sian lile makes

hotel chelsea

2012-02-19T11:37:00.001Z

...so, I hadn't realised that the Hotel Chelsea (or the Chelsea Hotel) closed last August. Apparently the permanent residents are still there but the rest of the hotel is shut for rennovations. Will it open again? and if it does will it be spoiled? and will it have the same quilts? does anyone know?
Anyway... I've stayed there twice (or maybe three times.. am not sure), the last time round about in 2005 (actually, I put a bit more thought into this and I think it was 2007). I love it there, I love the fadedness of it and the fact that loads of famous awesome people have stayed there (bob dylan, leonard cohen, dylan thomas, thomas wolfe, vali myers and many more).

Here are some of my pictures which I've had to rephotograph to put here...

that's me in the mirror

photos in my photo album

love the stairways...and all the paintings

how nice is that bed and the bedding?

I've also been looking online for hotel chelsea photos and collected a few on a board on pinterest, and the following photos are all from there.

love this picture - it's views from the window of the chelsea

Ryan Adams at the chelsea...while I was there I probably looked just as cool...

me at the chelsea.... just kidding - I'm a brunette

and Ethan Hawke at the Chelsea. He was staying there when I was there and I did wonder if maybe we would start an affair.... I hung out in the lobby reading Philip Roth because I thought he might like that and strike up a conversation with me. I didn't see him.

heart garland

2012-02-18T09:45:00.003Z

I was planning to make this garland for valentines... but didn't quite finish it, so instead I completed it this morning for a birthday gift for Bert's step-sister.... I hope she likes it...

creative space

2012-02-15T19:26:00.002Z

the actual quilting has been going on and going on pretty slowly....

alongside this I have been piecing this quilt together.

I met Lucy briefly today from the blog 'being of sound mind'! how exciting, it's like people behind blogs are REAL!.x

new york review books

2012-02-12T11:45:00.000Z

I have never met a New York Review Book I didn't like.

They have such an interesting selection and they are also the most beautiful paperbacks I have ever seen.

these are the ones that we have at home...

but we need more.

and this is what I am reading at the moment. It was published in the early 60s and I haven't got very far yet but it's great already. The books also have really fantastic introductions by contemporary authors.

This is their website so you can see what delights they are publishing.

what i've been up to....

2012-02-10T19:39:00.001Z

that's me, looking over the top of some patchwork I'm making in the manner of a belly dancer.

It's a photo from a couple of weeks ago when I went to a friend's house for a sewing and hip hop evening.

last night I met a college friend for a drink and a catch up (we actually work in the same place but hardly see each other as we are in different departments) which was lovely. Tuesday was yoga night, am also thinking of giving hot yoga a go soon...

This week in work has been busy preparing for art activities for next week as it's half term. We'll be making valentines cards and then perhaps looking at monsters...

Bert got me two books today, one called 'Cassandra at the Wedding' by Dorothy Baker which was first published in 1962 and looks great, and the other a book for children by a childhood friend (and adult friend too although we don't see each other much but keep up to date on facebook) of mine Wendy Meddour - it's called 'A Hen in a Wardrobe' and it's already won awards (one of them for 'writing that improves relations between the races').

so, phew for the weekend. Tonight we are going to watch 'New Girl' which I like a lot. do you like it? Zooey is delightful...and then maybe we'll watch a movie, or charmed, or ghost whisperer. We are watching season 4 of Ghost Whisperer and it has this whole RIDICULOUS storyline about jim and sam... I do not get the point of it.... tomorrow maybe lunch out and a movie... or maybe some sewing. Am feeling a bit behind on the sewing front... and on lots of fronts to be honest... I could do with doing a bit of reading, watching the food network, blogging and maybe just some hanging out with Bert, y'know, important things.

also, the lovely shy lion tagged me on a handwriting meme which was the best as I love reading his blog. (I admit that I did not know what a meme was, but I have googled it and therefore have grown as a person).

I am pretty sleepy, I hope this post wasn't too crazed.

salad...

2012-02-09T07:47:00.001Z

I've been eating lots of salad... cold weather makes me want greens....

so have been eating rocket with tomatoes, sprouts, bread and some vegan cheese.

yep. that's what's been going on.x

sunday music: graveyard by feist

2012-02-05T11:01:00.000Z

In my post christmas cd shopping spree I bought the Feist album 'Metals' which I love. The song 'graveyard' is just beautiful. I have no idea what she is singing about. obviously graveyards...and about bringing people to life? and then there's a bit that goes 'and history begins to be blue and brown eyed', is that bit about David Bowie?
you'll all be singing wow, oh, oh oh oh oh after this.

also... I knew that Feist and Peaches used to share a flat (a thought that makes me weirdly happy) so I was just having a little google and found this of Peaches, Feist and Gonzales!! I love it! there are a few different versions of you tube - some of which have the whole song, but the sound is a bit rubbish or the person filming it is too far away... so I picked this version which doesn't have all the song and has lots of hipsters in it too, but you can see them singing better and you can also see that Gonzales is wearing a robe.

what a treat....

a letter....

2012-02-05T10:44:00.002Z

I was over on the lovely blog 101 Cookbooks and found this list of favourites with lots of lovely links. I particularly like the following letter which I've copied here. It's a letter from John Steinbeck to his son about falling in love. For more information and back story, have a look here.

I like the bit
'Girls have a way of knowing or feeling what you feel, but they usually like to hear it also.'

New York

November 10, 1958
Dear Thom:
We had your letter this morning. I will answer it from my point of view and of course Elaine will from hers.

First — if you are in love — that’s a good thing — that’s about the best thing that can happen to anyone. Don’t let anyone make it small or light to you.

Second — There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you — of kindness and consideration and respect — not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn’t know you had.

You say this is not puppy love. If you feel so deeply — of course it isn’t puppy love.
But I don’t think you were asking me what you feel. You know better than anyone. What you wanted me to help you with is what to do about it — and that I can tell you.

Glory in it for one thing and be very glad and grateful for it.

The object of love is the best and most beautiful. Try to live up to it.

If you love someone — there is no possible harm in saying so — only you must remember that some people are very shy and sometimes the saying must take that shyness into consideration.

Girls have a way of knowing or feeling what you feel, but they usually like to hear it also.

It sometimes happens that what you feel is not returned for one reason or another — but that does not make your feeling less valuable and good.

Lastly, I know your feeling because I have it and I’m glad you have it.

We will be glad to meet Susan. She will be very welcome. But Elaine will make all such arrangements because that is her province and she will be very glad to. She knows about love too and maybe she can give you more help than I can.

And don’t worry about losing. If it is right, it happens — The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.
Love,
Fa

snow and tea

2012-02-04T12:36:00.001Z

we have snow! yelp!

We don't get snow that often... but it's been snowing for a couple of hours.

I have been drinking my new favourite tea - mint and lime.

Later I'm meeting a friend for coffee and am making pizza for dinner.

oh, am also going to the library as it's national libraries day.

stay warm!

bookshelves...again

2012-01-31T08:39:00.001Z

hello! a few more pictures of our new and improved bookshelves. thanks for the comments yesterday.

you are all welcome to come round for coffee and a browse!!

so here you can see some more strong women books... and a bit of non-fiction on the right...

books by authors that we have a lot of... alice hoffman, paul auster, Dave Eggers, charles bukowski (actually there are way more bukowski but they are in the poetry section)

...more graphic novels and dr seuss...

the Richard Brautigan area... and a couple of donleavy's...

one big thing we did was get rid of any doubles of books that we had.

This means that if Bert ever leaves me I won't have any Ginsberg...

we did keep doubles of Brautigan though.

some poetry...

sadie showing her respect for scarlett thomas and tove jansson

and these are my pagan and magick books

I love to read about folklore and herbalism and crystals.....

that's all the pictures. hope you liked them...

our bookshelves...

2012-01-30T18:10:00.002Z

on saturday we went through our books... cleaning, dusting, sorting and deciding which books to get rid of. somehow this took about 7 hours... at which point we gave up and went for veggie burgers. also, we both have allergies so were sneezing because of the dust round about a half hour in. I maintain that my allergies were more severe, bert does not agree with this but unfortunately does not have his own blog to state his case.
Bert put another few hours in on sunday while i drank coffee, listed some of the more fancy books on ebay and made pizza... now our shelves look beautiful... wanna see them? here goes...

this is after we chucked out two boxes and two big bags of books....

craft books... i think there's space for one or two more...

some robert crumb and a monkey

some of my 'young adult' books...

cute things....

graphic novels... you ever read Owly? cutest thing ever. splendid glass cat too...

some crime and some tofu figures...

classics....

the strong women area...

more strong women...and an elephant

pretty books. I love the book 'I am a bunny'

a little shrine...

art books and a house....

and there are more pictures... I may treat you to them later.x

vegan gingerbread cupcakes with lemon frosting

2012-01-27T19:02:00.001Z

I made gingerbread cupcakes yesterday, in the top photo they they are uniced so you can see the delicious colour, and the second photo is them with lemon (vegan) cream cheese frosting. They are really good!
The recipe is from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero... here it is, tho you should probably buy the book as it's unlikely that i'll ever be making the nutty cupcakes coz bert's got allergies...
anway, the recipe, shortened.

ingredients
1 and a quarter cups of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
half teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
quarter teaspoon ground cloves
quarter teaspoon salt
half cup of vegetable oil
third of a cup of light molasses
half cup maple syrup
quarter cup soy milk
2 tablespoons of soy yogurt
1 and a half teaspoons grated lemon zest
quarter cup finely chopped crystallized ginger

directions

sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt into a bowl and mix
whisk oil, molasses, maple syrup, soy milk, yogurt and lemon zest into a bowl
add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until just smooth. fold in the chopped crysallized ginger
add to cupake liners (my mix made 12 cupcakes)
cook for 19 to 22 minutes and insert a knife into the center to see if they are done.

Lemon cream cheese frosting

quarter cup vegan plain cream cheese and quarter cup margarine mixed together. Sift 2 cups of icing sugar/confectioners' sugar and mix until smooth and creamy. add a teaspoon of vanilla extract and a tablespoon of lemon zest.

This frosting is the best frosting I've made!

there were a few things I did differently with the cupcake recipe though...
I don't know what the difference is between baking powder and soda so I just go for the powder (does anyone know the difference?), the thought of crystallized ginger was too much for me so I skipped that and I also skipped the yogurt and ground cloves as I didn't have them.
YUM yum yum.
I also made a batch of vanilla cupcakes in case the gingerbread were a disaster, which of course they weren't!

an online shop?

2012-01-26T10:16:00.002Z

AN ONLINE SHOP!
I opened one. At the moment it's just selling felt brooches (which am sure you've all had enough of by now), but eventually it will be selling all manner of handmade awesomeness.
anyway, have a look here. The photos I have added are not great... but they will do for now... as it's raining outside and my house is too dark.x
I found the process of listing each item incredibly dull... so I may have gone a bit crazy over there.

yeah...

2012-01-26T08:58:00.001Z

...I paid the $5... I couldn't keep a photo of a heart with a mustache to myself.

no photos....

2012-01-25T18:25:00.001Z

...as I seem to have exceeded my blogger photo allowance. what now? do I have to pay? sad times.x

surprise party complex

2012-01-24T21:07:00.000Z

Bert was on flickr looking at 60s pulp fiction and saw this beauty and had to have it.

And while that is a wonderful cover, the book that Bert got in the post looked like this:

what. a .cover.

here's a close up of the highball...

actually, am not sure what this drink is - any thoughts?

it kinda looks like a martini with a slice of orange to me.

yep, I just published the post and Bert said 'it's a lollipop' and so it is!
I am now thinking a lollipop in a glass of champagne - a comment on the teenagers in the book no doubt.

The book is now out of print, but lord knows why as it is just great. From the 60s, this novel is a dreamy and summery story about three teenagers living in LA. It has a lovely sense of place and time, and other than the ending (a bit too plot driven for me) it was wonderful.

Have just checked out some other Ramona Stewart titles:
Possession of Joel Delaney?
Sixth Sense?
A Confidence in Magic?

they sound good....

yoga yoga

2012-01-23T17:56:00.001Z

Am trying to do lots of yoga... I went last night to a class after work and it was pretty hard work... and am planning on going on Tuesday too. Twice or maybe three times a week yoga class sounds pretty doable I think.The class I go to is just the right kind of level, there are lots of sun saluations and 'generating of heat' as we like to call it in class. The pose I like the least is the one in the photo which is meant to be kind of a relaxing rest pose....

..but I just find it claustrophobic...
Am also thinking of trying a hot yoga class. How hot is hot? will it be fun or will there by way to much generating of heat?

(photo from here)

sunday music: boom by wild flag

2012-01-22T17:19:00.000Z

I got the wild flag album for Christmas from Bert.

I made sure I got it by saying in October, 'I really want the Wild Flag cd for Christmas'

and in November, 'Have you got me the Wild Flag cd for Christmas?'

...and that seemed to work.

Two of the members of Wild Flag used to be in Sleater-Kinney. I love Sleater-Kinney... I very much would have liked to be in Sleater-Kinney, and if I can't be in Sleater-Kinney I'll join Wild Flag instead.

here's carrie snuggling a kitty. I got this picture from here...

...where they seem to like her quite a lot too.

sadie loves quilts

2012-01-21T21:00:00.003Z

I'm working this weekend, so haven't had my usual blog time - reading other blogs and updating my own. I thought it would be best if we just looked at pictures of Sadie. She's a cutie alright and she loves Bert's new quilt.

on learning to knit....

2012-01-19T17:21:00.000Z

yay! I've started to learn!

this is actually how far I've got. I've been using the stich n bitch book which I love, but to be honest can't really follow very well. The plain knitting I did yesterday was more a re-learning/re-remembering thing as I used to knit when I was a child.

I think I may have to just watch some videos to learn some more stitches....

What should I make first? Do you know of any easy but cute projects? I don't really want to make a scarf, but am not against knitted ties or blankets....

i love you

2012-01-19T09:56:00.001Z

It's St Dwynwen's day on the 25th of January which is sort of like a Welsh Valentine's Day.

This weekend in work I'll be making St Dwynwen cards with the little ones and maybe some of these felt brooches for older people... I think they are pretty cute...

by 'older people' I mean those over 10.. not 90 year olds, although if the 90 year olds want to make felt hearts thats's fine too.x

on saturday....

2012-01-15T19:03:00.001Z

...I got new fabric in the post....

...blogged and internetted....

...read and sewed...

...made butternut squash and sweet potato soup with cornbread...

...my sister is sick so I packed up some food and delivered it to her. When I was there I played two games of the scooby doo board game with my niece Eiry (it's a good game) and read a spongebob comic.

....and then came back cooked dinner for me and Bert (he'd been on his university course), watched a movie (well fell asleep watching a movie) and read more of my Jan Kerouac book. Am very much enjoying the book, plus - look at that awesome cover and title. yep.

sunday music - birthday suit by catanooga cats

2012-01-15T12:34:00.001Z

Kittens flirting with puppies and cats playing guitars? I was going to share a 'Wild Flag' song today but I left the cd in the car.... I think this song and cartoon will do the job though...good lord it may just be the bestest song ever.

pink quilt - work in progress

2012-01-14T08:37:00.000Z

This is what I am working on at the moment. A pink quilt. Or a pink and lilac quilt. It's made up of a mixture of vintage and new fabrics and has actually been quite quick and easy to make.

I started it back in September when we went away for a few days, but haven't added much to it until quite recently.

now the top is nearly done...

...just needs a couple more rows...

...so I started on a new one....

...made out of fabrics I am completely in love with...

the fault in our stars by john green

2012-01-13T17:01:00.001Z

Yesterday Bert got us the new John Green book and let me read it first. I started it last night round about 6ish and read til bedtime and then got up at 6.30am and finished it before work.

It is so good, it's a young adult book and is wonderfully written with great characters, charming, funny (like really funny. laugh out loud funny), and I kinda think I should warn you that it's pretty sad too....I cried a lot. In fact I'm kind of drained today from all the crying...

You should all read it... except maybe if you are feeling a bit delicate, then you should save it for another day. And it's not just me that thinks it's amazing, the one, the only Judy Blume thinks it is too, she tweeted this earlier:

just finished TFIOS. Can't speak though the tears have dried. Thank you for Hazel and Augustus.

So I think it's amazing, Judy thinks it's amazing... read it, read it, read it.x

things to do in 2012 #2 read...

2012-01-12T18:00:00.000Z

image credit

I have challenged myself to read 100 books this year over on Goodreads.... but alongside this there are a two other books I want to read in 2012. One of them is Moby Dick. I have started this a couple of times and thought it was amazing... but then I just drifted off to other books and am not sure what happened. 2012 is going to be the year of Moby Dick.

As well of this I would really like to read 'Infite Jest' by David Foster Wallace... it's a huge book....but there are support groups out there. In 2009 an online group was set up called infinite summer : 'June 21st to September 22nd. A thousand pages ÷ 92 days = 75 pages a week. No sweat.'

So there you go. Have you read either of these books? should I set up a group for Moby Dick? Moby March? Dick December?
Moby Dick. Infinite Summer. I'm all in.

things to do in 2012 #1: get married.

2012-01-09T18:23:00.000Z

yep, this could be us.

we are getting married sometime this year... (maybe autumn?) and it's just going to be me and bert.

we may take inspiration from the awesome photo above.... I would possibly marry this guy anyway.

I like the can of lager too. nice touch.

I can't remember where I found this photo, so am sorry there isn't a credit.

we may go to Vegas, or we may go to San Francisco.

have any of you guys got married in either of these places? any tips?

foo-ood

2012-01-08T17:32:00.000Z

Most of these pictures are of food we made and ate over Christmas...

christmas eve means lentil and vegetable soup with homemade olive and rosemary bread. I've made this bread a few times and it always works... I should try some different types but am a little scared.

chestnut and mushroom pie for Christmas dinner

salad with roasted pumpkin and some kind of fake meat - am not sure what

coffee and vanilla cupcake on cute plates

and a pretty 70s looking platter with scheese, crackers, pickles, tomatoes and olives

are any of you breadmakers? got any vegan bread recipes for me to try? I got a book out of the library but loads of the recipes had dairy in them. boo.

stitching

2012-01-08T10:40:00.001Z

detail of one of my quilts

It's been over a year since I started at the old quilting, and I still feel quite inadequate about my sewing skills. For some reason I expect my quilts to be PERFECT even thought it is all handsewing.... but then when I look at other people's quilts, it's the wonkiness and the imperfections that I like.

detail of gee's bend quilt

My new book about Gee's bend quilts has been quite the inspiration.... the quilts, while originally discussed as 'not being art' have since been compared to Matisse and Klee. The women who made the quilts talk about how they were inspired by the buildings around them, a quilter called Netty Young says

'When you're making a quilt, you're building, because you go to put the first plank just like you have to put the first block.'

The fabric isn't cut straight, in fact the quilts themselves aren't even square, and the stitching is obviously handstiched and stands out against the fabric, and it all looks amazing. I've only just started reading the book, so will probably be talking about it for quite some time...

I've also just discovered Pam Garrison's blog. She combines quilting and patchwork and embroidery, I was looking through her images and was thinking to myself 'it's ok to do that?', I don't know where my self-imposed rules have come from! Here are some images of Pam's work, delicious no?

2012-01-06T18:11:00.001Z

I got this book today. It is a beaut.

I am pretty much in love with the quilts in it...

there's been quite a lot of quilt action around here... will show you all pictures soon.

(pictures from a board on pinterest)

best books of 2011...that i read... (and bert read)

2012-01-02T10:40:00.009Z

image source

On new year's eve me and bert put on a pile of music (nico, smashing pumpkins, joanna newsom, feist, and lots of other stuff I can't remember) drank tea and hot water with lemon and lime - it was new year after all - and talked about the books we'd read in 2011 for the most ridiculously long time *. Also this post took me a ridiculously long time to write too, and it's pretty lenghty - sorry about that.

image source

It turns out that I have mainly read women writers in 2011 and a lot of them seemed to be about divorce, breakups, finding yourself, women helping each other and mental illness. I shall try and be a bit more diverse this year. Bert has mainly been reading books set around the first and second world wars.... We have both read mainly novels, although I do love non-fiction too. The non-fiction books that stand out for me from my reading list of 2011 (other than the ones in my top ten below) are 'Eros the Bittersweet' by Anne Carson; 'Why this World: a Biography of Clarice Lispector' by Benjamin Moser; 'The Reading Promise: 3,218 nights of Reading with my Father' by Alice Ozma; and 'A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from my Kitchen Table' by Molly Wizenberg.

image source

Anyway... eventually we picked our top ten of the year. Bert denied it, but I think he's pretty disgusted that Laini Taylor's 'Daughter of Smoke and Bone' made my top ten list and 'Therese Raquin' by Emile Zola didn't... he had previously challenged the fact that I'd given 'Therese Raquin' four stars over on goodreads and given 'Pippi Longstocking' five...in my defense, there is a monkey in Pippi Longstocking...

So, here is my top ten:

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

This was my most favourite book of the year. It's set in an amazing circus in Victorian times and has wonderful descriptions of the circus. I was completely captivated by this and didn't want it to end, it was magical.

Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenidies
I would have also been happy if this book went on forever. Eugenidies is the author of 'Middlesex' and 'Virgin Suicides', but 'The Marriage Plot' is nothing like those. It's quite 'great american novel-esque' and I really loved it. This is just the kind of book I go crazy for - great contemporary American writers

1Q84 volume 1 and 2 by Haruki Murakami
This was also amazing, and the most original book I've read in a long time. If you have read any Murakami, it's kind of what you would expect, only even better. It's hard to describe this book without giving too much away, but it's about a man and a woman (told by them in alternate chapters) and parallel worlds and 'little people'. I am yet to read the third part of this, and felt like I needed a little break, but will definitely read it soon. Volumes 1 and 2 pretty much stand alone anyway.

Blue Nights by Joan Didion
I've already mentioned this on my blog.... it's a memoir about the death of Didion's daughter, which happened not long after the death of her husband. It's also about getting old and looking back. Didion is an amazing writer, this is a pretty short book but it is so powerful.

If you Follow me by Malena Watrous
I guess this book is a bit lighter than the one's I've just mentioned, but then that's ok isn't it? It's really well written and easy to read. It's set in Japan, where the main character is teaching English. It's got a lovely tone and 'voice' to it and I really loved the details about life in Japan, such as throwing out different types of rubbish on different days. I really want to read more by Watrous but I don't think she's written anything else. She should really get on to that in 2012.

image source

Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
This year I fell in love with Shirley Jackson. I think I came to this because 'The Little Stranger' by Sarah Waters is influenced by it, and I loved that book. I also read some of her short stories this year after reading that 'The Hunger Games' were influenced by her story 'The Lottery'. (in case you are interested I have read the first in the Hunger Games books, and while I could see why people liked it, I didn't really think it was for me. Although I will probably be reading books 2 and 3).
Haunting of Hill House is just so great - it's odd, it's creepy and it's just super well written. I got her other book 'We have always lived in the castle' for Christmas (thank you Franco and Kate) and am really excited to read it.

Monkey Grip by Helen Garner
This was a bit of a surprise for me. It's an Austrailan book written in the 70s and based on the authors diaries of that time. Not a whole lot happens but it's really addictive. It's mainly about the main character (a young single mother) and her relationships with her friends and with men, in particular a junkie named Javo. It's got a great feel to it and I think you would like it.

Paradoxical Undressing by Kristin Hersh
So, Kristin Hersh of the Throwing Muses wrote a book. It's her memoir of growing up and forming a band, and it reads almost like a novel. I liked the bits about her in college where she becomes friends with a much older woman who claims she was once a movie star. It's a really warm and wonderful book and deals with difficult issues such as her mental illness with staightforwardness and charm. If you like the Throwing Muses you will love it, and if you have never even heard of the Throwing Muses you will love it. Oh, and in America this book seems to be called 'Rat Girl'.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
So this book making my top ten was a surprise even for me, but I just really enjoyed it. It's a fantasy book really... I think 'urban fantasy', although as I don't read much fantasy at all I could be really off the mark. I saw a review that said it was like 'Northen Lights' and 'Pan's Labyrinth' in one, which is a pretty good description...
It's about a seventeen year old called Karou who is an art student in prague, but is also an errand girl (buying teeth) to Brimstone (a bit like Hellboy) who is from another world. It's got great imagery and also has angels too.

Role Models by John Waters.
John Waters is just great don't you think? This book is like a self-portrait told through profiles of his favourite people - some celebrities, some regular people. Most of the stories are great, but the odd one was a bit too skeevy for me... It's a great insight into Waters and funny too. I loved a bit where he said one of his favourite images was of hands in prayer with dirty fingernails.

image source

And here is Bert's top ten book of 2011. He is at work at the moment so can't add any blurb to his titles, but maybe he will later. His favourite book was 'Just Kids' by Patti Smith...which was my favourite book the year before, so it's bound to be good. We both put the Shirley Jackson and the Kristin Hersh on our lists... and I've read the Hemmingway, but none of the others, so I should get right on to that.

1. JUST KIDS - PATTI SMITH

2. PAYMENT DEFERRED - C.S.FORESTER

3. FIESTA - HEMINGWAY

4. THE RISK POOL - RICHARD RUSSO

5. FROM THE CITY, FROM THE PLOUGH - ALEXANDER BARON

6. PARADOXICAL UNDRESSING - KRISTIN HERSH

7. THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE - SHIRLEY JACKSON

8. SCHULTZ - J.P.DONLEAVY

9. ETHAN FROME - EDITH WHARTON

10. THE DEATH OF THE ADVERSARY - HANS KEILSON

image source

Please let me know if you have read any of the books I've mentioned in this post, I'd love to know what you think. What were your best books of 2011? and do you have any suggestions of what I should read next?

If you are on goodreads please be my friend (just search for 'sian lile') as I don't have many friends over there.

I found it hard to find pictures of men reading.... here's a nice one though....

image source

it's from the blog http://www.hotguysreadingbooks.tumblr.com/ just in case you want to go there and look at pictures and read the funny comments underneath. you're welcome.

*about four hours

sunday music part two... 'homegrown tomatoes', guy clark

2012-01-01T15:59:00.000Z

I bought some little speakers for our laptop yesterday, so now we can check out music online with a nice sound. hurray! Bert found this gem on youtube today - Guy Clark singing about homegrown tomatoes,
'the only two things that money can't buy is true love and homegrown tomatoes'.

So this one goes out to all you tomato growers, I hope you have a good crop this year and can sing this song. (this means you too mum)

sunday music - ghost dance patti smith

2012-01-01T12:22:00.001Z

Patti, Patti, Patti.
Bert bought me Easter by Patti Smith for Christmas. It's from 1978 and although I haven't listened to it all properly yet, am immediately in love with 'Ghost Dance'.

It wasn't until I read Patti's book 'Just Kids' last year (it was my most favourite book I read last year, and Bert read it this year and it's his best book too) that I started listening to her music. You should all make it your new year's resolution to read 'Just Kids' in 2012 with her cds as a soundtrack to it. yep.

What music did you like this year? I've really enjoyed music suggestions on other blogs, thanks to Knitxcore I bought some 'Jens Lekman', and thanks to Stelabird I've just bought 'Youth Lagoon', which I love.

new fabric new fabric...

2011-12-31T10:07:00.000Z

I have been sewing quite a bit the last few days... I've been working on a pink hexagon quilt that I started back in september. I've nearly finished the top, so I'll grab some pictures when it's done. I've also started to get excited about new quilts and new colour combinations and all the possiblities! I've ordered lots of new fabric online which will arrive in the next few days... and I also got some new fabric for Christmas.

The two top pictures are fabric that Bert bought me - the wonderful 'prom' fabric and the other with kitties and trees on. I love them. The second two pictures are fabrics I bought in John Lewis the other day. I only bought the pink one because it was half price, but now I love it and wish I'd bought more, it looks great with the greeny-blue fabric (an Amy Butler design).yum.

In other news... it's new years eve! we are staying in and watching dvds and discussing the books we've read over the past year. I know you must all be jealous. Happy new year!!

bert's quilt? yeah, i finished it.

2011-12-29T12:30:00.002Z

I am not even sure how long this took... about 7 months? here are the pictures!

the front....

the back....

a few felt hearts...

Sadie helped a lot with the quilt. mainly by sitting on it.

here you can see the stitching on the back - I went for quite a dark thread (too dark maybe?)

and sewed star shapes. I read recenlty that it was a good idea to sew pieces of turquoise into your clothes to bring you good luck while travelling - it creates a protective force field around you. So I sewed a bit of turquoise in to Bert's quilt... you can see the little crystal in the photo above...

...and then I sewed the turquoise under the white heart. You can still see the turquoise through the felt which is great. I'm going to sew a little crystal into all my quilts from now on. How cute would it be to get some crystals for insomnia or ones for happy dreams and sew them into a quilt??

good points....

overall am pretty happy with the quilt
I like the colours
I am awesome at binding now.

bad points....

the sewing on the patchwork top is not great...
I found this quite a difficult patchwork shape to work with... and had to unpick quite a few times
the actual quilting could be better too... I maybe should have done a simpler quilting pattern... maybe just straight lines.

gingerbread (and sugarbread) men on tour....

2011-12-28T09:10:00.000Z

I made A LOT of gingerbread men for Christmas (and sugarbread men too - the pink ones)...in fact I even seemed to get a gingerbread men injury! (sore wrist from sewing and stuffing...)

I sent a few out to lovely bloggers... and thought it would be nice to share the photos here. I hope that's ok everyone!

knitxcore in the USA

kestrel finds and makes in Scotland

a gingerbread man at Bert's brothers house.... in England

allotment2kitchen in Scotland

lucewoman in Wales

do a bit in Australia

do a bit

My friend Nicola in England

and Arabella's tree in Wales...

and this is the one that inspired them all...

this gingerbread man is in the collections (not on display) in St Fagans:National History Museum where I work. This little man is from around 1912... and is still looking in tip top condition. The person who made this gingerbread man may have been doing so for magical reasons - you could create a doll in the image of someone (poor person who looks like this!) and then if you ate the doll you would absorb all the power of the person.

if anyone else has any gingerbread men pictures for me let me know!

what i wore - outfit post

2011-12-27T09:04:00.001Z

This is what I wore for our Boxing Day walk in the rain yesterday. Bert also had a cute outfit on but he was a teeny bit grumpy about having to go for a walk in the rain and so didn't get his photo taken....

have I shown you my cape before? it's a vintage 60s one and I bought it last year. My blue handbag is from an art gallery in Finland which I bought when I was on a cruise.....the gloves are my wonderful gloves made by kestrel finds and makes.

I am aware that this outfit is slightly crazy. plus a cape is hugely not practical - you can't drive in it or carry a shoulder bag. I think it's mainly for nights out at the opera.

hope you had a lovely christmas! we did here.xx

winding down....

2011-12-24T10:26:00.000Z

I've been so busy in work recently, as well as spending evenings making things for Christmas... and then the last couple of days have been spent doing errands and food shopping and all of that stuff and by yesterday I was just worn out (not as worn out as say, people working in retail... sorry bert) so I got the new Joan Didion book and just lay on the sofa and read it all (and took a nap half way through).

..and it was so, so good. I'd like to write about it in a seperate post, but I find books quite hard to write about... or maybe just too much like hard work.

I have always loved to read (apart from between the ages of around 12-15 when I gave it up for a while), and I remember when I was small we had a chart in school where you had to write every book you read on it and write a little report about it too. I think you got a star for each book you read as well.

I hated writing book reports. I just read my usual amount of books and then wrote a report on just a few of them, so my amounts on the wall were no where near what I had actually read, and yet I'd still read more than anyone else.

That's just a lengthy way of saying that I'd like to write about Blue Nights and all the other books I've read this year (there's a list at the top of the blog if you are interested)... but I may not get round to it.

So in case I don't, I'll just say that this book was great, Joan Didion is great.

Happy Christmas from Bert-Elf and Santa-Sian

(or Sian Corn - kinda mrs santa in welsh).x

what we wore... outfit post

2011-12-22T16:07:00.000Z

so, I mentioned I had a new front door, and new cowboy boots, but I also have a new dress.

I requested that Bert wear his Grinch top for this photo shoot and he kindly did. So here are some pics of what we wore today. I hope you like them... if not, feel free to skip and I'll be back tomorrow talking about books, or films... or both.

So these are my new boots. I have wanted cowboy boots for the longest time but couldn't find any non-leather ones. This year vegetarian shoes produced a pair. yes!

...then today I got my new dress in the post. It's from joe browns, and has pictures of two of my favourite things - books and cats.

my coat is second hand....and smells like it is too.

the reveal.

(and please note my new front door)

am pretty excited about christmas...

and now for bert....

if you have seen my other outfit posts... you will recognise these 'pop' cords again...

...but the top is something else...

Bert cut up a Grinch t shirt that was the wrong size and sewed it on to his brown long sleeved shirt.

Genius! and super festive.

this shot is from after our official shoot.....

school's out!

2011-12-21T14:37:00.001Z

how exciting! it was my last day at work today until next year... plus, I only did half a day anwyays....
I've never actually used the term 'school's out', we usually went for something lots less punchy like 'it's the end of term'. anyway, this is what i'm going to be doing...

image credit

...am not sure what she is drinking, dry something, dry sherry? fine. I'll force it down.

adding to the excitement is a new front door and new cowboy boots! pictures to follow soon! (just the boots, not the door).

handmade haven soap

2011-12-19T17:24:00.000Z

I won a giveaway over at this enchanted pixie! yep!

I got three yummy soaps from Handmade Haven and they smell so good (apart from the unfragranced one natch).

Thank you so much to you both! I haven't used them yet... but am planning on taking lots of long, hot baths during the Christmas holidays....

sorry the pictures are so lame, that winter problem of getting dark by 4pm.x

another day, another christmas decorations craft table

2011-12-19T17:11:00.001Z

I think I am pretty much done with showing people how to make tissue paper pom poms. I had a busy weekend in work, making pom poms and paper chains, and it was great because children and adults were equally as keen on taking part. On saturday I also had to film a little interview for tv... I had the worst cold and it turned out that as soon as the camera is on me I talk in cliches. who knew. I have no intention of watching it anyhow... and my dreams of getting my own show (siani's homemade home??) have evaporated.

I NEVER get tired of making paper snow flakes though.. they are the best.x

swap goodies

2011-12-15T18:46:00.000Z

yay! swap goodies!

Lakota organised a fantastic christmas blog swap, and I was paired with Kestrel Finds and Makes....and this is what she sent me...

all of these things! a lunch bag, a bangle, a tree decoration, handmade gloves and the material!

such a lovely wooden bangle

Kestrel Finds and Makes even took note of my nonsense of decorating in pink and brown and sent me this lovely handmade decoration, which is now proudly hanging from my pink tree.

and best of all these amazing owl and the pussycat mittens...

have you seen cuter mittens?

(i don't think so)

and this is what I sent...

vintage needlecraft magazine, ribbons, buttons, a vintage Christmas postcard and some handmade gingerbread decorations. Yep, you are right - the mittens win.x

baby quilt? done.

2011-12-12T09:52:00.000Z

front!

back of the quilt

now, stand back for some detail shots.x

overall I'm quite pleased with it. I feel I finally mastered the binding with the help of an online tutorial and the top of the quilt looks good and I love the colours. The downside is that I tried to quilt it on the machine and it all went terribly wrong... so there is a lot of bunching up on the quilt which you can see in the pictures. On the plus side, I covered mistakes/holes with bits of yellow felt which I also embroidered, and I think they look great. So really, it was a good thing to make so many mistakes....

Next time will be better.x

feeling cozy

2011-12-11T12:36:00.000Z

It's cold out, so I've been enjoying staying in this weekend, reading, watching tv, reading blogs and feeling christmassy. Here are some pictures to make you feel cozy too (I hope)

imagine that we are holed up here...

(image via pinterest)

...maybe reading this. I love this book and all the other Foxfire books.

For more information go to their website

I saw this adorable christmas pudding cat bed in the shops and really wanted it, but Sadie already has a cat bed she doesn't sleep in....(from here)

...she prefers her shoe box by the heater.
She is in there at the moment - snoring like spongebob.

a lovely picture! look at that little lions face! (from here)

Bert's feet in the Autumn leaves a couple of months ago...

my pea soup. It's really quick to make (I made this particular one before going to work) and so tasty. It's just onions, garlic, potatoes peas, salt and pepper. For a bit of warmth add some chilli, and if you are in a rush you could just skip the potatoes as they take the longest to cook.

my friend Sara made me a woolly candy cane for my tree. It's perfect for our pink tree and the sugarbread man underneath it has closed his eyes in candy ecstacy.

piles of blankets... (sadie likes to sit on top of these too - like princess and the pea)

quilt in progress...

my first tomato soup ever! am super proud of myself.

flea market finds

2011-12-11T10:25:00.002Z

oo floral fabric and 70s floral ribbon. They have the most amazing selection of vintage ribbon in my local vintage shop. I bought 5 metres of the ribbon thinking I'd wrap it around Christmas gifts. yeah, that's not going to happen! I'm just going to keep it for myself and take it out and look at it! I love ribbon but never seem to use it. The fabric is just a small piece but it can become part of a quilt no doubt.

I need to work on some Christmas crafting today, do you? make time to go over to Sophie's for some more flea market finds though!x

(thought I'd add this picture of the ribbons in the shop which I just stole off twitter)

christmas decorations craft table

2011-12-10T09:59:00.000Z

some pictures of our art and craft table where children (and adults) could make pom poms, paper chains and crepe paper chains. pom poms are pretty popular down our way.

vintage christmas decorations (image heavy!)

2011-12-08T08:09:00.003Z

Work has been busy as we are open late for our Christmas event for three nights. All the houses in the museum where I work have been decorated according to their time period - I work in an open air museum that has lots of original historical buildings that have been moved to the museum and been re-erected. The buildings are then set out to look as they would have done in the 'olden times - and I took some pictures yesterday that I thought you might enjoy.x

raw dehydrated 'cheesie' purple kale chips have changed my life...

2011-12-06T17:32:00.001Z

I just discovered these today in my local health shop. They are amazing! Am guessing they are not going to be to everyone's taste but I am in love. They aren't cheap but I'm going to make Bert go and buy me a big box of them asap.

cold weather means it's soup time

2011-12-05T22:07:00.000Z

It's pretty cold here today although sadly, no snow. Yesterday I made a lentil and vegetable soup and I took the leftovers for lunch today. It was lovely and warming.

It's got red lentils, onions, garlic, carrots, parsnip and swede. It also has fresh parsley mixed in towards the end and served with smoked paprika and a glug of olive oil on the top.

sunday music - man's road by america

2011-12-04T19:26:00.004Z

Today we watched 'The Last Unicorn'. Are you familar with it? I wasn't until quite recently (it's one of Bert's favourite films) - it's an animated feature made in 1982 about a unicorn (with the voice of Mia Farrow) who leaves her beautiful woodland home on a long journey to try and find other unicorns.

While she is on this trip she does a lot of walking on roads, man's roads. This is the song that accompanies her....

Isn't it pretty?

Joanna Newsom did a version too...

here it is!

it's a live version... and the crowd seem to really like The Last Unicorn.

The animation from the film is lovely and has lots of foresty greens and magical pinks.

christmas decorations

2011-12-04T15:52:00.000Z

this Christmas our colours are pink and brown.

We even managed to get a pink Christmas tree...

we have red berry lights...

...pink and brown pom poms...

gingerbread men...

...and a fairy cottage

creative space

2011-12-01T08:04:00.000Z

Just need to do the binding on the baby quilt. I did this one on the machine. The patchwork top went so well and then the actual quilting by machine was a disaster.... am not showing you photos of the back. Remind me never to quilt by machine again....

gingerbread men....

2011-11-30T11:28:00.003Z

I couldn't choose. So lucewoman, do a bit , raspberryrainbow, knitxcore, Martta, Shaheen and steven andrew can all have a felt gingerbread man with a strange face to hang on their trees.

Please email me your addresses at lile26sil@hotmail.com and I'll post them IMMEDIATELY and hope they get to you in time for christmas.

my favourite comment was martta's...

'I love gingerbread dough so much that I rarely have any left when it comes to baking. And when I was in my early teens a boy I had a crush on fed me ready made raw gingerbread dough in the parking lot of the grocery shop next to our school. It just streghtened my love of gingerbread dough. Even though the boy turned out to be far less lovely. And now when I think of it was quite an odd little scenario anyway.'

people who didn't comment but who are on my Christmas list anyway will also be getting some little g.menx

flea market finds

2011-11-27T09:38:00.000Z

yep, I got a plate.

what sadie looks like when she want's her dinner

2011-11-26T11:43:00.002Z

kitchen corner and new cups

2011-11-26T11:42:00.000Z

I am not super tidy or super clean.... but today I woke up and cleaned and tidied the windowsill in the kitchen...and then had to watch two hours of cooking to recover.

...part of it was to display these cute little glass cups that I got from Ikea yesterday. I am already regretting only buying two of them. they also came in blue and baby pink...I might have to go back later....

...Bertie's little face cups....

am not sure what one would have in these glasses.... mulled wine?

I went for gin

food post

2011-11-26T11:28:00.001Z

I thought what with it being thanksgiving I should do a food post. I have a question for the Americans... Do you have gifts at thanksgiving? because if you do, I'm going to be making sure we do gifts next year....

Bert was in charge of thanksgiving dinner which we had on wednesday, as we went to see a dance performance on thurs (yep, we are pretty sophisticated). He made a kind of shepherd's pie with lentils and butter beans with sweet potato and white potato on top.

sorry, food photos are hard to get right... especially when it gets dark at 4pm....

we roasted some sprouts to eat with it. I haven't roasted them before and they were really good. I was watching 'Barefoot Contessa' the other day and Ina said to go for it and she was right. Just drizzle with olive oil, season and pop in a hot oven for about twenty minutes. delish.

apart from this, I've been mainly eating salads....

green salad with 'chicken' , tomatoes and olives....

ciabatta with avocado, tomatoes, basil and olives and lots of olive oil....

chick peas with shallots, chilli, lime, coriander and parsley...

avoacado on tiger bread with a side order of gin... this looks a bit weird...

....and salad with pasta....

creative space

2011-11-23T17:35:00.000Z

I've been mainly been making gingerbread men tree decorations.... I thought they'd be cute gifts... I think I'll have a few spare, would anyone like one? I don't mind where you live as am happy to send a lil man as they are only small.

If you would like one just comment below and tell me something about gingerbread, men or gingerbread men.

I'll pop the names in a 'hat' and pick out a few next wednesday.x

pretty things, smart things, links and things I love...

2011-11-22T07:00:00.003Z

a ribbon wall over at Teacher Tom's (teacher tom is my guru)

I love looking at pictures of books over at Pretty Books

Paper Sparrow has introduced me to so many fantastic illustrators,

and I love her blog parties too.

Knitxcore is just a great blog. Look at this corn!

Danielle's vintage Christmas posts are all kinds of inspiring!

I love this picture. It was taken by my ex-boyfriend who is

in Vietnam at the moment. am pretty sure he doesn't read

my blog so he'll never know that I stole this picture off his facebook....

I want to know more about Vali Myers ... I love this quote

'Let it all be animal, my life and death, hard and clean like that, anything but human... a lot I care, me with my red heart in the dark earth and my tattooed feet following the animal ways.'

Diary entry: 1963

things that we have been watching recently....

L Word season 5. We've watched this before, but my friend Shelley has leant me season 6, so we are re-watching season 5 in its honour. one word: Shane.

Masterchef: The Professionals. Genius.

Art of America with Andrew Graham Dixon.
we like andrew. He's prety serious but really interesting too.
He's got quite a line in white shirts in this series.
I am crazy for the Abstract Expressionists!

bert recommends...

2011-11-21T19:17:00.000Z

me and sadie already know what a genius bert is, and now the world knows too!!

He has blogged over at The Raconteur. go take a look, and then maybe comment here or over there!!
(*so proud*)

nice things happening other places....

2011-11-21T18:13:00.001Z

i really love this headband from Sunshine and Carousels...

...and elycia's scarf

look at this knitted play area! i saw it over at Polkaros

these lovely magical mushroom pictures from a little birdie told me

these amazing knitted items from kestrel finds and makes

amy's kitty Seren checking out the birdtable.

...more later, am going to yoga now!x

ha. yoga was cancelled so am eating salad and drinking wine whilst wearing my yoga outfit....

nice things happening around here....

2011-11-21T17:44:00.000Z

things are pretty good around here. Work isn't too busy.. although I do have a talk coming up as well as christmas nights and decoration making... but they all sound like fun. Yep, even the talk.
Here are some pictures of some of the nice things...

bert wearing stripes and snuggling sadie...

big portions of bert's pasta...

sewing little gingerbread men for christmas....

Sadie loving her dinner....

me looking pretty happy ...

...and books!

...in particular this one. Am enjoying it so much.

sunday music - two songs that make me cry....

2011-11-20T17:28:00.000Z

yay! two songs that make me cry! neither of them particularly sad songs, but both of them just touching and sweet.

Martha by Tom Waits

this song is from Tom Waits' first album 'Closing Time' which was released in 1973. I am more familiar with his later growly stuff... and didn't know this song until Bert started putting it on at home. So, the story is that Tom is phoning an old love that he hasn't seen for forty years or more to suggest they meet up, the lyrics and the song are just so beautiful, but the bit that really gets me is about half way through when he says 'Martha, Martha, I love you can't you see.' sob.

Kooks by David Bowie
This song is the cutest. It's from the 1971 album 'Hunky Dory' and it's about bringing up a little one. The bit that makes me cry is 'cause we believe in you' because it just seems the sweetest thing to say to your child.

I can't find a video for this on youtube (well there are some but it comes up saying that EMI won't let me show it in this country). sorry about that, you'll just have to trust me.

Wanna share what songs make you cry? 'Tougher than the Rest' by Bruce Springsteen makes Bert cry (along with many other songs that he's not prepared to go public with ).xx

more pom poms and a baby gingerbread man

2011-11-17T19:42:00.000Z

hi, more pompoms i'm afraid... they are pretty addictive....
and also a little felt gingerbread man/tiny baby. oh my!

creative space part two...

2011-11-16T17:01:00.000Z

these tissue people decorations are so easy to make, I am going to make loads of them!! (if you want to make them just google tissue paper pom poms and you'll find loads of tutorials)

my creative space

2011-11-16T07:07:00.000Z

I've managed to get quite a lot done this week! I'm continuing to quilt Bert's brown quilt... and alongside this I have started a quilt to use up scraps and have cut out the squares for a baby quilt..... go Sian!

flea market finds

2011-11-14T10:58:00.000Z

Flea Market Finds: the new Dan Chaon book which I have been really really wanting to read, a king size sheet with blue flowers on and two slightly odd pillowcases which I was going to cut up and use the fabric, but now I'm just going to use them as pillow cases....

More finds over at her library adventures

sunday music

2011-11-13T08:04:00.000Z

what with one thing (me forgetting) and another (me not feeling like it) I haven't posted any sunday music for a couple of weeks. So I thought I'd just post a few songs that I've been listening to recently. Let me know if you like them.x

i kinda want to measure stars now too....

oh....

I love singing along to this in the car...

peaches can do no wrong.

veggiestan by sally butler and what i ate for dinner...

2011-11-12T08:35:00.000Z

Bertie is the best and he bought me Veggiestan by Sally Butcher.

It is such a lovely book - it's all vegetarian and a lot of the recipes are vegan too, or if not, really easy to make vegan. I can't wait to try pea hummous, falafel, and all the rice dishes...

The only recipe I have tried so far is olive bread...

....and it turned out great! it was pretty easy to make too and so delicious!

I ate it with salad and lemon potatoes...

can you see those little red salad leaves mixed in with those tomatoes and avocado?

they are red amaranth....

I'd never seen it before, but I love the word amaranth... AM.AR.ANTH....

it tastes a little like beetroot....

thanks for the comments about my scrappy quilt... am going to keep going with it and will show you more picutres next week.x

scrappy quilt

2011-11-11T10:37:00.000Z

What to do with all the little left over bits from other quilts?
Maybe this?

I wanted to try it out using any little bits so there isn't any planning or design... I think it might be nice to make alongside my other quilts....

What do you think? might it be too much??

creative space - quilting

2011-11-09T18:05:00.002Z

these photos are from monday when I started putting my quilt sandwich together and then started the actual quilting. I got quite a bit done and was feeling so good to be free of cold, obviously I spoke too soon and am back in snuffle town all sneezy and fluey and lying on the sofa under blankets.... I know I've gone on about it quite a lot.... sorry about that. x

(more creative spaces here)

little update

2011-11-07T21:36:00.000Z

A combination of being busy and feeling a bit poorly (and going to bed at 10) has meant that I haven't spent much time sewing or making things, blogging, and reading other people's blogs. I have missed this. Today I began to feel better and am also taking a couple of days off work to work on some projects. Yesterday we went to see 'Midnight in Paris' which was just so lovely, and then we had wine and veggie burgers and sweet potato fries afterwards. I also finally started on my classic book of the year (we have to read a classic, thems the rules) and would like to announce that my classic is 'Therese Raquin' by Emile Zola...I was obviously feeling quite french after the movie.

i love owen wilson...

...and Marion Cotillard

sadly I don't have either of these copies of Therese Raquin, but am excited by the fact that 'she listened only to the demands of the flesh'... naughty.

quilting patterns

2011-11-07T20:23:00.000Z

this is nice! it's a tea towel with welsh quilting patterns on it that the lovely Elen in work gave me today. I perhaps should have ironed it....
I have just started quilting my brown quilt but am just doing star shapes and nothing as elaborate as the above... at some point though I'll start thinking about patterns a bit more, at the moment I just want to get through making a quilt without any disasters....

sewing and sadie

2011-11-04T21:15:00.000Z

tonight I've done a little sewing while Bert and Sadie have watched 'Buck Rogers' and 'Columbo', it's quilt club tomorrow so I needed to get a little work done....

knitting and stuff

2011-11-03T20:01:00.003Z

Today I learnt how to finger knit! yep.

that is my orange bit of finger knitting at the bottom of the photo....

...and then all the bits we made got joined together....

It was all part of a training day for Craft Club, which is a national campaign in the uk getting craft clubs going in schools and other places... the people who run the clubs are usually volunteers who pass their skills on to others (often children). It's all types of craft but mostly knitting or crochet... I don't actually knit or crochet... so as yet have no skills to pass on (other than my awesome fingerknitting ones!), but am thinking of giving it a shot. So far I have avoided learning to knit as I wanted to concentrate on sewing and patchwork, and I don't really feel I have the time to get obsessed with something new.... also I don't like wool (it's scratchy and I avoid it as I am vegan), but I can just use cotton or acrylic right?

A rather fabulous knitter called Amy Twigger Holroyd talked about her work and all the wonderful things she does at music festivals....

...here's one of Amy's photos from Green Man...

So... has anyone got any tips for my journey into knitting and crochet??

(oh... feel i was a bit flippant about the wool... especially as I am wearing a wool cape as I type. I try not to buy wool.. but do have some woollen items... I would rather knit/crochet with non-wool yarns... I don't really know a whole heap about the whole wool industry, but for myself, I pretty much go with trying not to use any animal products at all... )

miso soup

2011-11-02T14:07:00.000Z

I have been feeling a bit bleugh...

Today I had a day off from work and a craving for miso soup. I love miso soup, but have never made it before and was a bit nervous of it as it's a completely different way of cooking for me (no onions are fried??! no olive oil?).

I read a few recipes and liked the look of Heidi Swanson's one which more or less said that you can put what you want in miso soup. So... I heated up some water in a saucepan and added some spring onions/scallions, shitake mushrooms, chilli flakes and a dash of soy sauce. I cooked that for about 5/10 minutes and then added miso paste (it will probably tell you how to cook with miso on the jar, but you have to mix it with water to a paste and then add to the soup and you are not meant to boil it). With the miso I added some tofu, a little sea salt, and fresh coriander and it was ready to go! oh, it was really good. I ate the whole lot and it made me feel a whole lot better. Am thinking of making another batch... and also tackling kombu stock....

the pictures I took make it look like a bowl of brown... but really, it was very very good.x

halloween evening

2011-10-31T21:33:00.000Z

hello.
we've had a nice halloween with movies and a halloween dinner. here are some pictures.... hope you all had fun.x

Stwmp Naw Rhyw

2011-10-30T11:22:00.001Z

picture credit

Shaheen from allotment2kitchen kindly commented that she was 'Looking forward to reading more about Welsh Halloween edible treats'...and I just wanted to say that 'treat' might be too strong a word for what is essentially mashed veg.... (but go and look at shaheen's blog which is full of treats galore!)

ok. So Stwmp Naw Rhyw is a traditional Welsh Halloween food which loosely translates as 'mash of nine sorts'. The important part is the 'nine' part as it HAS to have nine ingredients otherwise it's wrong.. the nine is LUCKY!! so you could remove one of the ingredients and replace it with another... I often replace the pepper with butter (the soy version) as I don't believe you can have mash without butter.

Here's the recipe.... (which you know you can use loosely, as who knows what a 'medium potato' or a small turnip is.... and am not weighing peas anytime soon either)

4 medium sized potatoes
2 carrots
2 parsnips
2 small turnips
225g peas
1 large leek
a dash of milk
salt and pepper to taste.

so you pretty much just boil them all up and mash them (apart from the leek which I usually fry softly in some butter and add it to the mash). and that's it.

Now, if you are having a halloween get together with a group of single people.. you might want to hide a wedding ring in the mash and then all eat from the same bowl. Whoever finds the ring will be the first to marry. Hurray!

picture credit

Last week while doing my half term art activities, someone mentioned that it was similar to the Irish Colcannon... and having done some extensive research by googling it.... it kind of is but it isn't. Colcannon seems to be a more more potato and cabbage based mash, although it is eaten at Halloween and coins are hidden in it.

I don't have any pictures of 'Stwmp' as I am making it tomorrow.... so have just stolen some halloweeny type pictures from pinterest instead.x

photo credit

2011-10-30T10:00:00.000Z

Ha, I like this.... have never watched Jersey Shore... tho not for any noble reasons - I have no problems watching 'The Only Way is Essex'....

anyway, saw the suicidal book picture over on laini taylor's blog.... I was over there as I have been reading 'Daughter of Smoke and Bone'... which has been fun (am not even half way through yet, so more about it when I've finished)... it's kind of fantasy.... but fantasy I like that combines the 'real' world with some kind of underworld/otherworld... if you like Holly Black, am sure you will like Laini Taylor too....

I've got the heaters on, and am all snuggled up on the sofa with cushions and blankets and pillows... am going to read today and possibly watch gilmore girls.... that is all.x

mick

2011-10-29T21:44:00.000+01:00

oh, am not feeling well. shall we just look at pictures of Mick Jagger from 'Performance' until I feel better?*

*I only have a cold, but it's not pretty. Bert says that no one wants to come to my pity party, but I reckon Jagger would come...and maybe Sadie cat.

2011-10-28T22:29:00.000+01:00

picture from here

that picture is so sweet!

I seem to have the snuffles... or am just sleepy and sneezy.... who knows?

stay by your computers thought as over the weekend I will be giving you more 'tips' on halloween movies as well as a recipe for traditional Welsh Halloween food!

I know!

how lovely is this poppy red blanket made by tiny happy?

halloween movies...

2011-10-25T21:44:00.000+01:00

we started on our halloween movies early to fit them all in. I may have mentioned that am not very good with scary films, we have a new rule that we can't watch films that are meant for over fifteens.... we watched 'an american haunting' and it gave me bad dreams... am pretty feeble, hammer horror are more my level.

'An American Haunting' starring the wonderful Donald Sutherland. This film scared me a lot, Bert did not find it scary at all.
Sian marks - 7 out of 10
Bert marks - 5 out of 10

We enjoyed this, it was quite rubbish. I like to see Demi Moore pretending to be a novelist though. Pleasingly not scary or creepy at all, I could possibly even watch this alone.
Sian mark - 6/10
Bert mark - 5/10

'Night of the Demon' (also known as Curse of the Demon) is from 1957 and has satanic cults, witchcraft and runes. Martin Scorsese says it's in his top 11 scariest films of all time. It's not that scary though... look at the demon in the picture below... he seems to be riding a bike. We both really enjoyed it but thought the main guy was a bit smug.

Sian mark - 8/10
Bert mark - 8/10

'Pumpkin Moon' is an animated film about a cat that grows a pumpkin and a fight between all the pumpkins and all the little witches.It has songs too. It was cute.

Sian mark 7/10
Bert mark 7/10

Blood and Chocolate - while we were watching it, Bert said 'this is worse than twilight' so I think you can take that as a guide. If you like 'Twilight' you might like this although it is nowhere near as good and is about werewolves rather than vamps. The main character is a young woman who has to choose between her werewolf family and a human boy she has fallen in love with. Even though it has Olivier Martinez in it (I adored 'Horseman on the Roof') it's not very good.

Sian mark - 4/10
Bert mark - minus a million out of ten.

more halloween movie reviews to come.....
we are open to suggestions too... more classic horror rather than slasher types please.x

cinnamon

2011-10-25T08:29:00.000+01:00

bertie made lasagne on the weekend. yum and yum. his secret ingredient in the white sauce is cinnamon... used instead of nutmeg. it works a treat.

Last night I made roasted butternut squash soup. I cut the squash in half and scooped out the seeds, drizzled with olive oil and put two cloves in garlic in each of the scooped out areas. chucked a coupla sprigs of rosemary on the top and roasted in the oven until soft (about 40 minutes I think). I fried a couple of onions and some potatoes and added a little sugar and cinnamon (!!). Once the potatoes were soft I added the squash and garlic (now all roasted and squishy), cooked it for about ten minutes and blended it with some fresh coriander.

there's a drizzle of soya cream on the top too....

halloween table

2011-10-24T18:37:00.000+01:00

a couple of pictures from our Halloween table two years ago... today is the first day of my halloween art activities in work. It was pretty crazy... I tried not to mind when my orange, white and black home made playdough got turned into only black... I just put 'monster mash' on repeat.

sunday music:the only bones that show by baby dee

2011-10-23T18:54:00.002+01:00

photo fromwww.babydee.org/

When me and Bert first got together he had to move away for a little while. During that time he got tickets to see Baby Dee, and sent me her cd 'safe inside the day' to listen to, which I loved. As it happened, bert and I missed each other too much, so he decided to come and see me, which meant he didn't get to see Baby Dee. This tuesday she is playing in Cardiff, and we are not going to see her here either! we don't really have enough money for it (we are also not going to see Steve Earle tomorrow too)... but we can listen to the cds instead which are beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. It is quite strange, theatrical, magical and dark and a bit sad too, in some ways it reminds me of Antony and the Johnsons (she played harp on Antony and the Johnsons debut album). I hope you like her as much as we do. The song I have chosen is 'the only bones that show'.

reading update

2011-10-23T15:08:00.000+01:00

I've been reading some good books recently, so I thought I'd share... am also up for some help and some recommends...

so this is what's been happening:

Going in Circles by Pamela Ribon

I liked this a lot - the main character splits up from her husband (or they take a break..) and she gets into roller derby to get over it. Afterwards I discovered her blog, which is great and funny, and I just wasted about 30 minutes over there just now while I went to get the url....

Whip it by Shauna Cross

More roller derby, and the book that the film was based on. It was good too and pretty similar to the film. I was sad when it was over.

Rum Diary by Hunter S Thompson

Bert said I should read it... and I wanted to read it before seeing the film too. I started this after reading the two books on roller derby, and realy I just wanted to read more roller derby, but Hunter is so good, that I didn't mind that he didn't rollerskate once in this book, but sweated, drank rum and was mean to a lady. Somehow I was hooked, even though there wasn't a whole lot going on. yep, Mr Thompson is good.

The Story of Mr Sommer by Patrick Suskind

This was incredibly cute and it has the most adorable illustrations by Sempe...

...who also illustrated the Nicolas books which I loved when I was little...

...not that I read them in French....

anyway, Mr Sommer is a short story about a little boy learning to cycle, play piano, and make friends. The author also wrote 'Perfume' which I haven't read... well I started it and wasn't keen, but maybe I should give it another shot.

The Reading Promise by Alice Ozma

a non-fiction book that is about Alice's father reading to her every night before bed for 3218 nights! 3218! right up until she goes to college! It's incredibly sweet and is all about how important reading is and how you can connect through books. At the beginnning of this book I thought it was just ok... but then by the end I was crying when Alice went away to college and her Dad read to her for the last time.

Have you read any of these? what did you think? what are you reading that's good?

now to helping me!! We have a reading rule (I LOVE RULES!) in this house that we have to read a classic a year. Now, we are nearing the end of October and I haven't read my classic yet (whereas Bert has read about 4 or 5)... so what should I read? I don't want to be too ambitious as I only have two months left and the attention span of a child..... so y'know a classic that's fun and not too thick....

thank you.x

quilt inspiration

2011-10-23T13:47:00.001+01:00

photo from here

from here

form here

from here

hello friday!!

2011-10-21T18:11:00.000+01:00

hello friday night... I am so pleased to see you!! This week in work has been super busy, but now it's friday night and cocktail hour!!! tonight we will be watching....

yep, 'Death of a Cheerleader' which is apparently called 'A friend to Die for' in the US.. although am guessing no one has seen it anyway... have you? let me know... I bought it as a gift for bert - he has a bit of a thing for Kellie Martin (of Mystery Woman)... and I do love Tori Spelling.

I shall be reading Alice Hoffman's new book this weekend, it was my payday gift this month and am double excited because it is meant to be amazing.

...this picture is over on fuck yeah domesticity which is a great site. I did send the picture myself, but only because they had picked up on a previous image of the quilt in progress.

And this is the reason I am so worn out...

art activities start tomorrow! (not that I am doing the weekend shift)

witches shoes...

colouring sheets....

masks....

more colouring sheets... these one's about witches bottles....

cauldrons for coloured pencils, and halloween bowls for googley eyes and skull n raven confetti

black, orange and white playdough...

and lil halloween shapes to go with the playdough....

and now I'm going to have some wine.

creative space part 2

2011-10-19T18:18:00.001+01:00

these are some of things I'll be doing with the kids in work... inspired by made by joel and mer mag....

(more creative spaces here)

creative space part 1

2011-10-19T18:08:00.001+01:00

the top of this quilt is FINISHED!! really, I know I said it was nearly finished a few weeks ago....

even though I was going to go for a green fabric for the backing... when we went to the shop we saw this gorgeous amy butler print called 'delhi blooms' and it was just the thing. I love pink with brown, and it's nice to have a large print on the back of a quilt I think.

(more creative spaces here)

little red riding hood

2011-10-18T21:25:00.000+01:00

panic is over - I got myself a red riding hood cape. It's not ideal, but it was cheap... and I think to get something I'd really like I would have had to make it.
When I do wear this fine, fine cape I will not be wearing my pyjamas underneath it which I am in the above picture.
My kitty treat bag I bought last year, it works well as a regular everyday bag too I think.

weekend in aberystwyth

2011-10-18T08:45:00.000+01:00

so yes. as I mentioned in aprevious post... I went to Aberystwyth for the weekend. Aberystwyth is a seaside town in west wales where I grew up. It's also a university town so packed full of students.

the pier... pretty

the seafront....

my favourite place to eat is 'the treehouse'

and this is the hot and sour soup I had...

I have to go to work now! tomorrow am going to bore you with more tales of quilting.x

new haircut

2011-10-16T17:56:00.000+01:00

i had my hair cut on the weekend, and now look like a cross between....

this

and...

this...

sunday music: off work by thurston moore

2011-10-16T17:11:00.000+01:00

this is off Thurston's 2007 album 'trees outside the academy', it's an instrumental track and my favourite off the album. I saw him perform this in amoeba records in San Francisco and it was the best thing ever. I am quite sleepy and am not doing this justice.... so have a listen and let me know what you think!x

ooooooo zombiefying

2011-10-15T20:43:00.001+01:00

it's pretty classy what you can do on picnik.com

glass hearts and crosses

2011-10-14T11:17:00.000+01:00

I am at my mum and dad's for the weekend... looking on the computer I found some old photos of some of my glass pieces I used to make. I used to make loads of these and sold quite a few to shops and galleries. I don't make them anymore, mainly because of lack of space (you need a kiln and a large area to get messy in) but also after a few years of making them I needed a break. Anyway... let me know what you think.x

halloween pictures from last year...

2011-10-11T17:58:00.000+01:00

see that green pumpkin? it looks like it would be disgusting and poison and... it was. oh my, it was the most disgusting thing ever. researching it later, I think it was a 'bitter gourd' - am not sure how you could eat it. and yep, there's my little magic black cat sadie the pumpkin sniffer.

today I started a Welsh course so my brain is pretty much fried. I speak Welsh and work is all through Welsh but am not so hot on writing it and grammar.... so today was grammar... I don't actually understand English grammar so am not holding out much hope here.

Paper City

2011-10-10T17:31:00.001+01:00

Look what I made over the weekend with little ones!!

I was inspired by made by joel and used some of his paper city paris images. I also drew my own for children to colour and some of the older children did their own drawings. By the end of two days we had a pretty large traffic jam, so new roads had to be built... I did suggest more bikes but the boys weren't having any of it.

sunday music: let me kiss you, nancy sinatra

2011-10-09T16:18:00.000+01:00

hello!
What could be better than Nancy Sinatra singing a Morrissey song? (maybe a Jarvis Cocker song which was my second choice...).

Morrissey does backing vocals by the way....

I love Nancy, I love 'Sugar Town' a whole heap too. I follow her on twitter and the other day Peter Fonda tweeted her saying something like 'how you doing Boots, lets get together soon' which made me pretty happy.