30 May 2006: Chocolate Things
The first chocolate thing:
Unexpected Tim Tams from the generous Fiona! It seems like Tim Tams have been getting their fair share of blog time around the world lately, but does everybody know about the Tim Tam/Penguin rivalry? Tim Tams are chocolate-covered, chocolate-creme-filled, chocolate biscuits that come from Australia. Penguins are chocolate-covered, chocolate-creme-filled, chocolate biscuits that come from the UK. Which one is better? Well, it depends who you talk to, of course.
I thought I was unbiased -- why choose favourites when you might as well have both, no? And I still haven't made up my mind, but here are some things to consider: Tim Tams -- lighter and crunchier biscuit, smoother creme, sweeter chocolate. Penguins -- denser biscuit, more chocolate (I think?), a joke on every wrapper. My ideal would be Tim Tam creme and Penguin everything else.
Of course, there's the Tim Tam Slam to consider. This consists of nibbling off either end of the chocolate coating and then proceeding to slurp hot tea (or coffee) through the biscuit straw. I've heard that this is possible only with Tim Tams, because the denser Penguin biscuit inhibits the flow of tea. Colleague James tried the Tim Tam Slam this morning and dubbed it simultaneously 'disgusting and wonderful' (or something to that effect).
For further reading on Tim Tams, Penguins, and other amazing biscuits, check out A Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down by Nicey and Wifey. I laughed at every single page, and that's not even hyperbole. Rob actually had to tell me to stop snickering, because he couldn't concentrate.
Here is something chocolate-coloured:
I imagine every bird picture looks the same to most people, but I still like to post them. I like when the finches stand slightly upright and drop their wings a little (moreso than in this picture); they look like little penguins. And also like Penguins, finches cannot be used to drink tea, due to their dense, biscuity core.
28 May 2006: More This and That
I've had a nice day. This morning, I made this:
I wanted to try using felt to pad out a pouch, like I did with the child's tote a few posts ago. I originally meant to make it to sell it, but it turned out fairly wonky (turns out measuring, etc is actually helpful!), so I'll keep this one for myself. I really like this stripey patchwork with embellishments; I think I'll stick with this style for a while, and I hope I'll have things for to buy in the not too distant future.
I went searching on the internet today to a Japanese book shop in London. I mean, it is ridiculous if there isn't one, isn't it? I didn't find anything astounding, but I did come across a place called 'Oriental City' in NW London. It's a mall, if not a particularly glamorous one, which houses an Asian supermarket and a handful of shops stocking bits and bobs from Japan. There's also a food hall and a couple of restaurants. We drove there today and I bought these:
There were a few things that caught my eye, but in the end I only came away with these green tea biscuits (yum), and a couple of biscuit-and-charm sets. I can't help it; I'm still a sucker for a 'free' toy. Especially when they're extra mini and have cat faces attached.
I also bought two cans of root beer from the supermarket, because I've never seen root beer sold in the UK. Rob thinks it tastes like medicine; I think he hasn't had it with the proper amount of ice cream yet.
P.S. -- There's actually a second-hand Japanese book shop across the street from 'Oriental City,' and though I managed to find the craft section, almost all the books were knitting patterns. I dunno. . . I can hardly suss out English-language knitting patterns!
25 May 2006: Peeking Birds
Zee birds, zey make me laff:
In bed, but not done keeping an eye on things. They've tucked themselves in properly now.
Just had to share that. No more posts today.
25 May 2006: The View
So, Alicia might have the Most Gorgeous Studio Ever, but mine's got a mighty nice view:
Yeah, we don't have restaurants or dentists' offices this far out in Docklands, but we're well stocked on views! It's mainly all Thames, all the time on the craft room side of the flat. Right now, the sun's getting low and the light is very nice, so I've taken a few photos. The above was shot with my normal lens, and then I threw on the telephoto, and look at what a difference it makes:
Those're old arsenal buildings the other side of the river. They've been turned into flats now, and I think they're really nice. I wouldn't mind living there, except for the being on the other side of the river thing. Although, that's where our favourite cafe lives, so at least I could have eggs, beans, and chips at any time of day.
A little plaza type thingy. Woolwich is a funny place; I might take photos next time we're over there. You can tell it used to be very swish -- some of the older buildings are amazing. Look at thetown hall. I can see that clock tower right now. I just have to turn my head to the right. I'm looking at it right now as I'm typing. I have big plans to buy the Woolwich library and do it up. Well, not so much 'big' as 'vague', and not so much a 'plan' as a 'whim.' But, you know.
So, anyway, Woolwich has some great old buildings, but it's been. . . not so swish for a while now. They're trying, what with the arsenal redevelopment and all, but the shops have a long way to go. The DLR will run under the river soon, and it will be interesting to see what effect that has on the town. Anyway! People who don't know/care about London have long ago stopped reading! Here's one last picture:
This barge has been tied up on the river for about a year now. I never noticed what it said on its nose until I was playing with the telephoto lens. (Click the image to enlarge.) Eh?
25 May 2006: Baby Book Bag
Look, look! Real crafts! Things wot I made with my own hands and took pictures of for you! Er, one thing:
This is part of a gift for somebody I'm going to see when I visit the Americas in June (by the way, I'm visiting the Americas in June). It's unusual for a project to turn out just as I planned it in my head, but this was pretty straightforward. When I was folding my fabric and putting it in its new home, I set these three prints aside, thinking they'd look nice together. It's a very different scheme from the colours I usually go for, but then, it's for a mini-person, and they can't be expected to put up with fussy Liberty prints, etc.
I knew I wanted the exterior to be slightly quilted, so I backed it with felt. I only used felt because it's what happened to be sitting around, but it worked really well. It's pad-y and also stiff and sturdy; I'm hopeful that the bag will be tough enough to take a bit of abuse.
Rob approves of the 'I Wish I Were a Dog' book, as the title teaches proper use of the subjunctive mood. Fun AND educational!
23 May 2006: You're Free, Birdies!
Dark Ira and ghostly, two-headed Frankie enjoy some seeds:
This is what the birds have been up to since the move. Now that they're in a smaller, enclosed room (my craft room), I've been giving them the opportunity to do some exploring. Before I pull up the shades for the morning, I open their door and clip on a piece of millet. After a few days of this, they're now quite happy to fly straight down to the doorway and enjoy their snack. Ira once wound up on the outside of the cage (by mistake), but he was able to take off and fly straight back to the doorway and back inside.
People have been fascinated with kept birds for ages, but that doesn't really make it any less intrinsically wrong to keep them caged up. Society finches (like Ira and Frankie) are a domestic breed -- they don't exist in the wild. That was one of the bits of info that drew me to these birds; for the most part, they are completely calm in the presence of humans. Ira's happy to get face to face with me, trying to pull out my hair, so I'm not really concerned about that.
But it's still nice to give them the chance to explore the world outside their cage. They might never take it. Or maybe they will, and there will be pandemonium as they try to figure out what they've done. Or maybe they'll edge out, bit by bit, getting bolder as time goes on. For now, I like watching them eat their seeds in the doorway, without any bars to block their view.
What do you think about keeping birds? I'm sort of a hypocrite, in that I see it as fundamentally wrong, yet I still do it. On the other hand, I know that I've given these little birds a much richer life than they probably would have had in another home. On the other other hand, it's only when people resist buying that an industry can be stopped. Hm. At least I don't eat them.
18 May 2006: Peonies
Unlike some people, I don't have a garden in which to grow peonies. So this one came from a store. I can't actually tell you how much I paid for the five blooms (gah), but they're definitely proving their worth at the moment. They're about as big as my hand just now, and they smell ever so lightly and sweetly.
One of my favourite things about the new flat is that I now have so much more counter space. There's an entire stretch of counter, unbroken with appliances, laid out under a nice big window. It's all very ordinary, but I like seeing my little rack of 'baking' spices, the mini tea pot and bag of sugar all lined up. I bought the ceramic pitcher a few weeks ago, but only put it to use (as a vase) when the Mermaid Princess brought over flowers from her own garden. Once they started to wilt, I replaced them with the pretty shop-bought kind.
I have lots of crafting to get on with (a laundry bag for my bathroom, address labels, baby gifts, etc), but it's nearly impossible to find a moment in which to craft. I'm going to try moving my desk upstairs, even though we're still internetless up there. At least it'll give me a place to set my sewing machine.
15 May 2006: Ira Says Hello
This is a picture of Ira in his new home, or rather, in his old home in its new room. Not that you can tell. I think I mentioned this before, but we're lucky enough to be renting the penthouse in this building, while we try to sell our current flat. You wouldn't believe the popularity the Jeffersons theme song has been experiencing in our household.
I don't have any good photos of the new flat yet, but it's got a third bedroom, which means that my 'studio' finally gets a space of its own! With a built in closet! That has shelves! And there are windows and an air conditioner and vaulted ceilings, and you can watch the seagulls flying down below. And that's just in the craft room. The mind boggles.
The birds like the craft room because of its 'great' accoustics. You wouldn't believe how loud they can shriek. Think they're cockatiels, they do.
I'll save most of my gushing about the new flat for another post once I've got photos. The internet hasn't been switched over yet, so my desk and computer are still living down here in the old flat. Small old flat. Without air conditioning. Er, anybody wanna buy it?
10 May 2006: I See the Sea
Okay, so there hasn't been downtime yet. But there will be. Wait for it, wait for it. . .
I spent last night (and this morning) in Bournemouth. Here it is, early-ish in the morning, looking a bit broody:
That's the sea, and the beach, and some boats. Taken with my phone, because I'm apparently too lazy to bring my camera with me anymore. So, we had some really nice brownies at the awards dinner, and we saw some people that we like (and some that we don't like), and. . . hmm, what else. Did anything else happen? Oh, that's right -- we were named Small Publisher of the Year!
I think it took us all by surprise, but now we have a shiny, gold (coloured) Nibbie to put on the shelf and show visitors. Would you believe it took me until last night to realize why they're called the Nibbies? I thought it was a completely nonsense word (instead of the half-nonsense word it actually is). I say the British Book Awards of the 21st century ought to be called. . . the. . . Typies. Keyboardies. WordProcessories. Okay, so we'll stick with the Nibbies for now, but I'll be thinking about it.
Those're some shells I picked up from the beach. The spiral ones are about three inches long, which I think is pretty neat. I'm used to finding little fingernail-sized shells on beaches, so these are high quality, as far as I'm concerned.
re: Electricity in the water pipes -- I guess it's common practice for the mains to be grounded by going through the pipes (I. . . think? I haven't studied much plumbing or electrics), but there seems to be an actual current going through ours. Rob was replacing a filter on our pipe, tightening it with a large spanner, and electricity jumped from one pipe to another, charring the pipe where it hit. Um, not safe? Anyway, I'm keeping my hands out of that cupboard for now.
09 May 2006: FYI
Just so you know: Twelve22 might be down for a little bit sometime in the future. We're now renting the penthouse in our building (so we can sell our current flat), and that means that the magic internet fibres will have to be rerouted from the first floor up to the fifth. Since the site is hosted on one of our machines, and it will have to actually be in a lift at some point, making the journey from old to new flat, you can expect to be twelve22-less for a little while.
Also, there's electricity in our water pipes (wha?), so the man coming out to fix that may have to turn the power off.
Also, I'm going to be in Bournemouth overnight, as we're shortlisted for the Small Publisher of the Year award. Will we win? Probably not. But we have to put on frocks and schmooze anyway.
07 May 2006: Always Birds
Phew, I just haven't felt like posting lately. Actually, I've had so many things and projects going around in my head that I feel as though I haven't done much of anything recently. I made a list of projects this morning, but I'm still having trouble getting started on any of them. I did make these the other day, though:
I drew the image and 'scanned' it in (I actually took a very hi-res photo of it, which works better than our scanner), and then I cleaned it up and added colour in Photoshop. It's funny: I spend probably a third of my working day messing around in Photoshop, but I hardly use it at home except for sizing photos and correcting levels, etc.
I'd originally planned on making a stamp of the image to print on the backs of the blank postcards I have. I wound up going the computer route, though, and I like the result. I just have to do a little design for the backs, and then I'll be happy. I also printed out a sheet of these on plain paper (the cards are on. . . card), and I can cut right down the middle (from side to side) and have little slips for addressing packages. Fun! I like this sort of comic book style thing; I hardly think I'm the first person to use it, but I do think it's clever.
A bird's-eye bird view:
The birds have been having a holiday by the balcony doors on the days I work from home (don't ever let anybody tell you Society finches are quiet -- they might not be parrots, but they're definitely loud enough). They seem to be happy enough with the occasional change of scenery, and it gives me a chance to get shots of them I couldn't do otherwise.
01 May 2006: Pretty Little Things
The organic box had some new things in this week. A few regular items as well as grapefruit, purple sprouting broccoli (yum!), and artichokes. Artichokes are pretty, but I'm not sure they look particularly edible on first glance:
I made spinach artichoke dip with these for dinner. Did you know you have to cut off the stems, remove the tough outer leaves, cut off the thorns (!), and then simmer/steam them for 45 minutes? The first person to see these and think 'food' was obviously desperate. Anyway, the only other time I've made artichoke dip, I used canned hearts and frozen spinach. This time, I used my freshly cooked, organic artichoke hearts and fresh baby spinach, and the result was much better. I ate it on slices of baguette; Rob had irresponsibly filled up on apple crumble earlier, so he only tasted it. Bah.
Easiest project ever:
Even though I've got an optical mouse, my desk surface is glass, so I have to use a mouse mat. I've been using a boring maroon mat, but I made a little cover for it today. So pretty, isn't it? I just cut a piece of stiff interfacing to size, ironed the fabric on, and then wrapped the ends around and glued them into place. Instant beautification. I can't decide yet whether I'll glue it to the old mouse mat or attach a piece of felt to back it.
One last thing -- some lovely gifts from Alison. Crafty generosity rears its, well, really nice head again. The craft book contributors are sending their projects to our office, and -- believe you me -- its enough of a treat to see the work of my 'imaginary' friends in real life. Finding these treasures tucked in just makes my day and then some. I hope there aren't too many treats in the other packages, or I'll be feeling the guilt of the lucky, spoiled person. Er, you know, I sorta hope.
So those were some pretty things today. Big thanks to everybody who had nice things to say about the pinwheel bag -- I'm very pleased to say that it's sold now. I've got a Big Idea brewing in my head, so there may be more purchasables in the future!
01 May 2006: May Day!
Happy May Day, everybody! Today is a bank holiday in the UK, so instead of being hard at work, I'm sitting at home, waiting for Rob to get ready to go to the cafe. Macaroni cheese and chips for lunch (followed by a run later this afternoon)! Some May Day flowers for you:
I love this combination of colours in a bouquet -- all the different shades and hues of green paired with some punchy orange/red flowers. They look very nice in our new green bedroom:
That took most of Saturday, but I think it's a definite improvement. The walls were white before, but not even a good white -- it was tinged with green, and the paint job was awful. The cutting in along the ceiling was streaky, and they didn't bother to take the blinds down or remove the heater from the wall. You can't really tell in the photo above, but I was very careful to tape along every edge and then removed that tape even more carefully. The rest of the flat (mostly) has been painted ivory (by me), so it's nice to have some real, deep colour in one of the rooms.
Pity we may be moving soon.