Toasty ears

So, if you know Husband, you will know he is Super Cool. He is Down with the Kids. He is an Uber Trendsetter.

These traits meant that he was becoming increasingly unhappy with his headphones. They were free onesI had got off a drug rep at a conference (pretty good freebie I thought, right?). He claimed he wanted ones with better sound.. but I know that secretly he wanted ones that looked BETTER. In keeping with his bad self. I also suspect that he wanted them to fit in with the headphones of the other people on the bus.

So, he bought a massive pair of headphones. They are big and cream and quite amazing. I was with him when he bought them. They also come in black and powder pink.. When we were in the shop, it became clear that he couldn't tell the difference between the cream ones and the pink ones (he's colour blind). OH OH it was tempting not to say anything as he admired the pink ones. But in the end, the cream ones were chosen. 

They are very large and um, cream. They needed a safe place to go when in his bag. His bag deserves a blog of its very own. To keep things succinct, I will just say that it is a place that papers, old plastic lunchboxes and cookie bags go to decompose. One day perhaps evolution will occur and a new superhero might emerge and we will be rich. Until then, however, it was necessary to protect the headphones from the bag. So I made them a little padded bag, from my old jumper and his old shirt:

Nestling

I think this case makes him even more super cool. He has managed to maintain his status as Trendiest Man in the Office. I believe he even managed to keep an air of cool when one of his colleagues walked in, saw him wearing the headphones, and asked him if he was 'planning to land a plane'. Heeeheheheee! Aww. Love.

A nice warm thing

Just wanted to drop in to show you this. I thought it might happy things up a bit as it is nice and pretty, unlike the ongoing chest of drawers story, which is currently ugly and dusty..

In my previous post, you can see a picture of some drawers on the floor, with a set of double doors behind them. The drawers are in our dining room, and lead through into the room with no name.. or more accurately the room with many names.. the utility room/ garden shed/ laundry / sledge storage / toolshed/ workshop / mud room / garage. This room is invaluable but also inhumanly cold in winter, as it is single-glazed and has no heating. Those double doors that you can see have a finger-sized gap at the bottom of them, so in winter a wind blows through into the dining room as if from a sort of Bathothian tundra.

One day, feeling in a crafty mood, I decided I would EXCLUDE that draft from our lives. Hooray! I got lots of fabric scraps that I had left over from our wedding decorations, and a few other projects, and cut out some rectangles using my cutty mat, big massive ruler and rotary cutter (if you do anything with fabric you NEED to own these excellent things, they make the boring bits much better!):



Note essential hedgehog pincushion (from my bridesmaids) and sewing-box house (see here!)

 I then sewed the big rectangles together, chopped them horizontally into three, flipped the middle bit over, and sewed it back together so I had a long, thinnish bit of patchwork. I sewed some extra bits of fabric with hearts on it just to make it a bit more pretty. And to appeal to husband. Haha! Then I just hemmed the ends and sewed the long ends together to make a tube. I threaded ribbon through the ends and pulled one end tight to close it.

Next, I looked around for something to stuff it with. I generally save all my fabric scraps so thought I might use those, but I wanted to be able to wash this as it will spend its time being kicked around on the floor and couldn't bear the idea of either making a liner or emptying all the scraps out to wash it. Then I had a stroke of genius. GENIUS! Remember I told you we got some lovely new bedlinen when we got married? Well, we were overrun with old bobbled duvet covers. I took one of them, folded it into three, rolled it up and hey presto! Perfect. Here is the finished thing.. so proud!

Back in the game, again!!

I know I am always saying I've been busy. But this time, I really WAS very busy. Three weeks after my last post, we were busy doing this:

Best. Day. Ever.

Then, we went off on a lovely honeymoon. We went with an animal theme. A week in Turkey, a week in Wales. Nice and diverse! And very relaxing. Purrfect. 

Cocktails and a swim..

..topped off with a little bit of Lake Vyrnwy :)

Then, just before Xmas, we were terribly busy running around like mad people selling this:

No longer on the market indeed!!

The flat that we still owned in London that was creating a bit of hot water for us in Bath! Second. Best. Thing. Ever! 

I have lots of exciting plans for 2012, many involving machines. Bicycling machines, typing machines, sewing machines, rowing machines! It's great to think that perhaps we will have a bit of time to relax, do some things that we love, see people who live near and far, and enjoy being in the Bath! 

Lots of love and see you soon!

Three lovely things from today

A few interesting and pleasingly pictorial things today. Firstly, a vegetable update: my, how much they've grown! They were only yay high last time we saw them. Etc.

Here are a squash (in front) and courgette (shy, hiding behind). And a coffee pot and watering can. Squash has a purple pipe cleaner crutch as legacy of a terrible accident that befell - literally - it on the way back from its vacation at my parents' house. This plant was actually the sole survivor; many others were lost in a nasty coolbox-falling-sideways-out-of-the-car accident and it was touch and go for a while. But to look at him now, you'd hardly know.

I find it interesting watching things grow. Who knew for example that their first leaves are different from all their other leaves? Well, my mum says she knew that from her biology a-level but who ELSE knew?! Not me! They're called cotyledons. And what a good word that is! The cotyledons seem to shrivel up and die as the normal leaves get established. You can see them at the base of the stem here. They were quite juicy looking when the plant was young.

Squash and courge - six weeks old on Saturday. Party time!

Secondly, a fashion spot. Now, having just moved from London to what I consider to be 'the countryside', I am finding many differences in my daily exposure to clothes on the trains and streets of Britain. But today's spot is not a new thing. Oh no, these beauties are not unique to the South West - although if they were I would be more forgiving. If they were for example some sort of brilliant development in agricultural / farming technology (eg cloven hoofed appearence means they don't scare the cattle..), I would think them a little more excusable. But alas, I believe they first appeared last year in Heat on Danielle Lloyd, and toward the end of the summer people were wearing them in London. I don't know what they're called and refuse to google it but they are a sort of combination between a boot and a flip-flop. Perhaps they are called boot-flops. Or floots (which is also a good word but not as good as cotyledon). Whatever their name, their appearance is questionable and their practicality even more so. I find them quite yuk. But I am fully aware that if enough of them start to appear, they will begin to look normal, and then even desirable (ref. appearence of skinny jeans - crazy horrid things on the back of the bootleg 90s, but now entirely normal. Oh but we're back to flares again now, which look weird...). And then I will buy some. Such is life.

Floots, boot-flops, whatever, at the station. The two-way colour combo makes them even more desirable doesn't it?!

Finally, the best thing - have you tried a magnum double caramel?! AMAZING. I have always been a Feast girl personally. Magnums a bit too dull and vanilla-ee. But this one.. oh my god.. TWO layers of chocolate sandwiching a gorgeous gooey layer of caramel.. lasts for ages and tastes divine. Woop!

More nice things from the garden. I think you can just make out the double layer of choc and the gooey caramel bit. Mmh. I have just realised it looks a bit like mucus. It's not! It's lovely!!