wasted rainy day? I don't think so!

I feel like I've just spend ages today looking at different blogs. Blogs blogs blogs. You really can spend hours and hours going from one to the next. Today's activity was much more appealing than the other home activity that was going on - L is obsessed with "end of the world" movies, and at the moment he's watching Zardoz (again). Despite the lovely 70's knitwear and crochet that it features, I'm leaving him to it.

I'm on the hunt for UK based stuff as I feel like so many of the blog I look at are from the US of A. There's absolutely nothing wrong with them, I like them a lot. I just want MORE.. MORE MORE MORE stuff to look at. And I also want to find some kind of UK network thing going on.. not all of them are UK based, but they're lovely all the same.

I really like this blog, Needled. It has a really lovely inspiring feel to it.. its on my daily read list now.

Sofia Barao's work is lovely.. it has such a dreamy feel.

Wee Birdy (a fellow aussie in London) seems to keep her finger on the pulse of things in London. I'll be keeping an eye on this one.

Resurrection Fern has some lovely things on Etsy. And some nice post on Lyon, where I'm heading to next week. Handy to discover those pointers this weekend!

I'm loving roman sock's work. I'm totally going to make the frog, and owls (they are so cute)

Some foodie things at Orangette and Pictures & Pancakes (they have such lovely photos on here!)

I could go on.. but I won't - there are already loads of links in my blog roll.. Inspiration is good.

More Craft - Rosette Making

The other day while I was at the Hidden Art UK Design Fair at the Truman Brewery, I pick up this rosette making kit from Barley, who runs Fabrications on Broadway market. She's promoting these as part of her Christmas present wrapping workshop thingies. Basically - wrapping your pressies out of recycled things - scarfs, ribbons, buttons. All sorts.


I thought these little kits were cute, so I picked up one, here's my first attempt, I think i need a bit of practice. But not bad for a first try ( it actually looks better in real life than in these pics - I gave it to Feeb for her birthday yesterday, well as part of her pressie.)

Making secrets

It's kind so annoying really that its Christmas. It's not just about my usual dislike for the festive season - this year it's more than that. Since getting all crafty with it lately I decided to make some presents for people. However, I can't put pictures of the finished items or my Work In Progress up here on my blog in case the people I'm making for see them and then where would the surprise be? And so far I'm pretty happy with what I'm making!

Some people, like A Steno Pad For My Thoughts has so many great ideas for what she's making for her friends and family and posts about them as well. My fav things she's made is this recipe book that she's pulled together from her Grandma's old hand-written cook book to give to all her family. Its such a great idea (and since I'm still in the experimental stage with my recipe filing system) I'm jealous - only problem is, she has really neat and lovely hand writing, while everyone knows I write like a 14 year old teenage boy.

So the main thing is - I am making stuff, you all just can't see it yet! ok!

Cracking Granny Squares

I've wanted to make Granny Squares for ages. In fact, its the reason I learnt to crochet. I dream of making a lovely blanket. But for so long now I just haven't been able to crack them. I can't get my head around them - I'm really bad at following patters, and am trying to rectify this. I have these two great books - one I got a while ago 200 Crochet Blocks by Jan Eaton and the other is an amazing Japanese motif design book I picked up in Paris at the Japanese book shop.

Maybe its insane trying to learn granny squares from a book that is not even in English - but the designs are so pretty I just had to try.

I found these inspirational posts here and here on Attic24's blog (which could be a new fav blog for me) and I was convinced. I had to give it a go! On Friday I was home along and it was pouring with rain, so what better time to struggle through and crack the granny squares. I started with a few misses rather than hits - they looks ugly, very ugly. I had bookmarked The Purl Bee's granny square project ages ago and she also helped me through the tough times.

I got so excited that I just kept going and going. They really don't take too long to churn through each square side. I was using up my oddments from ebay, unfortunately I had to stop as my little scraps of yarn are not long enough now to go round a whole square.

Watch this space - there will be more granny squares.

Updates & Breakfast foods: eggs in tomatoes

It's been a while since I've updated (yet again) but things have been a bit busy here in London lately with Minna leaving and working and so on. And our camera is broken (it was dropped outside the Pompidou center in Paris and seems to take rather strange photos).

Here's an old photo of something yummy (although I don't eat eggs I can appreciate the idea behind these). L's well into them, and made them again this morning. I saw on Angry Chicken's blog she's looking for interesting breakfast ideas, and thought that this is a great one!

Basically - hollow out some tomatoes, put them in a hot oven with some S&P, a dash of olive oil and some fresh basil. Cook them for about 15mins (or until kinda soft and cooked) then crack an egg in them and put them back in the oven until the eggs are cooked (maybe about 10mins or less).

The recipe is from this excellent Italian cookbook, The Silver Spoon which I recommend everyone to get hold of. Its an encyclopedia of Italian cooking, so many ideas and great recipes. We also have the Spanish version, 1080 Recipes both brought to you by the great publishers, Phaidon.

Lovely Softies..

I was checking out here and stumbled across these lovely crocheted and fabric creatures from Sweet Nellie. I think they're just beautiful.

Books I want: Creepy Cute Crochet - Zombie, Ninja, Robots & More

I saw this book on FutureGirl's blog and I want it. You can make little ninja, scary monster.. it looks excellent. I know who I need to make that monkey for.. she's even asked for a crocheted something for her bday which is coming up in August. Better get on that!