Grey...

Today has been a grey kind of day, not in a wholly kind of bad terrible this life is no good way, but certainly in an arrrg damn it pah kind of way.

My tumble dryer has broken. It has decided that it will no longer dry clothes. That spreading heat is now a function below it and it is now on strike. Its official, my tumble dryer is an employee of British Airways. Gosh darn it. But now, my tumble dyer is in combination with my washing machine. So if my tumble dryer is on strike, does this mean my washing machine has also gone on strike? I hope not. However, I am currently running it on a washing cycle to see if it will still clean my clothes for me. I am holding out hope on this one because it would be expensive to replace, and y’know lack of funds would be prohibitive.

But on a happier grey theme I made this earlier in the week.



My Mums parter is sick at the moment and I thought hey a gift is called for and bought him a book and made him said book mark up above.... and actually down below as well.



It was incredibly simple to make yet looks quite impressive, the pattern is also below (indeed is you can call its that its so simple!)

CO 15
1st row: k5, p5, k5
2nd row:p5, k5, p5
3rd row: k5, p5, k5
4th row:p5, k5, p5
5th row: k5, p5, k5

Rows 6-10, repeat rows 1-5 in reverse (5 through 1). And then, continue repeating for the length of a book.

There you go. One book mark. Easy peasy.

Oh and because we all know how much I like taking photos of the sunrise, here is yesterdays, it was a good’un!


Have a good Wednesday, and please send washing vibes to my washing machine. I like not smelling!

Lindy xxx

Bookmarking...

For ages I've been promising an update on what I'm doing craft wise and here it is! Because I'm so busy at the moment with work and what not most of the craft projects I've been attempting have been quite small. On that theme this was the perfect project for me! I got this in kit form for Christmas; little enough that I could cart it around and simple enough that I could do it when I was really tired, it was great!

The kit had clear instructions and it was remarkably easy to follow the pattern, which I was pleased about because I haven't done any cross stitch in a very long time.

My only complaint would be that there was no quite enough green floss in the kit to finish the edging and I had to go digging in my stash to find a similar colour.


The finished article


For the sake of honesty heres what the back looked like! I really need to get neater!


With the backing on...


Put to good use!

All I need to find out now is where I can get that Adia fabric with the pretty edging on so I can make some more! I think they would make very good presents, and at the rate I sew I should be done in time for Christmas!

Happy Wednesday!

Lindy xxx

7 Good Things Vol 9

I'm posting a little later today because I failed to charge my ipad over the weekend- epic fail!

But I having a pretty good time at the moment so my 7 things were once again pretty easy to come up with.

1. My Persephone Books catalogue turned up at the end of last week and I enjoyed reading it immensely. Persephone books is a independent publisher which predominantly focuses on previously out of print early 20th century books by women. They are beautifully finished books with amazing end plates created from fabrics which come from the period or are in some way connected with the characters or author. My geek-o-meter topped out! Now I just have to save up some money to actually buy these beautiful things!
2. My Mum brought me back some rock for a recent seaside trip- so yummy!
3. Pretty new yarn to make me some fingerless mittens
4. These videos.... so fantastic and informative!
5. Delicious lasagne made by Jim
6. I left work early today and got to walk home in the sunlight!
7. I finally finished my Physics book, 'We need to talk about Kelvin'.... and my mind? Its blown. Review to follow later in the week!

Well I hope you are all having a fantastic time, please share some of your good things in the comments!

Happy Monday!

Love Lindy xxxx

2010

I have to say that 2010 has been a bit of an up and down year for me. Obviously there have been some great highs- James and I brought our first home together, I finished my degree, I got a proper job; these are all good and exciting things. Yet amid all of this I have struggled with unemployment for a time, I mostly hated the last semester of my degree and I have over stressed and worried about just about every decision that I’ve made. Grown up life is scary. And after writing that it sounds to me like it was the process of this year that I have struggled with whilst I enjoyed the outcomes, which is possibly a good description.

All over the blog sphere there are plenty of inspirational posts from amazing women who are reveling in the goals which they achieved in 2010 and setting themselves new ones for 2011. This is a laudable process and I truly, truly admire people who have the self discipline and will to make these things happen for themselves on their own. I am not that girl. I struggle with motivation and general all round laziness. I need a good kick up the butt from our old friend motivation to get me doing things.

Thus I have decided to make myself small goals. Achievable goals. But goals which I think will be beneficial to me none the less. Goals where I will have help getting there. A hand to hold on my way. I am guilty of not taking the time to care enough for myself, I get too wrapped up in working, stressing and letting tiredness overcome me, so my goals are designed to help me overcome these traits.

With this in mind my aims for 2011 are centered round the idea of happiness. I want to be happier. Less worried and more accepting of ‘what will be will be’. Not complacent. But to get a greater appreciation of the idea that there are things in this world which I cannot change and that worrying about them will not help. To be generally more at peace with the world.


Photo Credit

So without further ado in 2011....

1. I want to take the time to nurture my artistic side. I love drawing, taking photos and creating things. But this often takes a back seat. I want this to change for me and spend more time making myself happier by letting myself feel free to do this sort of thing.
2. I want to create myself some ‘downtime’ one evening a week. Some time just to relax and not worry about achieving anything.
3. I want to drink more water and exercise more.
4. I want to create myself a regular posting schedule on this blog and be more disciplined in my writing.

There we go. No where near as far reaching as some of the goals I have seen people try to attempt, but these are goals which I really think will help me be happier and more focused in 2011.

I hope everyone has a relaxing and safe New Years Celebration planned. As I am working tomorrow I don’t think James and I will get much further than a bottle of wine and some time on the sofa, but still, sometimes those evenings are the best!

Its been a pleasure to write for you in 2010 and I look forward to continuing this conversation in 2011.

Stay safe, Lindy xxxx

Stitchery

Now this post is a little later than promised. I originally said I was going to be back on Tuesday, but unfortunately real life intruded. My Gran came round yesterday to see the new flat and have lunch as she hadn't seen it as yet. All was going well until we got too chatty over lunch and she missed her train home. So I drove her home, which is about 35 miles away, along little back roads so it took just over an hour. All in all it was a really nice drive, and it was great to get some more time with her, but it did rather eat up my afternoon, making posting impossible.

So. Back to the scheduled order of events, this wonderful little book by Susan Higginson.


I found this in a charity shop for £1.99 this weekend, and I defiantly have to say that it was two pounds well spent. Its concise and clear with great colour photos, and a really good guide to some of the more unusual embroidery stitches. You get a photo of the stitch, followed by clear instructions and a chart, which makes it very easy to learn from.


Since i've had so much time on my hands recently I've really been trying to be productive and embroidery is one of the things i've been focussing on to do. Months and months ago I brought a 100 skeins of thread off of the internet in a variety of colours for about £10, so i've been having a lot of fun trying out some of the new stitches.


I think my favourite one so far would have to be this one, its called the 'Norwich'. I like it because it produces a lovely dense effect. I also lived in Norwich for a couple of years whilst doing my degree so I was immediately drawn to the name anyway!


I find that having to concentrate on a small and precise craft really relaxing, whilst being productive. A good combination is you ask me. If your interesting in improving your embroidery and you see a copy of this book, I would really recommend getting it as a guide to give you a little pointer in the right direction.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

6000 Words

This ladies and gentlemen is what 6000 words looks like.



This is what has kept me from blogging about my degree more. (I’m ignoring the irony that it is my degree which is keeping me from blogging about it!)



This is what has led to my speedy progress with crocheting as it has become procrastination activity number one.



This is what the last piece of work ever for my course looks like.



All of that said, these have been some of the easiest 6000 words I have ever written. I don’t know why, but suddenly it feels as though my writers block has been lifted. The first semester of my third year was really hard, it felt as though I had to draw every word out of me kicking and screaming on to the page. But this essay- it just flowed, it took a while, but it was actually quite easy to write.

Now that i’ve said that it was easy, I have obviously jinxed myself for finishing the dissertation now... damn it!

Crochet

So this weekend I learned to crochet. I can already sew and knit, so I though I would round out my tripartite of crafty skills! This was brought on by one of my dear friends announcing that this summer she would be having a bundle of joy. Now my friend lives on the other side of the world so this had to be a gift that would be relatively light to post internationally. So I thought that a nice idea would be to make her a handmade baby blanket, living on the other side of the world it would be winter when her baby is born, so this would be quite a useful present as well. Now unfortunately I am a very slow knitter and I am rather time poor at this moment what with the degree and moving and all! So I needed a second option...

So I looked up crocheting on the internet, found out that it was a lot quicker to do than knitting, and though- hey this is the craft for me. So I went to my favourite yarn shop in the world and brought a couple of crochet hooks. On a side note I am very lucky to live in a town with an awesome wool shop. Its run by a little old lady and considering how small the shops customer base must be she sells yarn at a very good price ( for example only 99p each for the crochet hooks!). So she kitted me out with a couple of hooks, I came home and found a youtube tutorial and off I went. And I have to say, it is very easy to learn and very quick to do. In a weekend I managed to learn how to do it from scratch and hook up (is that the right verb??!) the centre piece for the blanket I want to make. Quick, easy and satisfying- my definition of a good craft!



The moral of this story being... learn how to crochet. Oh and another positive is that I can sit close to my lovely boyfriend J and do it, since when I am knitting I do have the unfortunate tendency to spend all of my time elbowing him in the process!



Both picture are of my blanket centre piece taken against the background of my Mum's sofa... classy hey!

Stitchery

On a completely different note I thought I would share this wonderful piece of whimsical embroidery I found on the net. I love this, its absolutely beautiful!

It is by the amazingly talented Cate Anevski who can be found at http://www.cateanevski.com/

Numero Uno

Hello! Pull up a chair, have a cup of tea, and help yourself to a biscuit. As a first post this is a bit awkward, I don't know who i'm writing to (probably no-one!), and i've never done this before. Its like one of those moments at a party where you are compelled to make small talk with complete strangers and your not really sure what to say!

So I thought I would start out simple. Hi! I'm Ros. Nice to meet you.

I'm going to attempt to record over the next few months the ending of my degree in history as well as anything else in my life that I feel the urge to chat about. Hopefully this will be some of my craft projects- assuming that the university doesn't suck all hope and spare time out of me!

I look forward to chatting to you (or just myself) over the coming months, so make yourself comfy and enjoy the biscuits!