almost spring?

hyacinths 

cherry blossom

hellebore flowers

barcelona

Some photos taken on my Diana Mini from a few sunny days in Barcelona last month. It was like having a burst of Spring for a few days in a long, damp winter. Although I love the dark in Autumn, when nights grow shorter and evenings are cosy by this time at the tail end of Winter I can't wait for Spring....

pickle it!

christmas pickles from naomi who has been very busy 'making christmas' this year!

(and yes they are 'pickled brussel sprouts - my favourite vegetable)

birthday season

In our house January is birthday season. Although in many ways it's not the best time to have a birthday (mine falls a few days after new year) I do like starting a new year with a new age and spending my birthday money in the January sales. So here's a summary of our birthdays through their cakey goodness...

(R's tropical birthday cake, meringue piles on birthday plates, birthday tea, my apple and wensleydale birthday cake)

diary

Every year, during December, I obsess over which diary I'm going to buy for next year. I love the sense of a new start, as this year's diary starts to look tired and worn, and the ritual of copying over people's birthdays and filing in other plans already arranged for next year.
I like either Muji or Moleskine (I've had Muji ones for the last few years but I'm going back to Moleskine this year as I've managed to find one of their vertical layout diaries!) I'm quite particular about the layout of the pages - I either need the week to be laid out with the days arranged vertically or if the days are going to be horizontal then they need to be on the left-hand page and a blank page on the right-hand side.
Why this specificity you may ask? Well it's because of my lists. I'm an obsessive list maker. I make them all the time. There's something very calming about making a list. And then crossing things off it. The security of knowing you don't have to worry about remembering something because you've written it down. So I like to make lists in my diary of things I need to do on particular days.
I have notebooks with lists in of books I plan to read, films I want to watch, items of clothing I feel that I 'need'... I like the address book insert that comes at the back of a Moleskine diary, it's perfect for list making, and as it has tabs I can have sections for different kind of lists such as: a list of things I'm planning on making/doing eg. mending my patchwork quilt, moving around the furniture in the bedroom and a list of things I plan to achieve in the next year and a list of important phone numbers that I can't remember - I am very bad at remembering numbers!
In the new year I'm thinking of creating a series of list based posts - so any topics suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

christmas crackers, icy turquoise and clara bow

I've just read this post and it's really inspired me to think about my Christmas day outfit. I normally stick to my alpine jumper but that's getting a bit repetitive now and I want to get more wear out of it generally during the season rather than just saving it for Christmas day... I do have a red and green checked 1950s dress (which my sister calls my christmas cracker dress) that I usually wear quite a lot during the summer but rarely at this time of year - perhaps that's a missed opportunity I've overlooked? I've also got what I like to think of as my Marilyn Monroe ski lodge jumper - as I image that it's the kind of thing she may have worn if she were visiting such a place - a Biba black knitted polo neck with leopard print faux fur cuffs which is another possibility. Hmm. I think I need to give this some thought - it needs to be something comfortable and warm for relaxing in that will allow for an expanding waistline after eating too much... Do you plan a Christmas day outift?
I've just painted my nails with my newish Barry M nail-varnish in turquoise. (I do love their range of flat opaque colours - not a big fan of metallic nail-varnish myself). I thought it seemed appropriate for today's very cold icy weather but I'm not so sure if it looks right against my cold pink hands? Perhaps I just need to get used to it - I usually stick to reds, dark reds or coral.
Yesterday I dyed my hair, my hair has not been it's natural colour since I was seventeen, and this time I went for a more obvious shade of red rather than the gingery colour I've favoured for a while now - although after a few washes my hair normally returns to said gingery shade. My hair has been red predominantly for the last twelve years, with the odd period of black and an 'interesting' blonde period, as it's the colour that suits me best. I feel frustrated that my natural shade of mousy brown does nothing for my complexion and makes my incredibly pale skin look washed out and sallow. And with my new darker shade and recently trimmed bob (courtesy of my sister's excellent self-taught hairdressing skills) I'm quite liking my Clara Bow-esque look. Damn it if only it were natural!

elf

I have decided that my calling in life is to become an elf. (When I say elf I mean a one of Santa's helpers kind of elf not a Lord of the Rings kind of elf). I'm small. I like making things. What other requirements could I possibly need to fulfil? For the past few weeks most of my spare time has been filled with Christmas present and card making and in spite of not being the world's biggest fan of Christmas I'm enjoying this year's build up. Although I suspect that may have something to do with the fact that this year I've eschewed Christmas shopping in favour of the aforementioned making of presents. I had a tiny amount of shopping to do which I did yesterday and was fortunate enough that not only was Oxford Street not painfully busy but that it also snowed quite heavily and so I mostly enjoyed the experience. Today has seen the first wearing of my favourite jumper - my alpine style Shetland wool jumper which used to be my Mum's and I save for wearing this time of the year (it's very The Ice Storm). And also my first taste of my winter lettuce that I've been growing which I had for lunch with some poached eggs.

(my living room looking cosy and festive, a failed attempt at photographing the snow whilst shopping, my tasty lunch, and fortnum and mason's window display - just because)

a christmas aesthetic?

Paris themed posts will come soon ( I keep forgetting to charge my camera so I can download the photos and I may need to draft them a few times...) but in the meantime I'm trying to decide on a theme/aesthetic for my Christmas cards for this year. Last year's had a gothic theme and featured a raven (or crow?) and lots of frosty coloured glitter! I was really pleased with them as they met with my appreciation for the slightly darker things in life and general dislike of the typical snowman/father christmas/redgreenwhite aesthetic so I'm finding it hard to come up with something better this year... Generally I try to go for a wintery seasonal theme rather than a festive Christmas one. So far I've come up with a few ideas: a green/gold/leopard print combination (one of my favourite colour combinations generally), a yellow/orange/gold/woodprint 70s aesthetic featuring woodland animals eg. squirrels, owls, deer or something collage based depending on what's in my collaging bag. I'm thinking the orange and yellow idea might be the best? Do you spend a long time agonising over an aesthetic for your Christmas cards/wrapping/decorations?

P.S. The herbs are growing - photos to come soon!

growing things

Although I only have a small balcony to grow things on I do feel sad when this time of year comes around and it's difficult to grow edible things. I like to think if I had a garden I'd grow things all year round by growing veg that suit different seasons. I have some herbs out on the balcony (rosemary, oregano and mint) that I'm hoping will survive the Winter but to keep my growing habits going I'm trying some herbs and lettuce on the kitchen window sill. The lettuce is a special winter blend that is doing quite well, the herbs (basil and coriander) less so in fact all I have at the moment is one tiny coriander shoot... but nevertheless it's exciting watching their progress!

crafting

(This year's pumpkins which were finally carved a week late and provided us with a week's worth of pumpkin pie - enough for breakfast every day!)

I've been away from my blog for a while, not intentionally, but now I'm back! I've got lots of ideas for entries ready to be posted so hopefully there will be a lot more action around here... Including some entries on my recent trip to Paris! But firstly I've been doing lots of crafting recently which I'm finding incredibly restorative after the stress of finishing my MA, being unemployed and now being only very partly employed. Unfortunately I can't reveal any of my creations until after Christmas otherwise some readers of this blog won't be getting surprises on Christmas morning. Although I'm not a huge fan of Christmas itself I do like spending the couple of months leading up to it making presents and cards and decorations. There's something that's just 'right' about this time of year and crafting don't you think?

halloween

Halloween is my favourite festival by far. There's no great expectations, family politics, apparent inequalities or sense of propriety. It's all about fun, dressing up, playing games and reveling in the darker sides of our imagination in a safe and familiar way. And in honour of this celebration of all things dark and creepy here's a photo of my pumpkin from last year (this year's is yet to be carved...) and the interior of the home of my favourite fictional family - The Addams Family. If only to have a house like theirs...

perfect autumn dinner

Last week I made the perfect autumn dinner - lamb chops roasted in red wine, rosemary and garlic and plum crumble with custard - both were variations on recipes from Nigella Lawson's amazing book Feast. (I learnt a lot of what I know about cooking from Nigella and I love her wholly unapologetic attitude towards food). Having just completed an MA I have spent most of the last three months researching and writing my dissertation with little time for anything else, including cooking, so I am relishing having time to cook again and have insisted on making dinner nearly every night since then. I find something incredibly restorative and calming about making a good dinner and at this time of year there are few things better than pottering around in the kitchen knowing that something yummy is baking in the oven.

autumn

Autumn is my favourite season. I look forward to it the way people look forward to summer. Not that I don't like summer but it doesn't fill me with the same sense of excitement as when it begins to get a bit nippy, the shops start selling Halloween things, leaves turn yellow and go crispy, you want to start making soups and stews and crumbles and custard, you dig out your boots and jumpers and woolly tights and the nights draw in - encouraging you to stay in and cosy up with a pot of tea, some cake and a good book or film.

(Photos from a walk through Victoria Park along the River Lea to Hackney Marshes)