You can't beat....

Book Crack, a photo by blogrodent on Flickr.


a good book. Well actually you can't beat a book, just a good old fashioned, ordinary paperbacked book.  I love the smell and feel of a book.  I bought an e-reader a while ago and I have read some books on it but I haven't read as much as I normally would have.  I don't dislike the reader, it's just not the same as having a book in your hands.  One of the first things I do if I'm stressed is read, be it a magazine or a book.  So yesterday I caved - I bought 3 books (you gotta love Waterstone's 3 for 2 deal!). 

Now just need to find the time to read them!!!


listening - to the 7am news on Radio 2 and laughing at the report that Elizabeth Taylor funeral might start 15 minutes later than the planned time as she always wanted to be late to her own funeral - a rocking attitude right to the end!
eating - a banana
drinking - mug of tea
wearing - pjyamas (christmas ones with penguins - they're too cosy to pack away just yet!)
feeling - a little tired but just about ready to face the day
weather - a bit dull but I'm hoping for sun like yesterday
wanting - to not have to work today (Friday's are normally my non-working day)
needing - to get showered and dressed!
thinking - I probably should have taken advantage of waking so early and done the ironing
wondering - how much I'll get out of the conference I'm going to today?

Getting There

I had the luxury of a cheeky wee afternoon to myself the other day, well I say luxury, but I felt guilty the whole time because I could quite easily have kept Euan with me but his granda was happy to still look after him for the afternoon.  The joys of being a parent eh!

Anyhoo I used the time wisely and got round to starting to quilting my log cabin quilt. 

I got on really well too and by 8pm, after nipping out to get weighed (18.5lbs so far - go me!) and collecting a very tired little boy, it was all quilted.

Although I did do the same as the last time, made a couple of little errors on the back, where the backing hasn't been as flat as it should have been so there are 2 or 3 little creases on the back, quilted in!  It doesn't annoy me enough to rip the stitches out (cos that would take AGES, and I really don't have the patience for it) but it does remind me that I need to do my quilting with less speed and more haste - to paraphrase that old saying.



On a different note while I've been downloading photos from my camera and writing this blog I've been playing about with itunes on my ipod touch (mult-tasking at it's best - esp as it's not quite 7am yet!) and their collection of artists under each genre selection has me perplexed - Jason Mraz under rock!  Don't get wrong I like his stuff, but I'd never have put him in the genre of rock.  But do check out Hugh Laurie in the Blues genre - he's really good.  I was reading something yesterday that he (yes I do mean Hugh Laurie as it Dr Gregory House/Fry & Laurie) is releasing his 1st blues album this year. 

Okay dokey I'm off to see what the day has in sort for me - here's hoping for a warm, sunny day with lots of smiles! 

Levelling Stuff

Last Friday night Pedro and me had a very rare night out together.  I mentioned it on the quick post I did last Friday.  We went off to Glasgow to possibly my favourite venue of all time, Glasgow Barrowlands, to see 2 of the best bands I've seen live (well in my opinion!)  The Wonder Stuff and The Levellers - for those unaware of them they do a mix of punky/pop-y/folk-y both different but similar at the same time. 

(it's a rubbish photo but hey - it's a photo!)

I had a great time - dancing (mainly just by myself!) and singing (along with the rest of the audience).  It was an amazing night, we expected it to be a good night but it totally exceeded our expectations.  To top it off we were staying over so we drove through late afternoon and managed to go out for dinner before heading off to the gig.  We discovered a fantastic bar/restaurant called Maggie May's it was really nice, great choice of music playing, AMAZING food, busy but not 'squish past people to get to the bar' busy.  We even stopped off for a little tipple on the way back to the hotel.  Will definitely be visiting that place again next time we're out in Glasgow (if it's still open in 5 years or so LOL!)

listening/watching - to the news (there's not a lot of good news about these days)

eating - nothing just now, trying not to snack too much
drinking - just had a mug of tea (my fave drink of the moment)

wearing - brown flowery top and black trousers (work clothes)
feeling - tired and cold
weather - wet - again!
wanting - to sleep
needing - to sleep!
thinking - please let the dude sleep through again tonight, not been a good week but fingers crossed the 1am waking, wanting to play has stopped
wondering - what will tomorrow bring?

Technical Issues!

I have been ever so slightly stoopid!!!  I was doing a little surfing last night, just faffing about with blogger and stuff, changing settings and things when I discovered I had comments!  6 of them, which needed to be moderated before being published.  I had no idea.  Still not sure how I missed them but I've found them and sorted it all out.  (well I think I have ;o)


I've also been having issues with my mobile phone.  Since Friday morning the screen has been really tempremental, going black, rolling round like old style tube televisions used to.  Not at all helpful when your phone is a touch-screen phone!!  So a short (& if truth be told, fairly unhelpful) phone call to O2 yesterday led to me taking it into my nearest O2 shop and it's being sent away to be fixed.  But they did give me a courtesy phone.  Gadget girl is not happy!  The thing I've been given is practically a mobile phone antique and having plugged it in to charge up just after lunch, as I was advised to, I can't even get the thing to switch on - it's now 9.30pm.  It's been on charge for 8.5 hours, so either it needs a year and a day to charge up as it's so old or I've been given a duff temporary phone.


I'm having withdrawal symptoms from my phone LOL  (shakes head)  I'm so sad!!!!!!

I found this little list of headings from this blog that I read every now and then, and I thought I'd play along too. Good way of recording thoughts/feelings at a specific point in time without too much effort!



listening - to the dude sleeping on the baby monitor
eating - just finished a couple of little pancakes (v nice too)
drinking - tea
wearing - red top and black jeans
feeling - tired and a bit uptight (typical Sunday night feeling)
weather - wet (but no snow)
wanting - to chill out a bit
needing - to go to bed
thinking - there is a lot of craziness going on with the planet right now, earthquakes, tsunamis. You can't mess with the power of nature.
wondering - whether to catch up on some more sky+ or have an early night



So as not to make this post feel naked, here is a shot of the dude taken last week when we were waiting for my sister and nephew. He was colouring in his mini aquadraw to find the "goo-goo's", those are trains to the rest of us.

Cleverly Crafty

It's been such a busy week that I keep forgetting what I've been up to!  Last Friday me and my sister went through to Glasgow to the Hobbycraft & Creative Stitches exhibition.  There are 2 exhibitions held every year, one in spring and one in autumn, it's generally a mix of many crafty things.  Normally papercraft, needlecraft, to woodcrafting and almost everything else in between.

I did go with a few specific things in mind, namely some scrapbooking supplies suitable for little baby boys.  For some reason, for the thousands of pictures I must have taken of our little dude in the last 21 months I haven't scrapped any of them!  Can't explain it, there is no logical reason for not having done anything with his photos and trying to record the small details of his life so far.  My mojo has been on holiday for a while!  Anyway I thought I'd go looking for something to spark my interest but I was sadly dissappointed, nothing much that spoke to me - lots for cardmakers/stampers, lots of bling/glittery paper but nothing that said little baby boy.

What there was on display though, was a fantastic display to raise money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, you could walk through it!  The entire display was knitted - everything from the rocks and grass outside to all the fish, divers and deep sea essentials.  To say it was brilliant is a total understatement, the talents of those who made it is amazing!

Knitting is one thing I just cannot get to grips with, over the years I've tried many times to do it but it's never been successful, in fact I find it quite stressful so I don't do it.  I put it down to being left handed by that can't be it, there are bound to be many, many left handers who can knit perfectly well so I just have to face that I'm no good at it.  Although it does slightly annoy me that I've never quite figured it out yet.  I grew up with 2 grandmothers who were particularly good with their hands.  One was a seamstress for a living and carried on doing alterations for the majority of the population of the small fishing village she lived in, well into her retirement, she had her sewing table set up in her livingroom and her machine was used daily.  The other was a knitter, latterly making up sample garments for new knitting patterns for companies like Patons & Baldwin.  Every image I have of her she was either in the middle of knitting something or had a bag of knitting at her side.

When I think about it, it's only right that I do some kind of practical/creative hobby.  I've got some good heritage to live up too.

Finally!

I remembered to take pictures of my fan-tab-u-lous new mug rugs.  It's only taken me just over a week but I did remember. 

I absolutely LOVE the quilting on this one, all around the flowes and butterfly.  It's so pretty.

It's been a hetic week what with work and stuff so I haven't had time to look at my log cabin quilt.  It won't take long to finish it off but I haven't found a thread I like enough to quilt with.  Everything I've seen just hasn't been the right colour.  Need to look again at the weekend.

But today we're shooting off to Glasgow for a night out (weeeeee!!!!).  The Levellers supported by The Wonder Stuff, quite possibly one of the best line up's I could ever have dreamed of.  It will be a night of much dancing and signing and I cannot wait.  And the icing on the cake - we're staying over in Glasgow, it's like a wee mini break.  The dude is going to stay with Granda and Granny tonight, which I think they are looking forward too, he hasn't really figured out what is going on yet!

Taking note

Apart from this blog I try to write regularly in a journal.  Sometimes I write everyday, sometime I won't write for a couple of months.  I find writing things down very calming.  If I'm feeling really stressed or anxious about something once I pour it out onto a page, I feel a lot better about life.

I heard this on the way home from work tonight and it made me smile (and it's a cool video)......

Oh I nearly forgot (again) I got my mug rugs from my swap partner Karen (this is her blog here) and I keep forgetting to take a photo of them!  Doh!!!  I promise I'll take a picture tonight and post tomorrow.  They are already being well used and take pride of place in my livingroom.