Making things

I think it's about time for a kind of Christmassy type post, don't you?

First of all though, I must show you this cheery bag I made for my mum's birthday last week. Do you like it? Remember this bag I made for myself, back in May (goodness, seems like an absolute lifetime ago!) Well, my mum liked it, and I had a fair bit of material left, so I thought I'd have a go at something a little bit more complicated...

And you can't see it, but incidentally, the lining is made from the same dotty material as the skirt I made back in May too!

I was rather pleased with it - my sewing's really improved, some of the seams are even straight!

I still haven't got very far with making all my Christmas presents, but I will do it... I keep fogetting about what I made a few weeks ago...

Yep, more soap! A little bit crumbly, but with an added extra ingredient... Won't say too much more, as I haven't decided who's getting what yet, but it's very exciting. (and the thing with soap is that I've now made several Christmas presents, instead of just one!)

There's also been another small child's birthday, which I thought called for another mesh treasure bag. Not as complicated as the last one, but cheery all the same. I absolutely adore that fabric (although there's an ongoing 'discussion' here about whether they're radishes or beetroots...)

And finally, I sat on the train for 3 hours at the weekend, staring out of the window, pondering life, and crocheting. I love crocheting, it's so easy to carry, it's so easy to undo when you do it wrong, and it's not all elbows and concentration on trains like knitting can be. I only had a couple of little balls of wool, so I ended up making flowers. And more flowers.

So now there's a small pile of them, all different colours. Rather fetching, although I'm not entirely sure what they're going to turn into yet. I suspect at least a couple will form some kind of Christmas presents! Any suggestions? I've got a couple of ideas...

Judgement and acceptance

I've been stopped in my tracks a bit this week. My PhD viva (oral exam) was on Thursday, I didn't come out with the result I was hoping for...

I've been writing the PhD for so long (six years!), and I've had so many emotions about the process and the thing itself, that this almost felt a bit flat. I've felt elated, crushed, frustrated, annoyed, incompetent, useless, grumpy, grumpy, grumpy about this thing, but whatever I've been feeling, it's been such a big part of my life for so long, it was hard to believe it was ever going to go away. Finally, it seemed like the end was near - and now it's been pushed just that little bit further away again.

This isn't the place for details, but suffice to say the examiners didn't like what I'd written. This is always one of the problems with putting something out there into the world, there will always be people who don't like it, it's just annoying when the people who don't like it are the people who are there to officially pass judgement.

It would have been easy to stomp on Thursday afternoon, to set fire to my thesis (oh, how many times did I threaten to do just that in the last six years??), to slam a couple of doors, or to burst into tears. I actually managed to do none of those things, and in fact behaved impeccably, no tantrums, no tears, no bitterness, and a genuine sense of congratulations for the other woman who was being examined in the room next to mine (and who passed).

We all went for a drink together, us two examinees, our supervisors, other students in the department, and the other woman's examiners (my goodwill didn't quite extend to inviting my examiners to the pub...) We had a nice evening, and we came home worn out and only a little bit tipsy.

There's plenty of people I could blame, justly or unjustly, for this daft old situation I now find myself in. My supervisors, for example, for thinking my thesis was ok when it wasn't, my examiners, for thinking my thesis wasn't ok when it was, the whole system of PhD-ing for making one set of people's judgements matter over another set of people's, myself, for not doing it properly in the first place...

However, I'm a cheery soul, and not much given to self pity and bitterness. Peter's dad says 'deal with things as they are, not as you'd like them to be', and I think that's pretty wise advice. Attitude is everything in situations like this. I might not like what they said, I might not at all like the fact that I now have to spend several more months writing something I thought would be out of my hair by now, but that's the way it is, so we'll take it from there and move forwards.

So, in the spirit of cheery acceptance, let me list the things about this I'm grateful for, rather than the things I'm annoyed about. I'm grateful that the viva itself felt like a positive chat at the time, rather than an inquisition (whatever I think when I look back on it!). I'm also very grateful I don't have to do it again. The last few months of writing were rushed, so I'm grateful for the opportunity to spend a bit more time exploring things I hadn't quite got my head round.

I'm grateful that, since there's work to be done, I've got a whole year to do it, rather than a few weeks, even if I'd rather be spending that year doing something else. I'm grateful for the support that my friends and family have shown, being positive when I've needed it, and also letting me let off steam a bit when I needed to do that. I'm grateful for another year of cheaper train travel and council tax discount...

And I'm also grateful that I was able to whizz off to Bristol on Friday and spend the weekend with some lovely friends and their children, in the welcoming chaos of the new home they've just moved into. A bit of discussion, and a lot of singing and playing and messing around and getting wet and looking at colourful things and crafty things and eating cake was just what I needed :)

Now I've come back, it's dawning on me just how little time there is left before Christmas. I've got a couple of pictures of things I've made to show you, but that can wait for a different post. Christmas decorations up after work tomorrow, I reckon, then I might start with tiny glimpses of Christmas-presents-in-progress... Can't wait!

Inspiration

Today, we went to the town centre, one of Peter's bands was singing wintery songs. Before they started, I wandered into the gallery, and there was a cheery sale of handmade, Christmassy, crafty cheeriness. I didn't buy anything, but I did sneak a few photos, for a bit of inspiration...

Considering I'm meant to be making all (most??) of my presents this year, I'm probably leaving it a bit late for the relaxed, cheery preparations I was imagining...

Still, I know what everyone's having (I think!), it's just a case of, er, getting on with it. Funnily enough, when it's housework that needs doing, crafty things seem far more interesting. When it's crafty things that need doing, there always seems to be something else that needs doing first.

Anyway, the first Christmassy project is started - hooray! There's going to have to be several on the go at the same time, some of which I'll be able to show you, some of which will have to wait...

So now I'm all inspired by the pretty, Christmassy loveliness I saw today at the gallery, and keep imagining even more lovely things to make. Self discipline was never one of my strong points, but I'm trying to add things to the end of the list, rather than the top. But there might be just a couple of changes of plan, a few small extra things... We'll see...

An update

So much for regular blogging once the PhD was finished! The past two weeks just whizzed by in a flurry of full time work (which doesn't suit me at all), socialising, and a bit of sewing.

The problem with sewing and blogging at the minute is that many of the things I'm sewing are destined to be presents for family, some of who pop in here from time to time. And I don't want to give anything away! So it's all got to be timed, and there's so much waiting...

Actually, if I'm completely honest, there's not that much waiting at all, because I haven't even started on Christmas presents yet. Everything's planned, I know what I'm making, it's just the making part that's not happened yet. There's still time, I think! But it'll be a fairly full on few weeks of sewing. The best kind of full on weeks.

One present I have finished recently is for one of my gorgeous nephews, who turned two recently. I pinched the idea from Handmade Home, which sadly I do not own a copy of (yet!), but there's so many fab pictures of projects from the book around on the internet. I looked at a few of these treasure bags, and scouted around the house for things to make it from, then had a go. I think it turned out rather well :) So far I think it's been mostly used to carry toy cars...

I'm easing my guilt about using the idea without buying the book by promising myself that I WILL buy it, very soon, and possibly copies for everyone else too :)

Since I've got nothing much else of my own to show you at the minute, I thought I'd show you what someone else has been up to instead. I went to visit my family last weekend, and was very much appreciating the way that many of us seem to have found some kind of creativity in the last few years. My mum makes cards, and sells them to her friends. My sister is making all sorts (remember the patchwork skirt??), and has recently started having a go at corsetry.

My auntie has been sewing longer than all of us, and has made quite a few gorgeous patchwork quilts, most of which I don't have pictures of (must change that soon!). This was one of the first she made.

It's slightly shakey as the owner of the quilt, my 12 year old cousin, is hiding under it, squirming around and giggling while I was trying to take the picture. Look at those colours! It's the most colourful quilt I've seen, there's so many things to see, and it's so cosy to sit under.

Most recently, my auntie has started making boxes. These are made from sturdy cardboard and fabric, the first couple were done from a template, but now she makes her own designs. This is the most recent one - again, marvellously colourful and jolly :)

The first one's being used to hold sewing bits and bobs, and there's one been made specifically to hold a piece of telescope (very technical description there).

Aren't they fab??

I'm off work today. I was off yesterday too, but felt so rotten I couldn't do anything other than sleep. Today I feel better, not well enough to go to work, but maybe good enough to wander around with a camera taking a few pictures. I might even knit a few rows, or sew a bit, and maybe I'll even make it back in with another blog post before the day's out. We'll see.

Commemorative peg bag

I had this idea. There's a llama and alpaca farm up the road, and I know they spin the fleece into wool, and I thought it'd be lovely to knit some gloves or scarves or jumpers from local alpaca wool...

So we went for a very soggy morning out there at the weekend.

Apparently alpacas don't produce lanolin like sheep do, so they get a bit soggy in the cold and wet weather. They were looking rather bedraggled! And sadly, at £11 a ball, I won't be buying any alpaca wool any time soon... I really must investigate local sheep's wool soon too.

Anyway, aside from the alpacas, it's been a busy but rather mellow weekend. I'm working full time for two weeks now, so I wanted to get a bit of sewing and resting in before all that started.

I found some fabulous old sheets in a charity shop on Saturday. I just couldn't resist them. I bought them with a specific project in mind, but now I've got them I almost can't bear to cut them up! I can think of several gorgeous things I'd love to make with them. Hmm. Watch this space to see what they end up as...

And now, for some sunflowers - the very thing for a rainy November weekend. Bizarrely, the sunflower seeds we planted a few weeks ago and then thoroughly ignored them, watering them only when they were so shrivelled it was embarrassing, have now started flowering!

And carrying on with the sunflower theme... here's the result of all the pondering about the wedding present to make for my boss.

It's a commemorative wedding peg bag, in the colours of the wedding, with their names and the date of the wedding embroidered on the front :)

They actually really liked it! Well, they fell about laughing, at any rate :) The only commemorative wedding peg bag they, and possibly anyone else, had ever received :)

So a success, I reckon. I'm rather impressed with myself for thinking of it! And I think it turned out rather well :)

A bit of sewing

I've been sewing! Oh, how I've missed it. This is Patch, my second one, and he's so cheery I almost can't bear to give him away. This one is for my friend's two year old daughter, and I'm just trying to work out the best way to stick him in the post.

The pattern came from an article from an old magazine that Peter cut out years ago and stuck to a piece of card. We have no idea what the magazine was, or when it's from, but I'm so glad he cut it out all those years ago. Patch is really easy to make, even for someone as impatient as me... I didn't use old tights as stuff though - but only cos I didn't have enough!

Anyway, he was very cheery to sew, and I'm enjoying having him hanging round in the kitchen. He's adding an element of cosiness at the minute, as our boiler was condemned today, just as it's starting to turn properly cold.

It's 20 odd years old, makes rather a racket, but was working pretty much perfectly, as far as this morning. Sadly, the man who came to do the annual service didn't quite agree...

There's been rather a lot of cursing about the obsolescence of boiler parts. Apparently, the part we need is small, relatively inexpensive, but they just don't make it any more, and because of this we 'have' to have the entire system replaced, at a cost of several thousand pounds.

Well, we don't always believe what we're told in this house... so there's been lots of tapping of keyboards and phoning of friends as we've searched for a better solution. Questions have been asked that others might consider a little bit extreme - Can we find this obsolete part anywhere? (possibly) Can we manage without central heating? (yes) Is it warm enough with plug in heaters? (yes) Could we possibly, possibly justify a cheery solid fuel stove?? (Probably not, but doesn't stop me dreaming about one!) Do we have enough blankets? (undoubtedly yes, but that's not a reason not to acquire a few more!) Shall I start knitting hats? (ooh, yes!)

So. A fair bit of pondering going on here. This is one of the disadvantages of a 'simple' life - sometimes it doesn't seem very simple...

Both of us grew up without central heating, and we've never heated the house up like a greenhouse and walked around in shorts and t shirts. This house is old, 110 years old, and has lived through plenty of those years without radiators. The walls are thick - but filled with rubble rather than cavity wall insulation. Fortunately we have double glazing, and thick curtains. So we won't freeze, but it would be handy to take the chill off the house and not let the damp set in... So for now, we've got four small plug in radiators, and that's working nicely today. Not sure the washing's going to dry very quickly though, and we don't have a tumble dryer. Mind you, doing less washing sounds rather appealing!

If we both worked full time, we might have just agreed to buy a new boiler straight away. But we don't, and we didn't. So this is going to require a bit of creativity. I'm up for the challenge.

Back to reality

Well, here it is..

Not entirely sure how it took me 6 years, but there we are! I did hardly anything other than write, eat and sleep for the whole of October, and so far November has mostly involved working, coughing, sneezing and resting.

I'm slowly starting to re-enter the 'real world' now (whatever that means). So far, it's meant strolling over the hills looking at the scenery...

Trying to see the positives of leaving the house for work at 7.30am...

Appreciating that our city air is clean enough for lichen...

And generally stomping through leaves and loving the colours...

I've slowly started sewing again this week too, and if the sun ever shines for long enough when I'm in the house with a working camera, I'll take some photos. I've got lots of plans for Christmas presents too, which will be underway soon... And I'll be heading back out into the garden this weekend - I've already been out and picked some last minute tomatoes which are ripening on the windowsill.

All in all, I've breathed a huge sigh of relief at having got to the end of this writing extravaganza. It's been a long, hard slog, and even though I willingly started it in the first place, there's been many times I've wished I hadn't... I'm grateful for the opportunity, and if you ask me in another six months, I might even say I enjoyed it, but for now, I'm trying not to think about it at all.

I've started lifting my head up again and taking notice of what's around me - in the kind of housework, bank account, overgrowing garden, late birthday presents kind of a sense... So if you're waiting for me to do something that I should have done and haven't, then it's (probably!) on the list and I'll get round to it very soon! I'll have more to say about work, money, making things, growing things, and undoubtedly lots of other things very soon...

So, gardening, sewing, dancing, music, eating, more sewing, more dancing, and a bit of cake is on the cards for the weekend I reckon :)

Colourful goodness

Just a quick pop in to say I'm not popping in much these days... 16 days to go, and counting...

But that's not very interesting, so I'm going to talk about a fab, marvellous blog that someone put me on to the other day - Attic 24 Such colourful, fabulous, crochet-y goodness! I can't stop looking at it ! (although I have to, writing to do and all that).

Anyway, all that colour has inspired me to colourfulness myself. Not to crochet, because there just isn't time for creating and messing around at the minute, as important as that is. But to colour.

I've been whipping my camera out at every opportunity over the last few days, and here's the colourful result.

Cakes at a tiny harvest festival:

Looking up out of the kitchen window:

Light on the grass in the park:

The gorgeous old green bucket Peter brought home last week, sitting on my gorgeous blue garden bench, and newly planted with garlic, rocket, and rainbow chard:

Acer leaves, cut, er, months ago when they were red, and slowly turning golden orange on the living room windowsill (I'm pretending they're still there because of the colour):

One of many piles of red books in the living room:

Red cushions in the sunshine on the floor of the living room (can you see a theme?):

A bowl of red cheeriness, also on the living room windowsill:

I enjoyed that! :)

Well, back to it..

Some pictures of autumn...

Autumn equinox

'For now, light and dark hang perilously poised, each balancing the other. After tomorrow, the shadows begin to cluster ever thicker about the dark scale, taking us with it down to the dark boreal night, the winter solstice. It is the dramatic behaviour of light and darkness that is perennially fascinating in the north.'

(George Mackay Brown, 'Under Brinkie's Brae')

According to my diary, today is the first day of autumn. It's always been my favourite season, when we used to play games as small children, I was always the autumn fairy :) There's a nip in the air, the sun's lower in the sky, the nights are drawing in. There's so much colour.

The garden's starting to die down a little, or at least there's not the riotous growth of a few weeks ago. The rocket on the windowsill is going strong (and needs repotting, I'll add that to the list). It'll have to stay inside over the winter I think - I timed it so badly, but the seeds I sowed outside didn't germinate, and I so much wanted to grow rocket, and then the hardware shop was selling seeds half price and I couldn't resist... So we might be eating indoor-windowsill-rocket for a few months yet.

We haven't exactly had a bounteous harvest from our tiny garden, I've been concentrating too much on writing to put as much time as I'd like into weeding and sowing and watering. But I picked a bit of perpetual spinach for tea, and some fennel and basil (which is inside) for flavour. And very nice it was too :)

No ideas for the wedding gift yet...

A walk, and a bit of a tidy up

A good clear out of the linen cupboard, and a hoover down the back of the bed... (might see if I can get a photo without the twisted bead curtain once it gets light tomorrow). The bed is a mezzanine floor, what used to be the floor of a room. I love it that the bed is all that's up there, looking out onto the skylight. Mind you, I did have to strike a rather dashing and dangerous pose to get this photo...

And a nice walk in the park round the corner...

Last week wasn't all bad, although I'm spending far too much time screen-staring, and not enough sewing... And this week there's going to be a lot of work. More writing, of course. And my boss at my part time job will be getting married next weekend! So I'm doing a fair few hours helping her out this week running about, picking things up, dropping things off...

I was thinking about trawling the charity shops for a new outfit for the wedding, but I'm just not sure I'll have time this week, so I might just have to do with what I've got. I reckon the polka dot skirt I made wouldn't be too bad, with some rather fab red velvet shoes. Might mean a teeny, tiny bit of sewing though, just a small draw string bag to hold a few things... :)

I haven't decided if they'll be getting a present yet. They've asked for money towards their honeymoon and holidays next year, but it does feel rather peculiar to be donating money to my own boss, so I don't think that will happen. And I'm doing well with my hand made presents pledge this year, so I don't really want to break it just for this. However, they've been living together for 12 years, so don't really need anything new. Maybe I'll think of a small thing to make, or perhaps just make a nice card. Any suggestions for something small, and fairly easy to make in this hectic week??

A little bit of gardening and sewing

Well, it's about time for a couple of garden pictures, I think. This was meant to be a gardening blog, after all! I spotted these tomatoes on the way back from (another!) run this morning... The plant's toppled over though, so I'll have to get out there and tie it up soon. 

The roses are putting forth a bit of last minute enthusiasm in the front garden...

And the cabbages are, well, soldiering on, despite being eaten mostly to death by some little beasties. We do occasionally get small leaves if we get out there quick enough... 

And as a little break from writing last night, a friend came over for some sewing and a nice chat. As it happened, it turned into crochet, cake, chocolate and strawberries. And very nice it was too :) 

Squeezing it in

Well, I'm bored of posting pictures of computers and laptops and piles of books and paper. That's what I look at all day every day (or that's what it feels like!), so I'm going with a few pictures of nice things for a while, and forgetting about the work, although obviously there's still a lot of that going on! 

So here's what I'm appreciating this week: 

Sunshine streaming into a (relatively tidy!) living room...

And, as ever, a gorgeous early morning walk over the hills... 

Sometimes I just can't believe how gorgeous this place is that we live in... 

Yesterday involved a good, old fashioned bit of spontaneity, which always rejuvenates me. Peter had his first gig with the Angel Brothers, who he's playing with for a few gigs this autumn. I couldn't go, it was in another town, Peter took the van, and left early afternoon, with me left at home working. 

At first, I was appreciating the solitude and peace and quiet :) I got a fair bit of work done, and planned an evening of more work, a bit of tidying up, and dozing off in front of a nice film. Then, as the afternoon wore on I started thinking about how nice it would have been to be there, and (and this does show just how mad I was going temporarily) whether it would be feasible to cycle there (the answer? It's 25 very hilly, dangerous miles over the moors, and it was on the verge of going dark, so no.)

Just as I was starting to get annoyed, a friend rang up to see if I wanted a pint. Somehow (must have been my lucky night) I managed to persuade him to drive us both to the gig! So a quick pasta tea, into some glad rags, and a drive over to a most marvellously excellent pub, The Globe for a fabulous evening of music and dancing and gorgeous friendly loveliness. 

The evening ended in the garden, with music and singing, and a very cold couple of hours kip in the back of the van. It's not all glamourous... 

Working and relaxing day 10

Working - the view over the library computer... 

And relaxing - with a new pair of shoes... ;) 

Working and relaxing days 8 and 9

working, the view from the attic... 

and relaxing, with a lunchtime walk over the fields... 

Working and relaxing day 4,5,6,7...

Well, so much for keeping up with this every day... but I have still taken a few photos, so here goes...

... working, in the university library...

... and in the attic...

... and relaxing... 

... watering the community garden (I'll write about this one day!)...

... dancing in fabulous shoes (have you ever tried taking a photo of your own foot??)...

... eating lunch outside the university... 

... and being Rock Star Girlfriend at a beautiful little theatre... 

Not much in the way of gardening, and certainly not sewing, but the idea of these few weeks was to focus on work and relaxing. I know sewing and gardening is relaxing, but I'm really focusing on taking away the 'must do' things... 

Working and relaxing day 3

... working... 

... and relaxing... 

Working and relaxing day 2

... working... 

... relaxing... 

Working and relaxing day 1

... working...

... and relaxing...

The end is nigh...

Most of my time is spent writing these days. I should consider myself lucky! I do consider myself lucky. Although it does feel a bit much at the minute. I've got three weeks of PhD left. Three weeks. After five years (or four, or six, depending on what you count), three weeks seems like nothing. 

And so I'm abandoning pretty much everything else to get it done. I'm trying not to think about the sunshine I'm missing while I'm staring at the computer screen... but this is all temporary... 

And I have managed to sneak a little bit of fun in the last week:

... picking blackberries

... and making a few pies

... harvesting the broad beans (yep, this is the entire broad bean harvest from our garden)

Anyway, I thought a little mini blog project might help me keep sane over the next three weeks. I've taken (stolen?? call it a tribute...) the idea from Heather's morning and night series, but since what I need to be doing at the minute is working and relaxing, that's what I'll call it. 

Each day (or as close as I can manage), I"ll post a working picture and a relaxing picture. Just to keep me on track, and make sure that I'm doing both :) So here we go:

... working - in the university library

... relaxing, with garlicky goodies from a friend for watering her plants - including this cucumber

So, let's see how it goes, shall we? 

Saturday pondering

Well, we finished off those tasty buns for breakfast in bed this morning, a tranquil start to a busy day. They were just right, and I'm glad we didn't give into temptation and eat them all yesterday... 

Today's been a bit of an all-over-the-place day. I'm writing, writing, writing at the minute. Or rather, trying to... Isn't it funny all the little games you play with yourself to make things exciting? (or is that just me??). Last night I scheduled out an entire itinerary for today, as if I was at some kind of event, with specific time slots for work, divided into specific activities for each slot. There was time for gardening (including reading a gardening book...), time for a bit of house keeping (yes, it does happen occasionally round here, increasingly often), and time for writing a thoughtful and considered blog post at the end of it all (hmm...). 

Well, I pretty much stuck to it. It was actually nice having that piece of paper telling me what to do. I got in a nice walk this morning to water a friend's green house plants, being horrified when I got there that I had ONLY watered the greenhouse the other day, and hadn't done the pots in the front garden, which were all dried up and looking incredibly thirsty... I'll offer to replace those if they haven't perked up by tomorrow! Lesson learned about slowing down and paying more attention... 

I've spent a lot of time sitting in the garden, working, eating, reading, drinking tea. I love these old green glasses, they make me feel like a princess drinking out of a goblet :) 

And I spent a lot of time sitting on the concrete path of the garden, writing and staring...

I'm finding it so difficult to concentrate on finishing this PhD. It's just not where I want to be any more. Well, not right now, I can see that with six months distance from it I might feel differently! :) 

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about what I want life to look like afterwards. After all, I've been doing this for six years, full time, and while I've also been working two days a week for most of the last two years, other than that I've had quite a lot of freedom. No set office hours, being able to work at home in my nightie, taking the laptop to a cafe, or a pub, or a field. I've met some wonderful, wonderful people, from all over the world, who I treasure dearly, and will keep in touch with. I've had opportunities I would never have had otherwise, I travelled on the Orient Express from Paris to Vienna, stayed in Denmark for three weeks, visited Stockholm, London many times, Austria, Sweden, Norway... 

And I've learned a lot about myself along the way too. I've moved house three times during the last six years, been in two different (very different) relationships, got an allotment and given it up, paid off the credit card I ran up with work expenses, which just then wouldn't go away, worked three jobs on top of the PhD - all at once for a while! Things change - I used to work better in the mornings, these days I don't seem to be able to get going til 3pm.  I've learned I don't deal very well with a huge project hanging over my head that I can't switch off and forget about. Often I switch off all to easily, and the wrong moments... 

I don't want to spend any more of my days staring at a computer screen. Oh, I don't mind a little bit of that... :) But not all day, every day. I don't want to be constantly worrying about something every time I leave work for the evening. I do not want to work for someone else five days a week. I want to spend time with my hands in flour, warm water, soil, in that order ;) 

When I started this blog on Boxing Day last year, I think I thought it'd be a place to put photos of the garden as I gradually tamed it as a place to sit, eat, and grow. I thought I'd look at it, and probably Peter, and maybe my mother. Well, Peter reads every entry I write, and so does my mother :) And I've picked up a few other people along the way too, which I'm thoroughly grateful for. 

One of the unexpected things that happened was that I wanted to do things so I could put photos up here. Perhaps not the right reason, you might think! But really, it's ok. It made me stop staring at the computer for an hour and do some knitting, sewing, baking, gardening, or whatever for a while instead. It made me decide to have a go at making all the presents I give this year. It made me start soaking dried beans instead of buying tinned, making my own yogurt, making soap, stop using shampoo (more on this another time...), and see my home more as somewhere to be, rather than somewhere to live. To see that they're the same thing. 

I've spent plenty of time reading other people's blogs, and learned so much from them. I'm just not sure how much I would have made the effort to put some of those things into practice right now, with everything else so busy, if I didn't have my own little corner of the blogging world. I think mostly, I've learned so much from Rhonda's blog, where she's got fabulous tutorials on making soap, yogurt, and just about everything else. Rhonda, I've read your posts on time management over and over and over these past few weeks, and I try to put some of the things in practice. Isn't it wonderful how you 'meet' all these people you never would get in contact with otherwise?? I'm trying to add slowly to my blog reading sidebar thing, I have no idea what the etiquette of these things is, so be patient!

Anyway, this post wasn't meant to be about how much I love having a cheery little blog, or how much I love other people's blogs. It was meant to be about how I've decided on a few things to prioritise over the next few months. In the next month - finish the phd (tough one, that!), without going completely bonkers and neglecting everything and everyone else in my life. Make sure I get enough exercise, and it's all going to be walking at the minute rather than anything more strenuous. And I think we'll be trying to make more of a shift towards organic/local food in the coming weeks, we'll see. 

Before Christmas? Because that's always a nice end point for some goals :) I'd like a new job, please :) Two or three days a week, with maybe another day volunteering somewhere cheery (I've got my eye on a few places). It'd be nice to use the PhD, of course, or at least some of what I've learned! But I don't want to, and don't need to, work full time doing that (and yes, I do consider myself lucky), so we'll see what turns up. I'd like to start writing on this blog consistently and regularly. Oh, and trapeze lessons. Yes, trapeze lessons, because that's what I promised myself as a do-something-completely-different-present when the PhD was finished. I might only have one, I'm not a huge fan of heights, but I have to have a go... 

So, there we have it. A huge waffly blog post full of appreciation for most things, slightly less appreciation for others (ahem, PhD, ahem), and a few goals to be keeping us going. And a nice picture of the view from the concrete path this afternoon... 

Belgian buns and potato bread

We're off to a Belgian themed party tonight... 

And I thought a few Belgian buns might be in order. They certainly are.. 

And while I was kneading and baking and waiting for things to rise, I made some Russian potato bread. 

Which I made into a pizza base. 

Which was very tasty :) 

Budgeting, and a bit of handmade goodness

I made these little cash purses today, partly inspired by Heather's post about budgeting. I had a proper budget for a while, when I was trying to make sure I had enough money for two months off work. I used the envelope system, putting each bit of money into a plastic cash bag from the bank. 

The system kind of dropped off when I actually stopped working, ironically enough. Not going to work seemed to save me spending quite a lot anyway (hmm....), and I just got lazy. Now I've been off for a few weeks, with the prospect of being off for a few more (fingers crossed...), it's about time to instigate the system again. 

But those plastic bags just weren't inspiring enough. So here are the little purses. Not really robust enough to carry round all the time, but that's not what they're designed for. The one with the birds and flowers on is for the garden budget (of course). The pink one with the stars is for cheery things. The one with the leaves on is for food. And the butterfly one? For emergencies. No link at all, just liked the fabric :)

I'll do a more sensible post about the difficulties I've had with budgeting, and what I'm learning, another day, I just wanted to show off my lovely little 'envelopes' that I'm so pleased with. 

And, while we're talking about home made things... this Cheerful Dragon (yes, that's his name) arrived in the post the other day. 

My sister had asked my 3 year old nephew what he thought Peter would want for a birthday present, and he said "I think he'd like a dragon". Of course he would :) It's got pride of place on the kitchen windowsill, feet planted in basil plant pots, and very happy he is too. 
And for no reason at all... this is the garden bench when I arrived home this afternoon. I love, love, love the late afternoon sunshine on the water on that bench. I'm so glad I painted it blue, it makes me smile every time I open the door :) 

And from one enthusiastic colour to another... this is where I found myself planted at 9pm tonight, staring, as I have done for most of the day, at the computer screen. Bleurgh. But got to keep writing, for the time being at least, and this cosy corner of the attic sometimes even makes it seem alright. 

When I was just a little girl...

Well, I just couldn't help myself. I popped into the attic for something else, and just had to take some pictures. And yes, I am carrying that new camera everywhere today...

Anyway, these are pictures my mum brought with her at the weekend, dug out of her loft after years. 23 years, by the looks of it (really, that long??). I want to live on that farm just as much as I did when I was six. Those chickens! That house! Those cows? sheep? The yellow ones that look like moomins, anyway! I love it, and it's got pride of place above my sewing machine. It makes me smile :) 

This little book makes me smile too. I can't remember a thing about it, I don't know if it was based on a story we read at school, or if I just made it all up, but I like to think it shows an early inclination towards peace, cheeriness and working together :) And birds and beetles and mice :) I just love the way the eyes and whiskers change colour in every picture... 

Some photos

Ooh, look at me with my new camera. I could have kissed the postman (but didn't, there's been too much exhibitionism in this street this morning). So instead of rambling on more, here's a few photos. Yes, photos, yippee! This camera has a flash! Not that I need it today, but I broke the flash on my old one eighteen months ago... I've almost forgotten how to use it. 

Anyway, this is just a quick few snaps of the house and garden this afternoon. The tomatoes from Mum's garden ripening on the windowsill. The dishcloth-in-progress. The rose that sits right next to my arm and is visited by a marvellous array of hoverflies. The lone tomato soldiering on. And the cosy little spot in the corner of the garden where I sit and eat, drink tea, work, and think of all the things that need doing, and nothing at all. Did you spot the rose in the middle there? 

More cheery things...

Well, after an early morning flurry of activity (of the cleaning-out-the-fridge-and-writing-a-shopping-list kind), I've ground to a halt. And since yesterday's cheery things post cheered me up to carry on with the rest of the day, let's do it again, shall we? So here are a few cheery things from today...

... the sunshine (again)

... the anticipation of waiting for my new camera (today, please?)

... and the planning of all the lovely pictures I'll take with it

... home made yogurt that turned out just right

... the tiny, tiny rocket seedlings growing on the living room window

... the yellow tomatoes that are nearly, nearly ripe

... the lady across the road who knocked on the door this morning to tell me my clothes airer had blown down, scattering underwear all over the yard in full view of the whole street, and who offered to let me use her washing line

... my gorgeous rock star boyfriend, who will be constructing our own washing line, very soon

... strawberries for breakfast

... a cheery small, frugal sewing project that's very nearly finished

... old pictures from my school days that are now on the wall round my desk

... the prospect of maybe even too many cheery opportunities to choose from when the PhD's done

... my new home made attic blind, which will be fixed up later today

Now, about time I went to sit in the garden with the laptop to wait for the postman, I think. 

Cheery things...

It's a slightly gloomy Monday here, not the weather, but rather the getting-back-to-work after the weekend type gloomy.  So, to lift the spirits, here's a list of recent cheery things to be grateful for... 

... a new second hand camera, which should be here tomorrow! I can't wait. 

... a visit from mother, and a helpful hand in the garden over the weekend

... the two giant wood pigeons chasing each other clumsily around the lilac

... the three completely different types of hover flies landing on the rose right next to my arm in the last five minutes

... the sunshine

... a new, hand sewn green and brown blind for the attic (and a camera to take pictures with, did I mention that??) 

... old paintings from school dug out of the loft and soon to be on the wall

... a story written by my own six year old self, about the very tall mouse and the very small mouse, which I'll share as soon as I can show the pictures

... the frog I discovered camping out in a damp plastic tray under the garden bench

... discovering that I've managed to switch sides half way through knitting a dish cloth - with 'artisan' results

... making more crumpets

... a lovely man agreeing to examine my PhD - in November! That soon? So it'll all be over by the end of the year, fingers crossed

... the prospect of picking blackberries, very soon

... sitting in the garden, staring at the flowers and birds, and wilfully ignoring the laptop (oops)

There, that's better, isn't it? 

Pictures of, oh, so many things later this week... 

A home made birthday

Last night's birthday preparations went well, and this morning was very cheery :) I was just so impressed with my crumpets that we had for breakfast - so simple to make, and exceptionally tasty. Although I might put a little less salt in next time, and make them a bit thinner. 

The idea for heart shaped crumpets came from Rhonda's blog. I spent ages yesterday looking for the picture I remembered, and eventually found it, but haven't saved the link. I will find it. I got the recipe from the Essentially England website. 

One of the other things I made was a birthday banner. Of course, these photos are completely inadequate, but you get the idea! I've seen a few floating around on various blogs, and there were some in the Chatsworth shop when we went last week, but I just had to make my own. It started off hung above the bed, and now it's in the kitchen. I think it's going to be brought out for quite a few future birthdays in this house. 

Making rugs

I came across this beautiful rag rug, and several others, when we went to a heritage day at a local outdoor museum. I love rag rugs, and have made a couple of small ones in the past, but not for a while. Seeing this one reminded me how much I enjoyed it, and prompted me to dig one of my old ones out from under a lot of other things :) It's not big enough to use as a floor rug, which is why it ended up in a bag of fabric, but I'm thinking maybe a chair seat or something? I'll post pictures soon.

This rug also reminded me that my mum requested a rag rug for her christmas present. Much as it seems bizarre to be thinking about christmas at the height of summer, I also remembered how long the last rug took to make, what with finding the hessian, designing the pattern (the last one was just simple stripes, but I'm not sure about this next one), cutting all the little pieces of fabric, poking them all through holes.... 

I actually found it a very relaxing way to pass the time. Of course, the rugs were initially functional, using up old clothes and, well, rags, to make a warm covering for a cold stone floor. I do like the idea that something so useful ends up being so beautiful :) 

It's more of a wintery craft, is rug making, sitting indoors, maybe in front of a film, or listening to the radio. But it's looking like I might have to start doing it out in the sunshine some time soon...

Speaking of presents, here's a small glimpse of one I finished this week for a friend. Can you tell what it is?? I couldn't resist trying to take just one more picture with my camera, and these are the results.

Rather beautiful in their way, I thought :) But I will post a proper picture when I get chance, I'm quite pleased with this present. 

Right, I must get to bed. It's very late, there have been lots of handmade birthday preparations tonight... :) 

A weekend by the sea

This has nothing to do with gardening, or sewing, or baking, but everything to do with resting, relaxing, watching, listening, and seeing some gorgeous colours and textures and places. Oh, and ice cream, of course. 

We've been to the north east coast for a couple of days, and the sun shone, the sea was blue (and rather cold), and we had a lovely time. 

I don't know much about geology, but that part of the coast is fabulous, worn away, intricate patterns, rock pools and caves, beaches like the surface of the moon. The highest cliffs in England too, and the most amazing seabird colonies. We stood and looked down on the birds, swooping and nesting, it was a strange, and very noisy, experience. In other places, the coast is eroding, several feet in the last few years, apparently, gardens and roads just slipping into the sea. 

Not much else to say, but I tried using my the camera on my phone, and the results aren't too bad. 

I'm hoping for another few weekends like this before the summer's out... 

A spot of bother...

In a small episode that strongly represents several other episodes of my life involving technical equipment of some kind, I have broken my camera.

The flash has been broken for about 18 months since I dropped the camera on a pier in Orkney while photographing rusty old boats in a storm. 

The screen broke a few weeks ago at a festival. 

Yesterday morning the zoom lens mechanism broke. 

Yesterday evening I unscrewed the camera into several pieces and stared, as I have so often done before, at the pieces, wondering what on earth I was going to do with it now. 

Today I started looking for a new one. 

So there might be a lack of posts, or at least photos, from me for a few days, or maybe even a couple of weeks. Sorry. 

In the spirit of frugality and reuse, I'm hoping to buy one second hand. Which means that I can't just trot out and buy one tomorrow. Still, I'm good at hunting out second hand things, so I'm quietly confident that one will turn up soon. 

In the meantime, I'll rummage out some old photos later in the week and post those instead :) 

Presents

I've rediscovered crochet in rather an obsessive way this week. It was a friend's birthday, and I saw these adorable (and easy) crocheted slippers at Oh my good knits blog, and thought I'd have a go. 

Hmm. After an entire afternoon sitting on the living room floor in front of repeat episodes of Jeeves and Wooster (another slight obsession), crocheting and unravelling, I ended up with three slippers, two supposedly the same but actually entirely different, and a third of another pattern altogether, which also didn't look right. 

I should point out that the instructions were perfectly clear! It was my own complete inability to follow them and remember even the basics of crocheting patterns that was the problem :) Once I sussed out what I was doing, the instructions were very easy. My hook and wool were also several sizes thinner than in the pattern, (well, you know what it's like when you have to do something right now) so I was having to add in extra bits here and there.

Eventually, after another few evenings of puzzling, and a bit of improvisation, I managed to get two vaguely similar slippers. Hooray! They were rather too big, even for me, so they would have been huge on my friend. After a couple of, er, funny looks from the people I showed them to, I decided they weren't the best present, and so am keeping them for myself, and very nice they are too :) 

What I ended up making for my friend was rather easier, and nicer, but the photos are on the other camera, which I don't have here, so you'll have to wait to see them... 

I've had quite a good couple of days of charity-shopping this week. This morning I found this fabulously shiny pink material, goodness knows what it is, I want to call it organza, but I don't think it is... There was also a huge selection of zips for 10p (I did manage to refrain from bringing them all home), and three baskets (!) of embroidery thread. I already have boxes of this, so I managed to leave that in the shop too. It was difficult though...

Yesterday we found ourselves in Doncaster for a few hours, and gravitated towards the market. There's a couple of fabric stalls there, and I haven't been before. There was an excellent selection of remnants, and I picked up a couple of yards of thick cotton with gorgeous patterns on. 

It's not really yellow, it's white, but my camera isn't fixed yet... :( Anyway, you can imagine! 

On top of that, I helped a friend clear out her kitchen yesterday as she's soon moving to Belgium, and I acquired her collection of old linen embroidered and edged linen. There's not too much of it, and some of it is covered in coffee, but there's some beautiful lacy edging which can be added to something else. I couldn't get a decent picture in this light, but as soon as I've made something with it, I'll post it. 

So, on with the crocheting. I've learned how to make flowers today, so I can foresee some garlands hanging about soon... 

A spot of gardening

I've been out in the garden tonight, after another week of staring at a computer screen. A bit of repotting of some basil (look at that purple ruffle basil!), and some harvesting of herbs, which are taking over the garden. I'm really pleased about this, with such a small garden it's hard to find any crop that we could grow all our needs of, but with herbs we can, and these ones my mum bought a few months ago have really done well. I'm going to try freezing a few.

The cabbage was a bit of a surprise. I'd planted it last year, put it outside ready to pot out, and then completely forgot about it. This spring it started to grow again, after being completely ignored for months and months. Planted it in the garden, and just got round to harvesting some (slug eaten) leaves this evening. We're having it for tea tonight, although so far it's tasting a bit tough and bitter. Maybe I should have picked it a bit earlier... 

Anyway, in the midst of all the work this week, there have been some lovely times too. My old office mate, who started his PhD at the same time as me, graduated this week. Another friend who now lives in Durham visited, and we had a lovely evening of catching up. Last night I spent some time at a friend's wedding, then had a late night cuppa with another couple of friends. And today we sat by the river at Bakewell, drinking tea and reading. How lovely, and just what I needed. 

I got a bit bogged down in tidying up this afternoon, but fortunately remembered just in time to stop and blow a few bubbles. 

There should always be time for some silly fun! 

Jam and dreams

There's been rather a lot of jam making here this week. I popped round to a friend's last week, and as he wasn't in, I started poking around in the garden. The garden is tiny, probably about a third of the size of mine even, but it had so much fruit growing in it! You can see the timber framed greenhouse he's build, not a light undertaking... But it's got grapes, melons and pineapples growing in it - not a bad haul for a tiny city garden. 

After checking it was ok, we went back and raided the fruit. My friend is too busy to pick it apparently - what a shame! We got about 3lbs of gooseberries, and there were plenty more left on the bush. We also picked about 1lb of tayberries, but sadly most of them had already withered on the bush. 

Well, tayberry jam is most gorgeous indeed, rich and flowery tasting, and a beautiful deep red. Gooseberry jam is also gorgeous, although not as good a colour. We also experimented with making gooseberry fool yesterday, which was a little tart for my liking, but a lovely mix of flavours. Perhaps I should have followed a recipe? I never was much of a one for instructions... :) 

Anyway, my friend did get two pots of jam from his fruit, which were delivered to his house in exchange for him fixing my bike :) So now we all have jam, and I have a working set of wheels, and everyone's happy. 

My own garden isn't half as productive as my friend's, which just goes to prove that effort in at the beginning gives results later... I went for the bung-it-in-when-you-get-chance method, he went for an all out effort at the start. Anyway, each of my five broad bean plants currently has one pod of beans on! 

We picked this one the other day, rather too early, but we were quite excited, as with anything new that grows in the garden. We're leaving the rest to mature a bit further. 

I noticed while I was out that there's a lot of ant and aphid activity on my cardoom. I bought this last year after reading about their electric blue flowers - I've never actually seen the flowers. Mine is in a pot, and it's the only plant in the garden which is absolutely covered in aphids, and ants, which are presumably eating the aphids. Very bizarre - the plant itself seems reasonably health, and has a couple of flowers starting to grow, so I assume they're not doing too much damage. The whole thing had me rather puzzled. Can anyone shed any light? There's so much to learn about this gardening business... 

Other than gardening and jam, it's been a week of dashing about and lots of different things. The new Harry Potter film, a bit of work, a lot of PhD, and a good silly splash around down the water slides at the swimming pool with an old school friend. 

There was also a long drive to see my new nephew and his two big brothers (and most of the rest of the family too, of course). On the way back, I was awfully tired, and went on a bit of a detour to find somewhere sensible to have a nap (oh, the joys of owning a van!) I found myself tracing an old route I used to cycle a few years ago, over the Staffordshire Moorlands. This is a vastly underrated, gorgeous part of the country - and long may it stay like that. This picture doesn't do it justice at all.

Anyway, driving along my old cycling route made me think about how much I used to enjoy cycling, and how much fitter I used to be than I am now... So I came home, and now my bike's fixed, I'm looking forward to pootling about on it. It's just rather hilly round here, so I need to face up to the fact that I won't be going very fast just yet! 

My mum said the other day that she's going to start cycling more too - so here it is, in writing - have you started yet mum?? :) 

Busy, busy...

Gosh, it's been a busy few weeks! There's been lots of sunshine and sitting in the garden, lots of garden (look at that perpetual spinach!), and a fair bit of writing. We've made more rhubarb jam, done a fair bit of sewing, and had a couple of lovely weekends away. The garden is flourishing, although the only thing we've managed to harvest so far has been spinach, cabbage, one broad bean pod, and one strawberry :) And very nice they all were too. 

I also had a trip to the exhibition of one of our friend's paintings. Lyn paints gorgeous, beautiful, strong, vibrant women, and I love to see her work. Have a look at Lyn's website for more of her paintings. Isn't it fab when someone can make a living out of doing something creative that they love? An inspiration to us all. 

For a while I've been thinking about ways I can simplify my life, making more things from scratch, spending less, doing more. Last week, I finally achieved one of my goals and handed in my notice at work. I needed those extra 20 hours a week to finish off this phd, and managed to organise my life for the next couple of months to manage without the money. 

My boss, however, had different ideas... We've negotiated, and instead of leaving altogether, I am taking July, August and most of September as unpaid leave, until the phd is submitted. While part of me would have liked a clean break, this way leaves my options open and gives me work to go back to in the autumn. 

In the meantime, my head is down writing, writing, writing. Peter de Vries once said 'I write when I'm inspired, and I see to it that I'm inspired at nine o clock every morning.' I can't say I quite achieve that every day... But I'm chipping away at it, and it's a lot easier now I can see the whole thing emerging in front of me. There's eleven weeks until my deadline, and I'm trying to channel my energy (panic) into positive writing. Watch this space... 

On a cheerier note, I gained a gorgeous new nephew last week, my third! I'll be visiting him and his two big brothers tomorrow. I'm so looking forward to it!