fun breakfast #3

egg

soldiers

salmon

tea

a bit of green space to call our own

My maternal grandmother is 90 and lives just a 10 minutes walk away from my parents' house (aka, my current dwelling). She has a gigantic garden which, now that she's older, she rarely, if ever, uses it. The garden itself is divided into two sections: the lawn and flower beds (closest to the house) and, what was once my grandad's vegetable patch at the back. Although my nan has a gardener who cuts the lawn occassionally, the back part of the garden has pretty much been abandoned and, helped by the fact that there's a big tall dense hedge separating these two sections, left to grow wild.

A couple of weekends ago Mitch and I had an idea that, with my nan's permission of course, we could clear away the jungle of thorns and weeds and restore the old veg patch. Perhaps, we could even have a go at growing stuff again...

My nan said yes. So, last weekend we began.

This is what it looked like. Most of the brambles were around knee-to-waist height, some were up to my shoulder! We started to cut the hedge back too as it's crazily overgrown. Whilst clearing up, we found tonnes of weird insects (an orange neon woodlouse-type bug!) and terrifyingly large spiders. Largely thanks to Mitch making a start single-handedly on Saturday, by Sunday we'd cleared most of the plot, including a v.stubborn, seen-better-days, pampas grass plant. Here's how it's looking at the moment.

We're hoping to work on it once a week and I'm aiming to track our progress. If it's a success, it might be fun to look back on. Watch this space!

goodies from the crafty fox market

Last Saturday my sis and I ventured to Brixton with the Crafty Fox Market in our sights. It was the least busy I've ever seen it (and I've been to a lot of them) probably due to the disgusting weather. I hope it picked up for the sellers in the afternoon and on the Sunday, but as a positive, it made it pretty easy to walk around and have a proper good nose at all the good stuff for sale. I came away with these two gems. This blooming ace dinosaur print by James Barker (which I've actually been admiring for quite some time) and the cute little succulent - complete with hexagon shaped pot! - from Pikku Potin. I'm already looking forward to the Xmas market when hopefully I'll have a bit more money to spend.

fun breakfast #2

Today's fun breakfast :)

sesame seed bagel, toasted

generous spread of mascarpone

smoked salmon

if at first you don't succeed...

Last Friday I finished knitting my first ever jumper.

It was rubbish.

So rubbish that, thanks to some encouragement from my mum and nan, I (along with their help) unravelled the entire thing on Sunday.

So what was the problem?

It was gigantic.

Not kinda baggy. Not over-sized and snuggly. Just massive. Suitable for two if that's your kind of thing.

Yes, before you say it, this entire mess could've been avoided VERY early on but I, being the novice that I am, blindly followed the pattern thinking that it might just be a little big. I couldn't have been more wrong. I also nearly made a second stupid mistake: to leave it as it was. Having finally completed the monstrous jumper I genuinely entertained the idea of keeping it as a 'something-to-wear-around-the-house' garment. Unravelling the whole bloody thing (which took me about a month to make) was unthinkable. Thankfully my mum and nan persuaded me otherwise and I'm so glad they did because I really love the wool and I want to make a jumper that I want to wear.

Here's the ludicrous thing in case you're curious:

So my first experience of knitting an item of clothing has not been successful BUT I've learnt a lot from it: always check your tension, DO NOT round up when deciding your size (wool stretches over time afterall) and seek help from seasoned knitters because they know what they're talking about.

It might seem odd to share something on here that was a fail but, like life, there's a lot of mistakes to learn from in craft and who knows maybe this tale of fail will come in use to someone else. I think the most important thing I've taken from this experiment is that if at first you don't succeed, don't be put off. Try again.

The back is already complete on jumper take 2, and yes, it looks like a waaaaay better size. Hopefully (fingers and toes crossed) I'll have a lovely, normal sized jumper to show you soon.

Time: Tattoo Art Today @ Somerset House

Deeming it safe to visit Somerset House again (I didn't really fancy visiting with the crowds of fashion week hanging about) I went to see Time: Tattoo Art Today. The exhibition features pieces of original artwork by tattoo artists who'd been asked to create their work on anything but their usual canvas - skin. Time was the theme. It's a free and pretty small exhibition but the variety of work and different styles was cool. Also, at the end of it, there's a chance to peruse, and buy, books by some of the artists. It's only on until Sunday so if you're in the area I'd reccomend a quick visit.