All change, please. All change.

So, I have big news.  I resigned yesterday.  And we are moving back to England.  I have been bursting to tell you for the longest time, but somehow it didn't seem right to tell you lovely ladies when my team didn't know.  Pretty much no one knew actually.  But now I want to shout it from the rooftops.  There are BIG changes ahead in the house of NKK.  I've never bungie jumped (I'm a bit of a scaredy cat like that). But this is how I imagine bungie jumping to be - scary and thrilling and a little bit edgy.  In three months we sail out of New York on the Queen Mary II (delusions of grandeur, I know...).  And then we go to live in our house by the sea.  Hurray!

C.x

Dream weavers

Gosh, so much to tell you.  Where to begin?  At the beginning, I guess.  Or at least at the start of the two weeks away.

We left New York a couple of weeks ago after a very busy time here.  One of those times when you get spent onto the plane or into the car, having had no time to think about the holiday, or where you'll go or what to pack.  We arrived at Heathrow early the next day and I flew straight to Ireland for a two day writing workshop hosted by Claire Keegan, an Irish short story writer.  If you've never heard of her, then let me beg you to rush out and buy Walk the Blue Fields.  The first story in the collection still haunts me.

Anyway, I arrived in Dublin and hired a car, arriving in Bunclody in Wexford feeling stupid with tiredness and jet lag.  But it was all worth it for the next two days, spent with other women (there was only one man there), thinking and talking about writing.  Claire Keegan is fierce and uncompromising and not a little intimidating, but she had much to say that is worth listening to.

Driving back to Dublin, I had lots of time to kill, so I took a detour off the motorway to Avoca.  It's a little sleepy village in Wexford that wouldn't be much of a draw if it weren't or the fabulous woollen mill on the outskirts.  I grew up with Avoca, and have a blanket somewhere that I bought twenty years ago, but I'd never actually been to the mill before.  I'm so glad I did.  First there was the delicious cafe.  (I would show you the amazing home made goods, but I was so busy troughing that I forgot to take a photo...).  But then there was this:

Who could resist such a sign? At first I thought it might be just a sort of living exhibition, done out to show how it used to be done.

And sure enough, there was a man weaving away on an old loom.  

But as it turns out, that IS how it's still done, for at least some of the blankets.  Which frankly amazes me.  I wish I could show you the skill with which this man worked.  And how quiet and unassuming he was about it all.  He told me that all the bobbly bits on the wool get brushed out to make mohair blankets.

Not sure how the lambswool ones get make into these beauties.

Over the years, Avoca has branched out into homeware and clothing...

And cookbooks and the like.  (they don't sell these letters - I asked...).

Maybe something like Ireland's answer to Cath Kidston and Anthropologie all rolled into one.

I had only intended to stop for tea, but when I saw the amount of effort that goes into these blankets I somehow came away with two.  And I realised today that I have left them in the old lady house, in a cupboard away from the builders.  So I'll have to show you those another time.

Stay tuned for (before) pictures of the house coming soon.

C.x

Not quite AWOL

Hello there,

Just to say that I am gadding about and full of news, but it'll be a week or more before I can get my act together and post properly.  For now, I just wanted to say that we have completed on the purchase of the old lady house by the sea.  HURRAY!  There's about 12 weeks of buildings work and dust before I can get to the fun part of decorating etc.  My mind is spinning with choices of everything from carpets to where the radiators will go.  And it's all being done at a mad fast forward speed because I have to go back to work on Monday.  For now we're 'glamping', which basically means living in an empty house with a few sticks of random furniture, a camping stove and the blessings of hot water and a loo.  (It's amazing how little you need when you put your mind to it.)  But I miss being able to share it all with you, so will be full of news when I'm back.

Stay tuned!

C.x

Rain

Hello everybody,

It's sweltering here.  It's 6.15am and already its 24C, and will go up to a high of 34C today, and 38C tomorrow.  We have the odd thunder storm, but all it does is make things more humid.  I'm not complaining.  My Mum tells me that the UK has forgotten all about summer this year, so I get that this might not be what you want to be hearing right now.

So, I thought I'd tell you instead about Rain.  Rain Africa is a shop in the Rockefeller Center that sells exquisite handcrafts and beauty products made by small rural factories in Africa.  Ethically traded, organic and environmentally friendly, it's a refreshing change from some of the tourist tat of nearby Times Square.  It's also stupidly expensive (sigh).  They had the most amazing crochet granny square blanket the last time I went in, and I thought to myself "I can make that." (If only I'd just get on and do it. ...)

But I couldn't leave behind the wool box, which seemed to be calling my name.  I have my (very small) stash neatly arranged inside.

(Yes, as you can see, I've only progressed a little with my own granny square business.)

And I have that lovely Alpaca red and grey wool that I blogged about here, to try to make this scarf if and when I learn chevron.

At the moment the box of sheep is shoved on top of a wardrobe so that I'm not reminded on a daily basis how slack I'm being in the craft department.  Somehow the thought of making a wooly scarf in 30C heat isn't doing it for me.  And my head is FULL of house and building work and decorating and travel plans and stories that I want to write.

I guess this is all a long winded way of saying that I'm feeling a bit of a fraud at the moment even having a crafty blog when I'm not doing any crafting.  I haven't written as much here lately as a result.  And that's a bit crap.

Sorry.

C.x

Hurray!

I have exchanged contracts.  The constellation of bank, solicitor, vendor, vendor's solicitor all aligned and we finally have a commitment to buy the little old lady's house by the sea.  Excellent.

We'll be in England for a couple of weeks in August, so we'll complete then.  So excited.

And maybe a bit scared.  This is my first grown up, proper house.  With a garden and everything.  And it will be lovely, I know.

But first we have to get the builders in.  New central heating system, new bathrooms, an extension.  Lots of ripping out and knocking down.  But still, a house by the sea....

So, would you like a peek?  I need to do a whole lot of before and after shots (and posts...) but for now, I thought the kitchen best sums up the order of things....

Watch this space.  By the end of the year, it will be shiny and new.  Something to celebrate.

(And besides, I thought you'd like to see my 4 July photos, even if they're a bit late...)

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

C.x

Where does the time go?

It's now mid-July (well, nearly...) and I haven't even shown you a mosaic for May!  I really need to give myself a shake.  To make up for it, I thought I'd do a bumper one for May and June, with a promise to do better in July.

Hope you like it.  And welcome welcome to new followers.  Lovely to have you here.  And thanks for all your lovely comments on my last post.  I knew you'd like the quilts too.

C.x

Quilting for a cause

Hello everybody.

A lovely long and lazy weekend here - 4th July which means a day off.  Hurray!  We were also given early release from work on Friday.  (Lots of prison-like associations with that phrasing, I know.)  Anyway, I walked home, which gave me a chance to take in the windows of Saks and Anthropologie at a dawdling pace instead of whizzing past them on the bus.  In the bizarre world of fashion, it is winter, which means that the mannequins in Saks are all bundled up in woollen coats and cashmere jumpers.  Lovely, but a bit mad in 80 degree heat.  Apparently, there are women in the world who shop like this.  Personally, I need to feel the early morning chill of Autumn before i can think of the need for fingerless long wool gloves.  (The Saks mannequins tell me they will be big next season - you heard it here first.)

Saks had also devoted a whole line of windows to The Names Project.

I had a vague impression of this that I'd picked up from somewhere, but it's a powerful thing to see these displayed in a line together.  There's so much love and emotion packed into each one.

And they so vividly bring to life the people they commemorate.

So much life and loss and heartache behind each panel.

(I have sat for awhile wondering whether it's too insensitive a transition to go on from here to chatter on about Anthropologie.  But the truth is that it made me so happy to study their window too.  So much creativity and humour was just the kind of life affirming injection I needed.  Apologies to anyone who finds the remainder of the post in bad taste...)

So, to Anthropologie.  I find their window displays endlessly fascinating.

Who would think to clutter up a window with bubbles?  And yet it works.  And I just love the use of these old slides as the backdrop to a single outfit in the corner of this window.   How fab is that?!

Each slide offering its own tiny slice of life....

There's so much care and attention to detail that goes into these window displays.  But it's not often that I get to see it happen as I did on Friday.

Simple yet effective.

More creative food inside.  There isn't a single plate here that I'm not coveting...

And owls are definitely the bird of the moment.  They were everywhere.

I managed not to buy anything.  But lots of food for mind and soul.  All on the way home from work.

C.x