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!

Henly-on-Thames Royal Regatta - At Last!

Hello Dear Readers,

You may (or  may not, as some of you I fear have yet to discover the joys of the RSS feed)  have  missed me last weekend.  The truth is it was so beautiful I didn't have the heart to sit inside and blog.  Chris and I walked all the way to Barnes on Sunday, which is quite close to our new flat and had a lovely day out pretending we had already moved there.  We visited all the cute little shops and admired the French and Italian cafe's with their outdoor seating.  We chatted with local sales clerks about how lovely it is to be in Barnes.  Sadly, we are not much closer this week to being in our new flat, but the Bank's solicitors have assured us that they only received the paperwork on the 4th of July (they received it June 30 according to the tracking number, but whatever).  Congrats and shoutouts to my friends Adam and Melch who have managed to move in to the condo they bought in CA, well done!

This past week I indulged in two days of Holiday for the 4th of July and went to NOT see Patrick race at Henley-on-Thames royal regatta. Something I meant to do every year I was here and just now got around to.  Above is a photo of Thames boat 'A' who made it to Friday's race...

 Sadly Patrick's boat (Thames 'B') did not, but then they drew the boat favored to win so it was no surprise they lost on Wednesday.  Thames 'B's loss was our gain though, as it meant Patrick got to hang with use at the Remenham club.  Pronounced not remen-ham as it's spelled, but more mumbled as a one syllable word like remenom, though I can't do it properly since I'm not English.

 For the first time ever I went to a public event with a dress code, much like Ascot's horse-race, ladies are advised to wear hats, and they MUST wear a dress to the knee.  Men wear jackets, ties and slacks.  The men were allowed to take their jackets off this year because it was actually warm, but not the ties.  Chris didn't have a jacket so we went shopping on Thursday and got him this lovely tweed number from TopShop, where Matt Smith (current Dr. Who) I think does a lot of his shopping.  This coat, with a red bow tie would be very Doctor-y, and frankly that's just a bit sexy to me.

 I'm wearing my favorite new dress with starts on it, pearl necklace and earrings, and my hat, also from TopShop.  Very conservative, very English.  Some women went all out in the hat department
as you can see here.  I think this is a wig, but I'm sure these are two tiny oars she had sticking out of it...

 And this woman I Kinneared on the train on the way to Henley.  It isn't so clear in this shot, but there is a full on bird sitting atop her fascinator, and how fascinating it is.  Turns out she's the friend of a rower on Patrick's team, small world!  Well, I suppose as big as the world of English rowing anyway.......

 Chris and I really enjoyed our day out, and everyone was in high spirits.  Mosley's team even went for the traditional pyramid shot, this was attempt two, and I managed to get the photo just before they all tumbled down again.

I've been enjoying the nice weather here, it's gotten up to the 80's just about (27 C yesterday) and I'm loving it.  I've invented a new soft serve vegan ice cream, which I call call Go Banana's!.  It's frozen banana, pureed with a tiny bit of milk (almond, coconut, soy, anything really) sprinkled with some chocolate chips and swirled with some Reese's' Peanut Butter that I snagged at TKMaxx (that's not a typo, that's what it's called here). The warm weather is also bringing out all the neighbors which is lovely.  We have two kids that moved in next door and they are so inquisitive and friendly, a refreshing change from most English who feel it is polite to pretend like they can't see you.  When I said my dad had been in the army, he said in all earnestness, "Does he carry a spear?!"  when i told him, no of course not, he corrected, remembering that I said my Dad HAD been in the Army, he said, "Oh, well did he USED to carry a spear?"..  I hated to disappoint him.  Maybe he thinks my dad was a Roman centurion?

Hope everyone had a lovely 4th of July holiday, and to my English friends, how about this weather?  I'm watching Battlestar Galactica at the moment, otherwise I'd be outside every waking moment.  Happy birthday shout out to my friend Nina, who had a lovely picnic in Regent's Park for her birthday yesterday (I made her cashmere socks, just realized I forgot to photograph them, meh.)
Cheerio!

Christmas Time Is Here

Merry Christmas Dear Readers,

Well, I had a whopping 5 day weekend last week, which was terrific.  The first two days were spent mainly doing laundry and napping, the perfect way to unwind after a particularly busy week at work trying to finish things off before I start my new job January 18th.

 Pat's girlfriend Beth was over for Christmas, we started the morning right with pancakes and sausages, but then Patrick could wait no longer, he wanted presents!  Here he is opening the Kindle Fire that the whole family got him, he's very excited.  He is coming with Chris and me to Cyprus so he's loading it up with plenty of reading material for the trip.

To Patrick's left is what Chris got me a, GIANT BOX OF LUSH PRODUCTS!!!  tied with a big bow.  Just what I always wanted!  It's the gift that keeps on giving, though I'm going to try to stretch it out for the whole year, we'll see.  We spent all of Christmas day in our pajamas, and played the board game version of QI that Beth got us.  If you haven't seen the show you should check it out.

 The next day, Patrick experimented with shaving the beard he's been growing for all of Beardcember, as he calls it.  Here he is sporting a trucker....

 And the bizzare cowboy look,  (Notice my Lush box in the background).  Fortunatly for all of us, he shaved off the whole thing in the end.  Phew.  I think he was taking a page out of this .

I went to work Thursday and Friday, but have been taking advantage of the pouring rain this weekend to do a bit of crafting.   I used this pattern to turn this XL t-shirt from my friend George....

 Into this super cute racer back dress.  I love how I was able to preserve the whole front motif of the shirt.


I also had another oversize shirt that I used this wrap around pattern to make up a front or back wrap dress for.  The little girl that I sew for gets so big so fast that I am trying out dresses with no waistband, on the mother's recommendation.  The racer back is sized for a two year old, and the wrap 2-3 so hopefully it will hold her for the next year or so!  We probably won't have sunny warm weather for her to wear it as a dress, but she can layer it over a top and tights, though girls that grow up in the UK seem to be able to wear little summer dresses - even in winter!

Oh well, at least we are headed to Cyprus tomorrow where the weather has been about 20 degres C (that's about 70).  It will probably feel warm enough to me to wear a dress, maybe even go to the beach!

Speaking of which, I'm headed off to Oxfordd street to do a little shopping.  After 12 weeks of P90X some of my clothes arn't fitting well and I wanted to see if I can get some stuff in the after Christmas sales to keep me looking good and show off my somewhat fitter body.

Catch you all in the new year!

Busy Bee

Hello Dear Readers,


Late post this week, I was pretty busy over the weekend working both days at the Sewing Rooms.  Sunday afteroon I was knackered, Pat even made me a sandwich for lunch:

All he's missing is a Kiss the Cook apron.  I managed some sewing, this cute little bag for a gift for a friend. 

And also this football on the left, which is part of an Amish Puzzle ball I've wanted to make for a long time since I read my favorite sewing book Last Minute Patchwork Gifts.  It's the gift that's a pleasure to make, a pleasure to give and hopefully it will give the reciepient some pleasure as well!

Today was a really special day because I got to see my good friend Molly (who actually looked exactly the same today!) who was down to be "standardized" for her teaching.  Remember I made this Itty Bitty Baby Dress?  Well Molly, being the good friend she is, gave me an action shot on the same day as me giving the dress.

This is a woman who knows how to appreciate a handmade gift (and ensure more will be on the way....).  So nice to see her and talk to her without baby interruptions, though I look forward to seeing Katelyn when she is more mobile.  I felt like I ate so much at lunch, but I'm hungry now!  Just  made some chocolate chip banana muffins with Nestle Chocolate Chips imported from the US, I think I'll go enjoy some.

Cheers

Rainy Sundays

Hello Dear Readers,

Rainy Sundays don't get me down, just lots of catching up on Vampire Diaries with Chris and of course, knitting! Yesterday in between rain showers Chris and I cycled into the city. He is interested in cycling into work so we timed the route to see how long it would take. It was gorgeous and sunny for about 50 min, then down poured again, just enough time for us to nip into Costa coffee to split a hot chocolate and a chocolate tiffin then cycle home again. I'm proud of him for making it all the way there and back, it's really the best way to enjoy the city.

When we got home there was a sighting of the elusive Patsquash, back from a victorious race at the Marlow Regatta. His boat came in first in the coxless four division, and as far as I know it's the first time he's won! Go Pat!

I've also been working on this mystery number in addition to my sister's sweater.

The colors should be a dead giveaway as to what the pattern is to any serious obsessive knitters such as myself....... but I'm not sure if I'll have enough peach yarn for my vision, I'll keep you posted.

I was so tired this weekend I ended up taking a nap this afternoon instead of going to my extremly strict gym instructor. Oh well, guess I'll just have to enjoy my homemade french fries and salad dinner with a little guilt instead of katsup!

Cheers.

Doing his mother proud.

Hello Dear Readers,

Been another busy few weeks here across the pond, I've been gymming, knitting, cleaning, digitizing specimens etc. But most of all enjoying the knitting! I have a list twice as long as my arm of projects to do and with the bus rides and knitting groups I've been getting through it. I finally finished both monkeys.

Here they are hanging off Chris who is dressed sharp for his Visa photo to come to the US (yes, everyone needs a visa to visit the US even for vacation, CRAZY!)

Yesterday was Chris's 31'st birthday, as a lovely gift I got him some hair loss tonic. It shows I care! Pat, Chris and I all went to a great little Persian place near our house and had an amazing meal.

Today I did my knitting class in the morning and have been chilling out this evening at home, knitting and cooking. I was in the kitchen when I heard a strange sound, a kind of high buzzing whine, when I went up to investigate I found this:

Patrick doing a serious clean of his room, using the crevice tool and everything! Mom, this photo is for you.

Bank Holiday Weekend

Hello Dear Readers,

Instead of having labeled holidays like in the US (Labor Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July) the English very neatly and orderly arrange their holidays to be more or less spaced out over the year so everyone gets a rest once in a while. Therefore we have "Bank Holidays" and Monday was our end of summer bank holiday which was lovely. My foot was acting up a little so I spent much of the weekend resting which meant knitting, reading and catching up on good movies.



On Monday we had the pleasure of a visit from some new friends of ours, the girl in the green shirt is Kelly who I met through my knitting class. She is from California and her boyfriend (on the right) is of French/American descent but sort of also Spanish... anyway he went to school in California as well and they both just moved to London a few months ago. It's nice to meet some fellow expats that are more or less in the same situation as Chris and I (US educated, EU citizens and partners trying to settle in the UK). We had afternoon tea together and chatted for a few hours (they meant to stay only a few min, oh well....). My brother also got into the fun of it, and for about 3o min he and Kelly conspired to buy and fix up the house next store, but first devised many elaborate ways of ascertaining whether or not it was currently occupied. Oh dear.

Anyway, lots of knitting going on too but I was too lazy this weekend to get photos done, more to come soon.

Last two weeks of my job at Kew, it's been a really great summer and no matter what happens next I'm so happy to have had the opportunity to work in such a great place. It's kind of like going to Jefferson (the magnet school I went to for High School). It's a place full of people more or less interested in the same thing, so you feel like you can really fit in with most people. Will keep you posted as any job prospects develop there.

Off to bed now, I had knitting group tonight as well, then a 4 way video Skype with my family (yes! conference calls now supports multiple videos!) but I figured I better blog now or I won't get a chance till next weekend.

Cheerio!

Visit Mania!!

Hello Dear Readers,

Been very quiet lately because I was getting ready to have guests (read: cleaning house top to bottom) and then playing hostess for a week!

My mother and sister came to London to see us all! Mom and Cat spent Tuesday hanging out in Putney and then Wednesday I took them into the City, here we are crossing Waterloo Bridge.

We did a lot of the tourist stuff, Covent Garden (think My Fair Lady)...

...and the British Museum.

Went to my brother's office in Holborn (three buildings down from where we stayed with the band in high school) and had lunch at a fish and chips shop in Soho. Fantastic shoe shopping district there by the way....

Thursday mom and Catherine spent the day at Kew Gardens while I was at work. In the evening we stuck around to participate in Summer Swing at the gardens and saw a production of "Dancing in the Streets."

It was a fantastic evening of pickle sandwiches, Stevie Wonder and co. and dancing of course! Also free samples of Grand Marnier and oranges and a general good time.

Mom and Chris headed to Cyprus on Friday while Cat and I spent the day recovering. Saturday the three of us kids had a day in the city together, but I'll post that later this week, right now my brother and I made seven layer Mexican dip and are about to start watching the World Cup (think Super Bowl, but with worse commercials). Go Spain!

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!

THE Boat Race

Hello Dear Readers,


Yesterday was a big day for Putney, the world famous Oxford/Cambridge boat race! The banks of the river were packed with people from Putney Bridge to Cheswick Bridge. I went down to Thames Rowing Club boat house (where my brother rows) to watch the start(s). First off were the second best boats. The crowd there were sitting along the concrete launch that slopes to the river. The race officials kept pushing us back and back, finally to the road, claiming a giant Tsunami sized wave was going to wash us away. With typical English grumbling we all backed to the road. When the boats finally went by, a feeble wash of about 2 feet came up onto the launch. This prompted a lot of jeering from the Foster's swilling crowd, to which the official responded "Oi, you lot, if you don't cut that out I'll make you go to the other side of the road!" But all in good fun of course. The 'first' boats launched second, at 4:30, to a great deal of excitement. Oxford was pulling out ahead as they passed us. By the time I walked from the river back to my house, I put on BBC 1 to watch them heading in to the last mile (it's about a 4 mile race). Cambridge edged their way to victory, securing a boat length and a half ahead of Oxford, what excitement! They hadn't won the past two years, so it was a good win for them. Better luck next time Oxford.
I did take some pictures on Patrick's camera phone, but I'm not sure how to get them from his mini SD card to this computer. They weren't that good anyway, just a bunch of guys in a boat....


Even more exciting, the new season of Dr. Who (with a new, young sexy doctor) premiered last night, also on BBC1. How nice it is to watch it as it comes out, then flip over to BBC3 to watch Dr. Who Confidential. Eat your heart out Stephanie! (Think the Monkey-Butt will come out rude, but not Ginger?)


Hope everyone is having a happy Easter. I polished off the chocolate cake I made!!! Chocolate seems to be an important part of Easter here, it's almost like Halloween!

P.S. Apologies for the awful spelling. Both Chris and Patrick are gone this week and the computer I'm using doesn't have the good spell check that I'm used to, and I'm a rubbish speller.
eta fixed spelling New Years 2011-12, updating blog as part of new year refresher!

A day at the races....

Hello Readers,

Saturday was the big Woman's Head Race, or as Pat 'affectionately' calls it, Pooh Sticks. It was a pretty chilly day, but it wasn't raining! :-) That's what you are supposed to say about the weather here, at least it isn't raining, or at least it isn't cloudy, or at least it isn't etc.... We walked down to the old Harrod's Furniture Depository and swung around the gates to the old condemned dock to watch them go by.
That's me leaning way out on the railing, and standing to my right is Patrick.

At least 300 boats in this race! In a head race you have all the boats in front of the starting line, and they get released in 15 second intervals and it's a timed race, so you don't really know how you did until the end, but it's more interesting to watch because the boats keep coming and coming and coming.

The team we were cheering for was Thames Boat Club, which had three boats in the race.
ummmmm, i think this is the one with Patrick's girlfriend in it, sitting 6th from the front....you have to look REALLY hard. They came in 4 th out of the 16 boats in their division, not too shabby.

After the race came the party! It was Oscars themed, so many people dressed either as if they were going to the Oscars, or as people who had won an Oscar (there was even a Nemo, and a Mary Poppins) One girl came as the red carpet, but of course some people had to go for the gold.... I'll see if I can rustle up some pictures for it.

Off to do my morning shopping/chores. So busy in my 'unemployment'

Tuesday is Knitting Night

Hello Readers,

Tuesday nights are pretty exciting for me, I get on a big red double-decker bus and go from Putney to the glorious Hammersmith Bus station for Knitting night at Cafe Nero! I took some action shots of the group last night:



the group is doing a KAL of the French Press Felted slippers, but last night three of use were doing baby blankets, so maybe it should have been a baby blanket-a-thon! The group is a lot of fun, I'm so glad to have people to hang out with other than my housemates, I think if I didn't have them I would go crazy......the remind me of my old knitting group(s). :-)
And here is said giant pink baby blanket, in progress...

The gray is for the boarder, in the end it should look something like this one by Brooklyn Tweed, but in pink and gray.

It was also my brother's girlfriend's birthday yesterday, and I got to go to Waitrose (local version of Whole Foods) and pick out this FANTASTIC cake, and carry it home with me. I felt so important going down the street with my cake box, and what a cute cake!
MMMMmmmmm, birthday girl's privilege to face-plant in the cake...

But Pat's just got a big mouth.....


Ok, off to Putney High street to see about a job at The Body Shop... I know, it's a bit of a cop out, but I would like to move in to our own apartment eventually, and biology jobs are a bit thin on the ground. Wish me luck.

A journy of 1,000 miles...

Begins with a single step they say. Well today was my first 'working' day in Putney, London, UK. Patrick has some sort of food poisoning so I've been helping to take care of him. This morning we had to go out and get bananas, sprite and apple sauce for him. Looking everywhere for applesauce I finally had to ask someone, who directed me to the shelf under the mustard. Yes, it's really a 'sauce' here, a sweet, sticky, put-it-on-your-crepes sauce. Not exactly appealing to Patrick's upset stomach, so I decided that I'd buy a ton of cheap apples and make it myself. That good old American, Pioneer can-do spirit!. It was actually quite easy, I just peeled, sliced and boiled the hell out of them and mashed them up with a wooden spoon. It seems to have worked, as Patrick was able to keep it down, and I have mastered another domestic skill.

After seeing Patrick safely home and on the couch I went back out to Putney High street to do some other shopping (since stores don't open until 10). Some photos of my walk:

Poor, sick Patrick.....

"Typical" street in Putney.


MAILBOX!!


I found a 'fabric' store, which they call Haberdashery, and asked for 'batting' which they call wadding. I had a nice long chat with the woman at the counter about starting a knitting group and plan to email her tonight to get the ball rolling. We'll see what comes of it, but I'm also angling for some piecework tailoring and hemming etc. It's a start. I then wandered over to another shop and the woman at the counter was knitting, so we had a nice long chat and she directed me to lots of places to get yarn and the local library. The library is pretty quaint, and I"m planning to get quite a few books on the history of the local area. On the way back I hit up the thrift stores (there was a hot water bottle there Maddie, so tempting!) and the local Yoga place, which is pretty intense. The first class is free so I'm going to check it out tomorrow, the classes are 90 min long!!

Just finished up the day with vacuuming and taking care of Patrick some more. At least I feel useful. My next project after finishing the quilt and hat is to create a backstrap loom from bamboo that I'm going to pinch from our back door neighbor and weave a rug from old t-shirts and jeans..... should be fun! I'll take pictures if I get it all sorted.

As promised, here is the mystery sign I found, any guesses as to what it means?