Sex(y scientists) and the City, or, Midnight(s) in Paris

Salut Mon Chers Lecteurs,

What a fantastic weekend I've had in Paris!  I took the Eurostar on Thursday evening with my friends Jacquie and Aurelie.  We stayed at Aurelie's Great-aunt's flat which was the cutest garret you ever saw, something out of a modern La Boheme. Slanted roofs and half a bath tub, complete with ornery downstairs neighbors who hit their ceiling with a broom. 

Paris is very much a city of art, but I didn't appreciate just how much there would be just around!  Apparently the famous graffiti artist Blek le Rat has kicked off a lot of it, and these little space invader mosaics can be seen all over the city.  It's one thing knowing Paris is a center for art and culture, but I was blown away by it.  I really came away with a lot of inspiration and ideas for new projects, one of the things I love about traveling. I regret that I didn't bring my sketch/idea book with me to capture it all.

 It also helped that we were with a local who knew which sites to take us to, such as this view of Paris by Night that we got on top of a famous department store.

 We steered pretty clear of the touristy stuff, though I got a good view of the famous tower by night as well.  We had spent the day walking walking and walking, starting with the local market places, going to Sacre Ceure where we had a sunny picnic (and I picked up some Linen fabric for a bath towel - so absorbent!)

 The last day was more walking walking walking, and discovering lovely historic architecture in the older part of the city such as the Marie.  We had so much bread wine and cheese, but really I could have stayed and eaten another week.  We had Corsican food, Aurelie's Great Aunt fed us crepes with homemade jelly and we also had traditional buckwheat crepes from a Brittany crepeerie.  The company was so good too, above are Aurelie and Elisabetta and me in Louis XIII square (I believe). Not pictured are Jacquie and Mirella.

The last evening we couldn't stay away from Notre Dame and walking on the Seine like all good tourists.  We also checked out the famous Shakespeare and Company, the English language book shop facing Notre Dame.

There was just so much to do and see, we are already thinking of another trip back.  I really need to take Chris next time too, it was really a romantic city and though Elisabetta let me hold her arm while we were walking on the Seine (she's Italian, it's very natural) it's not quite the same.  This was more like a taster to whet my appetite for more.

Mes amis au revoir!!

The Best Laid Plans

Hello Dear Readers,

Well I had big plans for this weekend, pruning the neighbors rose bush (it grows over into our garden) painting the office and kitchen, the full laundry of three people (incl. sheets) but Friday night I felt a sore throat and Saturday I had a full blown head cold, curtsey of Patrick.  Boys really do have cooties!

The only thing I really managed was to make this Itty Bitty Dress for my friend's daughter. I kind of tried to do a hybrid between the 3T size and the newborn one by shrinking the 3T by 25% and adding .5 inch on each side, but it's still hard to know if it will fit.  I used two old t-shirts, one from Patrick and one from another friend, and the butterfly is off of a pair of Molly's old jeans.....so what goes around comes around, a pretty eco-friendly up-cycled dress all in all!  If it fits and she likes it I plan on making several more as it perfectly uses up most of a t-shirt and I have a bunch of color combos and embellishments I want to try.  She my only friend with kids who has a girl, so unfortunately she is going to be at the receiving end of a lot of girly wear as dresses are more fun than trousers!

I also went to Patrick's Four's Head race this year, hard to believe it's been a year already.... Wasn't up for doing a brunch this year, though I thought about it.  Just too much going on.

I went in to work today because I was giving a short talk to some A-level (mid high school I think is the equivalent) students, but by lunch time I was dragging so I took the afternoon off.  Hanging out with knitting, pod-casts and tea, hopefully I'll be up to speed tomorrow.  This Thursday I take the Eurostar to Paris.  Can this really be my life?!?  Too much fun!

I'll take lots of photos and catch you up on all the fun, fashion and food of Paris next week.
Heather

Baby's First Halloween, or, an excuse for pumpkin hats

Hello Dear Readers,


Last weekend Chris and I took a trip up to Chez Brooke-Becker in Cambridge to visit my good friend Molly from graduate school.  I made a pumpkin hat for Katelyn and it was pretty much the cutest thing you ever saw, and we got a number of compliments on it from strangers.

She even wore it to the pumpkin patch, naturally, where we picked some pumpkins for carving and snacking on seeds. Molly made a cute, sorry, scary face out of the word BOO (left) and George made this fantastic screwball eyed beauty (right).

Chris and I tag teamed a Jack Skellington look alike (center), who hopefully spooked some kids last night.  We weren't home on Monday evening so we didn't get any trick or treaters, but I did see quite a few around coming back from the gym, lots of skeletons and witches, very traditional here.

I also got worms from Molly for my compost bin who will hopefully keep it going though the fall, though we are having a strangely warm November.  I had plenty of room to bring stuff back because I brought a bunch of stuff to share with them, including the baby skirt I made a while ago.  She's still a bit small for it, but I have no fears she'll grow into it quickly.  She also really loved the baby monkey, especially the red mouth, that one goes on the top of my list for baby presents in the future now.

All in all we had a fantastic trip, looking forward to going back in a few months for George's birthday if everything goes according to plan.

Cheers!

Like White on Rice

Hello Dear Readers,

This weekend was the first one in a while where I didn't have to work either day at the sewing shop.  Instead, I made a long time dream of mine into a reality, painting the hallways and living room!!

We spent Saturday taping copies of the trashy paper Metro all along the base boards, washing the walls with sugar soap and painting the edges and trim with a brush.

Saturday came the fun part of actually laying on the white, acrylic paint.  Gone are the tire marks, gone are the weird scratches in the wall at hip height (?) gone are the randomly placed hooks and most of the nasty water stain from that leak.......

Yup, it was a true team effort as Chris, Patrick, Calvin and I all pitched in at varying stages and abilities.  There was a two for one sale at the B&Q (Home Depot for my American readers) so we have 20 liters of paint, enough probably to do the kitchen, bathroom and office as well, maybe even a little bit of our room.   That will have to wait a while because I think we are all painted out right now, but how wonderful it looks!

Friday night I went with some girlfriends from knitting and Chris and my brother to see the opening of Wildlife Photographer of the Year at the museum.   It is totally worth a go, and I know I'm going back a few more times on my lunch break, some of them you can hardly believe are real.

On the bus ride back I finished up this cheeky monkey, a pattern I got for free when at Michaels picking up some much needed ribbon for Cat's wedding.  I'm going to visit my good friends Molly and George this Friday-Sunday and I thought this would be a good gift for their baby Katelyn.

Here he is admiring the whiter than white wall near my brother's room - I think I'll go on the stairs now, sniff paint fumes and admire the snowy whiteness.....

More from Cambridge next weekend!

Cheerio!

Cat Lindon Got Married..... and I helped!

Hello Dear Readers!

Greetings from London!  The flight back was ok, I managed to rest my eyes a bit before landing, hopping in a cab, dumping my stuff and cycling to work!  I also am working at the sewing shop all weekend so there is no rest for the wicked.

Speaking of work, here is a picture of the sweat shop my sister was operating before the wedding.  Here we are assembling boxes, cutting paper to put in them, filling them with wedding M&M's and tieing them up with ribbon!  Well, SOME of us did, Patrick is dj'ing in the back there.  What did we do before Spotify?

It was all worth it though, the wedding was splendid, and Cat and I were knock outs!

There was lots of food, dancing and general merry making (open bar!).  Cat and Jeff make a lovely couple, don't you think!

I also had a great time hanging out with both sides of my family (The Baums on my mother's side and my dad's brother and sister and their families).  There was also a girl there who was a friend of the girlfriend of a friend of the best man (got it?).  Turns out though, she works for the company who has the contract my dad's company is taking over, though she didn't know that the Cat of Cat and Jeff's wedding that she was going to was Cat Lindon.  She sees him every Wednesday, apparently, small world!

My aunt gave me a splendid quilt in blues and purples which is currently gracing my bed as it gets chillier in London, though still unreasonably warm.  In exchange I gave her this lovely Ice Queen I made out of the lilac cashmere my friend Lucy brought back from China.

Just her color too!  You can see my Greek flashcards just under her elbow on the left, didn't have too much time for knitting and studying but I wasn't too far behind when I went to class Thursday night, so I seem to have made out ok.  We also took a family trip to Walden pond, one of my favorite spots in Mass.  Sigh, so hard to come back, but nice to be home.

Off to relax with Chris, we hardly go to see each other this busy week!

Cheers!

Somebody's Getting Married!

Hello Dear Readers!


Greetings from Boston!  I'm here for my big sister's wedding which was this past Sunday. I'll do a bit of a bigger post on it when I get home and download my own pictures, but here is a sneak preview of the big day:

Me and the Best Man Eli (pronounced L E, as in Elliot) walking down the aisle

Cat and Jeff, just after the ceremony, she's so happy!!

And of course, obligatory photo of my dad, boyfriend, and brothers acting stupid......

It was a great day, we had amazing non-October weather well into the high 20's, full sun and not a cloud in the sky. The whole thing ended with Jeff grabbing the mike and leading us all to sing along to Life is a Highway. 

Revenge of Mothra

Hello Dear Readers,
Well I had a pretty nice reverse staycation (went to work, but stayed in a different place) at my friend's place in Ealing. It's quite a bit different than Putney, more of a little town feeling in some ways. There is a lovely park with an old house that used to be Sir John Sloane's country house. It also has a nice mall and a good little organic grocery store. We also discovered a Cypriot restaurant with a lot of, shall we call it character? Big portions and bigger personalities on the owners/staff. It is certainly a place I'd visit again on a nice Saturday or Sunday for shopping and general wandering about. The kitties were good too, but a bit insistent in the mornings with their meowing. I really enjoyed having my own space for two weeks, listening to BBC radio 4 in the mornings with breakfast, enjoying Lucy's vast collection of teapots and catching up on knitting and tv watching. Yesterday we had an amazing event at the Natural History Museum, it was a "Science Uncovered" Friday night, with bars, jars, and life on mars at the theme.

There were scientists on soap boxes talking about controversial subjects, a science bar where you could have a drink and a chat with a "real scientist", and plenty of tables set up by different departments to talk to the public about what they do. There were also a bunch of tours, and I gave 3 of the area where I work, the Cryptogamic herbairum. It was so much fun, I was hyped up all night with excitement, though I crashed and burned when I finally got home (to Putney for the first time in two weeks).

Here are some photos of me taken by Chris who came on the last tour. I had a good time, and people were asking a lot of questions which is usually a sign they were engaged and enjoyed it. Hopefully I'm around next year to do the same thing!

I spent the rest of the weekend working on various projects that were percolating in my brain while I was away. One was to do more spinning, mix it up a bit, but unfortunately I found this little guy in a stash of fiber. AHHHHH, MOTH!! Certainly that's a four letter word in this house. I popped the offending wool in the freezer, and I think it's just isolated to this one section of un-spun wool since it was open, in my room and probably smelled irresistible to the moths since it still has some lanolin. Oh well, at least it's still spin-able, though I'm going to start organizing my other stash into zip lock bags.... I did tons of other knitting, and got some amazing yarn from my friend who I was cat sitting for, but I'll save that for next weekend's post as it's already Monday.

Cheerio!