Push and pull

I'm having a real battle with myself at the moment.  Part of me is in England, mentally decorating my house and wanting to supervise the builders and rush around putting everything in order.  But another part is here, wanting to make the most of our last days in New York.  And the part that's here also knows that there's work to be done, packing up the house and finishing everything off at work, while really what I want to be doing is gadding about the place.

On Saturday, helped by the apocalyptic weather, it was all about staying in and sorting things out and putting things in black bags for the bin men and generally getting to the bottom of what we want to take.  But Sunday was definitely a gadding about day.

I wanted to go to the Highline.  The Highline is a garden created using a disused elevated railway that for years was a decaying blot on the landscape.  Apparently, it would have cost more to dismantle and dispose of than to regenerate it, so someone came up with the idea of creating a park along the railway line.  And it's just lovely.

Image from here

We'd been before awhile back but I wanted to go again for the views of the river and the Avenue below.

And to go past one of my favourite buildings in New York: the Standard Hotel.

I'm really not sure why I like it so much.  But something about its structure reminds me of a book.  You get a better sense of it here:

I know.  Not at all pretty, but I like it.

We had brunch first in the diner style restaurant on the ground floor.

All rather lovely.  And the kissing dogs salt and pepper pots offered just the right amount of cheesiness....

Fortified with decadent doughnuts...

... we set off towards the Highline.  And it was CLOSED.  Bummer.  No reason given, but it might have been down to Saturday's bad weather.

So we cut our losses and went to Chelsea Market.

And all the while at home, there was a loin of pork cooking away.  Mr. P's latest obsession is Lorraine Pasquale.  So in an effort to use up a joint that has been in our freezer for ages, for dinner we tried her slow roast pork recipe.  And yes, it was amazing...

AND (cue drum roll) I am sewing in the ends of my wavery ripple scarf.  Hurray.  Full reveal when it's all sewn in and blocked.  (Don't hold your breath - way too much going on at the moment.)  Here's a sneak peak.

Back at work today.  That should put a halt to my gallop.

C.x

Molly dancers

Hello everybody,

Thanks so much for all your lovely words of encouragement.  We've been sooooo busy for the last couple of weeks, choosing everything from paints and tiles to curtain fabric for every room in our house by the sea.  Quite fun if you have six months to do it in but a bit stressful when you only have 10 days.  But it's all coming together pretty well.  I have so much to tell you and now that we're back in New York to pack up, I'm not sure how much time I'll have for dilly dallying in Blogland, so this might all be a bit random, but I wanted you to at least get a flavour of what's going on at the moment.

We had glorious weather for our two weeks at home.  We've been absolutely blessed with this project - the builders haven't had a single day's disruption with the weather.  And the early Autumn sunshine delivered some pretty eccentric behaviour all around....

As if to welcome us, when we arrived by the sea, the molly dancers were out.  I had no idea until the other day that there was such a thing and it made me delighted to be in England again.

Maybe just a little bit bonkers.  But I love it.

Back now and in the last 24 hours, we have had snow AT THE SAME TIME as a thunder storm (never knew that was possible...)

But now, it is a bright sunshiny day.

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend and enjoying the extra hour in bed.

C.x

No turning back now

You know what it's like when you decide to sort out a particularly untidy cupboard or room.  You go at it with great gusto, putting everything out on the bed, delighted at your decision.

You sort and you fold and you makes piles of things to give away.  It's all very satisfying.

But there comes a point (or at least there always comes a point with me) where everything's a mess and the day is getting on and you really wonder whether it was a good idea to have started all this change lark or whether it might have been better to have closed the door and left it for another day.


But it's too late now, so the very best thing is always just to plough on and either find the partner of the stray sock in your hand or accept that the washing machine has eaten it, so you may as well throw the sock in your hand away.

And when it's all sorted, how pleased you are that you now have a tidy cupboard and you are left to wonder why on earth you hadn't tackled it sooner.

All over our house by the sea, we are at just that point where the enormity of what we've taken on threatens to overwhelm me.

But in among the chaos, there are glorious signs that the decision to smarten up the place will be worth it.

And we are tantalisingly close to the prettifying stage....

If anyone needs to source tiles and paint, I'm your woman.

C.x

In an instant

Just a quick hello to say I've arrived, bleary eyed but excited. And, perhaps inspired by my blue embroidery bird, but also in a fit of boredom in the airport, I have joined Twitter.

The name?

NKKinatwist

Like it?

Do follow me, if only out of idle curiosity to see where I end up.

More soon.

C.x


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Not a great first date

First, just to let you know that service from the house of NKK will be intermittent at best in the next few weeks.  Posts will be random and commentary on all your lovely blogs will likely be lacking.  For tomorrow, we are off to see our house by the sea.  Hurray!  Then back for three weeks and then sailing out for good.  It'll be a bit of a roller coaster ride.


Okay, so to my date with Prints Charming.   I have such a feast of colour for you today. 

You will be pleased to know that I did not let you down.  I did not swear once (well, not out loud anyway...).  As to the rest...


It was not a very auspicious start.  I arrived 45 minutes late.  I hate being late.  I am rarely so.  My only excuse is that my life is even more chaotic than usual at the moment.  So, I got the dunce's chair rammed into the back corner with the edge of the table and the table leg to contend with.  Not so good.

Luckily the lovely women of Prints Charming allowed me to think it was no big deal and chatted away while I got my act together.   


I am left handed.  When it comes to hand sewing, this usually makes your average right handed seamstress run away screaming.    But they managed to remain quite composed.  I kept forgetting to tie the knot to start a stitch, so it kept slipping through.  No cursing please.  Big sigh and start again.  

What really killed me was the chain stitch.  I understood completely the theory, but I kept forgetting to anchor each stitch so that it all came unravelled in a most annoying way.  (You are allowed to laugh, by the way.  I won't be the least offended.)It wasn't helped by the fact that I kept getting distracted, wanting to take photos of all the lovely treats they'd bought with them and had strewn around the place.

And I was mesmerised by the detail of the sample work everywhere.

Not to mention the teacher's necklace.

But it seems there really is no short cut to the swear a lot/rip it/start again mode of learning that I have developed this year.


Undaunted, I came away armed with two instruction books (hurray - there's a book for it!).

And after much consideration on colour choice, these lovely threads.

They will be used to adorn (sic) this lovely blue bird.

You will understand from the scraggy bits of thread messing up the place that I already have plans in the swearing/rip it out/start again department.

More soon I hope from our house by the sea!


C.x