New friends!

Sometimes I like to think I have a few friends sitting on my bookshelves, keeping me company in my most desolate moments - usually when husbando and the wolbag have totally turned their backs on me and started talking amongst themselves (which does happen from time to time, but I tell myself this is mostly due to their mental idiosyncrasies - not mine... ). Occasionally (just occasionally), I am gripped by the need to peek into somebody else's world, just to see if mine really is as weird/boring/tough (depends on my mood, of course) as I think it is (and it never is, of course). And to satisfy this need, all I need do is reach for one of the four autobiographies I now own. The first three were Michael Palin's Halfway to Hollywood diaries, James Frey's A Million Little Pieces and George Harrison's I, Me, Mine. But this week, I took delivery of a new friend, Mark Oliver Everett's Things the Grandchildren Should Know, and I can't put him down! Now, this guy really has seen some shit. He REALLY has. Yet, just as his music does, his writing has me smiling, laughing, crying - all in a page. I think I'm going to add him to my dream dinner-guest list.

I also have some new friends on our front windowsill. Having spent most of February rummaging through loo bins looking for empty toilet roll holders for root trainers (and seriously jeopardising my career in the process), my sweet peas are now growing great guns and I'm reeeaaally hoping for some blossoms in May/June...

And here's a peek at the beginnings of a new quilt...

Wolbag, meanwhile, has been keeping warm and busy (just for a change).

No signal!

Our telly went a bit silly last week. Here in the UK we’re in the middle of a digital switchover and all our analogue channels are being switched off. As part of this, our local news region has shifted from ‘South’ England to ‘South East’ England. I’m sure you can imagine the havoc this has wrought. No longer do we hear about the latest contraptions devised for Worthing Birdman (an annual competition in which locals build flying machines to lift them highest and furthest over the town pier). Oh no. Now all we hear about is overcrowding, overworking, overcommuting, overeating, overpaying – overeverythinging (oh yeah, and the latest poncy art gallery to pop up on our coastline (I am an art lover, I promise, but it does seem that a new ‘art space’ has become the latest fix-all solution thrown at communities in need of ‘regeneration’ in the UK)).

So, when we discovered that we had no signal coming into our telly last week, we decided to keep it just that way. And what a revelation it’s been! Our evenings and weekends are longer, we sing, we potter, and I genuinely think we are happier. With everything now available on catch-up, we can still watch what we want, but in our own time. AND, I’ve had all the time in the world to drool over and buy lots of new fabric to build up my quilting stash, and get started on some exciting new projects! Check out some of my latest...

I’m turning the scraps from our wedding bunting into lovely pin wheels. These really are scraps so they’re fiddly but really good practice on my sewing machine... Liberty fabric from Sunflower Fabrics.

Some lovely vintage strips and squares from Vintage Fabric Market and Cotton Patch. Not sure how to combine these yet but some are already being put to use in a baby quilt for some expecting friends...

And, all the way from the US, Denyse Schmidt’s Flea Market Fancy (left) and Hope Valley (far right) ranges from Hawthorne Threads, and Lotta Jansdotter’s Echo range (middle) from FabricHQ. Some of these are definitely going into a picnic quilt for us!

And here’s The Wolbag watching over them all. He shouldn’t be on the table but how could I spoil his basking?

2011 - A Retrospective

Oh 2011, where did you go? Well, I'll let you into a little secret 2011, you went straight up to the top of my  'best years ever' list. Yep, you're right up there with 2003, my second-to-last year at university; 1995, when I discovered Radiohead; and 1988, when mum and dad gave me the Sylvanian Caravan for Christmas.

There were a few things I wanted to do before I turned 30, and 2011 turned out to be the year for ticking some of those off (but not all... have to save some for later): wild swimming in the Lake District, staying in a treehouse, successfully baking a loaf of bread, and finishing off my first quilt were the biggies. And, of course, marrying the guy that I love very, very much, and travelling to some very fancy places... It's a shame I didn't blog more really, but here's a visual 'quilt' of the highlights.

Concrete Jungle

... these streets will make you feel brand new

Empire State of Mind

Williamsburg sunshine and spring

Crossing borders...

Land of the free

Boardwalking

Well, I thought I'd be away from my blog for a while, but not quite THIS long... here is the first in a series of catch-up entries.

So, New York... all I can say is I am smitten. I wasn't expecting to fall in love, given how I crave my fresh air and bird song. But funnily enough, all the things I find in my favourite spots, I found too in that vast concrete jungle: space, variety, views, community, purpose and buzzing, bursting life. Forgive me for using my photos to document our trip but my words really don't do it justice. New York, I will be back...

Oh, we did SO much!


Hello Birdie!

WOW

I have to say, though it's had its wonderful, memorable moments, I am not sad to see the back of 2010. And it is with great hope, wonder and excitement that I look forward to all that 2011 brings. Many of my dearest friends are approaching some of 'life's big moments' and it is with them in mind that I write this post. Stay awesome 2011, we love you already!


Finally, I will get to walk the New York High Line!



There'll be lots of confetti...



Wine and cheese in the South of France anyone...?



And my favourite... some new 2011 arrivals!

And now... I've had enough of winter so I'm going off in search of spring...

Wishes and dreams

With all this snow and arctic ice, Christmas, with all her magic, has come a little bit early. And to get me in the dreaming mood, there's nothing better than one of my favourite poems...

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with gold and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly for you tread on my dreams.

WB Yeats

Video killed the radio star

I've been thinking a lot recently about what my world would be like without radio. A much quieter one certainly, but also a much less rich one. I LOVE my radio, I think it teaches me something new at least once a day. Radio means so much to people, all over the world. To me it is a great source of comfort and a quick route to total relaxation - to others it is a vital life-safer. Only recently I took part in Amnesty International's Radios for Burma campaign - this made me realise just how important simple modes of communication are to so many communities. I can only imagine the important role my radio would play if I were living in a remote, war-torn or politically unstable area... And as talk of switching from analogue to digital in the UK by 2015 increases, it makes me a bit sad. No more scratching and squawking as you go through the bands, no more twiddling and hissing - just a quick flick of a button. I hope radio won't lose its magic...

My breakfast heaven