the appliance of science

If you're ever wondering where I am, the answer is probably the Science Centre.  Dulcie and I got year-long passes a few months back and are making the most of them.  It's such a fun place and easily fills a whole day, plus they change their exhibits quite regularly and everything is really hands-on and fun.  Nobody objects if you eat your packed lunch in the cafe and the staff are great.  Hopefully Dulcie is absorbing some science know-how, but even if she isn't, at least she's enjoying herself.

The year-long pass isn't cheap, but really works out about the same as two visits, so is a great idea if you live anywhere near Glasgow, especially if you have children.

a hex on me!

We have a humongous window in our living room.  It's taken me the best part of a decade to persuade Graham that curtains would be nice there, only to find out we can't afford the material, let alone afford to have curtains made.*  Years ago (in the pre-Graham days) my mum had ingeniously made curtains for said massive window from dustsheets - a clever plan, but they did look a tad...dustsheety and too neutral for what we want to do with our living room nowadays, which is quite a '70s space, I guess.  Unfortunately, dustsheets were really all we could afford at the moment, so I went ahead and secretly bought some with a vague plan to dye or embroider or applique them into something we'd actively like.  After much browsing around on Pinterest (see this board) I think I've decided that simple hexagons are the way I want to go, that they need to be quite precise/geometric and that I will still be making the curtains from beyond the grave if I do them sashiko style, so instead I've been making little "anchor stitches" where the corners meet and weaving another thread through these to make hexagons that sit on the surface. 

Above is my small trial run, in a random colour on a scrap of wrinkled white fabric.  I do like how it looks (surprisingly hexagonal/geometric) but I'm not sure whether it will work out on the real deal.  This method does mean there are large "stitches" sitting on top of the fabric which could probably be yanked and pulled and caught on things.  While it's fairly unlikely there would be any major pulls (they're not in a heavy-traffic area and Dulcie is quite well behaved these days, cats are another matter...) it's one heck of a big job to undertake knowing it could all be undone in a jiffy.  I'm only planning to stitch the design on the bottom two-thirds of the curtains, I think, but that still amounts to...erm...144 square feet?!  (Can that really be right?!  I'm fairly certain it is...)  Is there some other idea I'm missing that would work better?  Should I just bite the bullet and do it in real, little stitches?  I guess if I did the anchor stitches individually, knotting each one at the back rather than having thread running between them behind the fabric, then any pull would be fairly easily sorted...  But will they just end up looking a bit tatty?  Gah, I don't know, I'm really just thinking aloud now.  But if anyone reading this has any suggestions, please let me know.  Have a look at my Pinterest board and you'll see the sort of effect I'm  after.  We want curtains!

*Having made proper lined curtains for Dulcie's only-slightly-bigger-than-average bedroom window, I know I am not up for pattern matching and fabric wrangling on this scale, and the fabric alone would be mega expensive, so the pressure would be on to do a perfect job.  Plus we can't agree on a fabric!  Ha!

bird's-eye view

Dulcie and I spent a lovely morning in the Botanic Gardens today.  It may have been freezing, but there was a definite feeling of spring being, if not in the air, at least on the horizon.  For some reason, all the robins were being really sociable, following us around and hopping right up to us, singing in our faces.  We spent ages with this wee fluffball.  I guess it's something to do with mating season being on the horizon?  Maybe they were trying to chase us out of their territory and we took it as affection!  Ha!  We also saw a squirrel gathering dried leaves and (literally) squirrelling them away in its nest.  Dulcie collected a wee pile of leaves for it and was delighted when it took them from her, folded them up neatly and stashed them in its hole in the tree.  So sweet.  Lots of birds were singing, doing that thing where they call and leave a gap before calling again.  Dulcie started saying, "Do it again, bird," during the gaps and laughed each time when the bird obliged.  I'm so glad our city has so many green spaces and equally glad that Dulcie was in such good spirits all day - it really does make my life so much easier.

revenge is...sweet?

 Last night Dulcie had a "boys' night in" with my dad, so it was date night for Graham and I.  (No, that's not us pictured!)  We went out for dinner and used the final tickets from our last-year's GFT cinecard to see The Revenant.  Oh, my, it was so good! As you've probably heard, not exactly relaxing viewing, but I would highly recommend it.

The GFT has a seat-dedication scheme as one of its fundraising methods and it's always fun to read them.  I'd never noticed before the one that the lady above was sitting in.

It gave me a good giggle.

Phwoargh :)

best day of our lives :)

 Another long absence from the blog, but during that time I became a married lady.  Yes, we totally did it!  And yes, it was totally awesome!

Graham's friend Daryl volunteered himself as wedding photographer and did an amazing job, as you can see.  Here are a few photos from the ceremony, which we held in Jaconelli's cafe. 

 Look at our beautiful flower girl :)  Dulcie did such a good job and had great fun at the party afterwards.

 The registrar who carried out the ceremony was lovely and really delighted by our choice of venue.  We even have photos of him enjoying an ice cream cone before we arrived!

 You can see the cafe staff watching proceedings from the kitchen here.

 Two of our friends did a really wonderful job with the readings we asked them to do.  This was the moment we realised Daniel was delivering his John Cooper Clark poem in a Mancunian accent, dark glasses and crazy black wig.  He was a tough act for my dear friend Katharine to follow, but she handled it perfectly.

 I don't know what prompted this facial expression from me, but I like it.  I think it might have been an attempt at reassurance?  See, I'm a total natural at this wife business!

 Exchanging of the rings...

 ...and kissing with permission.  We actually kissed without permission earlier in the ceremony.  Total rebels!  Ha!

 Here we are with James, the owner of the cafe and everyone's new favourite person.  When we first asked James, rather nervously, if we could use his cafe as a wedding venue, he said yes without any hesitation and ended up probably just as excited as us about the whole thing.  He's one of life's positive and generous types, happy to welcome anyone who loves his cafe half as much as he does.  Honestly, our day wouldn't have been half so special if he hadn't played the part he did.

 After the ceremony, we joined our guests for prosecco and hot rolls (tattie scone for me, sausage for Graham, bacon for Dulcie, should you wish to know) followed by Jaconelli's famous and delicious ice cream.  The two waitresses were fantastic, really entered into the spirit of the day and looked after all our guests so well.

 James gave us free rein with the window displays.  We made these giant, glittery hearts with our faces in them (there was a wee one of Dulcie on the door too) and surrounded them with tissue paper pom poms - completely daft and over-the-top but they went down well.

 I think this is the only ceremony picture where Dulcie managed a smile.  Thank you to whichever genius blew bubbles at that precise moment!

And here are the ice cream cone bouquets that Dulcie and I carried.  The florist actually forgot to make them, as I discovered 90 minutes before the start of the ceremony, standing in the florist's still in my pyjamas and with unwashed hair!  Slightly stressful, but they cobbled these beauties together in 10 minutes and gave us them free of charge, so it all turned out OK in the end.  Honestly, the last-minute jobs in the morning (and we were wed at 11.30 so the morning was rushed enough as it was) all went so awry that I felt as though I was in a wedding episode of Neighbours from the early '90s.  Remember Dr Clive, the broken arm and the gorilla suit?  But it made for good chat later and from the moment we set foot in Jaconelli's, everything was perfect, better than we'd even imagined it could be.

I'll probably share some more photos soon.  The post-ceremony party we hosted in our flat was pretty eventful too (not sure we got any photos of the late-night singalong, mind you...) and all my handmade decorations turned out really well and made me very happy.  I'm still surrounded by them now, in fact.  I might just leave them up for Christmas :)  And then there were a few days of relaxation on honeymoon followed by a few days of fun family time (and eating of leftovers!) with Dulcie.  I'm only 10 days in, but so far, married life is awesome!  Yay!

progress report

The shelves are up!  Waaah!  They did take us a whole bank holiday to put together, but they're done and they seem level and secure.  While we were on such a furniture assembly roll, we decided to put together our two new chairs from Ikea.  They're actually for the hall, but we'll keep them in the living room until we've decorated the hall and got a new sofa for in here.  The cool cat cushion on the chair belongs to Dulcie, a present from her Auntie Kerry.  She keeps it in her tent usually but she gave us permission to use it on these chairs.  It's nice to have it out on display - rare to find something loved by all three of us.  The things on the shelves may or may not stay, we just shoved on a few random items tonight to give us an idea of how they might look in the end.

Our living room is feeling so grown-up and tidy and homely tonight, a far cry from its usual state.  Graham has gone out to get us a well-earned bottle of wine and we're going to relax and watch a film before bed glorious bed.  And Dulcie is staying with her granny tonight so I'll actually get some sleep.  Well, it IS a bank holiday after all.  Phew.

when you can't get to the cinema, the cinema must come to you

We're doing up our hall at the moment and have been looking at super-skinny benches, vintage cloakroom stands, various coat hooks and dinky seats.  Then last night, in a moment of madness, we threw all consideration to the wind and bought these three very old cinema seats on eBay.  They will fit in the space, it's just they'll take up more of it than is ideal, but we couldn't resist.  Never start measuring for furniture with three minutes left before the auction ends!  I do love these and part of me thinks they might look amazing and do just what we want them to, but an equally large part of me thinks they might look terrible and cause us no end of headaches and regret.  But if they do work out, how amazing?!  These days my design decisions ("design decisions") are usually motivated by how much I think Dulcie will enjoy the item in question.  There's no way she won't love these chairs.  And we got them for a total bargain price.  Though why, like everything else we love on eBay, they had to be located in the south of England, I don't know.  We got a good price for a courier through Shiply, but even a good price is still more than the cost of the chairs.

Life would be so much easier if we liked right angles and modern mass-produced furniture more, and if our flat was boxier instead of a fluid bowl of wobbliness.  I'm touching wood that these chairs will easily slot into place, but my confidence is not being increased by our current attempt to put our Ladderax/String shelving together.  This is attempt number three and we have been at it all morning and not a single shelf is in place.  (The photo above is from the eBay listing, we are nowhere near achieving this.) We are now bolting the bastards to the wall (excuse my language - DIY brings out the worst in me) and I'm still not convinced they'll withstand life in a house with a three-year-old and two cats.  I think it will be at least a year before I feel it's safe to put anything remotely breakable on them.  Honestly, I wish we'd never laid eyes on them.  Hopefully I won't be saying the same about our cinema seats in the coming weeks...

as exciting as my life gets

 

 I treated myself to this book on Amazon and I'm so looking forward to reading it.  I'm confident it will be right up my street and the cover makes me doubly excited.

Another grim (see what I did there?) but exciting sight is our hall.  Look at the state of it!  Graham has been a busy bee, stripping all the wallpaper in preparation for replastering.  Actually, Dulcie has been helping him and loving it.  She's desperate to strip all the rest of our wallpaper now so we'll need to keep a close eye on her!  The plasterer is coming this morning.  Exciting indeed!

Our hall has been a disastrous dumping ground for so long and I can't wait for it to be a welcoming space that I can be proud of...even if I can't allow visitors beyond it!  The wall where the ladder's standing is (hopefully) going to be full of bookshelves.  An actual home library!  I've dreamed about this for years and years and can hardly wait to see it completed, not least because it means I won't have to climb over bags and boxes of books all over the place.

While stripping back the hall, we realised that lots of our unsightly wires and cables were obsolete, but we got a bit carried away with the excitement of ripping them out and accidentally disconnected our phone and internet.  Oops.  The disconnection was a definite team effort (the best way to make such blunders) but poor overworked Graham was very frustrated and unable to see the funny side.  Lucky for him, I channelled my inner Girl Guide (and my physics qualification!) and worked out how to fix it, doing away with about 10 metres of unsightly, paint-covered, unnecessary wire in the process.  I can hardly explain how proud this picture makes me.  And yes, it does look very dodgy but it is safe and only a temporary measure while I wait for some jelly crimps to arrive from eBay.  Jelly crimps!  See, I've even got the lingo!  I'm practically a phone engineer, you know.

crafting a crafty space and crafting in it

 

 Part of our ongoing work in the flat, and our most recent "accomplishment", has been to repurpose what was once our bedroom into a craft/music/play/laundry/spare-bed room.  My craft corner in said room is still a work in progress, but it's getting there.  I should have taken a picture of it before I'd pulled so much stuff out today.  It's tidy again now and I hope to be able to keep it that way, though it doesn't seem likely, given my track record.  Anyway, today I actually did some crafting in there for the first time, and you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs!

 I've made loads of these pointy kitties in my life, from a free pattern by Hillary Lang, but I hadn't made one in a long time, not since Dulcie's first birthday.  The one I made today is a birthday present for Dulcie's friend who happens to be called (wait for it) Kitty.  Yeah?  You see what I did there?  We've known about the birthday party for over a month and I made this with just 48 hours to spare, but that's quite organised by my usual standards.  Honestly, I can't believe I've made it at all.  I'm so glad not to be doing a last-minute present dash and buying something that makes me feel queasy for the environment...even if the kitty has turned out a bit weird looking!

I even managed to try out this nifty needle threader today.  I got it in my advent calendar from my sister.  It's a strange contraption, but boy is it good at threading needles!

It was really quite relaxing to craft in a dedicated crafting space today.  For the last couple of years I've been dragging supplies and equipment out of storage and into the kitchen every time I wanted to make something, knowing I might have to clear it all away before I was finished.  There's still a lot of organising ahead of me, but already getting this job half-ticked off the to-do list has improved our quality of life.  Dulcie and Graham are loving the new multipurpose room too.  Progress? Progress!

sunshining day

 

Such a sunny day in Glasgow today!  We ran a few errands on foot in the morning, then had a picnic and a bit of a romp-around in the Botanics in the afternoon.  So easy to have a nice day when the skies are blue :)

local wildlife

Remember the Tunnocks teacake bird Dulcie and I found a few weeks back?  We took a walk to see him on Friday and found that this squirrel had ousted him!

Thank you to whoever is making these.  Wee glimmers of thoughtful fun like these make milling about with a toddler lots of fun :)

sometimes money can buy happiness

Since I bought my car, I've gone a bit spend-crazy, getting bits and pieces for the house.  The floodgates have opened/the moths are flying free!  I had lusted after this rug for a very long time, but never thought I was the type to spend so much on a...rug.  Turns out I am that sort now and I'm so glad!  Our living room is suddenly so cosy and homely and fun and snuggly and we ALL (cats and adults and children) feel very happy every time we're near this rug.  It's even changed the way Dulcie plays in the living room - no more pick-up-put-down-pick-up-throw-around playing, instead she sits and concentrates on one thing for ages, building towns, reading books, making up chat for her Moshis...  And she does enjoy a naked roll-around on it after her bath.  Well, wouldn't you, given half a chance?

This is actually a very special rug for another reason too.  Back in January, I proposed to the lovely Graham and he said yes.  I decided I didn't want an engagement ring, so this is my engagement rug instead :)

Big news, huh?  Graham and I have been having so much fun wedding planning and we're really happy and excited, as is our flower girl.  (Guess who!)  We're getting married in August.  I'll share some of the details soon (so much to share!) but in the meantime, feel free to have a look at the weddingy/party-y Pinterest boards I've been adding to with my sister and a couple of friends.

cheers!

Drinking is a slippery slope.  Having not been drunk in over four years, one booze sesh has left me feeling the need to quaff a cocktail on the way home from the supermarket!  Goodness, the west end of Glasgow is a haven of fun opportunities when you don't have a child to factor in to the equation.  But, you know me really, even with baby-sitters, I was happy to stop at one and head home for a quiet evening in the house.  Couldn't have Friday night without Gogglebox, now, could I?

 

P.S. This dress was a wee £3 bargain from the Salvation Army.  I wasn't entirely sure about it, but it draws as many compliments as it does looks of horror and Dulcie LOVES it - she asks me to wear it, tells me how lovely it is when I do, and says she wishes she had one like it.  I've promised to give it to her as soon as she's big enough to wear it :)

birds about town

 I'm definitely feeling as though spring could be in the air.  Dulcie and I headed out for a picnic in the Botanics yesterday and stayed out all afternoon, milling about and touring various local play parks.  I had forgotten how much nicer it feels to be able to spend all day out and about, taking things as they come rather than planning activities or trying (like a moron) to get things done in the house.  Roll on spring and summer!  While wandering, I spotted this little Tunnocks bird someone had made, risking life and limb (presumably) to stretch over the edge of a very high bridge to attach it to this tree stump.  Very cute and perfect in the crisp, bright coldness.

The other birds we hung out with were less sweet - the scavenging greedy louts known as the Pigeons of the Botanics...  Dulcie's inner monologue: "Back off, birds, I don't share my crisps with no-one...

"And smile for the camera!"

 

We also met an 11-week-old Alaskan malamute puppy who licked us into happy oblivion and was possibly the softest thing I have ever felt.  Do you know what they look like?  Ridiculously cute, I tell you!  I can't find a picture online that is even half as cute as the one we met, but this should give you some idea.

 

We had a good afternoon.  Dulcie was full of the joys - her imagination was running wild (she claimed she could see her Auntie Kerry's house from the top of the swing and told me what everyone was doing there) and she made lots of friends, including one rather eccentric little boy who drove her to Japan on an imaginary bus to buy sausages.  Lovely.  So let's just not mention the journey home, where she SCREAMED and SCREAMED and SCREAMED and SCREAMED.  This seems to be her pattern at the moment - 90% hilarious and delightful and kind and fun to be with, 10% unreasonable banshee.  And still not letting me sleep, naturally.

cold days at the park

 It can be hard to persuade Dulcie to leave the house these days, so when she said she wanted to spend Friday afternoon in the park, I felt I couldn't refuse, even though the weather was atrocious.  We had the park all to ourselves, but looking at this picture, that's hardly surprising.  It was basically a rainy ice rink.

 The Botanics as a whole were pretty much deserted, except for the people who were getting things ready for the mysterious Electric Gardens event.  Lots of interesting objects were popping up (this giant ice lolly was our favourite) and Dulcie and I had fun dancing in the rain while they tested the PA system with some music.  And there were no other members of the public there to witness out silliness.  Score!

 When the rain got really heavy, we hung out in the orchid and cactus houses, but there were plenty of muddy puddles to jump in once we reemerged.  Dulcie was doing some pretty impressive splashing, as you can see from the state of her face.  I ended up not looking much cleaner.

We were both soaked and maukit by the time we got home and had to throw all our clothes in the washing machine and drink hot chocolate in our dressing gowns :)

snowgirl

 Have you had snow where you are?  Have you been enjoying it?

 While I was working this weekend, Dulcie and her dad (who she's being much nicer to - she must have appreciated his Christmas song!) hung out in Kelvingrove park. 

I don't think we really had snow last year, so this is the first time Dulcie's experienced it in her memory.  She's been loving it - visiting and naming all the snowmen in the neighbourhood, having snowball fights, watching the sledgers, tramping through the crunchy top layer with her wellies, putting snow down the drains and "making it into water".

 On Friday, when the snow really started, Dulcie was having a day of lounging around in her pyjamas, refusing to get dressed or leave the house, but the snow was the perfect excuse to get her up and out.  It was already getting dark by the time we got out there, but we still managed to make this mini snowgirl.  Yes, snowGIRL, and don't you dare call it a snowman in Dulcie's earshot!

Dulcie was so excited to get out and in amongst it, charging around and falling over constantly.  "I'm all right!"  She could hardly wait to experience a snowball fight and took being icily smashed in the face (terrible mothering) in very good humour!  What a gal :)

I've really had enough of negotiating the icy pavements, but I'll take it on the chin if it means Dulcie can enjoy some more frosty fun.

festiving up

Festiving! I'm making up words! It's Chri-i-i-i-i-istmas!  Here's my finished wreath, hanging on our front door.  I love it - so bright and Christmassy.  The flowers are made from Quality Street wrappers that have been folded up origami style.  Myself and my parents inexplicably folded these a couple of Christmases ago and I knew there would be a project worth saving them for eventually.  I ended up attaching these with colourful bobble headed pins since it added to the floral effect and injected even more colour...because MORE colour was obviously what this project needed?!  So I haven't busted out my glue gun yet, but I have another wee project lined up that hot glue will be essential for, so I'll still get my glue gun fix!  I suppose it took a while to origami the sweetie wrappers, but assembling the wreath was a quick, easy and satisfying job.

 Another quick and fun Christmas project this week was the making of these gift tags using festive rubber stamps that I treated myself to from a fancy stationery shop in Geneva - angels, stars, clouds and dots.  Can you call rubber stamping making?  I think you must be able to because it still gave me that "I made this" feeling of satisfaction.  And it made gift wrapping more fun!

Since I pursue crafty projects on a whim, I almost always end up working amid this sort of mess and mayhem.  I'm hoping to have a dedicated crafting corner set up in the not-too-distant future, so hopefully scenes like this will be a thing of the past.  Or at least confined to one out-of-the-way corner!

 Our Christmas decorating this year is pretty much confined to the living room, other than the front-door wreath and a couple of items in Dulcie's room.  Our fireplace (pardon the blurry photo) is looking quite sweet with our childhood Santa and reindeer decoration, some cards and a garland I made from our vintage baubles (too delicate for our tree with a toddler and two cats around) and some paper angels.

And our tree, as ever, fills me with delight.  I love unpacking all the decorations I've accumulated over the years and adding to the collection with a few new items.  This year it was particularly sweet to rediscover all the lovely decorations I was sent in last year's handmade decoration swap.  My new decorations this year included this fabulous Mexican pig from MEXTLIMEX on Etsy, which is so bright and cheerful and festive in its own weird way!  The mat under the tree is another new addition this year, a wee £1 bargain from the charity shop that is making me so very happy.  Best £1 ever spent?!

 Within five minutes of dusting off the tree, I had been accused of control freakery, but I ask you, would a control freak allow her three-year-old to hang two decorations on the same branch?!  Apparently this is Mummy Christmas tree and Baby Christmas tree, so they have to stay together :)  Dulcie is constantly moving all the decorations around, but the random nature of the tree and its decorations means that doesn't matter a jot.  And I quite like discovering a leopard-print bauble hanging on the phone when it rings etc!  Dulcie's love for the tree is IMMENSE and very sweet.  I'm not looking forward to her reaction when we take it down...