, green jumper, brown boots.
Black swimsuit, white robe and slipper (spa day)

Thursday
Black dress, green cardigan, black leggings, green and black necklace, new lace up black boots.

Things I Love Thursday

 Spa days – One of my dearest friends was bought a spa day by her husband for her 30th birthday. He was sweet enough to say that he thought she would enjoy it more with some company and invited myself and another chum to accompany her. Despite the dreadful cold I have at present we had a really lovely day. It was so nice to have time to sit and chat with lunch and treatments being the only interruptions. Obviously when she thanked us for joining her we explained what a test of our friendship it had been to have to endure a spa day!

 Discovering facials are not as I thought they were – I always imagined that during a facial you would sit in a dentist type chair while someone in a white outfit examined your face under a magnifier and bright light and made mutterings about enlarged pores. Imagine my joy to discover that it more like a massage in a candle lit room while snuggled under towels.

 Wet look leggings – I thought I was too old for these but to my astonishment they look pretty cool in a rock chick kind of way. I wanted a pair of wet look jeans when I was about 13 but I never actually got round to visiting the shop that had them. Clearly instead I needed to wait a couple of decades for these amazing things. Expect them to feature heavily in my 2009 wardrobe. My only sadness is that they don't go with my silver sequin dress.

 Having a grand weekend with my family – My sister and I did our annual Christmas shopping day and managed to add the weekend on so that we visited our grandparents and parents. Totally different experiences with each group but good fun. I would never otherwise have watched and laughed about The X factor final or have experienced what is in reality a working men’s club.

What I wore 5th – 11th December 2008

I have been wondering why on earth I post what I wore on a Friday when the day is not yet an end. OK my life isn’t that unpredictable and exciting that I might wear something really wild – but it could be. Hence ‘what I wore this week’ posts will now cover Friday to Thursday. I’m early this week because I’m anticipating busy as well as out and about over the weekend, starting early tomorrow.

Friday
•Black tights, new black buckle boots, black vest worn under long sleeved green knitted dress, black scarf.

Saturday
•New black buckle boots, black tights, grey and black dress, green pendent on green ribbon, long charcoal coat, green and yellow scarf.

Sunday
•Allotment clothes
•Old jeans, long black dress with v nck and hood, green slippers

Monday
•Black leggings, long black dress, green cardigan, new lace up black boots, black and green necklace.

Tuesday
•Mens jeans, turquoise vest, grey wrap cardigan, brown boots.

Wednesday
•Black leggings, green wrap dress, white vest, stretchy black boots.

Thursday
•Mens jeans, Feeglespotting tshirt, green cardigan, brown boots.

Things I Love Thursday

Finding new blogs – I love finding new blogs and the comments of blogs I already love are a great place to locate them. Last week I discovered casey paper rock and Pixie Kisses. It’s so cool to find out about other people in the world.
Magnificent, seedy wine bars – We went out in London for Dear Heart’s mama to celebrate being 60. Among a load of other tourist type stuff we went to the Gordon’s, a magnificent, Dickensian wine bar (no beer, no spirits – only wine) by embankment tube. My sister took me to this place last year which in all honesty looks like it isn’t open. I love well know n secrets almost as much as I love drinking in dives.
Wrapping stuff for Christmas – I’m almost done with wrapping my presents for Christmas in a mixture of fabric bags, recycled papers bags and, new for this year, cloth wrapping ‘paper’. My gift tags are made from last year’s Christmas cards. I want it all done by my spa day next Wednesday so I can begin to celebrate in earnest. I’d like to comment on the gifts I have bought but don’t want to spoil the surprise for any of my nearest and dearest.
Anticipation of seeing family – My sister and I have our annual Christmas shopping day tomorrow. Who knows which relatives we might hook up with up while out and about???
Fry’s peppermint cream chocolate – since Black and Green is no longer definitely vegan I’m exploring other possibilities. I’ve got some stuff that I’m saving for Christmas (it involves caramel and raspberries) but my treat this week has been the widely available Fry’s peppermint cream. Apart form anything else it takes me back to my childhood.

Apologies for lack of links. Either Blogger is having some kind of non-cooperative hissy fit or my computer is.

Syllables

I’ve never been very comfortable counting syllables. This means that although I love the idea of Japanese Haiku I’ve always been a bit nervous about writing them because it reveals my ignorance of such things.

The competition on Icing asking for a Haiku about a friend has forced me to action though. I’ve read up on how to count syllables and believe that I can now count syllables. Yipee. It’s all to do with the vowel sounds apparently.

My suggestion for you to do today:
Think of something that you want to understand but keep putting off and have quick look at sources of illumination on the Internet. Use wikipedia, an online encyclopaedia or bulletin board. Just answer that craving for knowledge. Believe me, you’ll feel better for it.

What I wore 29th November – 5th December 2008

I have made a real effort to wear my lovely new boots. I didn’t want to wear them in case they got scratched or something which is so ridiculous. Maybe that’s a point in the favour for second hand gear – it’s already ‘broken in’. I seem to be developing a thing for wearing vests under dresses and tops that goes way beyond my existing pairing of them with wrap dresses/tops.

Saturday
•Walking clothes
•Mens jeans, black vest, long sleeved green smock top, brown boots

Sunday
•Turquoise vest, grey long sleeved knitted dress, black tights, brown boots.

Monday
•Wide grey trousers, emerald green vest, pale green long sleeved top, short black boots.

Tuesday
•Turquoise vest, grey wrap dress, skinny jeans, brown boots.

Wednesday
•Black leggings, long black dress, green cardigan, new lace up black boots, black and green necklace.

Thursday
•Skinny jeans, grey pillowcase top top, grey shrug, spider necklace, green bead bracelet, brown boots.
•
Friday
•Black tights, new black buckle boots, black vest worn under long sleeved green knitted dress, black scarf.

Things I Love Thursday

 My new boots – I got two new pairs of black boots from Bourgeois Boheme at the Christmas without Cruelty fayre on Sunday. They are fab. Alas I am now nervous about wearing them for the first time. I bought them for every day wear and not a special occasion so why am I procrastinating?

 Painting my nails with different shades of green nail varnish – I used to collect green nail varnish and had over fifty different shades of green at one point. I only used to paint my toe nails and one nail on my left hand. Hence the bottles got sued up very slowly. Today I have rediscovered the joys of painting random nails different colours.

 Beetroot with chillies – I keep buying bug bags of local veg which of late have included lots of beetroot. I’ve been trying different ways of eating it and discovered that boiled and them sprinkled with dried chillies is my absolute favourite.

 Making lists of things to do – Planning what tasks I will carry out over the next few days is a real pleasure. I always feel very happy and energetic when I am planning. The trick is not to get carried away with this feeling and plan more than you will do.

 Dark cherry mocha from Starbucks…I love cherry flavoured things and made with soya milk and no crème this is suitable for vegans.

 When drunk with friends on a Friday – One of my friends and I went for coffee after work on Friday and it was the nicest thing. It felt so sophisticated and Christmassy. We had the loveliest chat. She also advised asking for one shot more cherry and one shot less mocha.

 My hairdresser – I got my hair cut last night by my wonderful hairdresser, Lisa. Hard to believe that two years ago I hadn’t let a pair of scissors near my hair for a decade. My hair has been so good this year. I love the way that Lisa lets my style evolve a little bit each time.

A patchwork mind

I’ve got all kinds of things going on in my head at present. I’m still finishing the ‘wrapping’ of my Christmas gifts. I’m experimenting with a new design for the drawstring bags that I put gifts in. I’m also trying out an idea about making fabric gift wrap. Hence my study is littered with bits of ribbon and fabric, buttons, beads, sequins and other frippery for decoration. I kept re-arranging it all in boxes or shoving it into cupboards in an effort to keep things tidy and under control.

I think the biggest issue is all the small bits of left over fabric from various projects. Those pieces that are too small to throw but not big enough to do stuff with fill several bags. Sure some of them do for decorating other things. But the quantity is only going to increase with every new project. I’ve begun thinking about patchwork. I’ve done a very small amount of research and discovered that fitting together small randomly shaped pieces is called ‘crazy patchwork’.

I reckon that I have easily enough for a quilt. This would please Dear Heart, who seems like that kind of thing and comes from a family who seem to feel the cold. So I guess that will be one of my 2009 project. Apart from anything else the idea of having some space in my fabric cover really appeals.

Then I’m trying to work out what to wear to a dinner/dance thing the Saturday before Christmas. Dear Heart surprised me on Sunday by showing me an article on Party frocks and suggesting that numbers 1, 6 or 7 would be right for me. I’m thinking of wearing the silver sequined dress that I bought last year. I wore it at new year, but it certainly needs another outing. I just need to decide what to wear it with.

Also there’s birthday presents to sort out, a date for Christmas decorating to schedule and Dear Heart making some kind of final decision over where we are actually going to spend Christmas. Will it snow? How many boxes of frozen party snacks do we need to survive the festive season?

I think I need to chill out a bit. Maybe listen to some festive songs while sitting by the fire.

It’s Neet

The December issue of N.E.E.T. magazine is online. I don’t buy magazine as a general rule. I subscribe to Easy Living which I’m uncertain about continuing with. When Easy Living first came out I think I probably was right in the middle of their target demographic. It felt like the whole thing had been written just for me. However I don’t always find that I relate quite so well these days. I loved the whole small change, big difference feel of the early issues. I liked the articles about things that I didn’t read elsewhere in glossy magazines like women who made their own clothes or talking about why they still had long/punk/green hair at seventy. There was less celebrity. Lots of articles offering life tips from real women who ran their own businesses. I still think about planning my clothes a week in advance if I know that I will be busy. Or I remember to take food (whoever it was described it as ‘a picnic’) so that I don’t have to eat a pre-packaged sandwich when I could be consuming something delicious.

The thing with Easy Living is that every time I decide that it is no longer for me an issue comes out that seems just right. Anyway I digress, back to NEET.

I think this was the first place I ever came across the phrase ‘upcycle’. This issue had a guide to 2009 – just the place to seek inspiration for what to do with what you’ve already got. I was surprised by the number of UK contributions. So many times I come across something cool and then discover that it’s all about the USA.

To my disgrace (or maybe not) I cannot recall what lead me to N.E.E.T. in the first place. Whoever wrote the blog that led me there – thank you. I shall just enjoy.

Back to the plot

With my novel completed I’d thought that December would be an easy ride with evenings of putting my feet up and reading with a cup of tea/glass of wine.

However, when I began to idly compile a job list I was amazed by how many things were on it that need to be done in the next two weeks or sooner.

The challenge of writing set number of words everyday didn’t seem that tough at the time. It was just a case of plugging away. I do think though that as the month went on while the writing got easier in some ways, it got more difficult in others. There were plot lines and character names to keep track of. During the final week I knew what I needed to cover to get to the end and found myself trying to pace the action to be covered in the remaining words.

Although it feels strange not to write, I won’t miss waiting for my laptop to boot up and trying to write in between cooking dinner. Final Christmas gift prep, a mound of post, cheques to write and a round of family related stuff have moved to the very top of my list.

I’m trying to apply the main lesson of NaNoWriMo which is that you can get it done, whatever it is. You just need to break it into small portions, make sure you do a portion regularly and keep an eye on milestones and deadlines.

I'm a winner

You're probably wondering what the blurry screen shot above is all about. Well, I've completed the NaNoWriMo challenge. I just had my word count verified. I wrote a novel in a month. It might be complete nonsense but I did it.

Off to celebrate right now.

What I wore 22nd – 28th November 2008

I am amazed that there are winter wardrobe items that I still haven’t worn since removing from storage (i.e. an old suitcase on top of my wardrobe). I’m putting this down to my focus on NaNoWriMo. When your head is full of plotlines and characters it’s hard to be creative with your wardrobe.

Saturday
•Walking clothes
•Mens jeans, black vest, long sleeved green smock top, brown boots

Sunday
•Allotment clothes
•Mens jeans, black vest, long sleeved green smock top, brown boots (desperate for wrm clothes after trying to work on my allotment in the snow!)

Monday
•Black cardigan, reworked blue ‘guild of radical militant librarians’ tshirt, blue cord skirt, black leggings, brown boots, green beaded bracelet.

Tuesday
•Turquoise vest, grey wrap dress, skinny jeans, brown boots.

Wednesday
•Black leggings, brown boots, long charcoal skirt, black vest, turquoise jumper, black linen scarf, black rubber bracelets.

Thursday
•Skinny jeans, grey pillowcase top top, grey shrug, spider necklace, green bead bracelet, brown boots.

Friday
•White shirt, black sleeveless V-neck dress, black tights, black stretch boots, black and green necklace.

Things I Love Thursday

© Buying amazing stuff second hand

© Coming to the end of NaNowriMo

© Big bags of locally grown vegetables

© Looking forward to going to the Christmas without Cruelty Fayre and…

© New vegan boots from Bourgeois Boheme

© Purple blankets

© Soya milk cocoa

© Ticking things off lists

© My dose of Icing turning up first thing in the morning

© Lunch with friends

© Tofu from the Noodle bar

My week off

I had a week off work last week. I’m very bad at using leave. Normally if I have a week off I spend the entire time trying to have a ‘proper rest’. The issue is that I’m not sure what I mean by a proper rest. Do I mean sitting and doing nothing? Curling up on the sofa with a cup of tea and book? Meditating? Having cleared all the jobs on my list?

I never know what time to get up. Should I set a time for each day? Or force myself to go back to sleep? Should I go to bed later then usual?

I always come up with a ridiculous job list. Just like I always pack loads of paperwork to do on long journeys and then don’t bother to look at it. Just have the joy of moving it from A to B and back again.

So last week in change from the norm I was busy all day every day. I got up just after Dear Heart had left for work. Then I had breakfast. On a couple of days I went to my allotment first thing. On other days I stayed at home. Apart form clearing out the pantry none of the things I id were really major projects. Just day-to-day stuff like doing loads of washing, going through bank statements and washing the recycling boxes.

In between I relined my winter coat, hennaed my hair and packaged up all the Christmas gifts I have bought so far. I stopped for tea breaks and lunch breaks now and then, making sure I really enjoyed sitting down with my book and something warming for a quarter of an hour or so.

I didn’t plan my week to be like this it was just the way it turned out. But I didn’t feel exhausted or panicky or that I should have been making better use of my time once. I enjoyed being in the moment and undertaking the tasks I was doing.

My conclusion is that I don’t do very well at taking things easy. I like to be busy. My grandmother used to say that she was not made to be a lady of leisure. I found that I was so keen to get on with things that I didn’t want to go to bed. But I made myself go so that I could get a good start in the morning.

I’ve also often found that I snack all the time when I am on leave. Not so this time. I assume it was a combination of being occupied (and not bored) and stopping for regular breaks.

Strangely though I was less interested in looking at the Internet. I didn’t post here apart from the first day. I used twitter a lot less. I didn’t check any of the blogs that I regularly visit. I did use my computer in the evenings to type my nanowrimo instalments

I’m going to try and apply this process of getting up early and having lots of small tasks to do during the Christmas break. If it proves to be effective I should start January feeling fabulous.

What I wore 15th – 21st November 2008

I’ve been on leave for a week. It’s been really tempting to just spend the whole week wearing old pyjama trousers and ancient bobbly jumpers. The caplet (which I made out an old jumper that I shrunk in the washing machine and then removed the sleeves) had been marvellous. If I feel a bit chilly I can just pop it on over whatever I’m wearing. Picture soon hopefully.

Saturday:
-Mens jeans, long sleeved black t shirt, green Alice Cooper t-shirt
-Changed top for an hour to ‘guild of radical militant librarians’ t shirt that I spent the afternoon refashioning and needed a test run.


Sunday:
-Allotment clothes
-Old jeans, long sleeved grey v neck t shirt, grey v neck rib jumper, green slippers.

Monday:
-Turquoise vest, grey wrap dress, skinny jeans, brown boots.

Tuesday:
-Allotment clothes
-Hair dyeing clothes including scarf worn as turban
-Old jeans, black short sleeved t with grey dragon design, chunky black ribbed jumper with zip neck.

Wednesday:
-Old jeans, black short sleeved t with grey dragon design, chunky black ribbed jumper with zip neck.

Thursday:
-Allotment clothes
-Black leggings, black long sleeved, v necked hooded dress, green wool caplet with purple brooch
-Mens jeans, grey wrap top, turquoise vest, brown boots (for dinner out)

Friday:
-Brown boots, black leggings, black long sleeved, v necked hooded dress, green wool caplet with purple brooch.

It's pantry clearout day

What I wore 8th – 14th November 2008

I’ve been really into brown boots for a couple of years, but I really want some long black boots. I’ve been looking at Bourgeois Boheme and I am definitely buying myself at least one pair from their as a Christmas gift to myself. Happily BoBo are going to be at the Christmas without Cruelty fayre so I am going to ask them bring some pairs along for me to try on. Here's this week's clothing list.

Saturday:
Allotment clothes
Mens jeans, long sleeved black t shirt, green Alice Cooper t-shirt, black DM boots (when I went out to serve mulled wine at the town firework display I added a fleece jacket, a waterproof jacket, a scarf and a hat).
Sunday:
Old jeans, long sleeved grey v neck t shirt, grey v neck rib jumper, green slippers.

Monday:
Turquoise vest, grey wrap dress, skinny jeans, brown boots.

Tuesday:
Green velvet jacket, grey skirt, white v neck t shirt, brown boots.

Wednesday:
Skinny jeans, grey pillow case top, grey shrug, spider necklace, black stretchy boots.

Thursday:
Emerald green cardigan, black and white floral skirt, black top, brown boots,green and black necklace.

Friday:
Brown boots, black leggings (worn as tights), grey knitted dress, Long black fitted jacket with green and bronze spider brooch, green and gold knitted scarf.

Things I Love Thursday

Having new goodies to test for The Beauty Bible

The prospect of a week off

Memories of serving mulled wine with one of my best friends at the town firework display

Twelve Bar Blues

Staying on track with NaMoWriMo

My sister

Amplification

Buying skull patterned fabric to reline my coat

Not having to pay for the fabric because I have a voucher for the fabric shop

Green tea

The way my hair looks - rock and roll!

Buying Christmas cake soap from Lush and then storing it away for the start of December. Hello instant Christmas!

Things I have discovered today

Angela Lambert (author of The Constant Mistress, one of my favourite books) died in 2007.

My former junior school has changed its motto from ‘Think and Thank’ to ‘Enthusiasm and Excellence’.

Elvis Presley did karate and was apparently quite good.

Tshirt refashion - before

My lovely parents bought me this fabulous tshirt back from their travels earlier in the year. It looks fine but it make sme look rather more than a teeny bit busty. Hence I intend to work my 'magic' on it and make it into a a style that will display my assests at their best.

I had intended just to alter the neckline. This would be a simple task involving cutting the existing neck out as close to the binding as possible. Then cutting it a bit lower at the front and then just hemming the lot.

However, I really don't want to cut into the design and it is just a bit to high for me to manage that. So I am going for something maybe a little be more demanding which involves cutting the sleeves off, cutting straight across just above the design and re-attaching the sleeves. There's a post on Craftster explaining how to do this. Expect an after photo! I will add links as well if it works OK.

What I wore 1st – 7th November 2008

Saturday:
•Exercise clothes
•Clothes for applying henna to hair: ancient faded black ribbed trousers, long sleeved black v neck t-shirt with bleach stains, Black batik sarong worn as turban.
•Black leggings, long black hooded dress, brown boots.
Sunday:
•Allotment clothes
•Old jeans and red/maroon jumper
Monday:
•White vest, green wrap dress, black leggings, brown boots.
Tuesday
•Emerald green cardigan, vintage black cotton mini dress/tunic, Mens jeans, brown boots, green and black necklace.
Wednesday
•Skinny jeans, grey pillow case top, grey shrug, spider necklace, brown boots.
Thursday
•Green velvet jacket, grey skirt, white v neck t shirt, brown boots, green and black necklace.
Friday
•Long black skirt, long sleeved grey v neck t shirt, brown boots, denim jacket, green and gold knitted scarf.

Having a whole new set of clothes to work with seems very strange. I’m trying to recall combinations that I’ve used the past that worked.

Things I love Thursday

Staying on target for NaNoWriMo

Playing around with a bass guitar.

Suddenly getting loads of Christmas gift inspiration and thinking I’ll get all the shopping done in no time

Doing my seed order and anticipating lots of lovely produce next summer

Vegetable samosas

Knowing that I can be well organised

Second hand books shops

Planning spa days

A cat asleep at the foot of the bed

Guilt trip

I’m trying not to beat myself up today. I have absolutely no reason for doing so. Just that I failed to pack myself any lunch.

A few weeks back I volunteered to sell mulled wine at the town fireworks on Saturday night. The day is actually manure day at my allotment and I’ll be spending all day barrowing loads of muck around the site. It’s very good fun but quite tiring. The sort of day that you want to go home and collapse after, not serve refreshments. However, apparently (according to Dear Heart) there was no one to do it except me.

Last night it turned out that I was supposed to be coordinating the mulled wine (as in deciding recipes, quantity, purchasing etc) as well as serving. It’s not that I’m not capable of doing it. It’s just that with Nanowrimo time it a little tight as present.

So last night I was trying to calculate costings for mulled wine while making chilli so that I could devote the rest of my evening to nanowrimo. I just didn’t get around to making any lunch and couldn’t summon up any enthusiasm for doing so when I remembered just before bed.

So I bought lunch today. It’s not the end of the world.

Getting to grips with random thoughts and plots

I wondered if doing NanoWriMo would have any impact on my desire to blog. Well the urge is there. The issue is focusing on anything for long enough to blog about. My head is awash with random thoughts about where my novel will go next.

I’m doing fine so far adding plenty of characters and incidents that might act as a vital pivot in the plot later on. The only snag being that I don’t have any plot right now. I’d intended to write something fairly realistic but find ideas about aliens, ley lines and Elvis reincarnated running around my head. I suppose this is the point of writing the story down. I won’t know how it turns out until I’ve written it. If I knew how it was going to turn out would I bother writing it? My enjoyment of Jasper Fforde’s work is clearly having an influence. Fiction is not real so anything can happen. Come to think of it, I was quite impressed by the ideas of Witkiewicz when I was at university. Maybe the absurd is the way forward…

I did make some attempts to clear the decks for the month so that I could really focus. Hence:

•I’ve planning most of my Christmas shopping. The wonderful stuff I ordered from Etsy arrived. I really wanted to rave about it here but some of my family read this and I don’t want to give anything away! I just need to visit a bookshop now.
•My study is tidy with all the excess of my fabric stash packed away.
•I’ve made a list of things I can easily make for lunch using items from the freezer or pantry. This is not going to be a great month for trying new recipes.

Dear Heart has signed up as well so I foresee a month of us sitting either side of the dining room table, laptops open typing frantically!

What I wore 25th – 31st October 2008

Saturday:
·Exercise clothes
·Mens jeans, grey pillowcase top, grey shrug, brown boots, spider necklace, black velvet jacket

Sunday
·Allotment clothes
·Blue cardigan, Black dress with mushroom print, black tights, black Mary Jane shoes, spider necklace.

Monday
·Skinny jeans, short sleeved white linen shirt, black sleeveless dress, green bead bracelet, brown boots.

Tuesday
·Emerald green cardigan, black v neck tshirt, black and white flower print skirt, brown boots.

Wednesday
·Old jeans, grey v neck rib jumper
·Emerald green cardigan, vintage black cotton mini dress/tunic, Mens jeans, brown boots, green and black necklace.

Thursday
·Emerald green cardigan, vintage black cotton mini dress/tunic, Mens jeans, brown boots, green and black necklace.

Friday
·Allotment clothes
·Grey v neck rib jumper, mens jeans, brown boots, black velvet jacket, green and yellow scarf.

Dear Heart and I stayed with his sister on Wednesday night so I wore the same clothes both days. Expecting a lot of changes to what I’ll wear next week as I put my summer clothes away last night and got out my winter stuff.

Things I love Thursday

Deciding to sign up for NaNoWriMo

Spending a few days at home with Dear Heart

Celebrating 14 years with Dear Heart and getting 14 red roses as an anniversary present

Christmas shopping on etsy

The variety of badges for tilt on icing

Fried tofu

NaNoWriMo

As a child I wrote stories all the time or made up scenarios and got my toys to act them out. As teenager I wrote the opening pages of a hundred novels that never got any further. I wrote poetry full of teen angst. I wrote stories at school. I did a creative writing course during sixth form. I wrote an excellent short story for A Level English Language which scored an A and then…

Nothing. Maybe the odd poem here and there. Factual diary entries. Reports and press releases for work. No fiction though. Occasionally the idea for a story would occur to me and I’d think about it but I never even got as far as putting pen to paper.

This summer I began writing fiction again. It’s almost as if suddenly I’ve got things to write about. Like I opened up the stories floating around in the ether and they came running back to me. I don’t know if writing a blog has helped. Maybe. Maybe not.

I’ve got few things I’m working on. But those are going to be put aside during November. I have signed up for National Novel Writing Month. Between 1-30 November I will attempt to write a 50000 novel. Quantity is apparently more important than quality so I’m looking forward to seeing what forced creativity can do.

P.S. I’m really doing it so I can have one of those cute widgets on my blog letting everyone know how much I’ve churned out.

Virtual inlays

My prayers have been answered (sort of). Back in July, I grumbled that buying music from iTunes was all very well but not possessing actual CDs meant no inlays to geek over.

Metallica’s latest work Death Magnetic has disproved this by featuring an electronic book. It opens in acrobat and looks pretty much like an inlay with pictures and lyrics. Alas there is a notable lack of ‘thanks to big John – take it like a man mate’ type stuff, but maybe Metallica consider themselves past that kind of nonsense?

The other downer is the cost. Dear Heart just purchased the entire album so he failed to realise that the ‘booklet’ added £3 to his purchase. Actually he failed to even realise that he’d purchased the booklet, but I’m putting that down to his enthusiasm for listening to it.

Still it's a step in the right direction and could open ip a whole new level of geeking.

What I wore 18 – 24th October 2008

Saturday
Exercise clothes
Mens jeans, grey pillowcase top, grey shrug, brown boots, spider necklace, black velvet jacket

Sunday
Allotment clothes
Old jeans, ancient red jumper

Monday
Mens jeans, turquoise vest, grey wrap jumper, black DM boots.

Tuesday
Chunky green cardigan, black flowery slip dress, floaty black skirt, brown boots.

Wednesday
Emerald green cardigan, vintage black cotton mini dress/tunic, Mens jeans, brown boots, green and black necklace.

Thursday
Emerald green cardigan, black v neck tshirt, black and green necklace, black and white flower print skirt, brown boots.

Friday
Emerald green cardigan, green and white wrap dress, mens jeans, brown boots.

Realise that I am going to have to start finding different names for each of my three pairs of brown boots.

Things I Love Thursday

Wearing black and green – my two favourite colours. I feel so good in them, particularly if I made any of the garments myself!

Getting to spend the whole week writing and looking up authors for work.

Winter boots - Iwant more pairs

Sleeping really well

Getting my hair cut – it just got too long!

Inspiration from books, blogs, the radio, nature, friends etc

How gorgeous England looks – the different colours of leaves on the trees are amazing and they go together so well

Share the Tilt love over with Gala Darling

If you’re looking to waste some time in a vaguely constructive manner…

You could probably do worse than take a wander over to the National Archives website. One of my many interests is family history so I‘ve wandered around the site during my periodic bouts of activity in this area.

They recently released (declassified?) a load of files containing details of UFO sightings.

There’s an interesting mix of handwritten forms, typed letters and computer printouts. I quite like the idea that there is actually a form called ‘report of an unidentified flying object’ and that someone sat and tough about the information required. One of the sections asks about background regarding the observer. Soberness (or otherwise) seems to be frequently commented on. One admitted he had had a few drinks, while another was a ’stable and sober lady’. I’ve never associated drunkenness with hallucinating lights in the sky, but perhaps I’ve been missing with the wrong type of drinker?

Winter wardrobe part 1

Thanks to some reorganising I did earlier in the year my entire off season wardrobe no longer resides in one extremely heavy suitcase. I’ve moved all the footwear into a smaller suitcase. This means that I can adjust more gracefully to a new season as I can easily access a change of footwear without giving myself a hernia trying to get the suitcase off the top of the wardrobe and then back on.
Inspired by the difference I think this is making I had a bit of meander around the web to seek ideas. I ran across the well written downshifting - path to simplicity.
The post has reminded me that when I change me clothes over I don’t have to get everything out. I can choose to rest something for a season or two. I also liked this post on tradition skills and the list of 100 skills all chaps should have. I think there were 14 I could do with confidence.

I’ve started posting what I wore during the week on Fridays as a way of A) remembering between seasons what I’d been combining and B) working out what type of thing I wear most. This will help me decide when to remove items all together and when I finally run low enough to have to replace stuff what to replace. I’ve only bought 3 items of clothing this year and I think it will be some time before I need any new summer footwear. I'm in awe of those people who post photographs of themselves everyday with a list of what they are wearing, where it came from and their reason for wearing it. I'm not that good, but as a source of inspiration they beat glossy magazine anyday.

Don’t take this the wrong way…

I usually spend a couple of hours over the weekend working on my allotment. I’m not the world’s greatest gardener, but I’m trying and I’ve learnt so much in the five years that I’ve had my plot. During the early years my crops were pretty much non existent. I was also obsessed with clearing weeds. I’ve chilled out and learnt and now I actually manage to produce some vegetables to supplement our diet. I‘ve also realised that a spotlessly neat patch is not necessarily a productive one.

I find a few hours of digging and weeding rather relaxing and peaceful, although there’s no getting round it being hard work. Yesterday I’d done an hour or so of digging and was picking some beans when a man appeared on my plot!

Him: Can I have a word?
Me (thinking that’s he’s already had five and wondering who the hell he is): What’s up?
Him: Don’t take this the wrong way…
Me (thinking that I probably would be taking it the wrong way): yes…
Him: I’m happy to help out since you’re struggling with your plot. It’s too big for you.
Me: Well I did split it last year.
Him: I want more land to work on. There’s a waiting list. I could take part of your plot and keep it all neat and tidy for you.
Me: But I only split it last year
Him: I could help you. I could have part of the plot.
Me: Well I’ll give it some thought
Him: I want more land. It would help you out.
Me: As I said I’ll think about it.
Him: My plot is next to yours.

I found the experience rather invasive and intimidating. It’s also made me feel extremely insecure about my skills in plot maintenance and vegetable growing. It’s quite annoying to have these feeling bought up by someone who can’t even introduce themselves. He could just have said “Hello I’m Jenkins from plot 666 which is next yours. I see that a corner of your plot is not currently cultivated. Any chance I could use it?”

I fear that if he takes on part of my plot he’ll have the whole thing under his thumb in no time. It’s made me seriously consider whether I should continue to work my plot or if I should just offer it up to the waiting list (and some more deserving and hard working green fingered type). On the one hand I now feel like I’m under surveillance to make sure that I make maximum use of my plot and I don’t want to have to deal with any hassle. One the other hand I’ve had a very productive year and I want to continue to be able to enjoy a variety of home grown produce.

I did read somewhere today that we’re all getting more paranoid so maybe I’m blowing the whole thing out of proportion. I guess I’ll see how things go over the next few weeks…

What I wore 11 - 17 October 2008

Saturday:

• exercise clothes (long black trousers, random old white t shirt, green fleece, trainers inherited from my mother).


• old jeans, grey ribbed v neck jumper, brown boots, black velvet jacket, yellow and green scarf.

Sunday:

• allotment clothes (old jogging trousers, old holey t shirt, purple fleece jumper and Wellington boots)


• Old jeans, grey v neck tshirt.

Monday:

• skinny jeans, white short sleeved linen shirt, sleeveless black wool dress, black Mary Jane shoes.

Tuesday:

• Flouncy black cotton skirt, flowery slip dress, brown boots, chunky green cardigan, green and yellow scarf.

Wednesday:

• Skinny jeans, grey pillow case top, grey shrug, black velvet jacket, black Mary Jane shoes, green beaded bracelet.

Thursday:

• Men’s jeans, green cardigan, long green and white wrap top, brown boots.

Friday:

black Mary Jane shoes, thick black tights, black mushroom patterned dress, blue cardigan, spider necklace..

One of our bins is missing…

The prettylittle household is situated in area with a three bins system. We put our brown (wet recycling) bin out ever week, accompanied by a black (non-recyclables) or green (dry recycling) bin on alternate weeks.

I take bin duty very seriously indeed. I have a whole Thursday night routine around ensuring various boxes around the house have their contents emptied into the correct bin. I’ve gotten rather worked up in the past when our bin routine has been inferred with. I’m astounded by people who put stuff into our bin. It’s happened before emptying (which often means it isn’t emptied due to what the council call ‘contamination’). Foreign objects have also appeared in it after emptying. Who dumps an entire ready meal still in its packet in some one else’s bin?

Although our bins have disappeared in the past it’s been more in the nature of a swap. There will be an appropriately coloured bin for us to reclaim even if one of our neighbours (having failed to notice the large numbers on the front) has taken the wrong one home.

This time however there is no spare bin for us to use instead. I’m uncertain whether I should phone the council immediately and report our bin loss or wait until next week and hope our last bin reappears.

Emotional attachment to a bin is a terrible thing…

Trolls

I love it when I’m really busy at work and at home. My brain buzzes away in a not unpleasant manner and I feel like I staying on top of the rodeo that is life. However when I busy I’m sure it affects my attention span (or maybe my life just isn’t full and exciting enough!!!). I do short bursts of really intensive work but feel the need to do this while reading at least 2 web pages on whatever is obsessing me at present.

I really want to follow some more twitterers (or what ever the word for people who twitter is) because we share interests and they will inspire me (I add this in case I sound like a stalker just looking for a victim or two).

Unable to find more than a couple of twitter users that satisfied my needs (evil laugh here?) I began working through blog rolls of blogs I follow. Short Circuit 2 comes to mind with me muttering “more input!” rather than Johnny Five. And what has my tour through blogging land revealed to me this afternoon?

Why many of the citizens are bothered by trolls who leave unpleasant comments on their blogs. I clearly should be offering up a prayer to the patron saint of bloggers (although apparently there isn’t one) that I don’t attract trolls and/or vast amounts of blog traffic which would leave me on the receiving end of unpleasantness.

So nominations for the patron saint of blogging then? Before my luck runs out….

Another week…

It really is rather astounding the way Monday come round so quickly. Then I’m even more astounded when I look back over the last week and see how things have changed and moved on.

For example, I’ve gone from worrying about what to do with my parsnips to wanting to buy more. Parsnips add a delicious sweet/sour tang to soup and coleslaw. They also perform very well in Parsnip dabs (from Healing Foods by Jane Sen). I’ve no idea what a dab is supposed to be like but mine turned out like vegetable nuggets and reheated very well. I think I might have a batch for the freezer coming on. My Mum has also come up trumps and emailed me 3 delicious sounding parsnip recipes.

Last week I stared at the boxes in my study and despaired that I would ever clear them (or my sewing pile). Yet inspiration struck and I have entered another bout of selling on eBay and managed to clear part of my sewing pile in a couple of hours.

I keep having random worries about Christmas presents and whether I can possibly get everything organised in the next eleven weeks. I have no doubt a wave of present related energy will sweep over me in the next few weeks and I will get it all sorted (because I do every year!).

I’ve come to the conclusion I worry too much, but if I stopped worrying would it still all get done? And what would happen if it didn’t? What if it is worry that makes the world go round?

My morning walk

The weekend begins here

Parsnips

Saturday morning I was wandering back form my usual walk via the deli, butchers and other purveyors of goodies on my High Street, when something caught my eye. Right next to the butchers was a rather charming looking young man selling even more charming looking bags of locally grown veg. After due consideration (so a good five seconds then) I handed over some cash and trotted off with one of their extremely heavy small bags.

It contained a couple of onions, a cabbage, some garlic and loads of carrots and parsnips. And I do mean a positive abundance of the things. The carrots I will be able to deal with fine. For starters, Dear Heart will eat them so I won’t have to sneak them into things (like I did with Parsnips for Sunday’s soup). The parsnips do present more of a challenge. I’m thinking I can make a cabbage, carrot and parsnip coleslaw, but I get a bit stuck after that.

I really want to find things to do with them that will work well for lunch (so they need to be edible cold or reheat well). I’ve tried roast parsnips in the past but I find them a bit sweet when cold.

So why you are asking am I lumbering myself with Parsnips when I don’t know what to do with them. Well, I firmly believe that I can grow to love the taste of all vegetables. If you don’t force yourself to try new things you will never acquire a taste for them. I want to be able to look forward to every single vegetable coming into season because I will know recipes that I love for all of them.

So Dear Readers, any hints on vegan parsnip delights?

Dragonforce

I’m hoping for warm weather tomorrow evening. I’m off to see Dragonforce and hence will be appearing in my very fetching but rather chilly Goth princess getup. I’ve managed to find a way of wrapping and pinning the skirt (which is very long at the back and extremely brief at the front) so that my legs will be partially covered. I hasten to add that I do this less from a sense of decency than a need to keep my pins warm. I’ll certainly be letting my skirts assume their intended position as we approach the venue.

We’re going with a couple of friends and I’m rather excited. It’ll be nice for Dear Heart to be able to discuss guitar technique with someone who understands. I’m looking forward to be part of a Goth princess posse and having some assistance in getting the drunken HABs (Husbands And Boyfriends) onto the train at the end of the night. I just love the idea of dressing up nice and dancing with my chums.

Twittering during the performance just wouldn’t be very rock ’n’ roll, would it?

Seeking inspiration

Some days you need a bit of inspiration. You want to read things that will make you feel engulfed by how marvellous being alive is. Things that remind you that you are part of the universe and all its marvellous possibilities.

Happily such inspiration is available in abundance in on our delightful planet in a huge variety of forms. Hence the form that inspiration is delivered in can be chosen to suit your mood. I find stories of how life has worked for various people very good whether they are biographies or chick lit. I’m not fussed I just want them to be upbeat (no misery memoirs please).

Obviously the Internet is a treasure trove of delights with site such as Think Arete Blogs are also a great source of daily inspiration. Increase the number and variety visited to up the inspiration factor. Don’t forget to read comments sections – these can shed new meaning on a simple post.

One mustn’t overlook the resources oneself has. Memories that remind you of who you are and what you want to be. Old letters and photographs. Even looking out of the window and observing life can be inspiring.

So today go forth and seek inspiration for all you see.

Salt

Yes I know too much is bad for us (although my recent Internet wandering suggest this is due to our consumption of sodium chloride, rather than unrefined natural salt). However, we’re suffering from a shortage of table salt in the prettylittle household. I’d added it to the ‘items to buy’ list that resides on an old diary page on the side of the fridge. So Saturday morning I dashed off to our idyllic, 1950s-Ladybird-illustration type high street to do my usual rounds of grocery purchases before heading off to a wedding.

I usually purchase table salt from the Co-op in either a small plastic bag or a cardboard box. Alas they appeared to only have salt in large white dispensers. Dear Heart and I have a ‘retro’ orange salt dispenser that we have been refilling for the last decade or so. Hence the large white container was a no go. Coop was a bit of a dead loss that morning actually as they had no cannelloni or baked beans! I can’t really complain at least they now stock two types of dairy free margarine and are experts when it comes to clear labelling.

However I decided not to be daunted by this. I resolved to make use of the Maldon cooking salt where it was really needed and purchase table salt elsewhere. Well since then I‘ve tried another branch of the Coop, a corner shop and even Tesco. All have table salt in a white container with blue labelling. In fact the similarity between the ‘different’ brands of table salts is astounding.

So what’s going on? Is there a new monopoly on the global salt market that I’ve missed? Am I going to be reduced to searching for ‘salt market news’ on google?

I’d completely forgotten how many things I used it for around the house including cleaning trays from the oven. I might be reduced to trying Marks and Spencer if all else fails. Or Holland and Barrett? Is this a hint that I should reduce my salt consumption? Maybe I won't refill and see how long it is before Dear Heart notices.

Young Knives and Yes

I haven’t abandoned or forgotten my ‘discover new music’ project. I’ve just been distracted from it for a while. I started listening to Young Knives (Superabundance –I found my self singing along in no time at all) and Yes (Magnification – It sounded instantly familiar in the grandiose 70s style. My Dad has confirmed that he used to play Yes a lot when I was younger so maybe I unconsciously absorbed their music). Then I started reading The Heroin Diaries by Nikki Sixx and I developed a powerful urge to listen to some Motley Crue. While I was searching for Red, White and Crue on the library shelves I stumbled across a Best of Bowie compilation. I’ve been listening to them both while cooking for the last few weeks although I do think maybe it’s time to move on. It’s the old dilemma I suppose – if I like something and I’m happy with it why seek out something new…

I will move on to 'C' soon.

Leftovers

Regular readers will know that I love nothing better than whipping up a dish out of leftovers. Last night's dinner featured this pasta bake. I boiled some pasta for until tender and then mixed up with some Courgette and Tarragon soup and topped with some 'past their best' tomatoes before baking. The soup was one I made earlier in the summer when I had a major courgette glut. We got 10 portions out of the recipe including two I froze. I had the remains for lunch today and they were even more delicious (if possible). And there is still a portion in the freezer for me to play with.

Since I had the oven on anyway I also baked some plums, pears and apples. Preperation took place while the pasta was boiling.

Tomorrow night I'm trying out an experiement using left over celery and tomato soup, gluten chunks and rice to make a kind of casserole. I'm hoping it will be divine.

Sewing inspiration

I suddenly got all inspired yesterday evening about some new stuff to sew. I was removing an enormous piece of very dark green fabric from my stash and thinking about using it for present bags when a couple of other pieces fell out and inspiration took hold.

I bought two pieces of green heavy cotton fabric from army surplus at the start of the summer and had been thinking that they’d make a dress. Something shift like and fitted because the fabric is quite stiff. This means that I can’t get away with my usual ‘minimal seams and shaping’ approach and just tie the whole ting together with a huge sash. But I did suddenly think what an amazing skirt it would make and after pinning it round me and holding in place with a large purple bow I decided that was just what it would be. I think I’ll use the usual A line pattern I vaguely follow from Yeah, I made it myself.

My other inspiration was regarding a top and came from two sources. I have some woolly fabric in a very dark grey that I made a skirt from some years back. I’ve never know quite what to do with it because it’s absolutely the wrong type of thing for a gift bag (even for lining) and there wasn’t enough to do anything else with it. My vague thoughts before shoving it to the back of the cupboard for use in the very distance future were around some kind of pillow case.

Then yesterday I looked up Sandra Garrett Multiples after I found a reference to them in an old letter from my Mum. These were pieces made from plain jersey fabric. The idea was that they all went together and that you could use various bits of the clothing in multiple ways. They were big in the 1980s and she is now selling them again. You can view the pieces on her site. What struck me was that they all had such a square shape (just like a pillow case).

Then last night I jumped from doublespeak to Fashion Robot and then to Gem Fatale. It was here that she was talking about making a top from a pillow case. I realised I had enough fabric to make a pillow case with and the dye was cast. Here comes another sleeveless top!

I can’t wait to get home tonight and do some sewing before going out the allotment society AGM. One day my fabric stash will be gone...

Toothache

So one week, I am a picture of health and the next a positive wreck. My wisdom teeth are playing up again. Hopefully I am past the middle point of this episode and on my way out and back to health. In the meantime, I have experienced swollen glands, headaches, nausea, lack of appetite and now itchy teeth. I am also beginning to understand the allure of a teething ring.

It has bought to mind the marvellous The Third Policeman and the pronouncement in one of the early chapters that very few diseases do not stem from the teeth. This is prior to the discussion turning to bicycles.

The Internet informs me that Saint Apollonia is the patron saint of those suffering from toothache. Apparently she had all her teeth removed or broken prior to be burnt alive.

I’m thanking the universe for Anbesol and off to test Echinacea as a tooth pain reliever.

Lacking in a certain department

So I went home last night and looked at my wardrobe with all the thoughts about capsule wardrobes buzzing around my head. It became clear quite quickly that I have a lot of clothes that go with one think and nothing else. I was initially puzzled by this as it’s something I’ve always tried to avoid. When Dear Heart and I used to spend Saturdays roaming the shops together our conversation would go something like this:

Dear Heart: You should get that outfit over there. It would look really good on you.
Me (thrilled that he thinks something would look good on me and craving approval in an unhealthy manner): It’s really cool. I’m going to try it on.

I exit to changing rooms and reappear some minutes later.

Dear Heart: How did you get on?
Me: It looked great but none of it will go with anything else.
Dear Heart (gazing in direction of local hostelry): So? Just buy it.
Me: good idea. I’ll go to the till now. Hey I think I'll get these random items from the sale rail too. Look how cheap they are.

Additionally I have a lot of things that are vintage or homemade. If I’m making it myself, particularly from fabric I already have I am far less fussy over what goes with it. I seem to have lots of tops and far fewer bottoms. My clothes are mainly green and black with a few splashes of white, blue and red.

So rather than doing what any self respecting wardrobe would suggest (which would be to look for wear the gaps and acquire new items to fill them) I intend to use this lack to force me to explore further into my wardrobe and discover new (daring?) combinations.

Today, for example, I am wearing a long floaty black cotton skirt, long black boots, fishnet tights (largely hidden by boots and skirt), a black slip dress with tiny flowers printed on it and a green cardigan.

I would never normally of considered teaming these. I’ve had the slip dress for ages and used to live in it in my early 20s. It’s probably too short for me to get away with now, even with thick tights but it looks very slim as a long top.

I do rather like the thought of wearing out everything in my wardrobe and then moving to a palette of black, green and white (Nubby Twiglet has been inspiring me - I want to pack like her but think green not red).

Capsule wardrobe

This raises it head and winks at me every so often and I feel a need to pay some attention to the concept.

I’ve been googling the term ‘capsule wardrobe’ for about 5 years now (if not more) and I love the way new stuff appears in the search, but old stuff (some of the articles are like old friends now) crop up again and again.

I’ve found 2 lovely new blog to add to my daily reading. Workthatwardrobe is documenting a year in the life of woman who has sworn off buying clothes for a year and puts up a photograah of her outfit. WhatIwore2day is pretty much a daily outfit blogb but it looks like there are some exciting extra articles to explore and be inspired by.

The thing that has really filled me with enthusiasm is a list of items for a capsule wardrobe:
3 bottoms
6 tops
1 dress
1 pair flat shoes
2 pairs heels
1 pair boots
1 jacket
1 cardigan
1 coat
1 wrap

(This is a slight adaptation of a list I found at 43 things)

I figure that if I can come up with a week’s worth of wearable work outfits from that I can just wear them until I get bored and then put together a new capsule. I like the idea of colour themed capsules. It might also mean that when I can change my clothes over at the end of summer (what summer??) I may well leave some of them in the suitcase if they don’t form part of the capsule. I suppose that I could have photos of all possible combinations on my phone which would help with planning (e.g. making sure stuff is washed and ironed). Then it would just be down to accessories.

Also inspired by thinking about the 10 items that I would buy if I lost all my clothes. I think it would differ for summer and winter. I’m going to have a good think about this and come up with a list which I will post here. This will also feed into my capsule and help me prioritise.

Creamy chickpea and tahini bake

It was only after I’d scoffed the last portion of this that I realised I have failed to take any photographs with which to wet your appetite.

I got the recipe from Recipezaar and was alerted to it by Kenny’s veganlunchcast (which is sadly not being updated at present). It is absolutely delicious and very filling. It also stands up well to being ‘creative’ with ingredient quantities. I mixed up a load of it and used some to stuff some courgettes. The rest has reheated brilliantly for lunch. I was also pleased that it made use of ingredients that I either had in the cupboard, fridge or freezer.

I’d forgotten what a treasure trove Recipezaar is. I’ve been tending to make use of vegweb.com (another Kenny recommendation) when I’ve needed a bit of inspiration. I’m determined that my fruit and vegetable consumption won’t tail off this winter even if the variety does. On the bus home I’m going to draw up a list of things that I can eat to get my five a day over the winter months. Then if I find my resolve and enthusiasm is wavering I’ll have something to keep me on the ‘straight and narrow’.

And how am I today?

• Craving chocolate, which is strange because I have a salt tooth rather than a sweet tooth.
• Thrilled with the variety of produce lurking in my fridge at present, a big chunk of which came from my allotment.
• Thinking that it would be a really good idea to buy some silicon cupcake cases (there’s that sweet tooth again).
• Loving green liquid eyeliner by MAC and loving it even more on someone else so I can admire it all the time.
• Gutted that the pair of non leather black boots in the charity shop didn’t fit, even thought they were my size – does the universe have a better pair waiting for me somewhere?
• Joyful how marvellous soup prepared from leftovers lurking around the kitchen can turn out so well.
• Delighted that the henna I put on my hair on Saturday has taken so well. I may never return to chemical dyes and it really is a pleasure to find out what colour my hair actually is.
  
  That’s more positives than negatives which can only be a good thing! Let the week commence.

Dinner dilemma

Clearly Dear Heart and I are reaching the age when birthdays stop being a cause for celebration. We celebrated Dear Heart’s yesterday by carrying on as normal, except for a short bout of present opening. He even decided to have cheese on toast for dinner (normal for a Thursday) despite my offers to cook something more … er... complex. No a drop of alcohol passed either of our lips.

He did indicate that Chinese food would be good tonight but prefers to get a takeaway to eating out. I pestered him about Saturday night thinking that he might want to do something then – maybe go out somewhere and met up with friends?

Negative, although he did mention buying a steak for his Saturday dinner consumption.

And this does mean that I need to do a bit of thinking. We used to quite often do ‘free choice’ evening where we’d both cook different meals but eat together. Or we’d share a portion of carbohydrate but find out own accompaniments. We haven’t done it in quite some time though so I’ve gotten out of the habit of thinking of recipes that I want to try out. I’m also quite keen to ensure that whatever I consume makes use of the food I have on hand. This is most notably courgettes, but I also have beans in the freezer, seiten, dried gluten chunks and probably a few other odds and ends.

I thinking of making stuffed courgettes with a variety of fillings that I can freeze for later consumption. I don’t want to devour all the courgettes though. I was inspired by a recipe in one of the Sarah Kramer books. Courgettes fried in sesame oil with garlic and little 5 spice are yummy and served on noodles keep well in the fridge for lunch.

Have a divine weekend and I'll try and rustle up some photographs of my creations

Don't panic

Yesterday was hectic. Things started out fine but then I had more than I expected. So I left work at usual time rather than early as I had planned. Then the bus didn’t turn up so I got home much later than planned. I only had one book with me (The Heroin Diaries by Nikki Sixx) which I finished while waiting for the bus. This must be the first time in years that I haven’t taken a spare book everywhere.

The shower is leaking (although Dear Heart may have worked his magic on it). I had planned to make tortillas for dinner because I was going to get home early. I also needed to prepare lunch because it was my turn to provide lunch for our ladies who (pack) lunch Thursday.

My dodgy ankle went over as I was hurrying up the road so I’ve got some scraps and bruises. Also today is Dear Heart’s birthday so I wanted to double check that everything was in place. Arggg!

But everything has turned out Ok. Dear Heart and I did a little switch with dinner and had a toast based snack for dinner. Tortillas will be eaten tonight or go in the freezer. I made a lovely lunch which seems to have gone down surprisingly well. I checked everything was in place for Dear Heart.

I really must learn to recite ‘panic is not a word in my vocabulary’. Actually it wasn’t’ panic that slowed me down so much as the urge to tell everyone how much pressure I felt under – just like I have here. A little less conversation, a little more action –words of wisdom from the King!

Lunch tote

Isn't this adorable? My folks bought it back from their trip to Colorado for me, along with a stash of other goodies. The bookstore it came from sounds amazing. The store's website looks pretty good too.

I already have a tin popeye lunchbox (resurrected from childhood) and an insulated thing with a couple of compartments and netbags on the side. Some days I don't use a special bag at all if I have several days worth of food to carry (or dishes that seem to have immense volume!).

This one is just right for taking lunch out to the park (weather permitting!) and easily carries the most vital of lunch accessories - a good book.

Oh and I don't think it's easily readable in the photo but the front reads:

Noonday tea is much improved when taken in the quiet companionship of a good book - Archibald Smythe

Real snail mail and the meaning of doodles

One of the total joys of the Internet is silly sites.

I’m quite taken with Real snail mail and I just love that the organisation behind it is called Boredom Research. Your message gets sent to a server and then waits for a snail to crawl past and pick it up. Then the snail carries the message until it reaches the drop off point sending on its way. Not certain how concerned I should be about the welfare of the snails?

This morning I found my self doodling for the first time in ages (maybe because I wasn’t actually sitting at a computer?). I did a load of 3D type boxes which is not the type of doodle I usually do. I’m much more a hearts and flowers type. So I decided to look up the meaning online.

So I peeked at http://drawsketch.about.com/cs/tipsandideas/p/doodle_boxes.htm which says that I have an orderly mind and love of routine (just what Dear Heart was teasing me about this morning).

I also checked out http://www.nationaldoodleday.org.uk/about/meanings.html
I love that there is a national doodle day. The interpretation was all rather vague, but strangely comforting. Anyhow as the site says : 'Interpreting doodles is not an exact science, but speculating about their deeper significance is fascinating and can be rewarding if it gives insight into ourselves, our friends, family or people we work with.'

I suppose random internet surfing (while avoiding doing something unpleasant or boring) can be seen as an electronic version of doodling!

Autumn wear 2008

Yet again I am trying to work out what to wear. Basically another load of linen stuff has ceased to function as it should this summer leaving me a little short on bottoms.

Items I have that are wearable: Jeans, black flowery skirt, wide black skirt
Items that are wearable when I get around to ironing them: Green linen skirt, cream flowery skirt, plain cream skirt.
Items that I can’t face wearing at present: white linen trousers, pink linen skirt
Items that need surgery to make them wearable: grey linen trousers, beige trousers

Given that I wear my summer clothes for about a quarter of the year I just can’t understand why they always seem to be wearing out? I seem to have a lot of ‘summer’ tops which don’t actually go with a single jacket or cardigan that I own meaning that they are only suitable for wear on very warm days. Also I’m less keen on wearing knee length skirts at present because (a) my legs have gone a very strange colour as a result of using ‘Holiday skin’ and (b) it’s too cold.

Quite frankly I could happily go to work in jeans until I get bored of them (and surely that won’t be until after I dig out my winter clothes). However that seems to dull for words and somehow cheating (on what or who I’m not sure – myself maybe?). Also I have had disasters in the past where I’ve spilt stuff on my two wearable pairs of jeans on the same day. Plus I can’t wear my denim jacket if I wearing jeans. So I’m giving thought to my transitional autumn wardrobe which will make the most of my summer clothes without giving me chills or being overtly reliant on my jeans.

My thoughts on this at present are around black tights. Leggings are much more comfortable but I just don’t see me working a footless tight look. I’m also looking at the cardigans I own and figuring out which I can wear as a kind of light jacket.

Of course, you can bet that just as I get warmer clothing sussed an Indian summer will kick in and I’ll be trying to work out what to wear that looks cool and smart!

Gone too quickly

Today has flown by. I almost forgot to blog. My Monday post seems a lifetime ago and I'm sure Monday morning will be here again in the blink of an eye.

I'm looking forward to the weekend. I'm going to have a couple of beers tonight and turn my failed cupcakes into truffles.

Saturday I have my usual walk and visit to the local deli and bakers scheduled. Then I'm spending the rest of the day over at my sister's place and my parents are coming up from Somerset. I haven't seen my folks for more then ten minutes since Christmas so I am quite looking forward to it.

Sunday a spot of allotmenting and preparing for the week ahead.

If time goes quickly I think it must mean that you are living in the moment?

New blogs to devour

I’ve taken a couple of blogs that haven’t been updated in forever or have disappeared off my list. Happily I’ve discovered some new blogs to fill the gaps.

I recently came across Queen Lazy at http://stylesavvy.wordpress.com while I was searching for daily outfit type posts. I immediately added her to my favourites list and was thrilled to see that she Twitters too.

Talking of Twitter my new find of the day is Twiller. It’s a thriller written via Twitter. Visit twitter.com and have a look at mrichel and see what you think.

Then there’s queengilda. Not entirely sure how I discovered her but looks like being a blog that I will enjoy visiting regularly.

I’m still visiting littlesipsoftea, iCiNG, Brocantehome and Wardroberefashion on a daily basis. However I am badly in need of some more inspiring vegan food blogs. The ones that I have been reading regularly such as don’t get mad, get vegan and brookethevegan haven’t been posting much for various reasons. Veganlunchbox has been posting over the summer though, which has been good. I think I need a new lunchbox blog to follow into the autumn to fill me with inspiration.

Suggestions please.

How did these end up here?

A pair of shoes put neatly side by side and abandoned on an empty
residential street. Who do they belong to? How did they get here?
What's the story?

The more you blog the more you can

I started my blog with the idea of blogging on a regular basis. However I found that when I was doing lots of interesting things I was so caught up in it that I couldn’t motivate myself to also write about them. When life was a bit less thrilling I didn’t think that I had anything to write about.

Then in June I decided that I would try blogging on a daily basis where possible. I worried that I’d have nothing to write about but I the more I wrote the more ideas seemed to present themselves. Then things have trailed off again over the summer and I find that once again I need to get back into the discipline of regular posts.

I need to look at mobile blogging this autumn. I often take photos on my phone with the intention of loading them to my blog. Let’s have a season of more spontaneous and visual blogging.

I love September

September is one of my favourite months. It’s got that fresh start, back to school, will-try-harder-this-year vibe. It seems like a whole world of possibilities being laid out in front of me. It signifies that it’s officially OK not to expect the weather to be good just because it’s August. Not to feel like you must party every night just because that’s what you’re supposed to do in the summer.

It’s been quite a hectic summer for me with lots going on at work and at home. So I really am anticipating with glee the possibility of being at my desk most days. It’s fun to plan lunches and outfits. I look forward to catching up with the gossip and the joy of working with my colleagues. I’ll be able to attend lunchtime exercise classes every week instead of grabbing the odd class here and there.

I like the thought of getting into a routine (although I suppose ritual would do just as well here?). Enjoying a cup of tea, the radio and a good book before retiring for the night. Waking up feeling fresh (and smiling!) before the alarm sounds. Watching for the colours of the trees to start changing. Anticipating the first nip of winter in the air.

September is a month of calm anticipation even if it doesn’t always come with a new pencil case. Don't forget to count your blessings.

Everything except temptation

Oscar Wilde said a number of witty things about temptation. I’m quite fond of the one that goes something along the lines of ‘the only way to resist temptation is to give in to it’.

I have been hankering after a pair of cowboy boots. No matter that I tried on a pair several years back and they looked dreadful. I keep thinking how fabulous they would look. The whole thing would probably have gone away had I not found these Emily Strange ones at Cloggs.

The only things holding me back were (a) I’m not supposed to be buying anything new, (b) am I too old to be wearing Emily Strange? And (c) Are black and red boots really my bag?

Then while on my travels around over the summer period I’ve found myself with time to kill while waiting for a bus on several occasions. Hence I discovered that both Claire’s Accessories and New Look had cowboy boots. I felt the temptation grow stronger. I could buy a pair of boots on the spot. All my clothes would look amazingly cool.

So I gave into temptation and slipped into a pair…

And they looked awful. Clearly such boots do nothing for slim ankles and ‘developed’ calves. So my craving dried up in an instant and I resolved more firmly to purchase from the lovely Bourgeois Boheme in future.

Imagine if all things could be resolved so easily? What would we find to do all day?

Bank holiday TV

I came across this on the BBC website this morning and it makes me sad that people choose to spend their day off watching TV. I suppose if they weren't watching TV they would be shopping.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend and I've got so many things on my activities list:

• Met my sister and her man for lunch and drinks and hear about her holiday and have a general catch up.
• Cook pittas from scratch and store in freezer
• Visit my allotment for a digging session and harvest veg to give to my sister
• Hang new sash window in bedroom (if it's delivered on time)
• Eat long breakfasts with Dear Heart
• Go for a country walk and pick blackberries (and apples if they are ripe)
• Play with my sewing machine
• Sit around reading and drinking wine while my face pack dries
• Put henna on my hair
• Take some time to think about the next few months and plan out things I need and want to do

I hope I can fit it all in!

David Bowie

It’s been several weeks since I selected some David Bowie CDs to listen to as a part of my musical discovery project. During that time I’ve listened to Low, Pinups and Aladdin Sane several times.

The first time Dear Heart and I listened to any of them weren’t that taken. However, on listening for the second (and third, fourth, fifth etc) time It all seemed very familiar. I will definitely be actively seeking out other Bowie CDs for my listening pleasure. I also want to read a Bowie biography.

The thing I’m finding is how much I want to cling to the established. It’s a great temptation to listen to something familiar and easy.

This week I hope to move to Y. I will resist the urge to select Neil Young (who’s many works I already enjoy) and choose something different.

What have I been up to over the last week?

Using a hot gun to strip paint from a cupboard door.

Picking vast quantities of courgettes

Enjoying the video to The Hoosier’s Goodbye Mr A and speculating with Dear Heart what on earth it’s about and who Mr A might be.

Trying to sit in the garden and write (writing OK, garden sitting less successful due to wind tunnel effect).

Drinking wine with girlfriends and gossiping.

Trying to find new homes for possessions I no longer need. Anyone want a gas poker?

Watching meteorite storms with Dear Heart while lying in the garden wrapped in blankets.

Figuring out exciting new clothing combinations after realising that the clothes I loaned to Dear Heart’s sister are the 20% of my wardrobe that I wear 80% of the time.

Some enchanted evening

Yesterday evening was one I've been hoping for all summer. The weather was warm enough to sit in the garden in shorts and feel comfortable. No running inside for a cardigan because there was a chill breeze. We had music playing while we ate dinner. After eating Dear Heart and I sat and shared a bottle of wine and talked until it too dark and late to stay outside any longer.

I'm sure summers in the past had many nights like this. Ones were you walked home from a pub or club or friend's house and didn't care about the time because it was delightful, warm night and it seemed like morning would ever come.

But then it's easy to reflect on past happiness. The real trick is recognising that you are happy at the time and enjoying the moment.

Perplexing things about the Internet

Why do blogs you love stop posting just as they’ve become indispensable to your day?

Why don’t radio stations put their frequency right in the middle of their homepage? I’ve had to resort to wikipedia to tune into radio one.

Where do people with very full virtual lives find the time? Or is the virtual life their main life?

Does anyone use blog directories?

Pictures that sometimes refuse to appear on web pages, yet on other occasions on the same PC they’re just fine.

Why do you discover amazing (yet unrelated to your search) sites when you’re searching for information you really need. Yet if you deliberately go searching for fabulous new things to add to your favourites list nothing exciting, novel or weird shows up…

Lessons to be learnt from Henna

It was another nice weekend. The allotment continues to produce and I’m hopeful that in a few weeks the celery will be ready as well. I’ve had the pleasure of spending time with Dear Heart and also pottering around my newly decorated study. I so can’t bear the thought of it being cluttered and have sorted out a number of bags of things to be disposed of via eBay/Freecycle/charity shops. I can’t believe some of the stuff that I have carted from place to place with me over the years. For example, I was about to put a set of juggling clubs back on a shelf when I stopped to wonder when I last used them. The answer was well over 10 years ago!

I also found the time between picking produce and organising my desk to henna my hair. Getting henna to actually take on my hair is a recent thing. I’ve been using chemical dyes on it for over a decade. I usually go for a shade of red or purple. I did once dye it back to its natural dark brown but it looked so dull. I dye partly to cover up the grey hairs (my family all go grey very young!), but also because I feel more like me when my hair is a bright colour.

Every few years I used to read something about how bad chemical dyes were and I’d worry about the waste created by the variety of bottles and gloves. So I’d go off to the Body Shop and buy a packet of their henna and apply it with great hopes. It always made my hair look slightly redder but never covered the grey. This perplexed me because I’d also read endless stuff about people ending up with really fiercely coloured hair they’d acquired by accident.

Last summer I got quite into the idea of rinsing my hair in tea or coffee and herbs after reading this post and the discussion about it on Brocantehome. Although it made the hair very shiny and did add colour to some of the grey, quite frankly, I could simply not see myself shivering in the shower every weekend as I attempted to pour the brew over my head again and again.

My first attempt with Lush henna was just as disappointing as in the past. Then I realised that I had not followed the instructions. I had grated it and poured boiling water on. BUT I did not allow it to cool and then reheat in a Bain Marie. I’ve questioned Dear Heart over why this should make a difference from a science type person point of view and he couldn’t say. Anyway this has proved to be the missing link. I’ve also discovered that just doing a small amount and concentrating of areas of grey is just as effective as attempting to smear my whole head with it. I wrap my head up in a turban to prevent drips and then just glide around the house getting on with things for a few hours. No nasty smell. No turning the base of the shower pink. My little block from Lush has lasted for ages.

I suppose the moral of this story is that if things don’t seem to work out initially, go back and try again from time to time. If it doesn’t work out, well you’ve lost nothing and if it does…..

A room of ones own

Dear Heart has been working like a demon all week on my study. The walls have been stripped, plastered and painted magnolia. The floor has been sanded and oiled. The woodwork has been touched up with white gloss. It looks glorious.

Today is the day I get to move all my stuff back in and I'm really excited. I'm looking forward to arranging the furniture. It puts me in the mind of little girl playing with a dolls house. What a great excuse to spend time reading articles online about how to make the best use of space and deal with clutter.

I'm off to play.

Virtual or actual?

Dear Heart and I have a lot of CDs and DVDs. We even have some cassettes and the odd bit of vinyl (remember the messages that were sometimes scratched in run out groove?) lying around. I’m not certain we actually own a working cassette player and we certainly don’t have a record player. No matter how many storage boxes and cabinets we have our collection always seems to keep outgrowing the available space.

We don’t buy enormous amounts of CDs and I sometimes wonder if the storage issue was an underlying thing behind this.

One of the things that we really liked about iTunes was that the music was virtual. It lived on the computer and iPod and you didn’t need to worry about housing it. It also meant that you’d never open the case to find the CD missing and then have to wonder which of the hundreds of other cases it could be in. I wouldn’t have to spend time organising the cases in to alphabetical order only to have Dear Heart, in the best rock ’n’ roll style, show total disregard for this and put them back any where.

We’ve gleefully downloaded tunes that we recall from our youth and that we thought were gone forever (except in out memories). We’ve bought albums on the spur of the moment because we suddenly realised that we needed to hear them.

But I’ve realised that I miss album inlays. I like looking at the band photographs. Even better I like looking back at old inlays and remembering how cool I thought the band looked. Now I sometimes wonder why they thought it was a good idea to wear what they did and why I thought it was a good idea to copy them.

I like to read the bits where the band thanks everyone they ever met. You wonder what it was that ‘Matty at Anslow’s Donut Place’ did that got them a mention. And isn’t it every music fan's secret fantasy to have the inspiration for a song credited to them on an album inlay?

I like to read lyrics. Pulp’s inlays always contained the instruction “please do not read the lyrics while listening to the recordings”. Lyrics are an area that Dear Heart and I have endless discussions over. We both have a history of mishearing song lyrics. We also have debates over what the lyrics actually say. Our latest bout in this regards ‘In these arms’ by Bon Jovi. I’m certain that “the poet needs the pain”, Dear Heart thinks he “needs the pen”. Surely pain sounds so much better. We purchased this one from iTunes so we can’t check for certain.

This has lead to us deciding to purchase things by artists we really like on CD and purchase work by groups we are less interested in virtually. However I’ve now hit a little snag with this. Alice Cooper’s new album Along Came a Spider is something I would buy on CD but I think that the iTunes version has bonus tracks.

I suppose I’ll buy the iTunes version and hope that someone in the near future invents that downloadable inlay which goes beyond the cover artwork.

Zevon and Zwan

No it’s not a new comedy duo or an exciting brand of mineral make-up. This was the second week of my attempts to broaden my musical knowledge and horizons. I listened to Warren Zevon’s I’ll sleep when I’m dead. It appears to be a great hits compilation, which makes the fact that I’ve never heard of him rather worrying. The song that really stood out for me was ‘Mr Bad Example’. Lyrics are a very important part of music for me even if I’m groaning at how bad they are.

I also took in Zwam’s Mary Star of the Sea. I enjoyed this and may well borrow it again at some point.

So I won't be making any additions to my iPod this week. I’ve now listened to 2 artists beginning with A and 2 beginning with Z. So it’s back to B. There seem to be loads of groups who have a name beginning with B. I could easily spend several weeks here exploring groups that I’ve heard of but don’t know anything by.

Dear Heart and I were discussing the other night how limited our knowledge of David Bowie is. We can give general facts (mismatched eyes, married to a model) and have a passing knowledge of his best-known songs but that’s it. So this week I’ve got a load of Bowie albums to listen to and I will be looking him up in some reference sources to try figure out what all this thin white duke/ziggy stardust stuff is about. If nothing else it will improve my performance at music quizzes!

Abundance in the universe

What a marvellously abundant weekend. My allotment is producing crops of all kinds. Peas, French beans, Runner beans, Potatoes and masses of courgettes. I was rather perturbed when Dear Heart suggested that I put it all into a soup and blend it up! He just doesn’t appreciate the delights of freshly picked, home grown produce.

I was a bit stuck for what to do with the courgettes. I have an awful lot and they are rather big. Happily someone pointed me in the direction of The Healing Foods Cookbook: The Vegan Way to Wellness. I’m always keen to read new vegan cookbooks and found this book contains a marvellous (and easy) recipe for courgette and tarragon soup. Dear Heart loved it (and he doesn’t like courgettes) and his sister had two bowls and asked for the recipe.

Blackberries also seem to be growing everywhere at present and a few scratches are small price to pay for such delicious fruit. The freezer is starting to look a bit full though…

Things are coming along very nicely with the redecoration of my study. When Dear Heart went out to buy plaster at the end of last week I hopped in the car with him and we visited an army surplus store that he’s been raving about for a few months.

I picked up a green shirt (£2) which just needs a few darts to make splendid fitted shirt for winter wear. I also got a green long sleeved top (£3) which is very soft and just needs a few adjustments to be perfect! My best buy had to be some heavy cotton fabric. I think they might have been tablecloths at some point. I can’t decide if I want to make a dress or a bag. Work on these will hopefully be among the first projects I undertake in my newly renovated room!

This does put my clothing purchased total up to three items for this year, but I don’t think that’s too bad for the end of July.

Enjoy the sunshine

Raspberry juice

It's amazing how a small quantity of something can go such a long way.

It's my turn this week to prepare the food for our Thursday lunch group. I'd been thinking about various things to serve and it definitely seemed to be the time of year to go with fresh fruit for dessert. Rather annoyingly the market seemed to be full of peaches, apricots and nectarines imported from all over the world and a real lack of English fruits. Anyway I needed to make up my mind so I grabbed a pineapple and a couple of punnets of raspberries. Then like a complete fool I put them both into the same cotton should back and headed off with the bag thumping against me with every step I took. And, of course, the raspberries were between me and the pineapple. I only realised when the bag had a big circle of pulped raspberry on it and so did my dress.

I took the raspberries out and re-wrapped (the remains of) their paper bag around them and put them in my other bag. I put them right on top so that they wouldn't get crushed any more. Then when I got to my destination and had a chance to reorganise my bags I moved them to the bottom of my shoulder bag. This was the one that came with Easy Living magazine and the fabric seems to be quite waterproof.

So I got home to discover a puddle of juice at the bottom of my bag. Everything in the bag was marked by raspberries juice in some way.

I'm looking on the bright side here. I gave everything in my bag a wipe over and it all looks much brighter. I also had to wash my cotton bags that I use all the time. In all honestly they could probably do with washing at least once a fortnight. The marvellous weather means that they'll be dry in no time. So everyone's a winner in this apart from the poor raspberries. Maybe it's time to start growing my own?