The Magpie Diary

My awesome brother-in-law

2010-03-21T08:35:12Z

So I thought I’d say something about my brother-in-law (to be). He’s a pretty awesome guy, he makes his own (amazing!) music and also illustrations every now and then. He’s marrying my sister in early July and I think that’s pretty great. He also puts up with crude jokes from me and my sister and tolerates (barely) the joking harassment.

(He’s the guy to the left by the way)

Go check out his myspace and blog!

Seriously, do it because I said so!

Cat neckwarmer

2010-03-17T09:58:26Z

I made a neck warmer for Cookie, the little devil cat that has lived with me for 5 years. It’s the cut-off cuff of an old sweater that shrunk and felted in the wash. I thought she’d hate it and planned to just slip it on and take a few pictures but she’s been wearing it for half an hour now and seems to like it. She’s a little crazy. I’m not sure whether she actually likes it or if she’s just too proud to complain and is now plotting how to kill me.

Isn’t she just adorable?

Easter bunny

2010-03-13T14:44:46Z

Yesterday I made a cute little easter bunny following a revoluzza tutorial and pattern. You should make one too!

I called her Matilda and gave her to mum. She now spends her days in my mum’s kitchen, taking it easy and watching over the dogs.

Making things makes me so happy!

I’m ready for spring

2010-02-16T21:47:22Z

I was diagnosed with depression in early November and have fought an uphill battle ever since. I started medicating but experienced terrible side effects that gave me hallucinations and ‘brain ghosts’. Life didn’t really seem worth living. After a change in medication my mind has recently started to brighten and I am ever so thankful about that. This depression is one of the worst things I have ever been through. The exhaustion, the constant crying. No matter how many hours I sleep every night it never seems I get enough. I have to take naps in the day to make it through but when I wake up I don’t feel energized at all. I’ve noticed my memory isn’t quite working, I’ll be on the phone with my someone and as soon as I hang up I’ll have forgotten what the other person said. I have lost my words. I often struggle to find everyday words. It seems they have vanished from my mind. I’ll tell my husband we need to buy soap, but won’t remember the actual word ‘soap. “Alex, we need to buy… eeh. Thing! For.. hands. Washing…. Bathroom! You know? The thing.” And it’s frustrating.

Winter is still holding us firmly in its grip. My mind is ready for spring, I need the snow drops and the daffodils. Tulips. Flowers budding everywhere. I want walks in the sunshine, wearing short sleeved tops and being just a little cold. Walking in the woods with my husband and camera.

Polished Top Hat

2010-02-23T01:42:53Z

Here’s a quick post, just to show how my top hat looks now that I’ve polished it. To polish a silk top hat, you use velvet (and preferably wet the hat), and just brush the hat anticlockwise with the velvet. This aligns the silk so it all lies flat and parallel, giving a better shine.

Compared, here’s the photo of the hat before the polish.

Unfortunately, my top hat has slight structural damage (due to having being knocked before I bought it – there are a few lumps and bumps on the structure underneath the silk, and now that the silk lies flat it’s more visible. This can be repaired, but I’ll have to get it done professionally by Patey’s Hats in London. You can see one of these lumps on the middle of the left side of the hat in the top photo.

Tiny chest of drawers – re-done

2010-02-13T13:18:36Z

We have had a small chest of drawers on our night stand for ages. It actually used to hold our Magic the Gathering cards. It was a quite ugly piece, pink with monkeys all over it. I remember when I bought it I really liked it, I even had a matching lampshade. That’s a few years ago now and my tastes when it comes to interior decorating has changed. I still like it cheerful, but not in the same way as before.

So I set Alex up with a task. He was to re-cover our little chest of drawers with something new and nice. Here’s a what it looked like before.

And this is what it looks like now! All it took was some glue, 2 pieces of scrapbooking paper and some patience (not one of my strengths!)

Isn’t it pretty? I’m not sure what to store in it now, it feels like our Magic the Gathering cards aren’t fancy enough for it anymore. I love it. Squeee!

Diary

2009-12-25T22:47:23Z

I’ve been diagnosed with depression and spent quite a few weeks at home on sick leave. While at home, I started a diary for the first time since I was 15. Here’s a page from my diary that I thought was very fitting for this blog and one of my favourite subjects, fatness.

New Safety Razor

2010-02-23T01:41:18Z

Emmie bought me a new safety razor a few days ago. It’s an English 1930s Gillette in the original case. I haven’t tried it yet, but it feels great rolled around in my hand. A little heavier than my first razor.

Hat Collection

2009-11-03T20:56:51Z

My hat collection is growing and growing, despite having sold two hats. I’ve recently got two more hats, and have another hat and a cap coming soon.

Here is my current collection:

Top Hat
	Saying you don’t look good in a hat is like saying you don’t look good in shoes!
Bowler Hat	Homburg

Black Fedora	Black Trilby

Beige Trilby	Brown Fedora

Shaving

2009-10-31T17:39:28Z

When you watch old television shows, films, or read old books, sometimes fathers teaching their sons how to shave crops up. I grew up without my father, and just learnt to shave the way most people do nowadays – trial and error, with a cheap plastic razor and some cheap artificial soap in a can. I always wondered why fathers ever bothered teaching their sons, as it’s so easy to learn. Eventually, I read about wet shaving with a safety razor, and it made sense that sons got taught – it’s much harder to do.

I wanted to learn to shave with a safety razor, as I enjoy ritual and older ways of doing things, but had no safety razor to try with. However, Emmie found a safety razor & shaving brush for me at a flea market around 6 weeks ago. I already had a safety razor case as a gift from Emmie’s mum, and I dug it out and the razor fit perfectly.

With the use of the interweb I managed to date the razor to the early 70s, but the case and blades (there were a lot included – I won’t be using them though, as they’re 80 years old) are from the 20s. The razor is wonderful, but doesn’t the case just look amazing? Why would you want to use a modern plastic thing when you can have something like this?

It takes a little longer to shave this way, but it’s absolutely worth it. The close shave a safety razor gives is unparalleled by any method short of a cut-throat razor and it’s wonderful to your skin (unlike a modern razor with 4-5 blades, which causes many men so much irritation). Emmie hates it when I use it as she’s afraid of it – they use raw razor blades, and it’s much easier to cut yourself with one.

Shaving with a safety razor is quite different to modern shaving – you do need to get a proper, traditional shaving soap that you lather up with a brush and lots of water, and you need blades and a razor, which is a high cost up front compared to modern shaving, but in the long run it’s worth it. The only waste is some soap down the sink and a solid metal blade, which you can recycle. On top of that, the soap lasts so much longer – you use a toothpaste sized amount of soap, and I estimate my current soap will last well over a year. The blades are incredibly cheap (I recently bought 35 razor blades for less than the cost of an 8 pack of Mach 3 blades). On top of all that, you get an incredibly close shave. I’d recommend it to anybody that wants to give it a go.