After writing the Claridge's post this morning, in which I mentioned Borough, I couldn't stop thinking, 'Mmm, Borough Market.' Again, a quick introduction: Borough Market is right near London Bridge; it's a food market selling fruit and veg, cheese, bread, meat, sweets, etc. Apparently it was first 'recognised as an institution' in 1276, but there's been trading going on in that location ever since the Romans built the bridge. The Romans. Two thousand years ago. Think about that for a while. I love it.

London Bridge station is a direct shot from the station nearest our office (Angel), so I can't believe I've never thought to stop at the market on a Friday afternoon before (it's open only on a Friday and Saturday -- though I think I saw something about it opening on a Thursday too, now). Rob met me there, and I wish I would have had my camera with me, but I hardly ever bring it with (it's an SLR).

The little boats of berries are adorable. I think we must be right at the tail end of berry season (I should really know things like this), because the blueberries at the supermarket have been really awful -- lots of rotten ones mixed in. These look perfect, though, and the blackberries are excellent.

I bought this giant focaccia for three quid. There's tomatoes in there, rosemary, goat's cheese (?), and potato (!), and probably a few other courses as well. I dunno, but I'm gonna eat it!

Rob and I had tea and cakes at one of the neighbouring cafes, and I tried to take a picture of the lovely setting with my camera phone. But as if refusing to show me my texts and never alerting me to incoming calls weren't enough, it now appears as though my phone can't connect to the computer. So you'll just have to imagine my pretty piece of raspberry gateau (which I thought had an 'x' on the end, but OED says that's just the plural) and glass teacup.

Okay, so, Claridge's. A quick introduction for non-Londoners: Claridge's is a five star hotel, first opened in 1898, and has three different restaurants and bars (including Gordon Ramsay's). Afternoon tea starts at £31 (about $60 USD) per person. When we left, the paparazzi outside told us that Catherine Zeta-Jones was in there (we didn't see her). Definitely not my usual hang out, but not because I don't want it to be.

Five of us went for afternoon tea on Pauline's birthday, and we enjoyed it thoroughly. It wasn't too difficult to come up with another excuse (my leaving town), so Pauline, Jane, Joy, and I went again on Wednesday.

To be fair, it was an entire day of indulgence for me. I took it as a holiday and met my friend Cara for brunch at Patisserie Valerie in Soho. Had the most amazing French toast and mocha there, but I failed to capture any photos of it. Then I shopped until it was time to eat again at Claridge's. Oh, to have a life of leisure.

It was a fabulous afternoon/evening, and how could it not be with with great friends and food? I brought along my copy of The Crafter's Companion, and the girls made the appropriate positive noises. Jane remains suitably annonymous behind her hair there, and I didn't even have to ask Joy to look amazed. Score!

Next course, cream tea. Wonderful little scones with amazing clotted cream and jam. You Americans think you're being so European when you ask for a scone from the local bakery case, but you haven't even made an effort without clotted cream. (I'm a citizen of the world, of course, despite what my passport says.) I think this is my favourite part of the afternoon tea, even though it's not so decadent as the sweets that follow:

Ah, to have a tray of tiny cakes and Pauline's strangely disembodied head. Two things I will miss when I'm in America.

As you can see, the light is very yellow in Claridge's. I had to seriously adjust the colour balance to get them to this point, and they're still so yellowy!

After paying for our tea, we went to the Claridge's bar (also very posh) for more beverages and chat. When we left, I realized I'd forgotten my blazer/coat in the main room, so I asked after it, and it had been checked for me. And I'm pretty sure the cloakroom steam pressed it. Now that's service!

There's a lot of posh London I remain unimpressed by (For example: Harrod's? Boring.), but Claridge's is definitely not in that category. If you want see the best bits of London, walk around Borough; take a stroll through the City on a Sunday; find a canal and explore (can you tell I live in the east?). But if you want luxury, this is where it's at.

More about this boring old book! I've created a mini info site on the Snowbooks website, here. You can find out a little bit more about the idea behind the book, who contributed (what a lovely group of ladies!), and have a sneak peak at some of the projects included. Let me know if there's any other information you'd like to see on that page, and I'll be happy to add it!

If you want to snag the 3D image above for your own site, do feel free to do so; just make sure to save it and upload it to your blog instead of linking to it here!

Later today: Photos from my very civilized going-away tea at Claridge's!

HERE it is! GET-cher Crafter's Companions! Four pence a pound! Hup-banana!

Er.

Forget those last two things. But if you would like to PRE-ORDER a copy (or copies!) of the Crafter's Companion, here's where to do it! The magic PayPal button:

If you click that button, you'll be able to order copies of the Crafter's Companion at the American price of $19.95 (that's US dollars), which includes (yes, includes!) shipping to anywhere in the world. Presale will be open until October 12th, when the books are arriving from the printer (that's before the book's officially published!). I will then make a heroic effort to pack and address all the preorders myself in record time (it helps that I just have to walk down the hall to the post room in the office).

And another thing! If you would like to have a Crafter's Companion pre-sale button on YOUR website, send me an e-mail at anna[AT]snowbooks.com (replace the [AT] with the symbol, blah, blah, blah) -- not my gmail address, please! -- and you can get your copies for $15. A whomping 25% off, and the shipping is still included! If you want to do this DON'T click the button above; just e-mail to sort things out.

And. . . also. . . uh. . . make sure to include your shipping address. And. . . excellent Christmas/Solstice/Thingy gift! (And don't forget, my birthday is 22 December -- ordering this book for yourself is a GREAT gift to me [sort of -- it's not as though I get royalties. . . or a commission. Hmm.])

Happy pre-ordering!

Yum. . .

Made from one of the white bread recipes in Sara Lewis' The Bread Book. I mixed a little cinnamon in with the dough, and then rolled it out after letting it rise, and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. Rolled it back up, let it rise again, and baked it. A person could go wayyy overboard with the cinnamon sugar (and maybe next time I will!), but I think this is pretty perfect. Wonderful warmed, with a little bit of butter.

Cinnamon is a word I'm never sure is spelt right. Also raisin. I'm generally okay at spelling, but I find myself looking in the OED (on my computer) an awful lot, just to make sure something is correct. I almost always double check 'receive,' even though I know that's how it's spelt -- I double checked it just now, even. It's not so much the e-before-i thing; there's just some part of my brain that is sure the spelling has changed in the last couple of hours. What other words? Separate. Acknowledgement (which I use more often than you'd think, on account of the publishing thing). Others I can't think of.

And while I'm on the subject of spelling things correctly (I'll almost certainly find this annoying -- if not pedantic -- when I reread it later), my spelling pet peeve has to be the word definitely (often misspelt 'definately'). I've never seen anybody spell 'definite' with an a (ie, 'definate'), yet somehow the adverb trips so many people up. Why? Nobody says 'definAtley,' do they? Almost definitely not.

What now? Oh yes, tasty bread. Ahem.

(You have no idea how many words I looked up just to be sure while writing this post!)

Look, looooooook!:

The Crafter's Companion is finished printing, and I have the first copy! (The rest are on the slow boat to the UK.) The very first copy of Crafter's Companion. And all I had to do was spend an entire year making it!

The rest won't be here until 12 October, at which point they'll be available from the HipKnits stall at the Knitting and Stitching show (at Ally Pally). It's officially published the 18th of October, I believe, when it will be in UK shops. I'm going to talk to the Mermaid Princess about setting up a presales PayPal thing for orders direct from Snowbooks, because I'm not sure Amazon have themselves sorted for overseas orders (they certainly haven't bothered to update their bibliographic info for the book). I'll sound the alert if/when presales become available.

Wheeee! Wheee!

Okay, I don't want you to think I'm constantly getting gifts and showing them off, but look at what Jane gave me today at Foyles!

A beautiful Japanese crochet book (ISBN 4529042251) and two bags of chocolate buttons! I had to tidy the bags up again, as Rob and I tore into them as soon as we were in the car (yum!). It's a sort of going-away present -- such a kind and unexpected gesture! Thank you, Jane!

Some favourite projects from the book include this mesh bag (it's like a fancy fruit bag for the market!), this little cell phone pouch, and this basket bag. The basket looks like just the thing for toting projects around the house!

I also received a placemat from Joanna yesterday. To save endless posts every time I get a placemat, I've created a flickr set here, so check that often if you want to see what's coming my way!

You'll have to excuse the less-than-perfectness of these photos; it's difficult to get sharp shots of little birds early in the morning.

When I'm working at my computer, I often leave the birds' cage door open, in case they want to have an explore. Frankie came out today:

He pulls his feathers out, if you'll remember; he's only got about half a tail and hardly any long feathers on his left wing (the right one is perfectly fine). This means that he can't actually fly, although he's getting better at gracefully careening to the ground. At the moment, he's got four or five flight feathers on the left wing which, although they're chewed up, are better than nothing. Anyway, today he glided down across the room to land on the heap of bubble wrap (my craft room is full of boxes and packing materials).

I think Ira gets quite worried when Frankie leaves the cage. I'm not sure if he realizes that Frankie is 'handicapped', or if he just doesn't like being apart. The past few times Frankie has gone further than a couple feet from the cage, though, Ira's flown out to join him. Today they really seemed to have a good time, since there were plenty of box edges to perch on:

It's difficult to explore a flat world when your feet are made for perching! It's funny: I'm not sure Frankie and Ira are proper Society Finches at all. Not only are they quite loud at times, but they also seem to be very curious and excited by new things (I mostly seem to hear about finches which freak out about anything new). Boxes -- good for eating? Hm, no. What's that down there? How do I get to it? What happens if I -- oof. Very amusing.

They do sound the alarm every single time their lower perch falls down, though. Curious, but not very bright.

So I made this new bag. I guess it's okay. I suppose.

Just kidding! I think it's fab. The best bag I've made yet. I thought everything through before I started, cut all the pieces I needed before I started sewing, and the whole thing went together with only the smallest hitches. My biggest problem was that my pin cushion has been missing for the last three months, so I didn't have any pins. I have no idea where it is! I finally managed to dig out a packet of needles, so I had four needles to hold things in place. Unprofessional.

The metal rings were scavenged from this bag, which I made last year (they were originally stolen from a belt I never wore). When this bag was still living in my head, I couldn't make up my mind about the piping. Should I make my own to match the lining or just buy something that coordinated? Obviously, I went for making my own, and it was definitely, absolutely worth it.

The lining is that leftover Liberty cord -- perfect. I wanted the bag to be sturdy, but not too bulky, and I didn't want the look that iron-on interfacing gives. Since that was all I had, I cut pieces out of both the interfacing and some plain white cotton, ironed the interfacing to the cotton, and then sewed it in with the lining. Not too difficult, and it gave me the results I was after!

The back of the bag. I'll sew in a snap on the large pocket, if I can locate one. I think a good outside pocket on a messenger style bag like this (with the flap) is necessary. I don't want to be digging around inside for my wallet, etc, and having a pocket like this, which stays between the bag and my body, gives me easy access to the things I need without letting anybody else get their hands on them. The littler pocket is mostly because I thought it was cute -- maybe I'll keep my lip balm in there.

And that's my new bag! Definitely a success!

Ooh, ooh, my first placemat has arrived!

It's from Edwina in Tasmania (do you have a blog, Edwina?), and she spoilt me by tucking it a few other choice goodies. The blue item with EAT emblazoned on it is the placemat, although I think it's the back. The other side is a lovely patchwork -- very nice, with a silkscreened patch -- but I just get such a kick out of the EAT side. Rob thinks it suits me very well!

I'm actually having a bit of trouble getting the bird prints out. They're all packaged and ready to go, but they weigh more than usual, and I haven't got enough stamps. Not a problem for a normal person, but I have a serious condition wherein important information, tasks, etc, continuously fail to lodge in my brain and are thus left unfinished for ages. I think it's called 'being bad.' But I promise they'll go out soon.

I spent an hour today cutting out the pieces for my new bag:

I pay more and more attention to detail with every bag I make, so of course this one involves creating my own piping. I'm using some lovely wool I bought from a shop on Berwick street (it had pictures of famous people wearing suits supposedly crafted from fabric bought there -- I like to think my bag might match some random celeb's new wool blazer) and the leftover Liberty cord from my skirt (which is so close to being finished, yet so far away). I hadn't planned on using the cord to line, but it tones so well with the wool, so in it goes.

In response to some questions from the last post:

-- The ISBNs for those books are 4873033845 and 4860670981. The links will take you to their pages on YesAsia.com.
-- Here's a not very good shot of the text below the sugar cube photos. Feel free to yell at me for not taking a crisper photo, and then I will do so. You can also see there how the little moon floats once the sugar's dissolved. Cute!
-- The trim came from The Cloth House, also on Berwick Street. A lovely, lovely shop. I do indeed plan on using it along a shelf edge. I only bought one metre (because -- £10.50! Sheesh.), so it'll probably only be one shelf. But I love it.

Look at this trim:

I think we can all agree that that's the Best Trim Ever, yes? Totally worth it, even at (eep) £10.50 per metre. So fantastic. I would also like to inform you that fabric for a new bag has been bought, and new bag creation will commence shortly. I do so like the Big Green Bag, but if I don't switch from carrying things over-the-shoulder to messenger style, the knots in my right shoulder will actually work themselves free of my body (which would not be good). You can't see the bag yet, since it exists only in my head, but I think it's going to be a good one!

More books!:

I got these from YesAsia.com, which seems alright. I originally ordered three, but they supposedly couldn't source a supplier for the third, so I cancelled it so they would ship the other two. And since they only seem to refund in store credit (which Rob thinks is very dodgy), I've ordered a couple more books to be delivered some time in the future.

These are decor-based rather than craft, but the top one has lots of instructions for projects, including these wire baskets. Also loving tiny bottles with stems. The other book is full of interesting photos and some recipes (which I obviously can't follow) and other nice things. These sugar cubes melt away and leave the little moon shape floating in your tea/coffee. What do you suppose the moon shape is made off? I'm also strangely attracted to the idea of packing sandwiches in wax paper packets. Is wax paper biodegradable? Better than a plastic bag; not so good as a reusable container, I should think. But cute.

Doesn't this look nice?

Quite small jammy toasts, made on fresh-baked bread. I bought Bertinet's Dough some time back, but he's a bit more focussed on traditional breads from the continent, whereas I just wanted a nice sandwich loaf. I bought Sara Lewis' The Bread Book yesterday, which has some really nice looking recipes (fun stuff too, like pretzels!). The dough for my half-wholemeal loaf came together really easily and everything went to plan. Here it is in it's loaf form:

Nothing fancy, I know, but bread is just such a satisfying thing to make. Next time, I'll pay a bit more attention to the shaping before it goes in the pan to rise; I don't like how rounded this one is at the ends. But it tastes right and has a good texture, and that's what really matters.

Unfortunately, we had lunch at an American-style diner (the one featured in Sliding Doors, if anybody cares -- it's laughable to think that the characters went there when you find out where it's located), and I've out-fooded myself, so I can't properly enjoy the bread today. I only had a grilled cheese and chips. . . and a malt, but it's really tuckered me out. Blood-sugar-high-induced sleepiness? Doesn't seem right.

This is what I had for dinner (plus another piece of toast and jam). It looks like breakfast, but it's not.

A peach and low-fat vanilla yogurt, some amazing rye-sunflower-honey bread, and bluedberry jam. When I was growing up, we'd occasionally have 'breakfast for dinner' nights, with pancakes, eggs, hashbrowns, etc. Even more than dessert, breakfast is my favourite meal (partly because it's acceptable to have chocolate cake for breakfast -- right?). You've got traditional fry-ups: beans, fried eggs, chips, yum. Big American breakfasts: French toast, pancakes, hashbrowns, double yum.

Every night I explain to Rob, with great enthusiasm, how delicious my Special K (with fresh blueberries) will taste in the morning. He's worried that now that I watch what I eat, I think about food the entire time. I've always thought about food all the time! Now I just eat less of it.

One of -- wait, who's that?

Hello, little staring bird with ridiculously giant eyes. How can I help you? Erm, I'll just be over. . . here. . .

The swallows were swarming around this evening, landing on the window sills (and eating spiders, I hope) before taking off for more swooping and wheeling. They were all lined up by the kitchen window, and the one above was the only one to notice me lifting the blinds for a photo.

Simple pleasures: Cutting a ripe peach with a sharp knife. Standing on the balcony while swallows dart around, narrowly missing you.

This post is just for Joy, since a body has to have have a Blogger ID to comment on her site. Ahem: Did I not tell you about electric kettles? I like to think that yours would have lived under the sink indefinitely if I hadn't said something.

New to my world:

Tiny Bodum cafetiere/French press. Three cups, my eye. Still -- fill a cup with ice, 5 tbsp chocolate milk, and one 'pot' of strong, freshly brewed coffee, and you've got a nice cool treat in just over four minutes. Cheaper than Starbucks, and more fun too.

A note to Rob, who kept pulling me from my knitting/TV watching/slumping last evening to show me pretty clouds -- THESE are pretty clouds:

Also, a happy birthday to my cousin Satchell, who turns an unbelievable sixteen years old today! Surely it is not possbile!

Here's the little placemat I made with the cross stitch, along with another placemat I made this morning:

That second has a tiny embroidery I did a while ago and forgot about, and it's also got a bit of the centimetre tape Suzy used to tie up the fabric she send me.

I'm making these because I thought they looked so great in the Linen and Cotton book, but also because I've got a china hutch back in the States which I'm eager to fill with pretty things. And I keep thinking how great it would be to open one of its drawers and to have a selection of handmade placemats, each one different and special, just for use with plain old breakfast or lunch or anything.

And then I thought how can I get other people to make them for me wouldn't it be neat if I had a bunch made by my internet friends? (Really, it was the second thing I thought; the crossed out bit is just for comedy.) Having special handmade placemats from pals all over the world would be even better than having a dozen I'd made myself! So I present to you the Prints for Placemats swap.

If you would like to make a placemat for me and my new (future) house, I will send you one of these prints:

The image is only 2.5" x 2.5", but it's printed on a piece of watercolour paper measuring 5" x 7" (see how it's placed here). You can cut it down to fit in a smaller frame, matt it out to a larger size, or just throw it in a frame as-is. Each was printed by me with stamps I carved, and each is numbered.

As far as the placemats go. . . the finished size should be 10" wide by 8" high, but that's about the only restriction. I've been sewing two layers of cotton to the inside to give them some substance, and you can do whatever you want -- use batting or nothing at all. If you need somewhere to start, my favourite styles are modern Japanese design, 30s reproduction prints, and Kaffe Fassett (strictly speaking, he's a person and not a style. . . ).

If you want to be part of my swap, e-mail me (you'll have to replace the [AT] with an @, of course). I've got ten prints to swap, so I really hope there are ten people out there who'd like to make a placemat! Thanks, everybody! If you've e-mailed me and I've replied, you're part of the swap!

I'm going to be sitting nervously in the corner, hoping nobody thinks this is a dumb idea.

All week long (especially since I got that Japanese book, sheesh), I've been filled with crafty ideas, but I don't often feel like I have enough time to start in on them. I've got plenty of free time compared to some people, but the thought of getting everything out, measuring and cutting, sewing and ironing -- well, that's an entire evening gone. And I've got a lot of TV to watch! (There's also some running and some dinner cooking and eating in there.)

Anyway, I've been excited for the weekend to roll around so I could do some serious crafting. Starting with my 'gypsy' blanket:

I'm still working on the hand stitching, but this was very nearly the project that wasn't. I started piecing together strips and squares this morning and was just disgusted with the result. I had decided to make a throw about 44" x 60", and I just hated how the colours and prints worked together (I think this was partly due to my love of intricate, busy patchwork and the resulting disappointment with huge blocks of pattern).

I didn't want to waste any more fabric, because I do really like each bit on its own (and it wasn't particularly cheap), so I thought I'd see what it looked like folded in half. Somehow, that instantly made it better! So now I'm making a lap blanket (44" x 30"), and I'm really pleased with how it's coming together. Besides, who was I kidding -- like I really have the patience to hand stitch an entire throw?

I spent a lot of today on the sofa:

The little bag was made with some of the fabric Suzy sent and was inspired by that same old book. I needed a quick and easy machine project with no particular purpose, and this fit the bill. It will look really nice just hanging around somewhere.

Lastly, some perseverance:

There was something about that star flower that really didn't want to work out, but I just kept removing stitching and trying again, and it eventually wound up looking. . . okay. I've actually finished it now (I just did one slightly different motif instead of the repeating pattern), and the rest was nowhere as difficult as the first flower. There's just something about those shapes that boggles my mind. I shall take a picture of the finished placemat when the sun comes out again (tomorrow?).

Whew! So much craftiness for one day! I actually knit a little dish cloth the other day, and I might now go knit a back for it and turn it into a hot pad. Must craft more!

Some cross stitchery:

Oh, it doesn't look bad there, but it's not right. Considering all the things I can do, it figures I'd like to do something I'm not particularly good at. I know it's just a matter of practising, and possibly using a pattern or something helpful, but I want to do it now, and I want it to look exactly like this!:

That's from the same Cotton and Linen book. So pretty. I didn't know I needed little placemats with purple cross-stiched flower-stars, but I do! Bum.