Medusa

Last year my flatmate started decorating for Halloween almost two months before the date and come October 31st the house was a real house of horrors. It was always a risk coming home late at night because you'd never know if a talking life size mannequin would have suddenly appeared to greet you. This year I planned to be completely Halloween free but a last-minute work event meant I needed a last-minute costume. I asked on twitter and Katie very cleverly suggested Medusa. Although I couldn't find any plastic snakes like she suggested, I improvised and with some pipe-cleaners, card and googly eyes from Hobbycraft I came up with a pretty impressive headdress if I do say so myself. The best bit is, if you shake your head the googly eyes make it sound like the snakes are hissing.

Christmas is coming

So all of my crocheting is making top secret presents! Hence the lack of posts. But I'm working hard. Here is my giant bag of wool to prove it.

Wedding Skulls

Last weekend I went to France to celebrate Lisa and Solal's wedding. I finally got the hang of the skull potholders and made them as a wedding gift.




The weekend was fabulous. Ariel and I travelled down from London to the little villiage in Normandy on the Friday. It took around 14 hours but was much more fun than I had anticipated. And who doesn't love a ferry?


The beach was beautiful, with and without instagram.



The wedding itself took place in New York last December. This was a celebration for European friends and family (and a few visiting Americans). Mussels, frites, wine and conversation at a restaurant on the beach as the sun set into the ocean.



The food was gorgeous (they even managed something vegetarian for me) and the restaurant amazing. We sat outside on the sand, they cooked meat over an open fire and the decor was...interesting. Impressive cross-stitch below


On Sunday everyone else went on/back to Paris. I was staying that evening and walked the 6k along the beach to the lighthouse at the end.



And travelling home on Monday I took some time in the local town to see the sights.

Vive la romance <3

Chutney

One of the really exciting things about my new flat is that there is a garden. It's communal but nobody uses it except me. I had big plans when I moved in and started growing tomatoes, courgettes, strawberries and chillis from seed. But through a combination of laziness, incompetence, bad weather, bad luck and mystery predators my crop was somewhat smaller than anticipated. In fact all I got was this:

I decided the best way to make my hard work last was churtney and thanks to jars from the lovely Ms DeVil I was ready to go





Now I just have to wait 2 weeks to see how it turned out!

Memorial

Today we went to Highgate Cemetry. Although it wasn't planned this way it seemed an appropriate date to be there. In the beautiful sunshine surrounded by high victorian tombs borrowing from classical, egyptian, celtic and christian tradition it was hard not to be thinking about life and death and history and sacrifice and memorial. What I found most moving was the variety and inclusivity- jews buried next to christians; George Eliot's obelisk next to lesser known but, it seemed, no less loved contemporaries; Polish resistance fighters; music-hall stars; humanists and communists and a host of nationalities resting and remembered side by side. Particularly striking were those who were buried in London because they had been exiled from their own countries, whose views and actions and passion and bravery meant they ended their journey so far from where they began it. In the corner of the East Cemetery, in the shadow almost of the Karl Marx memorial was a group of graves with inscriptions in English and Arabic. Many with similar inscriptions to the one below:


All the dates that I saw for this group were late '90s. I couldn't help wonder what they'd think of the world as it is today. My own thoughts are too long and rambling but there is one thing I wanted to share: I'm proud to live in a world where so many people strive and have strived to make it a better place. I'm proud to live in a country where those who have been braver than I can ever imagine have been able to take refuge, I'm proud to live in a society where those with different beliefs and languages and customs can live side by side and lie side by side in death. The world is a scary, complicated place and in the last ten years has felt even more so and even more divided. I know nothing about Irving Edward Teitelbaum but I think he had it right- Integrity and Humanity. That's what I'm focussing on today.

There's more to life than hair

I like Aussie hair products. They're a bit more expensive that I would normally stretch to but they smell amazing and work really well so if they were on offer or just as a treat I'd often splash out. I also liked their tag-line: “There's more to life than hair but it's a good place to start”. Unlike other products they were admitting that shampoo wasn't the most important thing in the world. To use some wanky marketing speak Aussie was a brand I related to; their target audience seemed to be women like me- women who like to look nice but have more important things in their lives than just their appearance.

On the tube on Friday night though I noticed this advert and suddenly I no longer wanted to be the kind of woman who bought Aussie hair products. And it seemed obvious I wasn't the kind of person Aussie wanted buying their shampoo either. Beacause it seems Aussie don't credit their customers with much intelligence.

(Click the image to make it big enough to read)

Aussie don't expect much of the women who buy their products. These women don't care about history (BORING), they care about astrology- although the concept of how astrology is supposed to work is a bit beyond them (Capricorn, Pisces whatever, lets get DRUNK). It seems there is indeed more to life than hair- there is also being thin and wearing shoes you can't walk in- great, thanks Aussie (woo-hoo!)

I don't know about you but I can think of loads of other things a woman could use as an excuse to celebrate that isn't just she's starved herself to be socially acceptable.
How about:
A promotion at work
Being accepted onto the course you wanted to study
Clearing your inbox
A successful meeting
The return of your favourite TV Show (even if going out means you're going to have to record it anyway)

And those are just the generic ones. For me personally I'm much more likely to celebrate finishing a difficult crochet project, completing my 50 book challenge, walking the whole of the capital ring or making a really good tortilla. But as I said, I don't think I'm the kind of woman Aussie wants to appeal to.

Which is good because I don't think I'll be buying their products any more.

More blankets

The inside squares of this blanket are some of the first things I ever crocheted. The wool and hook were a gift my colleagues gave me for my birthday last year. Then when I went back to the shop I found out they'd run out of wool. First valuable crochet lesson learned: always keep the ball band. BuI found a way to use them anyway and although if you look hard you can see the mistakes I think it looks ok.



I connected the squares using a new technique to me (details here, via Maddy at Stitch Balham) I'm not sure it works, especially with the bigger squares but I was far too lazy to unpick and it's growing on me. Next time though back to the single crochet unless anyone has any other good suggestions.



Not sure what to do with the blanket now though- I was using it as a table cloth but my flat is starting to look a little too "crazy crochet lady". I guess the next person to have a baby gets it.