Last weekend fun and not so fun

Hello Dear Readers,

Sorry for the gap in posting. Chris couldn't figure out how to get the photos off of his camera, and then last week I was sick sick sick! Wednesday night I went to bed at 6 pm and woke up at 8:30. Just a little cold, and I'm better now, but I hardly got anything done last week!

On Saturday Chris and I went to Gilford to enjoy the beautiful day and visit with his cousin Christiana. She has a big project to do in her final year of a Math degree, and she and her friend were talking Chris's ear off at dinner about the different options.

Food, math, Greek, he was in his element! Later we walked around the campus and enjoyed the last rays of our last nice weekend (it's been rainy so far this our summer holiday weekend.....).

On Sunday I was in bed all day except when I rallied to go to the pub quiz at the Coat and Badge (our local favorite pub, nicer, I venture to say, even than Hummers, though the wait staff don't wear hotpants.....)

We came in third place, but only because the other people were total cheaters and using their iphones! Rematch tomorrow, it's on!


P.S. Patrick would like me to inform you that the snowboard logo on the pillow in this post is a magazine, not an Ubisoft game. Sorry for any chaos and confusion that might have caused. Um, yeah.

The Madness of King George III

Hello Dear Readers,

Just took my 1 hour lunch break (!!! included !!!) from my Monocot Family's class to call in on King George III's palace at Kew for Free!

Someone pinch me!

New Kid on the Block

Hello Dear Readers,

The wait is finally over, I had my first day working at Kew! It was like Christmas came early for me, I was so excited I had trouble getting to sleep and was up with the sun. Grabbed the train to Kew bridge and went to an exciting meeting - with HR. Ok so it was kind of boring, but I learned never take photos of children without filling out the proper form with the head of photography and never me alone with a child. Not really relevant to my work, but that's typical of generic HR meetings.

Onto the real stuff, here is the entrance to my bulding:

This is the new Herbarium, buit within the past year or so, but the old school front is this:


So much history!

I was shown my desk:
A bit of a come down from the double wide cubicle I enjoyed in Texas, but hey, I'm at KEW!

I spent most of the time with the girl who works in the Alliaceae and Lillicaceae (I'm in the Commelinids, a closely related group). We were preparing for a course on Monocot's that's going to be taught tomorrow, and apparently I'm helping out with that. Hey, I love jumping in on the first day!

The Herbarium has 4 sections, old, really old, 60's, newer and newest. I work in the newer part, but the old part is awesome. Here are a bunch of specimens laid out for work.

In the totally awesome really old section of the herbarium. It has cool staircases like this that I got to walk up today:

but my newer section looks like this (those are all cabinets full of specimens by the way, I located Bromus today, very exciting for me having done my thesis on a plant in that genus):
All in all a good day at work and I look forward to tomorrow.

A strange view on my way to and from work is this weird hippy yurt village.
good housing option for close commuting......

P.S. all you botanists out there, guess who is the Keeper of the Herbarium, Art, and Archives at Kew? Mabberley. Yes, the Mabberley, who wrote the book on plants. Literally. The man is so cool he has his own Wikipedia page. Word.

Really Really

Hello Dear Readers,

Some of you doubted, I was doubting it myself, but it's really real!

Dear Heather,

We are looking forward to welcoming you to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and this is to confirm the details for your start with us on Monday 17th May 2010.

Please come to the Sir Joseph Banks Building, (2 minutes away from the Herbarium) at 9.30am. A map is attached in case you would like to refer to it.

We will give your HR first day induction which will last approximately 40 minutes and then you will be able to return to the Herbarium.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any queries. We look forward to seeing you on Monday.

I hope you have a lovely weekend in the meantime.

Kind regards,


Etc. etc. etc. Pretty cool huh? Now I REALLY have to cram in all the fun stuff before I start work. Of course this also means I'll have access to the NHS. Probably. And still need to get my Residence card, but hey, one thing at a time. Chris and I are thinking about going to the tower of London this weekend, we'll take pictures if we do, and look for bloodstains on the stones.

Cheerio!

Let the sewing continue

Hello Dear Readers,

Spent a pleasant afternoon yesterday working on a new top for the gym out of an XL t-shirt Patrick gave me. (That's a Naruto game for those of you keeping track)


I had a rough idea of what I wanted based on a design I saw at the gym, but I as usual mostly made it up as I went. I used one of my favorite tank tops to cut out a rough shirt shape that would fit.

Then I did a lot of tweaking, cutting and draping to get the final product.

I could really use a dress maker's dummy, there was a lot of taking on, putting pins in, adjusting, squirming, hanging upside down, and once i stabbed the inside of my nose with a pin taking the shirt off. Yikes! I think the pointy shoulder epaulets not only go with the epaulet theme popular this fashion season, but kind of work with the anime theme for the t-shirt. The geisha collar back also works with the Japanese theme....... though it was unplanned. If I had more material i could have cut curved pieces for the neck, or if I was less lazy i would have cut them thinner so they didn't bunch as much but I didn't want to pull out the iron again. Someday I'll have a sewing room set up properly, but hey, it's a white shirt that's going to get yellow sweat stains in a year, I can live with it.
I wore it to aerobics class last night and it worked just fine. Still have a ban on buying new clothes until I start getting paid, but making clothes doesn't count!

Now what do you think blog, should I wear the hotpants with this new shirt to the gym tomorrow? ;-)

Still here!

Hello Dear Readers,

Wow, have I been a lazy blogger! I've been doing stuff, just either nothing too bloggable or working on projects that are going to be given to people who read this blog so I can't share them yet....
I did go to the Victoria & Albert museum last week, the place where the famous knitter Kaffe Fasset gets his inspiration and wow was it cool! They had a great exhibit on fashion and a textile studies room where you can pull out cases of different textiles, some as old as 3 and 4 b.c.e. and study them! I found a fantastic sketch on a piece of linen for an embroidery done in the 1750's, but left unfinished....... my plan is to go back with some tracing paper, copy it and finish it! You know how I hate unfinished projects and 150 years is too long to leave something like that halfway done.

In other news, I've been loving my sewing machine and working up a storm. My most recent creation was to take two NEW t-shirts my brother gifted me and turn them into a convertible top based on this idea. Also American Appareal's and this girl's. I didn't have quite enough fabric for the wraps, but it was mostly just to test out the idea. I might scour the charity shops for some jersey sheets, that should be enough for a dress, though my brother has a lovely gray colored jersey sheet...... Here are three ways I plan on wearing it

with sleeves, tied in the front (not enough length, gives sort of a traditional Japanese feel I think)

halter top style (incidentally at the V&A I saw a dress with a top very much like this)

and as a strapless top! The best thing about making your own, it actually fits you with a bra, especially if you are a weird size like me. I know the left breast is a little funky, I was using hte window as a mirror and just taking quick photos, but you get the picture.

I have one more shirt which I'm going to turn into a workout shirt because I've been going to the gym every day and I can't really wear the same one all week. I saw a great style on a girl at the gym I'm going to copy, hope she didn't think I was a weirdo for staring at her top the whole class, dissecting it in my head! I might try to turn it into a tutorial with photos etc, we'll see.

With the leftovers from the two shirts, I did this:
I had a traditional Cyprus weaving covering the pillow in the living room, but people kept putting their heads on it, and it's not washable, so I took the cover off and (with a little design input from Patrick) used the 4 sleeves and 2 logos from the shirts to make this pillow cover. Those are two Ubisoft games (one of the companies Patrick works with).

Hey, I'm not just a miserly sew-er, it's also green! With all the wasted fabric in the world I can really feel good about upcycling. Hey, I'm so green I even bought a pre-owned sewing machine! I'm still soliciting striped woven (men's mostly) shirts from people to make this quilt. Save them up then COME VISIT ME IN LONDON and deliver them!

Patrick Birthday Fun

Hello Dear Readers,
Well no one hazarded a guess as to what it was, but it's the special Lindon Family Birthday Cake, consisting of Graham Crackers layered with Chocolate Jello Pudding.


It's usually served covered in Cool Whip and dotted with spring time M&M's, but I had to make do with whipped cream and Smarties. It was particularly special this year because I had to have Patrick's friend who visited during the Oxford Cambridge boat race bring the graham crackers and Jello in since they don't have it here. Pat had said to me on my birthday back in March, the only thing I really want for my birthday is that cake, but they dont' have Graham crackers here. Oh ye of little faith! I got myself over to the UK, I got a job at Kew, I can move mountains. Birthday cake, piece of...... well you get the picture.


Anyway, some photos of Patrick enjoying it. I'ts pretty much all gone now, I don't know how that happened since none of us will admit to snacking on it......
He also got another present from us, another controller for his Xbox, so if anyone comes to visit now we can play Soul Caliber together.......I really can't wait to start my job!

Cheers