Party animals (who, us?)

We’ve had a great weekend in London with friends, celebrating a couple of birthdays and generally enjoying their company.

It was an early start yesterday morning, but early starts mean the roads are clear and we were there at our hotel by 9.30ish.  Plenty of time to drop our bags, check in and have a leisurely walk to our lunchtime destination.

We pottered around Monmouth Street and Seven Dials for a while.  I’m glad we did, for not only did I find a couple of interesting things in my favourite art supply shop, I thought I’d step inside Eileen Fisher in Slingsby Place, just to see what’s what.  As you do.

Well, there was the black boiled wool coat I’d seen in September; the same one as Mary bought for me in Beverly Hills and brought with her when we went to Liverpool.  Except that the version in the shop yesterday had sleeves – very nice.  £495 reduced to £195.  Hmmm.  I tried it on and my hero declared that it looked good.  I think “Buy it” were the words he spoke

I began the transaction and offered my postcode as evidence of my “frequent buyer” status (!) and couldn’t quite believe my ears when the assistant announced that I had a gift voucher to spend on my account which would bring the price of the coat down to £94.  A bargain, or what?

Time to start the party then.  Lunch at Joe Allens with our friends, their friends (many of whom are also our friends) their rellies and especially nice, Edward and Amy (who are also their friends).  It was a quiet sort of do.  Not!

In the party spirit, then (but having put our feet up for an hour before heading out again) we had pre-theatre drinks in The Savoy before the brilliant, amazing Guys and Dolls.  What a show!  A fantastic cast, a full house and a really memorable performance.  Wow.

I can tell you, we were both pretty pleased to climb into our super-comfy bed last night!

This morning, the celebrations continued with the opening of a new pair of Falke socks, fresh from Strumpfstadt

Off we went again, meeting our friends for a morning concert at the Wigmore Hall.  Well, a little culture on a Sunday morning is good for the soul, isn’t it, and it has to be better than hissing at Rob’s utterances on The Archers Omnibus!

Edward and Amy were waiting for us at the Chiltern Firehouse when we got there, ready for a spot of lunch – or more accurately, brunch.  Fantastically tasty dishes, really well served (on hot plates!) with a glass or two of prosecco…well, why not?!  

Desserts were spectacular – well, we had to sample such interesting offerings, didn’t we?  (This is pannacotta with a burnt meringue surrounded by granita)

Sadly, all good things come to an end and this was the point where I wished for a teleport home.  Leaving London late on a Sunday afternoon isn’t good, but at least we were in our own comfy car and not on a rickety train (and bus replacement) to Eastbourne…

How blessed we are to have sweet friends who share such fun with us.  How lucky we are to be able to enjoy it, too!

My prize arrived!

You might recall that I was the lucky winner – not of the lottery, but of a draw for a trolley system for my sewing machine.

Look what arrived this morning.

I opened the trolley bag first.  Very smart and rather larger than I imagined!   I couldn’t wait to explore…

There’s a good, solid retractable handle to pull it on two sturdy wheels

and a grab handle at each end too. 

Inside it’s lined with small pockets here and there

and loads and loads of padding, securely fixed with velcro patches.

The whole front unzips and opens up, making it easier to load the machine, which is not only very large, but also rather heavy – 20kg.

I unplugged my machine and carefully lifted into place.  All those additional padding blocks had to go – it took up almost every inch of the bag.

The pockets at the front are deep enough for additional feet and other accessories and I don’t feel worried that they’ll squash up against the metal panels of the machine and be damaged in any way.

Those inside the bag are probably better suited to lighter, thinner things like scissors and Swiss Army Knives  - the Bernina sewing version, of course

There are small pockets on the inside of the top flap which are ideal for spare needles and unpickers plus the Bernina universal tool for getting in all kinds of awkward corners in case of emergency.

I lay the knee lift on the top and squeezed the sewing table down the side – that was the only part which didn’t seem to have an obvious home.  Maybe I’ll investigate if there’s a better place for that.

Foot pedal in one end pocket, power cable in the other

I zipped it all up and squeezed between my desk and the cupboard.  Wide load coming through!

It was rather easier loading the embroidery module.  The bag is similarly padded with a non-slip panel on the base which fits the solid base perfectly.

There’s a secure strap to hold it in place, though I don’t think it’d go anywhere.

A large pocket inside the front flap holds all the hoops and any other paraphernalia – the templates and any threads – will fit in the outer front pocket.

Zipped up, secured in place, we’re ready to roll!

But oh my, there’s a huge empty space in my studio. 

I think I’ll get it all out again

Radical thoughts

We’re counting down the days to an adventure.  Those of you who’ve been reading a while will know that means I’m giving some consideration to the format of my journal.

I had it in mind to create something a little like this one which I bought in Japan and used to record the fun of a cruise in 2011. 

The pages have a folded pocket and not only did I find it fun to use, it was a good means of recording our travels without too much fuss.

I made myself a similar, if slightly larger journal for the following year’s cruise.

Once again, the pages have a folded pocket in which I could stuff all kinds of things. 

As I hummed and hawwed about what format/size to create, I really enjoyed looking through those journals and remembering the fun days we spent with our friend Sandie before boarding the ship in Sydney that year.

I was thinking, too, that every day whilst on board the ship, we receive a daily programme, “Passages”, which I usually stuff into my journal, cut out the relevant bits and then throw away the rest.  I was mulling over the idea of using those almost-A3 size papers to create the pages for my journal this time and putting them to good use.  Does it matter that I don’t know the exact size now?  Might I put together a kind of framework that I could then adapt once we are on board?

I was prevaricating.  Thinking out loud.  Muttering.

Then my Hero uttered a radical thought.

“Why do you need to do a journal at all this time?”

He had a point.  I’ll still put together some Project Life pages when I arrive back home, I’ll still write my blog and I can’t help but scribble in my notebook.  What if I used a slightly larger format notebook and made it into more of a journal?

Well, in the words of my m-i-l Bettine, “we’ll see, dear”.

I do know that contrary to expectations, cruises offer less time than a road trip to sit and create pages in a journal.  They’re low on ephemera too, because travelling in a group means no entry tickets and suchlike.  So, yes, maybe I could simply extend my notebook.  I wouldn’t need to take all that art kit with me and instead, could simply take the minimum bits and pieces.  A glue stick maybe, to fix things in….or maybe a small stapler…and a few crayons…pair of scissors…one of those waterbrushes…oh, and perhaps a small sheet of rubber stamps?

In less than two weeks time we will have boarded the ship here*.  (Can you guess where it is?)  We’ll already have set sail to retrace a route we last sailed in 2004, hopefully exploring a few different ports of call this time and adding two new countries to our list, weather permitting.

And every evening when we return from dinner, there will be a copy of Passages on our bed.  Will I be able to resist making it into a journal, now I’ve had the thought?  What do you think?

* We board the ship in Callao, which is the port of Lima, Peru, where we left it two years ago to go to Machu Picchu.  The photo is of the beach in the Miraflores district where we’ll stay overnight before boarding.  Did you ever imagine Lima to be a beachy place?

Still here

Who’d have thought it?

Ten years ago today, I was chatting to a couple of online chums about starting a blog.  One of them directed me to Blogger…and the rest is water under the bridge  an Elegant Sufficiency!  I thought that perhaps I’d have run out of things to write about by now, but it doesn’t seem to have happened yet   

Anyway, thank you sweet friends for sticking with me through thick and thin.  Most of all, thank you for offering your support and thoughts from time to time.  There are promising events on the horizon as we count down days to this year’s big adventure; there’s a summer road trip planned with three new US states to tick off and of course, there will be the usual agonising decisions to be taken about quilt block arrangements and suchlike (I’m going with the random as you all suggested, btw).

Here’s to the next decade, eh?

Training

I heard a voice coach speaking on the radio a while ago, explaining how the vocal cords are just like any other muscle.  They need to be kept in shape with regular exercise.  I mention that not only to justify my regular use of my own vocal cords (!) but to apply the same principle to the  many other skills we acquire but then fail to keep exercised.

Ahem.

I use my sewing machine regularly.  It’s always out, always threaded up and ready to sew.  I switch it on and off I go.  But I’ll admit, it’s quite some time since I used the embroidery unit and so when I saw this blog entry I thought, yes, that’s me.  I wouldn’t go as far as to say I’m intimidated by my embroidery machine but I will admit to being a bit rusty and the idea of something quick and easy seemed a good way of spending an hour this morning.

I downloaded the free design (only free for a limited time) and evidenced my rustiness immediately.  Just which file format do I need to load onto the usb?  Thankfully, like many such things, once I gave it some thought, it all came back to me and soon, my machine was purring away.

I did have to consult the book to check the bobbin threading pattern for embroidery, mind you.  I knew where the thread should go, just couldn’t seem to get it there (and working with black thread didn’t make it any easier).

Then came the colouring in bit.  I used my watercolour pencils which probably weren’t the best choice – I’d probably have done better to follow the advice in the blog post and use wax crayons instead.  But by the time I got to that bit I was irritated.  (I know, it doesn’t take much!)

Are you into “adult colouring books”?  If so, don’t tell me.  I don’t want to know!  In return I won’t ask you why you haven’t got something better to do…

What irritated me was “Outlining shapes with a darker color and working your way in is good practice. It allows you to add depth and layer colors as your inspired to.” Well, apart from the weird English of the second sentence, I wanted to ask “says who?”  Just who is setting rules for colouring in, please?  “Good practice”?  Good grief.

So, I leave you with a fine example of very bad practice.  Not only did I not outline shapes with a darker colour and work my way in, I also overdid the water spray and the colours ran.  I never was much good at colouring anyway.

Maybe I need some training?