Let's go to the Mall!

Hello Dear Readers,

As a natural consequence of my new obsession with fashion blogs and videos, coupled with the fact that this slow house buying buisines is making me so cranky I can't even stand myself, I decided to take myself out this weekeend.  One of the blogs I watched showed that H&M is running a promotion where when you bring in a bag of clothes to donate they give you 5 pounds off of a 30 pound purchase (or 15% off one item in the US).  Hmm, clearing out old clothes before the move AND finally replacing my holy skinny jeans while AT THE SAME TIME saving money?  Sold! 

I also had 5 Lush pots from the lovely gift set Chris got me last Christmas, which I'm still very much enjoying, so I was planning to turn those in to get a free fresh face mask.   A quick email to a friend who very handily lives a 10 min walk from the mall and I am set!  I cycled up there and spent an enjoyable few hours trying on every pair of jeans in the place, while scoping out all the other goodies too.

Since I knew I had to get up to 30 GBP worth of stuff, I kind of turned it into a treasure hunt, finding exactly what I needed and knew I would use.  In the end I got some slim jeans to replace the ones that had embarassing holes in the ah-hem region, a lovely new top with lace panels (since we are still having a decent summer with temps in the 80's), a semi-statement necklace (which I will sitll be able to wear when the trend for statement necklaces is gone) and some faux tortoiseshell hair snaps, which I think look better in my brown hair than the silver ones.  To top off the day, we had lunch at Yo-Sushi!, one of those places where the sushi goes around on a little conveyor belt.  Since I saved 2.80 on transport by cycling, 5 for bringing in my bag of clothes and 5 on the fresh face mask, lunch practically paid for itself!

To top off the evening I soaked in a long bath with a Lush Twilight Bath bomb, suds-ed up with their Turkish delight body wash, and washed with their Angels on Bare skin facewash and had a Brazened Honey face mask, finished with their Celestial moisturizer.  Sigh.  I love my Lush box, the Christmas gift that keeps on giving.

I also wore my new outfit to work today and felt like a million bucks.  I'm not usually an advocate of retail therapy, but new clothes without holes or stains and fashionable new jewelery, well it can really lift a person's spirits.
 
This weekend felt sort of like a vacation because our two other housemates are away and it's just the three of us at home, so we can relax and not worry about being too loud or bothering other people by taking extra long baths or singing Little Mermaid at the top of our lungs in the kitchen.  For example.  In the spirit of being on a "stay-cation" (and speaking of gifts that keep on giving) I broke into my birthday present from Patrick this year, my emergency knitting kit to make a bicycle seat cover!!  It was a perfect project for a hot weekend in watching the end of the Tour de France, no?

Tah dah!  EVEN Patrick and Chris approved, and let me tell you they are hard to please.  Oh and they liked my clothes, also a rarity. 

 So I'm feeling a lot more chipper today than I was on Thursday when I out crankied myself and decided to do something about it.  We will move. Soon.  At this point it's just nice to take advantage of being able to pack and clean and tidy up slowly.




Patrick and I packed up the bike stuff in the office together, which was a great little achievement, and I packed up the bookshelf in my room (plus the bonus of two bags to H&M, let's not forget) AND my bedskirt to my friend who I went shopping with AND...... I have a friend who is supposed to pick up an extra duvet.  Soon I hope.  Now I just need to get Patrick to turn in those X-BOX games we went through in exchange for Portal, or maybe a party game......


Hope everyone is enjoying the summer!  I'm back to getting a veg box delivered every week and enjoying fresh salad and tons of fruits and veg. And making fruit smoothies in the morning without disturbing other housemates!   SUMMER!

Cheers!

March already!?!

Hello Dear Readers,

 How can it be March? I know February is a short month but this is ridiculous!  We celebrated Chris's birthday with a lovely chocolate peanut butter fudge rice crispy thing from my still favorite blog.  Yesterday was my good friend Jennifer's birthday (shout out!) and tomorrow is Adam and Melch's birthday (shout out!), was that last year already?  But this also means that I can reveal some more of my secret knitting projects,

Can you tell what it is? It's the bigger on the inside shawl/scarf that I made for Jennifer's birthday.  You'll remember we exchange Dr. Who related crafts, and when I saw it in Knitty, I just couldn't resist!  See all the little Tardis' along the edge? Subtle, yet for the true hard core nerds, very very clever.

Last weekend I was seized by the start-itis bug, and got a little crazy with the knitting, most of it wasn't even baby related.  Well of course SOME was, but only the most adorable hat you've ever seen.  For reals.

 Didin't I tell you? Cute coming and going! I also need to make sure to send my sister those clips that go on the back of your hat to the back of your coller so the little monster doesn't throw it out the pram.....of course if s/he does it IS basically a cry for more knitting, that's how I would treat it.  "I'm throwing this hat out in a demand for more knitwear Aunty Heather."

Then of course I had to replace my most favorite wool socks which bit the dust this year. The trip to the Scilly Isles was the last straw, I darned them but it never took.  I've now used up the last bit of the glorious yarn made of crab shell (so soft, and of course it wears well in water, as you would expect of crab shell) which have already been matching socks for Molly and Katelyn.

 There was much debate in my Stitch n Bitch group about the accent color, I see it as blue but the words "mint green" were thrown around. Either way, I think this stitch pattern and color combo make these the most beautiful socks in the room.  Depending on the room, of course.

Finally I had this hat pattern from the glorious designer Ysolda Teague (great name for a girl btw, Isolda.  Just saying.  Cat and Jeff.)  I also had most of a ball of red yarn left over from a fornicating raindeer hat, and somehow I couldn't resist making it.  I think it'll go great with my powder blue coat, and the second of my two new dresses from Oliver Bonas, which you can see the top of in this photo.  It's so cute, I wish it wasn't 3 C still, hurry up spring!

House hunting continues apace, with the usual setbacks and dramas.  Looked at a few places, some are ok, the ones we can afford need some love. We'll see how it goes.  Sigh.  I should be more excited but I just know it will suck away my soul and desire to live by the end of it.

Also, next week officially marks the end of the Year of Me, but I'll have a review of that next time.

Cheers!

Birthday Round Up

Hello Dear Readers,

I realize it's been super quiet around here, and there are some good reasons for it.  One is that the fan on our laptop has developed a whirr that sounds like a jet engine taking off..... and it's a pain in the arse to do any work on it.  Right I'm hijacking Patrick's computer which has an SD slot for my new camera card, just in time to have gotten a new one as the old camera had a CF and there is only a slot on Chris's noise machine...... The other reason of course was that two Sundays ago was my 30th birthday and I had two of my best friends from High School visiting me for a week.

 On my birthday we went to Kew Gardens to enjoy the amazing spring sunshine and had a little picnic on the river.

 We also spent quite a bit of time walking around the gardens and enjoying the pink flowers, frustrating to no end to Adam who couldn't get a decent shot even with his fancy SLR (according to him anyway, I thought the shots were nice)

After Kew we went to my favourite Vegan place where I always seem to end up for my birthday, 222 Veggie Vegan.  Lots of friend from the museum were there and I played with the panoramic assist on my new camera.  Unfortunately it doesn't stitch the images together, I had to do it myself on PowerPoint, but you get the idea. From left to right is Elisabetta, Olivia, Patrick (English Patrick), Aurelie, Adam, Melch, Sara, Patrick (brother Patrick) and Chris, who got a little cropped out.

Olivia gave me some lovely flowers and gourmet chocolates, I had the flowers in my bedroom which I think is extremely decadent. Patrick gave me beautiful tea flower balls (eat your heart out Cat) and the rest of the girls pitched in to get this amazing gem bangle from Swarovski!  It's probably the prettiest thing I own right now!  I was so touched, for any of you girls who read the blog thank you thank you thank you, it means a lot to me.  I'll think of all the wonderful times we had together at the museum when i wear it, which will be often.

More news to follow soon about Adam and Melch's visit, our whirlwind whistle stop tour to Ireland, and a special surprise visitor from High School - when it rains it pours!

P.S. no news yet on the job front, looking forward to doing a lot more traveling in April since I'll be having a lot more free time....

Happy Birthday Chris!

Hello Dear Readers,

It's been too long since my last post, but exciting developments have happened since then.  For a Christmas/Birthday present Chris bought me a new camera! Of course he's not a great planner when it comes to gifts, and the worst at surprises, so he told me about it on the 11th of Feb, the day he ordered it....... it's fine, it arrived on Valentine's Day, the perfect halfway point for me between Christmas and my birthday, so it's kind of official.  He got me the Canon IXUS in BLUE!  Our old camera had a tiny screen, battery life problems, the CF reader on our computer was going, and it was just plain BIG.  The new one is a little smaller than an iPhone, perfect for me to slip into my pocket, even my skinny jeans, and take with me to shoot some blog photos to share with all of you.

 It did a great macro shot of the yarn I finished spinning this weekend:

And managed to capture really well in the low light of our office some before and after shots of this neat-o pattern I did for a pair of toddler's sweatpants out of a single t-shirt using just *3 seams*

Aren't they the cutest?  This pattern comes from Hammer and Thread, at this link.  I whipped up this pair in the morning before going to teach knitting, and a second pair when I got back.  Now I just need to find out if they are even close to fitting the toddlers I sew for....somewhere out there I'm sure there is a baby for them.

 The other significant event this weekend was Chris's birthday.  I've been planning a great surprise for a month now, and could barely contain myself, but I did a much better job than Chris with my camera.


Here he is, all unsuspecting on Saturday night. (Everyone was out of the house except us, so of course we stayed up late playing UpWords, which my friend Kat from Chicago gave me years and years ago and we still enjoy).

Sunday after I got home from teaching Knitting in the morning I asked him if he had eaten well and to shave and get dressed nice-ish.  He had no idea what was in store, but dutifully got on the 22 bus with me all the way to Piccadilly Circus.



As we walked down Shaftsbury avenue, past the Windmill street (of Judi Dench movie fame) and through the heart of the West End Theater district.  When he saw the sign for Thriller Live, he knew what was on! If you zoom in you can even see a smile on his face.

For those who don't know, Chris in his misspent youth applied his characteristic laser focus on learning everything there was about Michael Jackson, right down to his dance moves and I catch him doing Billie Jean in the kitchen to this day. Actually, dancing Billie Jean is part of how we met and got together, but that's another story....

After a fantastic show (most people tap their feet or sing along, Chris on the other hand was dancing along to the show......) we headed around the corner to Ed's Diner, a fantastic American 1950's style diner for a chocolate shake, cheeseburger (veggie for me) fries and onion rings, one of Chris's favorite meals.  The place was so cute, and they even had that jukebox system where the tables and booths had their own that you could put 20p in and dial up a song.  Great birthday? or Greatest Birthday Ever?  I'm glad I was able to capture it all on my new camera too.

As my birthday is coming up and Chris's is going down, the last bit of exciting news is that two of my best friends from High School, Adam and Melch (remember them from this post?) are coming to visit me on my birthday FROM L.A.!!  How cool is that?  Skippies visiting me is always something I daydream about, and since Jennifer and Amy's visits last year and this visit on my birthday those dreams have been coming true!  Not sure exactly what we'll be doing, but I know we'll be having fun and laughing so much it hurts. Hooray!

Happy Birthday....to me!

Hello Dear Readers,

Yesterday was my 29th birthday and what a wonderful day it was! First, unexpectedly, I got a lovely card from all my friends at the Natural History Museum and THEN they sang Happy Birthday To You. In the middle of free tea Fridays in the tea room. Though my back was to the rest of the room, apparently the director of science was there too and joined in. How fantastic! I believe I turned a brilliant shade of crimson, but it was really lovely to see how many friends I've made there in such a short time.

Shortly after my good friend from Graduate School who lives in Cambridge arrived.

Here she is, 9 months along and still has the energy to come down here and celebrate my birthday with me, what a trooper! We had an amazing day, I showed her around the back scenes at the museum (while she checked out every ladies bathroom......;-) ) and then we went up to High Street Kensington for a little Starbucks and some shopping. Later we met up with some friends at the Museum at a pub, but then had to dash off to dinner at a vegan place.

With us were Jess, Patrick, Chris, Molly, and a friend from work, Hannah, who made it all the way out despite having to pop out early because of another engagement (and I forgot to take a photo till after she left). Thanks for coming Hannah!

The food was great but the service extra slow, maybe that was just because we knew there was birthday cake waiting at home! We just made the 74 bus and rode it home and then devoured the extra special Lindon Family Traditional Birthday Cake which I made with ingredients Patrick smuggled in when he went to the US for Thanksgiving (and which I had snuck in last year to surprise Patrick).

Finally, I got tons of really sweet presents and excellent cards (Patrick and Jeff going the extra mile to personalize the cards for me...)

I love March because it means I get to stop washing my face with Coal Tar soap and start using lovely Lush products again! A friend suggested I have my own Lush spa day and I think that's exactly what I'll do today! Special bath, face mask, moisturize my skin, wash with 9-5 and toner, then finish off with a little massage on my legs which are sore from running to work 3 days last week. Notice the pair of socks I bought yesterday at UniQlo specifically for running in. They have a L and a R! No more aching feet..... I hope.

I have been working Saturdays and Sundays since December, but today I'm taking THE WHOLE WEEKEND OFF which so far has been amazing and it's only 11 am.... beautiful sunny day, I'm going to go hang the laundry out back and perhaps take a walk by the river. I may even have time for TWO posts this weekend!

Thanks for all the lovely birthday wishes everyone, and a special shout out to Susan Clarks's mother who I found out reads this blog! I think that brings the readership up to 5? I'm doing better than Car Talk!

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

Happy Birthday Patrick!

Hello Dear Readers,

Here is a shout out to my baby brother Patrick who turns 24 today (and who is a follower of my blog, yes!)

Here is a teaser photo of what awaits you when you get home Pittie Pat, anyone want to guess what it could be?
Hope you are having a good day!

Spring has Sprung

Hello Readers,

Late breaking addition to my birthday goodness. My friend Madeleine who I worked with in Amarillo is English, and she had her mother sent me this wonderful yarn for my b-day, hooray!

She also included a postcard from Bath, which is someplace Chris and I are planning to go in the near future. Assembly rooms, the Crescent, Sally Lunn cakes and of course, lots of Jane Austin goodness.

Yesterday outside the kitchen window I saw my first robin this spring! He stayed put long enough for me to take a picture through the window, but as soon as I opened it he went away.

He is a bit camouflaged in this pictures, but he is sitting on the rail near the center of the photo. I saw him again this morning though hanging around my bird-feeder, so it seems to be working! There is a great website for identifying birds in the UK and I plan to make good use of it this summer. I've already seen about 3 species hanging around in our neighbor's back gardens that adjoin ours, it is shaping up to be a good summer.

Today is the woman's head race on the Thames, and our roommate Sally and Patrick's girlfriend Sarah (of cake face stuffing fame on this blog) are racing. We are going to go down to the water and watch them, pictures to follow!

Hello Dear Readers,

Thanks for all the wonderful birthday wishes yesterday! I set out to have a great day and that's what I did. Apologies to those with no interest in Art History as this is a very link heavy arty post, but you can glaze over the links if you don't care.

I started off going into work with Chris to see what he does all day. I took the train into Victoria Station and went into the great glass building that is his office.

I headed around the corner to......


that's right, the queen's house. Not sure if she was home, but plenty of tourists there watching guards swapping guns in a very British, formal way. I rounded Victoria circle and headed down The Mall with the help of my handy laminated "Streetwise London" (thanks Toni Garrett!) towards.....

Trafalgar Square, specifically to the National Gallery to catch the 11:30 free hour long tour of part of the collection. It was so fantastic, all the fun of my days studying art history without any of the exams or actual studying! After discussing the architecture of the newish Sainsbury Wing, we covered The Annunciation and it's companion piece Seven Saints, a brief stop to admire the double sided Durer then Rubens' A View of Het Steen in the Early Morning, rounding it out with Madame de Pompadour, where I correctly identified her as doing embroidery, not writing (how did I know?). After the tour I took the opportunity to play one of my City Walk London cards number 36 to tour the Embankment/Leicester Square (theater district) area. Among the sites I found the narrowest "street" in London:


I didn't even try to walk through, it seemed like an invitation to disaster. I also found a rather large (especially for London) bead shop and made a mental note to bring certain visitors there (Mary, Madeleine), or at least incentiveise them to come visit me! I wandered into a dance shop where they sell my favorite ballroom shoes (Freed of London), looked at the Victoria Embankment Gardens, and had "vegetarian" fish and chips for lunch on Leicester street and generally had a good what I'll call "wander around" (read: walk briskly through the streets searching for fish and chips with my nose in the map, wondering how London seems to defy my usually excellent navigation skills).

At 2:30 I went back to the gallery for the second tour of the day, viewing the San Pier Maggioro Altarpiece and comparing it to the San Benedetto Altarpiece painted 30 years later. We visited a room with some experimental hangings where the pieces were arranged not by artist or century, but rather a grouping of works that all dealt with the human figure. Or, as our tour guide put it, our (read: male patron's) obsession with looking at "Nudie Ladies" under the guise of being high art,and for good measure sticking some reference to Greek mythology to make the nudity ok. We looked at Titian's Diana and Actaeon compared to the later Death of Actaeon and debated whether the punishment of accidentally viewing a nudie Dianna merited the punishment of being torn apart by your own dogs.....

Finally we discussed Turner's Ulysses Deriding Polyphenus. Or as one old lady in our tour put it, Odysseus giving Polyphenus the finger. Five points to anyone who can actually find Polyphenus the one-eyed giant who is hidden in this work, and five more points if you can see the horse heads pulling the chariot of dawn. This painting has particular resonance with me because as someone who is always traveling (not just vacation traveling, but you know, 16 moves in 28 years kind of traveling through life) I really identify with Odysseus/Ulysses. Also, our nephew (Chris's sister's kid) is named Odysseus and his christening is coming up. Maybe I should get him a print of this for his wall, it's never to early to appreciate good art. The National Gallery even has a program for 2 year olds!

To round out the day I spent some time on the phone with Molly, Cat and Jeff, Chris's mom, and my Gramma, phew! Then Pat and Chris came home and delivered lots of lovely goodies. From Chris came a selection of shampoos (plus carrying case), soaps and face washes from LUSH wrapped in a nice scarf which is THE fashion accessory here in London, so it will be put to good use.


Patrick thoughtfully got me a card with knitted animals enjoying a birthday cake and 1000 m of lace-weight cashmere/silk blend wool in baby blue. It's so nice I said I just wanted to let it sit in my stash with my other skein of cashmere and just look at it....touch it.....put it against my cheek.......... sorry, where was I? Oh yeah, Patrick said he knew I would say that but that I HAVE to use to make something for myself. He also gave me a gift certificate which I have been instructed to use to buy a Knit Kit for myself. Between that and my interchangeable needles I have the perfect knitting travel kit, just add local yarn and I'm good to go! I'm taking any and all requests for knitted objects so I can use my fun toys!

So that was about it. Wow, what a long post.......but it was a long day, and good. Here's hoping to many happy returns.