Help restored

I am SO looking forwards to seeing this tonight

Thank you BBC4

I still cant love a pug

Yesterday was the first day of my week off and I'd planned to go to this and drool over yarn and things.

But as is normal in my life thats not what happened.

On my way home from work on Friday i heard an advert for an event being held at Earls Court that I knew my littlest daughter would kill to go to.
[ Actually I ought to stop calling her that. Its technically true, but since she's nearly as tall as me and her feet are already 2 sizes bigger than mine, it gives totally the wrong impression ]

So, since I hadn't actaully bought my ticket for the Stitch'n'Bitch, and since i don't get to do all that much mum and daughter stuff with that particular daughter, I hoiked out my trusty card and booked us a couple of tickets for Discover Dogs

Now I do quite like dogs, and my family have almost always had one so i grew up with them, but its never been my passion to own one myself.
Jo however is completely the opposite.
And yesterday she was in completel doggy heaven.
Holding, stroking, photographing,stroking, talking about, drooling over and more stroking every different breed there.
And there were a LOT of different breeds.

They gave some good advice during some of the demonstrations that they had going on too, about handling and especially about safety issues, and she's going to tell all her friends at school about the ' tree and stone ' positions for dealing with unknown and aggressive dogs.

She's also joined Junior Cruffts which will give her free entry into next years discover dogs show as well as for Cruffts itself.

And I can see that we've got one step closer to owning a dog ourselves.

On one final point , i was saddened to see notices about rehoming rescued pure breed dogs on almost every stand.
I knew there were a lot of dogs being abandonned, but somehow it suprized me to see notices on stands like the Shar Pei.

And yeah...I did fall in love with one particular breed.
Segugio Italiano a Pelo Raso.



But even though the ones at the show were lovely in temperament, I just couldn't love a Pug.

choices

You know, as each year passes and each new problem occurs, I look back at the past ones and think 'If only I knew what was coming'.
Right now I'm trying to find a way to advise my daughters so that they make the right choices for them and accept that those choices may not be the right choice for me.
A way to balance their view of the world with mine.
A way to explain why I see things differently without making them feel guilty for not seeing it the same way.

And a way not to worry that I'm making it too easy to opt out just because I don't want them to just do what _I_ want.

Pieke Bergman

I fell in love with these vases when i was flicking from site to site a couple of days ago, then went back today to look more closely at her site http://www.piekebergmans.com/ and found so much more lovely stuff.
Each section I looked at had me more excited.
I love ALL of her designs.
So take this as a poke with a sharp stick to make you go and look too.
And if by any chance you can afford to buy any of the lovely lovely things...*flutters eyelashes*...
;D

Rainy day headaches

It doesn't matter how great a nights sleep I've had, if its raining when I wake up I feel tired, listless and thick-headed.
It doesn't happen if at starts raining AFTER I wake up, but surfacing to that tick tick tick of drops splating onto my neighbours flat roof is guaranteed to make me want to dive back under the covers and cocoon myself in the middle of my bed.

What it DOESN'T make me want to do is jump out of bed, throw my clothes on , drive Em to work, plug the BIG lantern in to charge and get up in the loft to investigate the rather noiser TAP, TAP , TAP that can be heard against the ceiling in Ems room.

So I'm procrastinating.
Well, not really.
I AM waiting for the lantern to charge up, because no matter how often i say we need to make sure its charged regularly it doesn't get done.

I'm also wondering if the thought of leaving it till Dave gets home so he can get up there is totally wimping out.
No...I KNOW its wimping out.
I just hate that bloody ladder in to the loft.
I really need to get a proper loft ladder installed, but its pretty low on my list of 'things that need doing to the house so it won't fall down'
And if there is a leak then it will have just slid down the scale of udgent jobs even further.

*girds loins*
*picks up crampons*
*wonders how big the spiders are up there*
*adds a BIG hammer*

Erm....if i don't check in for a while ..........

Go Apple

Well I'm a happy bunny, and quite unexpectedly so.
I've been having problems with my macbookpro's power cord.
It's been gradually seperating at the joint where the magnetic connection meets the cord.
There is a little collar that covers the area, but it didn't seem long enough to hold it securely, and when I looked on the Apple website sure enough there were a fair number of complaints about it, along with the info that it wasn't covered under warranty.

So when i walked into the Apple store in Bluewater , brandishing my burnt out cord [ yes it got that bad ] ...
See :(


... I didn't expect to get away without a dent of £59 in my bank balance.

But joy !
They've re-designed it

If you look carefully you can see that the collar is longer on the new one.

So they changed it under warranty.

*does a happy dance*

more on the quilting front

The quilting is progressing slowly and um, slowly.
Nothing sure about this baby.
I suppose that its only to be expected that I'll make mistakes, but as I'm the kind of person who really doesn't believe that, I get frustrated when I do.

So, here is a pictorial diary of my efforts.


The cutting out of these lining squares of flannel took me about 2 hours.


This is one of the layouts I considered using with a simple chequerboard pattern set in diagonals.


And a similar one but in lines.


Pinned ready for stitching


Change of mind re the pattern, and again pinned before stitching.


First strip completed.


First panel completed.

Not much to look at really, but this has so far taken me more hours than I can remember.
It should have taken far less, but I've ripped it back 3 times.
Once a whole panel had to go [ uneven stitching and the wrong direction for the pattern ]
I could have worked around it, but the more i looked at the mis-match on the seams, the more irritated i got, so it had to get taken apart.
Then I stitched a smaller panel with the stripes reversed.
It didn't show if you didn't know i had planned a patern to the stripes, but I DO know, so again, it had to go.
And finally i stitched the last 4 square to the wrong strip.
At that point i gave up, grabbed some coffee and did some housework.
[ and anyone who knows me realises reading that that I must have been REALLY in need of a break...housework+me=only when I have to ]

Hmmm, that makes me sound like a slob, but I really cant find it in myself to enjoy doing it.
Housework i mean.
Its a chore.
One to me made a simple and short as possible.
Its why I end up getting so annoyed at my family who seem incapable of taking stuff off and putting it in the right place.
Hell, i don't care if the place is messy, but it means that someone has to move whatever it is to the right place.
See...it has to be dealt with TWICE.
Not good.
Put it in the right place first time and it only has to be dealt with ONCE.
Ipso facto, less work, more time to have fun, less stress for me.

Anyway, i'm getting off the track.

So I had the coffee, sorted the laundry etc etc, and returned to the quilting.

And it went right.

Yay, go me!

4/15ths down, 11/15ths to go.
Unless i decide to give it a single colour edging ......

Quilting

I've been thinking about making a quilt for a while now.
Mainly as a way to use up some of the fabric that I've accumulated over the years admittedly, but I really like snuggling up under something soft and warm late at night, or having something a little more substantial than a blanket to sit /lie on in the garden or when I picnic.
So I thought that making a quilt would probably be the best way.
Especially since, while i still like many of the colours and patterns of my fabrics, they are not really what I'd use in my house anymore in their unadulterated form.

The thing that has put me off in the past has been the exact nature of the stitching...making sure that the seam allowance is spot on so that everything lines up.
I CAN sew like that, but I admit to finding it tedious, and the likely hood of me getting fed up with it and giving up with a partially made quilt seemed pretty high to me.

So when I found the rag quilt pattern a few weeks ago it seemed like the perfect solution.

i think i mentioned it in a past blog, but i lose track, so here is the example that got me thinking.



Pretty isn't it?

You can get the full details here:- http://quilting.about.com/od/quiltpatternsprojects/ss/rag_quilt.htm

I don't think mine is going to have the large squares in, as i couldn't find a co-ordinating fabric that i liked , so its going to be a straightforwards checkerboard effect.

These are the fabrics I'm going to use.



One is buttermilk cream plain cotton, one is a striped blue/green/lilac and the third is a random leaf/floral motif in green and light blue.
Its not exactly what I would have chosen if i was shopping for fabric, but I think its not bad, and since this is really a trial quilt I didn't want to go spending extra cash if i didn't have to.

I still have to cut the flannel fabric that goes in between the other layers, but since i'm covered in fluff already, and I really need to iron the flannel before i cut it , I'm going to do that tomorrow.

If it works ok I'm going to get some of my other fabrics and sort them into colours and weights so i can make some more.

Of course, that may just be wishful thinking, but I'm feeling positive.
:D

Random stuff

Oh life is good!
The sun is warm,
The cherry blossom is painting the grass,
The bluebells are awash under the woods,
I have new specs,
Yay...did you hear that...NEW SPECS!!!! :D
[ I luuuuurve them glasses ]
[ I'll take some photos when I get them, but they are Lulu Guiness, black cats eyes with little white scrolls on the temporal edge and 'be a glamour girl' in twirly white script down the side, and I'm excited about them, ok ]
:D
Ahem, back to happy, happy things....
I had SUCH a great time last night, and I'm still awestruck by just how great Ocean sounded live.
[ I went to see the John Butler Trio at the Roundhouse ]
I think Matt may be back in Sevenoaks, so i may be able to get the Lilies on my back slightly more defined,
I tried the new Mars Planets, and they are totally scrummy *drools*
And I'm giggling over the poodle sheep scam.
:D :D
But I want to see the photos!
I mean....exactly how CLOSE did they look once they were clipped?

Tempus Fugit far too quickly

I've been a bit remiss in my blogging on here .
I have phases when I use one of my blogs over the others [ yeah, its sad , I have more than one ]
I'm trying to thin it down.
The trouble is I'm not sure if i use them to offload on or if they are for keeping in touch withpeople or letting them know wht I've been doing.
Maybe once I've decided that I'll be able to come up with some rationalisation.

However...

I'm going to play catch up a bit here.
Now as this involves digging deep into the aging memory banks and giving them the obligatory thump to get them moving I can't guarentee that the order will have any relation to the actual timespan.

So, what have I been up to?

Oh, as its still relatively fresh in my head, i took Emma to the Sit-Up tv studios yesterday to see what goes on.



This is the kind of stuff they film there.

One of our friends is a camera operator on the channel, and as she knows that its what Emma wants to do she asked if we wanted to go see.

It WAS interesting :D

What else?

Erm, I leaned to be a spy with Jo at the Science of spying exhibition at the science museum.


They had loads of fun stuff there.





This is getting too long to be manageable now, so I'll leave the work/awards/patchworking and anything else for next time.

NOT a date

So when is a date not a date?
According to my daughter [ who is out as we speak on her very own 'not' a date ] its when it happens in daylight.

This seems to be important. ok, and No, i don't get it either.

I don't ask you to understand where she's coming from, but the whole daytime thing seems absolutely pivotal.

Of course right now its pitch black outside aand she's still out with her 'not' date :D

She rang me...well, alright, I rang her [ but only because this not-date was only supposed to be for a coffee after school and it was already 7pm and i didn't know if i could go out with Dave to watch one of our friends play her singles match in a pool tournament]
I was NOT checking up on her.

*cough*mainly*cough*

And said phone call left me as confused as ever.

She was still out with him, but they were both on their way up to see one of Em's best friends [ who happens to know the not-date ]
Not the best friend who thinks it kind of stalkerish for him to have remembered her [ that is my daughters ] name after, let me think....7-9 years, but the one who thinks he's ok.
Lucky that.

:D

Sooooo.....
Either she's had fun, likes him, and he's dropping her off at Kezia's so that she can go over in great detail everything that has taken place on this not-date...
or...
oh heck.
There are far too many possibilities.

I just hope she's had fun.
And gets home before I fall asleep so she can tell me how it went!

Nosy!
Me!!
Nah!!!
:D

Showgirls

I guess it's not completely unexpected to see a programme celebrating Kylie's return to the stage with her showgirld tour, but it's appropriate for me to find it while I'm flicking through the TV channels on the evening after I've taken emma up to the V&A to see it.

Normally i would have passed on by , but it's interesting to see the costumes as they were intended, with the right lighting etc.

We had a good day out.
Sushi, Kylie and Harrods.
Although it was slightly marred by being locked in to the V&A durign a security alert.
We guessed that something had been taken , as it included bag searches before anyone was allowed to leave and a complete shut down of all exits.

I didn't get over to Fopps to see the John Butler Trio who were doing a preview gig , but i was just too tired.

It seems like recently I'm having more and more trouble trying not to fall asleep at some incredibly early hour.

And now I'm waiting for Dave to get home from football and trying hard to stay awake.
I don't think I'm winning :D

V&A

I went to see the Kylie exhibition yesterday at the V&A.
The showgirls section is amazing, and I would have loved to take some photos, but unfortunately it was NOT allowed.
So all I have is my memory of the most elaborate confections full of glitz and sparkle , and a photo of the wall outside the exhibition where visitors posted messages for her.
I guess they ran out of hearts at some point, but the plain old yellow post-its somehow make the whole thing.

NIN

The gig was fun.
I : Had to pick the tickets up from the box office at 5pm and was amazed to see queues already when i went to get them.
: Got mixed up in the PSV Eindhoven???? [ is that how you spell it? ] crowd on their way to Arsenal, but on the whole they were happy, if a bit earshatteringly loud.
: Was gobsmacked by the sight of a girl in 4 inch heels and on crutches at the gig.
: Bought a tshirt *heart*
: Nearly lost my phone as I was taking the 2nd pic up there ^^^^ because someone bashed me and it did a very neat swan dive over 3 rows of people.
Only the fact that it was set to camera and the screen was still alive let me find it.

introspection

In a strange way yesterday felt like the beginning of something.
A sense of freedom perhaps ?
Or maybe just the feeling of coming home to normality that pervaded the day.

Normal for me at least.

I can't remember the first time that I went off and did something on my own, but i know its something that my Mum would have pushed me into.
I wasn't a child who was all that happy being alone at that time.
Perhaps its not until you don't get too much of your own space that you come to value it.

I think it was the cinema.
Up until that point it had always been a thing done in the company of friends.
And perhaps the bias was towards friends rather than cinema.
Whatever the reason, I DO remember there being a time when I wanted to see something particular [ Black Christmas rings the right bells ] and all my friends dropped out at the last minute, so I wasn't going to go.
And she shoved me out the door.

And yeah, she was right.

Why miss something just because no-one else wants to do it?
Isn't the fact that you want to do it enough?

That thought got reinforced for me on Tuesday.

I was talking to a friend about the Surrealism exhibition that i want to see at the V&A and she said that she would love to go but that ther husband wouldn't go with her.
Which turned into ' why not go on you own then?'
And her answer was that she didn't feel comfortable doing so.
Going on her own that is.
And eventually she said that she didn't want to go ENOUGH to go on her own.

It made me think.

As it is I miss quite enough things in my life because other peoples lives take precedence, so to miss even more just because I would have to go on my own seems senseless.

So why. given the fact that I regularly do things on my own did yesterday feel different?

I think because it was a relatively spur of the moment thing to stay over, combined with the fact that although I was meeting up with a couple of people for the gig, they were not people that I really knew.
It was enough to feel different.
And this morning i woke and realised that I'd been letting my life get tied up again.
Not because anyone else WANTED me to add them into the equasion, just because it had become normal to add extra people into the eqasion that is my time/work/fun/life balance.

Time to alter the balance.

And yet more Woooooooo :D

Partly because the NIN gig is going ahead on Wednesday.
But mainly because I've just got tickets tor the John Butler Trio at the Roundhouse in April.
*bounces madly*
:D :D :D


Its NEARLY enough to make up for the fact that Ben Gibbard solo tour is in the US only.
Nearly.

Oh Wow.

I've always loved Schiaparelli , ever since my dad bought me my first vial of proper perfume and it was Shocking.
Gorgeous.
So I'm totally going to go and see the Surreal Things: Surrealism and design exhibition at the Victoria and Albert.

I wanted to go and see the Kylie stage costume one too, and thankfully their timeframes overlap, but its the Surrealism exhibition that will take precedence.

And there has been a major rehanging at the Tate Britain so i want to trot along there too.
Especially as they have given Richard Dadd a room of his own.
:D

It looks like I'm going to be a busy person this spring.

Feel Good Films

Its peaceful tonight.
There's hardly any traffic passing by my window.
All the rest of my family are either asleep or in their rooms.
Its nearly midnight, and I've just finished watching one of my favourite feel good films.

It pokes all the right places in my psyche.
Prods me into looking at whats important in my life and how I might be able to achieve it.

And makes me laugh while I'm crying.
Yes....of course I cry.
Possibly not at the places that you would , but who cares.
I get choked when it touches on the parts that are important to me.

Like these.






Its got me grinning just posting them again.
:D

I miss my particular parner in crime for much of that kind of silliness.


I wonder what she's up to right now?

this is so beautiful

Valentines Day

I got woken this morning at some ungodly hour....
Ok, it was only about 8am, but it was my day off , and the girls weren't at school, so 8am IS ungodly so far as I'm concerned.
....by my phone going off in its text mode.

Now the only reason i get texts is if plans suddenly get changed, or if its work.
So i dragged myself out of bed and looked at it.
Nothing.
Sweet Fanny Adams.

I'm not sure what the hell was going on with it.

However, back to Valentines Day.

Dave is a sweet traditionalist and always gets me a dozen Red roses.
And this year they were added to with chocs, champagne and a sweet little teddy.
:D


I know its daft, but it means a lot to me that he does this.

I was reading one of my online friends blogs and she was writing about how it makes her feel on edge when she sees people walking near her house with flowers because each year she hopes that her husband will get her just a single rose, and each year she knows that he won't but she still hopes.

So this year I made sure that he knows how much I appreciate that he does this.

And we've just got back from seeing this.



And it was absolutely AWESOME.

Go and see it NOW.
:D :D :D

Time.

Isn't it strange the way that time moves?
Some days it passes with a steady, even beat.
Others its erratic, jumping from quick to static and back again.
It depends how aware of its passage we are I think.

Right now I'm trying to make sure that I spend my time doing the correct things.

Not as easy as you'd think.

I have so many good intentions.

Plans to DO things.
To draw, knit, sew, design, write....

But what do I do?

I spend the evening playing spider and trawling round myspace.
Brain disengaged from anything but the most basic of function.

Ok, so i've also been checking out some new [ to me] bands, but thats hardly 'doing' is it?

I feel like I'm treading water right now, unable to move forwards and yet having to work so hard to stay where I am.

Note
i don't normally edit my blogs, but I have to admit to tweaking this one a day later.
It just goes to show that you should never post when you're feeling particularly down.

Found

The first made me feel sad.
The second had me grinning .
And hitting the bookmark.
:D

Bleeding as an art form

This guy came to my attention today.
His name is Franco B...there's a link in my stuff bit...and he's a friend of a Rep I met today.
She's an amazing girl in her own right, but we got to talking about non work related stuff and she mentioned him.
From what it says on his site he's stopped performing in the same way for the time being but i found myself fascinated by my reactions to what she was saying about his performance art.

I was equally horrified, astounded and intrigued at what he did.
Simply, he would be naked, covered in white body paint, with catheters insered into his body so that as he walked up and down a catwalk covered with white fabric his blood would drip/run/spray? onto the whiteness and form patterns.

I felt as if I ought to be shocked and appalled and yet i wasn't really.
He is not being coerced.
He is not mentally incapacitated [ or at least, so far as I know he's not ]
So surely its up to him what he does with his own body?

And yet.....
I'm not sure if I could have gone and watched him perform.

Do they breed or what??????

I'm clearing out my bedroom so that i can see what I actually have, and so that i can finally get it decorated.
Only 7 years after we moved in.....
But hey, thats not bad going for me ;)

And all i keep finding are coathangers.
Lots and lots of them.
Tucked into places that a coathanger shouldn't be.

The ones on that rail aren't even half of them!!!!

Ah well, I'll bag 'em up and put them out and hope someone takes them.
If not our binnies are nice and they wont leave them behind when they take the rest of our rubbish on wednesday.

I've been cutting stuff up too.
Cards and fabric mainly.
Cards, so that i can recycle them into my own.
Fabric because I intend to start patchworking this year.
I'm a terrible hoarder of fabric you see.
I get all ooohey and aaaaahey over fabric that feels or looks good, and i can't bear to throw it out.
And since the recycling banks will just mash it all up, I though that it was time for me to use it up.
Especially since over Xmas i saw some throws and bedspreads in patchworked simple designs that were retailing at nearly £200!!!!!!!!
And hell, i had nicer fabrics than that in my box at home, so 2007 is going to be a crafty year for me I think.

And it'll give me something else to do on my day off if I don't want to trek up to London.

Yeah yeah...I know the good weather is coming and that I love wandering around Soho and the Galleries in the sun.
Well, not that the galleries are in the open, but stop nit picking..you know what i mean.

But its about time i actually DID the stuff that i enjoy as much as that.

Wish me luck.

Casino Royale

I just got back from watching this guy.
Awesome.

Birthdays

Are they a good thing
Or a bad thing?

On one hand you get to do some awesome stuff in the name of the god of birthdays and Celebration.
On the other you're OLDER.

I haven't decided if the one is worth the other yet.
Today i'd say YES
Absolutely.
No question.

But tomorrow..........
Tomorrow I'm going to be a whole year older.

Ah bugger it.
In my head I'm still running between 16 and 30 so should i really give a toss about how many birthdays I've had.
Does it make me a different person?
Does it make me look different overnight?
Does it make me dress/think/act differently?
No.! No it doesn't.

I've been worried about a number for heavens sake.
How dumb is that.

Sheesh.

Its January already!!!!!

When did that happen?

OK.
So I remember New Years Eve happening, but now its nearly 2 WEEKS IN.
EEEK!!!!!

This year is already running away from me.
I need to get it under control, slow it down and stop running to stand still.

Fat Chance.
Bah.

It only seems like yesterday that this lady was having her 21st birthday!



And NO!!!
I'm NOT that old!!!!
I was a tiny baby when it happened, just very advanced for my age ;)

Actually I think I was about 9.
I can remember her coming home with my Dad in this mad afghan coat , smoking roll-ups, drinking whisky and talking about all the bands that she'd been hanging out with.
She seemed so completely cool.
:D
I guess she hasn't changed much inside, she's still nutty, you just wouldn't know it to look at her.

I haven't been able to get to another Ceroc class yet.
Things keep coming up.

Last week I was at work till nearly 11pm [ well, if you include the time from 8.30 at Pizza Express with my workmates I was ]
And this week is going to be the same.
Its deadline time for the website and we're proof reading like idiots, deleting waffle like mad and trying to sound like we actually know what we're talking about while not boring anyone who might read it with too much complex stuff.
We found an excellent photo for it though.
Its my fave.



Hmmmmmm
I just thought.....
Did I mention the Ceroc on this blog before?

I can't remember.
And I can't be bothered to go look.
If I did just ignore this bit.

If i didn't, Ceroc is a kind of cross between Salsa and Rock'n'roll and i decided to start going to classes just before Christmas.
Its fun.
So I'm sort of peeved that I'm having to do other stuff when i should be learning new steps and getting sweaty on the dancefloor.
:D

But to get back to the run-away 2007.
Its only been in existance for a couple of weeks and yet it seems that its going to be a year of change.
Capital C, Capital H, Capital A....
Oh, you get the picture.

One of my best friends is moving away to frolic with Basset hounds and mad [but in a good way] people.
When I heard about it I was sad ish , but you can't be sad around someone who's suddenly the happiest I have ever known them to be.
And I'm looking around me , and my world is suddenly different.
Sure, lots of the things actually happened late last year, but they've taken a while to settle in, and its as if they have only really happened now,

So I'm going to make this year a positive one.
Capital P...ah , hell :D

Wish me luck
x