I’ve been working hard for the last few days (hand ins over the next two weeks) and having woke up late decided that yes, it would be fun to take part of Shrove Tuesday.

When I first left home when I was just 17, I was extremely poor  and what money I did have spare was spent on clothes and nightclubs. Pancakes were a fun and cheap part of my everyday diet, the batter being made from egg, milk and flour (what do they put in the powdered pancake mixes!)  one could stretch some left over chilli con carne, or just add a little cheese and you had a savoury treat that was comforting and then leftover mix was yummy with lemon and sugar.  I’ve always been a lemon and sugar kind of girl but have been known to slide onto the slippery slope of Lyles Golden Syrup.

Thankfully the corner shop at the end of the street (in either direction from the house! – we have two corner shops!) is a London corner shop and sells wonderful things like fresh coriander and fresh parsley, ginger, lemons and other temptations…   <—- Nutella.

 Like most students I don’t have a full compliment of kitchenware, so this pan stands in for a mixing bowl.

 First pancake out of the pan, (you must heat the pan well to get the first one right)

 And some left over chicken curry with a trail of mango chutney makes a very tasty supper.

 This is the first time with Nutella, the boys always eat it, by the spoonful and I try to steer clear, but hey, studying does that to a girl, so one very big dollop of Nutella later

served on a plate with a lemon and caster sugar version and I am a happy girl. 

A very happy girl. 

I missed the bus the other morning, by moments, I grumbled quite loudly as it sailed past me just as I reached the end of my road.  I don’t have time to go back home and make myself a cup of coffee, I just have to wait for the next one to trundle along.  

And after about five minutes of thinking of the incidentals of life, Have I got everything? What have I got to do next? Will this term ever end?  I noticed tiny flashes of green and the tinniest glimmer of flowers.  All by turning on my heels in a circle at the bus stop.  

I was glad that bus sailed by, I would have missed the beauty of the day and the most precious of buds in February.

As my regular readers will know, I am no beauty queen, but that doesn’t stop a girl from wanting to try pretty things that come in pretty boxes through the post. Also I am a bit of a dinosaur, I’ve been using the same products for years, which is no bad thing, my skin is in great condition for my age, but its nice to change it up a little bit.

I’ve been trying beauty boxes for a couple of months now, its rather an addictive past time and I think Love Me Beauty has the edge, not least because they often do more full sized products in a box than the others (in my opinion) and you are able to choose between four versions, so its not a complete suprise as to whats in your box – well it is if you choose version 4, because that is the suprise box. 

I’ve been eagerly awaiting this box, I knew it was going to have some gorgeous stuff in and a surprise element that had been highly rated by their customers previously.

 It comes in a simple box which opens directly into the gifts, many of the others have a box within a box but this must keep the costs down (more money for products – rubs hands greedily).

 And a pretty card explaining it all, there was also a competition card to fill in for a holiday in Scotland.

 My surprise awaits, the box is heavy, I’m excited.

 And I couldn’t be more pleased.

 First of all 30 ml of La Claree Gentle Cleansing Milk made in La Province, retail selling price £15.00 for 150 ml, so about £3.00.  Smells delightful, really nice on the skin, I am very pleased with it, it made my morning routine just that little bit nicer.

 I was really excited about this, this is extremely expensive, this 5ml sample is worth £15.00 ! It is Dr Bragi Age Management Moisturiser,  it is nice to try things like this, (I am still using a very expensive cream from another box) I tried this earlier and its very nice and appears to have plumped out my fine lines.. I’ll see what I really think in a few days.

 

 At this time of year my skin dries out, my lips become sore and I need all the help I can get.  

This is lovely a pot of oils rich in omega 3 and 6 full of anti inflammatories and vitamins which is perfect for lips, hands, nails and the body encased in a lovely little tin. (I’m thinking pins afterwards)   Its lovely on my lips and I’ve put a spot on my excema patches on my legs to see if it will help.  Full sized product, and it is going to be popped into my handbag, for emergency moisturising on the go.  £3.95 for 25g.

 

 Another full sized product, not for me unfortunately, (I have a little box of hair products accumulating, hairsprays, mascara’s, conditioners, etc etc.  its a small price to pay to have so much fun and one day I will work out what I am going to do with them all)

This is Percy & Reed, no fuss flawlessness dry conditioner £12.00

And then this is absolutely perfect for me. This was our Valentines suprise.  

Nip Fab, Dry Leg Fix, another full sized product. £10.25 from Boots. 

My legs are so dry at the moment, central heating, winter tights, and the cold and damp, do no favours for my skin at all. They are so dry that they are uncomfortable at night. When I saw this in the box I let out a small squeal of delight, it was just what I wanted and I gleefully smothered it on after my shower this morning.  It feels lovely going on, smells nice, not too strong and my legs feel better  already.  

Its been a really lovely box,  a nudge in the right direction on how to look after myself just a little bit better and great value,  £44.15 worth of product for the princely sum of £12.95 (£10 plus p&p)

Love me Beauty gets ten out of ten for customer satisfaction from me. 

(and in the interests of transparency, I bought my own box!) 

There are still many hours of work to do on my first pair of tailored trousers but I have reached the stage of setting the creases.  I am working with a lovely worsted flannel wool and it has been a lovely experience, it handles well, does what you want it to do without flying into an outrageous fit and shredding itself every time you pick it up. 

 As you can see I am using a slant pocket (with a double jet on the back) and the waistband is to go on next.  Every part of these trousers has been hand stitched at least once, if not more than once, even the long seams have been basted, as there is inlay put into them should the trousers need to be adjusted.  It is very tricky to get the correct line without basting and I only want to sew the long seams once.  You can see all the mark stitching in the picture where I have hit the mark with my trusty sewing machine. 

The waistband is going to be a DAK waistband, I am studying their trends at the moment so thought it would be nice for hubby to have a waistband thought up by them to go with his DAK coat. (which we bought many moons ago from a vintage clothes store in Birmingham, £700.00 wool winters coat, hardly worn for £25.00, Yes please!) 

I’ve altered the sizing of these trousers to hopefully fit, there was no time to toille. I don’t think the jacket that will be made next will fit which will be a little sad,  hubby being a chap with a big chest cavity and manly shoulders, but at the moment its all about learning how to do things.  Not getting lost in the whys and wherefores of what makes a good fit and why the ‘eck doesn’t this fit, there will be plenty of time for that.

 The fly is coming together, there is still some handwork to do on that.

 And the seams are lightly set, I am not setting them firmly until hubby has them on and I can see how they fall on his leg, but the beauty of the trouser is starting to come through.

And here you can see my very fine double jets on the back. 

At the moment I am deep in study land, wrestling with a cultural 2000 word essay which lectures have included the great masculine renunciation, the great masculine renunciation – renounced, the decline of haute couture, bubble up and trickle down diffusion, post modernity, what is post modernism anyway? globalisation, nation and ethnicity and consuming fashion and that’s just up to week 5. There are many more topics to consider to go into the essay in the next few weeks. 

So needless to say, I haven’t been taking pretty pictures of London, I’ve also been wrestling with adobe illustrator, photoshop and indesign, as well as my tailoring and trend and brand research. 

So when I rang the boys about a problem on the computer, I thought I sensed that they were in the study working hard on my behalf, when son no.1 got his new ipad working and I saw they were laying on the bed chatting to me.  (it sounded like they were working!)

 

 It made me laugh, from birth we have used our bed as a landing board for boisterous boys to wrestle on, play on, lay on and chat.  To read books with and generally all of family life has been conducted whilst lying on our beds, it was certainly (and intentionally) a different way of life to the one I had grown up in, where we were not allowed into our parents bedroom. The boys liked the analogy of our lives to Roman’s laying discussing the order of the day and we often solved problems and upsets and difficulties that the boys were experiencing as well as just having family time and just gossiping and laughing.

I always wondered when it would end, if the boys would naturally go off and not bother to come back to the nest to talk and relax and how that transition would occur.  I wondered whether it should occur for the sake of child psychology and whether it was a bit weird – had I swung to far the other way.  (of course we kept our modesty) In the end I just decided to let it be what it was, our family.

At Christmas I was laying in bed when a 6ft odd son no.2 bounced onto the bed beside me, we hadn’t seen each other for months, and lay down for a chat. 

At the time, he breathed a deep and happy sigh, and so did I, it was then I knew, 

 the decision making.

‘yep we did okay’

 Of course the weather was lousy, but the crowds were out in force and it had a lovely feel to it.

 We had bubbles and lovely lobster and were presented with a pair of horses, being the year of the horse.  They are cute.

 //www.youtube.com/get_player

 And the next day we were out and about and happened to be passing through Soho when we caught up with a couple of lettuce eating lions.  It was great fun, the filming isn’t that great, but you get the feel of what was going on.

 We ate delicious tarts, lemon and chocolate.

I just love the curve of Regent Street especially when its just turned dark, the streets were still warm (and dry!) and the lights are highlighting the beautiful architecture.  It makes me quite emotional, just to be here.

Sadly Hubby had to go home, but as you know we are in contact constantly and later I needed a little help technically. Hubby and son no.1 were helping and for some reason I had envisioned them sitting in the study, working hard trying to help, when I managed to get my facetime working and found they were sprawled in bed, it did make me giggle.

And yes that is me in my pink jim jams, glamorous as always!!!

Here is a sneaky peak of the liner for my pair of mens trousers. 

They’ll bring out the animal in him.  

 

 And this is for a gentlemens delicate area, I don’t know the name of it, I’m just calling it the

‘sweaty bit’

And this is pure experimentation.  A knitted 4 ply (half a dead sock) used as a flap on a 

double jetted pocket. 

This evening I have sorted out a leopard skin pattern and am knitting it up using intarsia. 

(intarsia is not my forte) 

And I’ve altered the trouser pattern to hopefully fit hubby although hubby’s final words when chatting to me when I told him of my mercurial ideas.

“well they are not for me then are they”

Bless.

 And hubby sent me a beautiful bouquet of red roses, 25 stems., but many more blooms as some were spray roses.

It all started innocently enough, a conversation over Christmas, I went from horrified to laughter in about sixty seconds.

You see after the operation, son no.2 was left with a huge area that he has no feeling in.  We have warned him about barbeque’s, standing too close to the cooker/oven and generally anywhere that we felt that he could be burnt.  We had forgotten about warning him about hot water bottles, well rather we had, we had mentioned that he must cover them and left it at that. 

Son no.2’s house at Uni is very cold and they are poor students so the heating is only turned on enough to prevent the pipes from freezing, half an hour twice a day, so his aran weight woolly jumper and hot water bottle are getting well used.  And he simply fell asleep on his covered hot water bottle, but because there is no feeling he ended up with two very deep burns that were long and thin, but extremely deep.  By the time I saw them they had very deep scabs on them and I’ve since had the conversation, ‘just because you can’t feel it, doesn’t mean it might not need medical attention’.  

So after I had squeeked for a bit, the conversation quickly turned to onsie’s and how practical that would be for him, I suggested a pink bunny rabbit with big floppy ears and he laughed like a drain at that idea and the conversation moved onto other things. 

Although, I hadn’t forgotten about it.  

So I went hunting in the Boxing day sales for pink fleece and found some at John Lewis for £5.00 a metre and promptly bought five meters.  And then rummaging through the pattern books I found this, which was perfect. I would have sewn the lion, but there was nothing in the sale that would suit it.  A pink teddy bear it was.

 

I cut out the pattern, added six inches to the body as I know that is where his height is on his body and made sure that should I need to alter it, the long zip wouldn’t be too long and I could easily take some length back off the body.  And then I cut out the fabric and breathed life into it. 

And as you all know, I have a lovely hubby who was willing to model this for me and he looked as cute as a button in it.  

 The head isn’t attached, its made separately and has a couple of press studs at the front to keep it on.

 And as we all know, a teddy bear stands or falls by his ears, and these came out quite well.  Although it was fiddly sewing them afterwards, I thought they would be inserted into seams but they weren’t.

 There are spats to cover shoes or slippers

 and to complete the look there are mittens. 

I can only guess what this teddy bear is going to get up to, I suspect he will have alot of fun.

I’ve just got time to squeeze in a Christmassy photograph before we lose all things twinkly for another year – unless like me you favour twinkling lights about your home in the depth of winter.  Currently I have rather fetching sets of white, warm white and red twinkling lights set into the grates of the open fire places, much less work than a real fire but just as pretty.

I have been trying to get to Facing the Modern – The Portrait in Vienna 1900 at the National Gallery for most of the autumn and for one reason or another I was thwarted time and time again.  So last week, left to my own devices I took full advantage and headed off to Trafalgar Square.

 We had intended to go to Trafalgar Square for New Years Eve, but it was not meant to be, so there I was two days late and even though I was late, I was just as excited.  I love this snapshot, it has a touch of a Victorian oil painting about it, so timeless with its double decker red buses and red street lights in the distance, there is something about it, that reminds me of something I’ve seen, but I can’t remember by whom.  Maybe a bit Lowery with his use of red dots in windows and lights to draw the eye into his paintings, I’m not sure but it is lovely.

 And the National Gallery was looking equally beautiful, I always promise myself to spend more time there, I always fail, maybe this year I will.

But before I leave you with just the faintest memory of a moment in Trafalgar Square, the pretty lights, the atmosphere of Christmas, fading quickly as the clock strikes 12,

I wouldn’t want to be woken up at daybreak by this big blue cock !

Isn’t he magnificent.

Just, “Wow”