all christmassy

Unlike my miserable December last year, this month's festive build up has been perfecto for a number of reasons: 

1. I actually got to go to my work christmas party this year (I was even on the committee that organised it)! We had a staff bake off (my team constructed a 'christmas dinner' cake - my contribution was the plate using this recipe), staff awards AND a dressing up competition. The theme was 'the Christmas spirit' so I went as bottle of Port (pretty much sums up my Xmas spirit).

2. Team Christmas lunch - an epic three hour lunch (complete with secret santa swaps, crackers, festive pass the parcel) followed by mulled wine in the pub.

3. Mini Christmas up in Norfolk with my granddad because we won't see him for actual Christmas. Both my sister and I wore Christmas jumpers and I instantly felt about a thousand times more festive. I've never really been into the whole jumper thing but I'm certainly getting warm to the idea (sorry)!

4. People were handing out mistletoe at Waterloo station one morning. Completely unexpected (and a little random) but lovely all the same.

5. I made Christmas biscuits which I've not done for quite a few years. Icing them was a lot of fun :)

6. Mulled wine and lots of it - drunk at various social meet ups throughout the month.

Today is my last day in the office until 2016 and then I have 11 whole days off!

It's Christmas at home in good old south west London this year, and Mitch and I are doing the cooking (or rather Mitch is and I'm assisting). But before that, it's dinner at a friends' tonight, a mini Christmas in Essex tomorrow with Mitch's family and then annual christmas eve drinks with friends in the evening. Excited doesn't even come close to how I'm feeling!

I wish you all fabulous Christmases with good food, good wine and excellent company :D

that time I volunteered at the Saatchi Gallery

For five days at the start of May you would have found me wearing a bright blue t-shirt running around the Saatchi Gallery - taking tickets, manning the cloakroom, circling the rooms and being that helpful, smiling face at the information point - all in aid of the Craft Council's annual international art fair: COLLECT.

I'd originally signed up because I was unemployed and needed fun things to look forward to. Luckily when I got my job they allowed me to take some leave to honour the commitment. The exhibition was short (only open four days to the general public) but took over the entirety of the Saatchi which, to me, felt like pretty good value for the ticket price (£12 in advance, £17 on the door) plus there was SO MUCH to see! Around 30 galleries take part from all over the world, representing over 200 individual artists. Incase you haven't worked out what's coming...this is going to be a v.picture heavy post. I was massively impressed, not to mention inspired, by many of the pieces.

 stone whales by Tonino Negri // ceramic babies by Shigeki Hayashi // glass cube by Sabrina Cant (I found this memerising, the picture doesn't do it justice, it looked like a little universe inside a cube!) // giant vases by Felicity Aylieff

stickleback fish by Edouard Martinet (this fish was made from allsorts of metal bits and bobs including a bunch of spoons!) // Archive of elements and orbitals by Louis Thompson

 Universe - S by Shihoko Fukumoto // A path strewn with roses by Serverija Incirauskaite Kriauneviciene (all the holes were drilled through this old VW car door and it's real thread used for the cross-stitch - swoon)

jars by Steffen Dam (one of my favourite pieces from the show, it's all v.cleverly made from glass)

tarzan (necklace) by Rodolfo Ramo Azaro // ribbon desk & unstable stool by Angus Ross // porcelain pieces by Nicola Tassie // porcelain rhinos by Kensuke Fujiyoshi

annoyingly I can't find find the name of the artist but I can tell you it's made from lots of strips of ceramic // black magma egg by Kate Malone // morning trio by  by Serverija Incirauskaite Kriauneviciene (this was another cross stitch one - love) // forged mild steel bowl by Junko Mori

another pic of those beautiful stone whales // the orrery by Steffen Dam

Another of my favourites: a rhino knight by Kensuke Fujiyoshi

Moving Through by Ann Sutton //amore mediterraneo by Ugo La Pietra // Beautiful bangle from the I AM HERE part of the exhibition, alas the Crafts Council failed to include the name of the artists in this section (which as a bit odd) // robin by Edouard Martinet

  stunning mint vase (artist unknown) // tiger family by Kensuke Fujiyoshi // vase by Kate Malone // voilins (made of wood and fabric) by Indra Marcinkeviciene

 Ciliege by Ugo La Pietra

In terms of a volunteering experience there were a few lows (being asked to go and get lunch and e-cigarettes for staff members of the Craft Council and spending 2 and a half hours in the smallest most overcrowded cloakroom I've ever seen) but mostly highs (meeting lots of lovely new people and generally just have a good laugh with the other volunteers, Saatchi staff and secruity guys who were also hired to work the event). If you'd asked me after the first two days whether I'd do it again next year, truthfully, I would've said no (owing largely to the cloakroom incident). Had you asked that same question at the end, after Saturday and Monday which were by far the best days (almost to the point where I got very much into the swing of things and forgot that I had another job to go back to), my answer would be a big fat: "yes!" I think when volunteering at events you need to be interested in the subject matter but ultimately, it's the people you're working with that make it a positive experience and I was v.fortunate at COLLECT :)

Being the nosy bugger that I am, I'd be interested in whether you've volunteered for something and what it was like...

Start button

First off, thank you for your lovely encouraging comments on my last post, they were v.much appreciated :)

I cannot tell you how much of a relief it was to start working again. As is probably blindingly obvious, if you've been following at any point during the last four months, I didn't get on too well with unemployment, it was all rather depressing and I hated going to the job centre (although, the CV and practice interview appointments with the careers people were v.helpful). But now, I'm one week in at the new job and so far so good! I'm still getting to grips with everything and there seems to be a lot to learn but that's cool, it's great to actually face completely new to me scenarios and experience a challenge again. Also, I have met so many new people! Always a plus point in my books. I'm v.much looking forward to being independent again - not having to rely on Mitch or my parents or bloody job seekers to bail me out (although I must say that I am hugely grateful they did otherwise I would have been in serious shit) - as well as getting back on track with our plans to save for our deposit and look for our own home. For the first time this year I can hit that start button.

Four months of unemployment taught me some v.valuable lessons, not least that it's always a good idea to have an emergency fund and that, even if you are super confident and write pretty good cover letters, be prepared that finding a job you want will probably take longer than you think! For anyone out there currently unemployed and job searching I wrote a list of motivational ideas which might be helpful. It is shit some days, rejection emails, or just deafening silence, is the worst, but chin-up, you ARE an excellent candidate and, although people say it all the time and you're thinking "please shut up", it's true: do not lose heart, you WILL get that job soon.

In other news, during my final week of unemployment, I made this little fella ^^. I had some fabric scraps, lavender and stuffing leftover from these a few years ago and a lot of free time; a dinosaur lavender bag was inevitable :)

We had an amazingly lazy day yesterday - reading, chatting, sewing, catching up on game of thrones - which was perfect, nothing like a first week in a new job to leave you absolutely knackered! Today will be much the same :) Hope you're all having excellent weekends too.

GOOD NEWS!

After four long months of unemployment, tons of cover letters and application forms, many rejection emails and 10 interviews, I've fiiiiinally been offered a job! YAY :) 

(In truth I was offered two and had the v.tough task of choosing between them which was not fun at all. That saying about waiting for buses and two turning up at once seems v.relevant.)

 I start next week and I couldn't be more excited (if a little nervous too).

Other good news:

My sister made it to the front page of The Daily Telegraph :)

Moriarty is alive and well (we'd not seen him for a couple of nights - he's getting so much more shy & snoozy as he gets older).

I went bra shopping and bought a sports bra which I am in love with.

Finds from the charity shop

I spent the last few weeks volunteering in a local charity shop and, during that time, I found a few rather nice things: small leather bag, black hat, blue-y green pencil skirt and a glass lemon juicer (something I've been searching for for aaaaages).

It was an interesting experience but not entirely positive. I met some lovely people - the manager, other volunteers, neighbouring charity shop workers and most of the customers - but I also encountered a lot of down right shitty-ness. The rudeness of some of the customers was shocking, arguing about the prices mostly. I can understand a bit of haggling, that "if you don't ask, you don't get" stance, but these people were unbelievably tight. One women refused to pay 99p for a book (in pristine condition) and would not take no for answer, and demanded it for 50p despite the fact that the money was going towards a charity. The next form of shitty-ness was the amount of theft. SO many people stole from that place. Finally, I have a massive bone to pick with the people who v.kindly "donate" utter shite, I'm talking actual rubbish - broken toys, dirty gym clothes, shoes with holes in them. Some of the things (and the smells that came out of those bags) we unpacked would put you off your lunch.

The shop I worked at is actually closing down today (thanks to the lease being too much to renew & too much competition, there are 6 other charity shops on the highstreet). I'm not sure I'm ready to volunteer again just yet. Charity shops are a really great thing - good for the charity and good for bagain-hunters - but they deserve more respect from some memebers of the public.

Mini rant over. Hope you're all having lovely Fridays!

things to consider when unemployed & job searching

1. Do not sit around in your pyjamas all day (it's only OK at weekends, if you're sick or on "holiday").

2. Do not eat biscuits all day. It has no effect on your success rate.

3. Do not watch day-time television (it will rot your mind and possibly remind you of care-free university days when you would watch the same episode of neighbours twice in one day - once after doctors and secondly before the simpsons. That was cool then, not now. All you're missing are endless "antiques-in-the-attic-let's-sell-some-old-shit" programs and a constant stream of adverts for really "caring and nice" (read: evil and will bleed you dry) money-lending sites).

4. Do have a shower, get dressed, brush your teeth and be "ready for work" at a reasonable hour (9:30 am seems fair).

5. Make a plan or a to-do list for the day to give yourself some structure. The plan can include job-search related things (such as applying for jobs *duh* & preping for interviews) but also life admin ('do some washing' is a nice easy one to tick off your list).

6. Identify your most productive time of day (before midday for me) and assign the more taxing things (such as writing a cover letter) to that time of day. 

7. Remember to do some fun stuff too. Give yourself little rewards (e.g half an hour of reading or knitting) for when you complete an application. 

8. Go outside everyday, even if it's just to the corner shop and it's pissing with rain. It's important to change your scenery and you need the fresh air.

9. Take regular breaks from your screen – eat lunch, call your grandad – time-outs are important.

10. Exercise. For me, jogging allows me to have a good think, things to include in cover letters for example.

11. If you can, go to the free exhibitions that you've been meaning to visit. As a Londoner weekend museum and gallery visits are a no-no so it's a good idea to use this rare weekday free-time.

12. See people. Make (cheap) dates - dinner at friend's house, a walk around the park, tea at your nan's.

13. Volunteer somewhere, even if it's only one day a week. It gets you out of the house, makes you meet new (and talk to) new people and looks good on your CV.

14. Stay positive. This unemployment thing ain't going to last forever.

It's not been that long (about 4-5 weeks) and I don't in anyway think I'm an expert, but these 14 things are keeping me from going mad. Any other tips are most certainly welcome :)

one sunny wednesday in york

To celebrate the end of quilting magazine, work treated us to a trip to York, home, amongst other things, to the Quilt Museum and Gallery, whom we'd been working with fairly closely throughout the last three years.

I was pretty young the last time I work to York and it was all about the castle and the Yorvik Centre, so it was great to see a different side of the city. The old part is incredibly pretty - narrow winding streets, comprised of seriously cool and historical looking buildings. This city certainly has excellent architecture. It's even difficult to distinguish the chain shops from the independents as nearly all the shop fronts have been left unaltered.

We walked along the city wall from the station to the Quilt Museum - so much of it has been preserved. The museum itself was v.teeny but their collection is ace, some of the pieces dating back to the 1700s! Despite the age of the quilts, the majority are in incredibly good condition. We weren't allowed to take pictures but here's what it looks like inside, pretty huh?

After the museum we went off in search of lunch and after wondering around for a bit, we settled on the Lamb and Lion Inn near High Petergate, mostly because of its gorgeous garden terrace right beside the old city walls.

After several glasses of wine and the tastiest (and most gigantic) steak and ale pie I've had in ages  (which I sadly could not finish no matter how much I wanted to), we made our way to the river to see the Clifford Tower (which was what my pie was based on - the likeness is pretty good I thought).

After a roam around the shambles and the v.pretty centre, it was time to head back to the station and catch our train to London. The train was surprisingly quick considering the distance (and a fairly good price when booked in advance) but next time I think I'd like to spend longer than a day in York, I feel there was a hell of lot we didn't get to explore.

a photo an hour (ish) #4

Yesterday was the last ever photoshoot for the quilt magazine which we started way back in August 2011 when this blog was v.much in its early stages of life. Yup, just shy of three years ago, I arrived in the Brixton studio for the first time to commence my role as hand model. I guess it's typical to say it feels like yesterday but actually, it doesn't. A lot of stuff has happened in that time both in ad out of work and my fortnightly trips to the studio have been a constant throughout. It's been a fantastic experience, I've learned a lot (how to quilt for a start!) but most of all, it's been great laugh. I am seriously going to miss it - photoshoots were always a highlight of my job (getting out from behind my desk and away from the office can never be a bad thing) because it meant I could interact with more people (which is always good in a small company). So, I decided to do another 'photo an hour' to celebrate this end of a glorious era!

8am - view from my window 

9:15am - arrive at the studio

10am - work begins...

11am - catching a few rays outside between shots

Midday - all hands on deck! We took a spoof pic to commemorate the last hand modelling shot :)

1pm - the last ever shot for the magazine

2:15pm - honesty is the best policy. To celebrate the end of the shoot we all went to Brixton Village for some Honest Burgers...

3pm - ...before popping into Rosie's for some tea and cake

4:15 - waiting for a train at Vauxhall

5pm - interesting character spotted in 'Fable III'. Mitch was playing this when I got home, I watched for a bit and decided that it was pretty crap. Some of the lines spoken by the characters were pretty inappropriate even for a computer game.

6pm - sewing. I'm in the process of making a dress using some light and summery fabric from the Goldhawk Road

8pm - we actually had dinner at 7pm (a v.tasty veggie chilli dish) but I forgot to take a picture. Afterwards I continued sewing and almost completed the bodice.

9pm - cuddles with moriarty

11pm - bit of reading before bed