April 2008

April 24th, 2008

Birthday planning

Because we’re so disorganised it was straight after Christmas, Astrid didn’t have much of a first birthday, so I’m now in planning mode for her first and a half birthday at the end of June.

I can’t remember how I stumbled upon nana company but I am quite in love with her cute little sugar biscuits in lunchboxes. Amy’s just had a baby but was very open to a custom order. Goodie good!



And because Astrid has just grown out of all her clothes we really are going to need a purple Circle Skirt from 6.5st. (The grey one’s going to need a rest soon.) I’d noticed recently that Clare did a lay-by on a print – so I asked Alison if it would be alright to do that with the skirt. Slowly slowly. Good quality. Built to last. Just like childhood days. I love custom orders and lay-by (and 6.5st french seams). And Astrid is going to love her 1.5 birthday.

ps. Have a look at today’s 44 times two – we’ve broken out of our moulds – and miraculously shot very similar subjects at the same time. It’s very cool.

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April 23rd, 2008

Mt Albert House



This is for the record, part of the family diary. So I shan’t apologise for the excessive photos. Much as I would like to.



We bought our house in Mt Albert in December 2006, three weeks before Astrid was born. We’re moving back to London on May 31st 2008 but we’ll keep this place for now.



The only work we did was to paint the kitchen and part of the hallway white, change most of the curtains and take up the carpet in half the living room.



By the time we leave there will be white walls and polished floors throughout the house. In my head reside plans for a complete overhaul, which will be done when we return one day with pounds in our pockets.



That or we just sell and move to Cheltenham.



We’ve not been in a position to do much to this place and I’ve never really been happy with the interior – although I love the house to bits.



Our stuff kind of sits awkwardly in it right now. Our things just don’t match the rooms – or the yellow stained wooden shelves.



There’s plenty of room for everything. I’ve got three work areas;



Sewing.



The shop room.



And the office.



I’ve been lucky to have half the living room for my sewing. It would feel too lonely tucked away elsewhere.



The exterior’s gorgeous – a 1940s california bungalow with the garden of my dreams. It’s been the perfect house for beginning our family, and it’s a comfort to know it’s here waiting for us whenever we decide to return.



The blue of the hallway proved too much for us this time.



A dark space I’m sure our books have appreciated.



A cool refuge it was in the hottest Summer in ten years.



We’ve lived with the magnolia.



And the brass light fittings.



The yellow ragroll has graced our bedroom on a daily basis.



Strangely, it’s peculiar charm has rather grown on me.



I’ll probably miss you house. I’ll definitely miss you garden and leafy streets. I won’t miss the hideous local shops where I have to hold my hand over my nose as I walk past the rows of Chinese takeaways and Internet Cafés with blacked out front windows. Mt Albert was once a graceful area – a lot of it still is – but sadly the shops have gone to absolute ruin.

Another good reason to move to London (that and the Caerphilly cheese).

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April 22nd, 2008

Working

We finally got a nanny for Astrid. Just before we leave. Don’t tell, but we’ve got Mary Poppins. She talks to Astrid all day long, sings songs, whistles, plays games, makes jokes, feeds, bathes, entertains, laughs, claps. She is Astrid’s friend. It’s brilliant hearing the goings on during the day while I’m working here in the office; Astrid’s squeals, laughter and mirth! I am tempted just to go and join in the fun.



But I’ll work instead. Work to get things finished. Work to tie up all loose ends. Work for clients. Websites for clients. Ads for clients. I’d forgotten how much I love my work. It’s a disaster trying to work and look after child, but independent again – out doing things, taking photos, visiting showrooms, coveting chairs, a little swap here and there – I couldn’t be happier.

My calendar now says just over five weeks. Five and a bit weeks ’til a little holiday in Singapore. Six weeks ’til our cottage by the Heath. And my London fantasy today? Walking up to Mistry’s in South End Green to buy Caerphilly cheese and oat cakes for afternoon tea.

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April 16th, 2008

Time to shop



at the shop.
(All proceeds go to the Moving to London Fund).

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April 10th, 2008

‘Normal’

This year I decided to actually lose the baby-weight I oh so efficiently gained (on medical instruction I might add) in the last two months of pregnancy. I had been so incredibly annoyed with myself every single day last year, that on New Years day I thought fuck it, I’m buying some scales and going on a diet.



After I’d had Astrid, I rather fancifully imagined the weight would simply melt away quietly – that by having my macrobiotic cook books on the kitchen shelf I would, by osmosis, revert to my pre-pregnancy macrobiotic ways without actually doing so. I can now officially report back that the Charlotte’s by Osmosis Macrobiotic books in Bookshelf diet DOES NOT WORK.

I can however announce that by using this website to keep a food diary and some bloody-minded persistence – motivated by sheer desperation to make my own clothes and fit the Japanese sizes – I am, as of today, officially a ‘normal’ weight for my height. To celebrate I’ve made myself another dress (marc jacobs jersey knit in grey), and another’s ready (nani iro black pixels) for hemming today.

{ Yes, that is yoghurt on my clothes; I am standing in our messy junk room that needs painting and yes I have chopped all my hair off }

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April 7th, 2008

Turning

Yesterday Astrid took her first steps. Today she left the house for a walk with a new nanny. They’ll be back soon.



As the souls of the autumn leaves slip quietly into the sky and their bodies shatter underfoot, another year passes – another circle of time completes. This is my time of year; when nature speaks loudest – the colours intense, rich and vivid, the light moody and sharp, the air teeming with atmosphere.

So close to the end… things never seemed more alive.

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April 6th, 2008

Joomla and Simple Image Gallery Pro



The pretty photo is for those who came here hoping to find a handmade, baby or garden post and instead found this terribly dry coding post :)

I’ve had a few setbacks on the Joomla front and have had to spend such a long time finding solutions I’m writing them here in case they can help a few people in the future.

Firstly, Simple Image Gallery and Simple Image Gallery Pro did not work not matter what I did. I searched for ‘Simple Image Gallery not working’, ‘Simple Image Gallery only showing code’, ‘my thumbnails do not show in Simple Image Gallery’. The troubleshooting guide was telling me to check permissions and GD Libraries, all of which were ok. The solution I found buried – and I knew it would be simple; take out the spaces in the gallery code.

The demo instructions tell you to use this code: { gallery }summer_trip_to_italy{ /gallery }
In fact, you need to take out the spaces so they read {gallery}summer_trip_to_italy{/gallery}

Also, if you’re having trouble installing Simple Image Gallery or Pro – getting an error message: Error! Could not find an XML setup file in the package then you need to unzip simple_image_gallery_pro.zip and inside you will find two further zip files. plugin_jw_sigpro-j10-1.2.zip is for Joomla 1.0 and plugin_jw_sigpro-j15-1.2.zip is for Joomla 1.5.

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April 4th, 2008

Shinzi Katoh shopping



A friend emailed me a few weeks ago with a link to the Shinzi Katoh shop. I’d done a little research and visited the shop following Leslie’s amazing encounter – but it’s always more motivating when you’ve had a friend tell you you really really must look, NOW!

So I had a proper look this time round, and was, to a degree, sensible, because I’ve handed all my shop money over to the Moving To London Fund. Which has put a bit of a dampener on the old shopping in Japan business.



I was going to make Astrid a bag with this canvas – and I knew I wanted to keep a metre of my organic voile back for lining – but I couldn’t for the life of me remember why at the time so it’s packed and gone. I am loving these linen tapes – so cute – and so many to choose from! And of course the fabric section is rather exciting too.



After I’d managed to check-out in Japanese I discovered there is an English shop – which doesn’t contain the full range although you can ask for items from the Japanese shop. However if you want the full Japanese experience without knowing Japanese, I’ve made a tutorial here.

Please let me know if there’s anything missing. And if someone can enlighten me on what one should put under ‘furigana’ I would be most grateful. As I’m sure would be the Shinzi Katoh people who will get people saying ‘miss’ for that!

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