Goodness me

Some people are clever.

Heath

Having moaned about the lack of summer in my last post it decided to make an appearance last weekend so I went along to Hamsptead Heath and wandered around. 

I love it there, very relaxing although there is a strange phenomenom of everyone wanting to sit in the same spot. Hampstead Heat is MASSIVE why does everyone want to sit together? Why? Have they not had enough 'togetherness' on the tube at rush hour? 

Anyway I skulked off and hid on the very long grass to read my book and ate mint choc chip ice cream. 

On a crafty note this is a bag I made ages ago from scrap pieces of leather, my poor domestic sewing machine does not like me at all when I make stuff like this, but I like it. Its also huge so I can carry around all my stuff in it and that is basically what I look for in a bag, can't be doing with those stupid teeny things that you can't fit your wallet in.

Argh! Cannot get the friggin thing the right way round, give up you'll just have to tilt your head a bit.

Tolls

Daydreamer

I have an outstanding ability to sit and daydream (read procrastinate, daydreaming just sounds so much more ladylike) for hours, achieving nothing. In attempt to get some craft projects finished, I'm going to lay it on the line here and become accountable to cyberspace. The number of projects that are currently 'under construction' or 'at the ideas stage' is becoming ridiculous. I need some craft discipline. The first thing I want to get finished is this:

1. The Royal Tenenbaums

The walls of the flat are currently very bare. This is not due to a lack of things seen which would look very nice on the wall, but more to do with time spent daydreaming outweighing time spent deciding what to buy (see above). The Royal Tenenbaums is one of my favourite films, so this minipops-inspired embroidery by Pigeons playing roller derby is perfect. I'm planning on scaling it up four-fold.

"I'm talking about taking it out and chopping it up"

It doesn't get any better than that.

Beck

Baltic Adventures

I spent the last week in the city of Vilnius, Lithuania - half work, half pleasure. Ok, nearly all pleasure. The sun was shining and the best water park I have ever been to only a short bus ride away. The world needs more flumes godammit. I am told that I was travelling at 60km/hr on one of them. I have no idea if this is true or not, I spent all five seconds of the almost vertical drop unable to breathe. On stopping, the next problem I was instantly faced with was how to rearrange my swimsuit with a small amount of dignity. Not possible.


When travelling at a much more dignified and leisurely pace it seemed that every turn revealed another building worthy of a photo...

On the rare occasion that I wasn't gazing upwards, there were sights to be seen at street level. Including...

A wall of teapots...

And the shortest shorts I have ever seen.

Baltic Beck

Dangerous places

An entry from us both this evening, excellent.

You may only live five minutes down the road Beck but London is so flamin miserable at the moment, drizzle, drizzle, drizzle, cold, that I cannot face making the journey to join you even for the ever wonderful EMHE.

Instead I shall blog about places in London that I am very excited about visiting when we finally get some summer... Or maybe even this Sunday, waiting for Summer in London could take a while.

Part 1 - (I think installments are the way forward, I have a loooooong list)

Firstly shopping...

Labour and Wait, is in one of the best shopping streets in the big smoke. They sell gorgeous home stuff. I would like all of these

In case you can't tell the middle one is a door stop, is it not the most beautiful doorstop in the world?

Actually the mug would be good right about now for nice cup of hot chocolate. Hmmmm.

And the apple peeler, oh lord the apple peeler. I would peel apples everday if I had one of those.

Sarah

From average to awesome...

This evening started out very nicely indeed. I was perched on the sofa, getting reacquainted with my guiltiest pleasure, Extreme Makeover Home Edition. I know it's formulaic, I know it's contrived, I know it's manipulative. However, knowing all of those things does not stop me welling up within minutes. I was within minutes of "MOVE. THAT. BUS" when my housemate and future rock star extraordinaire came home with the news that Sennen would be playing the main stage at the Green Man Festival this summer. Some of the best boys I know, sharing the same stage as Super Furry Animals and Spiritualised. Life is good.

Beck

Too much time in Aladdin's Cave

In the midst of revision hell when I should have been filling my head with knowledge I am a little ashamed to admit that I found myself on Etsy. I am even more ashamed to admit that the three wondrous things below (I swear it is impossible to feel anything but gleeful wearing a playsuit) are not the only things I bought. The website is an online Aladdin's Cave...

Now my exam is over, I'm allowing myself a chunk of time to get started on some projects that have been rattling around in my head, before I have to surrender my summer to my dissertation.

The first of my projects will be to make good use of this Etsy purchase. Once I have this frock made I plan to take the advice of the girl in the photograph and find a beach to wear it on.

Beck

Al's hat

Here is a hat I am making for a small person called Al.

It needs a bobble but other wise is ready to go. I got the pattern here. I love the purl bee she is so knowledgeable and handy particularly for a novice like me.
This was my first bit of fair isle-ing and I am loving it. Kind of like a jigsaw or something, very fun. I think it helped that this is a very tiny hat so you can see the results really quickly.

This morning I have been drinking this

My flat mate made this, it is very tasty, not sure what's in it. Definitely raspberries.

As it is a Sunday and I have had about ten hours sleep (whoopee). I have decided to compile a list of my top five projects that I would like to do in the next let's say six months.

1) Resin draw handles, ooo think of all the pretty things you can preserve with this. I am really quite over excited about this one

2) Putting pictures on enamel jewellery with on it.

3) Machine sewing with pictures - any kind of pictures, this clever lady makes this look easy, I suspect it is a little trickier than it looks, definitely going to give it a go!

4) Knit the hobo bag from this book. I have tried this already, three times and keep fecking it up. I think my sticks are too short. It could also be that every time I try to do it I am also watching TV, talking and inevitably drinking tea. This is not a knitting pattern to multi task with!!

5) Finally I would like to have a go at making this little bird tray, if only i had a wood burning tool.... there are others in my life who might be glad I don't.

Sarah

In the beginning