Having hubby around this weekend and no homework!, we decided to venture out for the day on Saturday.  We started off at Borough Market with the intention of going where our noses led us.

As you know there is far too much to photograph and I must apologise, I left my camera at home, so these are just snaps from my phone. 

I love the colours of all the fresh juices on display, 

 

 And the choices of fish are wonderful.

 Seasonal apples are just a joy, such variety,

 and so many tomatoes to choose from.

 We bought muffins for breakfast to go with softly poached eggs, (and they were very nice)

 But the one thing that caught my attention (and my sense of smell) is the Oranges and Clementines straight from Valencia, with leaves still green and fresh in the box.  We bought a box and they are lovely, fresh with a tang and so delicate and full of juice, an absolute treat at this time of year.

 And there are lots more citrus offerings to try before the best of the season is over.

 We had coffee at our favourite turkish coffee bar, with lemon and rose turkish delight, which was just dreamy.

 And I met up with A, remember A it was so lovely to meet up with him again.  We had such a lovely chat about all things Alopcia and I am most jealous, as he’s grown eyebrows in the last couple of months.  We worked out we are alopecia twins, we both lost our hair at about the same time, just over six years ago, how spooky is that.  A treated us to the turkish delight (again!) I’ve told him we must buy our own next time, but at least with me living in London these days it won’t be so long until I see him.  I must say, he’s really growing into a fine young man, I wish him well for the future.  (And I don’t think I have seen any Alopecian’s since I last saw him – I almost feel normal looking at this piccie with us two together)

 We then trotted on to the South Bank to wander around the German Market, its nicely stretched out by the Thames and gives you a good walk as you wander around the 80 or so little huts.

There were whole sides of salmon being roasted,

 and the whirl of the carousel,

 Big Ben keeping watch from a distance,

 And the smell of the salt and the sound of the waves lapping the stony beach from the Thames.

 There were gingerbread houses of all proportions.

 And gorgeous stars made from paper.

 My favourite German marshmallows.

 And at the end there is this huge area selling second hand books, but it was getting just a bit nippy.

So a little something to keep out the cold, red wine and a ‘pint’ of sausage rolls, which were very good.

 We went travelling and were met by pirates,

 and came on shore at Soho, to eat at our favourite Chinese, I  thought this window was wonderful as we walked past. 

Tired and happy we went home, talking about wonderful times past and more to come.

 Entering Winter Wonderland I became quite excited, the Christmas music that was playing was not going to be dented by an autumn damp start to the day.

 There were pretty bowls

 And Russian dolls, which I would have loved to play with.

 There were beautiful plates

 And jolly elephants.

 There were exotic marzipan’s,

 And glass baubles.

 A wonderful Ferris wheel, when who should I spy

 But Santa Claus flying by.

 There were happy houses full of fun

 And scary rides.

 There were roller coasters

 And carousel bars.

 And a bar that had more than a sniff of Blackpool about it.

 And big sausages and mulled wine.

 There were lots of bars but this one was the warmest.

I’ve a few minutes to spare, so here is a quick peek of my tailoring endevours of the last few weeks.

 

 My technical file is just printing, lots of piccies and writing, all A3, and here are the samples I’m  going to put in it.

 Gentleman’s tailored waistband

 And the curtains on the inside of the trousers.

 A sports waistband, also known as DAK, I varied my points.

 Single Jets pockets,

 And double jet pockets.

 There are slanted pockets

 And straight pockets

And because you can’t see anything from the front of the trousers, the back of a Fly. I am sure you’ve all wanted to see that, of course this is still under construction and when its finished you won’t be able to see this either, such is the joy of tailoring.

I just need a few more hours to finish presenting it all and then I’ll crash, hopefully with a glass of something fizzy and alcoholic – must remember to put the cooking cider in the fridge!

 And spent a happy half hour turning it into a yarn cake,

 with the aid of my trusty swift

 and wool winder.

I merrily cast on and felt much calmer and soon it was time for bed and as promised the yarn sprites whisked me away to play in their glen, until the cock crowed.

 But alas I was still gloveless, and realised a chunkier than 4ply yarn made into mittens was the answer, so I cast on these and a couple of days later they were keeping my hands toasty warm as I trotted towards the train station.

As a quick pick me up, I found myself at Liberty’s looking at Rowan yarn, but before I got into the lift I noticed they had opened their Christmas floor, so I took a small detour.

 It was well worth it, it made me smile and giggle like a school girl, which was exactly what I needed at the time. 

 

 So many pretty things to see.

 There were reindeer.

 and pretty blue birds in glass baubles.

 Ships sailing the high seas.

 Glass baubles with indentations, my grandmother had a blue one of these which I used to love looking at every year.

 There were prancing carousel ponies,

 And tartan wares

 And squirrels, which I really loved the most,

 ready to scamper around your Christmas tree.

 There were bunny rabbits

 and herds of reindeer.

 And enough Christmas stockings for every child in London.

 There were huge reindeer.

And big brown bears,

And a great big fat robbin. 

I loved them all.

Tis a thing of beauty.

It took all day, I haven’t finished the back pocketing, which is finished at the end which involves french seaming, which you would think would be impossible, but involves much trickery (which made my head spin) so that you get left with a beautifully engineered pocket that you have no idea how it was created.  

There are times that I think it is witchcraft.

Apologies yet again for disappearing without trace.  

I’ve got to tell you about this book shop, I know there are a few of you that would love it. I found it on my London Links expedition (four peoples homework done by one!) But boy am I glad I found this, this is the Covent Garden branch.

 I drooled and I drooled

 and then I drooled some more.

 I could have bought shelves worth of books from this shop, it really is worth a trip.  I only managed to buy three before hubby was dragging me out of the shop complaining of sore feet and in need of supper and a drink. (It was the last place of a very, very long list in two days)

 We had supper at our favourite chinese with lots of wine and I really couldn’t remember taking this photo until I’d downloaded the photos on my camera. I think I must have taken it because of the iconic nature of it.

 I’ve been learning new hand stitches.

 And drooling over books from Savile Row.

 They are just so beautiful

 and inspiring.

 Eric has come to stay – much to the disgust of our boys. 

I’ve been doing primary research for two projects, 

 and pattern cutting.

 and today I tried my hand at technical drawing copying a pair of hubby’s wool trousers.

The next stage is to put differing thickness of lines on, but I think I’ll photocopy it first, these drawings took over four hours, they are hard work!

And strangely, I can see hubby in them. They look like hubby’s trousers!  

Bless those little legs!

Being well placed in North London these days, it felt almost like a sacrilege to miss the Alley Pally show.  I mean to say its only two bus rides and 30 minutes later I am at the front door.  So even though after a busy week at Uni, and an even busier previous weekend, where hubby and I traipsed around London taking photographs, home work for 4 being done by 1., let alone the hours spent putting together a power point presentation and annotating all of the pictures (well nearly all, I left them 10, they managed 4)  – Needless to say our presentation, or should I say ‘my’ presentation plus the ten minute contribution by each member of the 3 before we went in (I’d asked them to come an hour earlier – flaky or what!) came top of the class.  Group work – not so keen.

Getting back to the point, I woke this morning grumbly and joint achy and all those things that build up and up when your autoimmune system likes to play games with you and you haven’t had enough rest, so mind over matter, I got out of bed and straight into a nice hot shower which always lifts my mood and calms my grumbling muscles and joints down a bit.  Breakfast is normally followed by painkillers but today, I was eager to get going, so it was a dry biscuit, a swig of water and a couple of doses of painkillers, hoping they would have kicked in by the time I got to Ally Pally.  Fortunately for me, the bus arrives 1 minute after I get to the bus stop and the change over is equally fast so I get to Ally Pally in good humour and becoming hungry.  

When I see the Londesborough Tea Rooms advertised (before you go into the show) and realise what very good value their £8 brunch is.  Well it was that and the queue for the loo’s was roughly 100 women deep – I worked on the premise that if they had a restaurant, they would have a loo, and my instincts proved correct.

 

 As you walk in you hear the tinkling of the ivories of the grand piano drifting gently over the murmurings and light clattering of a gentille breakfast.

 I was soon tucking in, there is a croissant hidden on the plate of parma ham and cheese.

 Quickly followed by a gorgeous breakfast with coffee being replenished as often as I wanted. The bacon and sausages were excellent, the field mushroom divine, the tomatoes yummy and the eggs were nursery scrambled eggs, soft and warm and fluffy. 

Although it wasn’t the first day in class, that was today and not nearly so scary, mainly due to the three and a half weeks of freshers events that I went to.

 

 It amuses me that I took a first day picture.  Note the shiny shoes!, and the handmade white blouse, actually its a toile but it came out well enough to wear and at a pound a metre in the rag bin I wasn’t going to complain. (edited to add, I’ve just realised that I made the whole ensemble, skirt, tank top and blouse!)

 My heart leapt as I saw this sign as I walked through the circular doors,

 and every time I see a highly polished sign declaring that one is at a UAL establishment, I become just a little bit giddy and have to pinch myself that this is really happening.

Needless to say, even though you are not hearing very much from me at the moment, I am loving every moment of it. Its buzzy, its fast paced and its fun.  I am signing up for extra lectures and talks from the top people in the fashion and creative industry, Asos, Kurt Geiger and Nick Knight (fashion photographer) to name just a few, and its only the first week. 

I’ve signed up for life drawing, (which my sons did not understand) which is heavily subsidised,  the club has a model, four evenings a week, for two and a half hours, for the princely sum of £30.00 for the year.  Yes, that’s right, 20p a session, art tutor included. One hopes that I should be able to draw the human form reasonably well after that level of intensity, although of course I won’t be able to go every night as there will be other calls on my time.

And John Lewis do tights that I like!  

Apologies, but I normally have to order them online, so its a win, win.  (John Lewis, Oxford Circus is next door to the UAL and I am there about twice a week)

I’ve found Waitrose in the bowels of John Lewis and a cute tiny little wine bar which is not advertised,  in Waitrose – in the wine section – which does nicely chilled wine at normal prices and I spent a very happy couple of hours there talking to a wonderful waitress, who is leaving this week to take her place on training to become a barrister.  She’s going to be brilliant.

And in between meeting old friends from college and new found pals I made these pretty little frocks for my God daughter and baby sister.

 Elma’s

Kitty’s 

(and one day I will allow myself enough time to take decent photographs before they have to wing their way to Warwickshire) 

I’ve had the fabric for a while, over a year but only bought a metre of each and just hadn’t got around to making the girls a dress each, what with college and all that.  And then I spotted this book in Waterstones, (Waterstones, Oxford Street has a bar on the 6th floor, I haven’t done it yet, but it does look very interesting) 

101 Fabric by Fabric ways to sew a Metre 

A lovely book full of ideas for that piece of fabric that you just had to buy because you loved it so. And all of the patterns are full size, none of that business of blowing them up by 250%

I think I have allowed enough room that a long sleeved tshirt can be popped underneath for cooler days and I think Elma’s should last until the spring, Kitty’s growing like a weed and although I made the largest size possible, aged 5 to 6, I think she will have grown out of it lengthways by the spring – lesson learn’t, don’t add half a foot, add the full twelve inches. (not bad for a three year old)

Until the next time. 

xx