Post No. 99 or A Weekend Away

Heh, today's post is brought to you from the number 99. Which is just the number of posts I am at. The next post will be number 100. Yikes! Anyone still with me or joined me along this blogging adventure? I was going to look at the purpose of this blog, and whether it has met it, or where I have come since starting it. However truthfully, I am not much further forward in life, just a few months of employment at work and huge leaps forward in my creative life outside of work. Work is drying up now and I will go back to part time employment, but who knows where this will lead me? I can spend some more time learning the ins and outs of sewing and making, and spend some quality time with my CV, getting it ready and finding more gainful employment than I currently possess. I guess it really has been many steps sideways through life. But that is OK, I have learnt and I have been happy and that I feel, is what counts.

So, that said, this weekend I am home for my ma's birthday. Happy Birthday for Monday Mum! (She reads this blog, one of the few :p) I travelled home late after work, see above, reading The Story of Mr. Y. So far so good and oddly enough set in Canterbury which I had not realised until getting into some location descriptions and the poorly renamed places on campus that are so recongnisable from my undergraduate course! The writer was/is a lecturer there!

Last night I was shattered but still stayed up till 1.30am after getting trapped into another book called Room. I read it all in one sitting, resulting in very little sleep, but so worth it. I will be haunted for a long time by Jack.

Today I made Mum her birthday apron but will post photos of that tomorrow once the light comes back. It is a little crooked but still, looks funky. I also brought a 35mm camera that doesn't work for a £1. Obviously I didn't know it didn't work, and some expired film for 20p, one of which is now ruined owing to said broken camera and me being too happy about rewinding. Alas. I also got an embroidery hoop which I have certain plans for, although I need a few more to do what I really want to do! :s Here is some thread I brought too, on an old wooden wheel.

I'll stop rambling now. Have a lovely weekend everyone.

23/365*2

 

 today:

- shopped

- lasagnad

- haribo cookied (weird)

- lego indiana jones

- made a mess

- ironed

- mopped

- tidied

- drank coffee

- ate leftover haribo

- been bored

- been lonely

- been content

- been sad

- been a million and one things

22/365*2

Positive day means positive post. We can skim over the bad stuff like Lush being hacked and my card being cancelled and go straight into the so far, so awesome weekend!

I feel like a list of positiveness:

 - Dressing nice makes me feel so much better about myself. Why don't I do it more often. I have been flouncing around today feeling pretty in a spring skirt and tights. Who cares if I froze my butt off. I feel good.

 - Listening to the rain, some piano music and the sound of the sewing machine today soothed me no end. I might hate the endless January grey, but it does sound awesome on the conservatory roof.

 - I made myself a ball that rocks (mostly). It is all soft and squidgy and huggle. I feel like I am actually getting somewhere with this sewing malarkey!

 - Epsy has returned from the lovely (if expensive) folks at Apple all shiny and new again. Isn't that grand! :) His keys all work and are clean and he feels all nice to touch!

 - I am cooking reggae reggae style tonight. Will let you know how it goes!

 - I am reading The Secret Garden (the children's novel, not the adult one) and it reminding me all the time of how much I read as a child. I wish I could return to that level of being engrossed by reading but it is so much harder somehow.

 - I suck at Lego Indiana Jones but am having so much fun playing it and being so bad it is funny, I can't care about it!

Have a great and positive weekend!

Evening in.

Pip cooked steak sarnies for us tonight. Very yummy. Reminds me once again of the joy of cooking and shared meals. I will add more to this tomorrow when not on my phone.

Food and Family was a great post over on a sustainable life that got me thinking about cooking and food and family. This was my responce:

I believe that food is for many people (not myself) just something that is required and is not any fun. Personally I feel that this could not be further than the truth. I was raised around cooking and good food (after the age of 10 anyhows) and so was my partner. He loves to cook, I love to bake. We even each other out in the kitchen! Prepping is all part of the process and definitely has a value in its own right. In part it is a bonding experience of those involved, but it also sparks creativity. It is a way of providing something to those you love in a way that you decide, that comes from you. We cook most of our meals from scratch, and whilst sometimes we will cheat (tonight's burritos were from a kit for example) mostly we know how our food is made!

16/365*2

 

So I managed it. I made an apron. It took me something like 6 hours over the course of today to finish it. I am damn proud of myself for doing it too. I guess it is odd to be proud of yourself in something like this but I never thought I would be able to do it. Anyway, very happy with it.

Thoughts on the sewing process:

The Good: It worked. I managed to follow a pattern, the instructions and it looks awesome.

The Bad: The Pins. Ack. I must remember to put the pins in the right way for seams, it will make my life so much easier when sewing it up and removing the pins. 

The Ugly: The corners and the bias not going according to plan and having to unpick quite a lot if the stitching. The final stitching of the edges using backstitch. Ouch. That was not fun. Also, trying to understand how to make bias. I cheated and did it this way in the end: http://erincomptondesign.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-to-make-continuous-bias-strip.html

Finally, it will take a long time and you should really have not stood up for most of the day doing it. Fool.

All in all it was very successful and I am glad I did it. 

Sustainability in Urbanity

Over on moments of perfect clarity, julochka has posted about a sustainable life and I thought I would share some thoughts on the matter from the perspective of someone who rents in a city and moves almost every year.

I love the idea of living a sustainable life, I really do. However, the practical reality is that it is really rather difficult. In all honesty, it is not something I work hard at; yet. It is though, something I want to get better at. An urban life of renting impedes this, or feels like it does so.

We want to grow our own fruit and veg but are restricted to what we can move around in pots. Currently we only have mint growing, but we have plans for chillis, salad in pots and a small window sill herb garden. I really, really want to do tomatoes too, but we need to get the stuff to do that with. Everything we do has to be portable to another house or flat, and what if we have no garden in the future, we will have plants in post and no home in the sun for them. If anyone has any pot planting tips that would be fabulous.

In other foodie news, we have started to hand bake our own bread with the intention to make it every Sunday for the week, or at least the first half of the week. We will see how that goes.

Recycling. In Kent we have curb-side recycling but NOT for glass. Which we keep and always intend to take to the glass place. We have no car though, and about 10 bags of glass to go. Once the weather dries up I may force a walk with the bulk of it and lug it away.

Sustainable use of electricity and gas? Not an option. We are stuck with what the house came with. We have nice light bulbs and turn them off when they are not needed, we turn off the TV, we turned on our heating only when necessary and yet none of this helps; well maybe in no more than a small way. It feels like the little things don't help, and we can't afford dramatic gestures.

Up-cycling is something I love. I like to re-use or re-purpose where I can, from ice-cream tubs to jars and old clothes. I don't do it enough though, and I am sure there is room for improvement. The fact that I am learning to sew works with this ideal as being able to repair rather than replace will be great.

Things we do badly: Buying things that are not necessary (hello £2 skirt), not doing enough in terms of growing our own food; If we were more proactive we could do so much more, showering for far too long (me at least).

Things to work on then. Lets see if 2011 can push us towards making more strides into living with the planet, not on it.

A Call to Men: Tony Porter

One of those TED talks that really gets you thinking. Well worth watching.

12/365*2

Well, Kristin linked to me, so I figured perhaps I ought to at least pop something to do with Mess on here. This is page one, quickly done so as to have something to photograph for my 365 asides from my disappointed face that my book never arrived. :(

11/365*2

 

A little mac love from a girl saving her pennies each pay day in order to achieve her iPad dream.*

*when the new version is released obviously.

10/365*2

10/365*2
Originally uploaded by Lost Star

Day 10.

Learning to machine stitch my name.

9/365*2

We have a go at the sewing machine. Yay. Lots of fun, lots of confusion, and lots of mess! But a learning experience. I cannot wait until my book arrives and I can have some guidance into some projects! :D

8/365*2

Well, we have passed the 1 week mark on this project. Not doing too badly so far although I have struggled to take photos as I am at work so much in the week and it is dark when I get in! Hopefully this will get easier as the days get longer.

Today is about fabric. In that I went to a fabric store, inquired about workshops on sewing machines and quilting (sending me the details) and buying some half price stock that I want to make something with. Probably a quilting attempt. Once I figure out the sewing machine. That is for later today, after going to ASDA for the food shop.

Other sale bargains of the day: A whale can opener, seen here with Pip.

Spare plates from Whittards to make up a four piece set for when we occasionally need to feed more people.

A 1.5ft pink Christmas tree for £1.50. I could not resist it. Don't really know what I will do with it but still, it is awesome! 

Port sippers for Pip to be weird with in his smoking jacket and slippers.

A duvet set from M&S reduced from £59 to £19, and purchased on a gift card. It is purple and turquoise and stripey good. 

So yes, a good morning. Let us hope the day continues in its grandness.

7/365*2

 

The cookbook collection. A complete mish-mash of books piled into an alcove in the kitchen. Crazy storage times. Favourites? Jamie, 500 cupcakes, Book of Baking. I must make more new recipes though. We just tend to make the same over and over again. *sigh*

I just made a coffee cake. Or at least, I endeavoured to make a cake and ended up with a pile of crumbs. You see, I brought a cake mould at work for £3. It was supposed to make a pretty parcel shaped cake with a bow on top. Err, yeah, no way does what I achieved look pretty. I had to scrape it out the tin as it would NOT come out.  Jeez.

6/365

Just a quick drive by posting to share today's 365. I'm feeling pretty shattered tonight so I am going to crawl under this blanket and read for a while.

5/365*2

My space. Looking a little nicer than it normally does. I brought the lamp at work today in the sale; the bulb is a little big for it so I need to try and get a smaller one. :s Looks good in black and white. Mind you, Apple computers look good regardless.

4/365

 

Day Four. 

Quick trip to ASDA to grab some essentials (tissues and paracetamol)and some non-essentials (ale, peanuts).

Long day at work with a head cold today. Hoping the cold buggers off soon, driving me up the wall. I actually cried at work today. Getting bitched at by customers, staff and feeling ill = bad emotions. :s

Begging for tomorrow to be better!

xx 

3/365

 

Pip and I came back to Canterbury today. This was taken just before 8am today at Three Bridges train station. I saw the window and just had to grab a shot of it. Turned out great so it became my photo of the day! I love the old feel to it, like it has not changed from when it was first put up goodness knows when. 

The train ride was fun, with coffee had part way through the trip. Although I do appear to now have a cold, which is much less fun, especially when I am working full time this week. Hopefully I can OJ and lemsip it away as soon as possible. 

I wanted to start the new year full of life and full of plans for photo projects and reading checklists and plans for the kitchen and conservatory. Instead it looks like I will, this week at least, spend it with a box of tissues in front of the computer/tucked up in bed. Alas, best laid plans will always go amiss. 

For now I will go and hunt out some dinner and finish packing Christmas away for another year. Time to start planning for some Spring decoration! 

I plan on posting some more about the New Year later tonight, once I have eaten and uploaded photos. So for now, take it easy! 

2/365

 

Day 2. I finally, finally managed to find myself at an open Lush shop to take advantage of their sale. Alas, there was no Snow Fairy or Glogg, but I did manage to get this perfume I have been craving for an age, for half price! It is rose and baby powder smell and I love it! 

The lip tint I wanted as I loved the name! What a great product name!

Dream Cream because I hear tell it is good for dry skin conditions and the cold weather has been been cracking my nuckles.

Project 365: Day 1

So, I took the leap and decided to do a picture a day project throughout 2011. Not a self-portrait project this time around but a general photo one. Maybe it will encourage me to go out more for photos. Although that said, both of the two I have done so far have been pretty pathetic. Heading home tomorrow so maybe more of an effort will be made once I have access to photo software again!

So, here is day one!