Let's all do colouring in

Holeebobs

2013-07-07T01:47:00.000-07:00

I am on my holidays! We decided that the expense and faff of going abroad wasn't what we wanted this year. We always want to go somewhere with stuff to see and do, and feel like we haven't taken advantage of being anywhere unless we've 'done' all we can. So, to avoid that temptation and have a proper chill out of a break, we are in the UK.

And for once the weather is stunning! The weeks before we went had appalling weather, and I was really starting to regret our holiday decision, but here we are with all of the doors and windows open, glass of white wine in hand, watching cheesy 80s sci fi..

This is the life! Hope UK readers are enjoying the fantastic weather!

Jen x

So long, farewell .... to Google Reader

2013-06-30T13:57:00.002-07:00

Bye bye Google Reader! If you currently keep up with my posts by Google Reader, this is just to remind you that tomorrow it is no more :(

But do not fear! For you can Follow Me By Email or by Bloglovin.

If you've still not found an alternative way to follow all your favourite blogs, two seem to be winning in terms of taking over Google Reader's business. I tried approximately a million readers when I realised that Google Reader just didn't work very well on the iPad and found a lot of them to be a bit rubbish. I now use Bloglovin for all my blog-reading needs, and despite the naff name, I am finding it does the job rather well. A lot of people also use Feedly and like it, though I've never really tried it.

So, there's no need to be sad. We will miss you, Google Reader, but we shall, in time, adjust.

Jen x

File under GEEK: Symphony of the Goddess

2013-06-28T02:13:00.003-07:00

Last month the date of the Symphony of the Goddess finally came around. For those of you who aren't obsessed with The Legend of Zelda games, this is a symphony (in this case performed by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and Choir) of music from the games of that series. How can you make a classical symphony out of game music? Well, since the early 90's the Zelda music has been fantastic, resembling symphonies within the actual games later on.

The music was fantastic, and even without the games playing on the screen behind the orchestra, were so evocative of the games that I was absolutely captivated. Nowadays I get a bit anxious in large crowds and, despite a capacity of 3,600-odd, I didn't feel in the slightest bit stressed; the other concert goers were just lovely. I saw the biggest and best range of Zelda t-shirts I've ever seen in one place, and everyone was sniggering and emitting knowing laughter at the same bits of game footage. If you like the Zelda games, and it tours again, you will absolutely love it, I guarantee!

There were even people cos-playing (probably not something the Royal Philharmonic sees at their usual concerts!) but I was too shy to ask to take any pictures! There's something special about going to an event where you feel like you fit in, and like everyone is there with the same intention. I was in geek heaven!

What geeky events have you been to recently?

Jen x

Local lovelies

2013-06-20T11:18:00.000-07:00

It feels like forever since I last blogged; I was quite surprised it was actually 'only' February! I'm not going to make a big fuss, but just get on with trying to get back into the swing of it again!

I am a born consumer. Put it in a pretty box, market it in a certain way and I am scrambling for my wallet like a mad person. Unfortunately for me, I spend a fair bit of time online and The Internet tries to tell me to buy something almost once a minute. It's always lovely, though, when you see something which is totally awesome and it's made locally. It gives me a little buzz, like I can partially take credit just because I live in the same city. Recently I saw:

Picture from Jon Turner's Etsy Shop

I fell in love with this Doctor Who print from Jon Turner's on Etsy (via The Mary Sue). He sells all sorts of artsy things as well as some fabulously geeky cufflinks:

Picture from Jon Turner's Etsy Shop

If either me or Mr P wore shirts that required cufflinks, I would be sorely tempted to buy these hello sweetie cufflinks.

What do you get when you cross kitties with mexican food? This awesome tote from Nicola Rowlands:


Picture from Nicola's Etsy Shop

Nicola has this awesome style where it looks like she drew something in two seconds with her eyes closed but it looks GREAT, making drawing look effortless, though something I drew would not look as cool! She has so much awesome stuff, including kitty stickers, tea towels and I couldn't mention Nicola's shop without mentioning her famous Manfriends. This one's called Vince:

Picture from Nicola's Etsy Shop

Turns out I'm liking a lot of blue things at the moment, but these stunning pieces from Tentative Decisions would look great in all sorts of gemstone-y colours. I've seen a lot of bullet-casing-raw-gemstone jewellery but these ones seem the most nicely made ones I've seen:

Picture from the Tentative Decisions Etsy Shop

.. look at that aquamarine colour!! And the demin blue colour of these quartz shard earrings is just lovely:

Picture from the Tentative Decisions Etsy Shop

I should really make more of an effort to go to local handmade places like the Manchester Craft and Design Centre, but it sometimes feels hard to drag myself out the house at the moment, despite the lovely weather.
What are your local treasures?

Jen x

Camera adornment

2013-02-07T04:04:00.001-08:00

I'm completely obsessed with looking at jewellery on Etsy and I've now been tempted into the 'Fine Jewellery' section of Etsy where I routinely fall in love with jewellery waaay outside of my price range. Actually a lot of the fine jewellery is much of a muchness - you have to have patience and luck to stumble across jewellery which is truly stunning but when I came across this item I had to share it....

Picture from Yolanda C's shop Crystal Space

Isn't that amazing? It has the look of a real camera and uses subtle moonstone for the lense. The flash is even removable! Now, if anyone has $360 going spare, I gladly accept donations for my Jewellery Fund :)

Jen x

XKCD Love

2013-02-06T01:38:00.002-08:00

As a Social Psychologist this appealed to me immensely!

There are so many awesome webcomics out there that forgetting one is easy!

Jen x

Creeping horror at tea time

2013-01-24T01:10:00.003-08:00

I love the idea that with two sticks and some wool, you can make cool stuff. Unfortunately the only things I can knit are square; scarves and blanket squares are about it for me. I did knit two scarves for Christmas presents....

...but a tea cosy is beyond me. I was almost put off drinking pots of tea because we couldn't find an appropriate one. MrP is against ones which don't allow the teapot to be used with the cosy on, and I can't buy anything without spending hours on Etsy looking for one that is Just Right. But I found one!

Becca Leathers of Knitnax on Etsy really gets that what everyone needs at tea time is the unnameable terror of elder gods, so I splashed out and got my very own Cthulhu tea cosy:

Isn't he awesome?! We used him for the first time at the weekend and, even after a while messing about creating MrP's character on Fallout New Vegas, the tea was still toasty hot! Success!

Should you not be a massive HP Lovecraft geek like me, Becca also does a range of other types of cosies, novelty and grown-up! Look! An Ood!

All photos from Becca's Etsy site

What keeps your tea warm and tasty?

Jen x

PS I would like to point out that I bought Cthulhu with my own pocket money, so received absolutely no incentive to write about how much I love Becca's stuff!

It's gonna be a dry old ship this month....

2013-01-19T04:42:00.000-08:00

Work and the sheer amount of Christmas crafting I set myself made me basically missing from most other things for December and January, so I've missed out on the Christmas/New Year blogging.

I haven't really set myself any New Year goals. I can see all the reasons why the New Year is a great motivator, and all of the reasons why New Year's resolutions fail so was sort of stuck in the middle as to whether I would do the 'resolutions' thing. In the end indecision meant that I didn't, but I have decided to give up alcohol for January.

A very blurry old picture of me, with a massive glass of wine (half empty!)

As those of you who read regularly will know, I have rather a weakness for New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and had found myself drinking a good amount of it over an average week, and a ridiculous amount of it over Xmas and New Year. It seemed time for a reset. I usually attempt to give up booze in January, with varying amounts of success, but this year there an an extra incentive - I'm doing it for charadee.

Cancer Research UK are running a 'Dryathlon' campaign this year challenging people to give up booze for the whole of January while raising money for Cancer Research. Whoever thought that one up was a genius! It cemented my feelings about giving up the booze for a bit and meant that not only does it make it much easier to stick to, but that I get to raise money too! Wins all round.

It's actually not been so bad so far. Entering a pub with very cheap Villa Maria wine was a challenge, but I had my Diet Coke. Two pub quizzes were also tricky but I made it through with cups of tea (pubs that sell tea REALLY help!) and blackcurrant-and-soda. And I've over half way there!

My Dryathlon page can be found here if you want to know more, or donate. Wish me luck!

Is anyone else attempting the Dryathlon? Have you given up anything for the New Year?

Jen x

The Littlest Craft Room

2012-11-23T02:46:00.000-08:00

Now I've given this blog post a title I have the theme for The Littlest Hobo in my head - well done me!

MrP collects retro video games, and works at home more than I do, so when deciding what to put in the spare room, his office and his video game collection won, meaning my desk was relagated to the space about 2 paces away from the cat litter tray. As well as having to work on the Poop Desk, I also had no space to put my crafty bits and bobs.

To be fair to MrP, I didn't have any when we moved in - it seems domestic bliss has been partially responsible for the increase in my crafty tendencies. A few months after moving in (and increasing exponentially!) I suddenly had this collection of sewing stuff, jewellery making bits, glue and paint and it just sat everywhere in piles - on the dining room table, on the sofa, on the coffee table. Seeing as I am The Messy One (MrP is The Funny One according to him) anyway, the place looked like someone had set off a bomb in Hobbycraft and left it.

So, pity finally convinced MrP to help me fetc h and build a micro craft room for my stuff from Ikea...et voila!

It's just a start, as things could be organised much more effectively, but the fact that I have somewhere to put everything makes me immensely happy and it actually now forms a bit of a barrier between my desk and the now-slightly-relocated cat litter tray!

What is your crafty space like? Do you have a whole room or a little corner like me? I'd love to see some links to some real life crafty spaces if you've blogged about them :)

Jen xxx

Adventures in Resin

2012-09-30T04:06:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago now, I finally got around to going to a jewellery course run by the Ministry of Craft in Manchester. I chose the Mix n Mould class, focusing on how to set things in resin, run by the lovely Melissa Jopp of Jopp Design, who sells vintage inspired resin jewellery locally and online.

It was quite a small class so you felt like you could easily get help from the tutor and the other participants were lovely. Of course, everyone else had brought fab things to set in resin, and brought whole craft stashes with them, where I brought a stained tupperware box with the bits of crap from my craft box that I don't quite know what to do with! There were really some ace creations, but here are my efforts. Despite the fact that my pieces aren't exactly, er, Etsy quality (maybe Regretsy?) I did learn a lot and would love to do some more.

This owl ring was made from a genuine 80s button stolen from my mum's button hexagon. I had already snapped the back off, but because of the shape of the button, couldn't get an earring back or pendant setting to stick properly. So I set it in resin! You can use cake moulds, ice cube moulds, anything really to make a mould for your resin. For this, I used air drying clay, which gives a very, er, rustic look to the resin outline, which I wasn't too keen on. But my sister loved it, so this will be going to her.

When I tried to break the shanks from these [also stolen 80s] buttons I almost broke my tool, so wasn 't sure what to do with them. Solution - set in resin! Again this mould was made with air drying clay but I think the rustic look is ok on this brooch. I think I would actually wear it (bonus).

My first pendant was made using some retro looking fabric from Abakhan Fabrics (which was a bloody bargain) in a silicon cupcake mould (hence the finish on the edge). I was pretty pleased with how it looks (it looks better from a distance) but the fabric did tend to 'float' in the resin. The course was a two-parter over two weekends, and so our resin was left to set between the first and second weeks meaning I couldn't be constantly watching it and prodding the fabric down. In future I think I would either keep more of an eye on it, or do the resin in two layers to sandwich the fabric. I've seen this done online and this also would solve the fact that, generally, with the heavier items (e.g buttons) they tended to sink to the bottom and stick out of the back of the piece a bit.

This probably worked the best - the back was smooth and the chips sat nicely in the resin. You can see the pendant setting through the front, which makes it look a bit scruffy, but overall I was quite chuffed with this one!

Ooops! This one was the nearest to a disaster! I liked the little owl, from this fabric from Etsy., but the mould I made for this was wonky, resulting it the resin looking a bit like clear snot with an owl in it! Also, it sunk a bit so the back is a mess. But I now know how I would do things differently. Maybe I would try and make my own silicon mould in future and see how that went, or just buy some ready made shapes in more variety than we had available in the class.

So, I've not bought any supplies yet to have a go at home, but I am now viewing small bits and bobs in a new way - set in resin! If you're local to Manchester (UK) then I would definitely recommend the course, and if you're interested in making jewellery and have never tried resin, have a look out for a course near you!

Jen x

A week in the rain..

2012-09-23T12:42:00.000-07:00

I decided this year that I would aim to start enrollment week at Uni calm, peaceful and relaxed so the week before it all kicked off, we decided to go on holibobs to Somerset, in the South West of England. We stayed in a lovely little cottage belonging to an out-of-the-way farm and above is the view across Somerset from our living room window, over the farmhouse below.

There was lots of making of jewellery, playing The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for the 6th time (me) and Mass Effect 2) (Mr P), reading, doodling and drinking of cider. A particularly nice cider was not the Sheppy's we purchased from the posh on site shop (complete with tea room) but the one we got to take away from a random old bloke in a barn in what looks like a PVA glue container!

We did venture out of the house a few times though (mostly when it rained) to Lyme Regis to fossil hunt (unsuccessfully) on the beach.....

...and go somewhere there were definitely fossils and more at Dinosaurland:

...where I learnt the very well thought out and evidence based reasons the dinosaurs might have become extinct:

MrP also dragged me up the hill to Glastonbury Tor, much to my complaining and huffing and puffing, but we got there! It had great views (which I failed to photograph!) and the structure itself was pretty:

So, a lovely week all told, but I think I'll have a little think before doing the same next year. I was so relaxed on holiday that arriving back to work on Monday with all of the students back was much more traumatic!

Jen x

Hide and seek

2012-09-08T07:24:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I've been a little bit hiding recently. I've felt like having a bit of a break from the internet (and the world generally really!) but I'm feeling like I want to be a bit more sociable. And like I want to change my blog around, but having fiddled with it for a good few hours, I feel like I need to come away from the screen to get some inspiration, so it's a bit of a placeholder layout at the moment.

Now I think it's time to get outside, as we are in the middle of nowhere in Somerset, and this was the view outside my window this morning:

Too good to waste!

Jen x

Snail Mailing

2012-07-02T08:57:00.000-07:00

After reading Suki's post on her involvement in Correspondence Club (run by Star Crossed Smile), I was reminded how much I love writing and receiving letters. You really cannot beat that little flutter you get when you receive something in the post. The proper, comes-through-your-letter-box type of post. I get pretty excited when I get any type of message/email/tweet, so imagine how excited I get when I get something I can hold in my grubby mitts!

And that's forgetting the other amazing things about letters: stationery! I bought some lovely stuff recently from Paperchase but when I opened it, I realised that the back of all of the writing paper was decorated. Very pretty, but seeing as I use about 8 pieces of A5 writing paper when I write a letter, not very helpful if you can't write on both sides! I've had to send some very fat envelopes before I used that up! I know I could make my own paper with my growing rubber stamp collection but my Etsy addiction got in the way first...

I bought these from Ninainvorm as her shop is so pretty I had to buy something:

Item {here}

Her ceramics are also absolutely gorgeous - I had to stop looking before I spent all of my money!

While looking I came across some other fantastic stationery which is going on my Favourites list for next time:

This Kawaii Breakfast Letter Set from Asking for Trouble

Rabbit Loves Fox Writing Set from An April Idea..

Block Printed Writing Set - Blue Skinny Flower from Bread and Jam (ace shop name!)..

Building Blocks Correspondence Set from Primele..

8 bit Polar Bear Eco Friendly Writing Set from Blackbird and Peacock who do a wide range of geeky 8bit goodness.

Embroidered Rain Cloud Writing Set by Papeleria Pueblo ...

Mmmmm ...... stationary

Handmade Gift Exchange

2012-07-01T08:39:00.001-07:00

After hearing about a handmade craft exchange run by Linda of Craftaholics Anonymous (from I think Char from T-Rexes and Tiaras) I was really excited by the idea but had to wait for ages for the next exchange! I think Linda had a hard time of matching everyone up last time, so enlisted the help of Elfster to match everyone up, and I'm really glad she decided to run it again. I have to say Elfster made things pretty easy for the exchange in general, and I was chuffed to bits with what I received from the lovely Simona .....

A fantastic, and double sided (!) owl cushion cover.....

......and a tool roll/organiser thingy!

I was pretty pleased with my makes too, even if they weren't very complicated to make (demonstrating my limited skills!). I made for Leo Robertson from [Re]purposed Mind. She's a Harry Potter nut, and I had seen a great abstract HP representation on a t shirt on Etsy which inspired my very first piece of hoop art (and indeed embroidery!) and I tried my hand at my own version of a golden snitch for a necklace.

Both items were very simple, but having a deadline really helped me to actually create something. I'm terrible for buying supplies (I get attracted to pretty findings and brightly coloured beads!) and not making anything because I think my creations won't be as good, or original, as some of the great stuff I see on Etsy, and on other blogs.

I know I should just get on with it! I do love the feeling when something's finished. Maybe when I have some time off at the end of the month I will have some head space to really get engrossed in something and stop worrying about it!

A Right Royal Manchester WI Meeting

2012-06-28T09:07:00.000-07:00

Our first speaker, our first full afternoon tea, our first hat competition..... it was all go for the newly formed Manchester WI at our second meeting on Wednesday.

I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed being part of Manchester WI so far. Having moved to Manchester almost a year ago I have spent a lot of time talking to people I don't know in a bid to Make New Friends as A Grown Up and of all my experiences, the most positive has been being a member of the WI. So yay for that!

And yay for our last meeting...

Our speaker was Terence McNicholls, an experienced Toastmaster, and Toastmaster to the Queen, no less. Terence started proceedings by regaling us with stories and jokes from his 30 years of toastmastering, a fascinating insight into the world of presentation and protocol that is being a toastmaster:

It was fantastic to hear all about this completely different world (royal dinners for 1,000 guests for example) and I hope Terence had a good time too! Then it was a break for fizz and finger food. The food was kindly provided by Impact catering and was absolutely fantastic!

I swear I have never tasted anything like their strawberry cream cupcakes and lavender cream scones. Om nom nom! I think the Queen would have been equally pleased!

And don't forget the fizz!

When the email went to member of the committee asking for volunteers for manning the plonk table, guess who was first in line?! I was very restrained and only had two glasses (well, it was a bargain at £1.50 a glass!) but only dragged myself away for some cake, and some tasty tea, provided by Mr Scruff:

I can particularly recommend purchasing a box of his Mint and Chilli tea, if you happen past his shop/cafe Teacup in the Northern Quarter - it was super duper tasty.

Finally, we had the judging of the hat competition! My hat looked ok, but was pretty pathetic. I was going to make a lace crown (cool, eh?) but I left to the last minute, and one coat of PVA was not enough to stiffen the lace enough to work with (what I'm now going to do with a load of stiff lace I have no idea). But it was ok, I had my back-up mini hat. Unfortunately three people tried to get it to stay on my head and concluded that it was unwearable (an attached comb upside down maybe?). So, emergency Primark trip it was! One floppy purple hat and two flower headbands later and I was in the clear. I didn't win. I was up against some fab hats, most of which I didn't get a photo of, including a genuine vintage velvet number from our Programme Secretary (and all round stand up gal) Charlie:

The competition was judged by Didsbury-based stylist Steph, aka The Wardrobe Angel, who looked immaculate but had no hat, presumably due to her judging duties! She chose the top 10 by mingling and chatting with the behatted ladies. We had everything from crowns, to bird's nests, to flowers and the Olympic rings, but in the end there could only be one winner, and that went to the Queen of Diamonds, Amelia, who looks very glamorous in the picture below:

She was very modest, describing it as 'some playing cards and sellotape', but she was picked as the most innovative and I have to say I agree - it looked amazing!

So that's 'all' we've been up to at the WI! I know this post might read as a bit 'adverty' but we are so grateful to all the local businesses who have supported us so far that I felt I needed to give them a shout out.

If you're interested in joining the Manchester WI, look us up on Twitter or Facebook!

Wet weekend

2012-06-24T05:37:00.001-07:00

Dear Summer,

Where are you? I've done my time being cold/wet/both and would like some time to wear those sandals and maxi dresses I have lurking at the back of my wardrobe. I promise not to moan when it starts raining again in September if you would only appear for two months.

That is all......

Well, it has been a very miserable weekend, but we did have friends to stay so I am feeling very hung over mainly due this:

I really have drunk too much this weekend, and think I need to dial it back a bit. I have loads of crafty things I wanted to do and I can barely make it from one cup of tea to the next without moaning that I 'feel poorly'. Luckily I have an excellent new mug to drink it out of:

Saw this at a vintage fair a few weeks ago and HAD to give him a good home. It makes me feel happier when I'm drinking tea, which I have done a lot of this weekend.

I also had my nails done by someone else for the first time ever!

I am not really the type of person to pay someone to paint my nails, but my friend who was visiting really wanted to get a manicure so I thought while I was waiting I would just get my nails filed and polished. I chose this fantastic blue sparkly number which was great. However the woman who did my nails sliced my finger wide open with a nail file, which was not great:

Sorry this is the blurriest picture ever, but hopefully you get the idea!

She did a reasonable job of the polish, and because I was bleeding for a large portion of my 'beauty treatment' I did get it for free, but I can't see myself paying for someone else to do my nails again. I can still feel the sensation of her slicing my finger open and then filing it, and it doesn't strike me as value for money. My friend also had a bit of an odd experience in that her cuticle started to bleed (apparently standard for what she was having done) and instead of blotting it and waiting until the bleeding had died down, the women painted clear nail varnish over the wound. So it is now looking a bit infected, AND the nail varnish was out of date, as it was very gloopy and the finish was all lumpy. Ace.

On a slightly lighter note, we (MrP & I) started watching Adventure Time this week:

I think Adventure Time has some people in common with Spongebob Squarepants which I love, so it's no surprise that I've really gotten into it. My favourite character being Lumpy Space Princess:

So now I think I'm going to get myself a big glass of orange squash and browse for Lumpy Space Princess toys!

How is/was your weekend?

In love: vintage stamp set

2012-06-15T04:59:00.000-07:00

I almost passed this little gem by at an antiques fair near where I live as I had already spent much too much money on things I didn't need, and at the moment I don't do much stamping. So I 'um'-ed and 'ah'-ed over this for while, went away, came back and in the end it was MrP that just said 'get it'. And I did, for the princely sum of £3.50. And I am so glad I did!

The stamps are of really everyday things, like toothpaste, and scissors and a carrot and....all of these things

And considering that they are from 1976, and haven't really been taken care of, they look ok.

A bit of bonus cat hair attached to that one!

I love the little pictures and the fact that they are cutely labelled 'Universal' stamps. Well, yes, toothbrushes are relatively universal!

I am really looking forward to using these on packaging maybe (if I ever take the plunge and set up my Etsy shop!) and definitely on cards and letters.

What's your favourite find?

They call her Tibby Tabbers......

2012-06-05T09:22:00.003-07:00

Or Tibtabs, or Miss Tibs, or Tiberifamacator, or Dr Tibby and Ms Tabs (Jekyll & Hyde reference). I felt that it was wrong to have a presence on the Internets without having posted anything about kitties, when we even own one! Actually her name is Tibbers. Not the best cat name ever, but since she was rescued we didn't have a choice.

Tibs looking really stern!

I inherited Tibs when I moved in with MrP last summer and after nearly a year she has reached a begrudging acceptance that I am here, and that I am prepared to feed her. She's a bit skittish, a bit unpredictable and a bit scaredy but she did have a hard start in life; rescued from a shed as a ferral, FIV-positive, teenage mum. Her kittens were not FIV positive (the cat equivalent of being HIV positive) so they were taken away, leaving Tibs in need of a new home as an indoor kitty.

When I was younger I wasn't too keen on les animaux, generally keeping my distance from the up to 2 dogs, up to 5 cats, up to 3 hamsters, countless guinea pigs, and the various sets of fish (I was in charge of one set so my distance resulted in some very miserable and then very dead fish). However, I would sneak the odd snug from my favourite kitties when no one was looking, and maybe it's MrP's influence, maybe it's some sort of nesting urge, but I am all about the pets now.

We can't really get any more kitties for now as we rent, and would have to find a small, nonthreatening FIV positive kitty to accommodate Tibs, but more kitties are in my sights......

For some more fabulous kitties, see The Nearsighted Owl, The Dainty Squid and Love Elycia.

Which animal do you have a weakness for?

The sun has got his hat on...

2012-05-25T07:22:00.001-07:00

... Hip hip hip hooray!

So, we may have spent 4 hours in hideous traffic, sitting in a sticky car but we are now in Bristol, visiting our favouritist little people. Our friends' little girls are really excited to see us too apparently; looking forward to a weekend of fun!

Enjoy the sunshine!

Manchester Women's Institute

2012-05-23T14:05:00.000-07:00

I'd long suspected that some branches of the Women's Institute had decided update a little; taking things beyond Jam and Jerusalem. However, the one most local to me didn't seem to be pushing the boundaries of contemporary WI experience so I had been put off joining. Then along came Alex Taylor and Lucy Adams with a really modern take on the WI concept, and Manchester City Centre's first ever Women's Institute group. They are still keeping the WI's core values at the heart of what they do, but are really interested in updating and, for me, expanding what it means to be part of a WI group.

So, I joined, I volunteered for the committee and we had our first monthly meeting on Tuesday. I had managed to miss the first two meetings of committee so did look a little like a spare part at times, but mostly managed to find a use for myself and the first meeting itself was absolutely hectic but absolutely great.

There was a real buzz as women signed up for sub groups (there are Craft, Gourmet, Reading/theatre/cinema, Fitness and Baking sub groups forming), participated in a raffle with some fab prizes, chose our charity, and of course participated in some tea and cake!

I was too busy flitting about seeing if I could help and, let's be honest, nattering, to eat much cake. All I managed was a small brownie square (which was delicious) and also didn't take a single picture! Bad blogger! I did manage to sign up for Craft, Reading etc and Gourmet (I am not a gourmet expert but someone mentioned cocktail classes so I'm in!), and I cast my vote for Paws for Kids for our charity, which won by one button (pretty sure that was mine!).

The chosen charity, Paws for Kids, really tugged at my heartstrings as what they do seems so small, but I'm sure makes such a big difference to the people they help. The charity is based in the North West and helps women and children who are victims of domestic violence by fostering their pets while they await rehousing. Pets are often neglected during the process of providing refuge to these women as the refuges themselves cannot take pets and, if left, the pets may continue to suffer in a potentially violent environment, so what this charity does is important to those involved.

All in all a great evening, if tiring (my poor damaged feet!). I am so looking forward to what we have planned for the future. If you want to find out more about Manchester WI, there are details below!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ManchesterWomensInstitute
Twitter: @ManchesterWI

Kiwi Adventures

2012-04-22T14:24:00.000-07:00

It's been so long I've almost forgotten how to blog! My excuse is excellent though - last week I got back from three weeks in New Zealand! It would take several of the longest blog posts ever to write all about our time there. My friend challenged me to pick 10 photos which I thought characterised our trip the best, and I almost managed it: here are but 15 of the 550 I took!

The Moeraki boulders
There wasn't all that much to do here, but despite being a tourist attraction, this was a relatively quiet beach with excellent views and these curious boulders! They form in the cliff behind here I was taking the photo and as the cliff erodes back toward the shore they sort of 'plop out' and make for a very pleasing photo opportunity! And here you see the first evidence of the amazing weather we had despite it being autumn.

Taieri Gorge Historical Railway
This was just a lovely trip through old gold rush country - unfortunately the best place to see the fab scenery was on a platform at the end of the carriage which was very crowded with other tourists hogging it! I managed to sneakily outsmart them after one stop to get a few good shots though.

Hulmes Court B & B, Dunedin
One of my favourite places that we stayed. A listed building, with a turret room no less (which we stayed in) at the top of the steepest hill I think I've ever seen, which we had to walk up a good handful of times before we moved on.

A view of Lake Wakatipu
This was a view from the top of a gondola in Queenstown and it was amazing - I wanted to just keep taking photos. Queenstown is an extreme sports mecca so there were lots of people paragliding (looked terrifying) and bungee jumping (looked plain dangerous) and I managed to catch this pic! Having a couple of goes on the luge was as extreme as we got!

View of some snowy mountains from the tiniest plane ever
Sorr,y my geography is poor - I'm terrible at remembering what places were called, so I don't know which mountains these are. We decided to sign up for a Fly-Cruise-Fly trip to Milford Sound as we had such limited time in Queenstown and by road it was 5 and a quarters hours each way. When we arrived at the airport, we were the only ones flying and pretty much just wandered across the tarmac (escorted by the pilot) to find a plane with just 4 seats!! The plane trip was actually better than the time actually at Milford and these photos are the only ones that capture what we were seeing. Absolutely amazing. And ok, ok, I'll admit; having what was essentially a private plane made me feel pretty important.

HOBBIT SET!
We visited Joe's friends Mark and George and their gorgeous daughter Pippa (who we had never met before!) in Wellington and after a nice lunch at a local Mexican, we got a tip off to check out this street where we encountered Hobbit filming! You can see the tops of the houses in Laketown (for film 2 presumably). We were closer (very near the gate) and could see cast/extras going back and forth. Don't think we saw anyone famous, but there was still lots of excitement. And the security guard was lovely - he let us get very excited before a wry smile sent us on our way (further up the street where we could take photos unseen)!

The Weta cave
This is the official shop, and mini-museum of the effects company Weta. "What a shit photo to include in your top 15?" you say? Yes, it is, and it was such a small part of the trip but I was pretty excited to be here (yup, I'm a geek).

And the geekery doesn't end there....
This is a pic of MrP in the position of Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin from the Fellowship of the Ring in the 'get off the road' scene. Where MrP is sat they constructed (I think, not sure if it was CGI) a tree stump for the hobbitses to hide in while the black rider tries to sniff them out. I've never seen Joe run up a hill so fast! (We were all nomming extremely tasty pies at the bottom - mine was a steak and cheese one WITH A HASH BROWN INSIDE IT!).

Wai-o-tapu Thermal Wonderland!
We didn't actually spend much time at all in Rotorua where all of the thermal stuff is; instead we stopped just outside at this place, which proclaimed itself to be the 'most varied' thermal site in New Zealand. It was a good old walk round of all of the thermal 'wonders' but it was fascinating. Unfortunately thermal pools are not very photogenic.

Bonus donkeys!
We stayed at a fab place just outside Rotorua called Doone's Country Retreat which was awesome - quiet, welcoming, nice room. AND we got to feed their donkeys! They were cheeky, as you can see.

Tirau tourist information!
Tirau was a gold rush town. When the gold was gone so were the people so it became a ghost town until some bright spark made it a tourist attraction once again by making a feature out of roofing sculptures. This is one of the first ones, and is a Sheepdog Tourist Information Centre! Yay!

Hobbiton
This was probably one of my favourite trips. After they rebuilt the set for the recent hobbit films, the owner of the land did a deal with Peter Jackson to keep Hobbiton and allow people to visit, so I can actually say that I have been to actual factual Hobbiton. I took about 40 pictures of hobbit holes, and the weather was amazing. Great stuff.

GANNETS!
We visited Joe's friends Mat and Amelia and their two lovely little girls Violet and Mathilda (I had my eyes opened about Angelina Ballerina that's for sure) who were, like Mark and George, excellent hosts and showed us the sights! It was a pretty miserable day when we visited this beach in Auckland but the beach itself was very cool. It had a gannet colony and weird blue-black sand with so much iron in it I had to use a magnet to get it off the magnetic clasps on my bag!

Volcanoes!
This a view from Mt Eden in Auckland. It was fascinating that Auckland is the sight of so many (now defunct) volcanoes and that they really break up what is otherwise obviously a large and built up city. I found these views really cool!

This is probably not what you were expecting from an NZ post but I've tried to point out the things which I found memorable, rather than just pic after pic of scenery - the stunning scenery is everywhere you go and the photos I took certainly didn't do it justice. So there it is. To finish, here are some things I learnt about New Zealand

1) Kiwis are LOVELY. Even the customs people are lovely - cheery even!
2) NZ does pies well, but pizzas poorly.
3) Flights to NZ are every bit as awful as you expected them to be.
4) Most of the NZ wine I have been drinking in the UK is rubbish!
5) There will never be enough time, or enough film, to capture how beautiful New Zealand is.

My holiday's over now for the year (maybe for a few years - it's bloody expensive going that far away!). Where are you planning to get away to?

Road trip!

2012-03-25T01:43:00.001-07:00

I've been a bit absent since my last post because I've been getting ready for my holidays in NEW ZEALAND! We arrived yesterday and this is the first chance I've had to connect to the Internet. The flight was predictably awful but New Zealand is predictably AMAZING! I'm here for three weeks so I will be pretty absent from my blog until I'm back. Of course i intended to write a load of posts and schedule them for while i was away, but spent the week before i left running round like a headless chicken and working 11hr days. Try not to miss me too much! Jen x

A Secret Day Out

2012-03-16T05:00:00.000-07:00

A week or so ago we planned a random family day out to.....a nuclear bunker. Yes. You heard right. Non- geeks, look away now. We had a lot of fun going to Hack Green Nuclear Bunker museum. It was much much more fun than I thought it would be!

Now, to understand my excitement, bear in mind that it is not only a nuclear bunker, it is a SECRET nuclear bunker. In fact we were pretty anxious about whether we were going to even find it. Luckily we found the secret code:

The museum staff realised that many children, important though it is that they learn about the Cold War, might be a little bored by a museum with 26 different rooms. Those clever dicks at Hack Green have come up with a Where's Wally game for a nuclear bunker - find the Spy Mice! Now, being adults we weren't interested in finding the spy mice, right? WRONG!

I have to admit that my attention span for museums is, even with the best will in the world, shorter than the time it took to go around the whole bunker, so the spy mice kept me from asking when we were going and nagging for drinks. But by the end of the day everyone, including my mum and dad, were more excited about finding spy mice than what we were learning. There were even signs on the rooms which genuinely had no spy mice in them, including a room with a mannequin on a hospital bed with burnt flesh and a backing track of sobs og agony (not a room for the kids that one) and the toilets. We found 76 but the lady on the till when we finished refused to tell us how near we were to getting it right - spoil sport.

When I wasn't spotting mice, I was sniggering at funny signs:

Turns out bikinis were a huge Cold War problem.

Also, it's a good job we had people in charge of the important sounding jobs....

....important jobs like plotting!

........and that we had the right equipment for the job!

Countdown clocks, gas proof tea, radiation suits for mice, and emergency sombreros. What more could we need?!

I took approximately a million photos but realise that museums aren't everyone's idea of a rocking Saturday so I've been very restrained. But if museums are your idea of a rocking Saturday, we had a great time at Hack Green! Come for the nuclear threat, stay for the spy mice!

Jen x

Etsy Naughtiness

2012-03-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

Shopping for others is perilous.. when shopping for a mother's day present the other day I bought three things for myself from Etsy at a time when I am supposed to be being frugal due to my pending MASSIVE holiday.

But they were irresistible (ok, after-holiday resolution, to stop buying everything I see - I'm an unstoppable machine!).....

Point and shoot camera strap from Sassy Strap.

Goldfish earrings from Le Petit Bonbon.

Owl fabric from The Ament Shop.

Need to join (/set up?) Etsy Anonymous!

Jen x

Vintage Pillage

2012-03-11T11:58:00.000-07:00

My first ever foray into the treasures of the Vintage Village in Stockport. I've gotten very used to going to vintage fairs which have sky high prices because of the boom in interest in vintage and retro stuff. I was pretty much expecting this monthly market to be the same and though there were a few pricey stalls, this was FULL of bargains. Allow me to elaborate....

Lily necklace - 50p // Rhino bead - free // silver disc earrings - £1 // Scissor case necklace - £7

My first stop was a jewellery stall where I fell in love with the scissor-case necklace (which wasn't really a bargain), but then proceeded to find a very nice pair of silver-tone earrrings and a WOODEN RHINO! Which, admittedly I originally excitedly mistook for a dinosaur. The lady threw the rhino in for FREE! It's technically a bead so that bad boy is going to be made into a necklace.

Then I spotted my friend Aarty and my sister (who I'd gone with - Heidi was elsewhere looking at sparkly dresses I think) cooing over these bargainous plates. Of course I spotted a set of 4 and so had to find two more to make it economical.

The lady who owned the plates stall was a vile temptress intent on parting me from my cash, but she didn't have to try hard to part me with enough for this fabulous honey jar. I am obsessed with owls and bees, so I had to take him home.

Then I had a minor fabric binge. I was especially pleased with the faded Star Wars curtains. When I finally get around to facing my sewing machine, I am hoping to make a skirt out of this!

I was starting to run out of cash at this point (I had taken much less than I thought I had!) but who could resist these for only TEN PENCE?! Finally, I can eat my toast in style!

And last but my no means least.....

Ok so he wasn't 10p, and he is missing his mate, but I couldn't leave without him (I even had to leave to get more money!). He's Japanese and AMAZING! Just sitting here in the living room I keep glancing over and get a warm fuzzy feeling reminding myself that he's mine.

I may only have spent about £25 of it, but there is NOTHING like spending money on the pretties. Except maybe crack.

Jen x