Happy New Year to anyone who may be reading. It feels I’ve missed the boat for a round up of 2011 adventures and besides, I’d much rather look forward to 2012 and all the adventures to come.
I do have a couple of pictures from my first forays into cake decorating. This isn’t me diversifying my hobbies as frankly at this rate I will have no time for anything else. It is an essential skill that, having made and nurtured no less than six Christmas cakes over the last few months, I simply had to learn. I took myself to Cakes4Fun in Putney for a Saturday of cake decorating and was genuinely surprised by the results. The tutor made everything look incredibly easy which it wasn’t, or at least certainly not for me and my impatient, large-handed self, but with a few simple techniques the class were able to pull off some pretty great results, if I do say so myself.
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| First steps - crumb coating |
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| Next step - icing |
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| Final step - decorating |
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| Glad I got a snap of this one - the holly leaves fell off during the car journey home |
So to home and the cakes for the OH’s mother and my family Christmas (the latter of which travelled to York, Putney, Winchester and then got mislaid in Winchester so didn’t make it to Devon – I hear my brother has scoffed the remainder which has to be a good sign, although the niece thought the icing “tasted funny” – well, that’s Dr Oetker’s problem and not mine; besides, I rather liked it and for us the priority was a super thick layer of marzipan – in an ideal world we would reverse the current ratio of cake to marzipan I think).
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| My first solo flight |
Although I sewed my sister a very small Christmas token – we don’t do presents for Grown Ups – I’ve not been at the sewing machine much. However, I have treated myself to some lovely, simple dark green 100% wool crepe from Linton Direct, suppliers to several of the top fashion houses including Chanel. My reasoning was that every woman should own Chanel, but most women can’t afford it – I certainly can’t so this gave me a cheap-ish thrill (it was in the sale section) and I still feel rather darned special. I plan to use this for the Merchant & Mills trapeze dress once I’ve tracked down a lining fabric (quite hard to get as excited shopping for the linings isn’t it).
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| www.merchantandmills.com |
The OH has started mentioning moving again, and although in principle the idea sounds good, I am both incredibly attached to my flat and very averse to the hassle of moving. Now I have my lovely new craft room the motivation dwindles further. Oh, if only he would consider living in my lovely flat but men are funny souls and this one is funnier than most. Clearly my almost bat-like tendency not to be dislodged from a comfortable spot also makes me a rather funny creature so I’m not complaining, just observing. Anyway, his mentionings have meant I’ve pushed my RSN course back to later this year which is sad but practical and it doesn’t stop me continuing to learn techniques and skills.
So I mentioned I’ve not been at my sewing machine much but I have been knitting up a storm – here is even a shot of me knitting in the car on the way back from New Year in Devon.
For reassurance I’m just backseat driving on this occasion. It will eventually be this jumper with one important adjustment.
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| from http://www.knitonthenet-shop.com/ |
The front is done and I’ve nearly finished the back. The reason it’s taking about half the time it should is because I quite clearly missed the festive deadline so decided to veto the colour work. The colour work was about a quarter of the reason I decided to make this jumper, and the rest was the fabulous sleeve shape. I’m a huge fan of 40s and 50s styling and am always sad that my day-to-day lifestyle of City work means I can’t really indulge my passion for dressing in a way that more positively reflects me. It’s always a watered down version which only started to happen when I moved into this type of firm six or seven years ago. I’ve noticed that the tendency to “tone things down” has spread into my home dress sense too which I think is a shame, but ultimately as you get older you tend to dress more practically anyway. For example, for Christmas Day lunch with my lovely sister and all her lovely little people (the children, her husband is a very tall man) I had plotted a rather natty little dress and cardigan ensemble in the morning but thought about three children and their sticky fingers and opted for the failsafe jeans option. And I was jolly glad I did – mini-Moo started teething in earnest so by the end of the meal she had wiped turkey and veg all over herself and even getting her upstairs and into a nice toasty bath meant I got covered in food too. She looked a real poppet in her romper afterwards though – all cherubic and lovely. Anyway, it’s just not practical to wear something that you really love in that situation as you know it’ll end up being ruined so there’s inevitably a compromise between the inner style maven and the external presentation of conservative girl about the City.
Just before Christmas I had to work from home to wait for a couple of deliveries and it made me love my new craft room even more. Not only could I work at my desk properly, but whenever I need to find anything, I know where it is. Ah, well I will do – there are a few teething problems on the organisation front (anyone else find that?) but I am getting there and things are starting to find their natural spots. Who knew I owned such a vast array of old biscuit tins although it explains a lot about my current fitness level. Keeping things simple is definitely my motto for this type of organisation, but it’s just a case of things finding their place and me getting a proper chance to use the room more.
I’ve already lined up my projects for the coming months which will help with that. First and foremost I must clear away the last of the piles of dislodged debris. Largest of these is my shoe collection which I think will need to be housed in the loft (with my rogue Wasp nest) with just a choice few pairs retained for day-to-day use. There is currently one last Dratted Corner of Shame, the last area to be sorted and then the flat has been reclaimed from fabric, yarn etc.
Once the piles are dealt with, I need to make the blinds for the craft room, and possibly the living room (and the dining room could do with something too). I’ve done the cutting out for the baby quilt I’m making for a friend so must crack on with that this weekend – I’m still not confident I’ve grasped doing a border but that’s a way off and I think I need to find a new fabric for it anyway. I really need to plough on with my embroidery which has been very slow going so need to ramp that up a bit. The knitted baby blanket also needs some attention. I think I’m nervous of the entrelac border and so am neglecting the body of it. Surprisingly, the border worries me less than the likely boredom of sewing a long border on; but if the worst came to the worst I could always crochet something. I’m no longer sure that I like the colour though which is more problematic.
Once those shoes are in the loft, the room really will take on a life of its own for working in. It’s such a cosy spot and already feels like a haven. Once it gets some projects under its belt I see it becoming very hard to leave. And just in case I wasn’t busy enough, I start my creative writing course next week – all those years of writing scraps of fiction that never come together into a whole will have been good practice I hope. Having read Dorothea Brande’s “Becoming a Writer” it certainly seems that regularly writing is the key. Mine has never been regular but learning how to structure things would be rather useful and even if the scraps remain in the bottom drawer forever, it will still be a really interesting way to spend the next few months. I spent a good chunk of Christmas reading the collected short stories of Agatha Christie and it has left me pondering many things about short fiction and answered a lot of questions I should reasonably not have had about why my efforts have been unsuccessful.
So 2012 kicks off busy but it sure does make time fly.
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