Fun with googly eyes. Again.

Our organic box has been providing a rich seam of oddly-shaped vegetables lately. Which makes vege-box emptying (one of my most avoided chores into one of my all time favourites).

Fitzrovia Meadow

OK, OK. I know it's been aaaaaages since I've put anything up on here. But I have a good reason: I've been busy. Really busy. It's been great! For some reason, rather than tiring me out, it's been making me pile more onto my plate instead. Here's what absorbed quite a bit of my time a couple of months back. It was an idea to turn the big (now derelict) lot on Mortimer St in Central London into a field of wildflowers. It's really possible to do. Though only if the developer says yes. But after much harassing and sleuthing to find the right people to talk to, they said no. Well, they didn't really - they just stopped replying. Then sold the land to another company, who's going to build a car park. All I can say is it'd better be a totally kick ass car park. Grrrrr.

Anyway, here's the proposal we made to get their attention. It had to be pretty comprehensive (hence the length). And I really wanted it to look good, so I got super into making the little photoshop illustrations at the bottom of the pages. So there are lots of little details in there - though you might not see them at blog-friendly sizes. Muchos gracias to Simon (my Art Director) for doing the design for me. I can be a pretty demanding (read: pedantic) creative director but he was very patient. Bless him.

Megan hearts Francis. Officially.

Two dear, dear friends, Megan and Francis are about to get married (woohoo). But that raises the ever-tricky wedding present issue. Which is made even trickier when the bride and groom in question are social innovators and make-stuff-happen-ers, rather than simple collectors of stuff. So I wanted to make something (of course), but make something meaningful to all of us.

I've known Megan for ages, and one road trip long ago, we found ourselves staying on an amazing beach with a couple of Lomos and a strangely abundant stash of sparklers. So we spent an evening fooling around with those. One of the pics of Megan was particularly wedding-friendly. So I framed that. But I didn't have one for Francis, so I framed a sparkler for him, and the night before their wedding, got him to do his own one. Here's the 'before' pics of my gift to them. The 'afters' will be coming soon...

Surprise!

My friend Sven turned 40 last weekend (woohoo), which meant he was summoned back home in Hamburg to be showered with Deutchlove (but not in a rude way). That meant I got to housesit at his flat in Old Street. After shivering away in our Hackney Wick garret for the last few months, I was so grateful for central heating I almost wept. So made a birthday card/thanks installation thing to surprise him when he got back.

It was kind of indulgent for me too. I'd wanted to do something with those foil balloons ever since that Amanda Blank video for THAT song. Anyway, it turns out the balloons are actually pretty expensive. So I scaled back my ambition to fill Sven's whole house with them and opted for the 4-0 option. Classier, right. The pics turned out kind of crappy (damn phone!), but it did actually look pretty awesome in the space. Honest. And Sven almost cried*, allegedly. Win!


*He'd been travelling for about 9 hours when he saw it, so you'll need to include a dash of deranged emotional fatigue in there. But still.

Bundles of joy

By some miracle, I managed to avoid a hangover on New Year's day. Which left me with a day without any plans and a napping/groaning boyfriend confined to the couch. So I got busy making meringues. Obviously. As it turns out, three egg whites can go a long, long way. And after an hour or so I'd made piles of them. Not just figure of speech piles either. Actual piles.

I wanted to take them to a friend's place for dinner that night, but brittle cakes made mostly out of air are notoriously difficult to move around. So I packaged them up with grease paper and string. I'll admit, I got a bit theatrical with it. Still, my sugary brood survived the 236 bus. Made a well deserved entrance. And immediately were crumbled into Eton Mess.

I miss Christmas holidays. Sniff.

Christmas Project

I've got a pretty reliable Christmas tradition: getting horrendously ill. Last year it was Norovirus (mmmm). This year it was a killer cold. Which scuppered my plan to finish ALL the half-started jobs been lurking around so long I was starting to feel guilty. So instead, I narrowed it down to one: rescuing a broken legged, beige infested armchair its general shabbiness.

Things I've learned about upholstering:
- Don't hammer the nails in all the way until you're sure the cover actually fits.
- 'If I just cut it a bit here, it'll be fine'. This is untrue.
- It's OK to hire a professional.

Still, it looks a million times better than before. If you don't look too close.

Office outfit

Our office Christmas party was totally amazing this year. Mostly (I think) because it was organised by professionals. But equally because there were free cocktails. All night long. The theme was 'Paradise and the Underworld', aka 'Heaven and Hell' aka 'Sluts and Vicars'. But, despite that, the basque count was surprisingly low (yay). And the fun quotient really high. I get a bit reticent about costumes for work parties so me and my friend Hanisha pulled out some DIY 'voodoo' outfits the afternoon before. The facepaint and jewellery were from home. But everything else was made from stuff scrounged around the office. Is that a good thing? Or just lazy? I'm still not entirely sure.

PS: I look weird in this photo mostly because (on my dentist's strict instructions) I'd got braces the week before. So this is me trying to smile. But also trying not to show any teeth. Unsuccessfully. Hanisha looks hot though.