End of year round up...almost

I know, as my friend reminded me - I haven't blogged since October. Of course it being the beginning of a new year I have resolved to blog more frequently - once a week. Plus learn french, run a marathon (already entered in Berlin), stop buying clothes and other junky stuff that i don't need, and of course sewing and knitting. Speaking of which I have been doing some, and i know i still need to up-date the laptop case and the cape pictures, but i present Ben's Jumper and other random christmas gifts (lavendar bags, pin cushion and hand warmers)

So we had a great run up to christmas with some fun days in London - we saw lots of exhibitions at the V and A, and weird one of outsider art at Hampstead and i got to see Rufus Wainwright and family and other random guests at the Albert Hall - a bit weird but a lot of fun - it was like some strange family christmas that you had just walked in on.

And Christmas itself was wonderful (ignoring the odd cold, infection, suffered by some hosts and guests) it was really good fun, lots of games, good food (that even a powercut had a hard time spoiling) and wonderful presents.
The best yet - and I feel that this should really have it's own post because it's so great, is the amazing sewing box that Ben painted for me. You see I'd seen one for sale in a design shop with a price tag of £250. I coveted it but am too poor to blow that kind of cash on a sewing box. So Ben worked really hard, as a surprise painting this one for me...and I love it - it's better than the one i saw in the shop.

So thank you Ben.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone and I'll be back blogging very soon if resolutions are to be believed

speedy speedy...almost

Went running at the weekend with a mission to do 5 miles in a reasonable time...and we did 43 minutes - way better than our 58 minutes that we did the previous week. yay!....and then we were knackered for the rest of the day. But we did do some wandering around the costwolds which was quite lovely and i had my first experience of Lardy Cake - Ben and I hardly dented it and i had to take it to work for the hyenas to finish it off - it was yummy but just too much.

I managed to finish my cape too; and Ben''s laptop cosy - as always pictures to follow - this time you get to see glimpses of our trip to Budapest and Vienna.

typepad comments awol

I'm testing this out cos when i did some tweaking my comments box disappeared on my posts and so I'm hoping that this post it will appear......call me shallow and approval seeking but i like it when people comment but if i don't even give people the option...

Happy birthday to me...

Yay it's my birthday...and as i had to remind myself i've just turned 32 (kept thinking i was 33 for some reason).
We've just returned from a week wandering around Budapest, eating stodgy, rich, yummy food and a couple of days in Vienna where we took part in our first race....a 5k night race. It was really cool to be part of it 15,000 people (mostly austrian) running around the beautiful city of vienna at night, we made our target time of under 30mins (all you serious runners out there you know how slow that is), we got a free goody bag and t-shirt. Whilst in Budapest we also took advantage of Margaret Island which is a virtually car free island of park and a nice spongy running track; we threw our running regime out of the window a bit and ran for 10miles and then went for curry : )

So i had a lovely time, and now today is my birthday Ben created the fantastic board game "The Game of Phill" where i won prizes including a trip to London to see Les Mis, and he's taking me to see "The September Issue" at our local cinema and then out for Italian at Luna Caprese.....I'm supremely spoiled

New things....see i'm not so lazy

OK so it's been a little while since i've written but I promise I haven't been lazy - I've been making stuff. This is the rowan pattern i've been trying to finish...it took a little while to complete, and before it was blocked it looked godawful but with a little bit of re-shaping i kinda like it. It still looks a little big but it's coming along. I do get quite a few comments asking whether it's hand knitted - i guess it just has that feel, it's certainly cosy. One of the cool things is that the wool used to be a blanket. Well I bought it, knitted it into a blanket and used it for a few weeks until it was decided that the wool was too moulty.....so it's been re-fashioned.

And this is the dress I've made - from a remnant piece of cotton found for £5 in a local shop. Ben reckons it's a maternity dress; i reckon it looks like a nightie...but i'm hoping pair it with some cowboy boots, maybe some chunky tights come winter and you've got yourself a fun winter dress. I wore it out a few weeks ago and it felt pretty good...maybe a bit too baggy though.

The re-fashioning thing is certainly keeping me out of the shops. I like it....maybe I'll increase my pledge next time.

I'm trying out the new typepad method, I've done the cutting and pasting of HTML so here it goes

i know it's the same photo...

as last time but i couldn't help it i love these shoes, and they got their first outing at the weekend - a car to and from the restaurant and parking across the road, and they didn't hurt my feet - yay. I love my robot shoes

It's really weird, there is a lady at work who kind of reminds me of my mum but i can't put my finger on what it is about her. Today she said completely out of the blue that I remind her of herself when i was her age, she was into the same kind of things as me...fashion, making clothes, culture, films, arts.....weird.

Wardrobe Refashioning

wardrobe refashioning - i've taken the 2 month pledge...now watch me go ..and not buy anything for a whole 2 months, including my birthday - eek.

10k - yay

I did it, i did it i ran 10k....Ben's watch broke so he doesn't think he's run it...but mine showed 10k and i ran an extra 500 meters just to be sure that it was definitely 10k. In my view target achieved...another new years resolution to tick off (as well as my visiting the dentist last week...filings fixed and i'm good for another 5 years...erm i mean 6 months).
Yay and you know it wasn't that bad..i could have run some more at the time....now i just feel like sleeping
so that's 6 miles odd; i'm almost a quater of a way to a marathon, and over a fifth of the way. Yippee, zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Knitted bag

ohhps i almost forgot to blog my bag...here it is - lined with some old trouser material and knitted with some wool taken from my grandma's stash.

 

 

oh and a little phone cosy i made for my phone

Pashley

We bought my new baby home today - the lovely pashley sonnet bliss - isn't it pretty!

I'm very excited but slightly worried about riding up the hill outside our house. Plus someone at work got their seat stolen the other day so I'm a little bit scared of the scallies of oxford taking a fancy to it...so to begin with it might be a ride to work and back and save the cycling to work visits for another time.
oh and the reworked cape - here's a different picture - I like it much more now the collar has been removed and i've added an extra panel at the front - it's a bit wonky i know but i kinda like it

Run, Philly, Run

Yep, running is back on our agenda...i've even bought the slick black running leggings and a sports bra - and it must be doing something cos i managed to run 8.5km on Thursday - the 10k isn't so out of sight.

It's a bit of a commitment at 3 days a week, but i'm trying to stick to it and moving my social nights to a strict Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.
Half marathon is the goal by november - no race planned as yet but it's exciting.

On the sewing front i've re-worked my cape, and i'm quite pleased with it now - photo's to follow. I've also made the coolest little clutch bag which I'm a little bit in love with - I just need to get my camera out. The camera will definitely come out tomorrow for the arrival of my new Pashley bicycle. I'm so excited - oohh maybe I'll do a photo on the bike, wearing my cape and holding my clutch (not sure riding and carrying a clutch bag are compatible but I can just pop it in my basket). he he

In addition to all this i've visited the dentist (one of my new years resolutions for this year), and bought some new material for a new pair of trousers for bed, a thick woolen cape for me, and a plaid dress - i've signed up for the re-fashion wardrobe challenge for 2 months and I'm starting to panic.
Photo's to follow soon

new shoes . . . And phone

lucky old me, i've just come back from latitude festival and had a really great time. Grace jones was barmy but amazing. Anyway i got a new phone and a new pair of shoes and thid is an attempt to combine the two . . . .if this works you should see a lovely pic of the said shoes as delivered by the phone . . Here we go

Bruges

Just got back from a few days in Bruges. A really pretty city - we both had great plans to run every day - but in reality we ate badly, read some books and wandered around. I think during our time there, we managed to substitute every meal time with chocolate at least once.

One of the many examples of chocolate meal substitution...this one was breakfast.
And below two of the fine other belgian delicacies- the fry and beer

So having come back home, we went for a 6km run this morning and felt a bit better about ourselves (still ate some chocolate that we had brought back though).

Getting to know my seam ripper

So the lovely Bento is away at the mo and i'm left to my own devices. I wandered off to headington in search of paints and other goodies to paint the chairs in the house. I stumbled across this circular tablecloth in the charity shop...in the spirit of re-fashioning i thought I would give it a go


After a lot of false starts and searching for patterns and spending far too much time with my seam ripper i've come up with the skirt/dress
My intention was that i'd create a lovely flowy circular skirt; then it was too long and i made a kaftan dress thing. that looked too much like an irish dancers costume but by that time i'd already cut it; so my longish skirt was created - perfect for work; and converted into a summer dress - perfect for weekends! Yay two for the price of one (or a pound each!)


I'm kinda pleased with the results. I hope they look ok and they get the bento approval. I must remember next time not to jump in feet first...if i take my time and do things right i should be able to break away from my dependency on the seam ripper

knitted gifts

I always forget to take photo's of the gifts that i make for people; so this time i remembered:

It's for my friend Mel; she requested a cushion like the bag that i gave her for christmas and here is the result....i hope she likes it

My new creations - red top and capetastic!!

Oh no not again

Yes, i seem to have done it again....not posted for a year.
Well in keeping with my yearly update it is now May 2009!
I'm pleased to say i've ticked some things off my to do list from 2007!
Yes; my debt is all paid; i have a new tattoo (see below); i am doing yoga every day (almost but at least twice a week); and i've made some wearable clothes....and i'm actually going to post them this time