busy, busy, busy

I've been quite enjoying the wintery weather lately but will admit that our flat is freezing.

I'm stubbornly refusing to put the heating on and am opting for wearing copious layers instead. The cats are seeking out new cosy corners and Poppy, as you can see, is becoming an expert tent maker. She can make a shelter for herself out of just about anything now. What a sweetheart.

Graham had the last few days off work and we've been kept pretty busy. On Saturday night I made us a fancy dinner. We had parsnip and parmesan soup to begin with. I should confess that Graham had actually made and frozen that earlier in the week so I had nothing to do with its deliciousness!

For the main course, I made these cheese and herb fritters with sweet pepper marmalade and rocket. Yum yum yum. But so much cheese! The recipe is by Delia and you can find it here.

I love Masterchef (well, I love Greg Wallace really!) and am always intrigued by the 'risky' chocolate fondants the competitors make so I decided to try my hand at them for dessert. I looked on the internet for a recipe and ended up using Nigella's (found here, scroll right to the bottom of the page) because it was described as the best chocolate pudding and simple too! The first one I turned out of the oven collapsed a bit (just like they usually do on Masterchef so I took it as a sign that I wasn't too far wrong!) but the second one, just for having sat in the tin for an extra 30 seconds, was perfection! I gave that one to Graham, just to be polite, but mine tasted just as good. It was exciting to try making a 'classic' pudding like that and (oh!) they were so, so delicious! I will definitely be making them again.

After dinner we played Trivial Pursuit. We had played earlier in the week and I won (I also won Scrabble that night which is a RARE occurrence indeed!) so this was like a rematch. I was in the lead all the way round but kept getting pink questions in the middle (I like green and brown questions, and blue and yellow are alright but I am useless at pink and beyond useless at orange) and Graham ended up winning, with me just two spaces behind. Oh well...

On Sunday we went through to Erskine to go to this lady's 90th birthday party! This is Jenny a.k.a. Gran (to Graham) a.k.a. G.G. to her great grandchildren.

Here she is having a dance with Graham's mum. Graham's mum never stops singing and dancing. I mean literally never. It was the first time I had met some of Graham's more extended family. We had lunch in the pub and then went back to his mum and dad's house for more drinks and chat. It was a fun day.

Yesterday, Graham and I went for a wander round some of the charity shops in Partick. I got some curtains to chop up for material, a Malcolm Gladwell book and a Marguerite Patten cook book because the design in it is amazing. I will try to share photos at some point. I also bought a vintage dress, from a vintage clothes shop which sells things at about half the price of most charity shops. I'm getting a bit miffed at all the £30 plus "vintage" and "retro" price tags (with no consideration for the niceness or quality of the item) in charity shops. Graham got a jumper. The photo above is a fabulous permanent window display in a tailor's shop on Chancellor Street. I love it!

In the evening, we went to the Old Fruitmarket to see (swoon!) Richard Hawley. Look how pretty the venue was, with all its lights and old signs. We had a bit of trouble finding the entrance which was fortuitous as it meant we found Richard Hawley himself having a fag out the back! I was far too shy to talk to him so I just stared with my mouth hanging open, grabbing Graham's arm a lot. I do love Richard Hawley quite a lot :)

We went to see Richard Hawley last year (or maybe it was two years ago, since I don't seem to have mentioned it on the blog?) in the City Halls and I thought it was amazing. It was honestly like stepping back in time, to an under the sea themed dance or something, all spangly curtains and mirror balls and beautiful songs about trains and ship wrecks and romance. Sigh... This time it was a bit more low key but his voice is just so incredible (it really does make me swoon!) that he couldn't possibly disappoint. My main wish for the night was that someone would be there playing a saw... and they were! I think the saw is one of my favourite musical instruments. We were up on the balcony and it was so much fun to watch the audience, who were a real mix of people but included quite a few older folks. There was an old lady (who was 75 if she was a day) sitting right in the middle of the front row. She had pure white hair and was wearing a pair of fingerless gloves, even though it was really pretty warm. When Richard Hawley started playing Open Up The Door (from the new album) she started punching the air with glee and looking round at everybody with a huge grin on her face, then sat staring at him all lovelorn and hypnotised. It was so much fun to watch her. I also saw the lady who ran the embroidered textiles classes that I did at the art school a few years ago, proving the theory that we were guaranteed to know at least one person there. The story behind those classes, if you're interested, is here.

So it has been a busy few days, meaning that I haven't made any progress with my shopify shop or with the job applications I'm in the middle of. I have a few more plan b jobs to apply for and a plan a interview next week. Fingers crossed :)

little red riding hood love

According to The Bag Lady, my Little Red Riding Hood brooches are "both evocative and strikingly minimalist" and "jaw-droppingly cool". They would, apparently, "subvert styles" by "adding a little fairytale mystique to an otherwise bussinesslike wardrobe".

What a great write up! I knew I googled myself for a reason... :)

p.s. This is the last weekend of The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe exhibition. If you are anywhere near Weston-Super-Mare you should definitely go. My hulder print is there alongside all sorts of mythical beasts and (as the name suggests!) sweets galore! For full details, click on the link.

model behaviour

This person is about as good at putting on make up as I am!

I guess his her muscles might get in the way...

As seen in a charity shop in Glasgow city centre yesterday. I bought another set of circular knitting needles. I must have just about every size covered now.

life without pointless is so... pointless!

Alexander Armstrong and his "pointless friend" Richard on the set of BBC 2's quiz show, Pointless.

Image pilfered from BBC website but I'm sure they won't mind as I'm basically using it to advertise for them for free!

Yesterday was a sad day. The last in the series of Pointless aired. Waaah! I don't think I have ever loved a quiz show so much (at all?) before. We even got to the point of taping the show each afternoon so that we could watch it in the evening. It made it more... special, you know? Ha! I just don't know what to do with myself without it. Of course, I could spend my time writing a kick ass application to go on series two as a contestant! We know always to answer 'Central African Republic' and never to answer 'France' so I'm sure we could do pretty well. I wonder if Graham (my pointless viewing companion!) will mind me applying on our behalf...?

In other television related news, we have just finished watching the entire series of Tutti Frutti as my parents lent us their DVD recently. It was really good and much darker than I expected. Last night we watched the last two episodes back to back and were very excited to see our street in it! We completely missed a very dramatic and important dialogue by going, "Up a bit, keep going, turn right, up a bit more..." and letting out a big cheer when we saw our building. Our street looked so much cleaner and tidier in 1987!

I can remember my mum and dad watching Tutti Frutti when I was little and I had a really clear memory of a scene where Emma Thompson and Robbie Coltrane danced up and down the aisle of a plane singing Tutti Frutti while pushing their food trolleys. I waited and waited, thinking maybe it would be a weird ending to the series (like the tour bus crashed and that was them in heaven) but the scene did not happen! I wonder what I've been 'remembering' all these years. One theory is that I'm getting it confused with camp aircraft based Scottish sitcom of the eighties*, The High Life, starring Alan Cummings. Or maybe I just imagined it.

The first time I saw Pulp Fiction, I noticed a terrible flaw in the plot, where someone referred to something that hadn't happened yet. I mean, it had happened in the film but would only happen to the character in the future, if you know what I mean. I argued the point with many people but then, when I watched the film again, I realised I had fallen asleep and dreamed the whole scene!

I used to try to convince myself that that whole of my life since Peter, my cat, got run over (around 1987 again?) was a dream but I'm pretty sure my mind is not capable of having created the last twenty two years or so of my life, and that Peter really is dead :( I surely couldn't have dreamed up something as wonderful as Pointless, could I?

*I've since been told that The High Life was on in the nineties (surely not!?) which would cast some doubt on the notion that I'd merged it together with Tutti Frutti in my memory. I'm rooting for the whole life being a dream theory instead now! :)

little red in da hood!

Apparently the story of Little Red Riding Hood is thousands of years old, not mere hundreds as was previously imagined. I think the story certainly must have something about it to keep us all so interested for so long...*

I know that many months now have passed since I made the tiny Little Red Riding Hoods from shrinky plastic. It is also many months since I attempted to paper cut the backgrounds for the Little Red Riding Hoods. And it's also many months since I was inspired to improve said paper cut backgrounds! But here, at last, are some of the finished brooches!

I actually really like it when projects take a long time to come together. They are always much more in keeping with how you wanted them to be. These brooches are quite tricky to photograph but (sigh...) I lurve them. Hope you do too :)

I have just listed one in my etsy shop, for anyone who may be interested. Yippee!

I spent most of yesterday and today making another Little Red Riding Hood inspired project. It was another one that had taken a long time to come together but I can't post any photos yet as it is a present for a (very) special (very) little someone. I'll share it next week. I really like it so far! Exciting!

Oh, by the way, the market I did on Saturday was good. It wasn't especially well publicised so wasn't that busy but I more than covered my bus fare and met some really nice people who were running the other stalls. I also sold a Dot Cotton pendant to a lady who had met Dot and Nick Cotton earlier this year! Oh, so jealous! Oh yeah, and we got coffee for free! Woo hoo!

*I think it's the scariness of Little Red Riding Hood that keeps us all interested. I once wrote a dissertation about why scary stories rock. Actually it was about how moving away from scary stories to pretty pink and sparkly stories would do the children's publishing industry no good. But, pretty much, it was about how scary stories rock!

Last minute market! Tomorrow!

I'm going to be doing a market again tomorrow (Saturday). Just a little one this time, in Beanscene on Skirving Street (Shawlands) from 11-3. I only found out about it this afternoon. I don't know what it will be like but I thought I may as well give it a go anyway. If you're in the area you should stop by and say hello or eat a muffin! I think it is going to be a regular (monthly?) event so hopefully it will be good. The space was free so I'm only gambling my bus fare to find out :)

I am shrinky dinking like mad this evening (see random picture above) as I sold out of most of my new Eastenders pendants at Made in the Shade and had yet to replenish. I will share a better picture of them (in their super duper packaging, which I'm very proud of!) when I have some light to photograph by!

what a haul!

Beep beep! It sure is busy there in Picadilly Circus!

Graham and I went for a day's charity shopping yesterday, and what a charity shopping day it was! As well as the beautiful plate above, I got this mug:

Oh, it makes me laugh! And for 20p, who could leave it behind?

The man at the till was most amused that I wanted to buy this book when I wasn't 'foreign' (he asked!) but who could resist with these beautiful illustrations?

Every chapter has a theme (tea in a restaurant, in the living room, at Susan's office etc.) and each one has an amazing line drawing to go with it. These are two of my favourites.

Here's what is probably my favourite page, with my favourite part enlarged. I'm thinking this could make a sweet embroidery pattern, maybe? Her billowy skirt is adorable.

The poems and rhymes in old language text books must have been totally baffling to students. I like this one, though.

I found this great book at the start of the day. As soon as I saw the diagram of the escalator on the cover, I knew I would have to buy it. This book tells you how literally everything works. Well, not mp3 players and the like... Or even microwaves...

Want to know how a typewriter works? It's there!

These men inside the submarine reminded me of a Spike Milligan poem that always makes me laugh:

A baby sardine saw her first submarine.

She was scared and watched through a peephole.

"Oh come, come, come," said the sardine's mum,

"It's only a tin full of people."

Here's how a record player works, as well as how to dance while listening to it!

You may think this is impressive enough but there is more, including three circular knitting needles, lots of vintage buttons (some to keep and some to sell) and a fab tartan dress! I actually saw the dress in a charity shop a couple of months ago but it was too small for me. I was still pining for it so it was really exciting to find another one in my size!

Graham didn't do too badly for once, either, and even found a single by his old band! Ha ha! I always wonder when I will find something I've made in a charity shop but he went and beat me to it...

What a great day... To top it all off, when I got in, I found out that my Eastenders embroideries had been featured on Feeling Stitchy AND Mr X Stitch! Woo hoo!