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!

twit twoo

Well, as is the course of february, the resolutions have slipped, i've barely begun lent and i've already stuffed my face full of chocolate and biscuits> so apologies for the delayed post. I'll try and keep to my weekly schedule (and i really must do some french)
However, I'm pleased to say the owl jumper is finished and i love it. The colour didn't come out nearly as badly as i thought and actually in some of these photo's the colours and the hair perhaps give it a real 70's feel. The owls i think didn't turn out quite right, so they look like quite fat, really old wise owls - i kinda like it.
Next project is going to be a bamboo camisole i think...plus some more sewing at some point : )

I had a great weekend catching up with some old uni friends who i haven't seen for about  3 years. I like the fact that it didn't matter that we hadn't really been keeping in touch - we could just continue where we left off - some of them are quite different to the friends i have now, which was kind of refreshing - different conversations, different views - it was lots of fun so thank you vix for organising it.

Sewing

Oh i've run away from my sewing for some time cos i haven't known what to make or what to make it with. I went out to dinner with my friend who told me about the infinity dress - it sounded amazing so i reached for my material box and found this weird pink/purple patterned stretch that i thought would work well. I didn't have quite enough to make a circle skirt so i made a straigher one.....urgh disaster - it really didn't look good.
So i tried to make a simple top - the neck was too scooped for me

and so i turned it around...i kinda like the idea but i'm still unsure about the pattern - thoughts are welcome...

but at least it broke my sewing drought and i decided to make another white top - i need to run it through the washing machine as i have a feeling it might shrink a little which wouldn't be a bad thing.

I started looking through my stash thinking i have all this material but a lot of it is just scraps and not big enough to do anything with.. and then I came across Lex's website - of course i can embellish, create broaches and all sorts - duh! So maybe I'll have a go.

On other news - Project Runway season 7 has started - i love that show but i can't seem to be able to download the episodes - i'd gladly do it legally but Lifestyle won't let me subscribe. hmph.