Checking In

Hello all! Yet again it's all quiet on the blogging front. I'd like to report that everything went great last week, I'm on the mend and being looked after really well. And my brain is in full working order so no sitting in front of the keyboard umming and ahing about what to write so that's a plus!

Anyway I'm definitely feeling a new found respect for pin cushions this week. Fabric definitely reacts better to being stabbed by needles than skin does. And being sewn up myself when all I do is sew is a bit surreal. Quite impressed with the stitching though! :)

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I'm very happy that I'm able to manage a bit of knitting and sewing already - I thought it would be a while before I'd get anything like that done. And when I'm forced to just sit and do nothing I have lots of lovely things to keep my brain occupied. Today is Thanksgiving in Canada and my Great Aunt is planning on making a second thanksgiving dinner next week for when we're there. She's making pumpkin pie and I've never tasted it before so I'm so excited!

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Anyway I tuckered myself out this morning stumbling around town looking like a zombie (hey it's nearly Halloween right?!) so I'm going for a wee lie down. I'll check in with you again tomorrow - have a lovely day!

Poorly Play List

Well for once I had a quiet weekend. A lovely one too I might add. A friend of mine came up to Derry for the day on Sunday and we drank tea, ate cake, walked around the city walls and discussed noetic science and other such light hearted topics! (Don't we sound so grown up??) We managed to get some X-factor in there too though don't worry!

But since then there has been a lot of flapping at Jemima HQ I have to admit. Lots of baking, laundry, cleaning, tidying and a wee bit of sewing too. But I'm not in the mindset for blogging today, so instead I thought I'd share with you some of the artists on the play list I put together for my hospital stay tomorrow (yikes!).

There we are - a little bit of what makes me smile. I wonder whether my musical soul mate is out there somewhere - anyone able to recognize all of those?? If not, here they are (left to right): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.

Right best get back to the flapping and faffing and trying to distract myself from thinking about tomorrow!

Folksy Friday

Look at the time! It's a late one from me today but I thought I wouldn't make it to the computer at all so thankfully I'm here! Right concentrate - what are we doing? Folksy Friday (is it Friday??) Ah yes well today's offering is my fave screen prints on Folksy at the min - here they are:

Tree Climbing Screen Print by lovelittle.

Plantlife original screen print by summersville.
Maze of Sparrows print by Kate McLelland.

Sleeping Foxes by Dee Beale.
Robots in Love by Mengsel.

That's that done then - phew! One thing to tick off the to-do list. Can you believe it's October already?? I don't know whether I'm coming or going these days but it makes for a nice distraction from my ever looming date with a surgeon.

My weekend shall be spent tidying, cleaning and finishing chores. I may even manage to squeeze a bit of sewing in there somewhere too - fingers crossed!

Wordless Wednesday: Doodles

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Change is a coming

Well I was right on friday not to predict what the weekend had in store for me. I had lots of fun, went to the cinema, watched some live music, saw some (bad) comedy, but the most random experience of all was the tour of the Masonic Hall as part of Derry's Culture Night on Friday.

Now I must admit that I hadn't much of a clue what the Freemasons did before going and I can say hand on heart that I was none the wiser after the tour! They encouraged us to ask questions but refused to answer most of what we did ask, and then claimed that there's no secrecy involved with the organization!

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Dear me we were confused. Then last night I picked up Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol that's been sitting on my bedside table for 3 weeks and realised it was all about Masons! I'm kinda glad I didn't start reading it before going though or I'd have been a bit more aprehensive I think.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings - to the point of the post. Next week I have surgery so I won't be around for a few weeks so I'm planning some blog posts to write in advance. I suppose I'm looking for some feedback on what you'd like to see up here? Any requests? I'm planning a how-to on some different knitting stitches, some tutorial round-ups and my usual wordless / wishlist wednesday features. I'm hoping to do some getting to know you crafter interviews too so if you're interested in being interviewed please get in touch! Any other suggestions? I'd love to hear them! :)

Folksy Friday

Oh my Gosh the sun is actually shining in Derry! We've had a couple of weeks of wind and rain so the sunshine is much welcome. And it's put me in a colourful mood, so this week I've chosen colour as my Folksy Friday theme. Here are my vibrant, happy, colourful favourites:

Roly Poly Rainbow Cats by Quernus Crafts

Rainbow Button Bracelet by Lonely Hearts

Rainbow Choker by Oddgirl Creates

Rainbow Drop Earrings by Hand Over Your Fairy Cakes

Set of 6 Rainbow Flower Buttons by Lilley's

Since saying that things are slowing down as we move into Autumn I've had two pretty hectic weekends so I won't predict how this next one will turn out. But if you're out and about in Derry this evening the City is celebrating Culture Night and there are a whole array of events on tonight so check out the schedule - I have my eye on a fair few!

Not so Fruitful

Now I may have harked on about my displeasure with the gravelly back yard that I have, and hankered after a lovely big veg patch or allotment, but as I'm stuck with my lot for the time being, I grow my veggies in a plastic shelving unit. It has a double zip up the front and the shelves are removable, so I had two tomato plants and a chili pepper in a grow bag in the bottom, and a sweet pepper plant in a pot at the front. Anyway, now that the sun has gone into hibernation I decided to bring my potted pepper inside to see if it would fare any better.

For some reason the slugs and caterpillars have gone to town on this plant, and it's looking very holey and disheveled. So far I've only gotten one fully grown pepper from it and a lot of the flower heads have shrivelled up and dropped off before new peppers can form. But all is not lost! The heat of the house and light from the kitchen door seem to be working because I have several new (and rather pretty) blooms coming as well as the flowers that were already there. Their stalks seem firm too so fingers crossed they'll prove fruitful at last.

I'm not familiar with pepper harvesting so someone please tell me whether I'm completely deluded in thinking that I'll get more peppers this late in the year. Note to self: next year plant out earlier!

Wishlist Wednesday

The more I think about it, the more unimpressed I am with the way things are made these days. Technology has improved leaps and bounds, but I find myself drawn more and more towards vintage and retro designs. They're so much more fun, more colourful and more unique. Today on my grown up wish list is a telephone. A big, chunky, eye-catching telephone. Here are a few that jumped out at me:

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My sister and I made countless and very important phone calls on an old cream phone similar to this one in our Wendy House when we were little. Love the colour of this one though!

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These types of phones always remind me of Mr Banks, the father from Mary Poppins. Supercalafragalisticexpialadoshus!

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This beautiful 1920s wooden and tin toy telephone is the most gorgeous shade of blue. Some lucky kid must have gotten a whole childhood of fun out of this one.

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That orange again! I am now officially in love with that orange. I love these 1960s Grillo fold up phones - the word dinky springs to mind (and come to think of it I haven't used that word in a very long time!).

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And this photo looks like you've just re-wound 30 years to your granny's sitting room. Look at that wall paper! Love it.

So would I miss my caller ID? My answerphone? Of course, but surely that's what mobile phones are for? In the mean time however, I'm stuck with my boring black modern digital phone - at least I'm still able to screen my calls though right??