Friday flower power

Hurray! It's Friday! Don't you just love Fridays! Just a quick one today as I rush out the door to work. Saw this on my way home yesterday and thought you might like it.

Isn't it just the business?

More tomorrow. Have a lovely weekend everyone. C.x

Meandering

I don't know about you, but I store up random odds and ends to tell you as I go through my day, and then something happens and I never get to post about them.  But going through my pictures today, there are a few things that I just knew you'd like, even if they come across as a bit random.

1. My sister asked me to buy an iPad which we delivered the last time we were home a few weeks back.  We spent a little time fiddling with it and generally revealing that we are not part of the tech generation (or whatever letter that is - we had generation X some time ago now...)  While we were distracted with something else, my niece got hold of it and drew a self portrait:

Isn't she lovely?  She is eight.  (If she could send along a picture of her brother, I would love to show you that too.)

I gave my sister this:

2.  We had a lovely day out in Brighton.  After pootling around furniture shops all morning, we had lunch at a cafe with this in the window:

Bonkers.  Lovely, but bonkers.

3.   I read here that vertical gardens are very much the thing at the moment.  But have you seen the one in Trafalgar Square?

Apparently, it's inspired by A Wheatfield With Cypresses by Van Gogh.  How lovely is that?

4. If you are ever near the National Portrait Gallery, then make your way to the fifth floor.  The bar offers such a beautiful view over London, even on a grim grey day.

5. Isn't the ship in a bottle on the Plinth just lovely?

6. I never did tell you that awhile back, Mr. P and I went to hear Edna O'Brien read from Saints and Sinners, her new collection of short stories.  Of course, I went for the stories, which are beautiful.  It didn't hurt that she was being interviewed by Gabriel Byrne.

Dodgy photo taken with my iPhone - sorry

We will draw a dignified veil over my failed attempts not to drool...

So, there you are.  Random things that I felt you needed to know.

C.x

Tree cosy

No, really.  Look!

Completely barking.

And somehow completely intriguing.

So, what are you up to for the weekend?  We have my sister-in-law arriving tomorrow for a few days, so will be doing lots of eating and drinking and laughing.   Can't wait.

Whatever you're doing, have a lovely weekend.

C.x

A little piece of Jersey in the City

The builders tell me that work is going well on the house by the sea - no buried treasure found, and that's a good thing...  It's raining today but all last week we had sunny days here (hurricanes and earthquakes aside), and November and our voyage home still seem like a long way off.

But we have an influx of visitors in September, so I know that suddenly we'll be waving goodbye to our old neighbourhood.  And one of the institutions that we pass all the time on the bus is this old store.

In many ways, it's nothing special.  And it's not as though there won't be pork in Suffolk.  But I'm pretty sure nowhere will have this on the wall outside.

Hilarious!  Every time I pass it I expect to see a Soprano lurking outside.  Or a rug-shaped object being hussled into the back.

I mean, seriously - doesn't it make you  want to start singing to yourself that you woke up this morning and got yourself a gun?

Now, I know I've spent way too much time in my life watching Sex and the City and Sopranos (what else is there to do for two years in the desert?)  But please, tell me it's not just me.


C.x

Hoola hoops

Seen yesterday in the late afternoon light...

How on earth did they do that?

C.x

The Chapati man

Mr. P and I had curry for dinner.  Nothing more to say on that really, except it was delicious, and it does give me the excuse I've been waiting for to share the chapati man with you...

More tomorrow about my first sewing class.

C.x

The wait is over

I had no intention of posting today, but then Mr. P found this in the Telegraph (not something I read, myself).  Too good an opportunity to pass up.  Enjoy.

You too can knit your own royal wedding!

Breath-taking.

C.x

Of guns and crochet

Inspired by Andrea's post showing a bizarre crochet wedding dress here, I thought I would share with you a piece of crochet madness I came across recently:


Crochet guns.  Yes indeed.  I can't decide whether it's a crafty retort to Sarah Palin or the very opposite.  Either way, I think it might be a hook too far.

At the more sublime end of the spectrum, I am coveting this...

at the moment from The White Company.  (I seem to do a lot of coveting on this blog.  But not entirely convinced that's all bad.)

C.x

At Grandma's

In today's Sydney Morning Herald, I read a review of a new bar which, among its many attractions, was a basket of wool for drinkers to knit if the urge took them. I just knew I had to go.

In the best tradition of an old speakeasy, we had a bit of difficulty finding the entrance. The place has just opened and they haven't got their signage sorted out yet so we walked straight passed it. Doubling back involved much grumbling from Mr. P about needles and drink not making obvious partners, but Grandma's Bar was worth the hunt.

I knew we'd arrived at the right spot when, at the bottom of the stairs, we saw this:


A granny blanket! As promised in the review, there's even a basket with knitting needles and yarn. But I must admit it took me enough courage to ask the rather cool barman if I could take some photos for my blog without reacquainting myself with knitting as well.



In New York we have a speakeasy complete with beer bottles in brown paper bags and cocktails served in china cups. But no-where do we have a communal knitting project and flying parakeets on the wall. Grandma as trendsetter - who knew!



C.x

Brief Encounter

Garry Winogrand was a photographer in the 1960s, 70s and early 80s who took the most lovely photographs documenting American life. Among my favourite of his works is one taken at the airport in Los Angeles in the 60s.

I have a poster of it hanging in my hall which was given to me by a friend. Ever since I first saw the original 15 years ago I have wanted to drink cocktails at the bar in this photo. And on Saturday, that's just what we did!


What a fabulous place! Full of lava lamps and banquettes...




...and a Darth Vader beer tap...


... even the loo was quite wild...


All in all it made the long 8 hour lay over before the long long flight to Sydney well worth it.

We still had time to kill so we ended up in Santa Monica for a couple of hours. And I discovered that a little paparazzi action really does go with the territory in LA:








Okay, so he's not exactly Brangelina, but I have to say I was thrilled to see him, even if we missed the cooking demo. But then, that wasn't the point...

I had all sorts of plans about how many granny squares I was going to make on the flight. Fifteen hours with not much to do - I can only imagine the fab blankets the amazing women of blogland would whip up. Me? Well, here you are:



Two squares. I know; quite pathetic. But in my defence, I had to rip up the first one several times because I couldn't quite remember how the first round went and how it transitioned to the second, and I didn't have any nice videos to remind me. But I got there in the end. And I'm beginning to regret being so conservative in my colour choice. But never mind. I'm going to plough on and will consider this my practice run before I graduate to full multi-coloured crochet bliss.

Now we're in Sydney and I am stupid with tiredness.

Happy Valentine's Day everybody.


Cx

Look what I found!

Hi again.  I know I've just posted but I couldn't resist:


















A granny square swimsuit! 

The anti-craft

Among all the items of clothing in my house there must be nothing further from the crafting life than a swimsuit.

Mr. P and I are off to Australia in a couple of weeks.  And that means a glorious escape from the misery of this weather.

And swimsuits. 

I have January skin.  Dry and grey-white.  And post-Christmas belly.  These do not go with swimsuits.  I know because I spent time this weekend trying them on.  Not pretty.  No photos.  Trust me, that's a good thing.  But this is what I have settled on.  In blue.  Maybe we can take the model on holiday and she can wear it for me.

Claire