Sunday, April 25, 2010

It's not so grim up north

Just come back from mi hols up t'north : ) We managed Durham, Newcastle, Whitby, York, Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield all in a week.
Highlights definitely included La Rosa hotel in Whitby; yummy fish and chips; the bridges and warehouses of Newcastle, last minute luck with laura marling tickets in York, tiled hall in Leeds; drunken champagne and fried chicken on canal st Manchester, and spotting snooker stars in Sheffield.
All in all a fun trip but we are both knackered.

On the crafty front I decided to make myself a top for the holiday - inspired by  Lex again, using some of those remnants and bringing back to life an old top that i'd made too tight around the arms. (I loved the shell mirror - courtesy of La Rosa Hotel and of course my paperbag waist skirt)

Oh and I was inspired to make a quilt for Ben and I. I initially thought of making a quilt for 2010 with a different patch for each month incorporated into it, but then Ben said how about a patch for each of the years we have been together....so I'm going to try and work a patch or two each month 12" x 12" and hopefully have something to put together come the end of the year. My only experience so far is of a wonky quilt i made for my friends baby but never gave it to her. (So i might steal some patches from that one).

On the purchased front: I fell and bought a People's market top on e-bay (to be blogged), and i got two brooches from the uniform project auction (but surely that counts as a charity donation doesn't it!). I'm just waiting for them to arrive. Back on the no-shopping wagon for next month.
Oh and also over the holiday I got to wear the fab dress that Ben bought for me in london (I'm a very spoiled girl).

Friday, April 9, 2010

Paper-bags

OK I've been inspired by Lex's paperbag skirts - they look really comfy but a bit quirky too - she hasn't published the tutuorial so i thought it was time for "lets try and make it up"! I've had some blue cotton material that's been around since my failed trousers experiment and it seemed perfect for it.....and voila...the skirt - with some white edging which i'm not sure about (i did a white contrasting belt too but it seemed a bit "hobbs" (UK clothes shop). I really like it and wore it all weekend.
The weekend by the way was an adventure. It was mostly spent in East London checking out:

  •  whitechapel gallery (great sandwiches and interesting photo exhibition on india, pakistan and bangladesh); 
  • Spitafields market where Ben bought me a dress and i bought him a yellow ukelele; 
  • Brick lane (where crowds queued for the american apparell sale); 
  • Drinking champagne in threadneedles hotel
  • Design museum for an amazing African exhibit (enlightening but still not a continent high on my wishlist),
  • Visit to the Barbican to see the birds in the curve by Celeste Boursier-Mougenot - an incredible space with zebra finches landing on guitars and cymbals creating music - and one landed on my shoulder : ) (Barbican birds)
  • Memory lane in the form of going to our old house, having breakfast in the old cafe down the river
Finally we headed west - homeward bound via the Tate Britain to see the Chris Ofili exhibition. I really liked it the colours and textures were so vibrant and just didn't translate in a postcard/book for me to take away. I even liked the elephant dung!