Keeping Busy

Hello Dear Readers,

Sorry for the absence from the blog. There wasn't that much to tell so I was waiting for something to happen, then I was bummed because it wasn't any good and didn't feel like blogging......

First, had interview at Kew. They said I interviewed well but haven't heard a thing from them. Very likely means they have offered the position to their first choice and are waiting for them to confirm before sending out reject letters. Oh well, it was a dream come true just to get a tour of the Kew herbarhum, what history! Didn't see any Darwin specimens but it was a treat anyway.

Secondly, for those who know I was supposed to spend Easter in Cyprus and meet my nephew at his Christening, I am not in Cyprus because I didn't understand the convoluted process for requesting the return of passports from the Home Office. Anyway, still hoping that it might turn up this week and I can still go, but for now I'm hanging at home.

Thirdly, in good news at hanging at home I finally finished the enormous pink baby blanket for my roommate. I had to take the entire edging out once because I miscalculated how many stitches to pick up, but it's finished and lovely.

I made a matching cushion cover for it, but I think that it's cooler if you use the cover to hold the blanket. That gives you a pillow AND a place to put the blanket when you aren't using it!

Fourthly, I bought this:

A Singer sewing machine (serial number ED871291) made in Scotland in 1946, I believe it's a model 99K, but it has an unusal knob in the front instead of stitchlenght/reverse lever. Not sure what that's about, but I sewed myself a new wallet:

out of some scraps I had. (Steph - If you remember you wrapped my Birthday present from last year in a lovely blue batik, I've used that for the lining so I can think of you when I open it). That's my old wallet on the left, I got it in 2000 from a friend in High School in exchange for tailoring her prom dress. IT's served me well, been lost a few times, and derided by Chris for being too small and dark so that I can never find it. Well now I have an ecological and upcycled (the zipper was salvaged from some jeans that Patrick's friend was throwing away - how thoughtful of him to give them to me!) and the main body is from an old skirt I made in high school. I plan to have many more lovely afternoons sewing on it, it works beautifully and looks great in the room. I had to go all the way to Upton Park to get it, over an hour on the district line, and the neighborhood was full of immigrants, really interesting stores all over the place. The woman had two machines, a hand cranked and this hand cranked converted to electric. I liked the idea of the hand crank (even more eco friendly) but after sewing on it the tension was pretty bad, and it would be hard to manipulate fabric with only one hand while cranking the other. I had to carry it back though and man am I sore today!! I hauled it over a mile to the tube station (remember, it's all cast iron and wood) and 100 big men must have passed me. One even said to me "that's too heavy for you" and I thought, thanks, thanks a lot. It was only after I got off the tube in Putney that someone offered to help me carry it, and I got it to the bus stop. The last 100 feet to my door were the worst, but now it's safe in my room, and it's all mine!

Hopefully my next blog post will be about my miraculous trip to Cyprus, right now I've got to go clean something.

Cheerio!