How I learned to stop worrying and love crochet

Posted on September 29, 2013 by

So… Remember how I said I hated crochet? I changed my mind.

I didn’t do it all by myself. My friends Liz and Emily (aka Velizeraptor and Gremilyn) came over to the boat yesterday for a cuppa, a bit of cake, but far more importantly – Liz was on a mission to teach us how to crochet. She is a bit of a crochet wizard, so I was looking forward to finally being able to do it.

At knitting club I had really tried to learn it but had decided that I fundamentally did not enjoy crochet; I didn’t understand it and I wasn’t going to try. I thought there might be something incompatible about my hand and the needles which somehow made it not work, which I found out wasn’t a million miles off, which I will get to in a minute.

Firstly, I got quite excited as Liz had put together a little crochet package for both of us, including our very own rainbow coloured crochet hooks! She had planned on us both crocheting a little mug cosy, but we didn’t quite get that far. It was a bit of a shaky start for me, my hands really are incompatible with crochet – I’m left handed, and prefer to hold the needle from underneath (as opposed to from above, aka ‘pen’ vs ‘knife’).

However, after at least a couple of hours and some very patient teaching, I FINALLY got it, and managed to rattle off a couple of test patches, one of which I’m sure is passable for a mug cosy. The yarn we used was lovely, it’s a cotton yarn made by Adriafil, and it comes in awesome bright colours.

My mind is beginning to unravel (pun completely intended) and I’ve been excitedly searching Ravelry and Pinterest for patterns and things which I’m able to do at this stage.

One day I will also be a crochet wizard.
If you have any ideas please do let me know!

London Zoo

Posted on September 26, 2013 by

It’s been a pretty hectic week. I went home from work today sick, due to something I ate last night. I’m not sure whether I should let the restaurant know or not. Either way I won’t be going back; I was going to do a post on it and everything! Not sure they deserve it now. I also got some long lady nails stuck on last night, meaning I can so some more awesome things with kitten nail transfers.

The most strenuous activity, however, took place on Tuesday, when I went down to London to spend the day working with the lovely team at Coco de Mer. Whilst on the train I remembered the last time I was in London was absolutely aaaaages ago, when me and Tom packed a massive lunch, took a train and spent one sunny Saturday exploring the zoo.

(I know this isn’t exactly good blogging, sharing ancient photos with you all, but I’m sitting here feeling sorry for myself and remembering 1. sunshine 2. not feeling ill and 3. all the animals!)

London Zoo is pretty spectacular, if you haven’t been before. The most impressive thing, I thought, was the architecture – the buildings are absolutely stunning, ranging from the beautiful 1920’s red brick reptile house to concrete block 1970s monstrosities, to the Grade I listed old elephant house, with it’s green copper roof. I took the time to read the descriptions next to each one – apparently the shape of the roof is designed to mimic the shape of elephants around a watering hole.

Most of these buildings have been deemed not suitable to house the animals any longer (mainly due to the fact that animals need a living environment, not a concrete enclosure), so they sit empty. The funniest example of this is the penguin pool, which is situated right next to the fish and chip stand. The amount of people who didn’t bother to read the sign saying something along the lines of ‘this exhibit is now empty you can find the penguins over there’ was hilarious – they persisted in staring at the empty pool shouting “PENGUIIINS WHERE ARE YOOOOU?”

Another highlight was the monkey enclosure, which houses these cute little hipster monkeys, and is pretty much open so you can watch them roaming around being mischievous. There was a sloth in there too.

I have no holidays left which I’m a bit sad about, but I’m determined before the end of the year to spend another Saturday exploring somewhere, especially if it involves animals.

Vintage Fair Finds

Posted on September 22, 2013 by

Dress and shoes – vintage.

Be kind. This is my first outfit post… ever. I’m somewhat of a reluctant model, as you can probably tell.

Yesterday I attended the rather lovely Lou Lou’s Vintage Fair at the Passenger Shed, nextdoor to Temple Meads. I was immediately impressed at the modest entrance fee of £2, usually vintage fairs of this size are infinitely more expensive. The Passenger Shed isn’t exactly small, and yet the whole room was packed with treasures, and the lovely musky vintage smell reminiscent of your nana’s wardrobe.

I spend a good hour or so rummaging around by myself, and managed to pick up a few goodies, the first of which is this minty green dress, which I believe is an 80s M&S number. This isn’t exactly the kind of thing that I usually go for, but it was the first dress I picked up and when I saw it was still there on the way out, I had to have it.

vintage green dress bow

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On my way back home I stopped off in town to pick up a few bits and walked past another vintage shop, Urban Fox, when I saw someone waving from inside. Turns out my friend from uni works in there now, and I picked up these awesome blue suede shoes (teehee) with a discount! They are originally from Clarks and they are something called ‘softwear’ which I have interpreted as ‘ridiculously comfortable’. What an awesome day of shopping this was turning out to be.

Other items noteworthy of a mention are this totally badass Tabasco apron which I will be wearing to do all of my cooking from now on, and this dark splodge which is actually a faux fur Russian-style hat, perfect for when it gets colder.

I’ve been reading far more fashion blogs recently, which is affecting the way which I look at clothes, and the way that I dress. I’ve always had an passing interest in fashion, but have never really thought about putting outfits together, until now. I’m still a fan of wearing whatever the hell I want, and have found the more I read other people’s blogs the more inspired and adventurous I become.

Diet Pie

Posted on September 17, 2013 by

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Hooray! Food!

I almost forgot that at the beginning of my blogging adventure I promised you lovely lot some foodie-related things. We’ve been so busy with moving and the like that this week is the first proper cooking week we’ve had in ages. Unable to stand any more takeaways or frozen items we went through all our cook books and planned a week’s food.

Now, much like the rest of Twitter, it seems, I am recently re-obsessed with The Great British Bake Off. Last week it was pie week, and MY GOD between the nail biting suspense of split custard and soggy bottoms I had to fight the unbearable hankering for something wrapped in pastry.

However, we are trying to be good eaters recently, having lived on the diet-of-a-five-year-old (fish fingers, frozen peas, onion rings, toast etc) since university. We have the odd moments of inspiration, much like when we made a Mexican Jamie Oliver feast, but often because of work hours and commuting, I have the tendency to slip back into bowls of Weetos for breakfast, dinner and tea.

Not so long ago Tom gifted me the Hairy Dieter’s cookbook – a bunch of recipes from the telly show of the same name, starring the Hairy Bikers. I did enjoy watching the TV programme and have made a couple of recipes from this book before (the jalfrezi recipe is awesome) but had yet to give this one a go. So, to satisfy my need for pie but also continue on my health quest, we gave their Egg, Bacon and Asparagus Flan a go.

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It’s pretty clever, really. All of the recipes in the book are certainly not shrunk-down bland imitations of their full-fat counterparts, merely thoughtfully constructed homages to the real deal. This one, for instance, uses delicate filo pastry (which, according to GBBO is a real bitch to make, I used shop bought, obvs) as its base, with a cornflour thickened eggy custard and lightly fried bacon, onion and asparagus filling.

And apparently there’s only 245 calories per portion!

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I un-did all my hard work saving calories by whipping up this bad boy for pudding – kind of like a miniature apple strudel using a braeburn, a tablespoon of sugar, a teaspoon of cinnamon and some leftover scraps of pastry. I stewed the apples for about 5 mins or so, wrapped it in the pastry and stuck it in the still-warm oven for about 10 mins. It kind of exploded everywhere, but once it was covered in cream it wasn’t even noticeable.

Nom.

Winter is Coming…

Posted on September 15, 2013 by

autumn-wishlist

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6

Hasn’t the weather changed?! I can’t believe that 2 weeks ago it was blazing sunshine, and when I woke up this morning the first thing I did was put the heating on. This post was originally going to be titled ‘Autumn is Coming’ but by the looks of the pouring rain outside it has most definitely already upon us.

Autumn is my favourite season, no doubt about it. Despite having a summer birthday, I’m not one for warm weather, much preferring the cold (but maybe not so much the rain!). I’ve been planning for winter for months, and now that the A/W wardrobes have finally arrived in the shops it’s time to do some serious spending, and some serious knitting!

First up is this ‘Nicola’ knitted cardigan by Boohoo.com. All of my current knitwear is a bit knackered, and I have been after a giant chunky cardigan for ages. This one is a bit of a bargain, too, being only £20. But when I last checked on their website it had sold out in my size, gutted!

Of course when planning for winter you have to sneak some knitting projects in there too. I’ve been aware of Tiny Owl Knits for a while, discovering it when I first joined Ravelry, and always do a little ‘squee’ when I see what delights she comes up with next. This little fox stole has been on my knit list for a while, and I must get round to making it before the weather changes!

Tom owns a spectacular Howick duffle coat which he gets out every winter, and I’m a little bit jealous. This beige beauty off ASOS doesn’t break the bank, and looks pretty damn comfortable. I love the checked lining, and because of the colour I reckon it could go with pretty much everything.

Next up is this lovely little scalloped bag which is also off ASOS, and also a bargain at a mere £30. I love satchels, but some of the bigger brands can be quite pricey. I took the plunge and bought a Zatchels bag over the summer, and as much as I adore it I can’t seem to fit much in it. This seems a little bigger, at least. Enough for me iPad and boat key, which happens to have a massive inconvenient cork float attached to it!

Oh man, do I love my DM‘s. I already own a couple of pairs, and bought their brown Chelsea boots for last winter, just before the massive snows hit us, and was a little bit smug stomping around when other people were sliding down the street. However, I’m trying to be a bit more of a lady nowadays, and these bloody gorgeous Casey boots will go nicely with all the dresses I wear to work.

Speaking of, I spotted a beautiful twinkly nail polish on my friend at work, and when she told me it was from Butter, I took one look at their website and was hooked. I’m quite a fan of my nail art, and am recently coveting shiny and metallic shades. This one, ‘Thames’, seems to be the best of all worlds – metallic shinyness, and in my favourite shade of green. My nails will look like an Aston Martin.

Despite all my dreaming, though, this is all going to have to wait til the end of the month. Hurry up, payday!

‘Busfest’ 2013

Posted on September 10, 2013 by

Wow, have I had a long day. I have just come back from a very important shoot for work and I am pooped.

Anyway, here are some images from the weekend – myself, Tom and my brother went to Busfest (formerly known as Vanfest) at the Malvern Three Counties Showground; it is a celebration of all things ‘veedub’, a collection of beautiful splitties, t2’s and wedges, plus a massive auto jumble of spare parts. My brother has a type 2 so is fairly enthusiastic about the whole VW scene – I can see the appeal but unfortunately lack the funds to own a camper myself!

We had a really nice time mooching around the various stalls and marveling at the beauty of the rusty old vans. I have to admit I like the ‘rat look’ best, somehow the rust seems a lot more natural on a VW, especially one so old. Also the sweary gnome is genius, I spent a good ten minutes chuckling to myself about that, same with the little sign the stall holder had written. I think it’s the end bit which really makes me smile – “go on, sit on one!”

All the van talk has got me thinking, and I’ve been searching on eBay over the weekend for a cheap alternative to a VW. I reckon it would be amazing to have the option to just up sticks and pop off down the road for the weekend.

I’m going to have to do a bit of saving first, though.

New House Wishlist

Posted on September 5, 2013 by

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1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5

I’m currently in the middle of my week off, and instead of what I should be doing, which is sorting out the new house to live in and trying to clear all of my crap out of the old house, I’m day dreaming of stuff I want to buy and places I’m going to put it in my new abode.

They are all primarily from two websites, Quince Living and Howkapow. I quite simply typed ‘quirky homewares’ into Google and was rewarded by discovering these two sites, and have picked a few of my favourite products from each.

First up is this Caramel Wafer cushion (#1). I have a bit of an obsession with cushions at the moment, and should probably not be looking into buying more, but how awesome is this?! I can just see it perched atop my sofa. The second item from Quince Living is this cute little birdbox key holder (#2) – the little sparrow is a keyring, which you pop safely into the birdbox when you get home. How cute.

Howkapow have more of an odd and humourous selection – like the ‘Dishes I’d Rather Be Doing’ teatowel (#4), which lists Hollywood hunks and the reasons for their appeal (Johnny Depp, for example – apparently ‘his cheekbones are so high you can see them from space’). This little fox jug (#3) is also rather nice, I have a bit of an orange theme (not as hideous as it sounds) in my front room which this would complement perfectly.

Whilst at Cribbs last weekend we popped into John Lewis in search of kettles and other such boring bits of homeware when I spotted these beauties (#5). I don’t think I have ever made a margarita in my life, but I’m pretty fond of cocktails, and even if I weren’t sipping something alcoholic it would be a nice treat to drink out of something so beautiful.

It’s going to be a long wait til next payday!

View from the Poop Deck

Posted on September 2, 2013 by

Bonjour blogosphere.

This is one of those grovelly apologetic type posts, because I haven’t posted for six whole days! Holy moley.

The reasons are many – I’ve been super stressed at work due to two upcoming product launch dates, both in September, but the main reason is I have moved on to a boat!

Moving house is stressful enough, but there is added worry when you attempt to move to one of the most picturesque tourist hotspots on a Saturday, plus there is the danger of things falling overboard. We are in safe and sound, however, and even managed a mega Ikea haul earlier today.

As a parting gift, here is a quick iPhone pic of the view from what I like to call my ‘poop deck’, just outside my kitchen window. I’ve made a friend, his name is Swan Ronson.

I’ll do a follow up post soon, when I have the proper camera back, and everything is in it’s correct place!

Lily Doughball

Bristol-based fashion, beauty and lifestyle blog

Monthly Archives: September 2013