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).

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!

Birthdays and visitors

Eek I'm behind again. My excuse... it was Ben's birthday - i took him to london for dinner, to see the play Enron (what a thinker that was, billions of dollars my mind can't compute but at least i know what a hedge fund is now - a weird topic for a play but i really enjoyed it), we stayed over in a new hotel (which bar the 4am fire alarm was fine).

Then we went to the Ashmolean museum in Oxford which has just opened a new restaurant on the top floor - it was ok...the food was salty, it had a weird atmosphere but i think it will come into it's own when the terrace is open in the summer

Then Friday we went to Crufts! It was good fun seeing all the dogs, checking out the behind the scenes action afghan hounds in scarfs and clips and enourmous wolfhounds. We've decided that a pointer is the dog for us...just need to convince smokey the cat!
We stayed over in a hotel nr Tamworth (thanks mum and trevor for the christmas vouchers) and then had another dinner out when Ben's folks visited on the Saturday.

Oh and the wool arrived for the library book of mens knits and I made Ben a really quick knit hat - it's made with British sheep wool that is undyed and it still smells of sheep! : )

My sis and nephew Jack were visiting from Texas, so i had a few days with them....for someone who is a bit unsure around children (I just don't know how to entertain them) Jack made it really easy for me - he is really great and i adore him! Had good fun with my sis too, a bit of sister sister time in london window shopping and eating fish and chips - it was fun.

AND....this weekend we ran our first "official" Reading half marathon race - we made it in 2hrs 4mins - very pleased, even though we were overtaken by a camel at the last hump (get it!, but really putting a hill near the finish point, now that's just mean)

So that's why i haven't written in a while....as far as projects go - there is a blue jumper for Ben which is knitting up quite quickly (my bamboo camisole is on the backburner whilst i knit this one), and also i sewed my car freshner, some cushions, and my first hat....photos to follow at some point.

bibby

Good news we managed our second half marathon run - phew - it had a couple of hills in, the one towards the end was a bit of a killer and i almost cried..but we managed it; and only 20 seconds slower than the last one.....bring on the reading half marathon race - yippee!

Other highlights this week including watching the original movie Fame and realising that i hadn't ever seen it before (musta been confused with the tv series); the yummy dinners, soups and desserts that Bento keeps making with the goodies from our new veggie box. It's proving a great success (only because of Ben's great prep and cooking (and a little bit of help from my new found friend Nigel Slater - who i often remarked was a bit of a book review tart, until i saw his tv series and he seemed like a thoroughly nice chap who cooked yummy food with lots of butter and salt and buys his custard in a pot!)).

I'm working on a new knitting project -i have some purple bamboo to use and after much deliberation i'm making a little camisole type top -it's quite a slow knit though
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/frock-camisole

I've done a little bit of sewing also and although it's a little bit overworked cos i had issues with the neck of it and it didn't go quite according to plan - i like the overall look of it and want to wear it, regardless of it looking a bit homemade. It's a variation of one of Lex's dress/t-shirts (Lex's website) - i just did the ruffles and added a band/tie to the bottom.


Other plans include making a lavendar bag to hang in my car (instead of a bought car scenty thing); and also i need to decide what to put forward to the shopping court (held on a monthly basis to try and kerb the needless shopping i do and use the great wool, material, books, clothes, dvd's i already have - so far, so good - i think it's just going to be sewing cotton); oh and run 14 bloomin miles next weekend cos we misread the running schedule - doh!