Snow Days

I write this from the comfort of my bed with my jim jams on and cup of tea in hand. It's before seven* but I don't care - the wind is whistling outside and I can hear the snow/sleet throwing itself at the window. We were sent home from work at 1 o'clock today, but I felt this was karma returning to me after having spent SIX AND A HALF HOURS in traffic on my way home from the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate. It should have taken an hour. I was Micra-shaped by the time I got in. The show was much more brilliant than I expected though...

Look at all this lovely fabric (bit blurred in my excitement):


All this lovely woolly wool:


And all these fab spangly threads:


And - oh my goodness - a knitted fireplace!


Alex and I met up to take part in the Swishing Salon and I picked up three 'new' items of clothing:

A bright pink M&S cropped cardie

A red Topshop blouse

And my fave, a sparkly champagne-coloured jersey dress from River Island
- in a size 18 which worryingly is not that massive on me!

I did a wee bit of shopping too:

The green dotty fabric is for a dress, the red is for the knitting bag my friend has commissioned for her niece (the pink is the lining). Also got a vintage dress pattern, a Christmas Robin and a knitter's needle!

Then I stepped outside and was greeted with this:

And it all went downhill from there...

And this was our garden this morning - check out the six inches of snow on the table, and how it's clung to the washing line :)

Fingers crossed for another Snow Day tomorrow!

Treating Myself

Being a bit of Nerdy Linguist, I like to think of a bloggy subject, then see if I find a good idiomatic expression for the title. No such luck today, but when I typed 'treat yourself' into Google, this pseudo-self-help article was coincidentally the top result. I did like the last point which said: "Live in the moment and start with this one. A series of positive moments add up to a great life."

I have been *trying* to do positive things to prevent myself from falling into a pit of despair. I could have looked at Friday as the start of another long lonely weekend, but instead I chose to see it as the first payday in a long time where I haven't been saving madly to move out, or indeed had to pay rent and bills.

So I went and did a little bit of shopping, just a few small treats, just for me. Would you like a peek at my purchases?

A lovely snuggly new dressy-gown, and some choccie :)


A couple of fabric remnants (no idea what for!) and this gorgeous pretendy vintage tin from Guterman...

...Containing threads in four colours I'm bound to get loads of use from (black, white, red and navy).


Hosiery!

This last little lot was such a bargain! All came from the Topshop sale bargain bin and meant lots of waving my bum in the air whilst I dug about at the bottom. My faves are the tights with the roses and hearts on. 10 lots of socks and tights for a tenner - woo!

And now, a word to The Snow. This was the view from my window earlier today:

Please can we not have any more of that? I REALLY want to get to Harrogate tomorrow for the Knit and Stitch Show ... and anyway, it's making Sally cold...

(These blankets were thrown in a corner waiting to be washed and she crawled in all by herself, cutie).

Feel free to come back on Monday though and snow me in, that would be ace. Thanks!

Making a start

Well I had a bit of a busy weekend and have made a start on #1 and #2 on my 28 Things list (declutter, rearrange and set up a sewing area), although it's still a work in progress:

I also took time out to rush and see the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition before it finished so that's #26 accomplished.

This was my favourite print - apparently May Belfort was a very 'mature' lady who would dress up like a little girl and carry a kitten on stage (when the fashion was for dogs (hasn't it always been, in Paris?)) and sing "I've got a little cat and I'm very fond of that".

I booked my tickets for the Knit and Stitch thing (#23) so that's where I'll be on Sunday, and I have a night out planned on Friday so that should be #13 done as well. and I've also made a start on (well, a prototype for) my Christmas cards (#10).

Oh and I was brave today and wore my Curtain Skirt for work - first time I've worn one of my own creations out of the house - AND I got a compliment!

Finally, a big sigh of relief and thank heavens that Mavis's puffy cheek turned out to be a poorly tooth and nothing more sinister (or expensive!) - Phew!

28 Things to do before I'm 29

I was blog-hopping the other day and came across this post by Elsie - she who started the 4 Simple Goals challenge. It struck a bit of a chord with me because a couple of years ago I made a '30 things to do before I'm 30' list, but looking over it now so many of my goals have changed.

But it set me off thinking and I've decided to do 28 things before I'm 29. They're all fairly easy and achievable, because my birthday is on the 12th February, but I hope by setting myself these little targets it'll give me something to focus on. So here's my list:

28 Things...

1. De-clutter my room
2. Re-arrange my furniture and set up a little sewing area
3. Paint that 99p eBay table
4. Go for a massage
5. Go to at least one Pilates class
6. Climb Roseberry Topping
7. Finish my crochet scarf
8. Go to at least one Aquafit class
9. Enrol on a course
10. Make all my Christmas cards and write convincing cheery messages inside them
11. Visit M. in Dublin
12. Make three things from my Boot Sale patterns, using my existing fabric stash
13. Have a good night out and get very drunk
14. Go to a Christmas Carol Concert and have a good sing
15. See the new Harry Potter at the cinema
16. Join that local social group I've seen
17. Learn to do Granny Squares
18. Go to at least one Zumba class
19. Read three books
20. Watch ten films
21. Give blood
22. Plan a trip away
23. Visit the Knitting & Stitching Show in Harrogate
24. Do a charity Christmas shoe-box or similar
25. Sort through all my digital photos and back them up
26. Go along to the Toulouse Lautrec exhibition at MIMA
27. Jolly well buy myself a kite and learn to fly it
28. See a foreign film at the cinema

So there we go, I always work best when I have a list!