August 2008

August 31st, 2008

A delicious disaster

I think I’ve got my energy back. This weekend I’ve photographed, blogged, flickrd, crocheted, ravelried, made up a nice big shopping cart at nature baby, walked across the Heath, and, at long last, baked something.



Based on the Edmonds Cook Book recipe because we never have the sour cream for the Donna Hay recipe, I used almond meal, spelt flour, mixed spice, cinnamon and raspberries. And I made double quantity.

Now I just need to master the super hot oven with no seal, replace the IKEA patty cases that don’t fit the muffin tray, get some skewers for testing – and we’re away!

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August 31st, 2008

Babychops ii

Friday was 20 week scan day. Well, actually it was Thursday, but I thought it was Friday – and fortunately with some persuasion on my part I managed to get in.

And, ta da… it’s a girl! We got the ultrasound lady to check several times just to make sure. She even gave us a little print out of the empty space above the little footprints just to prove it :)



So for now she’s called babychops ii, although we do have a little shortlist of names. Oooh, can’t wait to see her in January. Can’t wait!

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August 31st, 2008

A bit of crochet

Oh what will I do when I finish at LBi on Wednesday – I’ll have no five day a week bus and tube ride. Ooh, but I will have two days a week to Notting Hill new job – more on that soon – very very exciting… and three days a week to look after my own clients, so I shall have to designate an hour each morning and an hour each evening to ‘pretend commute time’ to keep up the crochet.

I’ve been making… a green square, from this book



a purse in ecru, from this book



a little blue purse (just needs a button), also from this book



a pink scarf, which I just made up,



a card purse, which I also made up, based on my travelcard wallet,



and a brown scarf, which was hiding at photo time (since found), and which I also made up.

Yesterday I crocheted all day – a bag in my new LINNET malt grey yarn, which was undone and rewound after dinner. And now I’m working on baby shoes and socks and discovering the marvels of Ravelry.

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August 29th, 2008

chicken liver paté

At parties I can usually be found either bringing or serving one or all of the following: marinated fish salad with warm bread, orange and poppyseed cake, herbed barbequed lamb with garlic mayonnaise, chicken liver paté.



The other day they had fresh chicken livers at Pomona and as I can never walk past a good chicken liver we had paté this weekend.



Chicken Liver Paté

• 1 pot of chicken livers
• Brandy for marinating – get as good as you can afford
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 or so rashers of bacon, chopped
• 3 or so mushrooms
• a pile of herbs – thyme or whatever you have to hand
• 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• salt and pepper
• a generous knob of butter
• a good slosh of cream

Roughly chop the livers into two or three pieces each and soak overnight in brandy. Gently fry the onion in the butter until transparent. Add the bacon, mushrooms, herbs and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. When nearly cooked add the chicken livers and some or all of the brandy marinade and sear. Don’t overcook the livers as you want the paté to be pink in the middle.

Once done put it all into the food processor and blend.  Add a good slosh of cream and blend a bit more. Put in nice bowls, grind some black pepper on top, allow to cool a bit, then into the fridge to set. If you want to be really clever you could pour melted clarified butter on top and garnish with a bay leaf.

Takes a few hours or overnight to set.



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August 25th, 2008

A long weekend

This weekend was a nice long one. On Saturday morning we went to John Lewis and bought the new computer. We’d decided not to freight my g5 and cinema display over this time as it was all just so big – a new iMac would fit much better in the little cottage. So we now have ancient iMac from 2002 still going strong, and fabulous new iMac with the sharpest monitor ever!

The joy of being paid for an entire four weeks work is beyond description, especially after two years of not working full time. I’ll not go mad though. One small visit to Linnet and a few books from Amazon Japan – that’s it. I’m working from home again as of next week too so I’ll really enjoy it with my lovely new computer :)



We also went to Selfridges to get collars for the cats. I made name tags out of card and cover-seal and the much awaited letting of the cats outside was underway. Woo are they happy now. It was incredible how they physically transformed into healthier looking cats within minutes. Poor old cats. Really had had enough of being in.



I took the opportunity to do some gardening while the sun was out – the tomatoes are at long last planted, no doubt far far far too late; Polly and I went to the garden centre yesterday in the pouring rain – a week early for the sale, but never mind – I got plants and bulbs and our courtyard is now feeling happily beautiful in her new cloak of erigeron, scabious, babies-tears and these lovely yellow blooms.



Today however has been one of the worst days in a long time albeit with a happy ending. Astrid just wouldn’t go to sleep and was tired and grumpy all day. For fraying of the nerves it’s amazing how everything totally fell apart with one child’s refusal to go to sleep no matter how tired. By four this afternoon our neighbours would have thought my world was coming to an end. That’s certainly the impression coming from my little room I’d say. When we finally got Astrid to stay in the pram up we wandered to the Heath in the late afternoon sun. The blackberries were out and we filled the only vessel we had – Astrid’s bottle lid. She’d fallen asleep half way up Parliament Hill. Ah such sweet relief.



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August 16th, 2008

Time for catching up

You know what. I think the morning sickness is over. The tiredness is over. I know this because we must be in trimester two so the pelvic problems can kick in. But at least I’m awake.

So today after a little burst of energy I have some photos to show and some things to tell. So what I’ll do is upload all the pictures and then I’ll come back and write about them. Ok… right. Done. Now I think I need a cup of tea. This is what I’m like at work. Big burst of energy. Then I need to go and distract myself for a bit.

So here are the little books from Yvonne – I love dirt, which is a fab little book for people with kids, full of fun ideas for outdoor nature activities – like cloud racing! And London Children’s Rooms, well of course I had to have that!



And because Yvonne knows I have a bit of a thing for Shinzi Katoh – she also sent some neat stationery and some Japanese fabric which I love.



As I mentioned quite some time back I put a skirt and top on lay-by with Alison. And because I didn’t work for two months it was quite an extended lay-by, but following my first pay day Alison popped them in the post along with some over yummy goodies including some yarn which you’ll see in a minute.



Di’s housewarming gift came not long after we got here and the washcloths were put to immediate good use, meaning they’re far too busy to be photographed right now. And as Astrid took a shine to the needlebook and ferreted it away to some secret corner in the house it too is unavailable for today’s shoot. So what remains to be photographed is one moleskine notebook making very good use of a liberty print that’s now really rather well travelled :)



For weeks, if not months I’ve been tormented by the fact I’ve made so much stuff and not photographed any of it. I’ve made two nani iro / robe rouge dresses, two bunnies, little baby wraps, organic waffle hand-towels with nani iro bias binding, lunch bags, nappy bags, hand bags. Anyway, lots of stuff! I thought I could make a big pile and just take a photo, but I seem to have forgotten to do that.

Instead here are the current knit / crochet projects; these three small ones are for the morning and evening journeys to and from work and include a pink scarf, a blue scarf and a brown scarf. The pink scarf was going to be a washcloth but I couldn’t stop, the blue scarf was going to be a square for the baby blanket but again I didn’t want to stop. The brown one is using the merino Alison sent – with the suggestion it become a scarf for Astrid so that’s one project with a concrete destiny.



This is the big blanket I am crocheting. It started out as a scarf but I didn’t want to stop. Currently the size of a beach towel we think it’s going to be a fairly expensive blanket. I’m using Savannah DK, a blend of organic merino, cotton and linen. Every weekend we make a trip up to Loop to buy a few more skeins of yarn and to make use of their winding facilities.



Since we arrived I’ve had a select few of my snaplock plastic bags of fabric kept out on my shelves for the next project. Whilst at work I make little notes in my notebook – little ideas, plans, things I want to do. Every week I write down red linen bag, makeup bag, new pencil case, trousers for Astrid. Every week I carry that over to the next page.



So today I took my absolute favourites out of their filing bags – the purple linnet chambray, the grey organic cotton and the nani suzuran field – and added to that a special piece of Lotta from Leslie and I believe I have my makeup bag and pencil case sorted.



The red linen has been waiting for red cotton for weeks and weeks and weeks, so yesterday Kevin was in Soho and I grabbed my opportunity to send him to Kleins for some thread and to Cass Arts for some form of pattern paper. Since then I have found MacCulloch & Wallis stock dressmakers pattern paper.

A recent eBay acquisition is Astrid’s carpet. The minute it arrived she declared it hers. Not being a fancy shiny one, it was a bargain at £16 + postage; one slightly worn, handwoven pure wool, 7 x 9 foot Iranian carpet. Also to note Astrid removed her lovely grey top to reveal an outfit I wouldn’t usually dress her in, except that today her entire wardrobe is in the wash.



Also bought on eBay, and costing more than the persian rug, a vintage Roberts Radio which is permanently tuned to BBC Radio 4. Perfect for crocheting to. Miss Lady Bird the Cloud quite likes it too.



While I sit down to edit today’s photos Astrid tears the house apart. Evidence of where the child has been. Next she’s after the camera.



One quick last photo of our front courtyard out of the living room windows and I’m off upstairs to write this blog post. Then I might trawl eBay for a mahogany chest of drawers to replace the ugly pine ones and see whether I can find a copy of Yertle the Turtle on vinyl.



Ah, and as I finish proofing, babychops two wakes up – I think I just felt a foot. Right, we’re off up to Pomona for salad and baps. We’re making burgers tonight.

Have a fun week!

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August 5th, 2008

All the things I want to write about

(but don’t have time to)

Do you know I get up, get ready, leave the house by 7.45am. Get to work around 9am after I’ve been and got a proper flat white from the Spitalfields Coffee House. Work until 5.45 or 6pm and get home around 7.15pm. Then we cook and eat by about 8.15pm then I will come upstairs and do a fraction of the work I have to do for my own clients, and then at around 10pm I will sit downstairs and watch a bit of tele and do a row or two of my (king size) crochet blanket. It’s too big to take on the tube now so I’ve started a small project for my travel time – a pink crochet washcloth which might end up being a table runner or a scarf.



On my way to and from work, not while I crochet – but as I’m walking, I also dream about all the things I would love to write about and photograph. Things like… I would like to do a photo essay on my trip to work from South End Green to Brick Lane; where I go for lunch; shops I look at on the way home. But I put the charger for the little camera battery in a very safe place equals now lost.

Other things I think about writing about are how this Saturday I went early into Mayfair to John Frieda to see my wonderful hairdresser and had even more hair cut off, properly. By heck it’s good now. I’d like to photograph my new haircut. I won’t photograph my new maternity bras from M&S but I will photograph all the new makeup I bought after I presented myself at the Chanel counter in Selfridges, advising them I’d not had makeup for two years and now needed some. And when I get paid next and go back to Selfridges and buy the Chanel sunglasses I’ve been coveting for some time now I shall also photograph those. A Chanel portrait.



I’ll also photograph the perfume Kevin bought for me from Space NK and the things I bought the day after Kevin bought me the perfume but from a different Space NK, because I was so excited by the shop I just needed to go back and buy tweezers, a body brush and a nail buffer.

Those are the things I want to write about. And I also want to visit Rob Ryan’s new shop in Columbia Road. Ryantown. Rob and Yvonne have some naming ideas in common! And I still haven’t photographed the amazing washcloths from Di that have revolutionised things around here – and now I find out they’re for doing dishes, not washing faces! Yvonne sent us some amazing stuff including this book and this book which you all really do need to see.

But for now I shall wish for my charger to make a miraculous reappearance, do some work then retreat downstairs a few minutes after ten to do a row or two of the blanket. And I’ll also tell you I’m very very pleased it’s been raining. I’ll keep on saying it, I just love the rain.

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