Making & Baking - a rainy weekend

Although the weekend's evenings were filled with lovely social stuff, the rain-filled daytimes meant that I didn't really venture out (apart from a v.good sesh at the gym on sunday).

Of course I was hardly stuck inside (I've got a perfectly good pair of wellies and a raincoat) but it was rather nice being cooped-up in the flat. It was, in fact, the perfect opportunity to get on with some creative shiz, in particular, needlepoint!

It took me an age to secure the canvas to the stretching frame but it was worth it. Needlepoint is probably the most satisfying thing ever, even more so than knitting or crochet and is nowhere near as scary to start as a complete beginner. With just a few uber simple stitches, which you essentially just repeat over and over, you can make a v.pretty pattern.

Admittedly I did buy the wrong type of canvas (3 strand weave rather than a single weave) which means that the patterns with vertical and horizontal stitches don't look as tight or neat as the patterns which require diagonal stitches. But hey, you live and learn. Plus, this canvas is great to practice on, I'm kinda treating it like a piece of paper to doodle ideas on. Mitch said he thought it looked nice but wondered (I detected a hint of concern at yet another craft related hobby) what I was going to make with it. I think something simple to go in a frame might be the best place to start and then perhaps a cushion.

This is my favourite pattern so far, it's called bargello (hello chevrons), and I reckon it would look pretty ace as a cushion.

I also got around to doing some baking and made some strawberry and white chocolate muffins. They don't look great - or anything like muffins - but I can assure you, they taste guuuud! I used this recipe but switched the raspberries for strawberries as we had some in the fridge. Also, I ran out of muffin cases and went for the baking paper method instead which definitely contributed to their strange shape but whatever, I'm not in the Bake Off.

After much wining and dinning at a couple of friends' houses AND eating most of the muffins I made, an hour at the gym seemed like a v.good idea. It's only been two weeks but I love it! Of course it helps massively  that it's the fanciest gym I've ever been to and is only a 10 minute walk from the flat. Feeling v.positive about my new exercise regime (at least 30 mins 3-4 times a week is the plan for the mo), now all I need to do is address my diet!

Hope you all had a fun-filled weekend whether you were in or out :)

needlepoint swooning

Thanks to a new project being tested at work I have now become slightly obsessed with embroidery and needlepoint. Anyone who follows me on pinterest will probably have noticed a stitching themed pin-athon over the last week or so. Perhaps unsurprisingly I'm particularly drawn to the geometric designs (triangles galore!). Here's a few of my favourites at the moment - pretty non?

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left // middle // right

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Yesterday, the insanely talented textile lady I work with v.kindly gave me some of her old embroidery stuff! She's given me a bunch of threads, a canvas stretcher AND, perhaps most excitingly, a big DK book full of all the stitches and how to do them, written by herself no less! I cannot wait to get started, watch this space :)

cocktails, clapham and crochet

Woah, what a busy weekend! After a reeeeally good week I continued to ride the wave of positivity into the weekend and indulged in a very fun-filled couple of days. The rather over zealous exploits of Friday night at a friends' birthday at the ever-awesome Effra Social left me feeling a little worse for wear, but! Saturday was my sister's birthday and I wasn't about to let her down :) She, her lovely friends and I gathered in The Shoreditch to take full advantage of their 2 for a tenner cocktails and I tell you now, they were guuuud. Of all the pages of cocktails to choose from (about 30 different ones) my favourite was the Happy Buddha. At 9pm the venue opened their downstairs 'club' area and we danced the night away. Aside from the happy hour prices I also greatly enjoyed The Shoreditch's penchant for jazzy wallpaper!

I'd been looking forward to sunday, and slightly dreading it for a while. The reason why was because my parents were meeting mitch's parents for the first time. Eeeeee! We all met at the Windmill on clapham common for the pub's delicious roast. Thankfully the meet up was a total success (obvs it was always going to be and I just tend to worry my myself to bits) - we've even got another meet up planned :)

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On sunday I also managed to dash out to brockwell park to carry-out some yarn bombing in aid of Meredith's SheepishBloomDrop. Flowers were the theme and we were encouraged to make them using any creative means. I found this tutorial and attempted to make a little chain of three. Not as good as the original makers' but pretty cute all the same :) Hope you all had a lovely weekend too!

pattern love - bridget riley

The fabulous paintings of English artist Bridget Riley. As one of the foremost advocates of Op Art - colour and shape are her speciality. Two of my favourite things. I've read that there's a collection of her paintings at MoMA in NYC, so when I go back (because I must) it's definitely on my list to see.

Red With Red 1 (2007)

In Attendance (1994)

Gala (1974)

Blaze Study (1962)

The lady herself 

star block baby quilt

Finished! And in the nick of time :)

I managed to finish the quilt just in time for the Christening at the weekend (it was a seriously close call what with making the label and stitching it on about 15 mins before we had to leave for the church).

Due to its tiny recipient, this is the smallest quilt I've made, and took around six weeks to complete. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out - the fabrics and colours suit a baby quilt I think and the variety of star blocks look cute together. However, in true Annie style, it is in no way perfect. The edges are rather wobbly, the blocks are anything but straight and don't even get me started on my corners - why are they so difficult? - at least they're an improvement on my first quilt's corners.

Although it was a bit of a rush to get it finished I really loved making this quilt. The small size meant that it was a (relatively) short project to do and the star theme gave me boundaries but also a bit of variety in terms of shapes to construct.

Now that it's over and the quilt is in its new home my hands are idle again. Watching a film or something on iplayer without making something just feels odd so I'll need to start a new thing soon. I quite fancy making another quilt (that said I do have another one on the go  which is more of an on-going project), or perhaps it's time to pick up the knitting needles again and get cracking on that scarf, or the crochet hook as Meredith of One Sheepish Girl is organising another yarn bombing... the possibilities to create stuff are endless and I bloody love it!

good timing

Last friday I took the day off work and Mitch and I jumped on a national express bus down to bournemouth. Little did we know that it was actually the first day of the bournemouth air show. So, not only did I get to be beside the sea (the driving force behind the trip - I bloody love the sea and don't spend nearly enough time by/in it), we got to eat our picnic on the beach whilst watching amazing stunts performed by pilots in a number of different aeroplanes - including the red arrows! Talk about good timing eh? The beach near the pier was v.crowded but we walked westwards along the coast to a much less populated stretch of sand. Intermittent snacking, snoozing, paddling and plane watching (not to mention dog-petting) was how we spent most of the day and it was absolute bliss. On thing's for sure: I cannot leave such a long interlude between now and my next trip to the sea.

On the way back to the coach station we took a little wander around bournemouth. Although this aviary was full of so many different types of birds and the this little covered shopping bit was pretty, what I reeeeally wanted to visit was a bit too much of a trek away. Guess it just means I'll have to come back - not a bad thing at all!

Saturday was super laid back, although, it did get a little frantic in the evening when I had to finish the baby quilt (more on that another day). A late breakfast and a stroll into Brixton to get some stuff for said baby quilt was followed by a whole afternoon at Brockwell Lido. In the two years I've been living in Brixton I'd never swam in it, nor experienced the culinary delights of the lido cafe until this weekend. I'd seriously been missing out. Despite the lovely weather we had over the weekend, the pool was very quiet and I actually managed to swim a few lengths rather than just lounging around on the side in my fabulous swimming costume that makes me feel like wonder woman. Even though the setting was perfection I almost had to cut short the day's relaxing thanks to forgetting to bring sun cream and was definitely starting to burn when...the NIVEA people turned up and were giving out free sun cream! I was so impressed with their timing that I actually agreed to hold their promo beach ball and be photographed for their website. Horror and regret set in about 2 mins after they left but at least I was able to stay out in the sun for a few more hours.

And sunday was spent in the company of the most gorgeous little baby in honour of her christening. Here's Mitch having a cuddle with baby Ava. I  took this pic  just before she started to cry - good timing no? Cute.