Thursday, October 28, 2010

graffiti monsters


Brick Lane, East London



Invidia, Brick Lane, East London



Greenwich, South London



Pure, Mint Street, South Bank London



Krah, Brick Lane, East London



Sweettoof, Brick Lane East London



Asbo, Brick Lane East London



Hackney, East London



Hackney, East London


Happy Theme Thursday Halloween

Sunday, October 24, 2010

new arrival

Well... it doesn't take much more effort to look after two cats than one, we thought. Unlike children.



and this little cute and mad-whiskered kitty needed a home.



and, we fondly thought, it might be nice for Logan to have some cat company when we are out or away...



Well.
There have been occurrences.

Near-misses with cups of tea and computers



glasses of wine in peril

and a bucket-of-water-dalek spillage yesterday evening



Also frequent facings-off with Logan, who is grumpily not impressed.



They have been not unlike children.

Ah well, they'll learn. Incidence of growling and hissing is decreasing, I hope the penny will drop and Logan will realise that a bit of chasing could be fun.


Its been a week, and little kitty hasn't stopped purring yet, nor staring wide-eyed with a constantly shocked expression.
After drawing up a shortlist of names including Spock, Skaro and - a late favourite here, which almost made it - Emmett, he is now named Lemmy.


So, two posts in two days, whatever next.
Yesterday's post was supposed to appear on a different blog - I'm vaguely surprised thats not happened before.

Happy weekend everyone.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

latest woolly things

A few quick pics - this is how the knitted felted bag in the previous post came out :








its now listed in the made4aid Etsy shop, for sale.

I'm also soon going to list a waffle scarf there, which looks like this:








I LOVE waffle weave, its so 3-dimensional.



At my textiles course I'm weaving a length of waffle which I'm planning to felt, and make into a tea cosy. Pretty experimental..... but fun, at the very least.

I have felted some samples, they come out in fairly amazing ways, I'll try and get some pics to post here.


And, in the meantime, I'm knitting another bag to felt, and some scarves for made4aid. I'm doing a version of this one:




but in some beautiful black cashmere which was a fabulous find in a charity (thrift) shop.


soon to be for sale on made4aid.....
.....possible Christmas gifts for someone you know?

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Wheels...

....for Theme Thursday












































Plenty of wheels... no time for words
Happy Theme Thursday!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Beautiful Kerala 4 - SPICES



Kerala is an amazingly prolific part of the world. Almost everything good seems to grow there....



We made a list part-way through our holiday of the spices (and other things) we had seen growing during our holiday



it was a long list



pepper, tea, ginger, curry, cinnamon, papaya, cocoa, sandalwood, turmeric, cardamom, coffee, tree tomatoes, chilli, aubergine, green beans, nutmeg, vanilla, rue, allspice, mahogany, clove, coconut, jackfruit, banana, coconut, pineapple, paddy (rice), tapioca, rubber



and we certainly didn't see everything growing which is produced there.




















Truly a land of plenty, in some ways.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Knot

Well this was another Thursday theme which seemed a challenge at first. But then, when I start looking through my photo archives....





the next 3 by the side of the Thames:











I like knots actually.
I often doodle celtic knotwork, in long meetings. No doubt that says something freudian about me.




and these tassels are made from a series of knots - small and delicate



and big and hairy (inside my girl shed):






This is a Theme Thursday post


but I hope you don't mind if I also take the opportunity to announce the relaunch of made4aid

raising money for aid, through handmade art and craft - we now have an Etsy shop, you can find it here

You can buy handmade items, all profits to Médicin sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) and World Food Programme USA (and probably Oxfam too, to be confirmed).
To buy, you do need to register with Etsy but that is quick and easy to do. I have more items to add to the shop when I get the time.

There are cards for sale there made with some of my photos - and there is a custom option, so if you'd like to order cards made with photos of your choice, let me know - almost any of the photos you see on this blog could be used, plus almost any of those on my flickr account.

We are also hoping for donations of handmade items - there is further info. and guidelines donating items to be sold on the made4aid website.

and there is a new button for made4aid on Etsy - please feel free to take the code (which you can find on on the made4aid blog ) and display the button wherever you can, in fact we'll be delighted if you do.