things i miss...

it is sooo lovely being back home and seeing my family here in orange county, but after almost three decades living in london, england there are sooo many things i miss when i'm here! things like...
a cafe on every corner
being able to get a nice meal with a lovely bottle of wine after 10pm
walking everywhere

and then there are two things that i'm really really missing - so much i'm not sure which i'm missing more
my husbandboy AND my stash of yarn

the blondeboy had to stay behind as he's double booked on plasterwork. he's finishing a new bulgari hotel in knightsbridge as well as starting a new project on fleet street.  and my yarn stash, well hey i decided to travel uber-light and reckoned that i could just pick up whatever i needed here...i've just not had a chance.

its so horrid not being able to just cuddle up on the sofa with blondeman and whatever colour yarn i need and hook away!

guess i'll just have to talk to my family, lol...xxx

renegade renegade craft fair

so as i've been travelling so much, i just realised that it's the fucking 'renegade' craft fair this weekend in london, and remember i was planning my own renegade renegade craft fair as i couldn't afford the fucking $400 deposit required to apply for a stall? so tomorrow morning i will be going down brick lane with a blanket and my wares and flogging them on the sidewalk like all the other weekly sidewalk sellers...who would like to join me...it's free!!!

and this is the sort of thing i will be selling, what do you think?

15 minutes of shame

back online in london for about 15 minutes while i try to catch up on my fat rehab/weight maintenance planning. brighton was lovely - caught up with my lovely charity man - who knitted me the cutest 'deddy bear', which is now lying dead with x's for eyes on the arm of my big lovely comfy sofa. i'll post photos soon, but right now i just can't move while i wait for the nurofen to kick in! then i'll be up and rehearsing my tribal bellydance before throwing everything that might still fit into a suitcase and running off to sweden...where i will hopefully have a great creative week with my lovely ann-marie.

big big thanks to lovely spaceboy and her partner for putting me up the night i was homeless in brighton.  while anno was in the bath i quickly halloween yarnbombed her house!  i am never going to have enough stock to sell in my etsy shop if i keep this up...

#henparty

so my london geeky girls are kidnapping me this weekend for a bit of a post-wedding paarty - so watch out margate! and this time not just because of the yarn bombs i will be leavin' behind, but you will have an extra 15 uber-smart ladies drunk on champagne and cake and tea wondering your seaside attractions this weekend.

i am so touched - really touched - that the girls have gone to such trouble for me. it's amazing. still, it's also really hard to get myself together and let go this morning. my daughter is back in the fucking tabloid papers through no fault of her own! and also maybe also because i'm just a bit embarrassed that my latest crochet project isn't high-brow enough for the ladies...

...a neck warmer of bright purple acrylic.

you see, as well as being my geek sisters, we also have our own stitchup group called stitch and fish as a spin-off of our digi industry mailing list:

haddock

. this mailing list is awesom - it's basically ravelry for a group of 69 or so friends to talk and share everything all day everyday for the last 15 years. whoever thought a list created to book baby foot games with wired magazine journos would spawn such amazing friendships.

this weekend - i feel very very lucky indeed.

twice in a row

the last two weekends have been all about being the burlesque mama - we've been up to the rebellion festival at blackpool and then yesterday at volupte in london...

blackpool is our yearly girlie punk rock holiday - it was as good as ever - as soon as i landed i was engulfed in alot of love - sylvain sylvain from the new york dolls was wonderful and made me feel like a teenager again, watching stiff little fingers from their sound cage was also awesome - they never give a bad show and have more energy now than ever!

the girls show was also great - one of their best ever - there was fire, tits, beer, ballet and hoops!
rinse and repeat for this weekend at volupte...

...and if you wanna see them next weekend then ravenisis will be singing at the cellar door on sunday night...come down, the tickets are free free free!

oh - and the best part about such girlie weekends?
I AM BACK ON THE HOOK!!!!

yup, have been making my pretty lotus candleholders and giving them away to anyone that will have them...

...and also organising all my other crafty bits and bobs and thinking i'll use this afternoon to make some shrines.

more us/them nonsense

wow - the hooker vs knitters thing seems to be hotting up.

i'm still going along to the hunterian tonight, even though crochet still seems to be the red-headed stepchild of crafting in london. but we know that that the gingers really rule, there's nothing like the glow of orange pubes and freckles on the chest to get the juices flowing!

and the more the london stitch girls proclaim themselves a 'knitting community', the more i really want to do more to organise the hookers in london - our numbers are swelling, and thanks to the make lounge, new enthusiasts are made monthly. big props to them and their attitude...

because lately mine isn't that great lately - what is it with me that i even care bout this?

maybe i should get the Crochet Liberation Front logo tattooed on me...

hunters gatherers

so tomoro night is the museums at night night around europe, and even though i really really wanted to go to the sir john soames candlelight tour, i realised they do it every month - so will put that off for another time and go along to some organised night at the hunterian instead that i'm now referring to as 'stitched up' because that is how they have it...

...and i'm really surprised as the site is crochet-inclusive and says to bring your hooks - yet when the 'stitchettes' had a shout out for teachers i was told that they only needed knitters. the night sounds good and my mister will probably tag along for the overall exhibit. it sounds great with a chance to 'learn the secrets of the operating theatre as surgeons lend you a helping hand with some basic surgical skills.'

fine. i'll go along, and i'll smile, and i'll hold my hook high, but really it is just another time that crochet is just too fucking good for the rest of them and they are lucky if hookers even bother to show up....which made me think...if i was to organise my ultimate hooker night in london, where would it be?

i think at the enchanted palace at kensington palace before it is all done up.

where would you choose???

mayday! mayday!

so as the weather is sooo shit in london this weekend, and i was stuck in waiting for my oldest friend to turn up from back home, i finally got stuck into the doris chan book n started a project from it! n i am so oo glad that i did, as it's been extra warm and cozy to be playing with mohair on such a rotten day...it is so cold here that we actually wished we had gloves when we were out shopping and pubbing today!

and what's really great is even though i started it this evening when we got back from the pub, i am pretty much halfway finished and it's only just got 1am...if it was light enough in our bedroom i'd be working on it now - i had to vacate the sitting room as the old friend gets the big over-stuffed goosedown sofa for her few hours snooxe...she has an early flight so i reckon i'll be awake again in a few hours - that's if i get to sleep at all. i'm starting to get back to my old insomniac self.

which is oky - as it means more time for crochet!

find cassie!

firstly - for anyone back home or anyone that knows anyone back home can you please have a look at this blog post and pass it along if you can? nother crafty vixen could really use our help in trackin down her daughter cassie who has been missing since the 8th...there is a possibility that she could have run away, and may be headed towards Virginia. thanks so much for having a look - just in case we can help in anyway.

as a mom i can't even imagine what she is going through - just thinking about my daughter ravenisis going missing makes me sick. my daughter means everything to me and i'm so lucky - shes my best friend as well as my only family over here in london...and i'm so proud of her! we had a great day together today at the V+A for their quilt exhibition. she got me the tickets for my birthday last weekend.

i do have to say tho-that i really don't think i've seen that many menopausal women in one space ever before in my life! what is it about patchwork and the change?

black christmas

i can't believe how difficult it is just to buy regular old black crochet cotton in central london. i ended up having to pay £5 a ball for the 'silky' stuff at john lewis and i/m hoping that it will workup into some lovely black snowflakes to put on our bright pink xmas tree!

and a big word of warning to anyone who goes shopping down oxford street - their credit card system has been fucked since last weekend, so take cash...

out of towner

my life is such a rush now - even more so than it was before. and i was bad THEN. now tis worse - but i'm loving being out of london and out of the house every other weekend. especially as it means hanging out in bristol's yarn shop...and in a fancy bed made of jungle vines. it also means less time for hooking, and making sure i have little mobile project that don't take up much room as i like travelling light!

which means unless the weather really turns this weekend, i won't be taking the new yummy black silk and alpaca and human hair scarf i've been working on...damn it's beautiful - i cn't wait to get it photographed properly to show you all. i've used my old hair as the black human hair fringes and it is lush...i even worked on it a bit more when i got home from movida last night, and i can't wait until there is time to make more more more. in the meantime i'll be carrying around and continuing to make bright coloured aums.

while drinking cider on boats.

cherry chocolate vegan gluten free cakemix

no crochet tonight but vegan gluten free baking for bake camp instead!

i've just taken the brownies out of the oven.
and the scones are about halfway there...

then tomoro i might be making some cookies if i can get the right ingredients and i have time after the gym and everything else i need to do. luckily my last appointment had to be cancelled so i can get there to partake of the goodies and alcohol and tea as early as possible.

thanks to the lovely kerrching for hostessing it...

one wierd thing though - in all these years i've never bought fake egg.
doing so this afternoon made me feel really strange and has made me really really re-think this urban vegan thing. if i wanted to get luscious fresh eggs in london where would i go?
(i used to buy direct from coram's fields)

other thing is while i've been baking away i've been listenin to alot of cow punk/alt cuntry that i grabbed off my old flatmate's hard drive. makes me really miss her - will have to organise a baking slumber party with her soon!!!

scone update:
they smell like glue
look rough and taste too plain.
next time i will go with my plan of seasoning salt and grated courgette...
still will be nice straight out of the oven with spread for me right now!

i'm due a midnight snak.

star time

made a 12 pointed star this week -=- its so cute!!!

and have been yarnbombing london with my easter eggs.

also joined the stitch book group and scored the audiobook of 'water for elephants' to listen to while i crochet. i wanted the old school paper copy but couldn't find it anywhere so downloaded it - and ironically an hour later found out my daughter just finished reading it...i could have had her copy! but am going to take advantage of things being up and down with the fiance and am going to go to bed early tonight with some crochet and put the ipod on the dock and listen to a few chapters...

...just hope that i stay awake!

o what a weekend!

that was surreal for sure...

started out friday quite drunk on red wine as all the directors were out of the office...what is funny is even though we are supposed to finish at 4pm on a friday we all still hung out drinking and playing pool and talking shop til i had to catch my train. the fiance was there too - his job thing is bad (but i think its for the best) and he's officially out lookng now - so if anyone has any digi-wigi-doo-dah head of production type jobs please let us know!

as he was there and as well as losing his job his house was also broken into the same day, we had NOther bottle of wine, and i'd had some codeines for my neck so was quite wiped out by the time i got my train to bristol to stay with fishwhiskers...still i managed to make more skully squares on the ride, but in the end we didn't manage to yarnbomb bristol at all...guess i'll have to go back in the spring to string up my skully graffitty all over like little fresh blooms.

but that seems a long long way away. i reckon i got the last train into london last night! the streets of london were so pretty and snowy. my daughter and i had a nice drink then at midnight decided we needed nibbles so went out to yarnbomb and buy chocolate and chilli crisps (still my fave!) but instead ended up building snowmen with strangers. sooo fun!

snow though meant that pretty much all transport was down all day in london, so my office was closed...been working from home which means i'm home at a decent time to settle in and continue all my finishing of bits and body parts i crocheted this weekend...i managed to make:

• a purple dalek
• 2 slices of pie
  
• 2 corkkscrew scarves
• another little pile of skully squares

i dont think i've forgotten anything...so off to stitch and stuff the night away!

back in london...

and just barely sorted so have missed knitclub...boo!
tomoro i have to show up bright at early at our shiny new bright lovely office building which is soooo exciting as i'll be down clerkenwell so just a busride to both iknit at waterloo and the prague bar stitchy bitchy.

hope all my friends new and old have had a great start to the new year! xxx

ps - yes my suitcase is full of shoes, lingerie, and crafty vixen bits...lol