glass

Tonight I made some stained glass biscuits for Rosie (a birthday treat). It wasn't my most successful baking venture - only about 50% of them made it off the baking tray in one piece and the recipe was lacking in flavour (not enough ginger, not enough orange, not enough sugar), but they look pretty. Nicely coloured windows.

I also got the glass piece back that I assembled on White night. Not bad at all for a bit of late night crafting. I like the shapes.

In other news, thanks to Lyzi & Deborah for their kind posts about my blog.

let's collaborate

Today Natacha, Vicky, Yumi and I installed our house of books in the Amnesty Bookshop, Brighton.
If all goes smoothly (no subsidence/falling masonry) it will be on display for the next 3 weeks.


BOOK HOUSE - Collaborative Project

"Our objective in building this house was to create a space in which to set scenes inspired by our favourite books and stories."

A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz
(Natacha Goransky)

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
(Debbie Hill)

Pinnochio by Carlo Collodi
(Vicky Ilott)

The Blue Bird by Maurice Maeterlinck
(Yumi Okuda)

the best thing about moving house...

...is deciding where everything should go.

enough now.

I'm not going to let things bother me as much any more. I'm going back home for Christmas tomorrow and I am very much looking forward to spending time with family and friends.

Then when I get back it'll be almost moving day and we can escape!

The photo above is one Rosie took of her wall when it was at it's worst (and you can't get much worse than that). And the postcard is one I picked up from the Sukie xmas sale and shows what life will be like in our new house: tending to the "garden" and being surrounded by colourful flowers!

Old house bad. New house good.

2009 bad. 2010 good.

packing up

Moving day is swiftly approaching.

I have calculated that I only have to spend 8 more nights in my room of doom.
That is a good thought!

storm clouds and sunny skies

Just when we were thinking this house hunt was going to be impossible we stumbled across a spacious palace of a flat around the corner and said yes within the hour.

Quick decisions make me nervous, but then again so does everything, and I feel very sure that this is a good decision.

No more sleepless nights worrying if the storm is going to collapse our roof.

No more wiping my ceiling and walls with a tea towel.

And no more mouldy kitchen cupboards.

New year, new house!

Above are some treats I prepared for Rosie's birthday at the weekend.
A birthday card with help from my favourite new book & a teapot cake (see it post-decoration here).

We had an AMAZING time at lucky voice on Monday, followed by an awful couple of days filled with rain and house viewings (and the aforementioned pigeon incident). Blue skies are here now though, and I hope they're here to stay.

location location location

It looks like house hunting is going to be trickier than I thought. I think we're going to have to compromise on space/cost/location but I'm not sure which way I'd rather go.

Today I looked at 3 places - one was lovely but had a funny bedroom setup, another had a lovely neighbour but the flat didn't feel as friendly, and one was just AWFUL!

I'm sure we'll have more luck next week.

out with the old

For some reason I seem to hold onto all kinds of odd items because "I'm sure I'll put them to good use one day".
These old pyjama bottoms are a prime example - nice fabric, but ripped and pretty useless. I'm sure I'll probably never use the fabric for anything else so why are they taking up storage space which I don't really have?

I must change my ways before I end up like Mr. Trebus.

Everything I own is slowly being ruined by the dampness of my flat anyway...which is top of my fix list at the moment. I've even booked in a house viewing for tomorrow - though I'm secretly hoping it is worse than my flat so that I feel better about my situation.

all in a row

For a project I am working on at university.